[8 - BIG BAD GOBLINS]

It couldn't be possible, it had been more than a few weeks since I last challenged the Tower, Evgeni should be sitting somewhere on the fifth floor, even the sixth if he was lucky enough. What was he doing here on the second floor? I can't remember any special occasion that would be happening today for him to be here. No, there's no way I could know everything about him, he might be here to pass the time or have fun.

And yet Evgeni stood behind me, a knowing grin plastered onto his face. And he's wearing the cloak, he's WEARING the cloak, the cloak that I gave him. It's like my idol is wearing a boyfriend shirt…ah wait, those are dangerous thoughts. At least I have my mask on, so my face isn't betraying my thoughts…I really hope Evgeni doesn't know how to read minds.

"I'm going to need some help as well, though. You don't mind, do you?"

So he was here for a purpose.

"Of course not." My mouth moved before I could do anything. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see Mercury's absolute baffled look on his face, I'm also confused, don't look at me like that! Evgeni's smile only got brighter, "Great, I knew you wouldn't mind!" Of course his smile is so gorgeous-No, stay on topic, Mingyu. "I'm Erstwhile King of Ice and this is Fleet-Footed Envoy, thank you for helping us, really." "In that case, you can call me Seraphim." Evgeni shook my hand, and if I wasn't in business mode right now I would've bluescreened on the spot.

Thoughts whirled around in my head, I wanted to come up with a good strategy since now I was morally obligated to challenge the larger goblin settlement. I knew it was dangerous, I just don't explicitly remember why it was so dangerous. "Well, Fleet-Footed Envoy and my retainer are both extremely quick, I have no doubts in their abilities, what would you be doing then?" Evgeni hummed a little tune, even his voice was just perfect. "I'm just like you, Erstwhile King of Ice. I use magic for combative purposes. You understand what I'm saying, right?"

"Right, of course I do." I lied. Please don't get yourself into trouble because I said I could use magic offensively, Evgeni.

At this point I felt like just giving up and letting the boys run amok as they usually would've, but I also don't want them recklessly running in there and getting hurt. "Let's kill two birds with one stone, then. What do you need help with, Seraphim?" "Well, a little birdie told me that larger goblin settlements have a bigger, stronger goblin in charge. They're called Goblin Chieftains, and I want to kill one." That's what I was forgetting. You couldn't just run into a large goblin camp and murder every goblin inside it, if the population of goblins fell below 20%, that would summon the Goblin Chieftain, and that thing is way too strong for any ordinary player to kill.

I grimaced at the thought, that's what Evgeni wanted to kill? "That can't be on our power level, right?" "Maybe, maybe not. But I assure you I can kill it perfectly fine on my own. You're trying to complete the extinction quest, right? Just leave the Chieftain to me and draw the other goblins away." Chieftains could summon the remaining goblins in the blink of an eye, it was really annoying even for someone like me who just watched famous Players stream killing the Chieftain online. Speaking of which, boss raid streams made tons of money, should I perhaps start streaming hard fights? No, I'd probably get really popular online if I did, I wouldn't want that.

"Alright, boys, each of you take some of these just in case you get hurt. You too, Seraphim." I handed out a few Melberries to the boys, even letting Evgeni take a few. He must've used his Blessing on the fruit, because he stared at it for a few seconds before nodding. Did I accidentally raise my suspicions again? I hope not. But I feel like Evgeni is just going to find out about the existence of the berries anyway, so I guess just outright showing them is a better idea.

I let Evgeni direct the team afterwards, I don't trust myself to unknowingly reveal something I shouldn't know to him. He let the boys charge in first while he guarded their backs. Evgeni could weaken the goblins before letting Xingxi kill them in one fell swoop, Mercury would do the same until the Goblin Chieftain was summoned, at that point he'd take off, locate and destroy the Goblin Totems before returning and helping out again. "And you're going to guard the back with me." It's not like I'm going to do anything since I don't have any skills to weaken goblins with, I really hope Evgeni doesn't catch onto that, he probably has though.

For once, I got to see Mercury in proper action. He was very speed-oriented and mostly used his legs, as I predicted. His offensive skills also let him fight on his own, and Xingxi could kill them off with one strike. And Evgeni? His magic was nothing short of gorgeous, as expected of a mage from his class. His mana sparkled like stars in the night sky, and I couldn't help but stare at it for a moment. Those with mana sense would know how intoxicating Evgeni's strong mana would be, luckily I didn't have mana sense, otherwise I'd be losing my mind from it.

I also had some use, Alchemists sat under the Sorcerer subclass of mages. Even though I didn't have any magic skills, I still had proper control over mana. And mana overload was a very easy feat for those with high mana control. This was better suited towards weakening goblins, killing them would still need a bash to the skull with a baseball bat.

It hadn't been very long until we all felt the ground rumbling and a loud bellowing, and at that moment I knew the Goblin Chieftain had been summoned. I could feel its killing aura from here, if I hadn't lived in the Tower subject to this killing aura for 10 years, I'd be cowering.

Evgeni immediately switched to the frontlines, Mercury took this chance to seek out the Goblin Totems to destroy them.

I drew Xingxi away from the main area, watching Evgeni deal with the chieftain on his own.

He looked so cool and so powerful.

Xingxi lured the summoned goblins away from Evgeni, killing them off with one fell swoop after I overloaded them with Mana. Now that the goblin population was lower, it was trivially easy to kill them off on our own.

Mercury must've shattered a totem right then, because then the killing aura of the Goblin Chieftain got stronger. Ah, I forgot destroying Goblin Totems would make the goblins insane. But Evgeni definitely held out on his own, he could still kill the chieftain without a scratch, how amazing is that? I was too far to help out with overloading the Chieftain with Mana though, so I silently prayed for Evgeni to successfully come out on top.

I'm jealous of his Blessing though, he could see what the Goblin Chieftain could do next and avoid its attacks ahead of time. I'm sure the me from a decade ago would also agree, we would've loved a Blessing that was just as strong as Evgeni's.

And then the Goblin Chieftain screamed, Mercury must've destroyed the second Goblin Totem. I could see him running back to us with a small horde of goblins in tow. As he ran past me, I overloaded each one with mana, and Xingxi finished them off easily. "That was so cool! It's like just being in your presence made them weak! Does your Blessing do that? Make you look like a King?" Mercury had stars in his eyes. I'm not going to comment, he can make his own assumptions on what my Blessing is. I stayed silent, and it seems like Mercury took that as a confirmation. "You're so cool! Like a real king!"

The ground shook. The Goblin Chieftain's attacks seem to have gotten much heavier. But Evgeni was still nimble enough to dodge it.

"Seraphim's taking that thing all on his own! He's so powerful, I wouldn't be surprised if he was the strongest Player in the Tower!" Well, Mercury, you'd be right, he's definitely the strongest Player in the Tower.

And hopefully he always will be, I really don't want the twins to become Players.

I froze. I had a bad feeling.

The Goblin Chieftain slammed a giant metal club down on the ground, creating a minor earthquake. That must've done something to Evgeni, since after that attack I could see one of his legs move slightly slower than the other. In the Chieftain's other hand was a giant blade, ready to cut down. Seraphim wouldn't be able to avoid that in time, maybe he would, but it'd definitely remove a limb.

Without thinking, I had to rush forward. Like an idiot, but it was too early for my idol to be severely injured at this point in time.

I pulled Seraphim from behind, pulling him into my arms just as the blade came crashing down. "LAY YOUR HANDS OFF HIM!"

I pulled so hard that Evgeni fell right into my arms.

At that point I didn't care that he was right here, in front of me. All I knew was that I couldn't let him die now and that I couldn't let him die in front of me.

I didn't care about Xingxi delivering a punch right to the Goblin Chieftain's face, nor did I care about the fact that Evgeni hopped right back onto his feet right after Xingxi's heavy punch and cast another skill right when the Chieftain was off guard, killing it in one fell swoop.

All that was on my mind was the fact that Evgeni could've been hurt, and I didn't want that.