Chapter 23: 23. Tragic Demise of Gobuta.

Sunny passed by the Human race base near the forest-mountain interaction without any problems. He chooses to enter the mountain range where peaks are of average height. Higher than the peaks at the border but much shorter than the peaks present in the center of the Mahayana Mountain range.

After climbing several peaks, crossing ravines, and traversing numerous valleys for hours, Sunny reached near the base of Goblins.

The Goblin base was in a clearing in the middle of three hills. A perfect place for defending in case of attack as three sides were protected by the hills. There were also some patrols now and then roaming the hills in case of ambush or a scout sneaks in.

The front of the base was facing the west direction, while north, east, and south were protected by the hills. At the east hill, there is a cave where the strongest goblin is guarding the treasures gathered by the goblins while exploring the mountains. Mainly shiny ores, golds, glowing herbs, etc.

The Goblins believe that everything that naturally shines is a treasure, everything else can only be termed as trash. And by seeing anything like that every Goblin's innate greed goes haywire.

The cave is guarded extremely well with multiple Goblins stationed at the entrance. From the front side, it's almost impossible to sneak into the cave. No Goblin is allowed to go into the cave without the strongest Goblin- Gobuta's permission.

There is a secret of Gobuta in the east hill that no one knows apart from him and Sunny. Since Sunny came from the future he obviously knows.

Even Sunny who has now consumed [Stealth Potion] can't sneak from the front side, as to do so he always has to keep a twenty-five-meter distance from every Goblin. Which is impossible.

Fortunately, he doesn't have to sneak from the front side.

Sunny is now at the backside of the east hill. He started climbing this hill cautiously while avoiding the patrol teams. He estimated that he had already covered one-fourth of the hill's height when he stopped and looked around.

He was searching for a small cavity hidden behind a cluster of big trees in this area of the hills. The cavity leads to a cavern adjacent to the treasure cave where Gobuta is.

There was only one patrol team present in the vicinity now who were on their way back to the base through the valley between east-hill and north-hill. No patrol team would come here for the next thirty minutes. Since thirty minutes isn't enough to scale the hill, the goblins aren't worried about anyone sneaking in.

Sunny has thirty minutes to freely search. After that, when a patrol team comes here, it will be difficult and restrictive along with the increase in the threat of being found out.

Only fourteen minutes after the patrol team left and Sunny found the small cavity. It was only big enough for an adult human to crawl through. Sunny carefully entered the cavity and crawled his way deeper.

After going about twenty meters into the cavity, its size expands and Sunny found himself in a cave room of about four meters in height and width.

Gobuta had secretly stashed his wealth here when he found this cave room accidentally by smashing through the wall connecting both sides. Since Goblins are somewhat skilled blacksmiths, Gobuta had covered the hole by making a crude stone door.

He visits this stone room every now and then to store some treasures he secretly 'borrowed'. He also didn't discover the cavity because of the Goblin race's poor perception.

In Sunny's last life, a guild had raided this base. After killing all the goblins and Gobuta, the raiding players had thoroughly searched the whole place as players always do in hopes of encountering secret riches.

This time, the raiding players found Gobuta's secret stash which is considered a secret treasure. The cavity passage was also discovered by them. When they had posted the adventure details in the VR Forum, it had become popular because of a particular item which is the same item Sunny is after.

Sunny carefully searched the cave walls for the stone door by lightly pushing the walls just to get the feeling that it's movable. He found the stone door 70° from the cavity hole in the south direction.

He memorized its location and then moved to the center where there are a bunch of golds, shiny ores, glowing herbs, etc. were piled up. He stood beside the treasure while facing the stone door with the treasure in-between.

About twenty minutes had passed since he entered the cavity. There is definitely a patrol team present outside the cavity now. He waited for sixteen minutes as by then, the patrol team would have left. Now he has thirty minutes to complete the task.

He immediately started storing the gold from the treasure stash in his inventory since they won't occupy the inventory's space and the size of the stash would also decrease drastically.

After most of the Gold Coins were stored, he started searching for the item he came for while keeping an eye at the stone door.

Meanwhile, the moment Sunny stored the Gold Coins in the inventory, a 1.7 meter tall and muscular Goblin sitting near the treasure cave entrance looked in direction of the cave room. A feeling of uneasiness crept up inside the Goblin known as Gobuta.

Every lifeform can feel its impending doom due to its use of spirit particles one way or another. But, Goblins feel the threat to their treasure more strongly than their own life.

Therefore, after warning the guards not to step into the cave, Gobuta came to the treasure chamber. He then opened the stone door and strode inside to check his 'borrowed' treasure stash. The cave room lit up dimly due to the treasure cave's lighting.

Sunny had already taken out the [Wind Slicer Token] the moment he noticed the stone door opening.

Just as he stepped into the cave room, Gobuta noticed a hazy figure standing at the center with his treasure stash in-between them and he was stunned for a moment.

Sunny aimed the token at Gobuta and crushed it quickly. A light green-colored thin crescent blade made of compressed wind elemental mana shout towards Gobuta with extreme speed. Sunny felt something being sucked out of his body when he crushed the [Wind Slicer Token].

Sensing the danger coming his way, Gobuta dodged to his left side instinctively but it was already too late to dodge.

The wind blade stuck him and inflicted a bone-deep injury that extended from the right side of his neck to his right shoulder rendering his right hand useless. Dark green blood began to flow out in large amounts from the injury.

Gobuta quickly took out the meter long and eighty centimeters wide single-edged heavy ax that was strapped on his back right side with his left hand and clumsily took a defensive posture because of pain and lack of practice with his left hand.

He hastily executed a skill *Charge* intending to close the distance between him and the intruder as he thought the intruder to be a mage because of the wind blade.

Even though the wind blade missed the neck of his opponent, Sunny wasn't flustered because he already predicted such an outcome after his training practice against a Goblin with a similar Goblin at NTG.

He calmly equipped his wand from his inventory in his right with just a thought and aimed at the incoming muscular Goblin. *Mana Shield*

A blue shield appeared in the path of Gobuta's charge. Although it broke the moment Gobuta collided with it, the shield had done its job. Gobuta's charge was interrupted causing him to stumble forward awkwardly fully open to any attack.

Sunny capitalized this chance and hit on Gobuta's neck with a quick *Mana Bolt*. It didn't do much damage to Gobuta directly except that the wound from the wind blade expanded slightly rupturing his windpipe.

Thereby taking his ability to breathe properly or speak. Also increasing the amount of blood spilling out. Since Gobuta was level-20 strong being, loss of blood wouldn't immediately kill him.

Gobuta became to panic as he lost his chance to shout for reinforcement. As he was already close to Sunny before getting hit with *Mana Bolt* he frantically waved his heavy ax with his left hand. His eyes turned red and his vision became hazy.

Sunny dodged the swings with some difficulty due to wind-generated from Gobuta's strength behind the swings. While dodging, Sunny cast a thin *Mana Chain* and wrapped it around Gobuta's body somewhat stealthily.

Because of panic, Gobuta didn't immediately notice the chain slithering across his body. His instincts also didn't react strongly to the chains because of their minuscule danger to his life.

A few moments later, Gobuta was lying on the ground immobile. Sunny was panting slightly standing close to Gobuta. He walked close to Gobuta, aimed his wand at his wounded neck, and fired three *Mana Bolt*, enlarging the wound.

Gobuta died quickly after that. He didn't even get the chance to execute his skills or techniques. He truly died a tragic death.

Sunny looked around the cave room after confirming Gobuta's death by checking his Exp accumulation. All the treasures were messily spread out in the cave room.