"GET DOWN!"
Damian’s shout had barely left his mouth when his staff snapped toward Clara.
The young Cleric had heard the warning, but hearing an ambush and reacting correctly to one were two entirely different things.
Her eyes widened as the blackened arrow tore between the trees!
Damian acted first, casting <Mage Armor>!
"Macte Virtute!"
One of his Level 1 Spell Slots vanished as golden magical light erupted around Clara’s body, forming a translucent protective layer less than a heartbeat before the arrow struck!
BANG!
Clara cried out as the impact threw her sideways, but the arrow failed to penetrate.
The black energy wrapped around its shaft burst violently against <Mage Armor> before the projectile ricocheted away and buried itself in the soil.
That single failed attack snapped the entire party into motion.
Owen surged forward immediately, planting his three-pronged tower shield between the forest and the three backliners.
Marcus though, moved differently.
Rather than crowd behind Owen, the Fighter dashed toward a thick silver-barked tree and used it as cover, sword already drawn as his eyes searched for anything attempting to flank them.
Lena rushed to Clara, seized the smaller woman beneath one arm and dragged her several meters backward toward Damian.
"What the hell was that?!" Lena demanded.
Clara looked more embarrassed than injured. "I-I didn’t even see it!"
Damian did not answer yet, as something deeper in the forest shrieked, then came words.
"Boys, the pink skins are before us! Kill the men so we can feast on their flesh, and bring the women back for the Chief to have some fun!" a guttural voice roared triumphantly.
Damian’s expression darkened.
His companions merely heard barbaric screeching.
Damian understood every disgusting word courtesy of <Valorian Overworld Language>.
A dozen answering cheers exploded throughout the trees that were shrill, vulgar, and hungry, their silhouettes stepping out from behind trunks, bushes and violet mist.
They were barely waist-high, with hunched bodies and long pointed ears, but there was no mistaking the familiar shape.
Goblins!
Except...
Damian’s eyes narrowed.
These were not the ugly little CR 0 nuisances that plagued places such as Greenmoss Flats.
Their skin was purple-black rather than green, while luminous green eyes shone unnaturally from beneath low brows.
Crude leather armor protected their torsos, and every single one carried an actual weapon rather than scavenged kitchen knives and sharpened sticks.
Five wielded shortswords, two carried brutal metal-spiked clubs, three held hand axes, and the final two carried short javelins like miniature lances.
Twelve visible enemies plus the archer hiding in the dark.
Damian quickly pulled up the Guild Bestiary through his card.
[Name: Dark Goblin.
Creature Type: Humanoid — Goblinoid / Fey-Touched.
Typical Size: 90–120 centimeters.
Typical Weight: 25–45 kilograms.
Challenge Rating: 3 — Moderate Threat.
Known Traits: Darkvision, Fey-Touched Physiology, Ambush Tactics, Pack Coordination, Adult Fighter Class, Misty Step Potential.
Threat Notes: Dark Goblins mature extremely rapidly and typically awaken the Standard Fighter Class upon reaching adulthood at approximately two human years of age. Unlike Common Goblins, they favor coordinated ambushes, disciplined party tactics and prepared escape routes. Mature individuals average CR 3, while veteran specimens may possess significantly higher Levels and awakened Fey abilities.]
Damian’s expression became ugly.
Twelve CR 3 monsters? Are you fucking kidding me?
Oh, and at least one hidden archer commanding the group.
Just great!
This was not twelve individual CR 3 fights neatly waiting their turn like polite video-game enemies.
These were vicious and cunning monsters that were surrounding a five-person party and coordinating together.
In practical terms, this encounter had already climbed to somewhere around CR 6 or 7 depending on the hidden leader’s actual strength.
There was no ordinary Copper party that should casually survive this.
And they had barely entered Moonveil Forest!
’Well... the missing reports are starting to make a lot more sense.’ Damian thought grimly.
The Dark Goblins did not immediately charge, and that made Damian more nervous than before.
Instead, they spread outward.
Two advanced several steps before retreating, while another pair scraped weapons against trees.
One waved his shortsword and screamed something vulgar about Marcus’s mother, while another informed Owen that his shield would make an excellent cooking plate after they ate him.
Damian kindly decided not to translate for his team.
He realized that these monsters were probing them, trying to pull Owen out of position, trying to make Marcus commit, and even trying to keep everyone’s attention moving while the hidden archer prepared another shot.
Naturally, Owen was being stretched thin by this.
His tower shield could protect a wide angle, but Clara, Lena and Damian occupied different positions behind him while Marcus had to control their exposed flank.
Sweat appeared across the Warden’s brow.
Meanwhile, Lena nocked an arrow but did not fire.
Her gaze moved constantly between branches, trying to locate the unseen archer before the next attack arrived.
Clara had recovered enough to open her white-gold holy book.
"May the Holy Light’s grace shelter me from the wicked and let righteous hands remain steady," she chanted.
A soft golden barrier settled over her body.
[Divine Protection.]
She immediately began another prayer, this one spreading faint golden threads toward her companions.
Damian assessed himself.
Approximately ninety-eight Mental Energy remained after protecting Clara, which was plenty.
But if they allowed the Goblins to dictate the pace, those numbers would not matter.
Ambushers loved hesitation, so Damian stopped hesitating.
Three Dark Goblins had advanced farther than the others, laughing and swinging their weapons loosely because they apparently believed the humans were trapped.
Their guards were wide open.
Damian raised his staff.
"Tormentum!"
A Level 1 Spell Slot emptied as Damian cast <Magic Missile>!
Three brilliant bolts erupted around the crystal at his staff’s tip before streaking forward at arrow-like speed.
WHOOSH!
The three Goblins barely had time to notice as one missile struck each chest.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Leather armor exploded inward.
The magical projectiles punched through flesh and hollowed out fist-sized cavities before the creatures were hurled backward.
Their taunts ended instantly as three bodies hit Moonveil Forest’s glowing undergrowth.
Then Damian heard a completely different notification.
[Valid Monster Soul detected.]
[Dark Goblin — Level 2 slain.]
[Soul converted: +2 Skill Points.]
[Dark Goblin — Level 2 slain.]
[Soul converted: +2 Skill Points.]
[Dark Goblin — Level 3 slain.]
[Soul converted: +3 Skill Points.]
[Current Gain: 7 Skill Points.]
Damian’s eyes widened.
Oh, so it really was that direct, huh?
No need for a ritual, corpse processing, nor manually pulling souls out like some evil necromancer.
Just kill monster and receive points.
Unga bunga, monkey brain like!
"Holy shit..." Lena whispered.
Her reaction was understandable.
A Level 3 or Level 4 Mage firing <Magic Missile> from a Level 1 Slot was already dangerous, but a Level 6 Journeyman doing the same thing was another matter entirely.
Damian’s INT was already unusually high for his Level, while Journeyman <Arcane Knowledge> had further improved his spell construction and magical output.
The spell had not changed, but the Mage casting it had.
Damian had not used Metamagic, any special combination, nor did he take advantage of any clever exploitation.
This was just basic level and stat suppression!
The effect upon morale was immediate as the Dark Goblins stopped laughing, with several of them actually stepping backward.
Owen noticed.
"<Guardian’s Challenge>!" the Warden roared.
Green-gold energy surged from his armor and swept across the Goblins nearest him, their fear twisting into sudden rage.
Four creatures that had begun retreating snapped toward Owen instead, attention unnaturally locked onto the shield-bearing Warden.
"Come on, you ugly little bastards!" Owen shouted as he slammed his spear against his shield.
Marcus moved the instant their formation broke.
He dashed around the tree, ducked beneath a wild hand-axe swing and planted one foot hard into the earth.
"<Cleaving Slash>!"
His sword flashed horizontally, and the Dark Goblin’s leather armor offered almost no resistance as the blade passed through its waist and continued out the other side.
The two halves hit the ground separately.
From thirteen enemies, including the hidden archer, they were already down to nine.
Damian suddenly saw black energy forming again from a different tree, and at a different angle.
The archer had repositioned intelligently and was now aiming directly at him.
’Oh, I’m the priority now?’ Damian thought grimly.
Fair enough.
Lena was still searching for the foe, and she would probably notice the arrow only after it was released.
Damian had no interest in testing whether her reaction speed was good enough.
His staff snapped toward the distant black glow.
"Glacies!"
A pale-blue beam ripped through the forest.
The hidden Dark Goblin archer had been grinning moments earlier, bowstring drawn back as Shadow energy gathered around its arrowhead.
That grin quickly became horror because the ray was faster than an arrow, far too fast to physically dodge at that distance.
Fortunately for the Goblin, it possessed another option.
Purple mist erupted around its body as the creature vanished from its spot.
Damian’s Frost Ray smashed into the mound where it had been standing, instantly coating bark, soil and nearby violet grass beneath a layer of white ice.
"Tsk."
Damian finally understood.
<Misty Step>!
The bastard goblin had actually unlocked it.
According to the Bestiary’s expanded information, that racial Fey ability normally awakened only after a Dark Goblin reached roughly Level 5.
So their hidden archer was considerably stronger than the others.
Just great.
Still, the immediate crisis had passed.
"Lena, stop searching for the archer and help the frontline. I’ll handle him," Damian called.
The Ranger hesitated only briefly before trusting him. "Got it!"
Her bow immediately turned toward Owen’s attackers.
TWANG!
An arrow punched through a Dark Goblin’s thigh just as it tried circling the Warden, and Owen slammed his shield into the wounded creature’s face.
CRACK!
Marcus finished it with a thrust through the throat.
Clara’s prayer completed moments later as a golden light spread across the party.
Damian felt his body become fractionally lighter and steadier, while Marcus immediately became more aggressive.
"Now that’s what I was waiting for!" the Fighter laughed.
The remaining Goblins finally charged properly.
Their discipline was considerably better than ordinary Goblins, but the opening ambush had been their greatest advantage.
Now though, they were fighting a prepared party.
Lena’s arrows punished anyone who exposed themselves.
Owen absorbed attacks behind his tower shield and repeatedly disrupted their positioning with his spear.
Marcus remained mobile, cutting into whichever enemy committed too heavily against the Warden.
Clara maintained her blessings from behind them.
And Damian?
Damian experimented.
A <Firebolt> struck one Goblin in the shoulder and spun it into a tree, where Lena finished it with an arrow through the eye.
Another tried to leap at Clara from the side.
<Frost Ray> caught its leg mid-step, freezing the limb and sending the creature tumbling face-first into glowing moss.
Marcus removed its head before it could recover.
A third raised its spiked club to crush Owen’s shoulder, but Damian flicked his staff as <Mage Hand> manifested beside the weapon and jerked its wrist just enough to spoil the strike.
Owen’s shield smashed forward, causing the Goblin to stumble before his spear entered beneath its jaw.
Damian watched everything closely, especially the timing and the angles.
He noted how Owen deliberately allowed some attacks to strike the strongest portion of his shield instead of wasting stamina dodging them.
He also noted how Lena did not simply shoot whatever enemy was closest, but targeted legs, weapon arms and exposed flanks to create opportunities.
Naturally, he noticed that Marcus never remained still after attacking.
Heck, even Clara constantly repositioned while chanting so that she remained behind cover without breaking sightlines to her allies.
This... this was exactly what Damian had come here to learn!
Within several minutes, the last visible Dark Goblin collapsed beneath Marcus’s blade, and silence returned to this section of the Moonveil Forest.
Well, almost.
Farther within the trees, the hidden archer watched coldly, its entire raiding group now dead.
The creature’s luminous green eyes moved across Owen, Marcus, Lena and Clara before settling upon Damian, hatred filling its face.
That damned Mage!
It memorized his face thoroughly.
Heh, their Moonveil Goblin Clan had skilled assassins and hunters who were veterans stronger than these worthless warriors.
Next time, this human would definitely die beneath their assault!
Swearing this, the Dark Goblin turned to leave, but then instinct screamed.
It quickly looked over its shoulder and saw a pale-blue ray that was already flying toward it.
Its eyes widened in pure terror.
Impossible!
BAM!
<Frost Ray> struck the creature’s lower right side as ice exploded across its waist, hip and upper thigh, instantly freezing flesh and leather together.
"GRAAAAAAAAH!"
The Dark Goblin screamed and crashed from the mound, clawing desperately at the frozen half of its body.
Nearly fifty meters away, Damian lowered his staff with a sneer.
’Heh. Think I didn’t see you?’
Admittedly, his eyesight was not monstrous.
<Truesight> was powerful, but it still depended somewhat upon Damian’s own ability to perceive something in the first place.
Fortunately, he had not needed it.
<Fey-Touched> had carried this one.
To everyone else, <Misty Step> looked like teleportation.
One moment the Dark Goblin existed in one location, and the next, purple mist swallowed it and it appeared elsewhere.
But Damian’s own Fey affinity revealed something different.
For the briefest instant, the Goblin had dissolved into violet mist and raced along one of those strange Fey pathways before reforming at its chosen destination.
Damian had seen the entire route, so he had known exactly where the archer went.
He simply pretended otherwise.
Why attack immediately while the Goblin was alert and waiting for him?
Better to finish the weaker enemies first and let the bastard convince itself that its escape had succeeded.
The plan had worked perfectly.
Well...
Mostly perfectly.
Damian looked at the screaming Dark Goblin clutching its frozen hip.
He had initially aimed for its head, but the distance was almost fifty meters, with trees, branches and thick shrubbery interfering with his sightline.
Neither Firebolt nor Frost Ray suffered from arrow drop, wind drift or most ordinary ballistic problems, but apparently that did not magically make Damian a sniper.
His intended headshot had become a hip shot.
Damian sighed.
"Yeah, I definitely need more practice."
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