At this point, all Lin Yun could say was that he was lucky. At least the air vent had been blocked, even if only temporarily. It would only take a few minutes to dig it open again. Now, all that remained was to see whether there was enough air in the mine.
It was a pity he did not know Gust of Wind. Otherwise, he could simply control the wind and use it to carry the air out of the mine. That would have been fun. Ah, no, that was not quite right. According to the principles of air-pressure flow, bringing the air out would cause the outside air to pour in even more violently because of the difference in pressure... Hmm, that actually sounded pretty good. Wasn't that exactly how mine explosions worked?
What a pity.
The Female Mage and Goddess Priestess, who stood beside Lin Yun and were ready for battle at any moment, had no idea that the man standing beside them like a silent iron can was currently coming up with all sorts of terrifying plans.
This was the largest air vent, which was why it had been Lin Yun and the others' first target. Once it was blocked, even if there were other air vents, they would be of no use. That was also why they had chosen this place.
And since what was about to come might be a fierce battle, Lin Yun had sent the villagers back first. Because the goblins might emerge from the other side and attack the village, he had also told the villagers to be prepared.
Those villagers were not like the villagers in some darker novels, who would say things like, "If it weren't for you, our village wouldn't have ended up like this," to people who wanted to help them. Only idiots even stupider than village idiots could say such things. Having lived in dire conditions for so long, they knew that goblins were not human gangsters. At the very least, even gangsters were human. Gangsters had their own rules, and sometimes they even acted as mediators. They protected these villagers unless they were complete scum.
Goblins, however, were not human. They were destined to become enemies.
After about a few minutes, the young warrior and the Female Fighter arrived as well.
Lin Yun asked briefly about the situation. "How are things on your side?"
"Nothing much happened. Those goblins barely came out at all. This is so boring, Mr. Silent. Are we going to attack their headquarters now?" the young warrior asked.
"More or less, but not exactly. In any case, our first step is to go through this crack." Lin Yun pointed at the crack as he spoke.
"Huh? All right." The young warrior nodded and began moving with Lin Yun. Naturally, the Female Fighter, Female Mage, and Goddess Priestess followed Lin Yun as well.
Since they were inside the crack, the relatively small, agile Female Fighter, who also had some ability to protect herself, took the lead. Lin Yun and the young warrior came next, followed by the Goddess Priestess, with the Female Mage bringing up the rear. The Female Mage still had one Burning Hands left, so even if enemies appeared behind them, she could use it to protect herself.
They not only had to guard against goblins emerging from the mine; these goblins also had wolves as mounts. If they launched a sudden assault and charged out of the cavern where the young warrior had been stationed earlier, then circled around to attack Lin Yun and the others, it would be a real pain. Unfortunately, they did not have enough people. Otherwise, they could have surrounded the enemy instead.
If they entered the crack, they might still be surrounded, but at least there would be far fewer enemies to face at the same time.
For now, at least, there were no major problems.
The biggest problem was that Lin Yun's scale armor was too large and not very flexible. He could only crawl almost prone as he made his way through the crack. After Lin Yun and the others passed through, they began hearing a series of noisy sounds from the other side. The goblins were coming.
This rear passage was not very large. It had originally been built as an emergency passage and did not need to accommodate mine carts, so it felt even narrower than the passage in the goblin cavern they had visited the first time.
One human could pass through with plenty of room, but two humans would be somewhat cramped. At the same time, at least three or even four goblins could squeeze through. In terms of terrain, this was much more advantageous than before.
Since they were entering a cavern again, Lin Yun picked up the Lantern Staff and lit the lamp on top of it, waiting at the entrance for the goblins to charge out.
The firelight from the Lantern Staff illuminated the surroundings, reaching about 3.3 meters away. Then, two goblins riding wolves charged over almost shoulder to shoulder. Behind them, more goblins could vaguely be seen rushing toward Lin Yun.
Naturally, after hearing the goblins, Lin Yun also began making preparations and cast Shield. Since Lin Yun was now level 2, Shield could last for two minutes, which was more than enough for a battle.
So this time, Lin Yun temporarily put down the shield in his hand. Previously, there had been three reasons he had continued carrying a shield while using Shield. First, Shield had lasted only one minute, and Lin Yun had not been sure how quickly the battle would end. Second, the shield allowed him to cast Divine Magic and Channel Divinity, provided he held it aloft. And third... Lin Yun was ultimately just an ordinary person, so the shield also encouraged him and gave him a sense of security...
This time, however, things were different. Lin Yun had not only cast Shield, but had also added another form of protection.
Protection from Alignment was a 1st-Circle spell and a rather wondrous one. In the worldview of Dungeons & Dragons, there were nine alignments: Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Good, Absolute Gravity, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral, and Chaotic Evil.
According to Lin Yun's interpretation:
Lawful Good: doing good while believing in powerful rules and acting on that basis (Confucianism/Kantianism).
Neutral Good: doing good according to one's own principles while also respecting the rules (Mohism/egalitarianism).
Chaotic Good: doing good according to one's own standards without regard for the rules, or doing bad things with good intentions (human rights/utilitarianism).
Lawful Neutral: placing rules above all else and disregarding good and evil (Legalism/contractualism).
Absolute Neutral: following the crowd, taking no side, and maintaining moderation (Taoism/principle-based ethics).
Chaotic Neutral: placing freedom above all else and doing whatever one wanted (anarchism).
Lawful Evil: doing evil in an organized and disciplined manner (***ism).
Neutral Evil: doing evil for one's own reasons without following the rules, but also without destroying them (criminals).
Chaotic Evil: treating all goodness and order as meaningless, doing evil purely from an instinct to destroy, and taking pleasure in it (antisocial/anti-human).
The spell called Protection from Alignment was a mind-affecting spell that resisted such things—or what should be called personalities—through their alignment.
Because Lin Yun had not known what kind of world he would face next, he had chosen the fairly useful Command, along with Shield, so he had felt reasonably secure.
But now he had discovered... Good heavens, this was actually a world where he had to fight goblins. Fine. Staying alive was the most important thing.
Protection from Alignment was divided into Protection from Good, Protection from Evil, Protection from Law, and Protection from Chaos. After casting one of them, when the caster was attacked by a corresponding alignment—for example, after Lin Yun cast Protection from Evil—
the naturally Chaotic Evil goblins would feel a certain resistance when attacking Lin Yun, making it impossible for them to strike him accurately. Lin Yun gained a +2 deflection bonus to AC and a +2 resistance bonus on saving throws. As for the saving throws, they overlapped with the Divine Power from Protection Field, but it was still pretty good.
The most wondrous aspect of Protection from Evil seemed to be that if the enemy was a summoned creature of the Evil Alignment, any physical contact would become completely ineffective and the creature would be repelled. Of course, if it had a certain degree of Spell Resistance, it could still force its way through.
It also applied against any spell or effect that possessed or mentally controlled someone, including enchantment effects involving [Charm] and [Compulsion], such as Charm Person, Command, and Dominate Person. The target gained a +2 morale bonus on saving throws. However, this only suppressed the spell for its duration and did not allow the target to automatically succeed on every saving throw.
In short, it was extremely useful. That was all that mattered.
Like Shield, this spell lasted one minute per level, so it also lasted two minutes. Lin Yun's AC had now genuinely reached 20. It was a pity that the Black Iron Breastplate had not been finished; otherwise, it would have been even more terrifying. Ordinary goblins probably could not hit him unless they rolled 16 or higher.
Because of these two layers of defense, Lin Yun had no 1st-Circle spell slots left. He simply picked up the Lantern Staff with both hands and prepared to start swinging it around.
As the two goblins riding wolves charged toward him, Lin Yun applied a little force with his feet but did not retreat. It was not that he did not want to dodge. The main reason was that if he moved aside, the Female Fighter, Goddess Priestess, and the others behind him would be injured.
And incidentally, the young warrior was, as usual... waiting behind them.
He swung the Lantern Staff in his hands.
Yes, he swung it. Like Divine Power from Protection Field, Magic Domain also had Divine Power. The Divine Power from Magic Domain was somewhat like a boomerang. Basically, he threw the melee weapon in his hand, and whether or not it hit the target, it would return to Lin Yun's hand. Even more strangely, Lin Yun could use his Wisdom modifier in place of his Strength modifier to enhance his attack roll.
So Lin Yun's attack was, "D20+3+2=15, hit."
The flying Lantern Staff shot straight toward one of the wolves. As the saying went, shoot the rider's horse first. That principle could be said to be eternal.
For this attack, Lin Yun still used his Strength modifier for damage. Since he was wielding it with both hands, it was:
"D6+3+1=8"
The fierce blow made the charging wolf stagger. Lin Yun directly interrupted its charge. At that moment, the other goblin riding a wolf charged toward Lin Yun and thrust its spear at him. While charging, wielding a spear, and riding a mount, it would deal double damage to Lin Yun.
Unfortunately, just as Lin Yun was bracing himself, the goblin's spear struck a translucent barrier in front of him instead. It was the shield from Protection from Evil. The goblin clearly had not expected another layer of protection to be in front of Lin Yun. Because it had not held on tightly enough, the spear was knocked away and went flying into an unknown distance down the pit.
Was this really that metaphysical?
Before you continue