Third-Eighth Chapter: He Was So Sad He Forgot His Job (Please Leave Tips and Recommendations)

Lin Yun reached level 3, and his HP increased once again.

"D8=7"

Normally, Lin Yun would have laughed with delight, but now, as he looked at the Female Fighter's corpse on the ground, he could only fall silent.

It felt as though the Female Fighter had died so he could level up.

But he had to look ahead, so Lin Yun could only continue dealing with what came after leveling up.

The most noteworthy thing about level 3 was that Lin Yun could increase any one of his attributes by one point. He put it into Wisdom, raising it from 17 to 18. His obsessive-compulsive tendencies were finally satisfied; all his stats were even numbers now.

Then there was the fact that, as a Priest, Lin Yun could finally cast 2nd-Circle Magic. Also, the D6 recovery from Channel Divinity had become 2D6. But... unfortunately, none of the 2nd-Circle Magic could bring someone back to life. As far as Lin Yun knew, the lowest-circle magic that could do that was 5th-Circle Magic. And when someone had been struck in the head like this, it was hard to revive them, because resurrection had its conditions. At the very least, the body had to remain intact.

And even though he was level 3 now, Lin Yun wouldn't recover his 2nd-Circle Magic until he had finished resting. In other words... right now, Lin Yun was basically a fighter.

All right, he really wanted to act cute, but the situation didn't seem right.

He drew a shallow breath. The air was thick with the stench of blood, perhaps mixed with the smell of some unidentified fluid from the brain. Still, Lin Yun endured the nausea and sadness, turned around, and said to the young warrior, "Next, you'll be the one standing beside me. Are you afraid of dying?"

As he spoke, Lin Yun went to the gap behind them and looked at the Wolf Riders who had charged all the way here. Just as he'd expected, goblins were stupid, but they weren't idiots. These goblins had clearly intended to attack from both sides, but Lin Yun—or rather, the Female Mage—had wiped out the whole group before they could.

The Wolf Riders looked awkward as they stared at Lin Yun and the others. The gap in particular meant they could only watch from outside.

Perhaps because they couldn't see what was happening inside, the Wolf Riders still charged at Lin Yun two at a time.

Lin Yun stepped forward and stood firmly in the gap. The two Wolf Riders could only make a charging thrust at him.

They might have been exhausted from their long journey—but wait, the Wolf Riders were riding wolves. What could they be tired from? The only explanation was that these guys were useless. Their spears struck Protection from Evil in front of Lin Yun and couldn't penetrate it at all.

The two wolves lunged at Lin Yun and bit him. That was fine. The wolves weren't affected by Protection from Evil, so they could get through, but one was stopped by Shield, while the other... bit Lin Yun's iron gauntlet. It was a Forging Master's gauntlet, but it was still made of iron, with ceramic inside to protect against bites.

His troubled thoughts kept Lin Yun from staying calm. Furious, he gripped the Lantern Staff in both hands. His anger made him raise it high, then bring it down hard on the wolf in front of him. The wolf was the most dangerous threat, after all, and the goblin riding it wore leather armor. It was battered and ill-fitting, but its Armor Class was definitely higher than the wolf's.

"D20+2+2=12, hit."

"D6+3+1=9." With a goblin on its back, the wolf couldn't dodge Lin Yun's attack properly. The Lantern Staff struck it on the head, and the lamp oil splashed onto its fur. The wolf howled. Meanwhile, the young warrior charged over from the cave and swung his sword at it. He still held his shield in his left hand, remembering Lin Yun's words, even though he'd thrown it away in a moment of impulse earlier.

But Lin Yun's earlier words to the Female Fighter—"Once you've dealt your damage, fall back"—had stayed with the young warrior. He remembered them clearly. This wasn't anyone's fault. The goblins might bear some blame, but the Female Fighter did too, and she had paid the price. As he'd said, an Adventurer either killed something or got killed by something. It was normal, though much harder to bear than he'd imagined.

The young warrior's furious strike went a little wide, but still hit the wolf near its waist. His sharp sword plunged into its body and sliced part of it open. The wound was so severe that the wolf collapsed. The goblin hadn't expected the wolf to fall so suddenly and didn't have time to react. It was pinned underneath, and would need a little time to get back up.

That wasn't all. As the young warrior's sword came through, it continued on to slash the goblin lying on the ground, cutting into it.

A follow-through strike. Lin Yun watched the young warrior's attack and raised an eyebrow. He hadn't seen him use that move before. Had he leveled up? Unlike other classes, fighters were simple and straightforward: at level 1, level 2, and every even-numbered level after that, they could learn a feat. In this world, it probably felt like a technique that had already been recorded in their minds suddenly came to them. But...

Could the people in this world level up too? Lin Yun wondered.

Behind them, a noticeably larger goblin in a suit of armor looked at the goblins stuck at the gap and frowned. Then the armored goblin shouted at the others, and all the goblins outside the gap moved away from it.

Lin Yun frowned, but in the end he paid no attention. He couldn't afford to.

At that moment, however, the Female Mage cast her last 1st-Circle Magic of the day at the armored goblin in the distance, who looked every bit like a leader. Well, she seemed to be in a very foul mood today.

The Female Mage took out what looked like a diamond and fixed her gaze on the armored goblin. She rubbed her hands together, and an energy sphere filled with flames burst from them and shot toward the goblin. The fierce fire exploded against the armored goblin, blasting him to the ground.????

What had just happened? How was it so powerful? Lin Yun stared at the one-hit KO'd goblin who was obviously the Goblin Leader. He'd gone down in a single hit, despite looking so ferocious just moments ago. Was this for real?

(Hmm, how should I put it? There were a lot of Critical Hits today, and I'm kind of freaking out. I set this Goblin Chieftain's Armor Class to 17, but when I checked for a Critical Hit, I rolled a 14. The Female Mage's spell attack is +4, so it barely hit. I made Color Spray the strongest single-target spell here, equivalent to a 3R energy sphere, with an element that can be changed at will. It deals 3D8, doubled to 6D8, since it's an attack spell and can score a Critical Hit. It rolled 39 damage, then School of Fusion added 1, for a total of 40 HP. The poor Goblin Leader only had 37 HP—he was supposed to have 22, but I'd boosted him. That's rough.)

Seeing the armored goblin fall, the other goblins began to panic. Even the goblin riding a wolf in front of Lin Yun jumped off at one point, apparently trying to escape. Lin Yun reacted in time and swung the Lantern Staff at it.

"D20+2+2=17, hit."

"D6+3+1=6." Lin Yun's Lantern Staff only struck the goblin's arm. It let out a scream, but the hit didn't knock it to the ground.

But Lin Yun wasn't the only one to attack. The young warrior swung his sword, striking the goblin's shoulder. His sharp blade sliced the goblin's arm off, sending it tumbling to the ground. It lost so much blood that its eyes rolled back, and it passed out.

Though tears still glistened on her face, the Female Mage picked up the Light Crossbow and pulled the trigger at the wolf. As usual... she kept her eyes shut. Naturally, she missed again. This time, she shot the ground by Lin Yun's feet. At least she hadn't hit him—that was a blessing in disguise.

The wolf looked disdainfully at its companion for trying to flee. Wolves would retreat when things went badly, but they disdained abandoning their companions. Besides, it didn't think it could escape from the two humans in front of it, so... it would fight. The wolf wasn't very intelligent, but it had that much resolve.

It lunged at the young warrior. He had just knocked its kin unconscious, but this time the wolf's attack was stopped by his shield. The fighter's shield blocked it perfectly. At last, the shield had proved useful. The wolf stared at the young warrior, looking thoroughly vexed.

Then Lin Yun took advantage of the opening and swung the Lantern Staff at the wolf. "D20+2+2=5, critical failure."

But this time, the wolf was a little too nimble. Maybe it was because the goblin it had been carrying was gone, making it more agile. Not only did it dodge the attack with ease,

it also swatted the young warrior with its paw.

"D6+3+1=8."

"Ugh!" Caught off guard, the young warrior sucked in a sharp breath when Lin Yun's Lantern Staff struck him.

Lin Yun's expression stiffened. Though the young warrior had been burned by the flames and showed signs of burns, he gritted his teeth and swung his sword. He brought it down hard on the wolf's neck, burying the blade nearly halfway through. It was a brutal strike, and the wolf collapsed to the ground.