This Is a Real Adventure

(Warning: Graphic and violent content ahead. Please read with caution. I'd appreciate it if you'd read my explanation afterward. If this still isn't acceptable, I apologize.)

The giant axe Goblin, though momentarily stunned and hopping from pain after being pinned, was otherwise unharmed.

But just as one wave subsided, another arose. Sensing the threat from the giant axe Goblin, the female Magician began to cast a spell. However, it was… just a trick.

"Arrow, ignite." Her voice was noticeably louder than yesterday's, but then… From the female Magician's hand, a fire arrow shot out, striking the wall behind the giant axe Goblin. It sparked, nearly hitting the Goblin behind the giant axe Goblin… but it didn't actually hit anyone.

Could this be the legendary benevolent fire arrow? So kind? It absolutely couldn't hit people?

Fortunately, the young warrior was intently watching their rear, fearing a Goblin ambush, so he didn't witness this scene. Otherwise, he might have doubled over in laughter.

Although Lin Yun wanted to comfort the female Magician, with so many Goblins around, he felt it was better not to court death and to focus on fighting.

Having repositioned, the giant axe Goblin raised its axe again and swung it ferociously at Lin Yun. It then stared in bewilderment as its axe cleaved through Lin Yun's "Protection from Evil" only to be… stuck by Lin Yun's Shield spell. How pathetic.

Meanwhile, Lin Yun seized the opportunity while the giant axe Goblin was stunned. With a benevolent smile (though hidden by his helmet), he swung his staff with both hands.

But…

"D20+2+2=6, MISS." To Lin Yun's stiff expression, the giant axe Goblin loosened its grip, dropped its axe, dodged Lin Yun's attack, and casually pulled a dagger from its waist…

On the other side, the Goblin wielding a battle axe and a pickaxe attacked the Female Fighter. This time, the Female Fighter's luck seemed… not so good. The battle axe cleaved viciously between her breasts, leaving a wound that nearly exposed bone. Then, the pickaxe struck her head, directly blowing her head off.

"Ugh." Blood and some white matter splattered from the Female Fighter's head, some even landing on Lin Yun. In that moment, Lin Yun's mind flashed back to the Female Fighter, her hands behind her back, her face flushed as she looked at him.

The warm liquid slightly cooled his previously smug feeling of being untouchable by the horde of Goblins.

This was reality. This was combat. This… was deadly.

"Didn't I tell you to retreat after dealing damage?" Lin Yun blurted out instinctively.

He had been saying this since their first encounter in the mine. But because the Female Fighter was so engrossed in dealing damage and even snagged an MVP without any issues, Lin Yun had secretly felt she could protect herself. Yet, in a moment of carelessness, she had been disemboweled and then her head gruesomely smashed in with a pickaxe.

"Hahahaha." Seeing the annoying guy finally dead, the Goblins let out ear-piercing laughter.

The Female Fighter's death shocked the Goddess Priestess to the point of terror. She collapsed to the ground, staring blankly at the corpse.

"You… how dare you… how dare you kill my companion, Burning Hands!" Unlike the Goddess Priestess, the two Goblins who had defeated the Female Fighter, drooling and reaching out as if to desecrate her headless corpse, were met with the female Magician's uncontainable rage. She rushed to Lin Yun's side and, without harming him, unleashed her second and last Burning Hands of the day. This time, fueled by her inner fury, she didn't modify the attributes and unleashed it as pure flame.

A distance of 3.3 meters, incredibly long in this pit. In the fiery light, even the four Goblins preparing to shoot arrows behind them were caught in the blast, unable to react.

Of the thirteen Goblins, all except the one with the spear and the one who had abandoned his axe for a dagger, were unable to dodge the center of this Burning Hands. The ferocious flames engulfed those trapped in the inferno, eliciting screams as they fell to the ground, incapacitated.

The Goblin standing nearby, now holding a dagger, frantically threw off the Goblins on him. Yes, just moments ago, he had used a nearby Goblin as a meat shield, allowing him to narrowly avoid the direct impact.

Even so, he suffered severe burns. With hate-filled eyes, this Goblin charged at the female Magician, but Lin Yun intercepted him. Wielding his Burning Lamp Staff, he swung. However, perhaps due to being distracted by the Female Fighter's death, Lin Yun's focus wavered.

"D20+2+2=14, MISS." This attack missed, but it at least drew the giant axe Goblin's attention back. The Goblin, who had been charging the female Magician, turned towards Lin Yun. However, the severe injuries he sustained prevented him from putting any power into his dagger swing. It stalled at the first layer of "Protection from Evil" and died down without a sound.

At this point, the female Magician seemed to be in a frenzy. Facing the close-range Goblin, she cast her trick again, "Arrow, ignite."

Her rage, rather than causing her to lose focus, made her more concentrated than ever. This time, the flame was exceptionally fierce but also incredibly precise. A single fire arrow struck the Goblin directly on the head, causing him to writhe on the ground. When the flames finally extinguished, he lay on the ground, unconscious, his face blackened.

Meanwhile, as the battle concluded, oh, and unbeknownst to Lin Yun and the others, the Goblin who had avoided the center of the Burning Hands (besides the giant axe Goblin), though severely burned, had stubbornly survived and fled. It was now impossible to catch him…

Or so it seemed. Though he had been watching their rear, how could the young warrior not hear such a commotion? Upon seeing the Female Fighter's death, the young warrior froze for a moment. But quickly, seeing the Goblin about to escape, he realized the Goblin couldn't just leave.

He had to pay the price. The young warrior sprinted to the Goddess Priestess's side, took the loaded Light Crossbow from her hands, and fired it at the fleeing Goblin.

Perhaps in his haste to escape, he was so focused on running that he neglected his surroundings. The crossbow bolt lodged itself in the Goblin's back, sending him crashing to the ground.

This time, the battle was truly over.

"How could this happen?" Kneeling before the Female Fighter, the Goddess Priestess placed her hand on her, looking at the face that always used to smile, now blurred and unrecognizable. She was powerless.

The female Magician and the young warrior stood beside the Female Fighter, heads bowed, fists clenched.

"This is the daily life of an adventurer. Either you kill something, or you get killed by something," the young warrior said with a grim smile.

"But this shouldn't have happened!" The Goddess Priestess was agitated. "Why did this happen?" She was already sobbing uncontrollably.

Meanwhile, Lin Yun watched it all in silence. Perhaps he could see them as NPCs, but in reality, he couldn't. Feeling this way, he felt an urge to vomit, but he couldn't. He still had to take them back, back to the Adventurer's Guild.

Looking at the fallen Goblin bodies scattered on the ground, Lin Yun's eyes, hidden behind his helmet, gleamed. He had to take them back.

Picking up his heavy mace, Lin Yun began to harvest heads one by one. As for the one with the battle axe, the one with the pickaxe, nearly reduced to mincemeat by Lin Yun's heavy mace, let's not dwell on the details.

They might be NPCs, but at least, he felt they were people. They were his companions. So he would kill them. It was that simple.

There's a saying among Goblin slayers: any Goblin that isn't alive is a good Goblin. So, all of you, die! Become my strength.

These were relatively elite Goblins, each worth 150 experience points. The one with the giant axe, perhaps a Goblin Leader, yielded 400 experience points. Combined with the two wolves, Lin Yun's experience points surged to 8400, a full 1400 more than the 7000 needed to reach level 3.

Now, it was time for judgment.

Lin Yun pressed the upgrade button in his mind.