Spell-Like Abilities

Looking down at the Mutant Goblin's corpse, Rain thought he had managed to land the final blow!

He still didn't know how his system determined who got credit for a kill.

If it required him to kill a monster entirely on his own, then Nia's arrow would have ruined his plan to obtain the Mutant Goblin's bloodline.

But if all that mattered was who landed the final blow...

Then he could claim this rare Mutant Goblin's bloodline and, most likely, gain the spellcasting ability he wanted so badly.

Could the Goblin have learned magic through its own "cleverness" rather than possessing a Mutant Bloodline?

That was impossible.

Even the original Rain, a farmer who had spent his whole life in the village, knew that learning magic generally required knowledge, incantations, and gestures.

Goblins couldn't even speak the common tongue, much less the more complex language of spellcasting. If this one could cast spells, it had to be thanks to some kind of Mutant Bloodline.

The only concern was that the Goblin might have stumbled into extraordinary luck and found a magic item that let it cast spells.

But judging by Nia the archer's startled cry, that seemed unlikely too.

Rain had heard her murmur clearly: "Mutant Goblin."

Then he heard plants snapping behind him.

Militia Captain Jefferson and Nia rushed into view.

Jefferson was worried something might have happened to Rain, a fellow villager. Nia was more curious whether the young farmer had actually managed to catch and kill the wounded Mutant Goblin.

"Rain, that was reckless. What if—"

Jefferson stopped mid-sentence when he saw the scene before him, his worried rebuke dying on his lips.

"You really killed it..."

Jefferson stared blankly at the Mutant Goblin on the ground. Its linen tunic and body were riddled with tiny punctures.

He hadn't expected Rain to catch up to the creature, let alone kill a Goblin capable of casting spells.

After all, a single spell from it had put an Adventurer out of the fight.

Nia was just as stunned.

Earlier, she had suspected Rain might have exaggerated the number of Goblins he had killed. Now she had no doubt he had told the truth.

The dense pattern of pitchfork wounds across the Mutant Goblin's body made it easy to imagine the fight: the young farmer's thrusts must have been swift, forceful, and relentless.

Even the kingdom's trained spearmen might have struggled to match him.

"Uncle Jefferson, after the Adventurer's arrow hit this Mutant Goblin, it couldn't cast another spell. It wasn't much stronger than the others."

Rain glanced at Nia behind Jefferson, giving her arrow the credit.

He had already gained what he wanted most.

The Mutant Goblin might have other loot on it, but he wasn't greedy.

Besides, he had already come away with far more than he'd expected. Any other spoils rightly belonged to the Adventurer party that had accepted the Goblin-slaying job.

Nia smiled at his words.

She hadn't expected the young farmer to be both brave and tactful.

She stepped forward and said admiringly, "That was brave. Your name's Rain, right? ...Maybe you shouldn't spend your life as a farmer."

"Uh... thanks."

Back at the main battleground, the remaining three Goblins had been routed, and the two girls had been rescued from the cave.

But when Rain and the others returned, he saw the girls curled up in their fathers' arms.

Ruth and Lori were alive, though their clothes were torn and they were badly shaken. Their eyes were full of helplessness, and they trembled in their fathers' arms like frightened rabbits.

Rain's heart sank at the sight.

Fortunately, under Dim-Light Vision, he could see that both girls' linen trousers were still largely intact.

It seemed the rescue party had arrived soon after the girls were dragged into the cave.

They had been just in time.

But they might not be so lucky next time.

Rain shuddered at the thought of what might have happened if they had arrived a day later, leaving two defenseless girls surrounded by more than a dozen Goblins with "Rapid Reproduction lv2."

Even if the girls had been rescued then, there would have been a far more troubling problem to deal with: the little green monsters growing inside them...

Rain shook his head and pushed the thought away.

On the way back, the Adventurer party members at the front of the group spoke quietly among themselves. They seemed to be wondering how they could have been unlucky enough to encounter a Mutant Goblin in such a small group.

Rain listened from the rear for a while, then gave in to his excitement and checked the system.

All four square slots were full. The first held an image of a Goblin Warrior; the other three showed the frail figures of ordinary Goblins.

Huh? Where's the Mutant Goblin I killed?

Rain's heart lurched.

Did it fail because the slots were full?

Or did Nia's help mean the kill didn't count?

Then he noticed something new at the lower right of the panel: an icon shaped like an inventory bag from a game in his previous life.

When he focused on it, the bag opened to reveal sixteen slots arranged in four rows.

The first two slots held images of an ordinary Goblin and the Mutant Goblin in its linen tunic.

Yes!

Rain was elated. If he hadn't been walking in a group, he might have pumped his fist in celebration.

He really had obtained the Mutant Goblin's bloodline.

He could inspect it now, but this wasn't a good time to equip it.

He was surrounded by Adventurers he didn't know. If equipping the bloodline caused some visible change—or a sudden surge of magical energy—it might draw their attention.

After some thought, Rain decided not to equip the Mutant Goblin's bloodline yet.

Instead, he tried moving the Goblin Warrior icon into the sixteen-slot bag.

The icon moved successfully. A wave of weakness washed over Rain as his muscles returned to their former state and his little belly quickly reappeared.

Even the scenery farther away became hard to make out.

Dim-Light Vision had vanished too.

Rain checked the system panel:

[Name: Rain]

[Occupation: Farmer]

[Strength: 5]

[Agility: 5]

[Constitution: 5]

[Intelligence: 7]

[Perception: 5]

[Charisma: 5]

For a moment, Rain felt like Cinderella after taking off the glass slippers.

But he didn't dwell on the loss. He placed four identical ordinary Goblin icons into the four slots.

Now to test my theory.

Rain focused on the four unlit Goblin portraits.

The same system prompt he had seen before appeared:

[Cannot equip four identical bloodlines of the same tier. Merge them? Yes/No]

Yes!

Without hesitation, Rain selected "Yes."