Chapter 20. Goblin Packs

The journey started out more smoothly than Jack had anticipated. It took him just two days to arrive at the central district where the Trigitech building was located; much faster than when he was on his way out of the city. He didn't encounter any Players along the way, just more monsters which he continued to kill without bothering to circumvent. This effort brought his Magician class to level 9.

The closer he got to the building, the higher the monsters' level was. When he was just a couple of blocks from his destination, he finally met a different type of monster. These were small humanoid beings, with a bald heads and sharp noses. They had skin in a variety of mottled, sickly, green colors and wore ragged shirts. They traveled around in a pack of five, like a group of small children playing around with clubs and daggers. Jack would recognize this typical RPG monster anywhere, but to make sure, he did a scan using his God-eye monocle from a safe distance.

*

Goblin (Basic monster, humanoid)

Level 10

HP: 800

*

'Yep, they're Goblins, all right.'

Their HP was rather low for a level 10 monster, but probably that was compensated for with other strengths. Jack was considering if he should start a fight with this group to test out the monster's capability, but there were five of them. He would prefer a one on one if it was a new monster until he totally scoped them out. He decided to take a detour to see if he could encounter a lone Goblin.

In his search, he encountered other Goblins three times. All of them were in packs of four or more. After concluding that he would not find a lone Goblin, he decided to go for the pack with four Goblins. He followed them around and make sure through his radar that other packs were not nearby. It would be a catastrophe if he was surrounded and had to deal with multiple packs at the same time.

When he considered the situation was safe enough, he approached the pack. Once he was in range, he cast Energy Bolts. Strands of mana emerged from his staff and condensed into four glowing bolts, they then shot out in different directions, each chasing after one Goblin. When they rammed onto the four monsters, each of them received damage ranging from 12 to 16.

The impact from the energy bolts caused the Goblins to lose their balance.  They were unable to react for an instant, so Jack took this opportunity to jump to their side and immediately perform Swing. It slashed through three of the monsters, taking out another chunk of life from them, and threw them to the ground. The remaining Goblin immediately retaliated. Jack switched from offense to defense and cast Magic Shield to block the Goblin's dagger then he counter-attacked with a Power Strike.

Once they got back to their feet, the other three Goblins promptly came back to support their comrade. Their speed and strength were not particularly threatening. Even though there were four of them, with his overpowering attributes, Jack didn't find the fight to be challenging. It was like a grown-up man bullying four children. After around three minutes, he managed to kill one of the Goblins. This should be over in another minute or two, he thought.

However, when that Goblin fell, the others started to make weird noises. They stomped and screamed and whacked their weapons on the ground. Jack was confused by their erratic behavior; he stood a distance from them, hesitating, not knowing if he should continue to attack. Then he noticed some movement in his radar. To his chagrin, he saw multiple red dots moving towards his location in a hurry.

'F**k me, they were calling for reinforcements!' He cursed in his mind. There were three packs that were rushing to this place. It must be a skill that Goblins triggered when one of their buddies died. He considered retreating, but before he could make a move, the three half-dead goblins darted towards him. They each took a different side to surround him and prevent him from escaping. They didn't seem to be concerned when Jack hit them; they kept their positions as if using their lives to keep him from running away.

"Goddamnit. Piss off!" He yelled as he did Power Strike on the Goblin with the lowest health. When that Goblin died, it created a gap in their encirclement. He immediately bolted through the gap. There would soon be around twenty Goblins to fight once those three packs arrived.  Jack knew he wouldn't be able to take them all on, at least not all at once.

He looked at his radar and, as he ran, considered which route to take so as not to bump into the oncoming pack, while the two remaining goblins from the first pack chased after him.

He weaved around the neighborhood.  The layout of the streets ensured that he would be found by at least one more of the packs. After trying to recall the maps around this place, and making some calculations, he headed towards the Trigitech building again. This was luck! Any other way and he would meet two packs instead of one.

He could see the approaching Goblins already. There were six in the pack, spread across the width of the street. Jack cast Energy Bolts to stop the four on the left as he ran to the right. With the pack now separated, he managed to run past them. He continued running, with eight Goblins in tow behind him.

When he was close to Trigitech building, he noticed on his radar that the two furthest packs had stopped moving and just loitered around the place where he had fought the first pack. Seeing this, he realized that unless he came into their line of sight, the called packs would only move to the place where the call had come from. With this realization, he stopped running and turned around.

"I know how to deal with you lot now," he said with a grin.

Jack considered that dealing with eight Goblins should still be manageable. He cast another Energy Bolts, which had come out of cooldown, and followed with Mana Bullet towards one of the two Goblins he had first fought. They were near death's door already.

That one Mana Bullet killed the monster and reduced his opponents to seven. He was expecting the other Goblins to make that weird call skill to summon the other packs again, but they remained quiet. 'Maybe their skill also had a cooldown?' He thought.

He didn't let the opportunity slip away. He charged into the group and used Swing to hit as many targets as he could, and then fought ferociously to whittle away their health. He also got hit several times. Taking some damage was inevitable, he was not one of those martial art prodigies who could evade every attack. However, the damage he received was negligible. His health and endurance were much higher than a standard level ten, hence he was never in a dangerous condition throughout the fight. He picked on the ones with the lowest health. With each Goblin down, his struggle became much easier.

When the group was left with three Goblins, they made the weird call again.

'Perhaps it was not cooldown? Maybe the skill only triggered when their number went down to below four.' He thought, seeing their action.

In his radar Jack saw that the two packs that had been loitering now started moving towards the fight again. Fortunately, no other packs appeared. These four packs should be the only ones available around here. As long as he didn't travel too far, he should only need to deal with this lot.

As before, the remaining three Goblins tried to hinder him from running away. He was not as perturbed anymore. He focused his attack on one of them to take it out, and then utilized the gap to run away again. He looked at his radar and considered a route that would let him intercept one of the incoming packs without alerting the other.

He moved towards the spot he chose while continued to harass his three pursuers with his range spells every chance he could. By the time he encountered one of the approaching packs, he had only one pursuer left. There were five Goblins in the new pack, together with his pursuer they became six. Now that Jack understood this enemy, he had a much easier time dealing with them than previously.