Chapter 80 - 78: It Must Be Him

Chapter 80: Chapter 78: It Must Be Him

’This should be far enough...’

Meanwhile, in the dense forest.

The "GUGU GAGA" sounds were still close behind him. Lu Wei glanced back as he ran, a look of eager anticipation in his eyes.

After running a few more meters, certain this distance was safe, he suddenly stopped and spun around, striking a pose like some kind of lone Hero.

Facing the goblin army—which, while not a "tide," could at least be called a "river"—his face showed not a trace of fear. Instead, a long-awaited smile spread across his lips.

’Finally, a real field test!’

’Let’s see just how powerful a Rare Gemstone worth 22 gold coins really is!’

Standing on a slightly elevated rock, Lu Wei raised Confession, quickly establishing a Magic Power connection with the Gravity Gemstone.

Then he shouted a line that was completely unnecessary, but one he suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to yell—

"Triple Gravity! Expand!"

"..."

WHOOSH—!

In half a second at most, it was as if a strong gale had swept through; all the surrounding weeds were suddenly pressed flat against the ground.

Immediately after, a transparent yet incredibly heavy power descended, centered on Confession!

It was as if invisible giant hands had reached up from the earth and seized the ankles of the seven or eight goblins in the lead. Their charge came to a dead halt, and they toppled over with wretched cries, like harvested straw.

The goblins behind couldn’t stop in time, crashing into their suddenly fallen comrades and tripping over them.

When they tried to get up, they discovered in horror that they were being crushed by something. It was as if they were trapped in an invisible swamp; even lifting an arm was an immense struggle!

The "JIJI GAGA" howls instantly turned into terrified squeals, and the scene devolved into chaos.

Struggling with all their might, some goblins managed to lift their heads to look at Lu Wei, who stood right before them. Besides Fear, for the first time, a look of utter confusion appeared in their small, red eyes.

When had these Little Greenskins ever witnessed such a thing?

Let alone understood it.

At this moment, they knew only one thing—

The human before them was far too powerful! He could make them unable to stand with just a single phrase!

"JIGA! JIGA!!"

"GA! GAGA!"

Judging by the frantic change in their tone, they seemed to be begging Lu Wei for mercy.

Paired with the sight of them constantly struggling to push themselves up only to be pressed back to the ground, they looked quite pitiful, to be honest.

However...

SQUELCH—

Strolling leisurely to the nearest goblin, Lu Wei casually ran it through with his Sword.

At the same time, he began to count.

"5 Copper Coins, 10 Copper Coins, 15 Copper Coins..."

"95 Copper Coins, 1 Silver Coin."

"1 Silver Coin and 5 Copper Coins."

"1 Silver Coin... huh? Is that all of them?"

After about a minute, Lu Wei stopped in front of the last goblin. He shook his head with some regret and deactivated the Gravity Field.

"GAH!!"

At his feet, the Little Greenskin froze for a moment as the pressure suddenly vanished, then it immediately tried to flee.

But before it could even get up, a sword pierced its chest.

"1 Silver Coin and 10 copper coins. Twenty-two in total."

Glancing back at the goblin corpses lying every which way in pools of blood—all killed with a single sword strike—Lu Wei flicked the blood from his blade, feeling a little unsatisfied.

After all, this was way too easy a way to make money.

If there were enough goblins, he felt like he could keep this up all day.

Well... that was just a passing thought, of course.

Leaving aside whether there were even that many goblins for him to kill, he couldn’t handle the Magic Power Consumption of the Force Field by itself.

[Force Field: Consumes Magic Power (0.5-20 points per minute) to create a Gravity Field in a 1-10 meter radius centered on the user, applying up to 5x gravity effect to one or more enemies within the field.]

From the Introduction, it’s not hard to see that the highest Magic Power Consumption for creating the Force Field is 20 points per minute.

Although no specific formula was given, Lu Wei had experimented before and figured one out for himself—

Consumption = Radius × (Multiplier - 1) ÷ 2

For example, if he created a Force Field with a 3-meter radius and a 2x multiplier, the Magic Power consumed per minute would be 3 × (2 - 1) ÷ 2 = 1.5 points.

It should be noted that the multiplier must be greater than 1.

This is because the Force Field’s effect is to "produce a gravity effect," not "increase a gravity effect."

So, a 1x multiplier would have no effect.

However, if he only increased it by a small amount—say, to 1.1x—within a 1-meter radius, the Magic Power Consumption calculated by the formula should be 0.05.

But the actual consumption is 0.5 points per minute.

Therefore, 0.5 must be the minimum; no matter how much he reduced the multiplier and radius, the Magic Power Consumption would not drop below this floor.

In short, after numerous tests, Lu Wei was certain his formula was correct.

The Force Field he had just created was at a 3x multiplier with a 7-meter radius and lasted for about a minute and a half, so it consumed around 10 points in total.

That was nearly a third of his total Magic Power... and that was with Confession giving him an extra two points of [Intelligence].

’It’s strong, alright, but this consumption rate is terrifying.’

’10 points is enough for me to take a nap while in Stealth...’

Muttering to himself, Lu Wei drew his Dagger, planning to cut the ears off the pile of dead goblins.

But in the next second, for reasons he couldn’t explain, he suddenly frowned and glanced toward the cave entrance.

The dense woods blocked his view completely. He couldn’t see a thing.

There was no sound either, just the RUSTLE of leaves in the wind.

And yet... ’Why do I suddenly have a feeling that Mirana is in danger...’

...

...

BAM!!!

Inside the cavern, a short but fierce battle was nearing its end.

With a muffled thud, Mirana was slammed against the cavern wall like a sack of potatoes before falling limply to the ground.

Her Longsword had long since snapped. One piece lay in front of her; the other had flown off somewhere unknown.

And she, like the Broken Sword, no longer had the strength to fight.

Her lips were deathly pale, but her clothes were stained crimson. Her short, chestnut-brown hair was matted with filth, and the Firm resolve in her eyes was slowly fading.

At this moment, she couldn’t muster a single shred of strength.

Even lifting a single finger felt impossibly difficult.

With a threefold gap in both [Power] and [Physique], she could only sustain an all-out battle for three to four minutes at most.

Yet she had held on for nearly twice that long.

She had sliced off one Leader Level Goblin’s hand and severed the other’s arm... If that last sword strike had landed just a little differently, she might have won this fight.

But in the end, she had fallen just short.

’Am I going to die...’

’That’s fine, too...’

’Finally... I won’t have to suffer fate’s torment over and over again...’

Watching the two Leader Level Goblins with ferocious expressions stalking toward her, Mirana’s consciousness began to Blur, and her eyelids grew heavy.

’So this is it...’

She could no longer see the full forms of the two Leader Level Goblins. Her narrowing vision could only make out the last flicker of a dying torch flame. Mirana finally gave up.

She sensed the enormous Wolf-toothed Stick being raised again.

She smelled the pungent stench of filth and death.

She heard the grim whistle of the air as the heavy weapon fell.

And then...

She saw the two enormous, ugly bodies slam down in front of her, their limbs twisted in a bizarre, unnatural posture that defied all logic.

Their blood-red eyes bulged. Their skeletons twisted and collapsed. Their tusk-filled mouths gaped open in silent screams.

THUD!

The heavy Wolf-toothed Stick crashed down, scraping past her left ear. A sharp spike tore her earlobe.

Mirana stared blankly at the impossible scene, her mind grinding to a halt. She didn’t even have the energy to wonder "why."

But in the deepest recesses of her consciousness, a name surfaced.

A name she couldn’t comprehend and couldn’t believe in, yet was absolutely certain of.

’It’s Lu Wei...’

’It has to be him...’