Once they were far enough away, the party discussed what their general strategy would be, Jade looking over his inventory for a better way to handle the situation than just running in and shooting. Yondol and Amy, meanwhile, made sure their weapons were ready to go, Yondol swinging his sword to warm up and Amy throwing her weapon as well.
“Do you think it’d be a good idea to set the tents on fire?” Jade suddenly asked, looking at the fire arrows in his inventory. “I can use the fire arrows and shoot them at the tents to frighten the goblins.”
“Actually… that’s a good suggestion,” Yondol mused, giving Jade a nod. “Let’s go for that, then.”
“Ready, then,” he stated, pulling out his golden bow and sneaking back up to the camp with his party. Yondol and Amy decided to start on the other end of the camp, wanting to nab any goblins that tried to run away from Jade. After a minute passed waiting for them to get into position, Jade let his arrows fly, finding that most hit their target on the tents, while some he did miss. Guess I can’t be expert level at this… he mused, standing up when only half of the tents were on fire due to noticing several goblins screaming as they ran towards him.
Goblins looked exactly like he’d expected them to, the creatures only about 1 meter tall, green skin, pointed ears, and absolutely disgusting looking. As Jade dashed out of the underbrush and into the clearing to avoid the charging goblins, he also noticed their smell, it almost making him gag. Of course they smell like shit.
He swapped his bow for the meteor wand, peppering the small creatures with bolts as he strafed around them. He could hear fighting from the other end of the clearing, though the burning tents in the way made sure he couldn’t see how the siblings were faring. He otherwise only focused on the goblins he was fighting, which is why he missed the one hiding inside a nearby intact tent.
A searing pain hit Jade in the side, causing him to trip and roll across the grass. Coming to a stop, he immediately noticed the now visible goblin, which held what looked to be a spiky ball. It immediately threw it at Jade, the mage recognizing the pain of it hitting his chest. That thing has good aim.
Right before the other goblins could catch up to him, Jade jumped to his feet and sprinted off, the world slowing once more as he kept more of an eye on his surroundings. He saw two more hidden goblins, being forced to try and dodge the projectiles they threw at him. This made his shots at the chasing goblins go wide, forcing the mage to change tactics.
Running right up to one of the stationary creatures, Jade swapped out his wand for the golden hammer, watching its eyes go wide right before he bashed it upside the head. Not enough to kill the creature, but one benefit of it being reality instead of a game was the fact that it knocked the goblin unconscious. He repeated the same tactics with the other throwing goblins, though they both tried to dodge his strikes, leading to Jade having to swing two to three times to knock them down.
The whole time he was bashing in the heads of the creatures, Jade winced at the pain in his side and chest, deciding that the spiky balls had definitely injured him more than normal.
The rest of the fight went a lot smoother, Jade able to pepper his magic bolts across the melee goblins chasing him while also keeping an eye out for any more of the throwing variety. Annoyingly, he’d been hit by one more ball, once again on the chest, though not in the same area as before. He hadn’t seen the throwing goblin until it had thrown the first projectile, leading Jade to pepper it with spells that time to knock it out of the fight. Otherwise he swept the melee ones with ease, the last one dropping to the ground with a splat a few minutes later.
He went back and made sure the throwing ones were fully dead and not just unconscious, not hearing any more fighting from the other side of the clearing. Jade then sighed as he sank to the ground. Not only was he covered in green goblin blood from going into melee range, but he also coughed out a bit of blood himself, forcing him to take a healing potion. As soon as he drank from the potion bottle, he felt the energy from inside it rush to his chest and side, making the pain more bearable but not taking it all away. I’m going to need to rest, then.
#
Unlike the dungeon mobs and the raining slime, the goblins didn’t just disappear in a flash of light, leaving their bodies laying around his side of the clearing. His magic did give him a hint for them, however, Jade cautiously touching one of the bodies and trying to not throw up at the smell. Injecting a small bit of his magic into the creature caused it to despawn like normal, the looted items appearing directly in his inventory. It was mostly more of the spike balls, though he did notice one very good item once he looted one of the hidden goblins.
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[Rocket Boots]
He’d have to celebrate later, however, ignoring the rest of the items he looted as he slowly made his way to the other side of the now roaring flames. Sitting on the grass, back to back, were the siblings, Amy sporting some red blood on the side of her face from an injury that had obviously healed. “You guys okay?”
Yondol turned around at that, breathing heavily and with what looked like a bit of pain. “Got injured, but we should be good when we can take the potions again in an hour.” Amy gave a nod at that as well, Jade not joining them on the ground until he looted the rest of the goblins. “Looting works on them as well?” he asked in a surprised voice, Amy letting out a chuckle at his surprise.
“He can do everything, genius,” she snarked, giving Jade a smile and wink to show she was not serious. “Find anything interesting?”
“Got two sets of rocket boots,” Jade excitedly stated, joining them on the ground with a wince. “Need one more and the tinkerer’s workbench to be able to combine everything.” He put the rocket boots into one of his accessory slots in his inventory, filling up five of the six slots.
[Beginner Wings]
[Gale Boots]
[Swift Shoes]
[Anklet of Speed]
[Rocket Boots]
Jade traded the other pair over to Amy, who immediately took off the swift shoes to put them on. Getting up, she looked at them slightly confused before seeming to figure out how they worked, allowing her to hover about a foot off the ground. “These are so cool!” she exclaimed excitedly, moving this and the other way before the boots started losing power. She quickly came right back to the ground before they ran out, Amy seeming to know about when they’d cut off.
“Once we upgrade them to spectral boots, they should have more of a flight time,” Jade explained, his beginner wings snapping out as he rocketing up into the air. Against his expectations, he got the same smoke effect from the boots of his meteor armor as Amy had from the actual boots, letting his wings get him higher in the air in a faster time. He quickly rocketed above the tree-line, making it halfway up to the cloud-line before both the boots and the wings ran out of juice. He then slowly glided back to the ground in a spiral pattern, looking around with an awed feeling at the landscape.
The surroundings were fairly hilly, letting Jade see pretty far before the land seemed to cut off in his vision. It was especially easy to see the cutoff as what looked to be red grass, red trees, and bright white skeletons dotted the landscape in the distance. The scarlet biome, he deduced, a shiver going down his spine at the way the red grass almost seemed to undulate for lack of a better term. Like flesh… He wasn’t sure how the people kept the biome from spreading to the forest, but he decided he would have to check it out. For the scarlet armor set and weapons of course.
Back on solid ground, he looked over to Yondol and Amy who both had shocked looks on their faces, Amy especially looking up at the sky in wonder. “How did you get so high?” she asked.
“Movement speed buffs count towards flight speed,” Jade explained, the wings soon disappearing back into his back. “With the wings and rocket boots, along with the three movement speed items I have equipped, I can get pretty high. And once I can combine almost everything together, well…”
“Where did you get the wings from?” Yondol asked, his shock quickly fading to interest. “With slow fall, I might not mind flying…”
“They come already equipped in the game, though we could possibly find more in the floating islands.” Jade looked back up at the clouds at that, letting a wide smile breach his face. “Once I can combine everything together and add another pair of rocket boots to my inventory, I should have enough height to get to them. Then I can get wings for you two as well.” Amy looked particularity excited at the mention of getting her own wings, while Yondol looked even more green than normal at the suggestion.
“So we just need to get that workbench and you can get started?” Yondol asked, gathering his composure back together as he changed the topic.
“Yup. Didn’t see it anywhere around here, though, and the goblins didn’t drop it. So either it’s a really rare drop or…”
“It’s somewhere in the goblin city,” Amy finished for him, Jade giving her a reluctant nod. “Well, that’s where my specialties can come in then! I’m very adept at stealing things.”
“You sure?” Yondol asked, a bit of concern running through his voice.
“Of course!” Amy huffed, giving both men glares. “I may not be able to turn invisible yet, but my magic makes sneaking and stealing very easy for me.”
At that the three headed out in the direction of the goblin city, both Yondol and Jade sharing matching expressions of concern. I hope she can find it then…