The blue goblin charged with a speed incomparable to the monsters before. As it slashed down at Jaimie, the latter fell stomach first on the ground to dodge it. It then reversed its grip and stabbed downwards before the young boy rolled out of the way.
With one quick push off the ground, Jaimie stood up and dashed at the monster that towered a foot over him. However, just as he reached its attack ranged, he noticed the shift in its shoulder and immediately stopped. The edge of the goblin’s blade passed right in front of his eyes and slightly cut the bridge of his nose. However, Jaimie’s eyes were like that of a beast. He did not waver or hesitate, he instantly charged in just as the blade passed him.
The monster shrieked in pain as the young boy stabbed it three times in the chest before jumping back out.
With the monster now wounded, Jaimie slowly walked around it in circles. Soon, his speed picked up steam and the blue goblin could barely keep an eye on him. In a fit of rage, the goblin charged at where it predicted Jaimie would be by calculating his speed. However, it did not think that he could accelerate even faster.
For a second, Jaimie turned into a blur as he changed directions and dashed at the monster from its side. Just as the goblin slashed the air behind him, the young man jumped and grabbed it in a chokehold. With a quick slash, blood splurted everywhere and the blue goblin’s head rolled on the ground.
With their leader killed, the three tall goblins looked at Jaimie in fear; to them, he was truly the spawn of the devil. Without a spare thought, they split up and ran away in different directions.
“Damn, you were cold. Good job, Jaimie!” Robb walked toward the young boy with a big smile on his face. He was truly proud of what Jaimie had just accomplished.
“Really?” The young boy’s eyes fluctuated between Robb and Roy, before stopping at the latter. “Did I do good?”
“Yes, you did. You were amazing,” Roy replied with a smile on his face. He was thankful that he did not have to go in and interfere in the boy’s fight.
Jaimie put his hands in the air and shouted in joy, “Ahh, that’s great! Does that mean I can continue staying with you?”
The young man nodded and Jaimie made happy noises while running around. Roy covered his face with his hand and shook his head at the boy’s antics, while Robb looked at him with interest.
“Hey, Jaimie. Come here for a second, I wanna ask you something.”
“Ask me anything.” Jaimie bobbed his head left and right with a big smile plastered on his face.
“Yeah, sorry to sour the mood, but… How the hell did you not get scared when fighting that many goblins? And how did you get so good too?”
Jaimie’s smile turned weak after Robb’s question. “I… I was scared, it’s just that I didn’t want to mess up because I got scared. So I just said to myself that I’m not gonna feel scared, and did not think about it after.”
Robb opened his eyes wide in surprise at the young boy’s words before furrowing his eyebrows, “but still, you haven’t fought in so long. How were you so good?”
“No, I did fight. I fought a lot!” Jaimie retorted with a displeased expression on his face.
Robb tilted his head and raised an eyebrow in doubt. “So, when did you have these fights?”
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“When I was sleeping on the bed.” Jaimie’s eyes looked down and his whole body shivered as he reminisced. “Goblins just kept appearing in front of me. When I kill one, another one would appear, and I would need to fight again. Even when they killed me, I would come back again and fight them. It just did not stop!”
Jaimie’s voice became weak and barely audible at the end. “That… that was more scary.”
Roy put his hand on Jaimie’s head and scratched his hair, before embracing him by the shoulder. “It’s okay, we’re gonna be with you now.”
Jaimie whimpered and nodded his head on Roy’s chest, but he did not cry. He clenched his hands and teeth before looking up with resolute eyes. “Yes, I will continue fighting with you guys. I will even fight those ogres too, I’m not scared!”
Robb clapped and nodded at Jaimie’s declaration. “Wow, so you wanna join us in fighting ogres? Interesting. What do you say, Roy? You think he can manage?”
Roy looked down at Jaimie, who was looking at him with the usual hopeful puppy eyes, and shrugged his shoulders. “Sure, but that’s if you can get a hit in before Robb just decapitates them in seconds.”
“I can do it, I’m fast too!”
With those words from Jaimie, the trio continued hunting throughout the day. Whenever they would meet a pack or horde of goblins, they would leave it to the young boy unless he was too overwhelmed with numbers. There was no use for them to kill the lower-ranked creatures as they mattered little for their stat updates, which was a great boon for Jaimie who could collect all the kills. When it came to ogre hunting, Roy and Robb exchanged turns, and whoever’s turn it was used the Moonlight Katana. That way, they were both able to hunt effectively, while Jaimie helped them from the side.
By the end of the day, both Roy and Robb killed 11 ogres each, while Jaimie managed to sneak in two kills. As for the number of goblins that the young boy hunted, it was in the hundreds.
After finishing their hunt, the trio went to the marketplace where Lorenz’s smithy was. When they reached the workshop, they found Marth and his group guarding the place. Clark, Gerald, Godwin, and Peter had all become visibly stronger and commanded more presence. Peter, especially, had a killer look in his eyes that was much different from his scaredy-cat appearance just two days ago.
“I like the look in their eyes,” Robb commented from the side.
“How was the day, Marth? Any improvements?” Roy walked toward the knight captain with a smile on his face.
“It was quite good,” Marth replied with a proud expression. “They all passed the test and killed seven goblins on their own.”
Roy looked at the group with impressed eyes. “Good work, all of you. You have now become actual fighters.”
Gerald, the black-bearded middle-aged man, let out a chuckle at Roy’s praise. “It’s nothing. We would have been a sore sight if we couldn’t deal with just goblins when you boys are going around slaying ogres.”
Clark, who was sharpening his sword with a whetstone, turned around to face Roy and his group, “Tomorrow we will join you. We’re going to hunt ogres too.”
Roy looked at the blond young man with pleased eyes. Ever since the start, he was the one who showed the most grit and talent among the volunteers, so he had always kept an eye on him.
“Well, if you do a good show tomorrow, there will be an opportunity for you to become much stronger.”
The whole group looked at him with interested eyes. Even Marth gave him a confused look at the mention of an opportunity.
“What kind of opportunity is it?” Peter broke out of his silence and asked.
Roy smiled at the young boy who was around Jaimie’s age. “The kind where you need to be strong enough to get the reward, or else you’re killed.”
The young man’s words created a tense atmosphere. Everyone looked at each other with wary eyes at the mention of the probability of dying.
At this sight, Roy let out a hearty laugh. “Well, this is not the time nor the place to talk about this. Just remember to properly train and hunt if you want to become strong enough.”
Robb shook his head at his friend’s speech before mumbling under his breath, “You really like to get under their skin, don’t you?”
Roy heard Robb’s whispers and winked at him before going inside the smithy. He found Lorenz hammering away at a piece of metal, giving it the shape of a spike. After a few minutes of clanking noise, he put the hot piece of iron inside a bucket of water and took it out after it was properly tempered and hardened.
Finally, Lorenz noticed the presence of Roy next to him and turned. “Great, you came at the perfect time.”