We should be glad Lin Yun had leveled up. We should be glad he'd stood in front of the Female Mage. Lin Yun had hit the ground headfirst, leaving him a little dazed. His HP had been 24, but it had dropped by almost half, down to 13. In other words, those two wolves had bitten him just once each, and he'd lost 11 HP in an instant. It was terrifying.
If that had been the Female Mage, she probably would've been taken out in a single round.
Seeing Lin Yun fall to the ground, the Female Fighter panicked. She swung her staff at the wolf on the right, the one that had dragged Lin Yun down, then brought it down hard on the wolf's back. There was a saying that wolves had iron heads and tofu-soft backs. That blow landed hard. Added to the damage it had already taken from Lightning Hands, it was enough to make the wolf crumple to the ground.
The Female Fighter stepped forward and kicked at the wolf on Lin Yun's left. This time, though, the wolf seemed to be paying close attention to her because she'd knocked down its companion. As she kicked, it leaped aside and dodged.
Meanwhile, when the Goddess Priestess saw Lin Yun on the ground, she hurried over, nearly dropping the Light Crossbow in her hands. But Lin Yun called out, "Attack the goblins first." He knew very well that the only reason the two remaining goblins hadn't attacked yet was that the wolves were blocking their way. But now that the wolves were down, the goblins could move in. The goblins had taken damage from Lightning Hands just now. Even if they'd passed their Dexterity saves, they'd still taken at least half damage, so they couldn't have much HP left. One hit would be enough.
Sure enough, one of the goblins charged at Lin Yun from where the wolf had fallen, raising the Iron Battle Axe in its hands to strike him.
"Ah, right." The Goddess Priestess hadn't quite processed what Lin Yun said. Seeing the goblin about to hit him, she quickly raised her Light Crossbow and squeezed the trigger. The bolt struck the goblin, its momentum transferring into the creature and sending it flying.
The goblin's fall also gave the other goblin an opening. But the Goddess Priestess's shot had created an opportunity for Lin Yun. Holding the Heavy Mace, he swung at the goblin's feet.
D20+2+2-4=8, MISS
Well, this goblin had managed to dodge Lightning Hands, so it was clearly very nimble. Seeing Lin Yun swing his mace, it jumped and barely avoided the attack. Then it raised the Iron Dagger in its hand and delivered a weaker version of Justice from Above, right to Lin Yun's kidneys.
His HP hadn't been very high to begin with, and now it dropped by another 3. Things were getting dangerous.
And that wasn't all. The goblin also had its traditional trick.
D20+4+2+1=9, Save failed.
As if things weren't bad enough, Lin Yun felt a chill in his kidneys, then lost another HP. He was down to 8.
The goblin was already straddling Lin Yun, and the remaining wolf came at him again, biting and tearing. Lin Yun was lying down, making him an easy target, and he was all meat...
The wolf sank its teeth into Lin Yun's butt, drawing an instinctive scream from him. This was just awful. In his old world, no dog had ever dared bite him. Yet here, in this world, a wolf had bitten him several times in a row...
His HP was already critical. His meager health had plummeted to just 2 points, and Lin Yun was like a candle guttering in the wind, liable to breathe his last at any moment.
"Die!" The Female Mage gritted her teeth as she watched the wolf bite Lin Yun's butt. From one perspective, if Lin Yun hadn't protected her, the wolves would've been biting her instead. She raised her Light Crossbow and fired at a nearby goblin.
The Female Mage was frantic about Lin Yun's condition, but she was a Wizard known for her intelligence, so she had to stay calm. Calm. The goblins were a greater threat to Lin Yun, and she had complete confidence in the power of her Lightning Hands. She was sure one bolt would be enough to drop this goblin unconscious.
So she fired—and this time, finally... finally... finally... she hit. Yes, that was right. She finally hit. It was truly astonishing. Ahem, ahem, ahem.
The bolt pinned the goblin to the wall behind it. Its eyes rolled back, and it passed out.
Meanwhile, after seeing the goblin dealt with, the Female Fighter picked up her staff and swung it at the wolf. Perhaps she was still angry about the wolf biting Lin Yun's butt, because her blow landed squarely on its rear. The wolf yelped, but didn't fall. It glared viciously at her.
"What're you looking at?" Seeing that the wolf still dared to glare at her, the Female Fighter kicked it. Her kick landed hard on its head, knocking it to the ground.
That kick seemed to do the trick. It struck the wolf right on the head and knocked it unconscious.
A... miserable victory.
One goblin had escaped, which would change Lin Yun and the others' plans. And Lin Yun was badly injured—badly injured in a truly humiliating way...
The Goddess Priestess hurried over to Lin Yun and held her hands over his thighs. "O Merciful Earth Mother." Gentle light shone on his thighs, leaving Lin Yun with a ticklish sensation.
D20+4+2+1=16, Save succeeded.
And just then, Lin Yun's constitution began to fight back, finally purging the poison from his body.
As expected, the Lucky Healer was a Lucky Healer. Lin Yun watched his HP jump up by 8, bringing it to 10. Considering how important 1st-Circle Magic was, especially since he'd already used two 1st-Circle spells and had only two left—or, strictly speaking, only one 1st-Circle spell remaining—Lin Yun decided not to turn one into Cure Light Wounds just yet.
He got to his feet. Thanks to the Lucky Healer, his injuries were a little better, though he still felt waves of pain whenever he moved.
First, he took out the Silverleaf Grass he'd gathered along the way. Unfortunately, he hadn't had enough time to dry the herbs and grind them into powder to make healing potions, so he had to use the simplest, roughest method: chew up all the herbs and apply them to the wounds on his body. He had four injured spots in total.
After using up four portions of Silverleaf Grass, Lin Yun recovered another 4 HP, bringing his total to 14. Without being made into healing potions, Silverleaf Grass could only stabilize injuries and provide a little healing. Each portion restored just 1 HP, which was already a blessing in disguise.
But that still wasn't enough. Lin Yun raised his shield and began to pray. "O All-Knowing Eye." As he lifted his shield, a gentle light appeared around him.
D6=4.
Lin Yun recovered some more HP, but it still wasn't enough. Fortunately, he had plenty of uses of Channel Divinity left, so he refreshed it.
D6=2. D6=2 D6=2
...Lin Yun blinked as he looked at those three consecutive uses of Channel Divinity. Was this the world telling him he was a two?
That was just too awful. Three twos! But in the end, Lin Yun's HP had at least recovered to almost full. The price was using Channel Divinity four times, but since he still had three uses left, he supposed that was acceptable.
Then came the usual cleanup.
Each of the two wolves was worth 400 experience, giving Lin Yun 800 in total. The goblins were all a little stronger than the one he'd first fought in the cave, each worth over 150 experience. The seven goblins gave him 1,050 experience. The more elite ones, along with the three that had gone out to scout and the two at the entrance, were worth 120 each, for a total of 700 experience. All told, Lin Yun now had 5,800 experience and needed another 1,700 to level up. It was simply too cruel.
"This won't work. That goblin has already gone back to report. The next battle may be the toughest one yet." Lin Yun frowned slightly as he considered things, then said to the villagers, "Sorry, it looks like the operation failed. Go back for now. We'll stay here and see what happens." He spoke to the villagers, then sent the Female Fighter to the entrance to call over the young warrior for help.
If possible, Lin Yun would've preferred to retreat. But this wasn't a game—or rather, it was a game, just not that kind of game. In any case, it was close to reality, and in reality, you couldn't provoke someone and expect to run off unscathed.
Driven by a desire for revenge, the goblins would definitely attack the village if Lin Yun and the others retreated. With the wolves as their mounts, they'd be practically unbeatable out in the open. You could say Lin Yun and the others had only managed to handle those two wolves because they'd gotten lucky...
There was no helping it. That first bite had left Lin Yun flat on the ground, unable to get up without a kiss, and he'd ended up with his butt bitten.
So retreating was out of the question. Besides, Lin Yun had just killed almost ten goblins. Even if this tribe was fairly large, it probably had no more than thirty goblins. Mm, that was based on Lin Yun's calculations. If there were over forty, or even fifty, goblins, they'd need enough resources to completely destroy the village at the foot of the mountain, especially with the wolves. The fact that the village was still standing proved that this tribe wasn't too large. Lin Yun had pieced this together from the quest sheet and information gathered from various people in the village.
People these days, honestly. They'd take a quest without even checking what it was, where it was, or what the rewards were. They didn't bother to learn any details. So reckless.
Come to think of it, there was another rather dangerous option.
That was to block the entrance and kill them. Earlier, Lin Yun and the others hadn't known about this back entrance, and blocking the air vent had seemed like a pretty good plan, so they'd kept going. Now that Plan A had failed, it was time for Plan C. As for Plan B... well, it was probably better not to ask.
Before you continue