Mutation

One month quickly passed since Yasuo completed his first sub-goal. With Yasuo still working towards his sub-goals and clearing at least one portal every day, he was steadily becoming stronger.

In this one month of clearing F-rank portals, Yasuo had encountered three more Goblin Champions. With his improved stats, combat ability and the ice spear skill Yasuo had obtained, the Goblin champions didn't pose much of a threat.

But now that the boss of F-rank portals didn't feel like a challenge anymore, it had become too easy for him to solo-clear an F-rank portal. Because of this, Yasuo wanted something more challenging. But at the same time, solo-clearing an E-rank portal seemed much too dangerous as the step from F-rank to E-rank portals is really big.

Not being confident in solo-clearing an E-rank portal, Yasuo was thinking about joining a clearing party with other awakeners. But always having solo-cleared portals, Yasuo found it difficult to put his life in the hands of complete strangers.

With E-rank portals not being an option for Yasuo right now, he decides to Continue going into F-rank portals until he felt ready.

That is what he thought was best, easily clearing F-rank portals.

Getting ready for the day, Yasuo reserves an F-rank portal, which had become like a routine to him.

Having gone to the portal later that day, Yasuo sees something new. For the first time there was someone from the association standing guard in front of the portal.

Having his mask on Yasuo greets the man sitting in front of the portal.

'Hello sir, may I ask why you are standing guard in front of the portal?"

Lounging in his chair, the guard snaps out of his daze as he heard Yasuo.

"Oh, yes. Because the number of portals are decreasing the association has started to send guards to low-level portals again."

This sounded logical to Yasuo as he had seen a decrease of portals on the map in the awakeners app. Not wanting to waste too much time doing nothing, Yasuo showed the man his awakener ID.

Having confirmed his awakener ID, Yasuo immediately steps towards the portal, wanting to enter it.

Suddenly the man calls Yasuo back. "Wait, where are you going?"

Yasuo didn't know why the man would call him back, but stops and looks back at him.

"I have confirmed that you are an awakener, but don't you have a team that will come into the portal with you."

Having solo-cleared F-rank portals numerous times already, Yasuo tries to act cool. "Don't worry, solo-clearing F-rank portals won't be a problem for me."

After having said that, Yasuo walked into the portal. For some reason the overall vibe of the portal felt different from the ones he had gone into so far.

Shaking this feeling off, Yasuo started looking for goblins like normal.

Unbeknownst to Yasuo, a panic had broken out outside the portal. Immediately after Yasuo had entered, the portal started to change. Knowing all to well what this was, the guard started calling the awakeners association as fast as he could.

"A mutation in an F-rank portal has just occurred, please send the safety team immediately!"

Yasuo still had no idea that this happened, but he found out soon after when he encountered the first group of goblins.

It was a group of four goblins, consisting of two goblin mages and two goblin warriors.

*Goblin warriors are much stronger compared to normal goblins and have about one-third the strength of a goblin champion.*

Yasuo had encountered a few lone goblin warriors before, but never more than one per portal. Now these goblin warriors seemed to be as common as normal goblins and there were even goblin mages, which are also strong and normally very rare in F-rank portals.

Before Yasuo could fully assess the situation, he suddenly sees a fireball flying towards him. A goblin mage had spotted Yasuo and had fired an attack.

After hastily having put up mana barrier, the fireball hits it and shatters the barrier. Not having had enough time to pour in enough mana into the barrier it was flimsy, but luckily just enough to stop the fireball as it disintegrated together with the mana barrier.

Because of the explosion that the fireball caused, Yasuo had managed to hide himself from the group of goblins successfully.

'This will give me some time to think of a plan.'

Yasuo kept calm in the situation and after carefully having thought about it, there wasn't an enemy he hadn't fought before, which gave Yasuo confidence again.

Taking a deep breath in, Yasuo started his attack in the most effective way he knew. Aiming his left hand towards the goblin mage "[Ice spear]". The spear started the form and the goblins had found Yasuo's location, but it was too late for them. As the ice spear had fully formed, it shot out like a bullet, penetrating the skull of the goblin mage.

The goblins looked at their comrade on the ground and became noticeably angry. But having looked away from Yasuo for a second, he had already started forming a second ice spear.

Trying to stop Yasuo, the two goblin warriors rushed towards him while the goblin mage shot out a fireball. But it was too late for them as Yasuo's ice spear had already fully formed and shot towards the goblin mage, nullifying the fireball before piercing the heart of the goblin mage.

Standing up, Yasuo goes out of hiding to face the two goblin warriors that were charging at him. Having fully seen Yasuo for the first time, the two goblin warriors stopped in their track and looked hesitant about fighting Yasuo.

"It is a little late to change your mind now, you dumb goblins!"

In only a few seconds Yasuo had turned the tables and went from being prey to being the hunter. The two goblin warriors still being a relatively strong opponent, Yasuo puts up a dense mana barrier out of precaution and rushes towards them.

Despite being strong and proficiently wielding swords, the goblins didn't stand a chance. Not being able to pierce his barrier and Yasuo using all the skills at his disposal, the goblins didn't even last ten seconds.

After the battle Yasuo took some time to organize his thought.

'With the battle of the four goblins, I already used 100 mana. Luckily I also gained 80 mana because of the mana steal skill on my dagger, there was eventually not a big decrease in his mana. But if I use this much mana for every fight, I will eventually run out.'

With conserving as much mana as possible in mind, Yasuo started to set up a plan of action that would increase his chances of survival as much as possible. And after logically thinking about it, Yasuo became confident in clearing this portal.

Instead of running around to look for goblins, Yasuo went back to sneaking around just like he did in the first few portals he went in. Stealthily going around, the goblins didn't notice Yasuo and he could now strategically pick his battles.

Setting a rule for himself that he would only fight goblins in groups of three or less, Yasuo slowly but steadily defeated more goblin warriors and mages.

While in this predicament, Yasuo had also found something out that would not only help him clear this portal, but will also help him in future portals.

Normally Yasuo would take out the goblin mages with a ranged attack, an ice spear. But when he encountered a lone goblin mage, he decided to sneak attack it with his dagger to conserve his mana. Once he had attacked the goblin mage, Yasuo was suddenly almost at full mana again.

Yasuo theorized that the more mana a monster had, the more mana he would steal from them with each attack from his dagger. Putting this to the test, Yasuo took down a few more goblin mages with his dagger, which proved his theory.

Becoming more proficient at hunting goblin mages and goblin warrior and not having to worry about mana anymore, Yasuo slowly increased his hunting speed.

After three full hours of hunting it became more difficult to encounter goblins. Yasuo knew from experience that this meant that he was nearing the end of clearing the portal.

Still being full of mana and having stamina to spare, Yasuo became relieved knowing that he would be able to survive this portal, something that he wasn't sure about when he first encountered the group of goblin warriors and mages.

Continuing the search of goblins, Yasuo remained cautious as he knew that anything could happen. And it was a good thing that. As Yasuo was sneaking through the tall grass, he spotted three Goblin Champions in the distance.

Yasuo laughed at the sight of the three Goblin Champions.

'I knew you still had a surprise for me left, you damned portal. If you want to play dirty, I will gladly follow along.'

Goblin Champions are known for their pride in battles and they honoured fair fights, but Yasuo wasn't having any of that and just wanted to be done with the portal.

Utilizing everything that worked towards Yasuo's strength, he had formulated a cowardly but fail-safe way of defeating the three Goblin Champions.

Yasuo had plenty of time and patiently waited for the perfect opportunity to strike. Once he found that opportunity, Yasuo took it. From around fifty meters away, Yasuo fires an [ice spear] towards the Goblins Champions, striking one in the stomach.

After having fired the ice spear, Yasuo didn't even look if it had landed and just went back into hiding.

Firing an ice spear every ten minutes or so, Yasuo had enraged the Goblin Champions so much that they started attacking their surroundings indiscriminately. Felling entire trees in their rage, Yasuo could only laugh at them as he was still fifty meters away and out of danger.

After over three hours there was only one Goblin Champion left standing. Looking like a porcupine from all the ice spears that had pierced its body and out of breath from the indiscriminate attacks, Yasuo finally decides to go out of hiding.

Slowly walking towards the Goblin Champion, Yasuo didn't spare any effort to hide himself. Goblin Champions being very perceptive, it spots Yasuo almost immediately. Looking enraged beyond measure, it starts charging at Yasuo.

Yasuo looked the Goblin Champion in the eyes. Still being fifty meters away from it, Yasuo smirks as he puts his hand up. With enough mana left, Yasuo starts shooting out ice spears again. With the Goblin Champion straight-lining towards Yasuo, every ice spear was a direct hit.

After every hit the Goblin Champion slowed down. Now with only a few meters in between them, the Goblin Champion was struggling to even move forward stumbling after every step.

"Well, that was fun. But this is goodbye. [Ice spear]"

~Portal clearing Successful~