"I think the goblins died, not completely sure though."
The place where goblins stood before, now not even their ashes remained to show they existed. They had a brutal death but Darrick didn't feel guilty or anything for taking a life, he hardly considered them to be a lifeform like himself.
Why would I ever feel guilty for killing a beast which was attacking me with the intent to kill? It doesn't matter if we were here to kill them, they attacked us before we did so they deserve to die.
It did not even prick his consciousness to justify the deed with some mental gymnastics. He truly believed what he thought, Darrick was involuntarily doing racism although only at some species and some were treated better like elves. Although he hadn't come in contact with more species to make a concrete observation of his racism in the first place.
"That was good, guys. Darrick, your attack on the second goblin saved me a lot of trouble and Jasmine, you're also very good with your aim and attack potency. Your attack came at the perfect time when they were all in the same place and were too stunned to move because of Darrick's second force bolt. And Jasper, you were not needed in this fight and that is a good thing because no one was injured."
Leon blurted out the lines in a single breath like he practised those lines before to tell his party members. Darrick turned to see others' faces and by the looks of them it seemed they also noticed it but no one mentioned anything about it, they just went with the flow.
"If it wasn't for you drawing goblins towards you, I wouldn't have been able to attack that second goblin at all. You also did a good job, Leon."
"Yeah, if it wasn't for you protecting the front I wouldn't have been able to make that attack. This is a team effort, with all of us we can conquer this dungeon. Let's go."
"Good job everyone but you all should rest." Jasper put in a word of common sense for the group of people who were high in excitement and everyone turned towards him then they nodded.
The first one to plop down to the ground and sit was Darrick himself. His mana was not that low, he didn't know if the attack used up so much mana or if he just wasted it while channelling the spell, but one was certain, he had to wait a bit for his mana to recover to the full. Following him all of them sat on the ground.
"I don't know what I expected from the dungeon but for whatever reason I wore this pretty dress here," Jasmine said as she dusted her pants off dust. It wasn't even that dirty but she felt the need to mention it so Darrick replied.
"This was also a good dress a few days ago before I accidently burnt its sleeves so this thing was the best piece I had for a dungeon raid."
"I had prepared for it. This was one of the clothes I brought just for the dungeon raiding. I'm always prepared for things and I have the option to keep everything I need." Leon waved his spatial ring as he said.
"Now that we are dating can I also order one of those from your family? That spatial ring is so damn useful and your family is hard monopolizing it."
"Yeah, sure. I think my mother is going to send three spatial rings so I can give them to whomever I want. They are only given to trustworthy people and currently, some people also have those which are passed down from their ancestors. For example, Darrick has one spatial artifact."
Wait! The spatial rings are not common things? I can't reveal my inventory so naturally, I just have to lie. As simple as that.
"I didn't know that! It was the item my late parents left for me before they left in orphanage. I don't really know anything about my real family"
Everyone was quiet when the topic was a bit heavier for their taste and Darrick who was aiming for it just started a different conversation altogether.
"That aside, I want to know how you guys keep a spell on the verge of activation. That would have helped a lot more than what I contributed there in the last fight."
"Yeah, of course. It's not some secret but it is a relatively tougher activity than just shooting the attack. What you have to do is control the flow of mana even when it's flowing inside the sigil channel. It's not easy by any means but it would help a lot in these kinds of situations." Leon explained as he activated his spell partially to demonstrate.
"I figured. Even if I can't use it now I need to know a bit of theory on it and also why is it such a pain to pull the mana towards the sigil? It actually hurts a bit."
"I don't about that. I have never felt that in my whole life. It may be due to the sigil, the one the academy gave you. It's a good one but not until you reach Tier 2 after all," said Jasmine as she drew a circle on the ground.
"Imaginary sigil is quite unique. I wished I could get one before but academy people have been monopolizing the sigil for centuries and now when I can easily get my hands on it, I don't need it." Jasmine said as she drew some lines like they were growing out from the circle and were making another pattern.
Should I ask what does that mean? If it's unique then there must be some secret to it but would they tell me these important things? But there is nothing wrong in asking once so I should ask now.
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"If you guys have rested enough we can go for the second room. We will enter with the same formation we were in till now. If it's too dangerous then we retreat. As easy as that, now let's go." The de-facto leader of the party and the defender of the frontline, Leon said as he stood before the small dark path.
I'll ask afterwards.
This path was not the same as the last one. There was no door here, it was just a narrow tunnel and most importantly there was a small glow of light leaking at the end of the tunnel, likely from the second room. It was time for the business again.
***
There was nothing in the tunnel. Darrick had expected to be ambushed by some goblins from both sides but fortunately, there wasn't anything like that. They just passed through the tunnel safe and sound but what awaited them didn't look as safe.
The room was a circular hall and white glowing crystals were jutting out of the walls, those crystals were the true source of light they saw through the tunnel before. It was not too bright but also wasn't so dim that they couldn't see the horde of goblins waiting for them.
Unlike last time, now there were at least twice as many goblins standing in the room. That's only counting the visible ones as sounds were coming from the shadows. All took a stance and got ready to do the same thing as the last room.
The goblins in the shadows came out of there and joined the group. There were a total of fourteen goblins in a group of 3-3-3-3-2. This was going to be hard, some may even get injured but that's why they were here.
A group of three with daggers and a group of two with clubs rushed forward snarling. They were absolutely ready to maul the intruders to death. Their red eyes were glowing with bloodthirst.
Two of the goblins threw their knives towards the group. They may not know that it was more useful in hands than throwing it at the enemies but it was good for the raider group. The dumbness of the goblins gave an advantage in the battle and no one was willing to lose it.
The daggers were intercepted by Leon and Darrick attacked with the force bolt to the goblin. It took the hit head-on and still wasn't out of commission as it changed its target to Darrick who attacked it. Darrick heard a voice from the back,
"4 seconds!"
Goblin was fast, faster than he could avoid its attack. The spell was taking as much time as usual so it wasn't ready. He wouldn't be able to complete the spell before he was hit with the dagger and he didn't have confidence in fighting it with his fists. It was just a split second, he had the solution.
Darrick didn't cancel the spell, he pointed his right hand towards the club wielders and pulled out his trump card to fend off the goblin right in front of him.
"Discharge!"
As same as the spell, he didn't know how to visualize it in his mind so he made a command for it. He pulled out the Fulminar from the inventory and touched the goblin as he commanded the artifact. He had tried it once before so the expectations were very high. He knew after the initial shock the goblin would be paralyzed and would be wide open for the attack but what happened was unexpected, to say the least.
*Thud*
Goblin was flung across the room and slammed to the wall. Its body was visible in the light of the glowing crystals, the goblin's skin was charred black, it was burnt to the limit. There was no chance for it to survive, it was dead.
The nine goblins in the far front of Darrick's group stepped back. They were screeching at each other and their screeching was put to stop by the force bolt Darrick threw at them, he had changed his target from the club goblins to the horde of goblins. Before they could recover from their condition there was something more to come.
"Duck!"
There was no need for that. No one was in the direct line from Jasmine to Goblin horde but she as a responsible teammate informed nonetheless. The ball of purple energy in Jasmine's hand left her and slammed where the goblins stood.
The devastation was not as severe as the attack in the last room. It was expected as the casting time was cut in half but effectiveness was mostly the same. The closest four goblins from the blast were disintegrated with nothing left behind.
The three behind them were also clearly dead as their bodies were mutilated beyond recognition. One goblin had half of its head exploded in pieces, another one was torn apart as all of its limbs and head were rolling around the torso part of the body had turned to a bloody mist and the last one's complete left side was nowhere to be seen.
Those three were dead but two more were still alive, somehow. Although not in any position to attack or even run from the place. Both of their legs were destroyed in different styles but still destroyed. They were trying to crawl away but they were going at a snail's pace so Darrick's attention didn't linger on them.
Leon was still alone fending off the four goblins and they had become even more ferocious after the death of their companions. Leon who was barely managing before was taking a lot of damage right now. Darrick blasted a force bolt in that direction to help all he could.
His attack was weak, weaker than before but it was a good distraction as Leon took out some swords out of the spatial ring and threw them around himself. All three understood the meaning of what Leon had done and bolted towards him.
Or Darrick tried to, at least. A dagger was lodged in his abdominal area by a goblin. The goblin was smaller than all the others they fought till now. Another goblin of the same size was coming towards him to stab him again when Darrick moved his hand towards the incoming goblin.
"Discharge!"
It died on the spot. No fancy wall flinging. One shock sent it straight to the death. The sneak attack on Darrick wasn't detected by the group as they were busy fighting three against four and the fight was already turning favourable towards them as goblins were being slashed left and right as they bled but nobody could spare a glance towards Darrick.
*What the fuck are they doing!? They should have already killed all of them and ran towards me to help but now, Fuck!*
"Fuck!"
Darrick raised his hands and punched down the goblin on its head. One hit was enough to make it fall to the ground but it wasn't enough to kill it. Darrick placed both of his knees on the goblin's stomach and started punching the goblin's face while sitting on top of its body.
"YOU. FUCKING. BASTARD. HAVE. BALLS. TO. ATTACK. ME. FROM. BEHIND."
Every single word was followed by a punch to the goblin's face. Or whatever it become now. The face had already caved in and was unrecognizable from the relentless beating from Darrick's bloodied hands.
The blood had sprayed all over his body and he was also bleeding from the stab. Darrick stood up and turned around to see the other three had also finished the remaining goblins and were looking towards the third room's doorway.
"Can you hear it?" asked Jasper in a shaky voice. All of them had walked to where Darrick was. Darrick's ears were ringing from the fight so he couldn't hear it but now that it was clearing up he also could hear it. The noise of marching, when a lot of people were rushing somewhere.
The third room entrance was green now with goblins who were trying to push each other to get through the door, there were a lot of them and their snarling and screeching was so loud it was giving me a headache.
"Run for the exit!"