Night fell deep, the campfires in the forest long extinguished.
The youths who had collapsed on the ground lay pale-faced, their limbs trembling, not daring to approach.
Only after confirming that the goblin had truly left did they dare to help each other up, staggering out of the forest.
---
The next morning, inside a small tavern of the Adventurer's Guild.
The same youths stumbled in, disheveled and covered in dust, drawing a round of laughter.
"Haha, isn't this the rookie squad that went to the forest yesterday? So, goblins easy prey, right?"
"Don't tell me… you couldn't even beat an F-rank goblin?"
The boys flushed red, stammering: "No… that goblin… it was strange."
"Strange? How strange could a goblin be?"
"What, did it have three eyes?"
"No!" the leader slammed the table, though his voice quivered,
"It… it used magic! Instant-cast fireball! It set the entire forest ablaze!"
The tavern went silent for a heartbeat—then erupted in roaring laughter.
"Hahahaha! A goblin? Using magic? Kid, you've gone mad with fear!"
"Instant fireball? Even a D-rank mage in the city has to chant for ages! Do you take us for fools?"
"More like you ran into a beast, got scared, and spun some nonsense story!"
The youth's face reddened further. Desperate, he swore with his hand on his chest:
"I'm not lying! That goblin really ignited fire in a single thought—without a single chant!"
But the veteran adventurers only shook their heads, chuckling, dismissing them as a joke.
—"A goblin? Knowing magic? Utterly laughable."
---
Meanwhile.
In the depths of the forest, Ye Xuan sat cross-legged upon a stone, his blood surging like thunder through his veins.
He slowly opened his eyes, calm yet with a glint of coldness.
"So this world's so-called magic… requires chanting incantations. Cumbersome and useless."
"What the cultivation world could conjure in a single thought, they revere as a treasure."
Ye Xuan lightly waved his hand, a wisp of flame flickering at his fingertip.
The fire leapt forth, instantly igniting the fallen leaves at his feet, only to vanish the next moment at his will.
"Mere child's play." He sneered, eyes deep and unfathomable.
—What he did not know was that, even now, a ridiculous rumor was spreading beyond the forest:
"There's a goblin in the woods… that can instant-cast fireball."
Most scoffed in ridicule.
But among them, some eyes turned grave.