Brushing Past

"Should we go down and take a look?"

Above the giant mushroom, Carl watched the goblins suddenly retreat and leave, then lowered the rifle in her hands.

The two of them had already been preparing to fight the goblins below. Carl had even abandoned the Alchemy Jug infusion and instead applied the Rapid Fire Weapon infusion to the rifle she had already made.

Once those goblins discovered them, she would become a sniper and leave every last one of them here.

Fortunately, they had retreated in the end.

"Let's not. Doesn't your main weapon still need to be adjusted? We can go down after you've finished everything."

Even watching the excitement required consideration for one's own safety. Hopp had sensed danger from those Dire Goblins earlier, so she had no intention of letting herself and Carl take the risk.

"All right, then."

Carl shrugged, put away the rifle, and prepared to try engraving its magic runes using the ordinary method again.

Time flew by. After quite a long while, noisy sounds rang out in the distance once more.

"Have those goblins come back?"

Still staring intently at the rifle, Carl did not look up. She merely paused her work and asked Hopp for confirmation.

"Yes, and it looks like they've brought a whole army. Weren't they going to cause trouble for the Mind Flayer? Why have they come this way?"

Hopp was utterly baffled as to why the goblins had come toward them.

After all, from her perspective, the goblins were so close to the woodland that it was understandable if they had not known there was a Mind Flayer base deep within it. But now that they knew, why were they not going straight after it and instead wandering over here?

"Could they have discovered us? Maybe they came this time to kill us and avenge their kind?"

As she spoke, Carl suddenly set down the tool in her hand.

The components making up the rifle began to emit a faint blue light. The magic runes linked together, dimming and brightening in a regular rhythm like breathing.

Hopp's face lit up at the sight.

"You succeeded?"

"Whew~, you could say that. The magic conversion efficiency isn't ideal, though. Its rate of fire is much lower than that of a real assault rifle."

Although she said that, Carl still unconsciously raised her head with pride.

"Quick, install it on your Power Armor and see how it works!"

As the goblins drew closer and closer, Hopp had no choice but to place her hopes in Carl's weapon.

The invention of the semi-automatic rifle had once changed the course of warfare across the Continent of Khorvaire. If standardized equipment with Mage Armor permanently applied to it had not been popularized, the Last War might have ended prematurely, or so it was said.

The goblins in this dungeon clearly lacked the technology and productivity to popularize equipment with Mage Armor permanently applied to it. Thus, when facing a rifle with infinite ammunition, their advantage in levels was not particularly significant.

"Okay!"

Carl nodded and hung the rifle on the mount that had been prepared on her Power Armor in advance.

Carl put on the Power Armor in a single motion, walked out of the room, raised the arm with the rifle hanging from it, and aimed it at the distant goblin forces.

The goblin formation was now less than fifty meters from the two of them. Carl could clearly see the clothing worn by the goblins below.

Her gaze swept across the goblin ranks as Carl tried to find some lucky fellow of relatively high status and save the first bullet of this new-age weapon for him.

Before long, Carl spotted a Hobgoblin dressed in comparatively "refined" clothing among the goblins.

Carl took a deep breath and maintained a forward lunge, preparing to fire.

But just as she was about to pull the trigger, Hopp suddenly reached out and blocked her view.

"Those goblins don't seem to have seen us."

Hopp tilted her head at Carl, her voice filled with disbelief, as though she hoped Carl would tell her this was not an illusion.

And just as Hopp had said, the goblins at the head of the formation acted as though they had not seen the two of them at all. They actually passed right by the giant mushroom where Carl and Hopp were standing.

The vast force merely chopped down the woody mushrooms blocking their path before continuing onward.

Watching the scattered goblin formation, Carl was confused for a moment.

"You've got to be kidding me. We should be pretty conspicuous, shouldn't we? They didn't see us at all?"

"Could they... all be nearsighted?"

Although the idea was somewhat absurd, judging from the goblins' behavior, Carl felt that this was the most likely possibility.

Hopp pursed her lips, not knowing what would be appropriate to say.

Within the goblin ranks, the Barbarian goblin from the Wild Magic path who had previously identified the Brain Eater's host glanced several more times at the mushroom where Carl and Hopp were standing before the group left.

Carl and Hopp, who had been watching the goblin formation the entire time, noticed the goblin as well.

But seeing that he still had not discovered them, Carl and Hopp felt as though they had punched cotton. The frustration was unbearable.

So they had been worrying for nothing?

What Carl and Hopp did not know was that this goblin force came from the Rage Tribe.

They lived on an island surrounded by a lake of lava, rather than in the goblin tribe near the woodland.

The lava brought them many conveniences, but it also caused their eyes to become nearsighted after prolonged exposure to irritating gases.

Thus, although goblins possessed Darkvision as a racial trait, their eyesight was so poor that they could not even make out objects more than ten meters away.

That was also why the Mind Flayer had only had its arm chopped back then—the Barbarians of the Rage Tribe relied entirely on instinct when aiming at their prey.

"Looks like that fellow probably sensed the fluctuations of magic power from our side. Could he be a mage or a Druid?"

Watching the goblins gradually disappear into the distance, Carl removed her Power Armor and rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

"I don't know, but it shouldn't have anything to do with us for now. Oh, right, I feel like something's wrong with my body. Could you take a look for me?"

With the crisis resolved and Carl's equipment successfully completed, Hopp suddenly asked Carl hesitantly.

"Are you feeling unwell? Has your period not completely ended yet, or...?"

Carl was just about to step forward and examine her when Hopp raised her hand.

Carl instinctively rolled, darting past Hopp's feet and ending up behind her.

Hmph, have I had so many fights in the Dream World that this has become an instinctive reaction?

The next second after rolling away, Carl realized that she had overreacted.

Hopp's gesture looked a lot like the starting motion for Burning Hands. Carl had been killed by that move countless times in the Dream World, so she had reacted instinctively.

Seeing Hopp staring at her in shock, Carl stood back up and smoothed her hair.

"Ahem, sorry. I overreacted. What was it you wanted me to look at?"

After giving an awkward cough, Carl made up her mind that she absolutely had to change the illusion's appearance during tonight's Dream World training.

Otherwise, if she really got used to it someday, something might go wrong.

Accepting Carl's explanation, Hopp nodded. She then closed her eyes and guided some kind of power to gather in her hand.