Chapter 104: Ten-Tenths Chance of Victory |
Although he had already anticipated it, when Lance truly confirmed this possibility…
he silently lowered his head and looked at his right hand.
His arm was trembling slightly out of control.
This strange sensation was exactly the same as his reaction when he first returned to his rented room after killing Goblins.
This powerful body, strengthened multiple times through specialties, was desperately craving a real battle.
A small tribe led by fifty Goblins, limited by its racial foundation, could absolutely not give birth to any terrifying mutation.
The most reasonable assumption was that there was only a newly formed Hobgoblin there.
That was the lowest tier among all Professional Rank monsters.
Lance quickly calculated the strength of both sides in his mind.
His evaluation of himself was very simple.
He was very good at fighting.
If it came down to a life-and-death struggle where defense was abandoned and lives were traded, the one left standing at the end would definitely be him.
He didn’t know whether this was a side effect of his red talent, but he felt as though his body was suppressing something with nowhere to vent.
It was as if it needed to be released through slaughter or something similar—otherwise, if suppressed for too long, it might spiral into something he couldn’t control.
And now, this trembling hand driven by excitement was the best proof.
He clenched his fist tightly.
Since his body craved it so much, then he would try it without holding back.
Moreover, thanks to the experience accumulated from clearing the previous three small camps, the Goblin research progress on his panel had already surpassed Level 3.
The full-map vision function for Goblins had quietly been unlocked.
Without needing to approach, he could completely scout the situation within that camp. If anything unexpected occurred, he could retreat.
“Cecilia.”
Lance turned his head and looked at the girl behind him as he asked:
“When interns from your academy encounter life-threatening danger in the wild, how do they ensure their safety?”
Cecilia froze for a moment, clearly not keeping up with her Senior’s jumping train of thought.
But she still answered very seriously.
“Each of us is issued a specially-made magical item before heading out.”
“As long as we encounter an unavoidable lethal danger, the item will automatically activate a protective shield, and at the same time send a distress signal to the academy’s Safety Officers. They will arrive as quickly as possible for rescue.”
Hearing this answer, the worry Lance had been carrying was completely relieved.
He would never place a friend who trusted him into danger just to vent his own desire for battle.
With the Safety Officers as a safeguard, he no longer had any concerns.
Looking into the girl’s ruby-like eyes, Lance revealed all the information about his speculation that an elite monster existed ahead.
He carefully explained the immense risks that the upcoming battle might involve, then waited for her decision.
Even if the girl chose to withdraw now, he would not have any complaints.
But Cecilia simply gripped the strap of her canvas bag tightly, her gaze extremely firm.
“Senior, this is a commission we accepted together.”
“We’ll complete it together.”
The girl’s thoughts surprisingly aligned with Lance’s—she would never abandon the Senior who had protected her and run away alone at a time like this.
“Alright, then we’ll go back together.”
Lance smiled and extended his broad right hand forward.
Cecilia understood immediately and raised her small hand.
Smack!
One large and one small hand met crisply in midair.
“Together!” A bright smile bloomed on the girl’s face.
Tactical reconnaissance was always the first step of any operation.
Lance brought Cecilia to a stop several hundred meters away from the nest.
There was no need to approach and take risks. As long as he circled the camp at a distance with the girl, the troop deployment inside was already fully exposed within his vision.
Within his field of view, dense clusters of red dots lit up.
There were about thirty of them—fewer than he had expected.
But among these red dots representing ordinary Goblins, there was one particularly striking anomaly.
Its silhouette was clearly much taller than the others around it.
Based on visual estimation, the creature’s height was definitely between 1.8 and 1.9 meters.
This confirmed Lance’s worst—and most anticipated—guess.
It was an adult Hobgoblin.
As the lowest-tier Professional Rank monster, it possessed no powerful bloodline specialties and was even called the disgrace of Professional Rank monsters.
It merely had slightly stronger physical attributes than ordinary monsters.
However, a Hobgoblin that ruled over a Goblin camp might possess certain 【Tactical Specialties】.
In the Monster Manual issued by the Adventurers’ Guild, some versions even removed Hobgoblins from the Professional Rank category entirely and classified them as non-professional.
Lance preferred to call it a semi-Professional Rank monster.
The fact that the Hobgoblin could be seen by him also confirmed a piece of good news.
This mutated individual of the Hobgoblin lineage was still classified by the system within the Goblin species.
That meant the Weakness Insight trait granted by the system was fully effective on it.
Before confirming this information, Lance only had an eighty percent chance of victory.
Now, with the highlighted weak points, he already had ninety percent absolute confidence.
And Cecilia’s precise spell support would perfectly make up for the remaining ten percent.
With a ten-tenths chance of victory, he couldn’t even imagine how he could lose.
He faintly felt a strong intuition—
that personally killing this Variant Elite monster would definitely bring unexpected benefits to the Goblin research in his Biological Research panel.
The next strategy was very clear.
With a Hobgoblin present, he definitely couldn’t just charge into the camp with his shield raised and engage the green-skinned monsters in close combat.
Once surrounded by more than thirty Goblins, along with a large and powerful elite monster,
such a reckless charge would be no different from courting death.
He had to first make use of the terrain advantage to eliminate all the ordinary Goblins, and only then focus on dealing with the isolated Hobgoblin.
Lance hid behind dense bushes, his gaze focused as he summoned his semi-transparent panel.
【Dragon-Hunting Breathing Technique LV3 (811/1000)】
【Levin Archery LV2 (193/240)】
【Current Remaining: Skill Experience 1128, Knowledge Experience 260】
Looking at the numbers on the panel, he calculated quickly in his mind.
If he wanted to, he could directly raise the Dragon-Hunting Breathing Technique to Level 4 right now.
But he forcefully suppressed this tempting impulse.
The muscle spasms caused by forcibly solidifying body specialties and talents before were still fresh in his memory.
He was afraid that the exclusive traits derived from this core skill would be too intense.
If it involved deep-level bodily enhancement, then without sufficient nutritional support from high-calorie magical beast meat, his body would most likely collapse on the spot.
That would be no different from suicide.