Chapter 49: Down Underground (II) |
The underground terrain was far more spacious than Ember had imagined. After entering through the narrower passageway, the tunnels had widened the further they ventured. Unlike what he had feared, the paths weren't labyrinthine either, but more like an expanse of underground terrain. Still, he kept track of all the twists and turns in a notebook.
Their group of ten had no trouble venturing through the passages while maintaining their formation. With the space available, combat would be mostly unhindered as well, though the casters would need to be careful about slinging spells awry.
The only unnerving part was the looming darkness and the damp, chilly air. Their torches and light constructs managed to dispel the gloom, but his skin still prickled against the frigid air. There wasn’t even a breeze.
With the absence of sunlight, none of the common flora of the wetland grew there. Ember only noted wild vegetation of moss, fungi, and lichen growing in every nook and cranny, dotted only with some ghostflowers and mushrooms.
So far, there were no signs of goblins. They had only found a few Mirewood toads and rotund rodents here and there. Some corpses were lying in wait, left behind by other hunting parties or the goblins. Some of them had been left for so many days that the stench emanating from them prompted the group to dash off.
Ultimately, the quest to hunt goblins turned out to be far more boring than Ember had imagined. Still, he didn't let himself relax. With Elin leading the group, his party should be much more reliable, but Ember didn't want to take that for granted.
“Wait, there is something,” Zea said from his left, raising her nocked bow.
Ember perked up and eyed the direction she pointed in. There was something whirling in the darkness. Something small was stirring merely twenty paces away. Barely visible in the light, it was like a blade of grass swaying in the wind, radiating a faint, darkish glow.
Someone trudged forward to attack it when Elin interjected, “Wait, it's just a manaling.”
“That doesn't seem like a regular manaling,” Benny said.
“Probably one warped by darkness mana,” his cousin said. “Anyhow, it's harmless.”
Manalings were a manifestation of mana. Ember hadn't encountered one before, but he had read about them. Apparently, they came in various shapes and sizes, attuned to whatever elemental mana was available in the ambience. This one, for example, seemed to have been shaped by water and darkness mana. Either way, it was a fascinating subject that ambient mana could originate life. Of course, their lifespan wasn't long. This one likely lasted only a few seconds, while the most long-lived ones seemed capable of remaining in their semi-corporeal form for a few days before fading into ambient mana.
Ember wanted to research them one day. Regrettably, manalings were quite uncommon in their low-mana-density zones. Supposedly, they were commonplace in a rift or in the Northern Folded Plains.
So they marched on. There were supposedly villages of goblins in the underground region, and yet they hadn't thought it would be so hard to find one.
It wasn't until afternoon that they finally came across a goblin hunting party. Without any exchange of words, the two groups fell into combat, the nasty goblins throwing slingshot bombs at once.
As their party had already organised itself, Elin provided shields to obstruct those explosives, while the spell-slingers and archers began shooting at the goblins. There weren't many of them. A mere nine, led by a rotund hobgoblin a head taller than him.
The sword-and-shield bearers defended the magelings as Ember cast wind blades. Other than the hobgoblin, his spell found purchase on every one of the minions, inflicting deep wounds despite the pieces of bone armour they wore. In no time, they managed to dispatch them all without suffering any injuries.
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Yes, goblins were agile, but only akin to some half-baked ninjas who failed their Chunin exams. A couple of them might have managed to flee, if only to be intercepted by Benny's customary wind blades that slit their throats. Their lifeless bodies crashed onto the stone floor in a spray of purple blood as the roisterous screeches died down.
“Humph,” Benny sneered. “Goblins are nothing much.”
“Let's find another pack before we withdraw for the day.”
Unlike regular monsters, goblins did not form any cores in their bodies. Everyone maintained a safe distance from the mangled corpses, since there was nothing to be gained from them. Only Ember approached them to steal a slingshot from a dead goblin. He even found a few of those explosive beads that the goblins had failed to shoot at them.
“I am keeping them,” Ember said, turning to the others.
Only then did the others seem interested in the spoils the goblins had left behind.
“Contribute or not,” Erling sneered, “you're always the first one to get your hands on the good stuff, aren't you?”
Ember wondered when he would be able to escape her scathing remarks. He had tried retorting to them or even remaining silent at times, but the girl seemed to have a deep-seated hatred for him and his house for reasons unknown to him. Well, since she didn't ask him to hand his bounty over, he didn't bother with her and returned to his position while the others sifted through the remaining belongings.
There were no useful tools among them. The bone armours wouldn't fit most of them, let alone anyone wanting to wear them. The war axes, bows, and arrows were hardly useful to anyone either. They were sturdy enough, but regrettably, they lacked any enchantments that would make them better than the equipment they carried.
After the first brush with the goblins, it seemed to become much easier to find them. They found two such smaller packs in the vicinity within a quarter of an hour. After dispatching them, they were ready to withdraw from the gloomy passageways, only to find that a larger pack of goblins was lying in wait to ambush them.
The pits were the breeding grounds of these abyssal spawns, so none of them noticed the ambush until dozens of arrows and those slingshot explosives were hurled towards them. Ember was quick to flare his protective ward, mana flooding through his channels to charge his wand.
With his wand ready to fire, Ember conjured a semi-corporeal shield of kinetic force to defend against the fiery explosions. The goblins had taken a higher vantage point on the rugged archways. None were leaping down to hold them in close quarters. They were still within the range of his tier-4 wind blade, though Ember feared that even the twenty yards between their lines would give the goblins ample time to dodge.
He didn't have to wait long. A group of goblin warriors came down, brandishing their axes and clubs, while the explosions ceased for the time being.
“Do not break the formation. Withdraw ten meters to the left,” Elin shouted. “Benny, work on dispatching their marksmen.”
“On it,” returned the boy, casting a test spell among the ranks of the goblins.
Ember decided to fight the ones charging at him. There were about twenty of those green pests, and half of them came down bearing their weapons. Without ceremony, he released the spell, prompting them to scatter.
A number of arrows plunged towards him immediately. They were the goblins' backup, providing support.
Using the protective ward to neutralise them, Ember brought up the sword in his other hand. He swung at the diminutive creature closest to him, the blade biting through its armour to end it in one blow.
Goblins were fast, but unfortunately for them, they weren't faster than his Blitz Steps.
With one sudden lurch, he ambushed another, piercing the blade through its bone armour and into its torso. Another green spawn leapt at him from his left. With his wand prepared, Ember simply pointed at it as a potent wind blade tore through its hideous exterior.
Then, out of nowhere, a wave of flame burst upon him, flinging him several metres backwards. Ember had barely any idea what struck him, but thankfully, he had kept his protective ward active, saving him from the deadly blast.
Grunting in distaste, he lurched to his feet and found three goblins obstructing his path. Eyes narrowed, Ember immediately dashed to intercept one. With a single swing of his blade, he beheaded it in cold blood, its filthy blood spraying in a fountain. Another had already jumped on him when a free-form kinetic force burst out from him, slamming it into the ground. That blink of a moment was enough for Ember to charge his wand once more and end its flailing.
On second thought, just wielding his blade might be more economical for his mana. After all, these goblins seemed to lack the tough defences evident in most iron creatures. Even the Mirewood toads sported a more robust exterior. The goblins were merely as rowdy as the frogs while lacking all the venom. The only reason they could be any threat was that they knew how to group up and strategise.
While Ember dealt with the goblin warriors, the archers and the hobgoblin on the higher vantage point were shot down by the collective efforts of Benny and Elin.
[Enemy slain: Goblin Warrior level 23, Goblin Warrior level 27, Goblin Warrior level 29…]
He was about to wave his palm to swat away the notification window when another one popped up before his eyes.
[Attunement acquired: Kinetic Force (Minor - 1%)]
Taken aback, Ember blinked, making sure he wasn’t hallucinating. He was almost certain that he would gain this attunement only after he acquired the Kinetic Release skill, but it seemed his stubborn practice had finally paid off.
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