Capítulo 16: Red Orbs and Reminiscing

The first thing that came into sight when Izroth arrived inside of the main area of the large building, was the many goblins patrolling it. That bright light also seemed to be much stronger and brighter inside of this area than that of the outside and in the middle of it, was a huge open space! There were huge pillars of stones lined up in a formation shaped like that of a square. Carved onto those pillars of stones were symbols that looked exactly like the ones Izroth saw on the strange stones where he had met Gilidore. At every corner of the formation, there were red orbs levitating in midair and emitting a bizarre kind of energy.

He also noticed that no 'Goblin Workers' or 'Goblin Scouts' were amongst the monsters present. They were all 'Goblin Soldiers', 'Goblin Archers', and even some unknown type of goblin that Izroth had not yet seen before. Though all of them had one thing in common, they were all elite monsters!

Izroth eyes shone brightly as he looked at the number of elite monsters before him. There were a total of 8 goblins patrolling back and forth around the open ground, and 4 of the unknown type of goblins. Each of the unknown goblins was pouring some type of energy into the red orbs as if they were its source of power. If the 'Goblin Soldier' and unknown goblin monsters gave the same amount of EXP as the 'Goblin Archer' then he could gain over 8,000 EXP! That would be enough for him to level up twice and gain another skill point!

Izroth took a moment to further observe his surroundings and soon noticed that there was only one path that leads out of this place, not counting the path he took to get here of course. It was located on the opposite side of where he was, and there was a barely discernable barrier that seemed to be blocking the way inside.

"It appears that some kind of barrier is set up over there to prevent me from moving deeper into the building... I also have to be a bit careful, I don't know what kind of power those strange red orbs possess" Izroth thought to himself.

Izroth took around 5 minutes to rest and let his HP be fully restored. When one was outside of a battle for a certain period of time their HP would be regenerated. The lower your HP was the longer it would take for it to regenerate, though thankfully Izroth had only lost around 23% of his HP and so it only took 5 minutes for him to gain back what he had previously lost.

There was '1 hour and 51 minutes' remaining on the time limit for his quest to find the relic of power. He did not know how many places there were to search in the giant building and so he had to make haste!

"I have a strange feeling about those red orbs and those strange goblins... I feel like I should take care of them first" Izroth made his decision as he started heading towards one of the corners of the stone pillars. He stopped and waited for a moment, stopping at least 32 meters away as a patrol of 1 'Goblin Soldier' and 1 'Goblin Archer' passed by. Izroth knew that the 'Goblin Archer' had an incredibly long perception range of around 30 meters! He knew that he could handle those two monsters, but he wanted to get within close enough range to observe the unknown goblin first.

After waiting for a brief period of time, the goblins were finally out of range and Izroth immediately sprinted towards the bottom right corner of the stone pillars! When he arrived around 30 meters away from the unknown goblin he could, at last, see what it was!

Name: Goblin Sorcerer(Elite)

Level: 11

HP: 1,200/1,200

Mana Shield: 1,000,000

ATK: 10

DEF: 10

AGI: 30

MAG: 180

Skills:

Energy Channel(Active): The goblin sorcerer channels their own energy into a target object continuously. Cannot be interrupted. If the goblin sorcerer is channeling their energy into a mysterious red orb, they may still cast other spells while channeling.

Mana Sphere(Active): Deals 100% of the goblin sorcerer magic as damage.

Mana Barrier(Active): Gains a temporary mana shield equal to 150% of their magic. This shield lasts for 15 seconds and absorbs all incoming damage until it is destroyed.

Great Protection(Passive): As long as the goblin sorcerer is channeling energy into the mysterious red orbs, they gain 1,000,000 mana shield.

Izroth's eyes widened in surprise as he read the skills of the 'Goblin Sorcerer'. That skill 'Great Protection' gave it 1,000,000 shield?! This had to be a joke right? Even if he was very confident in his own abilities, how could he tolerate such a broken skill?

Did he really have to deal over a million damage to kill a single 'Goblin Sorcerer'? There were 4 of them in all, that meant that he had to deal over four million damage total! Even if he used his strongest combination attack of 'Sword Force' and 'First Baneful Sword: Destruction' and he was to get a critical hit every single time, it would still take over 2,500 attacks to kill all 4 'Goblin Sorcerers'! But those were skills and had a cooldown time to them so it would actually take many more attacks than that!

Izroth was caught in a predicament, how could he possibly finish the quest in under 2 hours this way? It was impossible!

Izroth let out a long sigh before taking a deep breath and began to concentrate and scrutinize every single inch of this place. Even though he was on a time limit, if he did not stop and think about this then he would have zero chance at completing it. There had to be something he was missing or overlooking here!

Izroth's eyes darted all around him trying to find a solution, however, no matter how hard he looked he did not see anything out of the ordinary! He even searched the memories of the hardcore gamer inside of him, but even they had never seen a situation like this before! After all, they had not played RML before in their life since it was just released. Never would Izroth had thought that he, the number one cultivator in the seven realms would be bested by... A video game!

Izroth could not help but laugh, he actually found the entire predicament to be amusing. When he thought about the fact that he could once uproot mountains, flip entire oceans, pluck stars from beyond the sky and solve the greatest mysteries of cultivation, and yet here he was now, having absolutely no clue how to go about things in a game!

Most people would be incredibly frustrated at the moment, but Izroth felt that this was not a bad thing! Izroth closed his eyes and recalled something that his teacher had once said to him. Izroth's teacher was a wise old man with deep and profound knowledge, and even though he had surpassed his teacher in the realm of cultivation, he never once acted arrogantly in front of him.

"Izroth, one day you will surpass me and with your talent reach a realm that may be even beyond my comprehension. But you must always remember that no matter what, loneliness is the only companion that can keep you accompanied for a lifetime. But it does not have to be the only thing you carry around in your lifetime. Hopes, dreams, happiness, laughter, you must always make room for them, because there may be a day when all there exist is nothingness" there was an incredibly deep and profound look on his teacher's face, but within his eyes was a look of eternal loneliness.

At that time, Izroth never understood what his teacher meant until he reached the very top and there was no longer anyone he could call his equal. No one that could travel the seven realms with him and nothing left for him to ponder on the path of cultivation. But now Izroth had a new life with goals to achieve, knowledge that he did not yet fully understand, and an entirely new realm to explore! How could he not laugh from happiness at this moment when thinking about that?

Izroth opened his eyes with a refreshed look on his face and almost instantly something popped into his mind.

"Of course...! How could I not see this before?!" Izroth had a look on his face that showed he made a discovery! It was so simple that he felt a bit embarrassed by overthinking things. Izroth may have had thousands of years of experience as a cultivator, but he was still a complete noob when it came to video games! The answer was simple, the red orbs! If he could destroy the red orbs, then the 'Goblin Sorcerers' would have nothing to channel their energy in to. If there were no red orbs for them to channel their energy in to, then they would not have that insane mana shield protecting them!

Izroth did not think to attack the red orbs before because everything until now in this game had just been about killing monsters and did not require much thinking. But ever since he entered into this cave behind the waterfall, there had been traps, quests assigned to him, multiple paths to choose from and now this situation with the red orbs. He had been too simple-minded in his approach to this video game.

"I have to begin thinking of this as more than just a game where you go around and kill monsters. It seems I still have much to learn indeed..." Izroth thought to himself. But having found a viable solution to his problem, he felt much more energetic than before.

"Now the only tricky part is dealing with the attacks of the 'Goblin Sorcerer', as they won't just allow me to destroy the red orbs without retaliating" Izroth unsheathed his 'Nameless Blade' as he slowly moved closer and closer to the 'Goblin Sorcerer' trying to figure out its range of perception.

28 meters away...

25 meters away...

As soon as Izroth arrived 20 meters away from the 'Goblin Sorcerer' it turned its head towards him. "Human! Bad human intrude! Must die! Orders of great one!" surprisingly this goblin was able to talk using the human tongue! A sphere of blue colored energy started to form in the hand of the 'Goblin Sorcerer' as though a great power was gathering to a single point.

Izroth was a bit startled to hear the goblin actually speak in the human tongue and not that incomprehensible goblin language! But what caught his interest was something the 'Goblin Sorcerer' had said, they mentioned something about 'orders of great one'.

"Could this 'great one' be related to the mysterious goblin from my quest?" Izroth thought to himself, but he pushed it to the back of his mind for now and decided to focus on the fight in front of him! This was the first time Izroth would be fighting against a monster that could use magic!

The sphere of energy finished forming in the hand of the 'Goblin Sorcerer' before flying towards Izroth at an amazing speed! How fast! Izroth could clearly see the sphere of energy heading directly towards him as he accelerated forward heading right for the red orb, his primary target!

Buuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzz!

The sphere of energy emitted a strange buzzing noise as if a bunch of static was constantly crackling! It arrived right in front of Izroth as soon as he reached the red orb! Izroth's 'Nameless Blade' met the 'Mana Sphere' clashing head-on with it!

PARRIED!

-144 HP!

356/500 HP Remaining! (Izroth)

What incredible damage! His defense seemed to be completely useless against the 'Mana Sphere'! He made a decision that he would have to avoid even attempting to parry those attacks, or else he would die within 3 more hits! But Izroth's mood improved when he appeared right before the red orb, and a smile formed on his face.

Magic Item Name: Mysterious Red Orb

Magic Item Rank: B

Magic Item HP: 3,000

Magic Item ATK: 0

Magic Item DEF: 0

Usage: ???

Izroth was correct! You could indeed attack the red orb to destroy it!

"A magic item...!" Izroth said talking under his breath. It was the first time Izroth had seen a magic item and although he could not see its usage, it was only a B rank magic item! If such a powerful item was only ranked at B, he could only imagine the strength of an S rank magic item!