8 Goblin Warrior

Ten minutes away from his destination, Nie Fan charged deep into the Blood Shade Valley. However, the grass was lusher the further he ventured with some bushes as tall as a person, causing low visibility.

Still, Nie Fan appeared prudent—Druids who had yet to learn Morphing were not good at close combat since their low HP meant they could easily be killed. Fortunately, he was now Level 10 and was equipped with the spike spaulders as well as several White-grade items, providing an acceptable level of defense.

Be that as it may, a cold presence permeated the overgrown grass, and Nie Fan immediately became alert when he felt faint movement behind him.

Hiss!

With a sharp but bizarre cry, a Green Goblin that was half the height of a normal human leaped out of the bushes and swung its broad axe at him.

Nie Fan watched as the broad axe was just about to reach him when he shifted his body and tunneled into the bushes beside him, his heart tightening as he felt the broad axe shoot right past his ear. He could not help but be a little nervous since that was the first time where he was fighting a monster so near himself, but he also had sharp reflexes thanks to his martial arts training.

Mini Fireball!

Nie Fan chanted a spell and launched a mini fireball at the Green Goblin, detonating over its body with a loud bang, and shredding a chunk of HP off the creature. That being said, he was forced to use Mini Fireball without Black Oil since the time needed to cast Black Oil was too long and ill-suited for close-quarters combat, but the damage from one Mini Fireball was still considerable since he was one level above Green Goblins now.

Nonetheless, the Green Goblin gave chase as Nie Fan swiftly darted through the lush growth, pulling away from the Green Goblin while firing one Mini Fireball after another from his palm. Eventually, the Green Goblin was sent flying with another bang and fell face down on the dirt.

Nie Fan went to its corpse, arching his back to pick up its drops: two bronze coins.

However, Nie Fan thought right then that killing monsters was not that hard—as if he was gaining some epiphany.

"It's not too different from wrestling in the real world, which depends on agility, strength, and technique. On the other hand, it takes just a few skills to do that in the game, and the only hard part is to stay aware of skill cast time and cooldown time." Nie Fan muttered to himself. It was natural for him to discover something different since he was really focusing and researching the game itself, whereas he had merely played VR games casually before this.

He was also keeping a close eye on the map as he delved in his thoughts, finally arriving at his destination minutes later. As he looked towards the thicket in the distance, he found a Goblin Warrior that was holding a mace. Being pygmy creatures, it was rather short although it had formidable fighting ability, not to mention it looked very fearsome with its steel armor glinting in silver light.

The Goblin Warrior was Sagaro, a Level 15 elite beast with 900 HP.

So tough!

Meanwhile, Nie Fan's eyes were darting all over the place—if his information was right, there should be herbs that could stop bleeding and some mineral ores nearby. Indeed, his eyes eventually stopped and lingered at the edge of a tuft of overgrown grass where a single red plant stood.

That was definitely Coagulus, the herb that stops bleeding. It could be used to brew novice HP potions, and would be valuable in the near future. Moreover, there was a pile of ore glinting in silver radiance nearby—it was the lowest grade ore, copper!

Copper ore was a material for crafting equipment and would fetch some money, but the skill to dig ores had Level 15 and the Miner-apprentice class as a minimum requirement. Nie Fan therefore simply ignored it since he would never play as a Miner.

At the moment, Nie Fan was also keeping an eye on the distance between the Goblin Warrior and himself while combing through every information on how to slay a Goblin Warrior in his head.

He then slowly made his way towards the Goblin Warrior and stopped around fifteen yards away. The creature still hasn't noticed his presence and was still dragging its mace and trudging along. Dropping to a crouch, Nie Fan dug into the soil and place his first stake, after which he retreated six paces and inserted the second stake.

That process continued for five minutes until he set all six stakes in place.

With everything prepared, Nie Fan slowly made approached the Goblin Warrior. His eyes flashed when he was ten yards away and he started chanting stanzas of spells.

As the goblin wandered on, it suddenly felt something. It growled lowly when its pale-blue gaze turned to where Nie Fan was, and charged towards him while dragging its mace along.

Nie Fan's heartbeat quickened as their eyes met and he felt the threat. Challenging Sagaro was much more difficult and dangerous than Az'Shara the venomous, but he could not afford a moment of cowardice.

Meanwhile, Sagaro was now six yards away.

Five yards.

Nie Fan chanted the last syllable.

Black Oil!

Thick dark grease descended from the skills and utterly drenched the Goblin Warrior, slowing its movement dramatically.

Mini Fireball!

The ball of flames was hence unleashed upon the Goblin Warrior's body, igniting an inferno over the creature with a whoosh, and clusters of [-20] damage values began to pop up over its head.

Still, that was all the effect that the Black Oil and Mini Fireball combo had. The monster's defense was really high.

With an enraged bellow, the Goblin Warrior disregarded the wild flames burning over its body and swung its mace at Nie Fan.

He quickly darted backwards, leaving the mace to smash down just a yard in front of him with a thunderous crack, with rocks flying everywhere.

Nie Fan was startled right then—what horrific might!

Elite-class creatures were as formidable as he imagined.

Nonetheless, the Goblin Warrior lunged towards Nie Fan and swung its mace at him again.

Be that as it may, everything was within Nie Fan's calculations: by taking in the distance and the cooldown time for Black Oil, he smiled and started to run towards the spot where he set a stake.

At the same time, the fires over the Goblin Warrior's body had died down, leaving it utterly charred or as some would put it—black-faced. It was moving swiftly once again as Black Oil had lost its effect, roaring as it chased after Nie Fan and flailing its mace at him. Suddenly, when it noticed that Nie Fan was simply standing right in front of him, it put his right foot ahead as it prepared to smashed its mace down at him… but with a loud pop, it had stepped on one of the stakes, the terrible agony leaving it screaming shrilly with [-6 damage].

It took the bait! Nie Fan took a few steps back and evaded the mace.

He hence seized the creature's moment of vulnerability to kill it!

Black Oil!

Mini Fireball!

The Goblin Warrior was once again in flames and wailing.

However, the effect of the stake quickly faded whereas the burning Goblin Warrior became even more enraged, continuing its mace-flailing charge and moving even faster than before.

Knowing that it was unwise to engage the monster directly and that its mace could kill him instantly, Nie Fan rapidly retreated, throwing out the sparkling dust handily which exploded with a loud bang and a burst of white light.

Sagaro paused for a moment, and started rushing towards Nie Fan again because it was not blinded.

Sparkling dust only had a 10% chance of causing blindness after all—a very low rate, but Nie Fan was not actually counting on its success anyway. After all, slowing the Goblin Warrior was an immensely good thing, even for just a bit.

As he kept buying himself time by retreating, Nie Fan glanced at his skill bar to find that the cooldown for both Black Oil and Mini Fireball was almost over. He quickly made his way to the second stake, with Sagaro hot on his heels.

It stepped on the stake once again, a popping sound audible as the object met its mark.

And once again, Nie Fan seized the moment to unleash another Black Oil and Mini Fireball combo.

Infuriated, the Goblin Warrior stomped its feet. Even so, Nie Fan had complete control over the flow of the battle, and it did not even have the chance of a counterattack.

In its blind madness, the Goblin Warrior continued its attempt to murder Nie Fan. Still, it would already be wondering one question if it was intelligent: its mace could kill that puny human before it instantly, so why did it not even touch his hair after fighting for so long, and was being left unbelievably wretched instead?

Meanwhile, Nie Fan lured the Goblin Warrior ran into four stakes now and suffered three rounds of sparkling dust, and only had around 100 HP left.

But as it kept stumbling into the traps without end and could not even reach an inch near Nie Fan, a fearful look appeared in the goblin's warrior face just as it was about to hit the fifth stake, and it suddenly turned to run.

Be that as it may, Nie Fan already expected that—naturally, monsters would run in fear when they couldn't reach their target for so long!

Keeping his composure, Nie Fan drew out a javelin from his bag and held it with his right hand, running a few faces before throwing it at the Goblin Warrior's back.

It streaked through the air in a straight line, hitting the Goblin Warrior in the middle of its back. Blood sputtered, and a large [-30] damage value appeared over its head.

Javelins had a low chance of hitting targets and could be easily dodged when facing the attacker, which was why Nie Fan refrained from using it when he was luring Sagaro. It was especially hard to hit the target if it was too far away!

At the moment, the Goblin Warrior was no more than four yards away from Nie Fan and had its back towards him—he would be a complete failure if he could not hit it.

Not to mention that the javelin dealt considerable damage.

However, the Goblin Warrior grunted in pain once and kept running forward.

Still running?

Jogging a few steps ahead, Nie Fan launched another javelin at Sagaro's back again, striking it and causing [-21] damage this time.

The creature bellowed after being hit twice. Taunted, it bellowed and turned to charge towards Nie Fan once more.

That being said, the Goblin Warrior was unintelligent and therefore did not know how to choose the best fighting style, the back-and forth exchange only ending up giving Nie Fan more chances to attack it.

With a muffled cry, Nie Fan launched a third javelin!

The weapon fired rapidly towards the Goblin Warrior and struck its chest with a pop, splashing fresh blood everywhere as the monster stumbled backwards.

The repel effect!

It only lasted seconds but it was an unmissable opening, and so Nie Fan let loose another javelin.

With barely any HP left, the Goblin Warrior shrieked and kept charging at Nie Fan, but he retreated four paces when its mace bore down on him. Nevertheless, another pop sounded just as the Goblin Warrior was about to continue its assault, its face turning a dark reddish purple as it tragically stepped on another stake!

The human before it was simply to sly. Surely the Goblin Warrior would be blowing its top by now!

Still, that was when another bang sounded as a Mini Fireball hit it, and its remaining HP was finally drained dry. With a terrible cry at the skies, Sagaro slammed down heavily on the ground.

Fumbling around the Goblin Warrior's corpse, Nie Fan found three items.

The first was alright: a Copper-grade Warrior Helmet, 31-32 Defense and +2 Additional Defense.

The second was something resembling a cat's eye stone. It was the size of a pigeon's egg and a crystalline green, smooth to the touch.

Nie Fan's heart skipped a beat then. It actually dropped!