Chapter 20 - 20. Goblin Packs
The journey was smoother than expected. It took him just two days to arrive at the central district where the Trigitech building was located, much faster than when he was on his way out of the city. He didn't encounter anybody along the way, just more monsters, which he continued to kill without bothering to circumvent. This brought his Magician class to level 9.
The closer he got to the building, the higher the monsters' level was. When he was just a couple of blocks from his destination, he finally met a different type of monster. It was a small size humanoid being, with a bald head and sharp nose. It had skin of green color and wore ragged shirts. It traveled around in a pack of five, like a group of small children playing around holding clubs and daggers. He would recognize this typical RPG monster anywhere, but to make sure, he did a scan using his God-eye monocle from a safe distance.
Goblin (Basic monster, humanoid)
Level 10
HP: 800
Yep, it was Goblin, all right. Its HP was rather low for a level 10 monster, but probably it got compensated with other strengths. He was considering if he should start a fight with this group to test out the monster's capability, but there were five of them. He would prefer a one on one if it was a new monster. He decided to take a detour to see if he could encounter a lone Goblin.
In his search, he had encountered other Goblins three times. All of them were in groups, with the smallest size had four Goblins in it. After concluding that he would not find a lone one, he decided to go for the pack with four Goblins. He followed them around and make sure through his radar that other packs were not nearby. It would be a catastrophe if he was surrounded and had to deal with multiple packs at the same time.
When he considered the situation was safe enough, he approached the pack. Once he was in range, he cast Energy Bolts. Strands of mana emerged from his staff and condensed into four glowing bolts, they then shot out in different directions, each chasing after one Goblin. When they rammed onto the four monsters, each of them receiving damages ranging from 12 to 16.
The impact from the energy bolts caused them to lose balance and unable to react for an instant, Jack took this opportunity to come up to their side and immediately performed Swing. It slashed through three of the monsters, taking out another chunk of life from them, and threw them back. One Goblin which got away from Swing immediately retaliated. Jack turned from offense to defense and cast Magic Shield to block the Goblin's dagger before he counter-attack with a Power Strike.
The other three Goblins promptly came back to support their comrade once they got back to their feet. Their speed and strength were not threatening. Even though there were four of them, with his overpowering attributes, Jack didn't find the fight to be challenging. It was like a grown-up man bullying four children. After around three minutes, he managed to kill one of the Goblins. This should be over in another minute or two, he thought.
However, when one of the Goblins fell, the others started to make weird noises. They stomped and screamed and whacked their weapons to the ground. Jack was confused by their erratic behavior, he stood a distance from them, hesitating if he should continue to attack. Then he noticed some movements in his radar. To his disbelief, he saw multiple red dots started to move towards his location in a hurry.
F**k me, they were calling for reinforcements! He cursed in his mind. There were three packs that were rushing to this place. It must be the monster's skill that was triggered when one of their buddies died. He considered retreating, but before he could make a move, the three half-dead goblins darted towards him. They each took different sides to surround and prevent him from escaping. They didn't seem to be concerned when Jack hit them, they kept their positions as if using their lives to keep him from running away.
"Goddamnit. Piss off!" He yelled as he did Power Strike on the Goblin with the lowest health. The skill took out the remaining life of that monster. With that Goblin died, it created a gap in their encirclement. He immediately bolted, there were a combined number of almost twenty Goblins if those three packs arrived, he wouldn't be able to take them all on.
He looked at his radar and considered which route to take so as not to bump into the oncoming pack, while the two remaining goblins from the first pack chased after him.
He weaved around the neighborhoods, but the layout ensured him to meet either one of the packs that were approaching. After trying to recall the maps around this place and make some calculations, he decided to head further towards his destination, the Trigitech building. If he moved away back to where he came from, he would meet two packs instead.
He could see the approaching pack already, there were six of them in the pack. He cast Energy Bolts to stop the four on the left as he ran to the right. The other two that were not hit came after him. With the pack separated, it allowed him more ease to deal with the two and got past them. He continued running, with eight Goblins in tow behind him.
When he was closed to Trigitech building, he noticed on his radar that the two furthest packs had stopped moving and just loitered around the place where he had fought the first pack before. Seeing it, he realized that unless he came into their line of sight, the called packs would only move to the place where their comrades called for them in the first place. With this realization, he stopped running and turned around.
"I know how to deal with you lot now," he said with a grin.
Dealing with eight Goblins he considered should still be manageable. He cast another Energy Bolts which had come out of cooldown, and followed with Mana Bullet towards one of the two remaining first Goblins he fought. They were near death's door already.
That one Mana Bullet killed the monster and reduced his opponents to seven. He was expecting the other Goblins to make that weird call skill to summon the other packs again, but they remained quiet. Maybe their skill also had cooldowns? He thought.
Either way, he didn't let the opportunity slipped away. He charged into the group and used Swing to hit as many targets as he could, and then fought ferociously to whittle away their health. He also got hit several times. It was inevitable, he was not those martial art prodigies who could evade every attack. However, the damage he received was negligible. His health and endurance were much higher than a standard level ten, hence he was not in any dangerous condition throughout the fight. He picked on the ones with the lowest health. With each Goblin fell, his struggle became much easier.
When the group was left with three Goblins, they made the weird call again.
Perhaps it was not cooldown? Maybe the skill only triggered when their number went down to below four? He thought about this after seeing their actions.
The two packs that were loitering in his radar made their moves again. Fortunately, no other additional packs appeared. These four packs should be the only ones available around here. As long as he didn't travel too far, he should only need to deal with these lots.
As before, the remaining three Goblins tried to hinder him from running away. He was not as perturbed as before anymore. He focused his attack on one of them to take them out, and then utilizing the gap to run away again. He looked at his radar and considered a route that would let him intercept one of the incoming packs without alerting the other.
He moved towards there while continued to cast his range spells onto his three pursuers, every chance he could. By the time he encountered one of the approaching packs, his pursuers had diminished to only one left. There were five Goblins in the new pack, together with his pursuer they became six. He had a much easier time dealing with them compared to prior.