Time to Make a Run for It

"Huh? They're actually two girls!" Xiao Yu was taken aback when he saw the two female night elves in the woods. They seemed pretty, too, but who cared? He was leveling up today, and he'd cut down girls just the same!

"Wahahaha, get them, boys!" At their boss's command, the goblin warriors swarmed forward. Though naturally timid, goblins still dared to fight when they had an overwhelming advantage in numbers.

Water Falls Without a Trace, however, remained calm. She raised her staff-Frost Nova!

With a flash, the mage froze every goblin warrior charging at her in place. They wouldn't be able to move for at least three or four seconds.

"Let's focus our attacks on one and kill them one at a time!"

"Okay, sis."

The two of them then focused their attacks on the goblin warrior closest to them, one firing arrows and the other throwing fireballs. Both dealt considerable damage, and they killed one goblin warrior in the blink of an eye.

"Damn, that damage is high! No, we can't wait any longer. Fire your arrows!" Xiao Yu shouted as he hurled a fireball at the elf mage, accompanied by four arrows.

Ice Shield! In the midst of the chaos, Water Falls Without a Trace cast a defensive spell. Bang, bang, bang! The fireball and arrows were all blocked, but the Ice Shield's durability was depleted as well.

In that brief moment, however, the second goblin warrior's health also hit bottom, and he fell with a scream.

"Good work! Keep attacking!" Xiao Yu hurled another fireball, and the goblin scouts continued firing arrows. After two volleys, they had reduced the mage to a sliver of health. The four frozen goblin warriors had also broken free and charged at the hunter and mage.

Water Falls Without a Trace drank a potion, turned, and ran.

"Bastard, don't you dare attack my sister! Little White, bite him!" Fish That Doesn't Eat Cats had realized Xiao Yu was the leader. She pointed at him, and the little white wolf immediately pounced at him.

Damn it, why do they come after me every time? Xiao Yu grumbled as he turned and ran, ordering several of his subordinates nearby to stop the little white wolf. It suddenly occurred to him that advancing to goblin diviner had been a mistake. Anyone could figure out that, for adventurers, basic combat sense was to kill the spellcaster among the monsters first. They were fragile and dealt high damage, so they were bound to be the priority.

Among a group of goblin warriors and goblin scouts, he, a goblin diviner, stood out like a firefly in the dark. Anyone with even a little intelligence would attack him first.

"Hey, hurry up and help! Can't you see we're about to die?" Water Falls Without a Trace shouted at the air around her as she ran. The goblin warriors had broken free of the ice, and aside from the two who had been killed, the remaining four were all charging at the mage.

"I thought you wanted to do it yourselves so it would feel meaningful." A cool voice suddenly sounded behind Xiao Yu. He turned just in time to see an elf emerge from the air. With a Fan of Knives, throwing knives shot out in every direction like rain, and the goblin warriors chasing the female mage all dropped without question.

"Damn, they've got a high-level character, and one with a mercenary template!"

Xiao Yu thought this was bad. He wasn't afraid of being killed by adventurers; at worst, he could spend a few bucks to resurrect. But being killed by someone with a mercenary template would mean a plot death. He had only just created this character-did he have to be this unlucky?

"Fire! Fire your arrows!"

Several goblin scouts immediately loosed a volley, but the rogue mercenary swung both blades repeatedly and knocked every arrow flying at him aside.

Damn, what skill is that? He can even knock arrows away? That looks pretty cool.

The night elf rogue charged over, slashing left and right. In the blink of an eye, he cut down four goblin scouts, then walked toward Xiao Yu step by step.

Xiao Yu hurriedly shouted.

"Mercy, heroine!" he shouted as he turned and ran. After a couple of steps, he suddenly thought something was strange: he wasn't dead. He turned around and saw the rogue watching his retreating figure with a wicked grin.

He wondered about it, but didn't dwell on it. Being alive was better than being dead. His first outing had gone badly; it seemed he couldn't go looking for trouble with adventurers so casually in the future.

But just because he didn't want to cause them trouble didn't mean no one wanted to cause him trouble.

"Boo-hoo, my poor Little White, you died so horribly!" Deep in the Night Whisper Forest, Fish That Doesn't Eat Cats held Little White's cold corpse and wept. Though Moonmark Shadowstalker had dealt with all the goblins as soon as he appeared, leaving both elf girls unharmed, Little White had been shot dead by a volley of arrows while charging.

"It's all my fault for forgetting to heal him first, boo-hoo." Fish That Doesn't Eat Cats cried, tears streaming down her face.

"It's all right. Once we get back to town, we can find a priest to resurrect Little White."

"Really? We can?" Fish That Doesn't Eat Cats was clearly a gaming novice; this was the first she'd heard that pets could be resurrected. She finally looked relieved.

"Of course. And we can avenge Little White, too." Moonmark Shadowstalker pointed at the goblin corpses on the ground. "These goblins couldn't have appeared out of thin air. There must be a goblin camp nearby. I left a Mark of Death on the goblin who escaped just now. It can lead us to that camp, so why don't I take you there and wipe it out?"

There must be plenty of monsters in a goblin camp, Moonmark Shadowstalker thought. Those two low-level characters definitely won't be able to handle them, so they'll naturally need my help. Then I can finally get involved. Being a bodyguard here all day is boring me to death.

Once the three were ready, they followed the mark's trail.

Xiao Yu had returned in defeat, but he hadn't come back completely empty-handed. He was now standing in the tent, reporting the situation to the goblin chief.

"Elder, I was leading a patrol outside earlier when we unexpectedly ran into a group of adventurers."

Kerrigan Big Stick (goblin chief): "What? Adventurers? How many?"

Eric (goblin diviner): "A full twenty or thirty of them! We fought hard and killed many adventurers, but there were just too many of them. The brothers suffered heavy casualties, and in the end the whole force was wiped out. I fought my way out to bring back the news. Elder, you must be extra careful."

"Don't worry, your sacrifice won't be in vain!" the goblin chief said gravely. Then he gave Xiao Yu an approving nod. "You did very well, discovering signs of the enemy ahead of time. I'm very pleased. Come, as a reward, I've decided to teach you another spell."

System notification: learned a new skill-Lesser Heal.

Lesser Heal: costs 3 mana points to restore 15 health points over 5 seconds. Range: 30 yards.

Skill description: similar to a priest's healing spell, but because goblins' intelligence is too low, an error occurred during the learning process, severely reducing the spell's effectiveness.