Asuna noticed Li Yu's gaze. She followed it and immediately understood what he was thinking.
At that moment, Li Yu made his move too. He raised his hand and conjured a blue-green Magic Array, then blasted a blade of wind toward the bushes.
The wind blade sliced through the bushes in its path, immediately alerting the monsters. Seeing the magic Li Yu had used, Asuna looked surprised.
Li Yu had already started learning magic? And it was wind-element magic... Was he a wind mage? Asuna wondered, but she didn't hesitate.
She charged ahead, and Li Yu followed close behind. Things were much as he'd guessed: there was more than one monster.
Li Yu's spell sent the monsters hiding in the bushes into a frenzy.
"Gaaah!" The monsters popped out one by one and rolled in every direction to dodge the wind blade. The one closest to it, however, failed to get out of the way in time and took the full brunt of Li Yu's attack.
A wound deep enough to expose bone appeared on its body, blood gushing from it. The intense pain made it howl.
As Li Yu and Asuna charged in, they got a clear look at the monsters and how many there were. Short, green-skinned, with pointed snouts and beady eyes—damn, they were goblins.
The moment Asuna recognized them, she bristled, and her sword sped up.
Every woman felt a natural disgust toward goblins. So the instant Asuna saw them, all she could think about was killing them!
Asuna reached the goblin Li Yu had wounded first and, without hesitation, sliced off its head.
Li Yu wasn't about to fall behind. He rushed up to one of the goblins and swung upward... but it didn't launch into the air as he'd imagined.
Instead, the sharp tip of the Tang Dao in his hand cut through the goblin's belly and lower jaw. With a scream, it fell to the ground.
Li Yu couldn't help staring in surprise. The weapon was even sharper than he'd expected.
He hadn't thought the blade would be this sharp. It had practically dismembered the goblin in a single strike.
Though he felt a little speechless, Li Yu quickly got moving and started cutting down the goblins.
At first, the goblins had been caught off guard by Li Yu and Asuna. But once they saw the first of their kind killed, their ferocity was fully roused.
They quickly recovered and attacked Li Yu and Asuna. The goblins couldn't use magic; all they could do was pick up stones from the ground and hurl them at their opponents.
Faced with this, Li Yu swiftly swung his blade, cutting the incoming stones in half. Then he charged in alongside Asuna and began slaughtering the goblins.
In less than a minute, Li Yu and Asuna had killed them all.
Asuna scanned the area, checking whether anything else was hiding nearby.
Just then, Li Yu noticed the weapon in Asuna's hand: a slender sword resembling a Western rapier. She'd killed plenty of goblins, yet there wasn't a speck of blood on it.
It was clearly an expensive weapon. At the same time, Li Yu had gained a deeper appreciation for the Tang Dao in his own hand.
The blade was worth even more than he'd imagined. It wouldn't be this sharp otherwise.
"Looks like that's all of them!" Yuuki Asuna glanced around. Only after confirming there was no other movement did she speak to Li Yu.
Li Yu nodded at her words. He looked at the goblins' corpses, then unhesitatingly swung his Tang Dao at their heads.
"Crack!" With one chop and a quick pry, the skull split open. Li Yu used his Tang Dao to fish a stone out from inside.
It was a Magic Stone left behind by the monster. This was the only valuable thing on a goblin's body.
As for the rest? It was all good for fertilizer. Someone would come clean it up later.
After what had happened here, the patrol squad would probably comb through the whole area soon.
Asuna was speechless when she saw what Li Yu was doing, but she didn't say anything. She'd probably have to do the same someday.
After all, they'd been taught how to handle monsters at school since middle school. They'd been thoroughly taught where to find their cores, too.
Li Yu quickly took the Magic Stones from the goblins, then turned to Asuna. "We'll split them evenly."
At his words, Asuna looked at the Magic Stones in his hand, each about the size of a baby's finger. She shook her head and declined. "No, Li Yu. You can keep them."
Especially when she noticed the blood and something like mashed tofu smeared on the stones, Asuna wanted them even less. She'd just finished taking a shower!
"You don't want them? Then I won't hold back!" Hearing that, Li Yu froze for a moment, then accepted all of them without the slightest hesitation.
The Magic Stones could fetch a fair amount of money. But what Li Yu really wanted was to use them to set up a Magic Array just like the one at school.
If he had to buy the materials with his own money, he'd probably go bankrupt on the spot. With these Magic Stones, setting it up would be easy.
"Li Yu, are you planning to sell the Magic Stones?" Thinking about his situation, Asuna couldn't help asking him out of the blue.
"No. I'm planning to set up a Magic Array in my room just like the one on the third floor at school—the one we had class in this morning." Li Yu didn't hide his plans and told her what he had in mind.
Asuna's eyes lit up at that. She looked at Li Yu in surprise. "You've already mastered that support array, Li Yu? You can set it up yourself?"
That was a real surprise. If he could set one up at home, it would be an enormous help.
"Yeah, it's pretty simple. The materials are the troublesome part—you need some Magic Stones. These should be enough for me." Generally speaking, the higher the quality of the Magic Stones, the better the effect.
But Li Yu was broke. He couldn't afford better Magic Stones, and the goblins' stones would do for now. He could think about getting better ones later.
"Li Yu, are you interested in earning some extra money?" Asuna thought it over for a moment, then asked him.
At that, Li Yu perked up with interest. He looked up at Asuna. "Tell me more. I'm broke as hell right now. If you know a way to make money, boss, don't forget to show me the ropes!"
Li Yu wasn't the least bit ashamed of being poor. He said it outright, and his frankness left Asuna both amused and exasperated.
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