“Should we start the quest tonight?” Bell pondered.
Everyone had roughly discussed the arrangements in the carriage. According to the original plan, they would stay overnight in the village to rest and then act tomorrow.
However, the sudden turn of events clearly disrupted the preconceived plan.
“Two villagers were captured. If we don’t rescue them tonight, it will be too late,” Hailier sighed. “But it’s too dark at night, and the danger of engaging Goblins increases greatly.”
At this moment, she was also very conflicted, constantly rubbing her hair with her fingers.
“And we haven’t conducted any reconnaissance yet,” Gaosi added from the side.
“So, it’s indeed very dangerous,” Mia echoed.
None of the four were experienced adventurers.
Gaosi subconsciously felt that acting at night was not a good idea; monsters’ night vision was always better than humans’.
Reason told him that he should wait until the sun rose the next day, go to the Goblin stronghold, and gather intelligence before acting.
But if he did that,
the two victims would suffer irreparable harm.
And they had come here precisely for the quest to eradicate the Goblins.
He sighed inwardly; many choices that needed to be made seemed to have no correct answer.
“Then, let’s make a decision based on our individual wishes. After all, it’s an unexpected situation, and no matter what decision we make, everyone must respect each other. I’ll count down three, two, one, and then everyone says at the same time, ‘Go,’ or ‘Don’t go.’ ”
“Can we do that?” Hailier took a deep breath, her forehead unknowingly covered in fine sweat.
“I have no objection.”
“Three”
“Two”
“One”
“Go!” “Go.” “Go.” “Go.”
Although Gaosi was half a beat slower, he also gave the same answer as everyone else.
Having received a good education in his previous life, he couldn’t bring himself to be heartless.
Hailier, realizing that everyone had made the same decision, breathed a sigh of relief.
“However, we need to bring villagers who are familiar with the surrounding woods to act with us, and we need lighting,” Gaosi said. “During the mission, we need to prioritize our own safety, and only then can we rescue the victims.”
Although his map ensured he would almost never get lost, he still knew nothing about the unexplored areas, so he needed locals familiar with the environment.
This way, risks could be minimized as much as possible.
“I agree too.”
The group confirmed their unified decision and informed the villagers.
“Thank you all so much!”
“Please, brave warriors! You must save Jenny and Elsa!”
The villagers, as if finding their backbone, expressed their gratitude to the four-person team.
Upon learning that someone was needed to lead the way, four men volunteered to go with them. They were all direct relatives of the missing female villagers and were also the most active in calling for rescue earlier.
At this moment, they were burning with anxiety. In fact, even without the arrival of Gaosi and the others, they had already planned to go to the Goblin nest to rescue their family.
To save time, after quickly packing their equipment, everyone carried torches and set off into the woods.
The villagers actually knew the approximate location of this group of Goblins’ lair.
The two men walking in front, one hand holding a torch and the other a pitchfork, hurried along.
The two were the fathers of the captured Jenny and Elsa, their faces grim, their pace constantly quickening.
The four members of the team walked quickly while discussing the specific combat plan.
“Just like we practiced yesterday, Bell and Mia will be at the front, engaging in direct combat. I will use my bow to strike the Goblins from the flank, and Gaosi will also use magic to restrain the Goblins, creating opportunities for Bell and Mia to kill them. He can also use his dagger to support Bell and Mia at any time.”
Bell and Mia had no objections to Hailier’s arrangement, even though they were the front-liners facing the Goblins directly, bearing the greatest risk.
“Okay,” Gaosi also agreed.
Everyone had practiced for an entire afternoon yesterday. Although it was unknown how much of the training effect would be demonstrated in actual combat, Gaosi found that the strength of the three was actually quite good.
All three had also mastered a prerequisite skill for a professional and could use it proficiently.
Mia’s skill was 【Lunge】, which allowed her to rapidly move forward a certain distance while using the twin blades in her hands to deliver continuous strikes to enemies in front of her.
Bell’s skill was 【Cleave】, which sounded simple, but when the skill was activated, the force of the chop would suddenly increase, making the original longsword chop more powerful.
As for Hailier’s skill, it was 【Precise Aim】. After activation, her eyesight and hand strength would be enhanced, allowing her to shoot arrows without fail at short to medium range.
Plus Gaosi’s Mage Hand.
Although everyone’s mission experience was severely lacking, this new team was actually not weak in strength. At least, their theoretical strength surpassed many low-level adventurer teams.
This was also why Gaosi agreed to the action.
Seven or eight Goblins, even at night, were no match for this team, all of whom had mastered skills.
As long as they each quickly dealt with one enemy using their skills at the moment of direct engagement, it would then essentially become a one-on-one battle.
“Uncles, we ask for your help in temporarily restraining the Goblins. Once we each deal with our own enemies, we will come to help you.”
“Don’t worry, it’s just one Goblin, we can handle it.”
Before long, everyone arrived in front of a cave.
This seemed to be a natural cave, about two meters in diameter, extending into an unseen, pitch-black depth.
“This is it.”
Everyone looked into the depths of the cave.
The pitch-black cave, lacking a light source, showed no scenery inside.
Outside the cave, slippery moss grew, and a faint, peculiar smell of urine could be detected.
The few people stopped in front of the cave. Gaosi waved to the others, attracting their attention, and was about to say that he would activate Mage Hand.
He was considering whether to use the Mage Hand’s casting range of about ten meters to enter and investigate when...
A sharp cry suddenly rang out beside him.
“Wa wa wa!”
The sound was to Gaosi’s left. He, who had been concentrating, was instantly startled.
Following the sound, he turned his head and, after seeing the enemy’s appearance, thought, “Not good.”
A green-skinned, pointy-eared creature emerged from the bushes, constantly letting out loud cries to warn its companions in the cave.
Damn it! There’s a Goblin scout near the Goblin cave!
With the sudden change, Gaosi’s heart rate constantly accelerated.
It was at this moment that the world before his eyes suddenly seemed to slow down, continuously decelerating, and at the same time, his thoughts became exceptionally clear! It was as if he had entered bullet time.
Clutching his dagger, he quickly moved a large step sideways, his dagger precisely slicing towards the little green-skin’s neck.
The Goblin, acting as a scout, instinctively wanted to dodge, but the next moment, an invisible force activated.
Mage Hand!
The invisible ghostly arm suddenly pushed it from behind.
It was precisely because of this not-too-great force that the Goblin’s backward dodging motion paused for a moment.
Then, the metallic blade tip coming towards it cut a beautiful arc, the green skin split open along the blade, and blood from the throat gurgled out like crushed tofu.
Death!
In just an instant, like a reflex, his continuous slashing motion, combined with a perfectly timed spell, precisely slit the Goblin’s throat.
The originally loud “wa wa” cries instantly turned into dry hisses.
“Total monsters killed: 2”
“Bang!”
The Goblin, lying on the ground, its head almost severed, stared fixedly at Gaosi with a pair of cloudy, yellowish eyes, as if wanting to firmly remember the human who took its life in its last moments.
“Prepare for engagement!”
The others hadn’t expected Gaosi to act so quickly, but now was not the time to be surprised.
The Goblin’s previous cries had undoubtedly alarmed the Goblin tribe within the cave.
Now, continuous shouts emanated from inside, like enraged apes issuing aggressive threats.
They poured out of the nest.
Footsteps continuously increased in the shadows, and in the flickering torchlight, pairs of red eyes darted out.
One pair, two pairs... eight pairs... twelve pairs, thirteen pairs...
Gaosi, silently counting, realized something was wrong.
He shouted loudly.
“The number is wrong! There are too many!”
“Intelligence is inaccurate!”
“Be careful!”
Facing dozens, or even more, pairs of glowing red eyes, everyone felt as if the entire cave was crawling towards them!
At this moment, Gaosi’s heart pounded rapidly as he clutched his dagger.
He gained another valuable experience.
That is,
Never blindly trust mission intelligence.