Trail Mix

A volley of arrows shot right through the dust cloud!

Lightly swaying left and right, Jake dodged most of the arrows.

However, that volley of arrow was rather dense. In the end, Jake still got hit by a few of these glinting projectiles.

Felt like someone was tapping him. Looking down, Jake lightly knitted his brows. There were small holes on his grey T-shirt now.

The volleys of arrows stopped. The dust quickly settled and dispersed.

Looking forward, the horde of goblins was charging in with sticks and daggers now. No armor. Just wearing ragged clothing. Kind of looked like typical MMORPG goblin monsters.

Some distance away, standing on high ground, three goblin mages were waving over-sized staffs. They were robotically chanting something.

A fireball slowly formed above their staffs. Sensing the growing energy levels of those fireballs, Jake raised his brows. Looks like the spell chanting was going to take a while.

'In this case...' Jake casually searched his bag for trail mix.

"Tsch." Beetle slowly got up from the ground. Lightly shaking his head, Beetle panted to recover from the blast shock.

This warrior shook the dirt off himself. His light armor made clunking sounds.

The goblins were only about 30 meters away now. In around two seconds, they would reach Jake's group.

"Hmph. More useful than expected." Beetle glanced at the two newbies. These two guys were still unable to get up.

Taking a deep breath, Beetle's teal mana armor quickly thickened. Picking up his sword, Beetle got into a sprint stance.

Without hesitation, Beetle fearlessly charged towards the goblins by himself. Outnumbered. But Beetle looked like he was an army of his own.

Charge forward! Only forward!

Looking from afar, the battle looked like a teal beetle charging into green ants. Without any resistance, Beetle cut through the green goblins.

With every strike, Beetle could kill off a goblin.

In return, the attacks from those goblins couldn't even leave a scratch on Beetle's armor.

"So this is top tier explorer..." Reaper looked at their unstoppable team-leader in awe.

"We still have a long way to go..." Mage nodded. By the looks on his face, this guy was probably longing to become that strong one day as well.

Jake carelessly nodded and ate a handful of trail mix.

After cutting through the horde of goblins, Beetle continued to charge toward! His target was those three goblin mages!

The two newbie explorers widened their eyes in shock.

Jake analyzed the situation for a moment. He had a general sense of Beetle's plans now.

The newbies didn't understand the situation though. Their faces quickly paled. By the looks of it, they had been abandoned by their team leader!

Now, with nobody standing in front of them, who's going to fend off the goblins?

These green little monsters would reach the group before Reaper could cast his spell!

At the moment, Mage seemed to be injured. His brown mana armor looked a little fluid and undefined. That explosion had seriously messed up his mana structure. As a result, he couldn't cast anything either!

In other words, they were defenseless against a horde of deadly goblins.

The two newbies looked back at Jake.

Jake shrugged in response, as if saying 'Oh. Don't mind me. I'm just watching'.

The situation was under control anyways. Jake didn't mind staying out of this battle. Less effort. Cleaner clothing. More comfort. Perfect.

Either way, Jake was not noble enough to help out folks who were hostile towards him.

The two explorers lightly shook their heads. They threw that idea out of the window. What could a detector do!

In a quick moment, despair fermented in the minds of the two newbies.

Reaper took a grudging glance at Jake. This guy looked like he hated Jake even more now. Probably complaining about how useless Jake was in battle.

Though, if he listened to Jake's warning, he could have summoned his minion early. He could have also used this time to thicken his mana armor.

Instead of looking down at Jake, if this guy followed Jake and jumped away from the wall, he wouldn't be hurt in the first place.

Shakily standing up, the two newbies were ready to make their last stance.

Yet, reality said otherwise. The newbies were just over-thinking things. The goblins here were dumber than expected. Not a surprise though. They all had blank eyes just like the aged wolf. They didn't look that 'alive'. It was as if they were behaving based off pre-programmed commands.

After Beetle had attracted their aggro, the goblins continued to follow their target.

Since Beetle was trying to get to the mages, he attracted even more aggro from these goblins. By the looks of the situation, the primary objectives of those goblins was to protect their mages.

Hastily turning around, these goblins easily outran the heavy-armored Beetle. Forming a dense formation blocking the way, pointing their weapons at Beetle, they prepared for the collision.

Clash!

Three or four goblins exploded into green dust. However, they had successfully stopped Beetle from charging forward.

After taking some steps backwards, Beetle readied another charge.

The goblins fixed up their formation. They were ready for another collision.

By the looks of it, Beetle only needed to repeat this a few more times to fully eliminate those goblins.

Beetle didn't even pant. He still looked perfectly fine. Unlike the newbie explorers, he had a much larger mana reserve. This meant that he could take on lengthy battles.

Also, the full set of equipment on him was not just for show either. These were magically enhanced items.

More importantly, there was an ivory keychain-sized block worn on his neck. Entering battle, this article started to emit a blue glow. A mana regeneration talisman!

This was Beetle's largest source of confidence in accepting this battle.

Even if he lost, he could crush the talisman for a small mana recharge. With this mana, he could easily escape!

Regarding the newbies... Well. They were warned. Beetle felt no hesitation in fleeing first.

"I can help too!"

In a moment, a human figure made of black smoke emerged beside Reaper.

"Attack!" Reaper pointed towards the three goblin mages.

Moving at a much faster speed, the assassin minion made a detour. Hiding under the shadow of the pine trees, the goblins did not realize this threat.

Beetle clearly did not realize this hidden ally as well.

In the next moment, the assassin minion suddenly appeared behind the three mages. After a fluid sweep of his dagger, the assassin minion disappeared.

As usual, the attack was swift and deadly. After the sudden strike, the assassin minion would leave.

Watching this, Jake put down his water canteen. Yeah... The trail mix was a little dry.

'Looks like Beetle is going to get real pissed.'

As expected.

"REAPER! What are you doing!" Beetle's angry shout could be heard even at this distance.