Raid on the Goblin Colony

Meditation would increase Mana's recovery by 100% of the normal rate. The initial normal rate of mana's recovery depends on one's class rank. 

The higher the rank, the better the Mana recovery rate. Afterward, it would increase every 10 points into the Mana stat.

His SS-rank class gave him a natural mana recovery of 0.7 Mana per second, and with over 30 Mana points, he gained 0.3 extra, which propelled his normal recovery to 1 Mana per second, which was then doubled due to his innate talent!

If he meditated on top of that, it would increase even more!

Two minutes later, Almond opened his eyes and nodded, "I'm done. We can go."

"Good, here's the plan," Lily began explaining. "I've scouted the Goblin Colony. There are twenty Goblins inside unless I missed one or two, and most of them are level 5 and 6, but four of them are at level 7, which includes the Goblin Chief, one Goblin Archer, one Goblin Mage, and one Goblin Guardian."

"Natalia can use a decoy-type skill to create a clone. It can move, and it inherits 50% of her stats and she can use her skills through it. We'll use it to lure out the Goblins from the front gate while you and I will attack from behind and take out the Goblin Archers and Goblin Mages who will stay behind first," Lily said to Almond.

"Got it," Almond nodded. "After that?"

Lily took out two daggers from her storage pouch, "That's all to the plan. We'll fight the rest of the battle accordingly since it won't be hard. I've done a simulation of fighting in this colony multiple times in the training center."

"Alright," Almond nodded as he glanced at the daggers. 'They are not common-grade for sure.'

"Let's go," Natalia grinned and used her skill, conjuring another Natalia looking just like her.

'Her class must be pretty useful if it has a skill like this,' Almond's eyes glinted. 'She and her friends talked about their classes during lunch break.'

'If I remember correctly, it's called Mirage Witch—B-rank class. Well, I can confirm it right now.'

Almond checked her status this time, and indeed, her class name and rank appeared as his information was true.

'I wonder what else she can do with it…'

The trio moved towards the Goblin Colony. Natalia went towards the front gate and hid ten meters away behind a tree. Since she could share her senses with her clone, she controlled it as the clone arrived in front of the Goblin Colony's gate.

The colony was like a tiny village with seven wooden huts, one wooden house bigger than the huts, and a wooden watch tower at the center. The gate was closed, and there were two trees on both sides, along with a few other trees inside. 

As Natalia's clone appeared near the gate, the level 6 Goblin Archer on the watchtower soon noticed her and picked up a crude blowhorn to alert the goblins.

Natalia's clone threw a Flask of Flame, an attack-type potion that could explode and set flammable things on fire to destroy the colony gate and set both trees to the sides on fire.

This aggravated the goblins further as four level 5-6 Goblin Guardians and four level 5-6 Goblin Warriors, along with a level 6 Goblin Mage and the level 7 Goblin Chief, rushed out and chased after Natalia's clone, who ran at full speed into the woods.

 The other goblins remained inside and rushed towards the gate and trees to put out the fire by filling up water buckets from their well.

Meanwhile, Lily and Almond jumped over the wall from the back and landed on a wooden bridge that was fixed around the colony's walls for goblin mages and archers to give them higher ground.

Lily's daggers glowed before she threw both of them toward the level 7 Goblin Mage, who stayed at the back along with the level 7 Goblin Archer.

Both daggers penetrated the Goblin Mage, one into its throat and the other into his chest, but the Goblin Mage didn't die instantly like she expected since it seemed to use a skill to heal itself while barely holding on.

'Tsk, real life still has variables that simulation can't compute,' Lily thought as she saw the Goblin Mage living, but she didn't bother with it anymore and took out a bow to aim at the Goblin Archer in the watchtower according to her plan.

She had to kill it before it could alert the goblins chasing Natalia's clone. It had a blowhorn, which could give a message to the goblins outside, so it was important to kill it fast.

Meanwhile, Almond had also attacked, commanding both of his spirit wolves to pounce on the level 7 Goblin Archer, pinning it on the ground while he rushed forward with physical Enchantment and jumped, landing directly on the Goblin Archer's head with a kick to finish it off.

*Splat*

He saw Lily failing to kill Goblin Mage due to it having some kind of support-type skill and took that chance to use a Spirit Explosion by using a level 3 Dire Wolf Spirit from Spirit Kodoku pocket.

'The explosion would alert other goblins, but that's fine. We've finished off three who were at the back.'

Naturally, Lily heard the explosion right as she released the arrow at the Goblin Archer on the watchtower. She wanted to make sure this Goblin Archer died, so she didn't hold back in using Mana and finished it off.

"What was that?" Lily asked as she turned to Almond. 'So he killed both level 7 goblins. That must have propelled him to level 5.'

[Almond]

-Adventurer rank: Bronze.

-Level: 5

-Class: ???

"It was my class skill," Almond answered, his eyes on the Goblins near the gate. "The explosion alerted them. Let's finish them off fast."

"Yeah. There are a few more Goblins than I initially counted, but that won't change anything," Lily looked at the incoming Goblins screaming and shouting with red eyes and released arrows while her Daggers flew back at her.

'Geez, she is loaded with items.'

Almond also stored all three spirits and used Spirit Devour on them.

Two level 7 Goblins and one level 6 Goblin gave him +2 Focus, +1 Perception, +1 Health, and +1 Stamina.

Almond commanded his wolves while he stayed back with Lily and assigned all six stat points to his Strength.

'If I want to kill Goblin Warriors and Goblin Guardians with one attack solely using Physical Enchantment, I need to increase Strength.'

Physical Enchantment could increase the user's Strength stat by 10% to 100%, depending on the proficiency of the skill.

And…Almond's proficiency was enough to give him a 100% boost, thanks to the intense training he designed himself to learn Physical Enchantment after reading and learning about it from various sources.

The mana consumption required to use Physical Enchantment was relative to the Strength stat and the area it affected. The higher the strength stat and larger the area, the more mana it requires to use Physical Enchantment.

The duration it remained active also depended on one's proficiency, and for now, Almond's Physical Enchantment could last for around twenty seconds.

Almond only enchanted his Arms and Legs. He didn't even know how to enchant his whole body yet because he didn't train in other areas.

After assigning stat points, he rushed forward with Physical Enchantment to finish off the level 7 Goblin Guardian since Goblin Guardians could have support-type skills as well, and they could prove troublesome.

Meanwhile, Lily finished off the two Goblin Archers who were at the back using her bow.

They didn't get the chance to even release a single arrow before they were killed.

'A skilled marksman,' Almond thought as he saw the double kill by Lily.

On the other hand, Almond was instantly surrounded by the remaining nine Goblins, among which one was a Goblin Mage, four Goblin Warriors, and three Goblin Guardians, all of them at level 5-6.

The wolves pounced on the Goblin Mage at his left upon his command, and he exerted strength in his legs, jumped out of the encirclement while dodging an attack from the Goblin Warrior, and landed behind the Goblin Mage before killing it with a kick.

The Goblin Warriors and Guardians couldn't catch up with Almond's speed, and they were melee combatants, so they angrily rushed at him to attack him, wanting to skewer him with their swords and spears.

"I'll finish them off. Thanks for gathering them."

Almond suddenly heard Lily's voice in his right ear.

Lily, with glinting daggers in her hand, jumped right into the middle of the group of eight Goblins.

Almond was wondering what she would do, and then he saw Lily's figure clad in purple lightning before her speed drastically increased, and she moved zig-zag around the Goblins, her daggers slashing away at their throats as they were beheaded while they couldn't even react.

Seeing this, Almond's eyes widened before they lit up with blaze, his fist clenched.

'Physical Enchantment, a self-buff skill, and a movement-type skill, all in a perfect symphony that allowed her to make a move like this…'

'She must have learned other skills outside, thanks to her background and trained herself. Skill Scrolls are rare to come by, but it shouldn't be hard for her.'

"Natalia should be coming here soon," Lily said as she walked towards Almond.

Almond nodded.

'Status open.'

Almond reached level 6, while Lily remained at level 6 after leveling up once despite killing many Goblins since killing monsters weaker than one's level would yield lower EXP than usual. Still, she was only a bit away from reaching level 7.