Hurriedly she made an attempt to defend herself by swatting at the Shaman images, yet the ones she struck faded like a mirage, whilst unlike her previous thoughts, each of the Shaman copycats can cause damage.

She continually tried to fight back but her efforts proved useless as the Shaman doubles were like a never-ending stream, no matter how many she destroyed they would only be replaced.

Talia felt her health whittle away as she grew weaker and weaker, her vision began to go dark as she felt she can no longer put up any resistance.

However, at that moment she felt the rumbling of the being contained within her as the beast soul roared in defiance.

All of a sudden she felt that she had awakened from her previous thoughts, the brief moment of clarity gave her the opportunity to realise the situation she was in, ‘Wait! Although the Shaman is strong it is impossible for it to have the power to spawn never-ending clones, otherwise, it would have long been able to rule this place without fear of other experts.’

The beast soul had provided her a valuable moment of realisation that she had unknowingly been trapped in an illusion the entire time.

She thought that she had broken through the illusion previously when the Shaman was exposed to her, but this was only a trick set up by the Shaman to make her feel comfortable, the true trap was hidden within.

Suddenly her vision became clear, as her surroundings changed once again, the Shaman had not even moved from where she had last seen it, and at the moment it was staring at her mockingly.

“Strong soul for a little beast, yet still not enough.” Mumbled the Shaman not realising that Talia had already broken through its illusion.

Talia shivered slightly upon realising the situation she was in, if not for the Shaman’s overconfidence and her being alone with the Shaman, then another could have already taken advantage of her momentary pause to have long since ended her life.

She now realised just how the Goblin Tribe was so successful as the with the sceptre it is in possession not many would be able to resist falling into the Shamans illusions within this region, especially Warriors who usually had weaker souls and mental resistance than the other classes.

Usually one would believe Warriors would have the strongest mental strength due to them being front-line combatants, but surprisingly the average Mage had both stronger souls and willpower as the mental strain to control spells and conduct experiments involved a significant amount of mental fortitude.

It was common for Mages to push themselves to the sheer limit to learn new spells and to form, control the spells they use, so it was no wonder they are mentally strong with them usually even having good pain tolerance.

The smaller merchant groups had only sent Warriors as escorts so far, and with the Shaman who was unmatched at its level, the Goblins continuously dealt with the caravans without much trouble, not even having to involve themselves in a tough fight.

They would separate the stronger Warriors from the weaker ones with illusions and whittle them down as a group to take down the stronger experts of the caravan which had been sent to reinforce them.

Talia remained silent as the Shaman continually rambled on absentmindedly oblivious to her recovery, she knew that she had one opportunity to take down the Shaman before it attempted to put her in an illusion again.

Otherwise this time she may not be able to recover in time before the Shaman made a move to end her life.

And that moment she was waiting for occurred when the Shaman began to approach her slowly completely unaware of the danger.

Readying herself the Shaman was nearly within reach, yet before it could move into an ideal position they coincidentally locked eyes at that moment.

“Impossible…” The Shaman was not even able to finish its sentence as Talia had already pounced on its body bringing it to the ground.

Even though the Shaman was a powerful magical caster, it was just like your stereotypical Mage in most games, a complete glass cannon!

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Talia cleanly tore open its throat cleanly ending the life of the troublesome enemy, when all the Shaman could do is stare in shock at the realisation of its death.

Blood gurgled out of the Goblins throat as it struggled to accept its death its lips forming the words, “I was supposed to achieve so much more… to early to realise the dreams of all Goblin kind.”

Regret filled its vision as it stared at Talia with complete unwillingness as it died with its eyes wide open a look of complete regret etched on its features.

Talia sighed in relief once she found it was all over, to be honest, although she had received the least damage outwardly, she had felt that the Goblin Shaman was by far the most terrifying enemy she had come across so far.

The feeling of your mind being completely toyed with and being completely helpless was eerily similar to that strange orb, both times she felt so vulnerable and weak, but this time the thought of being held at the complete mercy of an enemy felt even worse.

‘I need to grow stronger!’ She thought as the motivation to cultivate her soul has now arisen, at the last minute it was not her willpower which saved her from the Shaman but the beast soul from within her body.

Only now did she realise the importance of the strength of a person soul was, and that a true expert should have no weaknesses otherwise it would be exploited sooner or later.

The reason why the Shaman remained unhindered in this region was that it was incredibly rare for individuals to train their soul, a persons soul strength naturally advances as you progress within your class but specific cultivation methods naturally provide the best results.

Now Talia was more motivated than ever to obtain one, another thing she had only just realised was that she had also received a few notifications since the death of the Shaman.

One was another increase in level, the other was an even more interesting one.

*Player has experienced great exertion to their soul. Thanks to surviving this endeavour, soul strength has slightly increased.*

She had found that although the improvement did not seem to be as much in comparison to the destruction of the orb, it had still increased.

‘So it seems that activities which involve the soul will improve its strength if I managed to emerge with my life intact, good to know.’ She thought, deciding it would be best and safer to find a cultivation method instead.

Walking over towards the table, she had found what she was looking for, a large magic tome which the Shaman placed at the centre of its desk which was under an unlocked protective enhancement showing just how valued it was.

Picking up the tome, she straight away put it in her storage pouch, deciding she will take it out to look at later.

Searching the rest of the room, she picked up a few bags filled with coins, the sceptre from the Shaman, a few other valuables and lastly evidence which would be required for the Bluewood Merchant Group.

That was in the form of a wooden chest filled with numerous tokens adorned with the emblem of the numerous merchant groups which had been robbed by the Goblins.

These are what would have been used as a proof of identification by important members of the caravans, and is exactly what she will use as proof that the problem had been dealt with.

Before ensuring that there were no important items she had missed, Talia left the room finding herself standing in-front a lone Goblin who stared at her confusingly.

Without waiting for the Goblin to make the first move, she straight away leapt onto the Goblin, quickly ending its life with great efficiency.

Now with the Shaman dealt with she was in a hurry to leave before the rest of the Goblins were alerted of her presence so after dealing with this Goblin she did not even wait long before taking a few valuables of its person and leaving.

On the way out of the cave she was met numerous Goblins, but other than a few marksmen, most of the Goblins she met were ordinary members of the tribe, so they did not prove difficult to deal with.

Eventually, she managed to reach the exit of the cave, with her storage pouch filled to the brim full of all the valuables she could gather.

Knowing that every minute spent in the ‘Game World’ was important, she wasted no time in heading back to Stonehead Town.

After passing the gate without issues, she turned in every quest she had picked up before leaving the Town, receiving mostly ordinary rewards and out of convenience she also sold some of the less valuable, and unnecessary items she had received from the Goblins.

Taking a good amount of coin from the exchange, she happily headed towards the Bluewood Merchant Groups store which upon entering she was once again met with the cheerful chubby merchant Tom and the scar-riddled veteran who stood in the corner who’s eyes lit up upon seeing her entering.

“Ah girl, welcome back, are you here to ask for a few hints for the case?” The grizzled middle-aged man asked.

Tom on the other hand said unenthusiastically, "Realised how difficult it is now girl? Many stronger folks than you who were experts in such field have failed even with the full assistance of our guild, how could a young girl like you possible hope to…"

Before Tom could even finish, Talia straightforwardly slammed the chest full of tokens onto the table in front of him causing its contents to clutter all over the table.

Whilst gawking in the looks of astonishment from both men, Talia simply said with a grin, “Problem solved, so when might I come to collect my reward?”