When Nulla woke up, he checked his stuff and headed out into the woods. He was soon lost. He has no idea where the goblins were, or where he was. Rechecking his skill list, he saw [Town Spanning Vision.]. Activating it for as little time as possible, Nulla peaked into a cave northeast of him and saw around 30 goblins inside. Hurrying over, Nulla reused [Town Spanning Vision]. Noticing the reduced cost, likely from being closer, Nulla counted the number of goblins. 28, 5 non-combatants. Nulla decided to wait. And wait. And wait. And wait.
After many hours, 15 goblins left. Nulla watched and assessed their strength before a popup appeared before his eyes.
Hunter goblins
Species: Goblin
Class: Hunter (Common)
Level: 4 ~ 6
Skills:
* Trap making (Uncommon)
* Presence hiding (Rare)
* Bow skill (Common)
* Spear skill (Common)
* Mana infusion (Uncommon)
* Enhanced senses (Uncommon)
* Enhanced danger sense (Uncommon)
Name: Garr the Hunter
Species: Hobgoblin
Class: Veteran Hunter (Uncommon)
Level: 15
Skills:
* Quality Trap making (Rare)
* Quality Presence hiding (Super rare)
* Quality Bow skill (Uncommon)
* Quality Spear skill (Uncommon)
* Quality mana infusion (Rare)
* Highly enhanced senses (Rare)
* Highly enhanced danger sense (Rare)
“The group's [Assessment], and the leader. Perfect,” Nulla smiled before time stopping to strike.
Cleaving through the frontline, Nulla unfroze time after slaying all but 5 goblins.
Shocked, Garr quickly regrouped the remaining hunters and charged. Garr and two others charged with glowing spears, while the remaining two prepared glowing arrows.
Parrying a goblin's spear, Nulla felt the power within. It was much like the energy he used for time stop. Retreating out of the way, the bow goblins shot at Nulla, who dodged by stopping time for a moment and charged at them. The three spear goblins wouldn’t let him though, and surrounded him quickly. Nodding towards each other, they struck in unison. Unfortunately for them, they’re against a god, even if they’re limiting themself to on par with a summoned. Freezing time, Nulla beheaded them all in a single twirl, followed by stepping out the spear paths and continuing time. With such an overwhelming display of power, the archers dropped to the ground. With one final swing, they joined their comrades.
With the battle over, Nulla extracted the cores and stored the bodies in his backpack, thinking the bodies might have some other use. With the goblin forces halfway destroyed, Nulla headed back to the cave.
As Nulla walked, he tried feeling his mana. Finding a large pool, slowly refilling. Wanting to be topped up before battle, he looked for where the mana was coming from. After a bit of looking, Nulla found it was being absorbed from both the environment and being created by his soul. Even with the [Limiter] skill, his soul created mana.
Outside of the cave, Nulla checked the situation again, and finding no abnormalities, got to work making his soul produce mana faster while still under the limiter.
In moments, at most half a minute, Nulla’s mana was full again. As Nulla took a step forward, Nulla began to think. Is there anything else he could do to prepare?
He thought of two things to do: [Inspect] the goblins, and test infusing his sword with mana. Grabbing his mana, Nulla brought it into his sword, where he felt it growing stronger. Strangely, the remaining mana in his arm made his arm feel stronger.
Decided to learn more later, Nulla inspected the goblins.
Name: Gobka
Species: Goblin
Class: King (Super rare)
Level: 7
Skills:
* Moral boost (Uncommon)
* Strength boost (Rare)
* Commanding (Uncommon)
* Strategy (Uncommon)
* Ruler (Super rare)
Goblin mages
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Species: Goblin
Class: Mage (Uncommon)
Level: 5 ~ 7
Skills:
* Mana manipulation (Uncommon£
* Fire mana (Common)
* Earth mana (Common)
* Ignite (Common)
* Fireball (Uncommon)
* Soften earth (Common)
* Pitfall (Uncommon)
* Ruler’s magic (Rare)
Species: Goblin
Class: Knight (Rare)
Level: 6 ~ 7
Skills:
* Shield skill (Common)
* Sword skill (Common)
* Armor skill (Common)
* Defend (Uncommon)
* Parry (Uncommon)
* Mana infusion (Uncommon)
* Ruler’s shield (Uncommon)
* Ruler's sword (Uncommon)
* Status up (Rare)
* Mana razor wind (Rare)
“Less, but higher individual power. Plus the [Ruler] stuff likely means they’ll get buffed. I’ll assassinate the king, and sweep through the rest of them.”
Time stopping, Nulla ran with mana-infused legs and pierced the king's heart.
Unfreezing time, Nulla spun on his toes and charged towards the mages. While shocked, they quickly begin to cast a spell. As Nulla swung, a knight swooped in and blocked the strike. The other knights quickly filed in as well, and they all formed into a well-defended party.
“Isn’t support also something? I mean the king does buffs, but do they not have healers? Wait, they’re goblins. They’re pretty weak and low in numbers. Healing is a pretty uncommon magic, so I guess it makes sense,” Nulla thought, using the common party knowledge he saw when he used his [World Spanning Sight].
Unaware of what he was thinking, the mages flung a fireball and made a hole underneath Nulla. Easily dodging both of them with time stop, Nulla was stopped by three of the knights, with the remaining two each guarding a mage.
Nulla kept dodging the enemies, watching the mages work their magic. They gathered mana in their staff, where it grew more potent. Not as potent as Nulla mana, but maybe D grade from their F grade. After increasing the quality, they did something to make it fire or earth mana, where they then cast a spell somehow.
Having seen enough, Nulla checked his mana capacity. It was shockingly full, although Nulla soon realised it was his soul generated more mana passively now. With a smile, Nulla stopped time one last time.
With the enemies stopped mid-attack, Nulla could easily cut their throats and decapitated the mages. With them all decimated, Nulla unfroze time.
They all fell in unison, with Nulla looking at the non-combatants, frozen inside their homes. Nulla wondered as he looked at them, if he should spare them. Deciding it would be unfair, he quickly slew them.
With all 28 goblins slain, Nulla got to work. Harvest the cores, store the bodies, and search for goblin grass. Finding a garden behind the throne, Nulla [Inspected] the grass to find it was goblin grass. Quickly harvesting it and throwing it in the bag, Nulla headed back to the guild.
∅∅∅
Waiting in line, Nulla tried to figure out what the mages did. They gathered mana, converted it somehow, and then made it into a spell. How? Deciding to try inputting his thoughts, the mana quickly became flame mana. With another thought, it became a bracelet of flame. With one final thought, the mana dissipated.
“Excuse me, are you new?” A voice behind Nulla called. Turning, Nulla saw them clothed in standard mage attire, although with a wand instead of a staff. “You don’t need to convert mana separately from casting the spell. You can do it simultaneously.”
Trying the advice, it turned out to be correct.
“Thank you. What’s your name?”
“Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Anna, a rank B adventurer of the party Heros of Alreast. You are?”
“Nulla. Is this town named Alreast?”
“Yes, are you new in town? Are you a summoned by any chance?”
“Kind of. I never met a god, I just was here.”
“Would you like to join? Your mana quality is great, and your equipment is pretty good as well.”
“No, I’m fine. Thank you for the offer though,” was the last thing Nulla replied, before talking to the receptionist to finish his quests.
As Nulla turned in the Mana cores, the receptionist paled and asked if he saw a goblin king. Nulla pulled out the goblin king core and told them yes. When the receptionist saw it, they froze.
“What grade are you?”
“E. Do I get to rank up?!” Nulla asked, not even hiding his excitement.
“Normally, this requires a D rank party, or a C rank to solo, but it appears to be around level 8. I can only promote you to D.”
“Good enough!” Nulla replied, sliding his card over to promote. When that finished, and he was handed his money, Nulla practically skipped back to the inn.
When Nulla sat down, a list of notifications appeared.
Skills gained: Parry (Uncommon), Dodge (Uncommon), Mana generation (Divine), Mana infusion (Uncommon), Mana vision (Super rare), Mana manipulation (Uncommon), Mana conversion (Rare), Quick casting (Uncommon)
You are now level 6
“I guess I did a lot today…” Nulla said, before tucking himself into bed and sleeping.