Chapter 14: The Goblin Warrior Charges Ahead

The reason he didn't choose to retreat wasn't that he was unwilling to let the Goblin Warrior die in battle.

The three resurrection chances of the Chieftain's Whistle were certainly important, but Gu Ran was by no means someone who couldn't make clear judgments. When it was time to flee, he wouldn't hesitate in the slightest compared to his own life.

In fact, before the second Dark Skeleton joined in, the attack on the first Dark Skeleton had been going on for some time. Most importantly, the Goblin Warrior had used the Skull Crush Strike skill and had fiercely hammered at the neck of the Dark Skeleton.

Given the cracks appearing on its neck bone, at most one or two more hits were needed, and this Dark Skeleton would certainly die.

It was precisely because of this that Gu Ran decided to take a risk and try.

However, he still underestimated the terror of the two Dark Skeletons attacking together. Although the second Dark Skeleton had only joined the battle for a few seconds and hadn't even gotten close, the Goblin Warrior had already been killed.

His expression changed slightly as he saw both Dark Skeletons turning their bodies toward him, and Gu Ran found himself in a dilemma.

To withdraw or to fight with all his might, that was the question.

The light in his eyes quickly strengthened, and Gu Ran raised his right hand high, the blade of his short-handled cleaver shimmering coldly. His steps did not falter, still quickly closing in on the two Dark Skeletons.

When he was less than two meters away from the Dark Skeletons, the air above him suddenly twisted, and an upright void eye rapidly condensed. Almost the moment the eye solidified, a black beam shot out and swiftly entered the skull of the Dark Skeleton on the right.

The Dark Skeleton's body abruptly paused, and taking advantage of this opportunity, Gu Ran swiftly stepped to the right and brought himself beside this Dark Skeleton, his raised right hand chopping down fiercely.

What surprised him was that the Soul Capturing Spirit Eye only froze the Dark Skeleton for a moment; the next instant, its Skeleton Spear was already thrusting forward.

But fortunately, his actions were faster.

Clang!

The sound of the cleaver clashing with bone echoed, and the next second, a smile played on Gu Ran's lips.

Without waiting for the Skeleton Spear to pierce into his body, the Dark Skeleton's neck bone broke cleanly with one strike, its head fell to the ground powerlessly, the Flame within extinguishing abruptly, and its thrusting attack froze in place.

[You have gained 4 Source Energy points!]

Listening to the notification sound in his ears, Gu Ran, who was somewhat distressed by the death of the Goblin Warrior, regained his composure. His calculation had not been wrong.

He might have needed two hits to kill the Dark Skeleton originally, but that was based on when he was at level 1. Now, he had reached level 2 and his body had undergone another enhancement.

Considering this, he had made his all-out bet, and the result clearly did not disappoint.

But at this moment, the attack of the other Dark Skeleton had also arrived. Turning his body, he sidestepped to avoid the oncoming Skeleton Spear and picked up two cards that had fallen in front of him. Gu Ran didn't wish to entangle with it any longer.

Bang!

After quickly locking the main door of the apartment building, his tense body finally relaxed a bit. The door of the apartment building was not an ordinary residential door but a thick iron door; it was more than enough to stop a Dark Skeleton.

...

Back home, Gu Ran immediately checked the loot.

Having wasted a resurrection of the Goblin Warrior, he wanted to see what the harvest was.

"Give me another 'Bone Armor' fragment, please. Then I'll be just one short," he said.

While pondering, Gu Ran abruptly sat upright as he realized an issue, "Bone Armor" was not a one-star card like "Chieftain's Whistle," but belonged to the two-star rare category. Before, he was unsure if its fusion requirements were the same as the Chieftain's Whistle, needing only three pieces of the card.

His mind swiftly plunged into the depths of his consciousness, locating the specific slot among the eight in his card album that held the "Bone Armor," and he focused his thoughts directly towards it.

However, the prompt that followed rang unpleasantly in his ears.

[Unable to use, to fuse into a complete Miracle Card from two-star card fragments, it requires five identical card pieces to achieve this.]

Indeed, unlike the Green Stone One Star card, fusing a two-star rare card truly demands five identical fragments to complete.

However, after examining the attributes of the two dropped cards in his hand, he felt slightly reassured; in addition to 4 card points, the Dark Skeleton had astonishingly provided another "Bone Armor" fragment. Although it was still three pieces shy, it nevertheless brought him one step closer to completing the set, didn't it?

...…

After checking the loot, Gu Ran summarized his current strength and the items he possessed.

Level two, eight card slots, two complete cards (Chieftain's Whistle, Eye of Insight), four card fragments (Black Rock Axe, basic storage card, Bone Armor*2), plus 17 card points, a Mechanical Bow, and nine arrows, along with a short-handled cleaver.

Listing everything out, Gu Ran's eyes flickered indecisively, as if he was struggling with a certain dilemma.

After a long moment, his gaze regained focus, evidently having made a decision. Glancing outside at the sky, he realized that without noticing, it had already reached noon after all the commotion.

After fiddling in the kitchen a while longer, he prepared some hot food to fill his stomach, and before long it was one in the afternoon.

At the front door of the first floor, Gu Ran stepped out fully prepared, but unlike the previous times, he did not seek out the trouble of the Dark Skeletons. Instead, he made a detour.

Once he identified a route that nearly avoided all Dark Skeleton encounters, he no longer hesitated, walking straight toward the road not far away.

Indeed, his target was precisely the greenery forest across the road. Three days had passed since the orbs fell from the sky, and after considering his current strength, he made this decision.

With just two complete cards in his card album, he was able to slay Dark Skeletons; if he could gain one more, he believed his strength would surely rise once again.

Of course, these were not the main points. The most important was that Gu Ran had an intuition that if those orbs falling from the sky were indeed Miracle Cards, their quality would most likely surpass those dropped by monsters.

...…

Thanks to the subtle enhancement the Eye of Insight card provided to his eyes, the route he chose was near perfect. He encountered no attacks from any creatures until he was about to cross the road.

However, there were far too many Dark Skeletons congregating at the final stretch of the junction, leaving Gu Ran with no choice but to summon the Goblin Warrior once more.

While the Goblin Warrior drew the Dark Skeletons' attention, he quickly dashed towards the greenery forest.

As for whether the Goblin Warrior would survive, he could only pray for it in his heart.

The only thing he could do was order it to refrain from fighting the Dark Skeletons and to run as fast as possible.

After all, it could only exist for ten minutes; as long as it was not caught by the Dark Skeletons within that time frame, there was a chance it could survive.

With the Goblin Warrior's distraction, Gu Ran easily rushed into the greenery forest on the opposite side.

The greenery forest was not large—barely a few dozen trees at most. It was far less dangerous than the dense forests found in the wilderness, but Gu Ran still did not dare to lower his guard.