Tim and Ortana were paired with eighteen other volunteers, so they didn't exactly feel alone here. They even met a couple of Degranus Goblins, which was a very interesting encounter, as they claimed that they've been paid stupid amounts of gold to come, and volunteer here! This was absolutely believable, so they didn't even bother questioning it, as gold was oftentimes a good motivator, even if it was paired with desperation.
The twenty total volunteers were escorted by ten guards. The latter were very skilled, and although they held the title of city guards formally, they were actually nothing less than competent, journeymen battle mages! Heavy armor coated their skin, and offensive magic circled their palms, so they were made to deal with such hostile situations! The volunteers were as safe as they could be under the current circumstances.
Anyway, the location that they were supposed to go to, was simply an open field, and it was on a field, because that was where the sheep kept going missing. It was ten kilometers away, though, and for the average goblin, that was half a day's worth of traveling, so that was a bit of a disadvantage. It would take several hours to get there, especially with heavy armor on, so later on, once they got to the field, and assured that the perimeter was safe, they had to make camp for the night there.
This field had three neighboring villages to its vicinity, and these villages have been losing a lot of livestock, all because of these huge, carnivorous bugs that the volunteers were supposed to squash! The city of Runimus was tasked to protect these villages, even though the city had no taxative ties with them. They were asked to help, simply because the city had a more established army of sorts in comparison to any other domain in the close vicinity.
The army was full of city guards, so Runimus didn’t technically have an army, no. But since it had plenty of manpower, the guards were like a full army, and so they were often tasked with such covert action missions!
The city of Runimus wasn't very keen on this responsibility, but they obliged either way, because they were tasked to help anyone they could. They had to be the heroes, they had to save the day, assuming that a dragon wouldn't wipe those villages out entirely anyway!
“Bastarding villages,” A battlemage grunted, “Can't they learn a simple spell? It can’t be that hard to burn a bug!”
“They’re said to be very religious,” Another battlemage pointed out.
“Religious my ass!” The first battlemage bit back, “We have the Church of Ontarum in our city, but you don't see us begging anyone else for help. They're in Valporovus, for fuck's sake, how come they never bothered to increase their mana quality? They can't even protect themselves from a bee, not to mention Demon Beetles!”
Both of the mages made very good points, but regardless of what they thought, they were tasked with this mission that the church had forced upon them. There were a lot of defenseless villagers within the vicinity of the three churches, because there were thousands of villagers who dispelled their mana everyday, willingly, absolutely letting it go to waste, in order to please the Mana Gods! This was a fantasy of theirs, as they were hoping to please the gods now, in order to have an easier afterlife, and they felt enthralled to please the gods, simply because the micro-universe of Valporovus, didn't allow for one to die while ascending through levels of mana.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
They were scared of the various types of punishment that the gods would inflict upon them, if they willingly improved their mana in this universe! It was a twisted type of faith, but many people participated in it, through the influence of the three main churches in this one-hundred-and-fifty kilometer radius, they very much encouraged it. It was funny that they were scared of being punished, because in a way, a random beetle might punish them straight out of existence on a random tuesday. Being a goblin, and also being stupid, had plenty of disadvantages.
Anyway, they made it to the fields eventually, and set up camp there. Setting up camp didn't take more than an hour, and that was good, because they had a few more hours of sunlight left to scout the area. Demon Beetles were known to make big nests, so if they could locate the nest, then their job would become a lot easier because they could attack most of the beetles then and there!
Tim paired up with Ortana, and another fellow named John. There were thirty people in total in this camp, so it was best to pair in groups of three, in order to be both more secure, and more effective at scouting.
After about an hour of looking around, things started to get boring, because they couldn't find anything. They haven't seen a single bug so far, which was a bit alarming, because they weren't exactly small creatures, they were difficult to miss!
“Jesus…” Tim sighed, “I’m so damn bored! It would've been more fun if we went after that big ass dragon at this point.”
“Getting eaten alive doesn't sound so fun to me,” John expressed, “I hear Iron Claw once swallowed an entire platoon of guards with one gulp, he's a big, evil monster!”
“You’re taking the fun out of everything, John.” Tim grunted, “Find me a bug to kill, then.”
“Will do,” He said.
John was a Gong Goblin. They're rather hairy creatures, and almost look like wild boars who learned how to stand up, but he was a goblin nonetheless. John came from the city of Glorious Letazix, a city well renowned for its riches and discipline, so one could depend on him without second guessing themselves. Tim was especially accepting of him, because Letazix gave him, and the team the least trouble in comparison to the two other cities that they've been through. He let John and Ortana do the scouting, and he laid down on a grassfield by himself.
Tim was looking at the blue sky, and as he noticed a couple of planets that floated beyond the stratosphere, he couldn’t help but admire the universe he was in. This was truly a fantasy world once he stopped and thought about it.
“I can't believe that there are a bunch of planets in this universe. I thought Valporovus would just be a big, flat land, but we're sitting on a whole planet here…” He thought.
Anyway, he had a bit of time to himself here, so he decided to check on something really important. He had plenty of system points to spend, so he finally started browsing the batch of ten new system-based upgrades!
Regarding this matter, the system was entitled to remind him of a few details. [Hello, TImothy. Considering your recent acceleration in power, you now have the freedom to pick out which upgrade you want to buy first. We don't need to be linear about the options, but know that you must buy all of the upgrades, if you wish to unlock the following batch. Happy buying!]
“Oh wow, that's awesome!” He thought, and then he also remarked, sarcastically. “I feel like a little girl on Christmas Eve, so many options to choose from!”
The system did not answer, she didn't bother to. Tim was given all the freedom to explore the options that have been given to him, so he did exactly so.
“I can upgrade the Blood Freezing ability now, huh? That's new. I thought that I couldn't upgrade the things that I stole from other fish.” He added.
[Technically, no, you can't.] She added, [This is a densification purchase, more than it is an upgrade. The Freezing Blood ability won't upgrade into anything new, but it'll cost less mana to cast, exactly 20% less, but it'll deal the same damage. That's why it's relatively cheap for you to buy it.]
“Actually that sounds pretty good, considering how much mana I tend to spend.” He added, and then requested. “Densify it, then, because a thousand system points isn't too expensive.”