The Summoning Circle

A Soul Stone in a Mage's hands was a terrifying thing, even if that Mage was only a Goblin Shaman whose strength barely differed from that of a level-one Mage apprentice.

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

This time, Kana's Squad slowed down. The Goblin already moved quickly through the forest, and with Kana's Squad deliberately maintaining a distance of about fifty meters, the two sides struck a balance.

They had to admit that the Goblin squad had chosen an exceptionally secluded route. They never encountered a single powerful magic beast along the way. The only ones they did run into were a few weak level-one magic beasts, hardly worth mentioning.

But while the route was well hidden, it was also treacherous. Even the Goblin occasionally took a tumble, let alone Kana's Squad. Had they not been so far behind, the sounds 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'm burning every last one of you to ashes," Kana said through gritted teeth.

She brought up the rear, with some distance between her and the others, so she was the only one who had nobody to help her up when she fell. Meanwhile, the three ahead kept catching and pulling one another up, which only made Kana seem all the more helpless.

Still, that was what came of being the team's eyes. She had to watch their surroundings for hidden enemies.

Wait, haven't I overlooked something? Dean's been casting life detection magic nonstop. As the team's eyes, I seem to... have become useless!

What am I still doing back here all alone?

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.

Steady, steady, Kana soothed herself inwardly. Whatever you do, don't take out your bow. In this dense forest, her accuracy would drop by seventy or eighty percent. In other words, any arrow she fired was very likely to be blocked by something in the forest.

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

In this dense forest, the four of them would not even be enough to fill the gaps between that elite Goblin squad's teeth.

Yes, elite Goblins. Every Goblin apart from the shaman was definitely an elite—the sort that could take on three opponents at once.

As expected of a shaman, the most important member of the entire Goblin Tribe. These elite guards probably accounted for around twenty percent of the tribe's total elites!

Still, it was worth it. From 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 had no idea that the adventurers were leaving the Magic Beast Forest one after another, satisfied with their hauls of Goblin left teeth. Those who had obtained fewer had only one or two, while those with larger hauls had as many as thirty or forty. And all this had taken less than two hours.

Peace returned to the edge of the Magic Beast Forest. Before long, scavenging magic beasts would arrive to dispose of the Goblin corpses. As for the human dead, someone would naturally bring them back rather than leave their bodies exposed in the wilderness.

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

At some point much earlier, shortly after entering the deeper forest, the four had lost track of their exact location. In other words, they could no longer find a way to retreat. Now they feared that following farther would leave them unable to get out of the forest, yet even if they stopped following, they still could not find their way out.

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

After all, Kana's Squad had been together for less than a year and lacked experience, especially in forest terrain.

Besides, a treasure as rare as a Soul Stone was dangling in front of them. What team could resist such temptation? It was like a huge sack of Gold Coins running ahead of you. Wouldn't you want to chase it?

"This Goblin lair really is deep in the forest!" Lamore had stopped thinking about choosing a retreat route. There was simply no route to choose from here, only an endless sea of trees with no way out in sight.

"We should be nearly there. Generally speaking, a Goblin Tribe of this size wouldn't venture too far into the forest!" Dean was beginning to find it unbearable too. They had trekked such a long way, over rugged mountain paths at that. Even drinking most of the team's Healing Water had failed to dispel his exhaustion.

"This still isn't deep enough? Dean, you little genius, are you kidding us? How could you keep something so important from us?" Kana nearly abandoned communicating through team messages and charged straight up to grab Dean by the collar and give him a fierce interrogation.

"I only just remembered!" Dean gave an awkward smile. He could hardly say that the information had only just come from the Infinite Eye, could he? He could not reveal anything about the Infinite Eye!

Dean could only gloss over the matter and fob them off with a vague answer. Of course, given his earlier unusual behavior, Kana and the other two seemed to have sensed something as well. But since it did not appear to pose any danger to Dean for now, they refrained from prying.

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 gorge. Though modest in size, it had many little holes around it, just large enough for Goblins to pass through. Clearly, those holes were probably the Goblins' lairs.

Kana's Squad circled around the entrance and made their way to the edge of the gorge. Just as Dean had expected, not a single Goblin stood guard there. By then, darkness had fallen.

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

They intended to spend the night here. This was nothing unusual; the four of them often stayed outdoors overnight on missions.

The trouble was, these dry rations tasted truly awful.

"Lamore, couldn't you buy something edible? This stuff's rock hard—harder than my teeth." Dean bit down fiercely on a small piece, mumbling as he chewed.

Yanxi and Kana nodded vigorously. The two girls even took out their one-handed sword and hand axe and tapped at the rations until they finally broke off pieces, which they reluctantly stuffed into their mouths.

"There's nothing I can do about it. This is all the adventurers in Blue Town eat 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, look! They've even started making soup!" Kana took a vicious bite of her ration, nearly chipping her pearly teeth.

But because it was dark, none of the four noticed the Goblin Shaman beginning to draw a pattern on the ground!

(End of chapter)