Endless Leveling Done Right!

Chapter 389: Goblin Encounter [Part 2]

During the chaos, Lumi materialized above one of the Hobgoblins and smashed her fist—which was imbued with purple flames—into the monster’s head, turning it into meat paste.

Mark’s arrows came flying from the distance, hitting the Dire Wolves with great accuracy.

”Ei!” Dim Dim started throwing its brittle vials, raining attacks on the monsters from above the trees.

The little bun targeted the eyes and noses of the Dire Wolves with its Chili Powder and Black Pepper bombs, making them recoil in pain as they were overwhelmed with the power of the spices.

One of the Hobgoblins understood that they were in a precarious situation and reached for the bone whistle hanging from its neck like a necklace.

But just as it was about to blow on it, one of Alex’s magical shields that was imbued with Shield Spike smashed into its face and filled it with so much pain it no longer remembered what whistles were.

Alex didn’t hesitate to use Shield Charge to finish off the Hobgoblin, preventing it from calling their reinforcements.

Within two minutes, the battle ended in the humans’ victory. However, Alex didn’t celebrate right away.

”Lumi, check if any of the Goblin Parties are headed this way,” Alex ordered. ”Mark and Dim Dim, hide in the trees and stay out of sight.”

Lumi didn’t dawdle because she knew that the sound of fighting might have caught the attention of the two other Hobgoblin Parties.

Alex then summoned some shields and used them as steps to climb to a tree, where he readied himself to ambush their enemies.

A few minutes later, Lumi’s voice reached the young man’s ear.

”All clear,” Lumi reported. ”They didn’t hear anything. What do we do next?”

After confirming that the two other Hobgoblin Parties hadn’t noticed anything out of place, Alex asked Lumi to guide them to the next party so that they could eliminate those monsters as well.

Using this strategy, they managed to annihilate the three groups in less than an hour, allowing them to continue their scouting expedition.

The deeper they traversed in the forest, the more Goblins they encountered.

Some they fought, others they evaded by making detours.

Their goal was to find the Goblin Nest and estimate just how strong the Goblin’s fighting force was.

Depending on their discovery, Alex would either advise the villagers to evacuate or join them in eradicating the goblins inside the forest.

While Alex, Lumi, and Mark were busy with their mission, a group of twelve people arrived at Oak Village.

They introduced themselves as Adventurers who had accepted the Village’s mission.

Although Simon was happy that more people had arrived to help them, he felt that there was something strange about them.

The newcomers looked very friendly on the surface, but they were secretly assessing the fighting strength of the village.

Each of these ”adventurers” were Rank 3, making them an elite fighting unit. They had traveled a long way to reach their destination, and frankly, some of them were tempted to take over the village and force the villagers to serve them.

At least, that was what they wanted to do, but unable to do so.

The Hunters and the Guards of the village didn’t lower their guard because unlike Alex, who looked sincere in helping them, there was just something off with this new group. The villagers couldn’t help but feel restless in their presence.

After a few questions, the newcomers discovered that Alex and two others entered the forest to do a scouting mission.

They thanked the villagers before making their way towards the forest to find their targets.

Originally, they had believed that they could overpower the villagers, but after assessing their strengths, they realized that it would be a very risky move.

Oak Village had a Rank 4 Mage, a Rank 4 Swordsman, and a few Rank 4 Hunters. Together, they would pose great danger to the so-called Adventurers.

In the end, they decided to prioritize the mission because dealing with Alex was easier than dealing with a whole village with many battle-hardened fighters due to the harshness of their living environment.

———

”Boss, I saw some cute ladies back at the village,” one of the ’Adventurers’ said with a greedy glint in his eyes. ”Can’t we have a taste before we go?”

”If you want to die, go ahead,” the Boss of their group, Eric, replied. ”Use your upper head instead of your lower head when making decisions. The Village Head noticed your lustful gaze on his granddaughter and he was only a step away from using a spell to kill you.

”If not for the fact that I pulled you back, you would have died then and there. Lastly, those villagers are not pushovers. Many of us would die because of your lack of self-control. It would not be worth it. Just focus on our mission for now.”

The other man relented and no longer mentioned anything else. Alex was a hot topic among the Demon Worshipers. These ’Adventurers’ were glad to have been given an opportunity to get the bounty on his head.

Eric was also happy because Eleanora had tipped him off on the young man’s travel plans.

He had tried to court Eleanora in the past and she had rejected him in no uncertain terms. To the young lady’s annoyance, he still hadn’t given up.

This was why when she had reached out to him for this mission.

However, Eric believed that his goddess had given him a chance to redeem himself.

If he succeeded in capturing or killing Alex, he would undoubtedly be promoted within his faction.

In that case, he could once again propose to Eleanora. This time, he would make sure that she accepted.

Of course, Eric didn’t know how right he was. Eleanora had indeed tasked him with this mission because of his relentless confessions. Except that instead of uplifting him, she hoped that Alex would eliminate him for her.

In Eleanora’s eyes, Eric and an Orc looked exactly the same. In other people’s eyes, Eric and an Orc also looked exactly the same.

Naturally, the young lady had no intention of accepting his proposal whatsoever.

In truth, the members of Eric’s team were all troublemakers in their faction.

Just like Eric, some of them had tried to make moves on her. Worse, some of them had tried their luck with Evangeline. To Eleanora, an abhorrent admirer like Eric was an annoyance she could still deal with, but some loser thinking he had a chance with Evangeline infuriated her!

Eleanora wanted nothing more than for all of them to be erased from the face of the world so that she would never see them again.

An hour after this group of twelve left the village, another group arrived.

This time, there were three people. They came to the village due to a quest that they had accepted in the nearby town of Poca Poca.

But the moment they heard that some students of Frieden Academy had entered the forest—and one of them went by the name of Alex—they didn’t hesitate to try to catch up to him.

Although they weren’t certain that the Alex that the Village Head mentioned was the same Alex they knew, it was more than enough to convince them to look for this young man, who was currently knee-deep behind enemy lines.