I laid down on my bed in the guest room and stared at the ceiling for a while to organize my thoughts. Earlier at the dinner table, I asked master about the torn pages of the spell book that supposedly contained forbidden magic. The conversation went like this:
"Hey master, what's that about the torn pages of the forb-mmph-"
"There, it's delicious right? Finish your food first before talking."
However, he kept spoon-feeding me until I finished my food. Not only that, he made me wash the dishes so I didn't even get to ask him after dinner. Well, the food is delicious so I can’t complain, but… in the first place, why does he even have such a book? If he doesn't want to tell me, I'm sure he has a reason. Maybe.
Since he obviously won't answer anything related to the torn pages, after washing the dishes I went straight upstairs to check books related to the history of this world. Unfortunately, there isn't anything like that. I'd either need to ask someone or go to a bigger town or city in order to find something since this town doesn't have anything like a library.
"...Ha."
I sat up and massaged my temple before plopping right back. Too much I'm curious about, yet I still haven't decided what my main goal will be.
I feel tired already. Maybe because this is the first time I actually slept of my own accord without fainting since I came to this world. I better sleep already and stop thinking about this for now.
Then, I closed my eyes and fell asleep not too long after.
***
I open my eyes to see a person pointing his sword at me, seething with rage. I’m holding a staff up high with an ominous aura swirling around me. Before I realize what’s happening, he spoke, spitting venom.
“What’s this, are you hesitating? After all you’ve done? Even after swearing on your precious ‘name’?”
I don’t get anything of what he is saying, but even then, I felt this heavy feeling in my chest. I got an uncontrollable impulse and swung down my staff at him. Lightning crashed down where he is standing, and decimated the surroundings. Thick smoke rose up and covered my vision. He should have been dead, but he emerged from within the smoke while holding his sword visibly surging with energy.
He’s unscathed, presumably by absorbing the lightning.
“Is that all you’ve got? I may not be talented in magic, but…”
One of the gems on the sword’s hilt glowed and sucked in the energy flowing through the sword. The energy previously like surging electricity, was replaced with a brilliant blue aura. He swung his sword down pointing directly at me, and a raging torrent burst forth from the tip of the blade.
I tried dodging it but my feet are rooted to the ground. Everything gradually dimmed as I was swallowed by of and, the…
***
Splash!
“Whauhh??”
「Spell comprehended」
「New spell added to Active Skills」
I shot up from my bed with eyes wide open.
“Good, you finally woke up. I still have to run the shop, you know?”
Master is standing beside the bed in his usual wizard outfit. I stared at him blankly while trying to remember everything as I just woke up. He waited for the light to gradually return to my eyes.
“Ohhh!” I exclaimed, while my right hand formed a fist and fell down on my left palm in realization. That’s right, I agreed to be taught magic by him, didn’t I? That means he’s supposed to train me today, but…
“Don’t bother changing your clothes since we’re not going outside. Follow me upstairs.”
He left the room as my body shivered in the cold. I can only sigh in defeat as I don’t even have any spare clothes, so I can’t change even if I wanted to. I lit up a fire wisp to console myself from the cold and then followed him upstairs.
I arrived there and spotted him sitting on a chair eating bread, while holding a plate with only a lone bread remaining. There’s also a chair in front of him a few feet away. He motioned for me to sit there so I did.
He swallowed what remains of the bread he’s eating and handed me the plate.
“Here, you eat this one.”
I took it from him as he began his lecture. In the span of 5 days, he taught me all sorts of things about magic. He taught me about mana control, different types of magic, and practical uses of them. He gave an overview and then explained it briefly. He clarified the parts where I am confused about in detail. I was only taught practical uses, though, and wasn’t given a chance to cast an offensive magic for real. But in just a few days, I learned a lot of things from him.
And then, it’s finally time to slay goblins.
Currently, I’m inside my room preparing for the request I’m doing today with that Burgler guy. Actually, request is awkward to say every single time so I’m just going to shorten it to quest.
“Status.”
[Status Window]
[Name: Christopher Sterling]
[Characteristic: Good Boy]
[Level: 2]
[EXP: 0/60]
[Passive Skill/s]
[Ad-Lib]
[Distort Spell]
[Incomprehensible Mind]
[Spells Comprehension]
[Active Skill/s]
[First-aid]
[Encourage]
[Fire Wisp]
[Water Ball]
[Lightning Bolt]
[Breeze]
[Zap]
[Fire Ball]
[STR: 6] [INT: 10] [AGI: 7] [FAI: 11] [END: 5]
[Distributable Points: 1]
Sadly, I have spell comprehension and not skill comprehension if that even exists so I didn’t gain the passive skill ‘mana control’ easily. I train every single day, though…
Other than that, I learned a few useful offensive spells not including water ball that I learned accidentally after master splashed me with one to wake me up. At least, decent enough for my level to not look suspicious. I learned lightning bolt just in case as a powerful last resort. As for the breeze… it’s only for style and also to dry myself if I get splashed again.
I checked my belongings inside the bag and everything is there. By everything, I mean a single wand and a few potions. I left the shop before noon after everything is ready. I also already told master this and that I probably will be back either by this evening or tomorrow.
I arrived at the tavern and I spot four people standing in front of the bulletin board. One is the person I met back then, Burgler. Beside him is a guy wielding a sword and shield. His muscles are very well built and he’s also wearing an armor. The shield he has is shaped like a pointed triangle, as long as the half of his body and its width spanning from his left shoulder to the right.
Next is a blonde woman with a wooden bow. I approached them and Burgler greeted me as soon as he noticed me.
“Hey Favus!”
“Hello. Am I late?”
He shook his head. “Oh, no, we’re still waiting for one guy to show up. Look, there he is.”
I looked behind me and someone new arrived. He has a fancy mustache and is carrying quite the baggage behind him.
“Hey guys.” He said as he put down the baggage for now. He then looks at me and then his party.
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“Is this the new guy?”
“Oh right, I haven’t introduced you all yet to him.”
He then cleared his throat and pointed at the guy with a shield.
“This one here, this is Justin. He is our tanker.”
Justin waved at me and I waved back.
“Next, this one is Pana. She supports us from the back with her archery.”
“Nice to meet you, Pana.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
The mustache dude then interrupts Burgler.
“And I am Gilbert, pleased to make your acquaintance.”
He offers his hand to me and I take it to shake hands with him. I assume he is their merchant or someone that carries their loot.
“And I am Favus von Arknaim. Pleased to meet you all.”
After the introductions, Burgler proceeds to direct the flow of our discussion. “Alright, I should tell the contents of the request one more time.”
Then he notices me not carrying my naginata.
“By the way Favus, what happened to your weapon?”
“Oh, it was too heavy so I left it at home.”
“Wha…? Then how can you… what’s your occupation anyway?”
I replied with confidence, my thumb pointing at myself. “17, unemployed!”
“No, no, I mean what weapon do you use and how do you fight?”
I wordlessly pulled my wand inside the bag. It fits nicely in my grip and is very comfortable to hold.
“Wow, you also know magic. I will continue then.”
The party members nodded in affirmation including me.
“Our request this time around will be to subjugate goblins inside a cave near this town before they cause any trouble. Well, we needed some preparations and nobody else took it so it is postponed for a week but, now we will head there to exterminate them. The requester is the mayor himself. Our pay will be 100 silver coins and since we are a party of five now, we will split it evenly with each of us receiving 20. Any objections?”
Nobody said anything so he nodded and took that as a yes. Then, we set off. On the way, I had a brief chat with Burgler. I poked his shoulder so he slowed down while the rest of the party is ahead.
“By the way, why did you let me join this quest?”
“Oh… it’s because I’m curious.”
He paused for a while as we continued to follow behind the party. Then, he continued, “You know, it’s very weird seeing a noble inside a tavern, no less in a small town. Not only that, he’s searching for requests, or ‘quests’ as you put it. I haven’t seen one before, but I heard bad rumors.”
He looked at me with an expression of someone finding out their mother’s name isn’t mom. He then scratched his head helplessly.
“But, well, you seem like a nice person so far.”
“Is that so…”
An awkward silence fell on us for the rest of the journey.
Gilbert looked at the map and the cave in front of us. He put the map away.
“That should be the cave.” He told us while stretching.
I also stretched. Seriously, that was quite a walk. Burgler planned our strategy.
“Check if your equipment is alright. As always, Pana and Gilbert stay on the back while me and Justin handle the frontline. Oh, and Favus you go stay at the back too, and be sure not to cast any explosive magic.”
“Sure.” I nodded me head at him. Obviously, I don’t want the cave to cave in while I’m still inside. Actually, why don’t we just do that?
“Wait, if they are all inside a cave and we just need them not to cause any trouble, why don’t we just explode the entrance?”
“I don’t know, the request says to kill them, and we can’t exactly complain since they give us money.”
What a dimwitted requester.
Burgler and Justin entered the cave first and we followed them closely behind. The passage is straight and just enough for two people to walk at the same time. Gilbert lit up a torch to light our way through the dark cave.
The little goblins are mercilessly crushed against Burgler and Justin. Justin slashes away at the goblins foolish enough to face him head-on and occasionally bashes them with his shield if they pile up enough. Any who slip by will get their throat slit by Burgler who wields two daggers.
Looking at their synergy, I doubt I am even needed here. I look at my companions in the back and Pana just shrugs at me while Gilbert is busy picking up the dropped weapons of goblins. Some are wielding daggers that were most likely poisoned.
We can’t really support them since the cave is quite narrow. Well, at this rate, I won’t be able to level up…
The number of goblins attacking us decreased and we now see torches lighting up the way. The passageway also gradually widened as we walked and soon, it is wide enough for 5 people to walk side by side without their shoulders touching.
The goblins stopped coming. And, in the distance, we spot a large door 3 people wide and about 12 feet tall. We stopped dead in our tracks. Not just any door, it’s heavily guarded by goblins numbering about 10 wearing iron armor and wielding short swords. They must’ve gotten those from people they killed. And behind those goblins…
“Holy shit are those trolls?!”
Burgler slapped the back of Justin’s head and he stumbled forward before regaining his balance.
“You idiot! Now they spotted us!” The former shouted out before pointing at the mini-army guarding the door.
“You idiots! Now they really have spotted us!” Pana also shouted out after slapping both the back of their heads.
I can hear the goblins laughing at us. I look behind me to see Gilbert with an expression of someone wishing that they should’ve just smoked instead of not smoking because they still got cancer anyway after looking at the scene in front of them.
Including the 10 goblins, there are 3 trolls in total. They must’ve thought we were weak, since they only sent one troll to confront us. Well, I AM weak, but I don’t know about those three. The three idiots regained their wits after noticing the troll moving. The troll who is almost double a person’s height lumbered around in our direction. Each step it took shook the cave.
“I can’t take that many.” Justin can only say.
Burgler replied, “That’s what she said.”
“Shut up, you two!”
Pana nocked an arrow and aimed at the troll. Justin rushed to intercept the troll and Burgler is biding his time in the corner. Obviously, I have to do something too.
“Hey guys, I know we just met, but please defend me while I cast a spell!” I took out my wand from the bag and held it in front of me, pointing at the troll.
“Don’t worry, we’ll cover you!” With that, Pana let go of the string and the arrow flew towards the troll. She aimed for the head, but the troll used its huge arms to shield itself from the arrow and shrugged it off easily. Its other hand was swung at Justin having arrived in front of the troll, but he just barely blocked it in time.
I thought of an idea earlier to combat this many enemies. Let’s give it a try, shall we?
I started chanting a spell for show. Of course, the chant is all bullshit because I forgot the original.
“Water und wasser et aquam! A spherical chunk taken out from the very depths of the dark blue ocean, manifest!”
Instead, while saying my piece, I imagined a large ball of water. It’s about as big as the troll’s torso.
「Ad-lib is in effect」
「Water Ball is activated」
A few inches away from the tip of my wand formed a drop of water. Then, a couple more drops appeared around it and coalesced until it formed a big sphere.
“Okay, you guys might want to run so far away behind me!”
Justin, in a clash of power against the troll, pushed away the troll’s hand pressing its weight against the shield with all he had and retreated immediately leaving the troll dumbfounded. The goblins pointed at me and mocked my ball, laughing and making taunting motions like pretending to drink water. Well, what can a harmless low-level magic that is just a simple ball of water do, right?
“Cover your ears!” I warned them as I swung my wand down after confirming that they are all safely behind me. The sphere that is worth over 100MP flew at the troll several feet away from us at the average speed of a curve ball. I made sure to aim at its upper body so it will penetrate the back ranks.
Splash!
The sphere splashed at the troll’s upper body, pushing it back a little and even reaching those in the far back, wetting them immediately. There’s no time to lose.
Before they even realized what’s happening, I raised my wand again, pointing it straight at the troll.
“Shazam!”
「Ad-lib is in effect」
「Lightning Bolt is activated」
A normally long chant is shortened to a single word, and electricity had no time to build up. Without warning, a violent streak of lightning shot out from my wand and split the air, hitting the troll in less than a blink of an eye. The lightning then crawled through the wet floor to the clueless goblins and the remaining trolls.
A thunderous boom resounded out in the cave and all of the enemies are electrocuted, their bodies burnt pitch black.
「1400 exp gained」
「You leveled up」
I hear a faint ringing in my ears and I felt blood trickling down. Maybe that wasn’t such a great idea after all…
|6/1800|
Not only that, since I haven’t mastered mana control yet, I accidentally used most of my mana instead of saving a small amount of it. They aren’t the final boss too…
I staggered and leaned against the nearby wall, before sliding down on my butt to the floor and eventually losing my consciousness.
Again.
***
After Chris fell down, the party members rushed to him immediately, obviously worried. Though they don’t know much about magic, they do at least know that casting something that powerful will need a lot of mana especially without the use of magic tools and accessories. This guy has seriously poured a little too much mana.
He only has a wand with him, which amplifies magic but not reduce the cost, and no gems either to act as mana substitute. Unless you are an absolute monster, exhausting your mana like that leaves you completely and utterly defenseless, which means it’s the perfect time for ‘that’.
Gilbert reached out to Chris’ bag, but before he could, Burgler smacked him at the back of his head.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Gilbert recovered from the shock and gently rubbed the part where he got hit.
“Chill, dude. None of us can cast magic, so I didn’t have any mana potions. I’m just checking if he has some. He clearly exhausted his mana.”
Burgler just gave a thumbs-up with a straight face without apologizing at all. Gilbert just mumbled curses at him as he searched Chris’ bag.
“Jerk… let’s see… oh, this is it.”
Gilbert popped the cork from the bottle of the pale-blue colored potion and made Chris drink it. He put the bottle back into Chris’ bag and turned around to his companions.
“He’s not waking up yet, so I will stay here with him. You guys should go now. The electricity must’ve dissipated by now.
The other three nodded and walked towards the door. The huge door stood before them menacingly. Beyond this door must be the ‘boss’ of the goblins. Justin went in front of them and opened the door gently. He pushed it with all his strength and it opened slowly.
Creaaak…
Fully open, what lay in front of the three is a massive throne room. It is way more spacious than the entrance leading to here much less the narrow passage before that. Sitting on the throne of skulls is a bald, green humanoid figure wearing a crown. It is buck naked save for a loose rag tied up to cover its dragon. It is as tall as a human, with a wooden club and buckler laying at its feet.
It picked up its equipment and confidently stood up.
“Is that…?” Burgler muttered out, mouth agape.
Thus, the king spoke, “I am the goblin king.”
Burgler muttered out, “Still a lot better than facing a mini-army.”
The king slowly walked towards the party as if in a leisurely stroll. Pana shot an arrow, not missing this opportunity, but the king just rolled to dodge the arrow. She shot another, but the result was the same.
Justin rushed forward to attack the king with his sword. Once close, he swung the sword held in his right hand as hard as he can. But…
Thud!
A dull sound echoed throughout the room as the king parried his strike. The king swung his club, but he blocked it in time. He endured the blunt attack and stepped a bit backwards, holding his shield high. Justin noticed the slight dent on his shield. He reconsidered his strategy and stepped forward again for another strike. He swung downwards, but this was a feint.
He redirected his sword horizontally to take the king’s head after it anticipated to parry another strike, but it reacted quickly and used its club to block the incoming attack.
“Darn, it’s good…” He retreated immediately after seeing he had no chance facing it head on.
He shouted towards Pana, “Can you hit him?”
“I can try, but it will be close to impossible.”
“We have no choice. Let’s try stalling it until it’s exhausted.”
The two nodded at the plan. However, the goblin king must’ve knew this, since it is still walking leisurely. Calm and slow steps, as if it’s a chinese student that just passed gaokao, having all the time in the world after the exam.
Pana shot arrows at it repeatedly and it just kept rolling. No matter what she did, she can’t hit the king. Before it gets any closer to Pana, Justin distracted it and again confronted it head-on. This time, he only tried piercing attacks.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Each attack whiffed the goblin king’s body that is nimbly dodging the thrusts. It swung its club again, but this time, Justin dodged it instead of trying to take it. The dent earlier is a proof that he can’t continue blocking it.
They exchanged blows at the time he can’t block the club anymore, but the king almost always parries his strikes. After he got parried, he steps back to let Pana shoot, only to miss just the same. They repeated this for almost half an hour.
They are catching their breaths, now exhausted. Pana ran out of arrows, and Justin’s shield battered. He needs to get it fixed when he returns to town, if they even can. The king as always only walked towards them ever so slowly. Maybe, it is actually just toying with its prey. The king is not without bruises, however. But compared to Justin, they are only scratches.
A step.
And then another.
Each step bringing the king closer.
Irritated, Justin just complained to the air.
“Where the hell is that guy??”
“Like hell will I know!”
The king is now just a few meters away from them. Not long now, they will be clobbered to death.
Just then, coming from the direction of the still open large door that they forgot to close…
…someone shouted out.
“Parry this, you fucking casual!”