Mastery Is Earned

Before the Greater Goblin's roar had even faded, Carter was already attacking from the side, thrusting his sword at its charred flank with his left hand. Unfortunately, Carter was not adept with his left hand. The strike merely left a shallow cut along its side and failed to penetrate. Even that shallow wound was enough to send the already enraged Greater Goblin completely berserk. It bellowed and swung the battle-axe at Carter as though the weapon were a toy.

Fortunately, Carter's legs were still agile enough. Despite the excruciating pain throughout his body, he backpedaled rapidly and narrowly avoided the blow. Driven by the Greater Goblin's monstrous strength, the battle-axe smashed deep into the ground, sending shattered stone and dust flying in every direction.

Raymond arrived at just the right moment. While the Greater Goblin was bent over, he drove his sword at the exposed neck where its hair had burned away. At the last instant, the Greater Goblin instinctively turned its head and avoided the fatal thrust. The one-handed sword swept past, leaving only a bloody gash across its neck.

The attack brought Raymond in close. Without even raising the battle-axe, the Greater Goblin threw a heavy punch at him. Raymond barely got his sword and arms up in time. The blow crashed through his guard, the force slamming into both arms. Veins bulged along his neck as he was hurled away like a sack and crashed heavily into the pile of bones.

He struggled out of the bones, barely able to breathe, with a faint metallic sweetness in his mouth. Only after several deep breaths did he recover enough to assess the situation again.

Carter was relying on his agility to maintain his distance from the Greater Goblin. The creature missed several attacks in succession, but each one further restricted the space Carter had to dodge. He appeared able to manage, but in truth, he was already approaching his limit. Raymond forced himself upright, tightened his grip on his sword, and rejoined the battle.

Growing anxious at its inability to bring Carter down, the Greater Goblin raised the battle-axe and hurled it straight at him. The axe hurtled through the air with terrifying force. Caught off guard, Carter threw himself aside and narrowly avoided the attack. As he landed, he instinctively tried to catch himself with his right hand. But his burned arm gave way, throwing him off balance and sending him crashing to the ground.

The Greater Goblin panted, an excited, hoarse growl rising from its throat. It stepped forward and stamped at Carter's right knee. The moment its massive foot came down, Carter desperately pulled his leg back. The desperate movement kept him from taking the stomp head-on, but the edge of the Greater Goblin's foot still ground heavily across his right knee. The joint twisted sharply inward with a faint crack.

“Hss!”

Tearing pain swept through Carter, but he endured it without screaming. The Greater Goblin bent down and reached for his head, intending to kill him the same way it had killed Guy. But Carter had already noticed Raymond approaching. Seizing the opportunity, he raised his left hand and thrust his sword at the Greater Goblin's eye. The Greater Goblin instinctively lifted a hand to block.

Shrrk—

Raymond had already circled behind and slightly to the side. Gripping his sword in both hands, he drove it into the wound he had left earlier on the creature's neck. The blade missed the vertebrae, passed along one side of the spine, and pierced through the Greater Goblin's windpipe. The point emerged from the front of its neck. The creature instinctively seized the exposed blade, preventing it from being driven any farther.

Feeling the resistance, Raymond stopped pushing. Instead, he twisted the hilt with both hands, turning the blade a fraction within the wound before wrenching it sideways. After slicing through most of the soft tissue along the side of its neck, the blade struck the cervical vertebrae. There was a sharp snap as the sword broke.

Hot blood gushed from the wound, drenching Carter from head to toe. The Greater Goblin's head sagged to one side, and its body staggered sideways before toppling over. With that, Raymond seemed to run out of strength. He dropped onto his backside and gasped for breath.

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[Basic Swordsmanship Proficiency +1]

Raymond glanced at the notification instinctively, and the simple system panel unfolded before him.

[Basic Swordsmanship Lv. 1 (54/100)]

Fifty-four?

His Basic Swordsmanship Proficiency was already that high?

“R-Rookie...” Carter's voice called out.

Raymond immediately turned back. After taking several breaths, he staggered to his feet. He was injured all over, and his arms, chest, and back all hurt. Fortunately, he could still move his limbs. Although breathing was difficult, nothing appeared life-threatening.

“Go check... that Greater Goblin...” Carter pointed at its body.

After several deep breaths, Raymond endured the pain and walked over. Although the side of the creature's neck had been thoroughly torn open, Raymond did not dare assume it was dead. The consequences of their earlier carelessness were still fresh in his mind. He circled behind the Greater Goblin, picked up a wooden spear, and thrust it into the neck wound from a safe distance. Even when he stirred the wound with the spearpoint, the massive body did not react in the slightest. Only then did Raymond relax and stumble back to Carter's side.

Carter's right knee had already swollen badly. Fortunately, the joint was not visibly deformed, but his right leg could no longer bear his weight properly.

Despite the pain, Carter said, “I wouldn't have made it without you. I owe you my life.”

“No. I never could've done it without you either.” Raymond shook his head and examined Carter's injuries. “Forget that for now. Let's treat your wounds first.”

Following Carter's instructions, Raymond rinsed the burns on Carter's right arm with clean water. He did not pull at the fabric stuck to the wounds, instead wrapping the limb loosely with clean strips of cloth. Carter then took several rolls of bandages from his belt pouch. Raymond found two broken lengths of spear shaft, padded them with cloth, and secured Carter's injured leg between them.

Raymond also cleaned and bandaged the wounds on his left arm and chest. Finally, he found a wooden spear and handed it to Carter as a crutch.

The two of them could neither take the bodies with them nor dig graves inside the cavern. Carter could only cover the faces of his two companions with scraps of cloth and collect their coin purses and personal effects that could identify them, intending to bring people back from town to retrieve the bodies. Raymond took a short sword from Tom's body for protection, then used rope to tie Guy's battle-axe to the outside of his pack.

“Those two younglings...” Carter looked at the two remaining goblin younglings, then at Raymond.

Raymond fell silent. The younglings could not even pick up weapons yet and posed no immediate threat to anyone. But the one-eyed Dragonblood Goblin was still alive. If it returned to the nest, it might take the two younglings away again. Raymond had no way to bring them with him, nor could either of them remain here indefinitely to guard them.

“Why don't I...” Seeing that Raymond remained silent, Carter hesitated, wooden spear in hand.

“No. I'll do it.” Raymond shook his head, his tone firm.

He walked forward and looked at the two whimpering goblin younglings, then sighed. He did not like his choice, but neither was he willing to leave that risk to someone else. After two strokes of the blade, the quiet whimpering ceased.

Raymond stood with the short sword in hand for a moment. Then he bent down, wiped the blade clean on a scrap of cloth, and returned it to his waist. This was the first time he had deliberately taken a life without being attacked first.

“I'll watch the passage. You search the place, and be quick about it.” Carter leaned against the rock wall with the wooden spear held across his body. “That monster could return at any moment.”

Searching the reeking nest for valuables proved much more troublesome than Raymond had expected. He first cut off the ears of the adult goblins that were still recognizable, then turned over the stinking animal hides and rags in the depths of the nest. Most of the goblins' treasures were nothing more than shards of glass, polished pebbles, and rusty pieces of iron.

The only truly valuable objects were two mottled green gemstones and a small cloth pouch filled with coins. The pouch was heavy, but it contained only two silver coins. All the rest were copper.

At the spot where he had fought the Dragonblood Goblin, Raymond also found a chipped scale stained with black blood. It might not be valuable, but it was enough to prove how unusual the Dragonblood Goblin was.

Raymond shouldered his pack, then went over to support Carter. The two passed through the long, narrow passage and finally saw daylight outside once more. Across the muddy ground, a trail of still-wet black blood led through the forest toward the depths of the Blackstone Mountains.

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