Onwards

Waking up, he saw it was still early as it was dark outside. The only way to know the time was to head outside and look at the big clocks, but most of the parties for hunting decided to meet up once the sun came up.

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, he tried pushing the mana towards his legs again, this time he didn't compress it, letting it cover the knees. Activating and disabling it a few times in a row, he got used to the feeling and stood up, deciding it was time to wake up and get ready.

Under his normal clothes, he wore a vest-like piece made of metal plating to protect his chest. Feeling the smooth, cold metal on his chest, he shivered a bit, but he found it bearable. Inspecting his sword, he saw that it was in good condition, having sharpened it for the upcoming battles.

Only fools would think this was an easy expedition, knowing the information and that a level 9 goblin chief was out there said a lot of stuff.

Double-checking everything, he walked out in the slowly rising sun towards the gate with Lily and Kevin, where he would meet the rest there.

The gate, even this early, was packed with people getting ready to hunt. He could see groups ranging from 2 to 100 and more. A big group of a thousand stood out with the man in front of it; he was the one that gave him information.

Looking around the group members, he saw Tom there with his companions, and what surprised him was also Reni. His uncle was there with his own members.

He hadn't talked much to him apart from keeping updates to make sure they were each alive and making small talk when in the city because Reni was responsible for the people under him; he had less time as the group size had increased to 35. While Lucius liked to keep quality over quantity and having a small group was better to hide in the wild than a big one; after all, there were only so many rocks to hide behind,

'We will head to the northwest from here, passing the forest and then crossing the river. We will kill any goblins we find and will have a group of 50 as scouts. I will call your names and roles,' the man with the bigger group was arranging the groups, preferring to not split up their teamwork. He used most of his people for the scouting role, showing the will to take the pressure in this operation.

Lucius, listening to the talk and trying to filter all the chatter around the area, was leaning on a wall with a hand holding his head slightly leaning down.

His own members have arrived with the addition of Emilia; they now had a group of 6.

'Will this end well? That person seems to be doing a good job splitting up the roles considering the number of people,' Kevin spoke, listening to the positions he arranged them at.

'He has done all he could, but there are so many people; it will be a red flag, and the goblins will surely come,' he agreed with him, but the number of people was like a target on the back.

''Kill!' 'Kill!' the people's spirits had been ignited, and like in a stadium, they all started to cheer.

The leader, seeing the morale, raised his hand, signalling the start. They walked out of the city in a line of people.

It would take a bit of time for them to fully leave, so they made small talk.

''How did you sleep?'' Charlotte asked the members.

''Like a log,'' Kevin replied, stating the deep sleep.

''I'm a bit tired, but it's nothing new,'' Talon, with a few dark circles around his eyes, answered.

''I was practising with the sword, and it made me tired. I also broke the desk by mistake, cutting it in half,'' Lily replied, thinking about the desk, which caused her pain.

''Let's go,'' Lucius cut their conversation and started to follow the group heading into the forest.

''Time for work, I guess,'' Talon said, knowing the plan, and wore a mask to cover up his face while he scouted ahead.

Lucius didn't want them to know who was following them, and Talon, with his skill, could easily outrun them at this point.

They followed the group for some hours, encountering signs of battles behind them but no traces of bodies; it seemed they were animals and they picked them up for food. There was blood and broken sticks scattered around the area, along with footsteps in the forest, making the ground flatter, as a parade passed through the area.

Then, they came across the first corpse. Talon gestured for the group to come and see. It was a group of goblins that had been ambushed by way too many people. They had at least 5 arrow wounds in them, meaning they didn't have a chance to fight back before they got rained upon.

Seeing this, Lucius nodded lightly. Numbers at the early stages would be a huge factor, and he knew it.

In this new world, humans started with 10 points in each stat and had 10 free stat points to distribute. This made them as strong as a level 2 goblin at the beginning. A goblin, on the other hand, likely had all of its stats at 5 at level 1, making it easy to kill if you paid attention. However, at level 3, this advantage would diminish as goblins would reach the same power level.

As they progressed to higher levels, especially around level 5, the balance between humans and goblins shifted. With the goblins having more experience than the average person as they lived a harder life, they often were better at combat.

On the other hand, humans were smarter and could use this to their advantage by getting to know their skills and using them correctly.

Lucius and his group continued to follow the big group, noticing that they were heading in a direction they had not been before. This meant that they were likely going towards a different goblin village than the one they had previously raided.

Time passed slowly as they made occasional stops to avoid being discovered by the scouts they had at the back, acting as insurance against any surprise attacks.

They knew that a big group of goblins would find it impossible to ambush them from behind, so they didn't have as many scouts at the rear, only five. They waited for the scouts to move forward before continuing.

They came across even more bodies of goblins, evidence of the brutal slaughter by the larger group. However, there were still no signs of any human casualties. It seemed that this was a one-sided massacre, at least until they arrived at the river.