In front of Hazel were three goblins, all of them glaring daggers at her. Their lips were peeled back into a wicked grin, revealing their sharp jagged teeth that could easily tear her skin off with a single bite.

All three wielded daggers in their hands, pointing them at Hazel. She gripped the staff in her hand, patiently waiting for them to attack first. And they did.

One of the goblins let out a primal screech before charging at the human mage, waving its dagger in the air like it was a toy. Hazel stood her ground and waited for the goblin, her eyes trained on the green menace without a hint of fear.

Getting close, the goblin lunged at the mage, bringing its dagger down on her. Hazel stepped to the side, watching the monster’s blade narrowly miss her. It landed on the ground before whirling around to continue its assault.

It slashed its dagger at her, but Hazel held up her staff to block the attack. The blade clashed against the gnarled wood, carving out a piece of it in the process. However, she still managed to successfully defend against the goblin.

But it wasn’t over yet. Behind Hazel, the other two goblins soon joined the fight, charging at her while her focus was on the other one. Brandishing their blades, they tried to slash Hazel’s legs to try and cripple her.

Only when they got close, a transparent blue dome manifested around the mage in an instant. As soon as the daggers struck the dome, the goblin’s arms were pushed back from the rebound, resulting in them losing their foot as they stumbled backward from the force.

Unlike the other two, the goblin didn’t attempt to attack when the dome materialized in front of it. It simply stood there with widened eyes after witnessing the barrier appear. The creature didn’t even attempt to try and attack since it was aware that doing so would only get pushed back like its brethren.

Of course, Hazel couldn’t do anything to it either while within the barrier. Much like how nothing could enter the dome while it was activated, nothing could leave it either. She even attempted an experiment by tapping her staff against the barrier, hearing an audible elastic thunk like she was pulling and releasing a rubber band.

“Tch…really wish I could move around in this thing.”

As she muttered a complaint, the blue dome soon disappeared, meaning that she reached the limit of her Mana Shield’s activation time. As the barrier began to dissipate into the air, the goblin saw this.

A wide and sinister grin formed on its face as it brought its blade up and attempted to attack Hazel again without the barrier obstructing it anymore. However, just before it could even lung, Hazel directed her staff at it and fired a condensed bolt of mana, tearing through its torso. A hole bigger than her fist was made as the goblin’s body began to fracture and then shattered to pieces.

[Level 3 Goblin has been defeated!]

Hazel ignored the message and spun around to face the remaining two goblins. Just as they pulled themselves off the ground, they locked eyes with the human mage, just as she whirled her staff at them and launched a menacing purple crescent blade at them. She easily severed their bodies as their two halves fell to the ground and then burst into purple-violet fragments.

[Level 3 Goblin has been defeated!]

[Level 3 Goblin has been defeated!]

Seeing the kill notifications, a heavy sigh escaped Hazel’s lips. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she then turned around and set her gaze on a group of trees. Looking up at the branches and leaves, she raised her arms as if she were challenging them.

“So, how was that?” She called out to the trees.

A second later, Astrid emerged from the greenery, gracefully landing on the ground without making a single sound. She then straightened her body while putting away the bow and arrow she had brandished out, likely in case there was danger and she needed to eliminate it.

Strapping her bow on her back, Astrid walked over to Hazel.

“It was okay,” She shrugged. “Your movements were a bit stiff when you blocked and tried to avoid the goblin’s attacks. Other than that, you managed to perform well in combat on your own.”

Right now, Hazel was currently fighting monsters to try and reach Level 10. She was also being monitored by Astrid, so the dark elf could see how she fought against the monsters. This was likely so she could give Hazel pointers on her strengths and weaknesses.

Unlike the mage, Astrid was a born fighter, and she had lived longer than Hazel by at least several decades. Despite literally being as old as a grandmother or great-grandmother, Astrid looked no older than twenty, which sparked a bit of envy inside Hazel.

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Must be nice being an Elf. Or in this case, a Dark Elf.

“Despite being a mage, you clearly adapted with each fight you’ve been in,” Astrid noted, crossing her arms. “You utilized your spells well, using them when they were appropriate, and you’re also pretty knowledgeable regarding their duration and uses.”

“Aw, you flatter me…” Hazel smiled, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head.

“However,” The dark elf interjected. “Despite how you handled the fight, the scenario would’ve been a lot different if the monsters you were facing weren’t goblins. A prime example would be your Mana Shield.”

Hazel paused for a moment as her face fell. “Yeah, you’re not wrong. Despite being able to keep me safe, Mana Shield does have several disadvantages.”

Although Hazel was protected by her Magic barrier, one of the biggest and most troublesome problems with this spell was its extreme stasis along with its protection working both outside and inside the barrier.

While within the transparent blue dome, Hazel was unable to move around and was forced to stay in place. To make matters worse, she could only stay on the defensive while the spell was cast since not only could she not move the barrier around, but it was also impossible to leave it unless she manually deactivated the spell or waited for its duration time to expire.

So, by casting the spell, Hazel practically put herself in a very precarious situation. This was why Astrid stated before that the situation would’ve been different if she wasn’t fighting goblins but another monster species.

If she went up against Orcs instead of the little green gremlins, then the strategy she used before wouldn’t have worked. Orcs were stronger than goblins. So much so that if Hazel attempted to block one of their attacks like with that one goblin, she would’ve run the risk of getting her staff destroyed, thus becoming defenseless.

Another issue was casting her Mana Shield. With the goblins, they weren’t strong enough to do anything to the barrier. But Orcs were far stronger. Even though she previously used her Mana Shield to defend against an Orc’s attack, that didn’t necessarily mean that her shield was indestructible.

It had limits. Limits that would’ve been realized if Hazel attempted to activate the shield a second time against those Orcs.

Of course, her other spells had limits as well. Mainly their cooldowns aside from Mana Bolt. Despite being able to use magic, Hazel was heavily restricted due to her spells' cooldowns. She could only cast Baneful Sickle and Decay once before waiting several seconds to use it a second time.

If it weren’t for the fact that Mana Bolt possessed no cooldowns, Hazel likely wouldn’t have survived for so long. It was practically the only spell that kept her alive despite everything she went through, to which she was extremely grateful toward this spell.

“How do you think you would fair against Orcs?” Astrid suddenly asked.

“Well,” Hazel took a moment to come up with an answer. “I faced them before and won, so I think I would fair well.”

Hazel went up against at least five or more Orcs back when she first stepped foot on the forest island. And she also managed to survive, albeit nearly dying a couple of times due to how strong and fast they were compared to her.

“How did you defeat them?”

“Well, I couldn’t stay in a single place and attack them since they were too fast for me to simply hurl my spells, so I needed to move around and maintain a certain distance. That and I needed to get them close enough to take down more than one, otherwise, they likely would’ve adapted to my spells and avoided them.”

Unlike goblins, Orcs were a little smarter, even if they were Fractured like everything else, which made them like Fractured Classes. Because of this, Hazel couldn’t risk them seeing her spells and then adapting to them. So, she needed to use her spells wisely and make sure to kill as many as she could.

“Considering how that you’re a mage, I’m rather amazed by how you managed to kill them. Mages are known for their long-range attacks and powerful spells. However, they are practically defenseless if the distance is closed. Which is why you kept moving around to maintain your distance from them and then attacked accordingly.”

“Pretty much, yeah.” Hazel nodded. “I thought about increasing my physical stats to try and even the odds, but doing that would hinder me because of my class.”

Because Hazel’s class was Mage, she couldn’t afford to increase her physical stats or else she would lag behind in her main specialty. Because of Hazel’s reliance on magic, increasing her Strength, Endurance, or Agility stat would be detrimental to her growth.

If she hadn’t focused on her Intelligence and Wisdom stat, she wouldn’t have been able to use Mana Bolt or her other spells as much. Especially Mana Bolt since it was the only spell she could inconsequentially spam without having to endure a grueling cooldown.

Of course, that came with some disadvantages like not being stronger, faster, or more durable. This was why Hazel needed to rely on her quick wits and, most importantly, her magic to win any of her battles.

It was times like this when Hazel wished she could summon a familiar. That way she didn’t have to worry about her lacking physical stats since she had a familiar that made up for that. However, now that Astrid and Hazel were a team, she hoped that wouldn’t be a problem anymore for the time being.

Speaking of which…

“Hey,” Hazel spoke up. “since we’re still here, maybe we should try to fight as a group. So we could fully understand our roles when we’re in combat.”

Although Hazel and Astrid decided to work together, they haven’t necessarily fought as a group yet. Mainly because there weren’t any monsters to do so, and they were too busy coming up with a plan to take down Dolk without any issues.

Astrid paused to ponder over Hazel’s suggestion, tapping her chin with her index finger. It didn’t take long before her eyes shifted to the mage as she firmly nodded.

“Yeah, let’s test out how we work as a team.”

Hearing this, Hazel’s lips twisted into a smile. Just then, the pair heard distant roars within the forest, forcing them to turn toward the source of the sound.

They then turned back to stare at one another as both of them began to smile, realizing what their next course of action was.