Chapter 5: Saved!

Aqua was annoyed as well as terrified at the same time.

"Honestly, this is getting quite ridiculous at this point."

Aqua spoke while jumping away from an arrow that threatened to impale her as she ran. Then a growl was heard before from a hedge at her side, Goblins on wolves pounced out from it as she rolled away to evade, hitting sharp rock in the way which chipped her [HP].

[Pain Resistance Lvl 1 Acquired!]

[Danger Perception Lvl 1 Acquired!]

'Now is not the time to distract me!'

As for how she was stuck in this situation? She'd have to rewind time a little back.

FLASHBACK!

Aqua slowly woke up to the sound of rustling leaves and the chirping of the birds. She opened her left eye slowly before the right one as she stretched her sore muscle. While not enjoyable among the trees, it certainly did beat sleeping on a forest floor after putting branches and soft leaves. The sun seem to have risen as evidenced by it's rays hitting her face.

She used Magic to make water which she used to wash her face. After some time, she seemed to have remembered something as she opened her stat page.

[ HP: 368 (Base (350) + 1/2 CON x VIT).

Recovery: 1% PER MIN

MP: 5066 (Base (5060) + 1/2 INT x 1/2 WIS)

Recovery: 1% PER MIN

STR: 8

CON: 6

VIT: 6

DEX: 6

INT: 6

WIS: 4

CHA: 1

LUC: 3

Stat points: 45 (15 per level)]

Especially the stat points.

"Where should I put it?"

Like she said earlier, in the MP category, she was fully loaded. Maybe just like before she will put mostly in the physical attribute? But investing it all in just the physical attributes seems to be a waste....

"Maybe I can spend some in enhancing the physical attributes but conserve some points if I need in the future? Ohhhh, let's do that."

She used 35 points. 7 in STR, 6 in CON, 6 in VIT, 7 in DEX and 4 in LUC. After all you never know if you stumble upon a road or something which she hoped that the luck would come in handy. And the remaining 5 was in her Magic stats. Her new stats was.

[ HP: 434 (Base (350) + 1/2 CON x VIT).

Recovery: 1% PER MIN

MP: 5076 (Base (5060) + 1/2 INT x 1/2 WIS)

Recovery: 1% PER MIN

STR: 15

CON: 13

VIT: 12

DEX: 13

INT: 8

WIS: 7

CHA: 1

LUC: 7

Stat points: 10 (15 per level)]

Aqua seemed to be satisfied with it. Then she looked at the camp. Only smoke seemed to be coming out of the exhausted camp fire. Then Aqua took a look at her inventory. There was still food from yesterday in it. She wanted to check whether or not, time actually stopped or not inside the [Inventory]. As she took it out, hot steaming plate of food was on her hand.

"So it does stop time."

Aqua nodded sagely as she had her breakfast. But what about personal hygiene? She had smelled herself but she was not smelling that much. She decided that if she found a river or something, she would take a splash there. Then something appeared in front of her.

[Quest Created]

[Survive the hunt or meet fate worse than death. Reward: 1000 Exp. + 1 Hunter Sword (Rare)]

Wasn't that ominous? Then she proceeded to the same direction she was going as yesterday, a bit faster.

But what she didn't know was that an hour later, black wolves that wore saddle and had goblins on them arrived. The goblins were wearing some leather equipments on them and had daggers as well as Bow and Arrow. They looked confusedly at the empty camp. After not receiving any kind of news from the scout/fodder members since this morning, they had come to check.

[Goblin Rider Lvl. 8]

[Wild Wolf Lvl. 5]

[Goblin Rider Lvl. 9]

[Wild Wolf Lvl. 6]

[Goblin Rider Lvl. 8]

[Wild Wolf Lvl. 5]

They looked at the scene and then blew a horn. After few minutes later a goblin much bigger than three of them arrived with a grey colored wolf under him. It was wearing full equipments of leather armor and had a spear on it's back.

[Goblin Spearman Lvl. 17]

[Grey Wolf Lvl. 14]

He growled while the other goblins came out of their rides and stood erect, like a soldiers undergoing drill master's instructions. The big goblin then looked at the camp. Before sniffing in the air and then looking at the ground. He first looked at the tree where Aqua had hid when she ambushed the Goblins. Taking a deep breath, the goblin could smell the fragrance of a maiden.

He grinned lewdly before shaking his head. He then looked intently at the ground which seemed to be different from others. It was the only patch of ground that did not had a grass or looked like someone had dug it up and filled it again. He screamed at the 3 goblins who began to work on digging the ground.

After a while, the ground had been dug as corpses of Goblins were found. A vein popped in the Goblins head as he made the Grey wolf sniff the tree to get her scent. Then the Grey wolf pointed his snout in the direction of Aqua as the Goblin Spearman kicked the Wolf to hunt their prey. The other three goblins looked at each other in confusion as to why they were going alone without reinforcements. But the Spearman seemed to be wanting the prize alone.

PRESENT!

That is how Aqua was ambushed. She was minding her own business as suddenly some Goblins riding rodeo jumped out from the bushes, clearly hunting her if the three raged goblins were any indication. The fourth one and the strongest one seemed to give a weird gaze at her which she felt uncomfortable with. But clearly they were stronger than her.

So she ran.

The Goblins did not seem to know that she could use magic. She hoped so that was the case. She felt a tingling sensation in the back of her head as she suddenly hid behind the tree. A good choice as few arrows impaled the ground she could have been. Then looking back, she could see the big goblin screaming at the small goblin which shot at her.

Aqua had to admit that these little critters could aim. Then she resumed her running while the Goblins were bickering. Aqua was surprised when she ran for more than a kilometer without being out of breath. Maybe it was due to her CON? It was possible. She jumped over another roots of the tree.

It seems that getting these Goblins to lose her in the jungle was impossible. They seemed to have her scent and from what she knew, wolves were efficient hunters. She did not know the level of the big Goblin while the smaller ones were near on her own level or stronger than her. Aqua did not have time to observe after all.

After finding out that she ran away, the goblins began resuming their hunt. The big Goblin sighed as for the first time after hunting the beautiful girl, his hand on his spear at the back. He took it out and aimed at the shoulder of the fleeing girl. She may be moving in and out from between the trees but it was a cinch to know where she would come out. She seemed to be an amateur in this. He face morphed into a lewd one.

There!

He threw his spear as it whizzed at the girl. Aqua felt a tingling sensation but it was too late to dodge. All she could do was try to crouch as the spear cut from the top of her shoulder.

[HP: 309/434] (Bleeding: -1 HP per sec)

The spear then impaled the tree in front as the tree then cracked and fell. Aqua clenched her teeth in pain as she cast a spell on herself.

[Heal!]

[HP: 358/434]

It stopped the bleeding as it closed the wound. But the damage that had done had made her falter a bit. The Goblin used this time to close the distance. She gritted in pain as she stood up and continued running. The big Goblin took out the spear from the destroyed tree as he once again aimed at her.

This time she had a plan. A stupid one but still better than nothing. This time the warning came a bit faster as her danger perception seemed to have leveled up from earlier. Even still it nicked her, it still caused a massive damage.

[HP: 297/434](Bleeding: -1 HP per sec)

As it crashed in the tree in front of her, Aqua gave a vindictive smile as she stored it in the [Inventory] and casted a [Heal] on herself.

This time, the Goblin seemed to be infuriated as it howled when he saw that his favorite spear was not there. He gnashed his teeth as this time he personally joined the hunt. He instantly began to close the distance which terrified Aqua.

"Maybe taking his spear wasn't a good thing?"

But it was too late for regret. But Aqua squinted her eyes in the front as he could see something moving in front. It looked like a clearing as she jumped in the front. It was a clearing for the road.

Suddenly, she saw a carriage guarded by Iron Armor wearing soldier readily drawing their sword in front of her. She shouted at them with a renewed hope.

"Goblins!"

Then suddenly from behind her the Goblins jumped out at her. The 4 soldiers in front of her instantly decapitated them all as she looked tongue-tied at the display of their strength. Then the soldiers looked at her and they began to ask for her health. But her vision was getting woozy as she seemed to faint due to the stress and the blood loss from earlier.

[Quest Cleared]

[Gained 1000 Exp. + 1 Hunter Sword (Rare)]

[You have leveled up by 1! You have leveled up by 1! You have leveled up by 1! You are now Lvl. 8 Magic Knight!]