Chapter 11: The Goblin Raid

Talon’s shout was quickly followed by a roar from the trees. Small green men with elongated ears, half-dressed in leather, came running out of the forest with swords, spears, and clubs.

“Goblin attack!” the leader of the escorts shouted while drawing his sword. The other adventurers sprung into action immediately.

The convoy descended into chaos. Even Vaila woke up from her sleep, but since it was nighttime, she could hardly notice the true nature of their attackers; she could only make out their frames.

“Talon, what’s happening?”

“Stay in the cart,” he said, throwing a bundle of clothes over her.

A familiar synthetic voice rang in Talon’s head, accompanied by a sky-blue translucent screen appearing in front of him again.

---

[Mission:

— Kill at least 30 goblins. (0/30)

— Kill the Goblin leader. (optional)

Rewards:

— 100 Coins per normal kill. 400 Coins per Awakened kill. 1000 Coins for the Goblin leader.

— 1x Fortune Ticket.

— 5 Karma]

---

A goblin jumped towards Talon with its short sword raised.

Crack! Snap!

Talon snapped out his donkey whip, hitting the goblin in the eye and blinding it immediately. Blood spurted, but the goblin still tried to complete its attack.

The distance between them was merely a few steps. Talon didn't have time to think about his next move and instinctively stabbed forward with his mind.

The goblin screamed, dropping the sword as it clutched its head and rolled on the ground. Talon was dumbfounded. This monster was able to hold back the pain of losing an eye but reacted so violently to a ‘mind pierce.’

He quickly looked into the mental plane and saw his pulsing yellow star with one gold ring had extended a tentacle that strangled a smaller green star and was stabbing into it as if wanting to crush it into pieces.

‘F*ck! Is this not too much? Goblins are barely intelligent, are you trying to shatter his mind?’ Talon berated his mental star, shocked at the crushing effect of such a simple, instinctive action.

Talon knew too little about his profession as a Mind Hunter. For those just entering the world of the ‘Awakened,’ practice was crucial for comprehending more ways to use their abilities. Talon looked around to see that at least fifty goblins were engaging the escorts.

The adventurers were outnumbered about two to one, but they were all Awakened. The goblins, on the other hand, had only a few Awakened among them, and they seemed to have common professions, not even skilled in their use.

The only exception was a large goblin wearing black armor, just as large as a human. A glance was enough to identify it as the leader of the goblin horde. The goblin had a scar running down its face with lightning sparks dancing down its arm.

The lightning bolts looked menacing, and the goblin appeared much more intelligent than its peers. Just looking into its eyes, Talon could see wisdom behind the monster's visage. When he checked the goblin leader’s star, he was shocked to see it had two gold rings around it.

‘This damn goblin has experienced a second awakening. A goblin is even better than me. Damn heavens!’

Lightning sparks flashed across the goblin's arm as it raised and pointed it towards two adventurers rushing towards it.

Bzzzzrrrrkk!

A bolt of lightning shot out, branching into forks that blasted the adventurers back. They were dead before they hit the ground.

Talon felt his scalp tingle.

The goblin leader soon engaged the escort team leader, Master Eobard.

Master Eobard was a 50-year-old veteran adventurer, meaning he had experienced the three golden stages of Humans at ages 15, 20, and 24. Although humans had a high chance of awakening special abilities at each stage, only one out of ten did. Most people awakened abilities only once in their lifetime; some might awaken more than once but could still awaken the same type of ability again. In such cases, the existing ability's potency increased.

Master Eobard was one such example. He had awakened a mental power that granted him the ability to control animals, ‘Beast Tamer,’ and awakened the same ability again, increasing its potency. However, Talon feared that such ability would pale before this goblin leader.

‘What could a Beast Tamer do to a goblin that controls lightning?’

Master Eobard responded to the goblin leader’s attack with a swing of his sword, colliding with the bolt of lightning. 

‘Shit!’

Talon could almost imagine the outcome of this encounter. Master Eobard would definitely get roasted. ‘Why hit a bolt of lightning with your sword? Are you trying to get yourself killed?!’

Defying expectations, the moment the sword collided with the bolt of lightning, it bounced it away like a ping-pong ball, causing Talon’s eyes to almost pop out of their sockets. He quickly checked Master Eobard’s mental star. Two golden rings with another diagonally tilted golden ring.

‘He’s awakened two abilities, one of which had reached a perfect state… he has awakened two abilities!’

Master Eobard’s second profession was ‘Grand Shift Mage,’ a rarer profession compared to his Beast Tamer profession. Few knew he had this profession, but with it, he could divert or redirect any physical attack launched against him.

Master Eobard charged at the goblin leader fearlessly.

The goblin leader brought out a huge hammer, and they both collided.

Talon didn't bother watching their fight. He picked up his crossbow from the cart and fired it at a goblin emerging from the forest on his side. The pitiful creature fell face-first into the mud, dyeing it red.

Talon didn't fear goblins much, but he understood the danger they posed in large numbers. As he reloaded his crossbow, his mind began another wave of attacks.

He sent out mental pierce only when a goblin got too close to his cart, while he tried other methods to attack those further away. He tested every whim he had on the poor goblins, and once he confirmed the efficiency and effectiveness of each technique, he moved on to another. There was no better training ground than a battlefield, and no better training partner than an enemy willing to kill you.

Fifteen meters around Talon’s cart soon became a kill zone. Any goblin that entered this range found themselves struck by unseen attacks or a crossbow bolt. The worst part was that they all failed to see where the attacks were coming from. This was the ability Talon was testing twenty minutes into the battle: Perception Control.

He didn’t know the full details of this ability apart from the fact that it worked based on propagation, which meant he could only use it like waves, but he could tweak it to affect only certain targets. With it, he made his cart invisible to the goblins; they didn’t even know he existed at this point.

After killing another goblin, Talon burst out laughing. He could almost hear the coins falling. ‘This is fun… this is just too much fun! I'm rich!’

He dropped the crossbow and drew his sword.

“Vaila, stay in the cart.” Before Vaila could reply, he had leapt off the cart to join the battle. Even more goblins were rushing out of the forest. Talon planned to take full advantage of them.