章節 105: Don't underestimate goblins, please! part 4
"Please! you have to hurry! mister Ryu is facing a goblin right now!"
Sera cries for help after reaching the rest of the party.
"Calm down miss, I'm sure he'll be ok. We're about to go out of goblin's territory and they don't usually venture far from their villages, if it's just one goblin he'll be ok."
Instructor Lorenzo tries to calm her down holding her two arms in a firm grasp.
"We should go, if it's Ryu I'm sure he'll need help."
Bob said in a serious tone that contrasted heavily with his usually cheerful attitude. Luke stood up from the ground and patted his pants.
"Listen, I know you must be worried by your friend and I know too that I told you they weren't just weaklings. But actually that was just to scare you, even kids can fight them off pretty easily. We'll go, but don't help him unless it's completely necessary. He'll need the experience to become stronger and if he can't deal with mere goblins I won't be able to allow him to rank up."
"But mister Lorenzo!"
Sera couldn't hold back her tears and couldn't find the words to make him understand the situation. While she only saw a single goblin and Ryu should be able to beat it, she couldn't stand the chance of losing him.
"Miss, I know how you feel, but if your friend doesn't rank up you won't be able to make a party with him. He'll be an F rank and F rankers aren't even allowed to take on monster subjugation quests. You all have a bright future ahead of you, so follow my instructions and everything will be ok."
Lorenzo said as he took the lead on the way to help Ryu. His intention is to find him and see how well he can fight by himself against monsters. He knows Sera is weak and plans to keep her in F rank for a while, at least until her stats grow up, but he doesn't know the extent of Ryu's fighting prowess.
On one hand, he doesn't emit any sort of strong energy, his presence is so low that among his partners he's almost invisible and he's also pretty weak for his age, but on the other hand he was able to scare the crap out of Risa with a mysterious skill and he's pretty handy when it comes to traveling in the wilderness.
Lorenzo could already imagine a future in which he's the instructor of an outstanding monster slaying group in training, and after a couple years he may earn big just on his commission. Even while in training he could act as a party leader for a while and earn a bigger share, allowing him to finally pay off his debt.
Lorenzo has always been a serious hard working man and held big ambitions for his future. When he was recruited into the adventurer's guild he was told he was some sort of genius that climbed up the ladder pretty quickly and things were going on the right track to become the strongest adventure of Celarent. But things weren't so easy after he developed a taste for gambling that almost left him on the street.
The possibility of making it big on gambling, accomplishing his ambitions faster and retiring at a young age made his career more difficult. He was demoted from the B rank to C after failing several missions due to not being able to buy the proper equipment, soon he wasn't able to replace the weapons he broke during his missions and he was so indebted that he wasn't allowed to leave Celarent.
As soon as he set foot in another town, unless he's undertaking a quest or training young adventurers, he would become a slave. He would have been already enslaved if it wasn't for the adventurer's guild, who protect their own from becoming slaves. If they didn't protect the adventurers, many would be enslaved before reaching their peak condition, for falling on debt just to pay for the healing potions they needed. So, the adventurer's guild buys their debt and hires them as workers, as long as they behave they won't fall into slavery.
The current adventurer's guild head is dead set on helping Lorenzo recover his B rank so he can take on difficult quests not many adventurers at Celarent are able to, but all Lorenzo wants is still to earn big and retire young.
The first thing that crossed Lorenzo's mind when he heard about Ryu's situation was how big of an opportunity this was. Not only he would be able to put Ryu to the test in a real life situation and have him gain some confidence in his own fighting prowess, he would also brag on his pupils achievement of defeating three goblins in a quest that usually ended without a single goblin kill.
But all of his expectations were trashed the instant he saw Ryu fighting with all he had to fend off a single goblin.
Ryu's body was already pierced by several goblin arrows that were usually so weak that couldn't even draw blood on bare skin, blood was trickling from his forehead and he was all bruised up. The goblin in front of him was all beaten up but refused to give up changing the dagger from hand to hand to land a blow on Ryu the second he lost his focus.
From the surroundings alone, an experienced tracker would have thought an epic battle occurred with so many plants shredded to pieces, deep scratches on trees and red and purple blood scattered all over.
But it was a fight between two creatures, a weak goblin that would usually die with a single blow so seeing one of them hurt was something rare, and something that looked like a human, a young man at that, but was so weak it was simply impossible he was even related to mankind.
"Hey, are you sure your companion is even human? are you absolutely certain it's not an F grade beast or something?"
"What are you saying Lorenzo!? hurry up and help him!"
Even after seeing that, Lorenzo's plan didn't change much. He wouldn't let Ryu die, but there was no way in hell he would allow such a weakling to rank up along with Bob and Luke. Nevertheless, it was still a chance for Ryu to prove himself, however weak he was, he was still an adventurer after all.
"Don't intervene, he needs to find his limits. If you always help him he won't ever grow stronger than he currently is"
When Lorenzo spoke, the goblin got distracted for a second. The presence of other humans made him abandon the grin he held on his face this entire time. The human in front of him was strong, the strongest enemy he ever faced.
It didn't matter how many blows he landed, how many arrows pierced his chest and extremities, he would keep fighting with all he had.
The battle prolonged for a while, with Ryu screaming to the top of his lungs as he thrusted his sword forward not even conscious of the presence of his companions and the instructor and the goblin grunting and panting heavily after moving nimbly from side to side, going in and out of bushes.
It was true goblins were weak, but they were so agile they could easily hurt anyone before dying. Even if little by little, wounds would start to pile up and they would eventually be able to defeat even high rank adventurers, that's why their strength was in numbers and that was also the precise reason why humans rarely attacked goblin villages. As if that wasn't enough they could also escape in almost any situation. Unless caught off guard they would simply disappear into the bushes or camouflage themselves seemingly disappearing in front of untrained eyes.
Sera was holding her hands close to her chest in a praying position, Bob and Luke were worried too, but Lorenzo was already growing tired of the situation. He was tempted to call off the fight and simply put the goblin out of his misery, not for pity nor to help Ryu, simply because he was already tired of seeing the dumb fight occurring in front of his eyes.
Even unarmed kids would be able to kill a goblin and he would tell everyone about the idiotic scene he's witnessing so the other adventurers would make fun of Ryu, if he wasn't his instructor. All the attention the achievements of Bob and Luke would be eclipsed by the shame of a human giving his all to defeat a single goblin.
Just as Lorenzo was pondering this, Ryu finally managed to land a hit on the goblin's face. His sword so sharp made it through the goblin's face as if he was drawing a purple colored wound with a brush. Seemingly noticing how little chance he had at winning the fight, the creature retreated into the bushes and quickly ran off.
Ryu, being left exhausted to the point of having cramps all over his body and so hurt he was almost bled out, fell to the ground with a joyous expression on his face.
Unbeknownst to everyone at Ryu's party, the goblin retreated to his own party composed of an archer without a single arrow on his quiver and three small goblin children, they were out foraging to bring food back to their village and didn't expect to find human adventurers so close to their territory. Humans live far away from the goblin's village and it was a very rare encounter. Despite all his injuries and his poor health condition, he too held a joyous smile.
>Quest failed.
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