CH 142

Chapter 142 – Majolica’s dungeon – 9F

The ninth floor. Goblins hang out there.

Normal goblins, goblin fighters, goblin archers, goblin mages, goblin priests, goblin champions… They form parties and attack adventurers.

Their numbers vary from party to party, and some have only regular goblins, and some have none.

The ones with jobs are smarter than normal goblins, and use tactics.

They are very coordinated, and use their specialties to their full advantage. It’s almost like fighting humans.

I’ve heard that sometimes chivalric orders use them to give their knights real combat experience.

“Mia, if there’s a mage, use Holy Arrow to disrupt its spells. But Hikari and Sera, don’t assume that will work, and be careful.”

“What about you, Sora?”

“I’ll disrupt them from a distance too. But they also have long-range attacks, so they might try to disrupt me too. Don’t focus only on the magic, and watch out for their movements.”

“We’ll try to prioritize them, but the distance means they can stop us before we can get close, so they’ll probably be the last ones we take down.”

Says Sera.

“Yes. I can distract them with throwing knives, but those are limited.”

There’s only so many throwing knives I can carry before they start to be too heavy and hinder my movements.

The distance probably makes it easier for them to deal with throwing knives too. I think they have great reflexes.

“It’s fine if we don’t advance as fast as before, let’s just be safe. But if we encounter monsters, let’s try to deal with them quickly.”

This floor has a lot of monsters. This and the previous floor are called the bane of rookies floors. People can lose their lives because monsters keep coming no matter how many they take down, so it’s easy to be overwhelmed if you don’t exterminate them fast enough.

After checking our equipment, we go down to the ninth floor.

We advance for a bit, and encounter a group of five goblins, with a mage and a champion among them.

Sera attacks the champion, Hikari the regular goblins, and Mia the mage. I cover Mia and help if things get tough.

But Sera takes the champion down easily and joins Mia, so there’s not much for me to do. Mia also activates magic quickly and easily takes down the mage.

After the battle is over, we take the magic stones and proof that we defeated them, and move on.

This repeats a few more times, until we reach a safety zone.

Several battles in a row take a toll on our stamina, so we need some rest.

“Goblins with jobs really are trouble.”

“They keep backing each other like they always know where the others are.”

Sera’s right. They always move like they know where the others are. I feel like there are way too many times when they come to each other’s aid, even though they’re not even growling like the wolves.

Do they learn that as they roam around, or are they born with that function built in? It’s really troubling.

We have a light lunch, and before we get going again, Mia and I each drink a mana potion to replenish our MP.

Goblins are sly, so they do pincer attacks, use themselves as bait to lead us to small rooms, and use other tricks. We can’t just move forward and take down monsters as we see them.

We try to stay cool-headed, but as we go from one fight to the next, sometimes we fall for their tricks, and they successfully lure us.

I fire magic at full power when that happens, but we call out to each other to avoid putting anyone in danger.

“Master, my arm hurts.”

Hikari has swung her knife hundreds of times by now. Mia has also been smacking monsters that get close with her staff, and her robe is dirty with their blood.

I could wipe them out with area of effect magic like Fire Storm, but I’m not using it.

We’re sort of guiding monsters towards Mia, to get her used to melee combat. Of course, with safety as our top priority. Sera has been doing a good job controlling everything.

Hikari has been looking for efficient ways to take down the goblins, that will cut down on unnecessary movements and don’t make her as tired.

Her movements are becoming so crisp that I’m worried she’s becoming a killing machine.

But the number one reason why I’m not using area of effect attacks is that I’m simply worried about friendly fire.

I’ve been looking at the whole picture and firing magic at single targets if I feel we’re at a disadvantage, and cutting down fighters and champions if they get close. They’re powerful enough to not be beaten by force alone, but I make use of techniques to make up for it.

I’ve been hit a few times, but nothing close to fatal, and I haven’t suffered any cuts.

Also, about magic. I’ve been practicing using magic to keep enemies in check. I can lower the power of spells, focus more on speed, aim for their noses instead of their bodies, and have it explode there.

It’s like a nekodamashi in sumo. It doesn’t cause damage, but it does make them flinch and stop chanting.

However, making it so spells explode without hitting is kind of an annoying process. I feel like just firing magic with the intent to hit would be quicker, but I keep telling myself that being able to do more can only be a good thing, so I keep trying various things.

Mia keeps asking questions after we fight. I feel like that helps me a bit, but I keep that to myself.

I think being able to make an opponent flinch without actually having to hit it is what’s making her interested. Although she still can’t get it right, after trying a few times.

It’s hard to hit the faster ones with magic. I haven’t been using guns lately, but how would they fare? The orclord deflected them with its sword… I should check it at some point, but I haven’t had the chance…

After two hundred dead goblins, I was starting to think they were spawning infinitely, but they’re not appearing anymore.

In a way, the most troublesome part was removing their magic stones and the proof that we defeated them, but we kept at it and did it to all of them. Although we don’t have the time to burn their corpses.

We find the staircase not long after, and go straight to the tenth floor.