Chapter 159: The Next Battle (1)

Red’s eyes opened wide, blinking a few times. He was still in the same stance when he sliced through the elite kobold. He looked up at his sword, covered in the kobold’s blood. Then he looked down where the body was sliced in two.

Then he looked up at his sword again. The mana had dispersed after he killed the kobold. He was surprised that he had lost control over the mana.

He chuckled, lowered his sword, and took a deep breath. That helped him to calm down and reminded him that he could kill the Elite Kobold Fighter because the latter underestimated him. It would be different next time.

Red then turned toward the main battlefield. The one he killed was the last kobold. The attention was on him. It was not just him who was surprised; the Hobgoblins and also the three Goblin Champions were surprised as well.

He could see their expression; he assumed so because they were staring at him, doing nothing else. Then he exchanged the Elite Kobold Fighter for loot, and it was good loot: four mediocre cores: one Might Core and three Magic Cores.

He carried them over instead of putting them inside his pouch. He had space, but he didn’t want the others to find out that he had this pouch. Their gazes were still on him, after all.

Red continued his trek, going into the jungle. It was not just about loot, but also his spear. He needed to retrieve his spear; the loot was the extra reward. That was what he told himself.

It didn’t take long for him to find the dead kobolds. They were not far from the clearing, and he got seven cores, which were three Might Cores and four Magic Cores.

"I should have used the mediocre cores first..." He muttered, with twelve Might Cores and seventeen Magic Cores in front of him. All of them were mediocre quality.

These cores might shoot up his stats more than halfway to the threshold. It was more effective to use them earlier. The issue was that he didn’t have enough slots to store all the cores he got from the kobold earlier.

"It is what it is..." Red started absorbing the twenty-nine mediocre cores.

He had his status open while absorbing the cores. As he predicted, he wasted one mediocre magic core. His Wisdom was at 259.4, while Arcane Perception and Mind were still below 255 initially after absorbing half of them.

It was a random allocation, and it went to Wisdom, pushing it to the threshold. It wasted half of the value of the core. The mediocre value was between 1.2 and 1.8. It meant he at least wasted 0.6 stat.

It couldn’t be helped. He couldn’t stop absorbing them because his Arcane Perception and Mind were still far from the threshold. Fortunately, it worked well with his Intelligence. He managed to push his Intelligence to the threshold without wasting his mediocre core.

Name: ???

Level: 17

Health: 2014 Stamina: 1639(+100) Mana: 1678

[Tier 1 Might]

Strength: 244.6 (+9.6, +65) Endurance: 200 (+10, +20) Vitality: 202.4 (+7.6,+25) Dexterity: 347 (+7,+170)

[Tier 1 Magic]

Intelligence: 260 (+10) Wisdom: 260 (+11) Arcane Perception: 259.2 (+9.2) Mind: 256.8 (+6.8)

Skills:

Tier 1 Skill: Mana Sense (Passive) - Level 18 (+1), Levelheaded (Passive) - Level 22 (+1), Appraisal - Level 19 (+1), Bleeding (Passive) - Level 2, Fireball - Level 6, Bow Mastery (Passive) - Level 7 (+1), Burst Leap - Level 1, Sword Mastery - Level 1 (New)

Tier 3: Mana Smelting - Level 6, Mana Refining - Level 4, Mana Sharpening - Level 3, Mana Repair - Level 3

Tier 4: Mana Forging - Level 1, Mana Tempering - Level 3, Mana Authority (Passive) - Level 7 (+1), Rune Weaving - Level 1, Rune Engraving - Level 1, Rune Restoration - Level 1

Tier 5 Skill: Infernal Berserk - Level 1

Positive Attribute:

Mystic Chef Blessing: Strength +65, Endurance +20, Vitalit +25, Dexterity +170, Stamina +100

Minor Health Regeneration I

Minor Stamina Regeneration I

He had been looking at his stats; now he looked at his skills. His Mana Sense, Appraisal, Bow Mastery, and Mana Authority went up by one level. Of course, a new skill: Sword Mastery. Good progress for one day, but his Fireball didn’t level up. It should be close since he had been using it quite often now. His blessing still had half of its original duration.

Red grinned when his eyes fell on his level. It was just yesterday that he reached level 16, and now he was already level 17, and four of his stats were already at the threshold.

It would be hard to repeat what he did yesterday. Five levels in one day was just a miracle. That was not going to happen again. At least, that was what he believed.

The next battle would bring him to level 18 if the scale was as big as this one. No, even a smaller scale of battle would help him get to level 18. He only needed half of the cores he obtained today; then he would reach level 18.

"Or maybe there are some leftovers for me back there..."

He didn’t know how many were killed, but they lost quite a lot, maybe almost half or maybe more. He could not really tell how chaotic the battle was.

Red returned to the open clearing where the village was. He was speechless because the bodies had been split; the surviving goblins were splitting them for loot while the Chief and the three Goblin Champions were idle, waiting for the cores to be delivered to them.

He counted them, prioritizing the hobgoblins since they had fewer in number. He frowned when he got the number; only forty-four hobgoblins remained. That meant half of them were killed in that battle. The same with the number of the goblins, around half or maybe less than half. Around one hundred, or maybe less, which was half of their number before the battle.

He joined the Chief, trying to find out what the next plan was.

"You already have yours, so there will be no more for you. We need to share some for the goblins too, for their hard work," The Chief suddenly said.

He was here not to ask for more loot and didn’t mind not getting more. In fact, he agreed with the Chief to share the loot with the goblins. That was to keep their spirits up, preventing desertion. Those goblins might not have the courage now, but they would do it if they were getting cornered and pushed around.

"I am here to ask what our next plan is, Chief."

"Hmmm..." The Chief frowned, looking at the wound on his shoulder, the stab on his thigh, and his waist. He was not in the position for another fight against another Kobold Chief.

"We will rest in the village today. I need some time to recover from my wound, and you! You will scout the area for us while we are recovering and find another village!"