Roger quickly recycled all the short spears on the ground, receiving 300 points, and then crouched low as he headed toward the source of the commotion.
The sound grew closer. Roger stopped, lowered his body, and slipped behind a waist-high bush, peering through the gaps in the leaves toward the source of the noise.
It was another squad of goblins, walking in a loose column toward the depths of the forest. He estimated there were at least ten of them, equipped exactly like the previous patrols they had encountered.
They chattered in raspy voices as they walked, completely unaware that a pair of eyes was watching them from dozens of paces away.
“Green skins, green skins... Why are there green skins everywhere?” Roger grumbled to himself.
The last time he had scouted here with Irene, they had walked for most of the afternoon before running into Sargon's group, and hadn't seen so much as a shadow of a goblin otherwise.
Now, they were spawning in droves shortly after he entered, as if he had stirred up a hornets' nest of green skins.
Where had these goblins been hiding before, and why were they suddenly pouring out all at once now?
Crouching in place, he quickly weighed two options.
The first option was simple: wipe out this goblin squad just like before.
With his current skill loadout and kiting ability, taking down ten ordinary grunts would be no problem, and the points would be guaranteed.
The second option was to hold off for now and quietly tail them to see where they were going.
These goblins wouldn't be gathering in the depths of the forest for no reason. If he could find their destination, he might be able to follow the clues and locate the cultists' activities in this forest.
The first option was a guaranteed profit, but the second option might unearth more valuable intelligence.
After weighing his options, Roger decided on the latter.
Rising from behind the bushes, he kept his center of gravity low and used the tree trunks and ferns for cover. He quietly followed the squad, maintaining a distance of about twenty paces from the last goblin.
As the tailing continued, the surrounding light dimmed imperceptibly, and more and more goblin figures appeared in his line of sight.
Roger carefully maintained his distance while keeping an eye on the growing number of figures in all directions, ensuring he wouldn't run straight into a goblin emerging from the side.
Although 【Danger Sense】 had not triggered any alarms, he did not let his guard down.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, a small dirt mound appeared ahead, with a carved-out cave entrance on it.
Squad after squad of goblins was entering and exiting the cave. Hiding in a dense patch of bushes about thirty paces away, Roger held his breath and watched the entrance without moving.
In just a few minutes, the number of goblins he saw entering and exiting the cave had already exceeded three digits. The clamor echoing from inside told him that the number within would only be greater.
“If I kill them all, I could probably get several thousand points.” The thought flashed through his mind.
Roger crouched in the bushes for a bit longer. After confirming the direction of the cave entrance and the surrounding terrain, he began to quietly back away.
He decided to stay away from the cave for now and instead look for favorable ambush positions in the surrounding woods, specifically targeting lone goblins or small patrol squads approaching the cave.
With his current strength, charging straight into the cave would definitely be unwise and might even lead to disaster. It was better to try a different approach.
For instance, he could lie in wait along the paths these green-skinned bastards had to take to and from the cave, striking and then immediately relocating.
Using guerrilla tactics to gradually whittle down their numbers would allow him to steadily farm points without putting himself in danger of being surrounded.
Even if he failed, it wouldn't matter much; at worst, he could just activate the Short-Range Teleportation Amulet and flee.
He hadn't gone far when another goblin patrol of exactly ten caught his eye.
Without hesitating, Roger fired several Fireballs, blasting all the goblins to death.
“Points +500, balance 1,600.”
Roger quickly walked over to the charred corpses and picked up the ten short spears scattered on the ground one by one to recycle them.
“Points +200, balance 1,800.”
After completing the recycling, he immediately left the ambush point and moved toward his next planned position.
But before he could go far, he felt a slight tremor in the ground, as if some large creature was running through the forest in the distance.
Roger didn't waste a single second wondering about the source of the tremor. He rushed toward the nearest thick oak tree, channeled Life Energy into his legs, and leaped onto the lowest branch like a coiled spring.
He scrambled hand over hand to a higher position while activating 【Iron Wall】. Once he was securely perched on the branch, he peered through the gaps in the leaves toward the cave.
A dense swarm of figures was pouring out of the cave like ants from a disturbed nest.
Before long, the goblin horde swarmed under the oak tree, surrounding him from all directions.
Dozens of dull yellow eyes stared up in unison at Roger on the branch, their raspy shouting and cursing rising and falling. They didn't attack immediately, but kept moving, tightening the encirclement.
A few of these goblins stood out particularly, riding on the backs of ugly, large flightless birds.
These creatures were close to the size of a cassowary, with sharp, curved hooks at the tips of their beaks.
The strangest part was that a vestigial claw grew on the joint of each wing, opening and closing with the swaying of their bodies.
The goblins riding the birds were also much taller than the others, holding spears longer and thicker than the short spears, staring up at Roger on the tree with fierce eyes.
Before Roger could finish assessing the threat of the mounted goblins, another commotion broke out at the rear of the horde.
Several goblins led two wild boars over from the direction of the cave.
These two wild boars were a size smaller than the previous brown bear, but their tusks were longer and more curved, and their bodies were painted with several twisted patterns.
Although there were no mages in this squad of goblins, Roger didn't dare let his guard down in the slightest.
Although Rank One extraordinary warriors possessed strength beyond ordinary humans, they were far from invulnerable; a moment of carelessness could still leave them skewered by a peasant's pitchfork.
Roger's current overall strength was roughly equivalent to a Rank Two extraordinary warrior, so while he wouldn't be poked to death by a pitchfork,
facing a horde of grunts dozens of times his number, along with two wild boars enhanced by dark magic and several bird-riding spear-throwers, the probability of being beaten to death was not small.
Furthermore, there were those two wild boars enhanced by cultist spells.
One of the goblins riding a large flightless bird stepped forward slowly, pointing its spear at Roger in the tree and shouting a long string of words in a raspy voice.
Its voice was very loud, with a rising and falling cadence, sounding like a final ultimatum or some kind of disdainful mockery directed at the foolish human in the tree.
The surrounding goblins erupted in bursts of laughter at its words, seemingly certain of securing their prey.
After listening to the other party's speech, Roger also replied loudly:
“I don't understand, sumida!”
As he spoke, he had already nocked a poisoned arrow and released it.
The entire sequence of movements was smooth as flowing water; less than a second passed between his mouth opening and the arrow flying.
The bird-riding goblin still held its spear-raising expression, the corners of its mouth not even having had time to pull back from its mocking curl before the poisoned arrow embedded itself in its bare chest.
It wobbled twice on the bird's back, tumbled off its mount, and twitched a few times on the ground. Then, foaming at the mouth, it stopped moving.
The riderless bird let out a panicked shriek, flapping its wing claws as it retreated, knocking over several goblins standing behind it.
“Points +60, balance 1,860.”
This shot was both a test and his response to the goblin.
Even if Roger could understand what they were saying, there was nothing to talk about between him and these man-eating, green-skinned bastards.
Immediately after, a wave of raspy, furious roars erupted from beneath the tree.
Goblin archers drew arrows from their quivers and nocked them, spear-wielders raised their short spears and shouted in unison, and the wild boars in the bushes let out deafening squeals.
One of the wild boars lowered its head, aiming its tusks at the oak tree where Roger was perched, its hind hooves frantically scraping the ground.
Roger immediately channeled Life Energy into his legs. A split second before the boar charged, he leaped forcefully, launching his body from his branch toward the crown of an adjacent tree.
A second later, several arrows and short spears thudded into the spot where he had just been crouching.
Then, with a deafening crash, the wild boar's tusks slammed into the trunk like a battering ram. The entire tree collapsed, crashing to the ground and kicking up a massive cloud of dust and shredded leaves.
Roger had already nocked a second poisoned arrow, completing his aim the moment he landed on the new branch.
Life Energy was infused into the arrow, charging up an Empowered Shot.
The arrowhead, wrapped in a white vortex, embedded itself into the wild boar's neck.
With no kill notification from the system, Roger leaped to the next tree without pausing, using each landing only to briefly redirect his momentum before immediately springing toward his next target.
Below, the goblin archers and spear-wielders tracked his movement and kept firing, arrows and spears whistling through the branches and leaves behind him.
The two wild boars rampaged below, toppling trees one after another as they chased his path. Loud cracks of snapping trunks echoed continuously across the forest floor, but they were a step slow every time.
After leaping across four or five trees and temporarily pulling ahead, Roger took advantage of a mid-air gap to quickly open the system shop, typing the keywords “speed” and “movement” into the holographic interface as fast as he could.
In less than a second, the shop displayed the search results:
【Name: Windwalk
Description: A basic wind spell. Upon casting, it envelops the caster in wind energy, significantly increasing movement speed and jump distance. Mana is continuously consumed during the effect, with the consumption rate proportional to the speed boost.
This spell can stack with the acceleration effect of Life Energy.
Level Cap: Lv5
Learning Conditions: Magic Lv1
Exchange Points: 800】
From the corner of his eye, he saw the goblins below reorganizing their formation, with the bird-riding goblins waving their spears to herd the infantry into flanking him from both sides.
Roger did not hesitate and pressed the exchange button.
“Points -800, balance 1,060.”
As the notification rang in his mind, he immediately cast 【Windwalk】.
An invisible force surged from all directions simultaneously, and his body suddenly felt much lighter.
With just a casual push off a branch, Roger leaped half again as far as before, as if carried by the wind, landing steadily on the branch of the next tree.
The consumption of mana became much more noticeable. He could feel his mana reserves trickling away like fine sand in an hourglass. Combined with the consumption from his consecutive Fireballs earlier, his total mana had dropped to about half.
The Windwalk state could not be maintained for long; he had to end this quickly.
Landing on the new branch, he didn't pause for a moment. He spun around, nocked an arrow, drew his bow, and aimed.
With the twang of the bowstring, the second bird-riding goblin tumbled off its mount, and another sixty points were credited to his account.
“Points +60, total 1,120.”
The goblins below clearly had no intention of giving him the time to pick them off one by one. Arrows and throwing spears rained down from different directions once more, their paths crisscrossing in the air to cover an even wider area than before.
Through the gaps in the rain of arrows, the two wild boars charged again, slamming violently toward the relatively thin tree he was currently on.
Meanwhile, the wild boar he had shot earlier showed little sign of bleeding further from its wound.
It looked as though it could still run around actively for quite some time.
Rate on N.U.
