Battle! Backstab!

Gan the monk looked around, and seeing that no one had any objections, he waved his hand.

Within two or three minutes, the group had silently crept up to the cave entrance.

The monk consulted the group. “Lynn, in a moment, can you use Stealth to sneak over and kill the guard on the right, while the ranger shoots the other one?”

Lynn and the ranger both nodded.

The operation began.

Lynn was the first to activate 【Stealth】, quietly creeping up to a position less than four meters away from the goblin guards.

Under the cover of night, Lynn's Stealth ability was utilized to its absolute limit.

He made a signal behind his back. The others couldn't see it, but the monk caught the response within the hazy darkness of the cave entrance.

Guessing that Lynn was in position, the monk signaled the ranger to get ready.

The ranger drew an arrow from the quiver at his waist, nocked it, and drew his longbow to full draw, steadily aiming at the chest of one of the guards.

The night was too dark; aiming for the head would make it easy to miss.

Without making the ranger wait long, Lynn, who had been crouching on the ground, suddenly burst forward. In the blink of an eye, he crossed the two-meter gap and thrust his spear forward, stabbing it straight into the right guard's waist.

That familiar feeling rose in his heart once more as a warm current surged from within his body, coating the tip of his spear.

With a dull squelch of tearing flesh, both of the goblin's kidneys were pierced and destroyed.

“Kidney Strike proficiency +1, current (3/10).”

Only then did the goblin guard on the left notice its companion falling over to sleep without a sound. Just as it was about to alert the cave, it heard a sharp whoosh.

Looking down, an arrow had appeared in its chest at some unknown point.

The monster collapsed. Supported by Lynn, it didn't make a single sound.

For some reason, carrying out this kind of stealthy assassination gave Lynn a faint thrill, as if he were playing a holographic stealth game.

After activating the 《Monster Identification Manual》 and killing over a dozen goblins, his mindset was entirely different from before.

With the guards dealt with, the monk took the lead and walked at the very front.

“Goblins have a keen sense of smell and will soon scent the blood. We must go in immediately and press our advantage before they realize what is happening.”

The group of five filed in one after another.

The entrance was less than two meters wide, but once inside the cave, the width expanded to over three meters, making it relatively spacious.

Next, relying on the combination of Stealth and Kidney Strike, Lynn easily killed another goblin that was just about to head outside.

When they encountered this goblin, the ranger had already drawn an arrow and was preparing to strike.

But at the critical moment, Lynn relied on his combination of Stealth and Kidney Strike to kill the monster first.

A few more seconds passed, and the number of goblins inside the cave decreased by two again. Lynn killed one, and the ranger killed another.

The one the ranger killed had actually been preparing to pounce on Lynn.

Lynn had planned to finish it off with a casual Kidney Strike, but the ranger's arrow was faster than he expected.

The arrow embedded in the goblin was still glowing with a faint white light; clearly, the ranger had also used some kind of Skill.

“Kid, don't think you're a qualified adventurer just because you've dealt with a few goblins.”

Although he had taken the initiative to help Lynn out of a tight spot, Hal the ranger's words were still harsh.

And the goblins did not give the adventurers any breathing room.

Accompanied by an unintelligible screech in the goblin tongue, the rest of the goblins began to shriek in unison.

Clearly, they had caught the scent of blood dispersing through the cave.

Under the command of the Goblin Warrior at the deepest part of the cave, the goblins hurriedly picked up the weapons they had dropped on the ground and rushed toward the entrance.

By now, the number of goblins in the cave had decreased significantly, but the five Strong Goblins and the Goblin Warrior were still completely unharmed. Against the adventurers, they still posed a formidable fighting force.

With its fangs bared and a dark expression, the Goblin Warrior stood up and strode toward the intruders.

Only now did Lynn realize he had still underestimated its height; this fellow was at least six-foot-three.

The massive bone club in its hand was stained with dried blood, having clearly drunk the blood of many enemies.

Lynn could even feel a sense of oppression radiating from this goblin.

But before it could draw close, the monk barred its path.

“Your opponent is me.”

The monk pressed his palms together, his face calm, but his eyes were already glowing.

The Goblin Warrior didn't stand on ceremony. Swinging its massive club in a wide arc, it smashed it straight down toward the monk's head, aiming to split this blind human's skull open first.

“Hah!”

With a low shout, the monk leaped to the side, dodging the Goblin Warrior's attack.

The massive bone club slammed into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Lynn withdrew his gaze.

It seemed the monk could handle this monster.

The cave was now completely filled with the shrieks of the monsters as the goblins rushed right in front of the group.

The ranger shouted, “Solon, hold them back!”

Without needing to be told, Solon the knight gripped his large shield tightly and stood in front of everyone.

Bam!

Several goblins surged forward at once, slamming into the knight's large shield with a heavy thud.

Although a single goblin's strength was inferior to an adult human's, the force of several goblins charging together was nothing to sneeze at.

Even the sturdy Solon stumbled back a step from the impact of these monsters.

“Hal!”

“On it!”

The ranger immediately responded.

Whoosh!

Hal the ranger drew and released, his arrow flying true as a nearby goblin collapsed.

Naturally, Lynn was not idling either.

While Solon held the front line, Lynn slipped around to the goblins' flank and rear.

A goblin that was slightly sturdier than the average goblin was trying to squeeze its way to the very front to fight the intruders to the death, when it suddenly felt a cold sensation in its back.

Reaching behind itself to touch its back,

Looking down, the Strong Goblin found its palm completely soaked in warm blood.

With a thud, the goblin collapsed, revealing the human standing behind it.

A gleam flashed in Lynn's eyes, the physical sensation of that strike still lingering in his mind.

“Killed one Strong Goblin. Obtained Talent Point (Goblin) *2.”

“Adventurer Lynn has accidentally struck a weak point on the back during combat with a goblin. Gaining sudden insight, he has unlocked the Skill 'Backstab'.”

“Current Backstab proficiency: Lv.1 (1/10).”

He had unlocked another new Skill. Not bad.

Although the Skills he unlocked were all rather underhanded, Lynn didn't mind.

Riding on a wave of momentum, Lynn was about to use Backstab to clear out a few more goblins and harvest more Talent Points, but the goblins reacted faster than he expected.

The goblins at the front retreated as they fought, greatly easing the pressure on Solon.

But the price was that five goblins at the rear turned around at the same time, staring directly at Lynn, who had suddenly appeared behind their lines.

Stared down by five goblins at once, Lynn knew things had just taken a turn for the worse.