It was early in the morning, and the forest was quiet. Just in one spot somewhere amongst the trees and bushes was a fight currently commencing.
A Goblin held forward the staff in its hands and summoned a ball of water that shot toward the old man currently fighting against a Goblin cloaked in black, wielding a knife that was just dripping of poison. The ball of water hit the man's back and staggered him for just a second, giving the Assassin Goblin the chance to strike at him.
But before its knife could connect with the man's skink, a ball of light hit the Goblin and exploded into a number of strings that tied it down. The man took that chance and swung his sword downward, splitting the Goblin's head open.
He then turned around and rushed at the Goblin that previously shot the ball of water at him. It seemed to try and cast another spell, but it was too late, as the old man already slashed his sword sideways toward the monster's neck, and cut right through it.
In response to taking these lives, the man grabbed the necklace slung around his neck and rubbed its surface, while his companion came up to him.
"Eisen, are you okay? There was pretty potent poison on that knife, it didn't cut you anywhere, right?" Bree asked with worry in her voice, but Eisen simply shook his head in response.
"No, that knife didn't touch me, don't worry. That damn attack from that Goblin Aquamancer hurt like a bitch, though." Eisen muttered and slightly rubbed his back. It didn't really hurt all that much, but it covered a large surface that began to sting all at once, so it was more than just uncomfortable. It did do a lot of damage to Eisen, though. It drained a whole 400 HP at once, just from that one attack.
"That was a good fight to start the day out, right?" He laughed and leaned against a tree to let his HP recover while Bree squatted down in front of the dead Goblins to cut out their mana crystals. She chuckled softly and nodded.
"Mhm! It went a lot better than it did in our first fight against Rank 3 Monsters yesterday."
"Don't remind me, that was really tough…" Eisen shuddered slightly at the memory, but simply decided to check the equipment of the goblins while Bree began to cut the mana crystals out. During this fight, Eisen and Bree were fighting against five different Goblins.
A Goblin Aquamancer, Assassin, Shield-Bearer, Axeman, and Hammerer. The staff of the Aquamancer had a nice, light blue gem at the top, which Eisen confirmed to be a Water Gem, and a mid-grade one at that! The things that he managed to get from these Rank 3 Goblins were actually a lot better than he expected! The metal weapons still didn't seem to be all that great, though. They moved from brittle Iron with a low amount of carbon inside of it to relatively high-quality steel, although the blades were still not in great condition. Eisen didn't feel like he had any real use for the dagger but still wrapped it in a rag to keep it for the poison. He might be able to use it on an, especially strong enemy if he needed to.
The Shield of the Shield-Bearer was quite interesting as well. It had nearly covered half of the Goblin's body before and seemed quite durable. A part of the side was chipped off, and the front was covered in scratches due to numerous attacks against it. However, for now, Eisen didn't have a real use for it, so he decided to leave it there.
The axe from the Axeman was completely destroyed. It seemed to already be highly damaged before Eisen and Bree got there, and practically shattered into pieces during its fight with Eisen.
The Weapon that seemed to be in the best condition seemed to be the Hammerer's Warhammer. It was nicely decorated and was completely made of solid steel, through and through.
It was too small for Eisen, but he really appreciated the craftsmanship. And he was wondering about something else. Bree was a lot of help, for sure, but all she could do was help when someone else was there. If she was alone, she practically couldn't do anything. Eisen wanted to change that. She should at least be able to defend herself if Eisen wasn't there. This might especially be the case while Eisen's family was visiting him since he couldn't just play the game all the time then, so he would be logged out except for eight to ten hours at night, meaning that Bree would be left alone for quite a while.
And Bree actually had a good amount of strength, after all her job was basically to carry heavy stuff all the time, so a Warhammer would be a good choice for her, at least in Eisen's opinion.
So, Eisen walked up to her and squatted down to talk.
He held the hammer forward, confusing Bree at first, but after a bit of explanation, obviously leaving out the parts about him being gone a lot in a while since he had no good way of explaining that, she agreed to at least try it out.
After finishing the retrieval of the Mana Crystals, Eisen and Bree prepared to let Bree practice a little bit so that she could get a skill related to hammer combat. First, they would find another group of Goblins, and then Eisen would kill all of them besides the one that was weakest in close-quarter combat, disarm it, and then let Bree kill that Goblin. Her strength was pretty close to Eisen's, a bit higher actually, so she should be able to kill it without too many problems.
It might slow down Eisen's growth a little bit, but he was already at level 43 due to the leveling he did yesterday, so it wouldn't be too much of a problem. He still had about one and a half weeks left for the quest, after all.
And for Eisen, fighting these Goblins just became easier and easier, especially after his Swordsmanship skill reached Rank 2 the day before, allowing Eisen to use special attacks. He couldn't really figure out what those were, besides that he could now infuse his mana into his sword as he could with Tool-Connection. It seemed to do a little more damage than usual, but not really that much.
So now it was time to train with Bree.
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"Wooah! Cool! I got the Hammer-Wielding Skill!" Bree exclaimed happily as she looked at the Warhammer in her hands. What just happened was actually quite horrid. When Eisen fought against things, then there was still blood, but it simply scattered onto the ground or pearled off of his sword. He did get some blood on his clothes or skin every once in a while, but the blood on his clothes simply disappeared after a few seconds as if it was never there, and the blood on his skin was easily removed with a rag or a little bit of water.
But when Bree just tried to finish off that Goblin that Eisen prepared for her, well… It got quite messy. She repeatedly beat the Hammer's surface against the Goblin's face, but never with enough force to actually finish it off. She just wasn't used to actually fighting, so she didn't know how much force to use. And that was fine if it wasn't for the fact that the Goblin's face was simply bashed in until it was a bloody pulp, and together with the sounds that it made in response, it actually made Eisen feel bad for the Goblin.
And the thick, dark red blood that bordered on black scattered around and drained into the grass and painted a horrid picture with Bree as its canvas.
Eisen quietly gulped and smiled wryly when looking at the Fey-kin that had a proud smile on her face. "Erm… Good job, Bree. You managed to kill it, but next time, how about you try to hit as hard as you can? Might speed everything up a little… You can't just stand there and do that for a minute in the middle of combat." He explained, and Bree tilted her head slightly, then nodded in response.
"Okay~! I'll try to next time~!" She chuckled and kneed on the ground, taking out her knife to cut out the mana crystals. While Bree was doing that, Eisen went around the scene of their latest fight and looked at the Equipment of the Goblins they killed.
There wasn't really much to see this time around. The Group was only made of 3 Goblins, an Archer, a Cleric, and a Spearman.
The Bow from the Archer was completely broken since Eisen practically cut it in half during his initial attack, and the spear wasn't of very high quality. It was basically a metal rod that has been sharpened at the tip. Sure, the metal it was made of was pretty sturdy and in good condition, but it just couldn't be seen as a weapon in Eisen's opinion. And the 'spear' was way too large for the Goblin in the first place. It was perfect for someone of average height and build for a human male, so the Goblin couldn't really wield it properly.
Eisen decided to take this with him. If nothing else, it would be good enough to melt down. And who knows? Maybe it was fate that this Goblin had a weapon it itself couldn't use, and if that was the case, he couldn't just leave it there, now could he?
And at last, the Cleric didn't have any real combat equipment. It was wearing something like a priest's robe and had some kind of wooden carving in its hands. It was probably some kind of religious symbol. It was weird to Eisen that Monsters could have a religion themselves. He figured if there was anyone that would know near him, it was probably the person with a literal knowledge-collection occupation.
"Hey Bree, what can you tell me about Monster Religions?" He asked her, and she stopped harvesting the mana crystals and tilted her head.
"Hmm… Well, there are two different factions of gods. The Good Gods, and the Evil Gods. For example, Elves often believe in the God of Nature, Arberio, from the Good faction. Goblins, though, usually believe in Aplisto, the God of Greed, from the Evil faction. There are a lot of other gods, for all kinds of things, so it would take too long to explain every one of them…" She smiled and returned to work, while Eisen looked at the wooden carving in his hand.
"Interesting…" He muttered out and simply stashed the symbol away in Bree's backpack. It may have some kind of use, after all.
Then, Eisen simply waited for Bree to finish grabbing the Mana Crystal, following which the two of them decided to move on. They walked for a few minutes, and then slowed down since they seemed to get closer to some kind of settlement of Goblins, which they noticed through a few small abandoned huts and numerous stomped out campfires.
Then, they came across a tunnel leading through one of the cliffs that could be found at the edge of the forest. It had about a three-meter radius, and a small, mostly broken gate hanging off to the sides, leaving the entrance wide open.
"Is it safe to go through?" Eisen asked Bree, and she looked at the tunnel suspiciously.
"I'm really not sure how safe it is… It seems somewhat abandoned, otherwise, the gate wouldn't be open like this without some kind of guards. Goblins are dumb, but not that dumb… Maybe there's just nothing on the other side?" She answered as she waited for a decision from Eisen on what to do.
He looked into the darkness and slightly squinted his eyes to figure out if he could see something at the other end. And then he did. The light on the other side of the tunnel became dimmer, as shadows formed within the tunnel, getting closer and closer to the entrance on Eisen's and Bree's side.
While footsteps began to resound throughout it, and the growls of beasts could be heard mixed together with them inside of the tunnel, Eisen prepared his Sword and Bree made sure she could cast whatever spell she needed to when necessary.
The Giant-Dwarf held his Zweihänder forward and waited for an attack from whatever was inside the tunnel.
The first beast that stepped out of the tunnel with heavy steps was a bear with deep black fur, followed by a stag with its fur colored like tree bark that has been overgrown by moss, its antlers seemingly made out of wood that even held a small nest, which held a third beast. A beautiful bird with light blue feathers that began to glitter in the sunlight outside of the tunnel.
And at last, something that was holding a wooden staff came up behind the beasts, a thin tail swinging left and right behind its back while the face of it was slowly being revealed.
While it readied itself for combat, Eisen couldn't help but begin to laugh loudly.