As Caroline and Kanbe walked outside the city, after ensuring that the hero was wearing the armor properly, and went through the golden fields of wheat that surrounded Argeares while Kanbe was taking in the scenery.
Massive windmills laid around the different farms that surrounded Argeares, which were made with stone and oak wood and had massive silos made of steel as wheat was the livelihood of many individuals in Argeares, with walls made of stone surrounding their lands even if they were camouflaged by the massive fields of wheat that were within the farms.
The time of harvest had arrived for the wheat, and many farmers were paying mercenaries to protect the wheat fields, while many youngsters came from different cities and towns to get temporary jobs in the farms to start building up money.
“Ah, the commoner youngster waves are coming. With the time of harvest approaching, they come to get money for their studies. The nobles tend to send their kids with adventurer parties, to ensure their children level up without any sort of worry, which is why you might never see a third or a fourth child of a noble being a farmer or the like. They reach high levels by the time they are teenagers, so they become adventurers or mercenaries.” Caroline said as she walked alongside Kanbe.
“What’s the difference between adventurers and mercenaries? I thought they’d be the same, as they deal with weapons.” Kanbe said, clearly surprised that there still existed mercenaries with the adventurers. ‘Usually, in the stories, the adventurers do have quests that are clearly mercenary jobs.’ Kanbe thought to himself, pondering his own question.
“Oh, well, that’s a bureaucratic question. Adventurers can go to the dungeons, do quests related to monsters, investigate ruins, and investigate any situation that could be caused by monsters or a monster creation skill tree. At times, they are also allowed to investigate cases that the guard is investigating. Mercenaries, on the other side, deal with escort quests, wars, bodyguard quests, fighting in tourneys, acting as proxies for nobles in any sort of duels, and investigations regarding sentient crimes which are those done, or seemingly done, by humans and species similar to humans like elves.” Caroline explained, as she smiled at Kanbe.
“Well, seems quite understandable. I suppose that there’s some sort of legislation about this.” Kanbe said as he pondered about the differences of the adventurers and mercenaries.
“You wouldn’t hear the end of it, if I started talking about that. You’ll learn about them sooner or later, but not from me. Otherwise, the church would chastise me for doing so.” Caroline said as she kept walking.
“Yeah, I can understand why. So, I suppose we will have a team of sorts to do this? In case something goes wrong?” Kanbe said, as he considered possible risks in a cave with goblins.
“Smart boy. But no. We are the defense line this once. Essentially, I should go myself to do this, but I think it’s an ideal time for you to level up. At least getting you to level five, to start off properly. The sooner you get to level sixty, the better for us. As we got a prophecy of the dark lord appearing soon, and turns out that Zerax couldn’t deliver someone fully leveled up this once. I suppose it is a test to see if we have learned from previous heroes and can train one properly.” Caroline replied to Kanbe’s question, while walking towards a grassy field beyond the wheat fields, which had gelatinous azure blobs jumping around while being followed by green skinned humanoid monsters.
“Interesting to hear that there’s a prophecy of a dark lord. I suppose that my job will be to vanquish said dark lord. No pressure at all!” Kanbe said as he looked at Caroline.
“Yeah, but unluckily, we will have to focus on the task at hand. I asked for reinforcements a few days ago, as I did believe that it’d be troubling if I killed them. I am level sixty already, so it’d be a waste. No one has ever reached the requirements to go beyond level sixty that isn’t a hero.” Caroline said as she smiled.
When the hero and the archbishop arrived to the grassy field, they saw the gelatinous azure blobs attacking the green skinned humanoid monsters. It was a five versus five, balanced in both sides, and it was quite the stalemate amongst both sides.
The humanoid monsters were bald, of the size of a child, pointy ears longer than a horse’s, who were wielding iron daggers clearly rusted and dulled due to their usage, and wore only a bunch of rags which covered their nether regions.
As these humanoids monsters slashed and stabbed the gelatinous blobs, Kanbe noticed one fact of the gelatinous blobs. The blobs had a very small azure orb in the middle of their spherical body, which moved whenever the humanoid monsters stabbed or slashed in order to avoid damage, and their liquid body could easily regenerate even from having parts of their slime body cut.
“The slimes and the goblins, fighting amongst each others instead of attacking the city. A relief, as that means that there’s no commander and the goblins want the mana core the slimes have. Goblins have the IQ of a very cruel child, love looting, and have their own sort of nomadic and scavenging society. They move around, hurt any sentient city, steal cows and chickens, kill or enslave people, breed either with the female goblins or with any female they find. Female goblins are very rare, and even more sadistic than male goblins, so they tend to kidnap girls as the goblins find it easier to just do that.” Caroline said as she looked at the monsters.
“Hm, quite the issue. Any troubles with slimes?” Kanbe said, as he looked at the fight, with a scared face and trembling hands.
“Oh, well, no. They are quite friendly. In fact, many tamers tame slimes and make their own sort of farm with slimes. They eat things, then reproduce the items in a slime style, and sleep. They can evolve and become troubling, but it’s for another time. Their mana core is basically what keeps them alive, so good luck striking them.” Caroline explained as she smiled at the hero.
“I suppose we have to fight the goblins and try to herd the slimes, then.” Kanbe said, as he kept shaking in fear.
“Yeah, that would be ideal. But first, try out saying skill tree. I suppose you have a few skills granted by Zerax. They won’t kill each other anytime soon, and they won’t notice you. And if they do, I can keep them busy.” Caroline said as she looked at the slimes and the goblins.
Kanbe nodded and did as Caroline had instructed, which made his mana circulate all across his body which felt at first like if his body had been stimulated for the first time with an electric shock, and a window made of solidified mana appeared in front of the young hero showcasing all the skills he had.
“It seems like I can use magic. But how?” Kanbe said as he looked at the skills.
“Oh, well, imagine the effect caused by the spell as it is explained in the description. Then circulate mana in your body and expel it from your hands. Finally, chant the spell. It’ll happen automatically as your brain will bring to your conscious mind the chant.” Caroline explained as she smiled.
“H-Holy bullet.” Kanbe said as he aimed at a goblin’s head with his left index finger, while circulating mana in his body.
As Kanbe uttered those words, the mana went into Kanbe’s left index finger and came out as a source of pure, and cold, light forming a small pellet that was shot from Kanbe’s fingertip towards his target.
The goblin noticed the attack too late, as it tried to dodge it just before the pellet struck its head and pierced through it, and fell to the ground. Kanbe’s aim wasn’t really the best, but the surprise attack and the fact that the goblin was fighting other monsters made it easy to hit a lethal attack.
Once the goblin was dead, some sort of energy similar to mana came out of his body and entered Kanbe’s body. This made Kanbe feel better, wiser, and calmer as the energy carried some sort of knowledge that Kanbe couldn’t absorb but one that delivered a sense of calm and wisdom.
“Good job, hero! One goblin down! Also, don’t worry about killing monsters. Most of them do harm the people, and they are a good source of experience. The energy that comes out of the dead monster is called experience, as it is a sort of substitute of acquiring the experience yourself, and allows you to level up. Even doing normal chores delivers experience, but killing monsters and doing quests are exactly the best methods to acquire experience quickly.” Caroline said as she moved her left hand, as an orb of light came out of her hand and floated near her.
As the orb floated, the remaining goblins started rushing towards Caroline with the daggers as they saw a woman without a weapon and thought that the light was merely a light for a trick. But as soon as they were at forty meters of distance, the orb started shooting piercing rounds made of pure light, which struck the goblins and pierced their flesh.
“Well, you can try out things, Kanbe. But you better do it fast, the holy turret might end them before you get to try something.” Caroline said as she smiled at the hero.
Kanbe nodded and charged at the goblins, while swinging his sword diagonally with both of his hands to cut one of them. Kanbe expected to just cause some damage, rather than outright cutting in two pieces the goblin, but the goblin was cut in two perfectly divided parts, while Kanbe looked surprised by the sharpness of his sword.
“Huh, I thought that it wouldn’t cut so well.” Kanbe sheepishly said, while turning to Caroline with a surprised face.
“Just focus on the fight, hero!” Caroline exclaimed as she moved her hands to create a small barrier that protected Kanbe, while the hero simply fell to the ground as he slipped while trying to turn quickly to look at the goblins.
As the barrier was being erected, the goblins charged at Kanbe but were stopped by the barrier that took the brunt of their charge and blocked the dagger strikes the goblins did to the barrier. The slimes calmly left the area, bouncing happily and not caring about the situation at all, as they were not sentient monsters that didn’t stand to win anything by defeating a group of goblins.
Kanbe slowly got up, while the goblins kept attacking the barrier without stopping, as he trembled due to the near-death experience he just had.
‘I have gotten conceited, considering how easy the sword cut through them while fighting! I need to get focused, and defeat these goblins!’ Kanbe thought, as he tried to calm himself down and focus on the fight.
As Kanbe tried to focus on the fight and prepared to attack the goblins, the barrier started cracking. Usually it would withstand more, but it seemed like the weapons the goblins were using had an enchantment that made barriers to degrade. So it wouldn’t take long even for a low level goblin to break the barrier made by the archbishop with such daggers, and Kanbe was starting to be aware of that.
“Archbishop! Is it normal that mere goblins could hold weapons that broke through barriers so fast!?” Kanbe asked with worry in his eyes. ‘If this is normal, that means that I could be in danger without a good shield!’ Kanbe thought, as fear and worry started to clog his mind.
“No, it is not! And that’s worrying! That sort of enchantment isn’t normal on monsters! It could be that the goblins have stolen equipment from bandits or adventurers!” Caroline replied, while making sure the holy turret didn’t shoot the goblins. ‘At this rate, when we talk to the guards about it… I will have to answer for not allowing the holy turret to finish them off. Ugh, I will get a scolding while trying to enact my plan. Not good.’ Caroline thought while she looked at the goblins.
Kanbe took a deep breath, and tried to calm down his nerves, but he simply couldn’t do it. It was too much to ask for a boy fighting for the first time in a different world, and it was clearly an overwhelming experience for someone who never had to fight to survive, but it was what was expected from a young hero.
As the goblins broke through the barrier, Kanbe charged at the goblins in a panic and cut horizontally with enough strength to cut cleanly two of them in half. The other two goblins flanked Kanbe and tried to stab him from behind, only to notice that the holy turret was active and had actively shot at one of the goblins with lethal results for the goblin on the right side of Kanbe.
“Watch out, Kanbe!” Caroline exclaimed, feigning worry about the hero’s safety, as she prepared herself to use another skill.
But as Sumeragi had warned the archbishop before, the dagger simply broke once it touched the armor, as the armor was thick enough to block and break the worn down dagger. And so, Kanbe saw an opening which he used to smack the goblin with the pommel and make distance between each other as he cautiously turned to face the goblin.
“Now, it’s my turn.” Kanbe calmly said, seeing this as a good chance to finish the fight, while approaching the goblin.
The goblin tried to find a way to escape, but essentially it was a matter of being caught now by a boy with a sword or later by a holy bullet shot by the boy. The distance didn’t matter, the chant was quick enough on its own and the boy seemed to be a magician using a sword to learn how to use them just in case, as the long range spell could hit up to a distance of 200 meters and that wasn’t taking into account better spells.
And so, the goblin jumped towards the young hero as it tried to bite the hero only to be stabbed by the youngster. A swift stab to the left lung, a clear impalement due to the size of the goblin, and then being thrown to the ground by the hero swinging the sword to get a proper angel to cut the goblin with his sword.
Kanbe simply took a deep breath after that fierce, albeit short, fight and sat down on the ground. Meanwhile, Caroline grabbed the corpses and piled them up while dispelling the holy turret, as she had no need for the turret any longer, while looking at the hero.
‘Sumeragi was right about the equipment. Usually, I take into consideration what he said, but I never expected that foolish brother of mine to put such effort for the equipment. That said, I am stupid for not considering how he is. In that sense, he’s just like Dad. No half-assed jobs, he said, but F me across the Alps, right!? I required a weaker armor, you damnable fool! And he got from the start the magician skill tree at master level. Well, he’s a holy magic user. Exactly the best ones to fight undead! And my plan relies on one! Shit, he might win this out… Wait, no. I can still fix this mess. He’s still going to fight an archlich, the difference in stats is so massive that the archlich might off him in one spell!’ Caroline thought as she panicked, seeing how good the equipment made by Sumeragi was.
“Well, at least we killed them. But why are you piling them up, Caroline?” Kanbe said as he looked at the pile of corpses.
“It’s to carry them to the city, so they are processed as materials. Most monsters have alchemical ingredients in their bodies. And these alchemical ingredients can be used for a huge variety of items. And you don’t want to carry them all one by one, right?” Caroline explained while smiling at Kanbe.
“Yeah… Wait. I hope we share the duty. They may have a body akin to a child, but they weight quite a fair bit!” Kanbe said, as he looked worried about having to carry the corpses. ‘Not to count how many diseases we could catch with these monsters…’ Kanbe thought, as he didn’t like the idea of carrying the corpses.
“You won’t make an archbishop have to get dirty with corpses, right? Thanks in advance!” Caroline said as she kept her smile.
As Kanbe saw Caroline’s smile, he knew he didn’t have any choice in that matter, and so carried the bodies on his back as Caroline tied them together on his back. And so both were walking back to the city, with Kanbe suffering as he had to carry the corpses, while Caroline was pondering several faulty parts of her own plan.
‘Most heroes don’t get extra skill trees. Usually killing them in their first day is impossible, you need someone akin to the Head Exorcist or Archbishop, maybe even the Pope, to get close to the hero. In theory, no one can kill the hero at their weakest moment. Which is frequently what leads to the Dark Lords to try to prepare for the powerful hero to come around, and hope to kill them off when they are growing but out of the flawless protection of the countries. This time, I planned to use their desire to acquire people with holy skill trees like Bishop to sneak in and become the Archbishop of the church of Zerax. I am beautiful, smart, and good with healing skills. A perfect healer for the hero party. Ideal for us to eliminate at our leisure the hero, but the old coots known as the Elders of Light have banned me from being in the party as they plan to have the hero marry a few princesses or a nun. Shit. I need to off him with the archlich, another chance like this one won’t happen, and it’s better than having Dad deal with him.’ Caroline thought as she moved with the hero towards the city, trying to find a way to eliminate the hero.
The journey back to Argeares wasn’t that long, as it took only five minutes for both of them to reach the gates of the city, as one of the guards stopped them both from entering the city while it was clear that they were worried due to some sort of incident.
“Halt! We are not carrying corpses inside the city for now. There’s a huge alert in the city, so we will handle the butchering of the corpses and material acquisition.” The guard that stopped the hero and Caroline said, with a worried tone.
“What’s the situation?” Kanbe asked, noticing the tone of the guard.
“A necromancer. Someone reported a necromancer in the caves. But we can’t confirm whether it’s a magic skelly with an uncanny affinity to necromancy, or a non-monster necromancer. If it’s the latter, we might have to call the knights of Zerax to deal with them. A magic skelly is far easier as they are weak to blunt attacks and usually are weaker than the usual necromancer.” The guard replied while looking at Kanbe, clearly worried about the safety of the city.
“I suppose you have a sort of suspicion that it might be a non-monster one because I am around. It’s logical, if those that hate the hero knew that the hero was summoned in this city, they’d go straight to him to off him as soon as he’s training.” Kanbe said as he scratched his chin, considering the situation. ‘It’s not like many people has been allowed to be near me ever since I woke up in the infirmary. I suppose it’s a measure to keep me safe, but that means that they are preparing to transport me to the capital as fast as they can. Or so I hope, who knows what the king is thinking right now. But keeping the hero safe, as being in a city near the capital, is more safe for both me and the citizens of the city.’ Kanbe thought, as he considered the situation carefully.
“Yes, that’s right. Also, there’s a reported missing child. We sent an adventurer, she was a mage and her level was decent to deal with goblins and magic skellies on her own. But she should be back by now, and we haven’t heard anything from her. So this might be enough evidence that it’s a non-monster necromancer.” The guard said as he looked at the archbishop.
“Well, we can scout ahead and check the situation out. If there’s a child in danger, we should go to assist them.” Caroline said with a confident tone, as she smiled at the guard. ‘Perfect! The archlich impatience on getting new workers ended up working to my favor! I just have to guide him and expect to be ambushed by goblins. If the goblins have taken the child, they must be in the cave.’ Caroline thought, as she was excited about this chance to eliminate both the archlich and the hero at once.
“Yeah, it’d be a good chance for training too. I can use holy magic.” Kanbe added, as he considered the situation. ‘If the goblins were this easy to defeat thanks to the equipment, how harder it can be to deal with a skeleton? Also, if my logic works in this world, holy magic should be effective against undead.’ Kanbe thought, pondering his chances against the monsters created by a necromancer, as he remembered that in most stories the necromancers could only raise undead.
“That will be wonderful against undead! But be careful, necromancers can do a lot more than just creating undead. They can create all sorts of monsters, and use defensive spells that withstand far more than normal defense spells. There’s even stories of them using spells that cause instant death.” The guard said with a worried tone.
“Well, the spell known as Holy Aura makes it harder for those spells to work on those who use them. Because I fear that in this city we don’t have holy amulets to prevent instant death spells.” Caroline said as she frowned. ‘Which is awesome! If the archlich uses Putrefaction of the Living, or the instant death spell from the necromancer skill tree, the hero should fall relatively easy.’ Caroline thought to herself.
“I understand, and you are right, archbishop. That’s why we haven’t asked you earlier to go. If any of you two died due to a necromancer we couldn’t capture, the world wouldn’t forgive us. Not to mention that if they manage to defeat the archbishop, we might be next in the line.” The guard said as he crossed his arms.
“Then we better get going to deal with this situation. If necromancers can produce so many sorts of monsters, they can make their own effective army and cause a lot of trouble.” Kanbe said with a serious face. ‘It’d be terrible if people suffered due to our inaction. If I have strength, I might as well use it for good!’ Kanbe thought to himself.
“Oh, thank you so much, dear hero. But shouldn't it be better to leave it to the knights?” The guard said, with worry in his voice.
“Yeah, but who knows how long they’ll take to come and how many reinforcements they'll send if they send any. With so many unknown variables, I believe it's best to try our best for now.” Kanbe replied to the question of the guard while smiling.
“It has its own logic, but… Well, I can trust the archbishop to keep you safe! The necromancer seems to be located in an abandoned cave that used to have Burstinine. But it ran out and with the amount of soldier ants we had there, the mayor chose to block it with a wall and a barrier. But a week ago, it became a dungeon. We couldn't do anything about it with the festival going on, so we contacted the adventurers to deal with it. It was a simple goblin dungeon, so we got novice adventurers coming here.” The guard said, explaining carefully the entire situation.
“But then the necromancer appeared, and you didn't notice because the adventurers sent to the cave died. It won't be too much for us to deal with the dungeon. I need to grab my staff, though.” Caroline said with a worried face.
“Oh, don't worry. I will defend the hero while you go get your staff. No need to worry!” The guard said as he smiled at the archbishop.
Caroline nodded as she left quickly to grab her staff, while Kanbe waited carefully for her to come back while talking a bit with the guard about the country and learning more about the world he was in, as he needed to acquire more information about the world itself to get ready for the quest that he would have to complete in the cave.
***
Inside the cave where the adventurers had disappeared, the archlich’s dungeon, a woman with fair skin, pale emerald eyes, a curvaceous body, waist-length red hair styled in a long ponytail. This woman was wearing a black leather armor with small red pieces of mythril attached to her shoulders and cleavage, leather gauntlets covered in mythril with a massive red orb on each gauntlet attached to the back of her hand, leather boots covered in mythril making it look more like mythril boots, and a black hood that covered her entire body.
It had been 24 hours ever since she entered inside the cave, searching the other members of her party after they were separated by a surprise ambush done by the many goblins that lived in this cave.
And now she was remembering the horrible ambush done by the goblins, which made her shiver in fear.
As a gold rank adventurer, recently risen to that position, she was asked to carry a couple of the underground people to their first quest. She was essentially the leader and the face of the group, as the two underground people were a Reugios male and a Draconid female, and had to guide them to the cave from Argeares.
Reugios were a race of rat-like individuals, vastly different from the rat beastkin, with more rat-like features like a pointed head, prominent ears that were longer than the elves but pointed upwards and were closer to the head, short fur all across their body, their legs were longer, but their feet were slightly bigger than they should be, and had long sharp nails. They were known for their capacity for stealing, inability to learn martial arts, great accuracy even in the dark, good hearing, a lack of beard as they grew whiskers, and an uncanny capability for using scout skills better than any other species.
Draconids, on the other hands, were a sort of genetic mutation caused by mana as a human conceived a child while a dragon fought near the child. It wasn’t know why that happened, but the mana that originated from the dragons interacted with the newborn and mutated them into being humanoid dragons with scales across their body. They didn’t acquire the claws of a dragon nor their wings, but acquired a basic fire breath, the strong scales of a dragon, an uncanny immortal life even beyond what dragons and humans could live, and the senses of a dragon.
Most of them were considered abominations, and treated poorly by both the parents of the child and the dragon that unwillingly turned them into a Draconid, which made them go to the underground.
The underground was the area below the first hundreds of meters below the lowest point of the sea. An area for those creatures created by either mistakes of nature, or those species that couldn’t survive above ground like vampires, and for a select handful of powerful individuals who accepted their life in that area to prevent their power to be vastly misused by an unprepared society.
The Reugios male that walked with the mage was a red-haired one, which meant his fur was of a bright red color, with black eyes with white sclera, and a set of red whiskers that weren’t easily noticeable.
This man was wearing a black leather armor, shoddily made from patches of monster creatures he had hunted in the underground, with scales all over the armor to increase the defense and thickness of the armor while wielding a wooden crossbow with rusted iron pieces which made it look like a massive wooden crossbow with no iron pieces.
Stolen novel; please report.
On his waist, this man was carrying a quiver that carried ten bolts made of wood with an arrowhead made of rusted iron.
The Draconid female was bald, as all Draconids due to their scaly skin, with green eyes, and a scaly green and blue skin, the blue parts showing more on the palm and the navel. She was wearing a thick steel armor, which was a surprise as they were just starting out, as it covered all of her body, and she wielded a long wooden spear with a long and thin spearhead which was longer than the average spearhead and thinner.
The red-haired woman had guided both into the cave, and had dealt with the quest givers as the villagers didn’t like the Reugios nor the Draconid, while ensuring that the Reugios used his scout skills to seek the child. Their quest was rescuing the missing child, not to fight goblins, and so they would enter inside the cave to look for the child but avoid any confrontation with the goblins.
While they could defeat the goblins effortlessly, fighting an entire community of goblins would lead them to use more resources than they should to and probably lose any hope to save up money with the meager quest reward, and they wouldn’t be able to comfortably butcher the monsters to sell their alchemical ingredients while seeking the child.
As the group was seeking the child, they found a wooden totem that looked like a goblin’s head with an elven head just below it, a skeleton head below the elven head, and a rock just below the skeleton head.
“Weird, this sort of totem. Do you think there’s a Totemic Warrior in this cave? You know, a goblin with that skill tree. It’s quite the useless skill tree, but one fitting for a goblin.” The Reugios said while smirking.
“It probably is just a sort of religious place to pray, Raham. But be quiet, the goblins can hear us and understand us. It’s not like fighting any weak monster like a slime.” The Draconid said as she looked around.
“I know, Kieli. But I am not sensing any of them here. And the lack of traps is apparent. I suppose that this community hasn’t started preparing yet. Which allows us to seek the child more comfortably.” Raham retorted as he looked around, while circulating his mana.
“Miss May, I am glad you could use a potion that granted you sight in the dark. They work better than any spell, and work for a longer time. But this quest won’t give you much money.” Kieli said as she smiled at the red-haired woman.
“Yes, but the babysitting quest will give me enough money to cover the costs, and still have some coin to spare. Just enough quests until you can find a proper team, which will be soon, and then I can focus on my own sort of quest.” May said while looking around.
“Yeah. After this quest, I am sure we are getting a good reward! Maybe a rank up!” Raham said excitedly.
As the adventurers kept moving, they didn’t notice any sort of steps until a loose arrow struck Kieli’s head. The arrow rebounded, as it was a crude arrow made with stone and wood, without causing any damage to the spear wielding woman.
“Ambush! The goblins are ambushing us!” Kieli exclaimed as she looked around for the goblin that attacked her, only to see that they were surrounded by a horde of goblins wearing chainmail with some thick leather armors who wielded bows.
“We should have gotten a tank to the team, Kieli! A mage and a ranger without a tank in this situation is equal to having two soon-to-be dead!” Raham exclaimed as he shot a bolt at one of the goblins in the head.
“Fire Wave!” May said as flames came out of her left hand as she aimed at the goblins in the back, opening a path between the horde to run away.
Raham and Kieli saw the chance and ran away faster than May could, and left the cave as soon as they could to gain the high-ground, as the cave’s entrance was a diagonal entrance to the mine.
May tried to run away too, as the horde was effectively 300 goblins all at once trying to shoot her, but the inclined ground proved her demise. A slippery slope, the fact that the area was humid, and a human running with all her speed to escape some goblins made a dangerous combination, as the humidity formed a thin layer of ice on the slope.
As May slipped and fell to the ground, dooming herself as the goblins were close enough to attack her at once, she located a hole with enough space for her to run away from the goblins if she managed to slide inside the hole.
“Dammit!” May exclaimed as she slid through the hole, and used it to escape the goblin horde for a while.
From there on out, it was a harsh day as she fell to the depths of the cave and saw the archlich. She had to eat some rations to satiate her hunger, but also had to hide from the goblins while trying to locate the child and run away from the archlich.
She was a gold rank adventurer, but an archlich was way beyond her pay grade, and she had enough experience to know that fighting an archlich without a cleric or an exorcist was suicidal.
‘This is the job for a Ruby or Emerald rank adventurer! Archliches are the strongest magic casters of all the undead type monsters! And most of them hold the Dungeon Maker skill tree… Oh crap, that means this cave is a Gold rank dungeon minimum. Yeah, not going to complete it on my own. I need to report it, and find the child. But for that, I need to secure the exit. The two novices I was carrying won’t be able to enter the city and ask for reinforcements, unless they go to the underground. And even if they go to the underground, the noble vampires might as well attack them. Elstivia is just above the noble vampire lands, so yeah: Best to consider that I need to find the kid and run away by my lonesome.’ May thought as she took a deep breath.
From there on out, until the moment in which May was now, the mage had moved to the different areas of the cave trying to locate the missing child while carefully taking out lonely goblin guards as she wrote an entire report on all the operation the archlich was carrying out. She found massive forges that would be as big as a house, in which the goblins smelted all the iron they found.
These forges were surrounded by anvils in which female goblins hammered the smelted iron, as they tried to turn it into spearheads or swords, while the male ones trained with the crafted spears and swords.
‘They are preparing for something big, but why would an archlich bother preparing the goblins so much… Well, best to keep my head low. Kill them one by one, slowly, and try to not catch the attention of the archlich. Find the boy, run away, report it, get the knights of Zerax to come here. This is way beyond what an adventurer can do on their own.’ May thought as she kept searching for the kid, while eliminating over 30 goblins without attracting any sort of attention to herself.
But this would change soon, as the archlich started noticing her moves and started teleporting around the cave to locate May. This made May have to hide, and go towards the dormitory area in the deepest part of the dungeon.
Inside the dormitory area, she found countless beds made of stone in which goblin babies were sleeping while a young boy with short black hair, blue eyes, slightly tanned skin with a few scars made by a whip.
This boy was wearing a torn up gray short dress and a pair of gray flats, as it was clear that the goblins had stripped him of any belonging he could carry that could be enchanted as a sort of tracker, while he kept an eye on the goblin babies.
“Finally found you. I suppose you are the kid that was missing for two days now. What happened to you?” Mia said as she smiled at the kid.
“The goblins caught me while I was going to fetch some firewood to help out my mom… But then the skeleton mage took off my clothes, and got a weird goblin to check my inventory to pull out everything I had. I didn’t have much, but I had a teleporting stone in case I found some wild dogs. Then the skeleton mage gave me this dress and the flats, while talking about how fitting it was for a caretaker. I tried to escape before, but that mage caught me before I could get away.” The boy replied Mia’s question, while sobbing at each stop, as he was clearly suffering from this situation.
“I see. At least you managed to survive. Do you know where the goblins took your items?” Mia said as she hugged the boy.
“It’s besides the forge room. But it’s impossible to get through so many goblins. Not with the archlich around. He notices the deaths of his goblins, but now he is more prone to check out the situation. I saw a flying book talking with the archlich, and telling him to speed up.” The boy replied once more, still sobbing, but clearly calmer now that he had been found by an adventurer.
“Okay, we can rush inside the area where the teleport stone is. We just need to grab it, activate it, and then we will be out of the dungeon. Mine is kept by my companions, who ran away as they had to face a horde of 300 goblins, so we clearly need yours to escape. I don’t think the archlich will be near the forge now, but probably will be checking the entrance and any exit I don’t know of.” Mia said, as she released the boy from her hug.
“Yeah, but I can’t run away. The moment I get out of this room, something goes wrong in my head. I get confused and find myself back to the room. Which is why I didn’t try to escape any longer.” The boy said as he looked worriedly at the goblin babies.
“Hm. Also, it’s safer you stay here until I get the teleport stone. I don’t think you can handle goblins. Slimes? Maybe. But not goblins. They are smarter and cunning.” Mia said as she turned to the door.
“Well, good luck, miss! Thank you so much!” The boy said as he smiled at Mia.
“Thanks. I will be back soon.” Mia said as she left the room, and started moving to the forge room.
Now Mia had a perfect plan for her daring escape, and she could save the missing boy from the clutches of the archlich. It was quite risky, as facing an archlich was clearly a no-go for Mia, but she could escape and even get an extra reward for rescuing the child if she could find the teleport stone, go back to the boy, and teleport away. But there was a big danger to consider: The archlich probably was enraged by her goblin slaying, and so he’d probably try to seek her out as quickly as possible, which meant that she had to be extremely careful.
Mia Status:
Race: Human.
Gender: Female
Age: 18 years old
Height: 1 meter and 60 centimeters.
Three sizes: 95-63-90
Cup size: E
Likes: Learning magic, looking cute, freedom, cheesecake, money, helping out in the orphanage.
Dislikes: Politicians, corruption, hypocritical people, slavers.
Level: 40
STATS:
HP: 22000/22000
MP: 20000/20000
STR: 1
VIT: 200
INT: 200
DEX: 200
AGI: 200
Magic affinity: Dark Magic, Earth magic, Fire Magic.
Skill affinity: Trickster, Magician, Blacksmith, Merchant, Craftsman, Wizard, Alchemist, Astrologer.
Job:Adventurer.
Skills:
Wizard (Master):
Wizard's blessing: The user's magic skills are a 20% stronger.
Grand Magician's Regeneration: The mana regeneration base speed becomes 10 MP/second instead of 1MP/minute.
Wizard Channeling: The casting speed of the user's spells doubles.
Wizard Extra Chanting: The user can cast two times the amount of spells they should be able to.
Mana Bolt: Active, 1 MP. The user shoots a bolt made of mana, which can go through physical defenses but deals a rather small amount of damage. It can get stopped by barriers made by mana or by anti-magic fields.
Heavy Mana Bolt: Active, 10 MP. The user shoots a reinforced mana bolt that goes through physical defenses and deals a moderate amount of damage. It can pierce barriers.
Mana Decoy: Active, 25 MP. The user can leave a decoy made of mana, that is a foul mimicry of life, and gets eliminated rather quickly.
Mana Sound: Active, 100 MP. The user creates a clear sound in an area that is 300 meters away from the user. This sound acts as a diversion to lure the enemies away from the user.
Homing mana bolts: Active, 50 MP. The user can leave small clumps of mana that will be turned into mana bolts. These bolts will follow and try to hit anyone who gets in an area of 50 meters near the clump of mana. The bolts won't deal much damage, but these bolts slow down those they hit.
Enhanced Flesh: Active, 1000 MP. The user can enhance their body to block physical attacks easily and run fast for a moderate amount of time.
Mana Reparation: Active, 5000 MP. The user can repair any item to its optimal state.
Magician (Master):
Magic Knowledge: Passive. Allows the use of magic.
Magician's soul: Passive. All spells cast by the user are a 20% stronger.
Magic control: Passive. All spells are cast 10% faster. Some can even be used without chanting.
Magic modification: Passive. The spells can be modified to give them new effects and change the way they are used.
Chantless: Passive. The minor spells will be automatically cast without even saying the name of the spell and the user only has to think in the spell and the adept spells only will have to be chanted entirely when using magic modification.
Fire Magic:
Fire bullet: Active, 1 MP. The user can shoot a small bullet of fire.
Fireball: Active, 2 MP. The user shoots a ball of fire.
Firebolt: Active, 5 MP. The user shoots a bolt of fire that explodes upon touch.
Fire Wave: Active, 10 MP. The user casts a wave of fire that goes to the target.
Ignite: Active, 1 MP. Sets something on fire.
Blazing Sun: Active, 25 MP. The user creates a ball of fire that burns with the heat of a sun.
Fiery Salvo: Active, 12 MP. The user creates several spell circles that shoot giant fireballs.
Flame Flash: Active, 25 MP. The user shoots a wave of flames out of his hand.
Fire Guard: Active, 5 MP. The user creates an aura that will protect the user from the flames and burn anyone who comes too close to the caster.
Flare of destruction: Active, 35 MP. The user can create an explosion of flames where he/she aims in an area of 100 meters.
Fire Bomb: Active, 35 MP. The user shoots a ball of fire that explodes upon contact.
Pyro Storm: Active, 55 MP. The user casts a storm of fire that burns everything around 3 kilometers.
Supernova: Active, 76 MP. The user creates a small sun that will explode with the strength of a supernova. Range: 500 meters.
Meteor: Active, 100 MP. The user shoots a small fireball that grows while it is flying to the size of a meteor. Range: 2 kilometers.
Flame empower: Active, 0 MP. The user can add the fire element to any other spell.
Dark Magic:
Dark smoke: Active, 1 MP. The user shoots dark smoke to cover his whereabouts.
Curse: Active, 3 MP. The user curses the target and causes ailments like poison, blindness, and sleep.
Lethargy: Active, 5 MP. The user makes the target be slower and less powerful.
Greater curse: Active, 6 MP. The user curses the target and causes ailments like petrification, degradation (high-level poisoning that makes the body degrade until it breaks if it is not treated) and bleeding.
Dark Vision: Active, 1 MP. Grants the user the ability to see through darkness.
Dark Chains: Active, 10 MP. The user can create chains made of darkness that will stop the target.
Dark bullet: Active, 5 MP. The user shoots dark element bullets that will hurt and pierce the target.
Dark Embrace: Active, 20 MP. The user can curse the target and cause instant death. It takes a long time to make it work.
Dark Envoy: Active, 5 MP. The user creates a dark elemental who will deliver messages.
Dark eye: Active, 30 MP. It forces the enemy to do what the user orders.
Dark Aura: Pinnacle spell, 0 MP. The user can add the dark element to any other spell.
Astrologer (Master):
Astral Sight: The user can see that which goes beyond the mortal realm, allowing them to see those that hide in the astral plane.
Astrologer’s Wisdom: The user’s mana control is higher than the average due to the wisdom acquired from astrology, and the astrologer is more proficient with the staff or the wand.
Vitality of those touched by Mana: The user gains 1000 HP per every 10000 MP they have.
Starry Might: The user’s magic power is higher than the average due to the blessing of the stars.
Astral Shot: Active, 5 MP. The user fires a magic projectile made of raw mana from their staff or wand.
Astral Stars: Active, 7 MP. The user shoots four weak magic projectiles made of raw mana from their staff or wand. If the user has a target in their mind, these projectiles will pursue the target until they hit and upon contact will crystallize inside the target and deal damage.
Guiding Starlight: Active, 9 MP. The user creates a cluster of crystallized mana that floats near them and illuminates the path. If the user has a target or objective in mind, the cluster will float guiding the way to said target or objective. That said, be mindful that the cluster will not notice walls nor barriers that impede the pass.
Greater Astral Shot: Active, 10 MP. The user fires a larger than the Astral Shot projectile made of raw mana from their staff or wand.
Astral Comet: Active, 25 MP. The user fires a grand projectile of mana that resembles the shape of a comet, but pierces through opponents and only explodes upon touching the ground. Once it explodes, the raw mana crystallizes and can engulf those that are near the ground inside the mana crystal formed from this spell.
Astral Spiral: Active, 30 MP. The user fires a twin projectile of raw mana that crystallizes the mana of the area they traverse until they hit an obstacle. Once the projectiles hit, they crystallize and become a cluster of mana crystals.
Golden Stars: Active, 100 MP. The user creates a cluster of golden mana that explodes in thousands of small projectiles that fall upon an area of 1 kilometer of distance, which crystallize upon touching a target or the ground. This leaves an area filled with amber mana crystals and each projectile deals moderate damage. Pinnacle spell.
Sho Status:
Race: Elf.
Gender: Male
Age: 50 years old (18 years old in human terms).
Height: 1 meter and 65 centimeters.
Likes: Taking care of his equipment, freedom, remembering the peaceful days, his equipment, loyal people, Rei.
Dislikes; Anything related with Zerax, Zerax, corruption, hypocritical people, slavers, conspiracies.
Level: 50
STATS:
HP: 50000/50000
MP: 20000/20000
STR: 300
VIT: 400
INT: 200
DEX: 600
AGI: 500
Magic affinity: Enhancing magic, Basic Magic, Dark Magic.
Skill affinity: Blacksmith, Spell Warrior, Alchemy, Technomancy, Assassin, Ninja, Seeker, Chef.
Job: Member of the Arcane Hero’s Party.
Special skills:
Gift of Zerax (Status Points): As being chosen as one of the members of an assisting hero’s party, Zerax grants the user twice the amount of status points they’d normally have.
Skills:
Seeker (Master):
Seeker’s Sight: The user can use a special kind of sight that detects mana, which allows the user to detect the spells that are being used.
Seeker’s Mind: The user is immune to mind manipulation effects, illusions, and charms. Also increases the user’s reflexes a 30%.
Seeker’s Light: The user can look inside dimly lit areas without any issue.
Seeking: Active, 40 MP. The user uses mana to improve their eyesight, to locate items and traps that otherwise wouldn’t be found.
Target Seeking: Active, 50 MP. The user can locate a target they clearly know of, by enhancing their senses with mana, in a range of 400 meters. This also allows them to hear any conversation said target is having while they are inside the range of the skill.
Trail Target: Active, 70 MP. Allows the user to detect the target as long as they have something that can give a trail of the target.
Decoy Detection: Active, 70 MP. The user can release a bit of mana to confirm that what they are sensing is not a decoy.
Seeker’s Recovery: Active, 90 MP. The user can use mana to restore an 8% of their total HP, but takes a long time to fully take effect.
Mana Seeking: Active, 100 MP. The user can use mana to seek a specific target in an area of 200 meters, while also showing the different sources of mana around the area. Pinnacle skill.
Assassin (Master):
Mastery in daggers: Increases the damage caused by daggers and short swords and the ability to wield them.
Night Stealth: Allows the user to be unseen while he/she is in the shadows.
Night Vision: Allows the user to see in the shadows.
Ash Corpses: The corpses of those that the user kills may be turned into ash if the user desires so.
Mastery in throwing daggers: The user can throw daggers and their damage is greatly increased.
Assassin Sense: Active, 1 MP per second. The user can see through walls and can track down a target of the user choice.
Stealth step: Active, 2 MP. The user can teleport anywhere in a 10 meters area.
Double stab: Active, 5 MP. The user can stab a target two times and the damage caused is increased a 50%.
Execution: Active, 20 MP. The user may execute an enemy who cannot move or has not detected the user.
Shadow double: Active, 35 MP. The user creates a double that can be used to kill a target or to distract people.
Gatling throw: Active, 45 MP. The user throws several daggers to different directions and can bend the directions of the daggers.
Execution drive: Active, 100 MP. The user can execute several targets at the same time and turns himself or herself invisible.
Chef (Master):
Ingredient Knowledge: Passive. Allows the user to recognize several ingredients, and knows which are edible and which aren't.
Utensil Knowledge: Passive. Allows the user to understand what any cooking utensil does.
Mechanical Movement: Passive. The user moves more efficiently while cooking, allowing him/her to be losing less stamina while cooking.
Mental Cooking Training: Passive. The user has more resistance towards mental fatigue, which makes him/her be able to think faster in the recipes.
Cooking: Active, 5 MP. The user can use mana to manipulate several items while cooking, allowing him/her to do several steps at the same time.
Heating Up: Active, 2 MP. The user can use mana to raise the temperature in an oven or an item used for cooking.
Multiple Recipes Progression: Active, 20 MP. The user can do several recipes at the same time, but it's extremely strenuous for the mind.
Detoxification of food: Active, 30 MP. The user can take out the poison in some foods.
Alchemist (Master):
Knowledge of medicinal and poisonous herbs: The user can recognize the plants that are good to use for medical use and the ones that are used to make poison.
Knowledge of medicinal properties: The user can recognize all the items that can be used to make items to heal people.
Synthesis: Active, 5 MP. The user can merge several items using different methods to create an item. The user needs to have the equipment to do it.
Mass Synthesis: Active, 50 MP. The user can merge huge amounts of materials using different methods to create an item. The user needs to have the equipment to do it.
Decompose: Active, 5 MP. The user can decompose anything as long as he/she can touch it.
Mass Decompose: Active, 50 MP. The user can decompose vast amounts of anything as long as he/she can touch it.
Restore: Active, 5 MP. The user can restore things that have been damaged but needs materials similar to what has been lost. For example, an arm lost would need meat, calcium and lots of time.
Alchemistry of terrain: Active, 20 MP. The user can modify the terrain using his ability.
Alchemical Eye: Active, 0 MP. The user can recognize anything and be capable of reproducing it.
Ninja (Master):
Presence suppression: Makes the user harder to be detected by anyone, allies included.
Hunting Eyes: The user can find tracks faster than normal people. Also allows to detect trails like blood trails.
Tool Mastery: The user can repair tools with enough materials, and their accuracy while using tools increases.
Grand Ninja Sensing: The user’s mana sensitivity is greatly enhanced, so enhanced they can see the magic traps clearly.
Grand Ninja Blade Skills: The user can use more efficiently the ninja sword, and so increases their speed to wield them.
Death Absorption: Active, 0 MP. After killing an opponent, the user can absorb the mana that the dead has and use it to replenish their own mana pool. This said, the skill takes a few minutes to work and if hit while doing so… The damage will be critical and will paralyze the user for half a minute.
Ninja Evasion: Active, 5 MP. The user can avoid an attack really fast, even when they are in the middle of the air. That said, this won’t help them avoid spells that target the user specifically, like Guided Bolt.
Ninja tool Precise Throw: Active, 10 MP. The user can throw a ninja tool in such a precise way, there’s a high chance of them hitting a fly with them.
Precise Throw: Active, 25 MP. The user can throw any item in a really precise way, less precise than the ninja tool throw skill, but it takes a few seconds to fully function.
Hearing Boost: Active, 10 MP/Second. The user can enhance their hearing in order to hear conversations from 100 meters away.
Ghost Walk: Active, 15 MP/Minute. The user can walk without making noise, and without being detected.
Sky Jump: Active, 50 MP. The user can jump midair, and at least up enough to reach to a third floor.
Concealment of the Ninja: Active, 20 MP. The user can conceal their position, but can’t move while using this skill.
Flesh Cutter: Active, 30 MP. A quick slash that is shallow, but can cause a grevious wound that can’t be healed with normal means.
Shadow Slash: Active, 40 MP. Pinnacle skill. A fast slash, aimed at the back to ensure that the target can’t move.