The narrow tunnel allowed Abium to cast the [Fire Orb] spell effortlessly on the goblins. He moved like a reaper.
After another massacre, another lone enemy appeared from the dark tunnel.
Abium frowned as he observed the goblin quietly. Unlike other greeny goblins, this one appeared paler, had dark yellowish eyes, a long nose, and seemed around 140 cm high. It wore torn cloth to cover its private areas and appeared shirtless. At that moment, Abium also saw a unique crown made of bones on its skinny bald head.
'Goblin king?' His eyebrows arched upward.
"Isn't this goblin look different than others, Abium?" Helena panted heavily and asked with a puzzled look.
At that moment, the goblin king also arrived closer to them and halted its footsteps. Then, it gave a deep look at Abium, then at others, and grinned wickedly.
"Humans! I EAT!"
'It can talk in Easica tongue? Interesting.'
'Scan.'
A slight spiritual wave came out of Abium's body and spread towards the goblin king instantly.
A second later, the information about the goblin king popped out in front of his eyes.
[Name: Unknown
Age: Unknown
Race: Goblin King
Class: Shaman (Tier-0)
Attributes
Strength: 3.4
Agility: 3.2
Vitality: 3.3
Spirit: 18.0
Skills: *******, ******.
Spells: *****,******, *****, *****, *****, *******.]
'Tier-0? What does that mean?' Abium couldn't help but furrow.
'It means this goblin king is just as strong as an apprentice mage. When it becomes a Tier-1, it will have the power to cast first-tier spells. Although it isn't strong enough to threaten your life, you should be more careful.' Azolla said in his mind.
Meanwhile, Abium nodded as he raised his right hand and spoke.
"Everyone, get back."
Then, he took a deep breath and conjured an orb of flame.
A second later, the fire orb spell slowly moved away from his hand and flew towards the goblin at an incredible speed.
But before the fire orb could reach closer to the goblin king, dense fire-elemental energy started to gather in front of its right hand and formed into an arrow made of fire.
Then, the fire arrow moved towards the orb and collided with a bang before enveloping the surroundings in a fire.
'The goblin king's reflex is good.'
As Abium was about to cast another spell, an invisible pressure emerged from that goblin king and caused everyone to freeze for a moment.
'Aura of Domination!' Surprise flashed on his face.
It was the same feeling when he stood before King Seawallus in the throne hall.
'This aura… is manipulating my emotions and ordering my mind to bow down.'
In truth, Abium had met some people with this unique power and wasn't very surprised.
'Only those destined to become a ruler possess this unique skill. Unfortunately, it's just a buff skill.'
He coldly looked at the goblin king, cast the [Blink] spell, disappeared from where he stood before and reappeared behind it by teleporting.
A moment later, he aimed his sword at the goblin's chest and thrust it with full force.
But his face turned gloomy as he noticed that the goblin king's body started to distort and disappear.
'Am I in an illusion?' Abium frowned a bit and released his spirit power in all directions.
The whole surroundings started to break like glasses a moment later, revealing the original goblin to his eyes.
At that moment, the goblin king stood a few meters away from him and appeared to be reciting a strange incantation!
Without wasting time, he stepped forward and sprinted towards the small goblin while gripping his short sword.
Before the goblin could finish reciting its incantation, Abium arrived before it and slashed his sword at its neck to kill it.
But to his astonishment, the goblin king blocked his sword using a strange dagger and continued to recite the incantation.
"Ho! Intermediate-sword aura?" Although Abium was slightly surprised, he didn't flinch and acted calmly.
He quietly imbued more mana into his sword, enveloped it with a red-colored sword aura, and aimed towards the goblin king's head.
"Please don't kill me. I will work for you." It finally realized its position and started begging. Unfortunately, Abium wasn't a fool to believe its words.
Zing!
Without any pause, Abium's sword tip moved towards the goblin king at an incredible speed, penetrated deep into the creature's skull, and ended its life.
After sheathing his sword, he kicked the falling goblin king and calmly muttered.
"Let's go."
After that, Abium's group cleared the remaining goblins in the abandoned tunnel and returned to the entrance. Then, they took some rest and started removing the goblins' carcasses from the tunnel.
Women, children, and even some old people began to help them remove those goblins from the abandoned tunnel.
They cleaned up those dead bodies for another hour and got ready to move towards the other side. Abium took the lead while Helena, Kuran, Viper, and others followed after him quietly.
Some goblins were still roaming inside the tunnel but were swiftly killed off by Abium. After three hours of travel, they finally reached the other side of the Frozen mountain range.
It was almost 1 pm!
Abium eyes wandered towards the sky to see the sun but soon noticed the Frozen mountain range and the dark clouds had blocked it completely.
"Let's go."
Abium, with the Sword of Wrath on his waist and a small blue crystal embedded ring on his right-hand finger, carefully treaded through a rough and uneven path while the group followed him from behind.
Easica continent's wilderness was quite a dangerous place. Although it wasn't too bad right now, the dense forest regions would be filled with monsters infected by chaotic impure mana after the Chaos Era.
That would cause all these monsters into a crazy state. They would become a lot stronger than they originally were and would become more bloodthirsty. Abium felt it must be related to what had happened in the undead plane.
In the past, many cities and kingdoms fell under the hordes of monsters' attacks during the third wave and became ruins.
Dewsummit city was one of the few cities that hadn't been overcome by the monsters until the Chaos Era ended. The reason was simple: Dewsummit city had many mages from Kaummiths institute to protect during the third wave. As for other cities, they all fell one by one due to low human resources and mages.
After the final wave, only two cities stood tall in the Peral Kingdom. One was the Dewsummit city, while the other was a port city built much later in Alastall Woodland by Duke Adhemar.
But this time, Abium would be the one going to build that city.
No one knew the answer to why the monsters near this Frozen Mountain Range weren't affected by the chaotic miasmas. But that strange atmosphere saved countless refugees of the Peral and the nearby kingdoms.
As Abium was deeply thinking, Helena and others looked at the dense woodland with serious expressions on their faces.
"Wow! Is this the Alastall woodland? It's so lively and greenery." Everyone nodded at Helena's comment.
But only Abium knew what the dangers were hidden here.
'In truth, many Magical Beasts reside deep in the Alastall woodland and are very dangerous to explore.'
This Alastall woodland was filled with monsters, magical beasts, pirates, and thieves.
But it would become a suitable place during the upcoming dark age.
He chose this territory because it was isolated from the outside world and the chaos monsters, making it safer during the Chaos Era. And the wealth this land held was enormous, like iron mines, silver mines, agricultural lands, and sea wealth.
In the past, duke Adhemar built the port city and made this land his primary stronghold. If not for the benefits in this land, Abium would have never chosen it.
"How many kilometers do we have to walk? I think children and elders are already on the verge of collapse." Helena walked near to him and whispered to his ears.
Abium frowned. Leading these children and women into this wilderness during the night would be more dangerous.
'Should I first go to the pirate town and capture it?' His amber eyes glinted in a cold light. It would only take four to five hours to reach that town from where they were standing. As for the Magic tower, Abium knew it would take longer to get there.
'Although that necromancer might have already used all his undead skeletons against the pirates, it's not an easy matter to kill him.' He muttered inwardly.
"Let's go to the east then." He quickly changed the direction and advanced towards the direction where the pirate town was located. On their way, everyone started to examine the whole land, which was filled with rich flora. Amaryllis plants, Black walnut, Atlas cedars, red mangrove, and some other rare trees were spread around the whole forest. They also saw a few hardy kiwi and Alastall vines, only native to this land. Even though some goblins, wolves, and other monsters tried to attack the group, they managed to avoid casualties with the help of Abium's scan function.
After two hours of travel, the group slowly moved away from the dense tree areas and started to see some open regions from time to time.
But all of a sudden, Abium picked up a red mark in the scan function and halted his footsteps.
The enemy was moving in their direction from the south!
"Everyone, stop!" He instantly raised his right hand and shouted in warning.
At that moment, Viper also walked near to his side and said with a grim tone.
"A powerful enemy is coming, Young Baron."
Abium's body suddenly stiffened up.
He knew this man had lived with dangers for decades like Abium and instantly realized the seriousness of the situation.
'Who is that?' His body tensed up.
Abium knew that his people would be in a dangerous position if it were a powerful enemy.
After thinking for a moment, he made up his mind.
"Everyone, go back a few hundred meters away from here. Sir viper and I will handle this enemy." Abium quickly shifted his gaze towards Helena and said.
"Helena, you will have to protect them if anything happens out of the ordinary. Got it?"
His tone made everyone's expressions change instantly.
Helena and others hurriedly moved back a few hundred meters away without any refusal.
"Let's hope it's not an enemy," Abium muttered slowly and unsheathed his sword.
Meanwhile, Viper also unsheathed his daggers, turned his gaze towards the southern direction, and waited for the enemy to arrive.
A few seconds later, both heard a rustling sound from the woods' depth, and then a hooded figure came out of the dense green bushes.
No! More precisely, that human figure was running in the pirate town's direction.
At that moment, the black hooded man stopped his track as he saw two humans and turned his head in Abium's direction.