My Physical Related Stats have all entered the C-Rank realm. I could kill a C-Rank Warrior even before they reached this level so I was fairly certain I could take on a low tier A-Rank now, or at least a top tier B-Rank.
"Then there's my Mana Capacity Stat. It went passed F-Rank level and entered E-Rank level while my overall Rank as a Warrior is still F. I thought it'd get stuck at the F-Rank Maximum because of my locked Level Stat but it didn't. Instead, the fact that my Level Stat was locked became one hell of a blessing in disguise." We then arrived at the next Goblin village.
"So we're just gonna run through and on to the next village, is that it?" Peyton asked.
"Oh yeah. There's seven-hundred and eighty-two Goblins in this one." I checked with Treasure Hunt. "Good lord, that's a lot." I added.
"Told ya, maybe we should think twice about this and-...what is up with that evil looking grin you have on!??" She paused to ask as she looked over to me.
"Seven-hundred and eighty-two Goblins means..." I said while drooling. "...seven-hundred and eighty-two Mana Crystals." I added while wiping my mouth.
"I was wrong. You're not a Demon, you're worse."
"Just say 'The Devil'!"
"I thought I told you not to judge me!"
"I know, I know, you need materials for Blacksmithing, whoopdie-doo."
"Let's just get this over with." I said, entering the Goblin village. She followed as a message then popped up.
[Report. Party has entered the Goblin Settlement: Second Goblin Village. Party will now recieve an Immediate Party Quest...]
[Immediate Party Quest contents.]
Immediate Party Quest: Party must exterminate all the Goblins in the village, including the leader of the village, the High Goblin.
Duration: 30minutes
Upon Success: Party members will live.
Upon Failure: Party members will die.
Rewards will be calculated after the Quest is completed based on the Party's efficiency.
"Thirty minutes duration. Seems the fact that I'm with an A-Rank aaand that I've become fairly strong myself caused the System to view this Quest as a considerably easy mission."
The Goblins then started reacting. Same as the ones from before, there were spear Goblins; the vanguard, archer Goblins; the rearguard and one High Goblin, the leader. The High Goblin, standing in the far rear as usual began to speak.
"G'nori! Sai, ko gumek fa de ruk! Sig! Nakiier a geori a hufa! Ni-Asifa! Ni-Asifa!"
As he said that, all the other Goblins followed in unison.
"Ni-Asifa! Ni-Asifa!"
"Some sort of battle chant?" I thought.
"Well? Let's go." Said Peyton. Unlike me, she didn't seem interested at all in monster language.
"Yeah, let's do this." I replied.
We then started running straight towards the Goblin army. We weren't to kill any of them even as we broke through their army, since it'd be a waste to leave the Mana Crystals that'd appear from the corpses.
It was, in hindsight, a bit overwhelming. Spears and arrows kept flying at us as we advanced. Peyton, with her nimble self kept dodging and dodging while making sure to keep pace, but I however, dealt with their ammunition a tad differently. Since I wanted the Resilient Regeneration Skill to increase in Rank, I made sure to dodge only arrows and spears that'd look like they'd either hit my head or pierce my heart while letting the rest hit their mark only to yank them out after and regenerate using the Skill.
As we came close to clashing with the vanguard head on, Peyton jumped. Of the 782 Goblins, 600 of them were the ones holding spears. She effortlessly made it to the centre of a vanguard of 600 with a single jump only to do it again, entering the forces of the rearguard.
I wasn't going to allow myself to be outclassed to that extent.
"Oh, it's on." I activated my Hypermove Skill. Grey electric Mana formed around my body. I didn't jump, rather I simply ran through the vanguard. All Goblins surrounding me within about a 3 metre radius were blown away. I made sure not exert enough force to kill them though, so they all got up afterwards to chase after me. Almost, instantly, I had made it to the rearguard, catching up with Peyton as we continued running.
"What took you so long?" Peyton asked with a smirk.
"Oh haha!" I said sarcastically.
"By the way..."
"Hm?"
"You've got a little...arrow situation, dangling over there...on your back I mean." She said.
"How many?"
"'Bout a dozen."
"'A little' she says."
"Oh! Didn't notice. Thanks." I said as I yanked them out.
"Hold on, so you really didn't feel them?" She asked.
"Resilient Regeneration gave me a small pain resistance effect as soon as I got it. Do you know anyone who'd stay conscious with a hole like that in their chest otherwise?"
"I know I wouldn't."
"Exactly."
We kept running through the archer group as spears from behind and arrows from the front kept flying at us. Peyton, kept dodging without even looking. Those senses were no joke. I did the same, since mine were more or less on the same level, still leaving the ones that didn't target my heart and brain though, as I yanked them out to heal afterwards. As we came close to the High Goblin, all the others started to stop chasing after us. Peyton then jumped once more, passing over him. I followed suit, but I didn't jump as high as Peyton though, just high enough to step foot on the High Goblin's face then jump up off of him.
"Heheh." I chuckled internally afterwards.
"Urk!" He reacted.
We then stopped to look back at them.
"Uh-oh, I think you made him mad." Peyton joked.
"Yeah, no kidding. Wouldn't exactly call him a fan after that, huh?"
"No siree, you wouldn't."
The High Goblin then raised his longsword, seeing as we had passed through him and his army, and yelled.
"Sai! G'nori dwan moru hom! Homi foku hufa a homi kira fek! Sig hufa! Jara raja hufa!"
They immediately started chasing us again after he said that, with him in the front this time, and they were even faster than ever before.
"Now that's what I'm talking about." I said smiling genuinely.
"You're crazy, I can't believe you're happy at a time like this. Whoof. On to the next village?" Asked Peyton.
"On to the next village." I replied. We started running again. I was in the lead since I knew exactly where the next village was. As soon as we arrived, something I can matter-of-factly say I did not expect, happened.
[Report. Party has entered the Goblin Settlement: Third Goblin Village.]
[Report. ERROR CODE DETECTED!]
"Uh-oh."
[Party has neither failed nor has it succeeded in completing the current Immediate Party Quest. 2 uncompleted Immediate Party Quests have been processed simultaneously. Quest Override detected. The 2 Immediate Party Quests will now merge with one another to form a new Immediate Party Quest. Now processing new Immediate Party Quest...]
[Party will now recieve the new Immediate Party Quest...]
[New Immediate Party Quest contents.]
New Immediate Party Quest: Party must exterminate all the Goblins in the whole area, including the two respective leaders of the two villages, the High Goblins.
Duration: 1hour
Upon Success: Party members will live.
Upon Failure: Party members will die.
Rewards will be calculated after the Quest is completed based on the party's efficiency.
"I've....never seen anything like this before. Quest... Override?" Peyton said in confusion. "Two Quests merging with each other? I don't even think the Six Emperors have even heard of something like this."
"Oh yeah? Aren't we pretty special then?"
"Did you...know this was gonna happen?" She asked.
"Not a clue. Matter of fact, I honestly didn't think it'd turn out this well. Thank goodness it did, am I right, heheheh...."
"....you're an incredibly weird person, you know that, right?"
"I do now. ... Well then, on to the next village." I said as we ran through the third village's army.
We went on to run through all the other villages. As the second village had 782 Goblins, the third had 664, while the fourth had 711 and the fifth had 753. As for the sixth, it was 687, while the seventh had 776 and the eighth had 634. Stampeding through all these villages, the number of Goblins chasing us just kept piling up. We then made it to the ninth village, which had 745 Goblins and on to the tenth which had 612 of them. They didn't stop chasing us. In fact, the higher their number increased, the more aggressive they grew. Most even kept toppling over one another. Reminded me a lot of the Werehyenas.
"Man, thank goodness they're so highly devoted to killing us, otherwise this wouldn't have worked." I said with a bright smile.
"Don't even joke like that." Peyton shut me down.
"Well. You're no fun."
"My definition of fun is, for a example, hanging out with friends and playing games, or something along those lines. NOT! Being chased by an army of over six-thousand bloodthirsty monsters! Sue me for being normal!"
"Well. We're friends, right? Then think of this as a game of tag. And you see those kind, lovable, green, charming fellas over there, what with their spears, bows, arrows and swords and whatnot? Well, they're it."
"You're a sick person."
"That's debatable."
"Not it isn't, it really isn't. You're a sick person."
"Whatever."
"Heads up. Biggest village yet. Village number eleven, coming in hot." I warned.
"Uh-huh." So "enthusiastic".
"Well, don't sound so excited." I thought.
The eleventh village had 853 Goblins. That number made it a bit more challenging to stampede through it like usual. Crazy enough, I welcomed said-challenge.
"Maybe, she's right. I might be a little unhinged now that I think about it."
We rammed through it and on to the twelfth village which had 699 Goblins. Then went on to the thirteenth, with its 701 Goblins, then the fourteenth which had 812 of them. Then, finally...
"We made it..." I said as we ran towards the final village.
"Finally. So this is the Boss' village, you said there's nine-hundred Goblins here, right?" Asked Peyton.
"Nine-hundred and one if you include the Boss. As I'm sure you know, Boss domains tend to be a little more orderly than the normal monsters' domains, so the number of monsters in them is always an even number plus one, being the Boss. Here, there's exactly thirty Goblins with an even higher authority than High Goblins, they're a little bigger too, I call those types of monsters squad leaders for short."
"Oh. Yeah, that makes sense. Considering they each tend to lead a squad of monsters one level higher than the normies."
"Right, and I refer to those as 'alphas'. So in this Dungeon, the alphas are called High Goblins, and there's a squad of ten High Goblins for each of the thirty squad leaders here."
"So, three-hundred High Goblins. That's...a lot."
"I know, right? High level Mana Crystals here we come!" I declared with a grin.
"Your greed knows no bounds."
"There you go again with the judging."
"Oh I'm soosorry."
"Sure you are." I said smirking and rolling my eyes.
"Your relaxed attitude is pretty unsettling. You know we could die here, right?"
"The possibility of death just means there'll be better rewards after we complete this Quest."
"....are you sure you didn't hit your head when you were a baby?"
"That's not funny."
"Really? It isn't?"
"....alright, maybe it's a little bit funny but that doesn't make it an okay thing to say."
"...okay. I'll agree to that. I'm sorry. I mean it this time."
"No you don't."
"Darn, you got me. Hehe." She giggled as she placed her right index finger on her cheek while slightly sticking her tongue out. As much as I'd hate to say it, it looked incredibly adorable.
"And you say I'm relaxed."
"Your attitude is contagious."
"So I'm rubbing off on you?" I said with a smirk.
"Wow. Well, you're pretty good at turning things around in your favour."
"Another part of my charm."
"That's debatable."
"Burn."
We entered the last village, finally, as a message we'd been constantly seeing for a while now, popped up.
[Report. Party has entered the Last Goblin Settlement: The Goblins' Dungeon Boss, The Goblin Lord's Village.]
[Report. ERROR CODE DETECTED!]
[Party has neither failed nor has it succeeded in completing the current Immediate Party Quest. 2 uncompleted Immediate Party Quests have been processed simultaneously. Quest Override detected. The 2 Immediate Party Quests will now merge with one another to form a new Immediate Party Quest. Now processing new Immediate Party Quest...]
[Party will now recieve the new Immediate Party Quest...]
[New Immediate Party Quest contents.]
New Immediate Party Quest: Party must clear the E-Rank Dungeon. For that to happen, party must exterminate the Dungeon Boss, The Goblin Lord, all thirty of the Great Goblins, all three-hundred and thirteen of the High Goblins and all nine-thousand nine-hundred and eighty-six of the normal Goblins in the area within the given time duration.
Duration: 7hours
Upon Success: The E-Rank Dungeon will be cleared and party members will live.
Upon Failure: Party members will die.
Rewards will be calculated after the Quest is completed based on the party's efficiency.
"Look at that, ten-thousand plus total! This is gonna be so awesome!"
"Getting off on life or death situations is a weird kink, don't you think?"
"Is that directed at me?"
"Do you see anybody else?"
"Other than the judgy chick who thinks I've got weird kinks, no."
"Exactly. I might as well start calling you 'kinkster' from now on."
"Please don't."
"Kinkster."
"You're a child. Seriously. You're an enormous child."
"No mirrors at home, huh?"
"Good one. Moving on...got any clue on what's up with these guys?"
"You noticed it too, huh? Odd, isn't it? They stopped chasing us as soon as we entered the Boss' village."
"Are they waiting for his command or something?"
"Maybe, but why's he just sitting there on that throne of his while simply staring at us?"
"Beats me."
We had arrived at the Boss' village. The Quest had already started, but the Goblin Lord had not moved an inch. There he sat, on his throne of bones, simply staring at us from the distance. His village was a lot bigger than the rest, like a lot bigger. At least five times bigger. The huts however, while bigger than the ones from other villages, were fewer. In the far end centre of the area, was his throne. And he just sat there, while every other Goblin quietly stood as if awaiting his command. He had four arms it seemed. The lower one of his two right hands holding a spear while the lower one of his left hands held a longsword. His upper right hand however, held a bow, while a bag of numerous arrows hung behind his back.
Surrounding me and Peyton, was an army of three-hundred and thirteen High Goblins with their longswords, Surrounding them, making sure to keep a fair distance, was an over seven-thousand strong army of spear Goblins, while the rest, as the reaguad of said-army were the archers. The thirty Great Goblins, however, stood guard in front of their Lord. After a long silence that felt like an eternity, the Lord, finally, raised his upper left hand. As he did that, all the Goblins started to move. A space was then cleared, a straight path, leading from us to him. It wasn't an invitation, nor was it him saying he'd come to us. He reached over to his back, calmly took out six arrows and shot them in an instant. They were extremely fast, travelling a little over 700 kilometres per hour. Three of them headed straight for me while the other three headed for Peyton, she dodged each one of them expertly, meanwhile I activated my Brawler Skill then launched a punch, shattering all three of mine. I then quickly noticed that the arrows Peyton had dodged had turned around mid air to attack her from behind.
"Look out!"
I was sure she'd be able to still deal with it on her own given her skill but I didn't want to take any chances so I quickly dashed towards the arrows then punched them to pieces.
"Thanks for that. Was that some sort of Skill of his?" She asked.
"Seems like it. Looks like it makes it impossible for him to miss, his arrows won't stop until they hit their target. It's a good thing they aren't that powerful, so it's relatively easy to destroy them. Anyway, I gotta ask, do you really fight barehanded?"
"Sometimes, but I do have weapons."
"Oh yeah? Where are they?"
"....I don't wanna talk about it." She pouted, crossing her arms, then hurriedly looked away as her cheeks turned red.
"Huh? The heck? What's that all about?"
"God, you're a handful. Well can you use blades?" I asked.
"Of course I can."
"Great. Here then." I conjured out First Dawn from the Item Space. "Her name's First Dawn, she's my masterpiece, so take good care of her, okay?" I said as I threw it to her. She caught it and looked at it.
"You even give your weapons genders. Is that some other kink of yours?"
"Seriously?"
"I'm kidding....hm? Hold on, this weapon, is it-"
"Don't ask questions, just use it."
"...you're gonna explain yourself after this, right?"
"I'd rather not, but I doubt you'd give me a choice, so, might as well."
"Good boy."
"Don't even."
"Hehe, sorry." That's right, I can be scary too.
"Now then. Let's get serious." I declared, deactivating the Brawler Skill as we both got ready, standing back to back. The Goblins were still adhering to their Lord's whims. He then raised both his spear and sword and yelled out.
"Rinko!!! Ni-Aru! Ni-Asifa! Nakiier a homi saruf! Nakiier a G'nori!"
All the other Goblins then followed in unison stomping down their spears repeatedly. "Ni-Asifa! Nakiier a G'nori! Ni-Asifa! Nakiier a G'nori!"
"Looks like they're also starting to get serious." I said in observation.
"No kidding." Replied Peyton.
The High Goblins that were surrounding us then started attacking. As they did that, I had but a single sentence left to utter.
"Great, I can finally get to check this out. Activate Ifrit Skill. Let's go, fire blade."