Luke winced slightly as the staff struck his shoulder. Jim certainly wasn’t going easy on him but that was exactly what Luke wanted. Jim continued striking him with the wooden staff as he riled up his mana and tried to control it better.


    Whenever the staff was about to connect, Luke tried pushing his mana towards that point. He was really just attempting to control his [Mana shield] better, so he could send more mana to the place where he was about to take damage.


    This continued for a few minutes with varying levels of success but eventually, Luke got the notification he was hoping for.


    *Your ability [Mana shield] has reached level 8*


    “I did it!” he cried.


    “Finally…I was starting to think you’re just a masochist” muttered Jim as he threw the staff away.


    “You’re definitely not hot enough to awaken those desires in me” said Luke with a laugh.


    “I guess I’ll have to tell Mary” he replied, chuckling.


    Luke rolled his eyes, he’d been hearing these sort of comments for the whole week. Seven days ago he’d destroyed a literal ghost but his thank you was just endless coercion to get together with Mary. Jim and Emma seemed especially invested in his love life.


    After Jim walked off, Luke looked over his status.


    STATUS


    Name: Luke Carpenter


    Race: Human (Lesser)


    Level: 15


    Rank: 1


    Class: Swordsman


    Health: 98%


    Stamina: 89%


    Mana Reserves: 72%


    Free points: 0


    Skill points: 0


    STATS


    Strength: 63


    Agility: 63


    Toughness: 70


    Stamina: 59


    Vitality: 57


    Perception: 54


    Soul: 57


    Spirit: 52


    SKILLS


    [Unarmed combat (Lvl.23)]


    [Swordsmanship (Lvl.28)]


    [Stealth (Lvl.21)]


    [Tracking (Lvl.19)]


    [Mana infusion (Lvl.10)]


    [Spiritual sense (Lvl.4)]


    [Breath control (Lvl.2)]


    [Basic magic (Lvl.5)]


    SPELL TYPES


    [Mana projectile (Lvl.4)]


    [Fire magic (Lvl.2)]


    ABILITIES


    Active:


    [Analyse (Lvl.3)]


    [Dark vision]


    [Cut (Lvl.6)]


    [Mana shield (Lvl.8)]


    [Inventory (Lvl.1)]


    Passive:


    [All speak]


    TITLES


    [Champion of the third village]


    [Outworlder]


    [Night Hunter]


    [Ranker]


    Lot of improvements in skills and abilities thought Luke with satisfaction. Unfortunately, that was all that improved. Luke hadn’t managed to level up in the last week, he just hoped Johnny would get to level 15 by the end of the day so they could all go back to the goblin’s den.


    He decided that it was pretty much guaranteed to happen so he went over to the shop to prepare in advance. After he stocked up on health and spirit potions, Luke turned to leave but Maya pawed at him.


    “What?” he asked.


    “I have a very important announcement to make!” she declared.


    “…Alright”


    “You have to call everyone” whined Maya.


    “EVERYONE GET OVER HERE, THE CAT WANTS TO TALK TO YOU!” called Luke, his high stats making him louder than most microphones would.


    Soon, everyone who was still in the village gathered in front of the shop, looking at Maya curiously.


    “Eight days ago, the first trial ended but that wasn’t the end of the games. The date for the second trial has just been confirmed, it will begin at dawn, nine days from now” said Maya, instantly souring the mood.


    “Just been confirmed? Who confirmed it?” asked Luke.


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    “The gods and goddesses, of course” said Maya casually.


    “There are gods?!” exclaimed Emma.


    “Yes, there are gods but I won’t answer any questions about the gods or the next trial. You’ll have to wait for the second trial to end before you get your answers” said Maya.


    As soon as she said that, the crowd erupted into talks and questions. Some of them tried getting Maya to elaborate but she stayed silent just like she said she would. Luke could tell that a panic was setting in so he intervened.


    “Alright, calm down. We already knew there would be more trials, that’s why we’ve spent the last week preparing for them. Now that we have a date, we’ll take our training sessions up a notch and work on tactics more over the next nine days. Just stop worrying, that helps no one” he said.


    The others did indeed calm down and they did so very quickly. Luke was pleasantly surprised, he hadn’t expected the training over the last week to raise their confidence so much. A while later, they had all dispersed, leaving him alone with the cat.


    “Stop right there” she said, right as he was about to leave.


    “What now?”


    “I’m bored so you have to entertain me” demanded Maya.


    “I’ll stay if you tell me about the other villages” decided Luke.


    “Why do you want to know about them?” she asked curiously.


    “It’s important. Are there only two others or more? Are they allies or enemies? I need to plan for these things” muttered Luke.


    “You’re the first to ask me about the other villages” she said thoughtfully.


    “I’m the only one who knows” replied Luke.


    “So how exactly do the other villages relate to us?” he continued.


    “Well I can’t give you any details but they’re not intended to be your enemies” said Maya.


    Her saying that they weren’t “intended to be” enemies and not that they weren’t enemies put Luke on edge. He tried questioning her a bit more but she just gave him a bunch of non-answers. A few minutes later, she shifted the conversation to the best way to cook fish, something they were both very passionate about.


    “You have to deep fry it, a nice fish and chips is the way to go” insisted Luke.


    “That’s too simple. A pan seared salmon and roasted vegetables is a true dinner” said Maya.


    “Uh, what are you doing?” interjected Johnny as he and Matt came up to them.


    “Maya thinks fish and chips isn’t as good as pan seared salmon” said Luke.


    “Cats do have smaller brains” said Matt, making Maya meow in protest.


    “No, I’m with her on this” said Johnny.


    “Wait, did you reach level 15?” asked Luke, before it turned into a four way battle.


    “Yup” answered Johnny proudly.


    “Almost got me killed along the way” muttered Matt.


    “Well, let’s not waste any time. We’ll get Jim and then we’re off to the dungeon” said Luke.


    “You didn’t even say bye!” he heard Maya say as the three of them walked to Jim’s house. Luke shook his head, he would never say bye to someone that didn’t respect fish and chips. Ignoring the cat’s curses, the three of them collected Jim and set off to the goblin’s den.


    Two hours later, the four of them were stood in front of the third chamber. Making their way through the first two chambers had been an easy task, even the fire goblin wasn’t that much of a challenge anymore.


    “We don’t get rewards this time either?!” whined Matt after the new fire goblin had died.


    “Well, it would be really stupid if we got rewards for enemies we’d already killed” muttered Jim.


    “Cheer up Matt, great rewards await us in the next chamber” said Luke.


    “Or a painful death” added Johnny.


    “Woah” said Jim with a surprised expression.


    “Sorry, I’m in a horrible mood today” muttered Johnny as they walked towards the third chamber.


    “As they say, the solution to a bad mood is levelling up!” declared Luke.


    “No one says that, Luke”


    “They do now” he retorted, right before he entered the dark corridor.


    *Entered third chamber of [The Goblin’s Den], chamber level- (Lvl.15+)]*


    Unlike in the other two chambers, the four explorers were attacked almost immediately. Luke was just glad the strange creature crawling around and biting at their legs hadn’t taken a chunk out of his foot when he’d previously stuck it in.


    “This thing is definitely possessed by Satan!” screamed Matt as he kicked it away.


    Luke threw a mana bolt at the strange goblin but it did absolutely nothing to it. It may look weak with its skinny figure and shriveled up skin but it was apparently indestructible. Dozens of attacks struck it but it shook them off with ease.


    The good thing was that the creature’s madness made it so that it wasn’t really focused on attacking them. More than once, it stopped crawling about and started to smash its own head into the ground.


    Luke finally decided to use his strongest attack. He strengthened his “inner fire” as he liked to call it before releasing its power as a bolt of mana. The bright flash of fire sailed through the air, striking the goblin in the head and making it scream loudly.


    Why did I not get any EXP? thought Luke as he saw it drop dead just from that. He waited a few seconds and still got no notification, making him sigh in frustration.


    “Maybe I should have drank the goblin blood” muttered Matt, kicking the shriveled up corpse.


    “My fire isn’t usually this powerful, it just works well against demonic stuff” explained Luke.


    “We don’t know for sure that demons exist” interjected Johnny.


    “That thing was crawling around and frothing at the mouth. Demons definitely exist” said Jim.


    “Alright whatever, let’s going” said Luke.


    Much to his annoyance, Jim and Johnny continued their debate about the existence of demons as they walked deeper into the chamber. He could only hope that they were still paying attention to their surroundings.


    Luckily, they didn’t encounter anymore “demonic entities”. Twenty minutes later, they came to a circular arena that looked identical to the one in the second chamber. The four prepared themselves as they stared into the dark corridor and Luke did a little more than that.


    It feels kinda like that dark entity did he thought, recoiling slightly as he deactivated his spiritual sense. A second later, the creature he sensed charged out of the darkness.


    Luke had vaguely sensed the way it looked but seeing it for real still shocked him. The goblin that had just appeared was the opposite of all the other ones he’d seen. While the other goblins were brutish and disgusting, this one was beautiful, in every sense of the word.


    Her skin was still green but it looked unbelievably smooth and soft. Long white hair, bright red lips and a stunning black dress draped over her perfect figure, it almost made Luke wonder if she was one of the goddesses that Maya talked about.


    Unfortunately, she soon shattered that holy image by twisting her face into a horrible expression and hissing like a rabid animal. The goblin raised her hands and black lightning shot out of her fingertips, racing towards her opponents.


    Great, we have to fight a sith lord thought Luke sarcastically. He didn’t have much trouble dodging the attack but the goblin kept shooting more lightning towards them. For the next few minutes, she kept up the stream of lightning, not allowing anyone to get close to her.


    “How much mana does she have!” cried Matt.


    “Just try and distract her!” Jim called back as he tried to nock an arrow.


    The other three nodded and they all charged towards the goblin from different directions. They ducked, sidestepped and jumped desperately to avoid her lightning fast attacks (literally). The whole time, she didn’t let Jim off the hook and shot attacks at him too.


    Luckily, she wasn’t able to overwhelm him thanks to other three and a few seconds later, Jim was able to release a supercharged arrow at her. At last, she stopped her assault to deal with the new threat.


    Just before the arrow struck her, the goblin raised her hands. The mana Jim used to supercharge the arrow went to waste and simply bounced off an invisible wall created by the goblin. Taking no pity on her shocked opponents, she resumed her attack at once.


    The four of them ran around, desperately avoiding the lightning. Luke almost got struck a few times but soon, it stopped being so overwhelming.


    She’s getting slower thought Luke, glad to see that the goblin did not, in fact, have infinite mana. Motivated by this fact, the four challengers continued their attempts to close the distance with renewed vigor.


    As the battle continued, the gap between her lightning attacks grew larger and larger. Jim had been able to shoot two more arrows at her but unfortunately, she blocked them with the invisible shield.


    Still, the time it took for her to deal with the last arrow was enough for Luke to get within a few feet of the goblin. His sword was already infused with a great amount of mana and he used [Cut] with high expectations.


    Those expectations were soon shattered when the goblin simply raised her hands to bring back the invisible shield. Luke felt like he’d struck an unbreakable wall, he was beyond shocked by the strength of the barrier.


    She didn’t give him any time to react before releasing another stream of black lightning at him. Luke was thrown back over a dozen feet, crashing into the stone floor. The others took a quick look at him to make sure he wasn’t dead and kept attacking the goblin.


    Luke winced as he stood up, the black lightning felt more like a splash of corrosive acid than hot lightning. As he looked towards the others, he saw that the goblin was no longer throwing out lightning and was just hiding in her shield.


    The other three attacked her with all they had but nothing cracked the force field. Luke figured she couldn’t keep it up forever so he charged up a mana bolt just to contribute to her downfall.


    The invisible rod shot towards the goblin’s shield and Luke watched on uninterestedly. He knew it would just bounce off the shield but a second later, a high pitched scream rang out. Everyone watched in shock as the goblin’s gut started bleeding from the mana bolt.


    So your shield doesn’t work on magic…time to burn, bitch thought Luke with a grin.