Ambush

Meva, cloaked in a hooded cape, emerged from the shade of the trees and quietly returned.

The entire process had made almost no sound.

"How did the scouting go?"

The members of the Night Owl Squad turned to her.

"Here."

Meva took a piece of yellow-brown parchment from her arms.

She spread it out among the stones encircled by the group.

The paper was covered in information she had written down using simple symbols, markings, and circles.

That was the advantage of having a Rogue apprentice in the party. She was both an assassin and a scouting expert.

Although Rogues were inferior to many classes in frontal combat and seemed to have an inconspicuous role in a team, their professional knowledge in many other fields was something other classes could hardly hope to match.

For example, they mastered all kinds of concealment and stealth techniques.

When faced with special terrain, their light frames and mobility also allowed them to climb, search, scout for enemies, disarm and set traps, pick locks, and so on with greater ease.

In battle, rather than overpowering others with brute force, they preferred to formulate plans and precisely strike at their enemies' weak points.

It could be said that this was a class with extremely distinct characteristics.

Even though Meva was only a Rogue apprentice, the stealth techniques she had mastered were still indispensable to the party at present.

Back to the map.

Meva had already begun announcing the information she had just gathered to the others.

Around a dozen squares had been roughly drawn on the paper.

Each square represented a building.

The location of the mission they had been commissioned to carry out was the ruins of an abandoned village.

At some point, a small group of goblins had gathered among the originally deserted, crumbling walls.

Since the ruins were relatively close to the nearby Mill Village, the villagers had posted a commission with the Adventurer's Guild even though the Green-skin monsters had yet to threaten the village.

The purpose was to nip the threat in the bud.

"There are probably between fifteen and twenty-two goblins. Some of them are hiding inside the buildings, so I couldn't see clearly."

"Their distribution is fairly scattered. The exact numbers are the markings I've placed on each building."

"Most of their weapons are Stone Spears, wooden clubs, wooden shields, and steel knives. Four of the goblins use bows."

Meva clearly described her intelligence along with the simple map in just a few words.

"Are there any unusual leader types?" Leven nodded, then asked an additional question.

"No."

"Good. We'll proceed according to the plan we made earlier."

"Everyone, prepare for battle. We'll ambush the enemies here on the map. Meva, see if you can make some noise without alerting all the monsters and lure some of the goblins out first. That way, we can conserve our strength." Leven laid out the deployment to everyone.

"But even if we fail, it won't matter. Our combat strength is enough to wipe out this group of goblins head-on."

"Watch out for the archers."

"Understood."

No one had anything to add to his orders.

One by one, they began silently helping each other put on their protective gear.

As a newcomer who had temporarily joined the party, Gauss naturally had little to contribute.

The members of this party worked together with great tacit understanding, and the mission itself wasn't particularly difficult.

He mostly learned from the others in silence, absorbing their experience as adventurers.

They had arrived nearby late the previous night, chosen a suitable campsite, and rested there for the night.

Now that they had slept their fill, they were at their most energetic.

Gauss put on his leather armor, bracers, and greaves. Then he thrust his Rapier several times on the spot to warm up.

During this period, he had also regularly practiced some basic Sword Skill movements.

Although the results were certainly not as good as they would have been under the guidance of a professional swordsman, as long as one was willing to practice basic movements, one would gain something from it.

At the very least, his thrusts now looked much more practiced than they had at the beginning.

Of course, a Rapier could also be used for slashing and parrying, but those were merely supplementary techniques. Tactically, it still relied primarily on thrusts for attacking.

A Rapier required its user to possess the ability to move quickly and operate it flexibly.

Gauss lacked somewhat in that regard under normal circumstances, but he had a cheat. As long as he activated that overloaded-brain state, the massive advantage brought by his seven points of Spirit allowed him to enter a low-spec version of Bullet Time, perfectly complementing the Rapier's specialty.

With his teammates' help, Doyle put on his scale armor and finally had time to notice the others.

Suddenly, his gaze caught sight of Gauss nearby, moving back and forth in tiny steps while warming up with thrusts. A large question mark seemed to appear above Doyle's head.

What was he doing?

Although he had noticed that Gauss always wore a Rapier, he had never paid much attention to it.

After all, many classes carried a melee weapon for self-defense in emergencies.

But now, seeing how focused Gauss was on warming up—

Could he really be preparing to fight enemies in close quarters? Was this guy really a Mage?

However, he had no time to keep watching Gauss. He also needed to hurry and warm up before the battle.

Once everyone was ready, they headed toward the predetermined ambush site.

That was the difference between an experienced low-level adventurer party and a rookie party. Even when facing goblins whose frontal combat strength was inferior to their own, these veterans still set up an ambush and picked them off in groups.

As Leven had said, even if they had the ability to defeat the goblins head-on, they could not fight recklessly, because such an engagement would undoubtedly consume more of their strength and stamina.

On this boundless wilderness, there was no way to predict what enemy they might encounter the next moment.

Even near roads opened by humans, although the probability was low, a group of monsters wielding blades and clubs might still suddenly leap out.

Therefore, they had to distribute and manage their stamina reasonably.

Preserving a little more stamina meant having an extra guarantee of survival.

Before long, Meva said goodbye to the party and disappeared into the shadows, sneaking toward the ruins.

Her movements were as nimble as those of an old cat.

Everyone found a suitable place to hide and silently waited for Meva to return.

Not long afterward, a series of faint footsteps rang out from the direction of the ruins.

They did not belong to Meva. They came from several Green-skin monsters standing about chest-high on an adult.

Meva's noises had lured these goblins over.

Suddenly, one of the leading goblins seemed to spot some treasure. It turned its head and began "waah-waahing" at its companions.

Under a tree in the open ground not far ahead, a gray rabbit drenched in blood was kicking its legs, struggling in its final fight against death.

"Waah waah waah!"

"Waah waah waah waah!"

After excitedly communicating with one another, the goblins soon gathered cautiously.

They carefully surveyed their surroundings while edging toward the gray rabbit.

Goblins were not very intelligent, but they were naturally cunning.

Even when faced with the temptation of blood-soaked food right before their eyes, they still did not rush forward all at once.

That was what made goblins frightening. Before their formation broke apart, they could maintain surprisingly good discipline despite being monsters.