Chapter 16 - 14 : Back To Town

"Hahaha. That was fun. Let's try that again."

"Unless, you really wanna die this time then be my guest." With that, Fudo got silenced while Sato recalled the events that had earlier played out.

Once Sato and Fudo had distracted Faded wings and Rock, and escaped to a not so far distance, they heard a somewhat loud explosion as the initial less than a meter wide hole enlarged up to become a crater of 8 meters width ( AN : Because the explosion wasn't so loud coupled with the grandness of the mansion, the other Sinland members didn't hear the commotion.). Immediately after, a horde of goblins numbering between 40-55 goblins emerged from the crater, with more even appearing, and rushed towards Faded wings and Rock who happened to be the first group they sighted.

Once they saw the horde, they both received a System notification;

[[ The Goblins' Invasion (Series)

Quest rating : S

Intro : The goblins have always been waging war against humans, slowly trying to acquire more territory from them. As a result of the greed from both sides for more land and resources, the flames of war has been ever-burning, reeking havoc to both sides with no final victor decided.

1st Chapter :

You have discovered the goblin hideout, Gnorka. Report to the City Lord, Patrol General, Town Chief or anyone of suitable/equivalent rank about this. Once accepted, further missions pertaining to this quest can't be rejected.

Reward : 3 bars of Star Gold, 1 Silver Core and 20 Silver coins.

Time Limit : 3 hours

Failure Penalty : Destruction of the nearest Town

Loss of 5 levels with reduction of experience gained by 50% for 2 months

Relationship level with human forces at [Unforgivable]

System : Accept/Decline

]]

For a simple quest, the rewards of the first stage were a little too surplus but who would reject good things but the penalties were quite severe.

Relationship levels in Infinite Realm are divided into; [Unforgivable, hatred/Enemy, Dislike, Neutral, Acquaintance, Friends, Trusted and Revered] and each level requires a lot of relationship points to reach. These can be gained by associating friendly with the various characters.

To be rated at [Unforgivable] with all human forces typically means that there is almost no where to go to and that such an account is messed up. Add that to the 50% deduction in experience gained penalty and you get a totally useless gaming account. As such, the decision to take such quest has to be properly thought out considering that as an 'S' rated Quest, further levels would end up quite difficult.

Sato and Fudo were indeed shocked to discover they had received a mission just from seeing such a sight but they none the less accepted it. After all, if they succeed, the rewards are amazing. But this doesn't mean that they were conquered by their greed because they both thought it out and agreed since the point of their playing games is to improve at any possible rate and opportunity.

The assassin, Faded wings, and the Paladin, Rock, were both surprised by the midget sized creatures that rushed towards them, failing to react in time. Due to the sheer intensity of the goblins' charge and numbers, that very tiny delay in reacting enabled the goblins to catch up to them, as the distance between the two groups wasn't more than 7 metres. This ended up leading to their inevitable death as no matter how much they tried to retaliate, there were more goblins to fill in the gap.

While most of the goblins faced Faded wings and Rock, a few of them particularly the scouts, due to their passive skill [Greater vision]. Then about 10 of them headed their way with the remaining others invading the mansion.

Initially, Sato and Fudo had planned to kite these monsters however, Fudo sensed an huge amount of gloomy mana far more than that of the [Cursed servant] by probably a 100 times or more, brewing in the crater and steadily coming up.

Alerting Sato, they both ran further away without turning back, until they were at least 2km away from the site. But because they had been kiting some of the goblins they were able to level up once more, now rivalling most mainstream players.

"So what do we do now?" Fudo asked while distributing his free attribute points. Earlier while they were resting after their battle with the [Cursed servant], Fudo and Sato had also distributed their attribute points and now they have levelled up, they both distributed it once more.

"Of course we go to town." Pulling up the System map, Sato said " Riverdale Town is closer and considering it's also a Primary town, that's our target."

As a primary town, Riverdale town had all the features Black Rock town possessed, including a smithy and a medium sized merchant shop.

"Do you think it's possible those guys survived down there." Fudo was referring to Faded wings and Rock. " I mean if they really came with a group as we suspected, if their numbers were large enough they might actually pull it off and probably slay whatever was down there. Just imagine the rewards they could get."

Sato sighed "Our levels are still low and whatever it was that revealed itself has to be at least level 20. No player can survive that now no matter what. Even if they came in a group as we earlier suspected or even a larger one, they would all still die. The producers did mention that every ten levels is a qualitative change in strength especially for monsters and that's at least two whole improvements.

Forget about that for now. We might have escaped this time with luck but who knows what would happen next time if we dare head back there. We will eventually go back but before that we need to stock up on consumables and at least sell or convert these materials we've gained into something usable before we can consider exploring whatever it was down there."

"Alright." Fudo nodded.

"Hmm, it sems that it would still take us sometime, about 20 minutes, back to town. Let's hurry up. The game has been up for at least 4 hours and 10 minutes (In-Game-Time). That leaves us with around 8 more hours."

"From what I know, getting a sub-class won't be easy more so improving it and we still have to level up." Fudo sighed exasperatedly.

"That's why we have to hurry up."

. . .

Back at the Ghost mansion, right when Faded wings was communicating with the Captain of Sinland.

The Captain of Sinland together with druid, Riddled Tree, cursemancer Cursed Eye, swordsman Manny and guardian Block were moving together and exploring the Mansion when the captain received an audio call from Faded wings.

"Faded, what's wrong? Did you find anything?" The deep pitched voice resounded once again from the vocal cords of the Captain.

"Yes Captain. We encountered two players, an elementalist and a swordsman. However as Rock was interrogating them to make an opening for me, one of them noticed me and I was forced out of stealth."

"...and?" the Captain asked anxiously.

"Before we could react, they ambushed us with a flash grenade and retreated." Faded wings answered with a small voice knowing that the Captain would already angry.

"...HOW DID A BUNCH OF LOSERS GET THE BEST OUT OF YOU EH? ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS HANDLE A SWORDSMAN AND AN ELEMENTALIST AND YOU TELLING ME THEY GOT THE BEST OUT OF YOU BOTH?…"

Because the Captain set the audio receival mode to public, everyone was able to hear him screaming[1].

"Captain's angry." Manny chuckled softly and silently.

"Shut up." Riddled Tree snapped back.

"*sigh* Forget about it. Once you're back, you will receive your punishment. What's done is done. As long as you remember how they look like then there's not much of a problem. They can't escape us forever." Eventually the Captain lowered his voice realising that the event couldn't be undone.

"...Captain, why do you think they were running?" After hesitating for awhile Faded wings asked in the audio communication.

"Considering the strategy and tactic they just applied, I'd say they were experts. They most likely guessed you were with a group and so retreated. If I'm correct they must have gained something already. It's also possible they might be running from something, so be careful ok?…Faded, Faded do you hear me?" Expecting a response after his statement, the Captain was perplexed as to why he didn't receive a response, unable to grasp what had happened.

On the other side, Faded wings was staring at a newly formed crater from which tons of goblins emerged, rushing towards them ignoring the System notification she had just received. Because she had set the call receival mode to public, their captain couldn't hear the commotion.

"Yeah, I do." She said while taking a battling stance "I think I might know what they were running from."

"What is it?" The Captain was surprised…

" A horde…" After saying so, she, together with rock were drowned in the somewhat unending wave of goblins.

A few seconds later, Riddled Tree sensed something and said "Captain, I sense that mana from a earlier but this one seems darker and maybe more stronger." He hesitated before putting in "I think this one is far stronger than we can handle."

"*sigh* Prepare to head out. We will come back when we are prep-" Before the Captain could finish his words, he was interrupted by a loud noise.

"Kraawwwwww"

"What was that?"

AN :

[[ Name : Emperor Wolf

Race : Human

Bloodline : Chosen Ones

Title : Citizen of Fallen Heart Kingdom

Level : 4

HP : 110

Heritage/Legacy :

Class (Job) : Elementalist (Mage)

Subclass : N/A

Kingdom : Fallen Heart Kingdom

Current location : Kiro Mountains, Black Rock City

Attributes

Strength : 3

Endurance : 7

Vitality : 11

Agility : 4

Dexterity : 5

Intelligence : 9

Willpower : 3

Physical Attack Power : 9

Magical Attack Power : 27

Physical Defence : 7

Magical Defence : 3

Attack Speed : 15

Movement Speed : 8

Free Attribute Point : 0

Free Potential point : 1

Skills :

Mana ball : Fire a mana ball with 100% damage.

Cool-down : 3 seconds

Fireball : Active Skill : Cast a fireball with 100% damage.

Cool-down : 1 seconds

Greater Fireball : Active Skill : Use 5 seconds to increase the Fireball spell by an additional 20% damage

Cool-down : 15 seconds. ]]

[[ Name : Sky Blade

Race : Human

Bloodline : Chosen Ones

Title : Citizen of Fallen Heart Kingdom

Level : 4

HP : 110

Heritage/Legacy :

Class (Job) : Swordsman (Warrior)

Subclass : N/A

Kingdom : Fallen Heart Kingdom

Current location : Kiro Mountains, Black Rock City

Attributes

Strength : 9

Endurance : 7

Vitality : 11

Agility : 6

Dexterity : 5

Intelligence : 1

Willpower : 3

Physical Attack Power : 27

Magical Attack Power : 3

Physical Defence : 7

Magical Defence : 3

Attack Speed : 15

Movement Speed : 12

Free Attribute Point : 0

Free Potential point : 1

Skills :

Chop : Active Skill : Launch a heavy strike with full force, causing additional 20% damage. Cool-down : 10 seconds

Horizontal Swipe : Active Skill : Release a horizontal positioned attack wielding an additional 40% attack power.. Cool-down : 15 seconds. ]]