Crouching in a thicket, Noah tried to keep his breathing as slow and quiet as possible so as not to alert these monsters. He knew that Rank E Fortress monsters were stronger, faster, and more sensitive than Rank F Fortress monsters, but he didn't know how much more sensitive they were. So in order not to cause unnecessary problems, Noah did the best he could do not to make noise at that moment. He could experiment with the sensitivity of these monsters to noise in the future, in some battle where he already had more experience.
Observing the group, Noah noticed that these goblins had two different classes between them. There were two warriors who carried rusty metal swords and a goblin in the rear carrying a blowgun in hand to serve as a long-range attack.
Seeing the composition of their group, Noah already remembered the strategies he saw of some Blesseds' recommendations and chose the one that would be the most effective for this moment.
According to what he had already experienced in Rank F Fortresses and what he saw on the internet, eliminating the enemy that attacks long-range first would almost always be the best strategy, but better than eliminating the enemy that attacks long-range would be to eliminate two enemies at once, taking advantage of the moment of surprise that only an ambush could provide.
As the goblins patrolled through the forest, Noah realized by looking at them that the path they followed coincidentally would pass close to where Noah was hiding. This could be a good thing, since Noah could attack from a short distance without them realizing before it was too late, but it could also be terrible if they noticed him hiding there because of the short distance. But charging out in front of them was not an option, so Noah calmly waited for the goblins to approach.
His idea was to wait for the goblins to pass him without noticing him there, then use the combat knife to guarantee a death on the rear goblin and set fire to one of the warrior goblins. Unfortunately, the ideal plan could only remain an ideal unless all went well. When the two warriors passed Noah, neither of them noticed him there, but for some reason the blowgun goblin heard something strange and screamed before running away from the bush, alerting the two warrior goblins.
Seeing that he had already been noticed, Noah, without thinking twice, jumped in the direction of the warrior goblin closest to him and, with one hand, stuck his knife in the throat of the strange green monster before he understood what was happening, while with the other hand, Noah aimed a slightly condensed fireball at the blowgun goblin, hoping to hit it. But that goblin was already prepared, and when he saw Noah jumping out of the thicket, he started running in random directions.
'These monsters are much smarter than I imagined... Damn...' Noah thought as he witnessed the blowgun goblin clearly making those moves to dodge the fireball by using unpredictability.
'Okay, as one has already died, dealing with the other two will at least be less of a problem,' Noah examined as he fended off the little green goblin who was attacking him with a sword amid wild screams.
The rear goblin picked up the blowgun and tried to shoot a poison dart at Noah while the other goblin distracted him, but the goblin was not the only one who was attempting to dodge long-range attacks. Noah, while fighting, was also moving randomly around the little sword goblin so he wouldn't be hit by a dart.
While the blowgun goblin was preparing to shoot another dart, Noah deflected the rusty sword from the warrior goblin with his knife using his right hand and with his left hand, Noah generated fire again and with great effort incinerated the little warrior goblin, who started screaming from pain while rolling on the dirt in an attempt to put it out.
Even if this monster was from a Rank E Fortress, he was no more resistant to Noah's flame than the Super Boss of a Rank F Super Fortress. He was probably not even as strong as a normal Boss from a Rank F Fortress. It would be nearly impossible for a party of Blessed to complete a same rank Fortress if all of the monsters were as strong as a Boss from the previous rank.
So the sin-purifying effect of [Hell Flames] was much more aggressive and effective on these monsters, just a little less destructive than it was against normal Rank F Super Fortress rats. For that poor little goblin, to be incinerated by these flames was worse than being cut numerous times in a second. The pain could not be described, but it could be estimated after hearing the screams of the little monster rolling on the floor, trying to extinguish the flame. Obviously, Noah would not let that happen while he kept energy going to sustain the flame, in addition to using the goblin's own flesh and sins as fuel to keep him burning.
The blowgun goblin, hearing his companion's cry of despair, was startled. In that instant, he didn't know if he should go to help or run for his life, since he knew that even if he hit the human with as many poisoned darts as possible, all that would happen would be for the human to become weaker and slower, but there was nothing that would prevent the human from using that terrible flame he was seeing in front of him.
Noah did not waste this moment of distraction for the goblin and took advantage of the interval to run towards him while creating another flame in his hand.
When the goblin saw Noah rushing towards him, he finally realized that he shouldn't have stayed put and paid attention to the flame to avoid the fireball while trying to flee from there. He certainly didn't want to have the same fate as his relative who had been screaming and agonizing on the forest floor until now.
As he ran, the goblin saw that another fireball had been hurled towards his left, which made him leap to the right so as not to be hit by the bright flame. But as soon as the goblin touched his feet on the ground, he noticed that the flame was not the only thing that was coming towards him. Due to the brightness and danger that the flame represented, the goblin unconsciously only paid attention to it, but when he he realized that a shiny silver object was coming towards him, it was too late; the knife that Noah threw had already hit the goblin's back, causing him to fall to the ground due to pain and loss of balance.
Noah saw the goblin trying to get up from the ground in despair as he crawled. He didn't show a shred of mercy and coldly conjured another ball of fire to hit the goblin who was now unable to deflect, hitting goblin's back precisely, adding another cry of pain and despair to the forest that had just become silent due to the death of the other goblin.
In the vision obscured by pain, despair, and flames, the figure of the human who caused him so much torture and suffering was no different from a demon- no, worse! For that goblin, the figure of that human was the Devil himself!
Noah had no way of knowing what the ugly monster was thinking about him at that moment, but if he did, he would definitely laugh at the irony that was that goblin's thought for Lucifer's own Descendant.
While the goblin burned, Noah wasted no time and threw another fireball at the goblin he had stabbed to death at the beginning of the battle so that his ability could soak up the monster's body and get closer to evolving.
After all three goblins were completely burned and made into dust, the familiar black window appeared in front of Noah once again.
[6 Exp acquired at level.]
[6 Exp acquired for the skill: [Hell Flames].]
Looking at that window Noah felt that the battle was really worth it. By killing these three goblins alone, Noah had gained the same amount of experience as he had by killing 6 rats in the Rank F Fortress, leaving aside that the time spent for this was at least three times faster than the time he he had spent to kill six rats in the other Fortress, since it was problematic to find the rats in the tunnels as well as battling with some who kept throwing themselves into the water all the time to try to put out the fire.
Staring at the ashes, Noah's desire to kill more goblins had grown exponentially, but due to the thrill of earning so many points and the distraction it caused, Noah did not realize that the screams of the goblins he killed caught the attention of other goblins close by, since because the Fortress had been open so long the number of goblins had increased; the chance of another group of goblins hearing a cry for help had increased by a fair margin.
For others, this could have been a major obstacle, but for Noah, even if unconsciously, it had turned into a fortune.
--------------------------
As I can see, we will have 5 extra chapters tomorrow? :0
Save your stones to vote on it tomorrow, so next week we can do another mass release!
Sunday's Extra Chapters Challenge!
[1.300 Stones = 2 Extra Chapter]
[1.500 Stones = 4 Extra Chapters]
[+500 Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Chapter edited by: Azurtha]
As I can see, we will have 5 extra chapters tomorrow? :0
Save your stones to vote on it tomorrow, soo next week we can do another mass release!
--------
Sunday's Extra Chapters Challenge!
[1.300 Stones = 2 Extra Chapter]
[1.500 Stones = 4 Extra Chapters]
[+500 Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Chapter edited by: Azurtha]
Noah had so far killed three small groups of goblins that appeared, including the three goblins he initially killed. His experience and ability had already risen by 14 points in addition to the 6 he received initially, raising the exp of his [Hell Flames] ability to 81, with only 19 more points left to evolve. Noah didn't know what would happen when it evolved, but he was very much looking forward to it.
The goblin groups were appearing faster than Noah imagined since he didn't even need 30 minutes to kill three groups in such a large forest.
While he was killing a fourth group, Noah had already realized that the goblins that used blowguns were smarter than the warriors, but in this group he found an archer among them who was even more intelligent than the goblins which used blowguns.
After two of the goblin archer's three teammates died, it didn't take him even a second to think about what to do and he had already abandoned to death the only other goblin still alive while trying to save his own life. Noah had entered the forest with a compass, and according to what the Blessed said on the internet, the advantage of this Fortress was that the goblin camp, where the Boss of the Fortress lived, was always to the north. But different from what Noah imagined, this particular small yet smart monster was not running to the goblin camp where he would get reinforcements; in fact, he was running to the southwest, which was almost the complete opposite direction of where the camp should have been.
'What is this monster doing? Why is he running in a direction which is less logical if he were seeking help...?' Noah thought after seeing the direction the archer went. Looking at the three corpses on the ground, Noah knew that if he wanted to burn these goblins to get exp for the skill he would have to stay here and burn them or kill the runaway goblin and come back to burn the corpses, but his curiosity was talking more loudly and Noah, after a long sigh, ran after the goblin archer to see where he was going, leaving all that free experience on the ground with great regret in his heart.
'Don't be so stingy, Noah. You'll get a lot more experience by killing other monsters. Now, this goblin's strange behavior won't explain itself if you stay here. It's a unique opportunity,' he said mentally to try to convince himself that he was doing the right thing by leaving those dead goblins on the forest floor.
This monster's behavior was very strange. He had stopped being cautious and not once had he turned around to see if Noah was chasing him. It was like the place he was going would for sure protect him from the human, so the only thing he had to worry about was to get there as quickly as possible.
From the information that Noah saw on the internet, this goblin's behavior was completely out of the ordinary. In all videos and publications, the Blessed ones always said that goblins always flee to the camp in the north, so much so that one of the strategies they recommended was to chase goblins away by generating fear in them with flashy skills so that they despair and run back to the camp. They would then be surprised by another human group that would already be there waiting to kill them while they were unprepared and scared.
If any goblin occasionally fled in the direction opposite the camp, someone would probably have commented on the internet that this could happen, but in all publications, all the Blessed had always confirmed that 100% of the time the goblins would flee to the camp. Even if they tried to deviate a little from that direction in the beginning, the general direction they would run would always be the camp. So, seeing this archer doing the complete opposite made Noah suspect that something was wrong.
Noah continued to try to follow the goblin from a safe distance, so much so that the goblin didn't realize he was being followed and Noah could still keep watching the monster from a distance. But even though the goblin never once turned around to see if Noah was still following him, that didn't stop the monster from running desperately without even looking back behind himself.
The chase was strangely long. Noah imagined that the lungs of a goblin could not bear to run that long and so far with such small legs at full speed, but to Noah's surprise, even though he was breathing hard, the goblin did not slow down its pace for even a second.
When Noah was already starting to lose patience, assuming that this monster had gone mad, something he never imagined he would see appeared in a clearing in front of him.
It was exactly toward this strange construction that the goblin was running: a statue made of wood standing there as if nothing could shake it. But strangely, this statue was not an unknown figure; Noah knew very well the image it represented, and this was exactly what surprised Noah even more, because that statue made of wood, apparently built in a natural way, was an extremely famous figure and adored by many humans. The goblin that Noah was chasing to here was apparently heading straight for this statue, as if he knew that this statue could protect him.
Noah looked at it from a safe distance with a lot of interest and, most importantly, being very careful not to alert the goblin who apparently hadn't yet realized he was there.
Strangely, the goblin Noah already knew was more intelligent than usual had kneeled in front of the statue as if he were saying a prayer to her. Noah upon seeing this, his brain almost short-circuited, since in his head it was impossible for a monster to do something as unbelievable as praying to a statue, even more so for a monster from a Fortress as low as this one.
Noah knew that in high-ranking Fortresses, humanity had already encountered several intelligent species. Once he had even seen in a newspaper report that in an unknown Rank S Fortress, the Blessed ones instead of going into something like a dungeon, as was normal, came across a small village in a forest, with houses on top of trees and the "monsters" they had to kill were elves who lived there in some sort of society.
The Blessed Rank S who invaded that Fortress said it was difficult to believe that they had been inside a Fortress and not in another world, since according to them, while they watched from a distance, those elves interacted with each other and had a life as normal as one which a human would in that situation, so much so that some of them even felt bad about having to kill such beautiful men and women, some even with children accompanying them.
This Fortress which was previously unknown, after the invasion was completed, became known as the Elf Massacre Fortress. It never appeared again in any portal, on any planet, but after that day, humanity was left with even more doubts about what these portals were and where they took them, since none of what the invading Blessed said seemed false.
But this sort of thing had only happened in a Rank S Fortress. It was common knowledge that the lower the rank of a Fortress, the lower the intelligence of the monsters inside, but what Noah was seeing in front of him was nowhere near what a Rank E Fortress should contain.
The goblin who ran so desperately for his own life was now kneeling in front of a wooden statue that Noah recognized as the goddess of plants. She was one of the best known goddesses of mankind, as the Blessing she normally bestowed was related to life and healing, making many Blessed with healing Blessings worship her. But what Noah could not understand was why a monster was praying to a goddess who was supposed to favor humanity.
While Noah watched the goblin praying to the goddess, his system that rarely appeared, this time showed him a sudden notification, but unlike before, the black window there had nothing about his skills or exp, but showed a screen related to what was happening in front of him.
[ ... ]
-----------------
Because of your votes, today we will have 5 extra chapters, so vote today for next Sunday we can hit this goal again! [Today: 1/6]
-----------------
Sunday's Extra Chapters Challenge!
[2.300 Stones = 2 Extra Chapter]
[2.500 Stones = 4 Extra Chapters]
[+500 Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
That's it! Vote to this week we get more extra chapters!! [Today: 1/6]
--------
Sunday's Extra Chapters Challenge!
[2.300 Stones = 2 Extra Chapter]
[2.500 Stones = 4 Extra Chapters]
[+500 Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Chapter edited by: Azurtha]
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