The Summoning Circle

A Soul Stone in the hands of a mage was a terrifying thing, even if that mage was only a Goblin Shaman whose strength barely differed from that of a first-level mage apprentice.

A lack of strength did not mean the Goblin Shaman lacked knowledge. Knowledge accumulated over time was itself part of formidable power.

This time, Kana's Squad slowed down. Goblins were already quick at moving through the forest, and with Kana's Squad deliberately maintaining a distance of around fifty meters, the two groups settled into a balance.

There was no denying that the route the goblin squad had chosen was extremely secluded. They encountered no powerful Devil Beasts whatsoever along the way. The few they did come across were weak first-level beasts, hardly worth mentioning.

But while the route was well hidden, it was also treacherous. Even the goblins occasionally fell, let alone Kana's Squad. Had they not been so far behind, the noise of Dean and the others falling would have alerted the goblin squad long ago. Naturally, all four members of Kana's Squad were now covered in mud.

"A few... a few measly goblins actually led me down a path like this! Once we reach the Goblin Nest, I'll burn every last one of you!" Kana said through gritted teeth.

She walked at the rear, some distance behind the others, so whenever she fell, no one was there to help her up. Meanwhile, Dean and the other two were helping one another along up ahead, making Kana seem all the more helpless.

Still, Kana was the squad's eyes, after all. She had to watch for hidden enemies around them.

Wait, Kana seemed to have overlooked something. Dean was constantly using Life Detection Magic, which meant her role as the squad's eyes... was no longer useful!

What am I still doing back here all by myself?

It's all those damned goblins. That's right, it's all their fault! Anger flared in Kana's heart. It's the goblins' fault we haven't had time to rearrange our formation.

Stay calm, stay calm, Kana told herself. Whatever you do, don't take out your bow. In this dense forest, her accuracy with a bow would drop by seventy or eighty percent. In other words, there was a very good chance that anything she shot would be blocked by something in the forest.

An arrow did not fly in a straight line over long distances! And once they alerted the goblin squad, their pursuit would end right there. They would have to start thinking about how to escape.

The four of them would barely make a mouthful for that elite goblin squad in this dense forest.

Yes, these were elite goblins, and every single one besides the shaman was definitely an elite—the kind that could take on three opponents at once.

It was only fitting for a shaman, the most important member of the entire Goblin Tribe. These elites probably accounted for around twenty percent of the tribe's total!

But it was worth it. Judging by what they had seen so far, this entire goblin operation revolved around the shaman. Meanwhile, almost all the goblins on the outskirts of the Magic Beast Forest had already been wiped out.

The four members of Kana's Squad did not yet know that the adventurers were leaving the Magic Beast Forest one after another, satisfied with their haul of goblin left teeth. Those with smaller hauls had only one or two, while some of the more successful adventurers had collected thirty or forty—all in less than two hours.

Peace returned to the edge of the Magic Beast Forest. Before long, scavenging Devil Beasts would come to dispose of the goblin corpses. The human dead, of course, would be carried back rather than left exposed in the wilderness.

Meanwhile, Kana's Squad had no idea how long they had been heading deeper into the forest. All four of them knew only to stick close to the elite goblin squad ahead.

At some point earlier, not long after entering the forest's depths, the four had lost track of their exact location. In other words, they could no longer find a way out. Now, they feared they would never get out if they kept following, but stopping would leave them just as lost.

Kana's Squad had made a small mistake that no forest hunter would dare make: following their prey so deep that they lost their own bearings.

After all, Kana's Squad had been formed less than a year ago. They still lacked experience, especially in forest terrain.

Besides, a treasure as rare as a Soul Stone was luring them onward. What squad could resist such temptation? It was like a huge bag of gold coins running ahead of them. Wouldn't they want to chase it?

"These goblins' nest really is deep in the forest!" Lamore had stopped considering possible escape routes. There were none to choose from here, only an endless expanse of forest without a path in sight.

"We should be close now. Generally speaking, a Goblin Tribe of this size wouldn't venture too deep into the forest!" Dean was reaching his limit too. After such a long trek over rugged mountain paths, even drinking most of the squad's Healing Water had failed to relieve his exhaustion.

"This isn't deep enough? Dean, you little genius, are you kidding us? How could you not tell us something so important?" Kana nearly abandoned communicating through the squad's messages and charged up to grab Dean by the collar and give him a furious grilling.

"I only just remembered!" Dean laughed awkwardly. He could hardly tell them that the information had just come from the Infinite Eye, could he? But he could not reveal the Infinite Eye's existence either!

So Dean could only gloss over it and brush the matter aside with a vague excuse. Of course, since he had already shown some unusual behavior, Kana and the other two seemed to have noticed something. But as it did not seem to be harming Dean for the moment, they refrained from asking too many questions.

Sure enough, things went much as Dean had said. A few minutes later, the goblin squad reached its destination, where a crowd of goblins had gathered.

It was a small canyon. Though not large, it had many little holes along its sides, each just big enough for a goblin to pass through. Clearly, these holes must have been the goblins' nests.

Kana's Squad skirted the canyon's entrance and made their way to its edge. Just as Dean had expected, not a single goblin stood guard here. By then, night had fallen.

Dean sprinkled some liquid medicine around them to keep insects and ants away, while Lamore took out some dry rations and shared them with the other three.

They planned to spend the night here. This was nothing unusual; the four of them often had to sleep outdoors while on missions.

But these dry rations really were awful.

"Lamore, couldn't you buy something edible? This stuff is rock-hard. It's tougher than my teeth." Dean bit down hard on a small piece, mumbling as he gnawed at it.

Yanxi and Kana hurriedly nodded in agreement. The two girls even took out their one-handed sword and hand axe and tapped at the rations until they finally knocked off a piece, which they reluctantly put into their mouths.

"There's nothing I can do about it. All the adventurers in Blue Town eat this stuff when they're out in the field." Like Dean, Lamore struggled to tear off a small piece of his ration and swallowed it.

"Those damned goblins! Look, just look! They're even making soup!" Kana took a vicious bite of her ration, nearly chipping her teeth.

But in the darkness, none of the four noticed that the Goblin Shaman had begun drawing patterns on the ground!

(End of chapter)