As night fell over the military compound, Lucius met up with the team of scouts assigned to support his rescue mission. To his pleasant surprise, Garrick had been chosen to lead the six-man team of scouts.
“I’ll be leading the extraction squad. Commander Maxwell assigned me to this task because you and I are already familiar with working together. I have to admit, I’m eager to return some of the pain that the goblins have been inflicting on us all this time.”
Nodding, Lucius stepped forward and shook Garrick’s hand as he responded.
“I’m glad to have you along. Just remember that your team needs to be focused on extraction—leave dealing with the goblins to me.”
After ensuring that he and Garrick were on the same page, Lucius quickly introduced himself to the rest of the team, thanking them each for their willingness to come along on the dangerous mission. After saying what needed to be said, the group wasted no further time. The soldiers mounted their stolen spiders as Lucius activated Mythification—a pair of long, black, bat-like wings sprouting behind him before folding neatly over his back as he hitched a ride atop the largest spider.
Garrick stared enviously at the wings for a few seconds before shouting across the running spiders toward Lucius.
“You are always full of new tricks. Can those things actually fly?”
"You'll need to wait and see!" Lucius shouted back with a grin before focusing his attention on Sense Danger, the group had begun moving through the dangerous city streets. It wasn’t only goblins they needed to fear while venturing this deep into monster territory at night.
They made slow progress because Lucius insisted on clearing the creatures along the way to create a safe route for the soldiers when they returned with the rescued civilians.
Most of the creatures they encountered were F-Class rabble that didn’t pose much of a threat even without Lucius around; however, running into them while attempting to desperately escape a goblin pursuit could end very poorly for the soldiers.
A few hours passed as the men slowly cleared their way toward the goblin village. When they got close, Lucius sensed a series of threats grouped close together in their path ahead—some he quickly identified as goblins, but one threat in his senses came from a creature he had never sensed before.
Bringing the group to a halt, Lucius told Garrick to wait for him. He spread out his large, black wings and disappeared into the dark night sky with a whoosh, activating his aspect as he flew up to get a good look at the road ahead.
Lucius let out a quiet gasp as he saw the thousands of campfires and torches marking the location of the distant goblin village.
"It might be more appropriate to call it a goblin town at this point.", he whispered softy.
Pulling his attention back toward an area just a few streets away, Lucius caught sight of the creatures he had sensed. A squad of goblins and hobgoblins surrounding what appeared at first glance to be a large tree. However, upon closer inspection, he noticed that the tree possessed a humanoid shape—and was moving.
The goblins chopped at the slow-moving tree with their axes and swords while trying to set it on fire with their torches. The large, tree-like creature let out an angry moan as it brought its heavy foot crashing down on one of the nearby spiders, resulting in a bloody splat.
The hobgoblins eventually used their nets to wrap up the creature’s feet, knocking it to the ground as they began to light it aflame from all sides. Lucius’s eyes shot open when he noticed something unusual about the ent-like being: the areas being burned glowed with a soft, green magical energy as they quickly regenerated. Whatever this creature was, it appeared to possess powerful healing magic.
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Unfortunately for the Ent, there were far too many flames for its magic to overcome, and soon the entire creature burned in agony as the goblins danced around excitedly, celebrating their victory.
When Lucius saw the green, egg-like stone emerging from the flames inside the corpse of the slain creature, he no longer hesitated—gliding down directly over the flames. The Ent was not a very strong fighter, but its magical abilities would no doubt be incredibly useful to someone like Mary. Lucius would not let the opportunity to empower his community’s healer slip away.
As the hobgoblin in charge of the hunting party stepped forward to collect his prize, a confused expression spread across his ugly face when the green, mythical creature egg vanished from his grasp just an instant before he could claim it.
Then, as the hobgoblin began to look around angrily, his face went blank as a loud cracking sound spread out around him. A black spear had come crashing down from the sky a moment before—as if the darkness itself were attacking him—piercing the creature’s skull with ease before immediately disappearing like it had never existed.
You have defeated Hobgoblin Equitatus, Level 21.
Through effort, you have raised Piercing Throw to level 7.
Congratulations, Piercing Throw is eligible to become an advanced skill. Would you like to upgrade this skill now?
A satisfied grin spread across Lucius’ face when he spotted the system message, but he needed to finish off the group of enemies first before they alerted the rest of the village.
Quickly activating Flicker, Lucius began to rain down hell on every living creature within his vicinity. To an onlooker, it appeared as though dozens of dark missiles were falling from the sky at tremendous speed, obliterating everything in their path.
You have reached level 33. You have 12 attribute points available for distribution.
After quickly mopping up the remaining weaklings before they could escape more than a few steps, Lucius gently lowered himself to the ground and focused his attention on his two unexpected gains.
He casually added seven points to Magic Power, bringing the total to an even fifty points, before allocating the remaining five points to Stamina—raising that neglected attribute to a modest thirty-one.
Next, Lucius excitedly examined the description of the talent he used most often (aside from Sense Danger) so that he could get a clear idea of exactly what changes occurred after he chose to upgrade it.
Piercing Throw - Level 7 - High perception and dexterity allow you to better target your throws. +30% critical hit chance to weapons thrown within 10 meters.
After double checking the description, Lucius allowed the system to continue the upgrade process.
You have chosen to upgrade Piercing Throw to an advanced skill!
Upgrade in progress…
…
…
Congratulations!
Piercing Throw has become Impaling Strike!
Impaling Strike - Level 1 - +15% piercing ability, +15% flight speed, +25% accuracy, +30% critical hit chance to any weapons thrown within 15 meters of the target.
Lucius read over the skill description several times as the smile on his face grew wider and wider. The skill had gained a tremendous boost without losing any of the attributes that made it useful in the first place—and he thought the name sounded pretty cool too. With the increasingly deadly power of his attacks, calling it a "strike" rather than a "throw" was much more accurate.
After finishing with his attributes and talent, Lucius turned his attention to the green mythical creature egg in his hand, rolling it around a few times and running his fingers across its smooth surface. At that moment, Whisper popped his head out of the shadows, an unpleasant expression covering his tiny face.
“Do we have to bring another mythical creature around, father? What’s so good about a bush with legs?”
Lucius smiled and cast a sidelong glance toward Whisper before flicking his finger lightly on the bat's miniature nose.
“Don’t be jealous, Whisper. No one will want to be your friend if you act that way. This ‘bush with legs’ can use healing magic—that makes it tremendously valuable.”
Whisper rubbed his nose and shot a grumpy look at Lucius before disappearing back into the shadows, but not without making one final petulant remark.
“Hmph, who would want a dumb bush as a friend anyway.”
