With them reaching close range I switched over to using Fireball to attack the goblins. Herbert took the front line fighting off the goblins with his sword while I peppered them with fireballs and keeping him protected using gust. Still it was impossible for him to contain that many goblins by himself and one of them got past him and engaged me in melee.
However then I arrived in this world I got to experience the dangers of melee combat and this time I felt in control. The goblin was also not as fast as the wolf and I was able to use my staff effectively to knock the goblin back long enough to invoke fireball.
Once that was done I returned to providing support for Herbert.
As quickly as the encounter had started it ended. The goblins were down and we were safe. I wiped my brow, “Whew”. Everything had gone well. My hp had only taken the smallest amount of damage and Herbert still had around 60% of his. A successful encounter indeed.
I pulled out my healing potion which was near the top in my satchel and handed it to Herbert, “Here, there isn’t that much left but you took most of the damage.”
He waved his hands, “No no no, that stuff is expensive isn’t it. I shouldn’t take that from you.”
I glared at him, “We just fought goblins together didn’t we? Don’t merchant me right now. If there are more goblins I can’t have you hurt like that. I don’t have enough mana to do another engagement like that.”
He took the potion and I noticed that he seemed different than his normal self, more shaken. I suppose we did just fight for our lives so that isn’t too much of a surprise.
I left him to drink the potion while I knelt down next to the goblins and began shifting through their pocketed. They were covered in blood from the fight but looting your enemies was a time-honored rpg tradition.
Over all not a huge haul. They had some copper in their various pockets but no huge amounts. They however must have had some kind of camp and probably near by. I called out to Herbert telling him to wait for me while I searched for it.
Behind a nearby hill I was able to find it. Some crude tents and a fire pit. A quick search of the camp turned up quite a bit. Nine silver and a few handfuls of copper. Most of everything else was probably not save to take. The goblins didn’t seem to be the most hygienic of people. I had been hoping for some magic items but I fear that was too much to ask for.
When I returned to Herbert his hp had been restored. I had already known that of course because I had been watching his hp because we were part of the same party.
“I found some silver in their camp. All told it looks like it is seven silver each.”
He shook his head, “No, you keep it.”
I glared at him however he shook his head, “No really. I misjudged you, you really are suited to be an adventurer. You kept your cool better than me. Without you I certainly would have died to that attack.”
“It wasn’t all me, you fought the goblins well yourself. You are a higher level than me too.”
“Higher level doesn’t mean everything. Once they were attacking me in melee I lost all track of everything. They could have killed you and I wouldn’t have noticed. Yet you kept attacking the ones on my flanks making it easy for me to fight. It was all you.”
“Alright, then. I’ll consider it the payment for the potion. That is fine ok?”
He smiled weakly, “You are giving me quite the deal there but I’ll accept.”
“Good.” I said. I wanted to give him more credit for the battle but he wasn’t wrong. At the beginning of the fight he had kept his head and target the most dangerous enemies but once later he was just fighting to stay alive, not to win.
I didn’t think my actions had been anything unusual for me though. I had played several major mmos and party fights were important. Keeping melee characters from being overwhelmed was important. Gust was my crowd control skill and it had been quite effective.
It would have been nice it Herbert had any tanking prowess but he probably didn’t have any useful fighting jobs. I didn’t judge him for that but his prioritization after that first go had been less than good. However he was a merchant not an adventurer so I hadn’t said anything bad to him about it.
I mentally added to my notes that I should figure out an issue with healing. Natural healing was way too slow and currently healing potions seemed too expensive. Even with the silver I had gotten from the goblins that probably only barely paid for the half of the healing potion that Herbert drunk. Maybe I could get some training in a healing magic job but I would need more mp for that to be a good option. Honestly mp regenerated too slowly as well.
I had a skill that gave me a bigger mana reserve but I wanted to try and find one that let me regenerate it faster.
Herbert and me climbed back onto the wagon and continued our journey to the next town. While that happened I looked back over my log and checked over my status just to see if I missed anything.
Indeed, it looked like my Elemental Magic skill had ranked up to rank 8. My level was very close to going up and so was my staff skill. Mana Reserves seemed to only be very slowly increasing in percent. It was probably a slow growth skill since it would improve no matter what kind of magic you were using.
The journey for the rest of the day was very quiet. Herbert had previously be quite chatty but now he was more contemplative. The battle must have frightened him more than I thought.
Maybe it was strange that I hadn’t felt scared, I had felt scared back in the woods the first time I was fighting wolves but back then I hadn’t known what I could do to protect myself. Or maybe because everything strangely felt natural for me like I had been training my whole life to be here right now.
Once we had finally reached the next town and checked in at the inn Herbert quickly informed the town guard about the attack and then retreated to his room. Yesterday I remembered seeing him chat up the inn patrons like a good merchant.
I made sure to spent some time training this night as well. If I was going to actually be an adventurer toward would only be the tip of the iceberg in many ways. However I tempered by training a little bit this time. Since mp regenerated so slowly I left enough that I would have most of my mana available when I woke up.
That night there was no bonus job that I got access too, sad.
In the morning I went to check the market. Last time I chose not to purchase a new healing potion but this time I decided not to take that risk, with all the potion down I didn’t have a way to heal and that was unacceptable. I got a new potion and safely stored it in my bag. I was able to haggle down the price a little bit which meant that the goblin loot basically paid for it.
When I returned to the inn I was glad to see Herbert talking and laughing with another person. It seems that a good night’s sleep had let him get back to normal. Not long after it was time for us to leave.
As we took off Herbert said, “It looks like it will be our last day together. We should arrive in Tortburg before the night falls from there you should be able to find a caravan heading toward Dungeoncity and the journey there will take you another two days.”
“Thanks for all your help.”
“No problem. Honestly I should be thankful for finding you. If you ever need my aid again you can contact the merchant guild and I’m sure they will be able to send a message to me.”
“Tortburg is big isn’t it?” I asked, I had gotten the impression from how he spoke about it that it was a big city.
“Quite big, not nearly as big as Heithstar mind you but it is getting bigger every day. It is the closest major city to Dungeoncity and is used as the main trade up for everything found there. If you are looking for gear replacements I suggest looking for it in Tortburg instead of waiting to Dungeoncity. The merchants tend to inflate the price in Dungeoncity.”
“Thanks, I’ll see what I can do about that. I expect to spend a few days there looking around before leaving.”
We continued to chat about Tortburg as the journey continued. Herbert made him money but buying produced good in big cities then going out to the smaller towns where he sold those goods and then buy raw materials which he brought back to the city.
The journey was over faster than I expected. Since we were closer to a big city today there were more people on the road and it was probably safer from attacks by creatures like goblins.
As the city came into sight I was actually kinda surprised how big it actually was. There weren’t any walls because it looked like the city was expanding with new buildings being built on the edge of the city. We past a bunch of buildings before finally getting to what must have previously been walls to protect the city.
Inside Herbert lead me through the streets while he tried to explain the layout of the city. Finally he stopped in front of a large building. The merchant guild headquarters he said.
“If you ever need me this is the place to contact. They will be able to tell you what my route is and how soon it will be before I get back.”
“It is more impressive then I expected it too be.”
“Well, the merchant guild basically runs the city. Sure the Duke is supposed to be in charge but the merchants control the money.”
“It has been nice traveling with you. If you are ever in Dungeoncity I’m sure you can look me up. Although I’m not certain how you do that.”
He nodded and said again, “Thanks”
“No problem, adventurer remember, doing that stuff is my job.”
“Yeah,” He said, we smiled at each other and I waved as he left and entered the merchant’s guild building.
And with that I was alone again. I had known it was going to happen but it still pained me a little. We had only been together a few days but I had already though of him as my friend. Lack of a friends feature was annoying.
I took a walk through the city toward the inn that Herbert has recommended. I was planning my next actions. However before I made my decision about what to actually do I needed to answer an important question that I had.
The thing I needed to do is finish gaining this level and figure out if Improved Level Up did what I thought it would do. After the goblins I was close to gaining a level but not all the way there yet. One thing I noticed however was that practicing combat skills did give me a little bit of progress toward the level. If I worked hard I could probably gain the level with a few days of practice.