Chapter 13 Goblin Forest

"Thank you for the meal."

Bai Jin closed her hands together in gratitude, having devoured the feast in front of her. It had been a long, long time since she'd felt so content with food and drink.

She would have to repay this kindness with hard work.

Yang Yu was just a newcomer, while she, Bai Jin, had been clumsily working in this field for two years and had a wealth of experience. Even if she was plagued by illness, taking a newcomer through a few tasks would be no problem.

"Cough, cough." A sharp pain came from her chest, and taking advantage of a moment when no one was paying attention, Bai Jin coughed softly. "He's been gone so long, why hasn't he come back yet?"

As she waited a little longer, Bai Jin grew increasingly restless.

She had heard unfavorable rumors about the warrior mentors, and she hoped that Yang Yu hadn't been ensnared by any or taken any shortcuts.

The bill for the meal hadn't been paid yet... if he had slipped away through the back door, she'd have to wash dishes at the adventurer's guild to pay it off. By then, she swore she would truly curse that heartless scoundrel.

Picking up her magic wand, Bai Jin was about to check out the situation when Yang Yu, his face shiny with oil, opened the door to the VIP room and stepped out.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, what could possibly happen? On the contrary, I'm great."

At first, Yang Yu thought that, like in some cult game featuring an island of little girls, there might be some indescribable events. Turned out he worried for nothing.

Andro was just a warrior who adored fitness to the point of madness. Not only did he love working out, but he also wanted to spread the gospel of fitness, hoping everyone would turn into musclebound men immune to any poison.

So his assessment was to listen to a lecture on fitness and master the knowledge points to properly exercise every muscle, to fall in love with fitness, and to shed any unneeded fat.

Yang Yu directly expressed his bewilderment at whatever Andro was teaching. Aside from push-ups and some strange dance, this was considered fitness?

Having played fitness simulators before, Yang Yu found them to be much more effective than Andro's archaic methods, and he had even learned to flirt through them.

After chatting for a while, Andro marveled at Yang Yu's knowledge of fitness, impressed and giving him a thumbs-up in defeat.

Not only did Yang Yu smoothly pass the assessment by using skill points to learn "Horizontal Slash," "Interception," "Sudden Killing Intent," and "Shield Block," but by making an effort on his own, he earned Andro's approval and snagged the "Heroic Spirit" skill for free.

Even when he had bad luck and ended up with a useless general passive skill like "Block" after completing a task, it didn't bother him much.

It was a pity that he didn't learn "Shield Counter" and "Taunt."

The former required 100 skill points, while the latter... Andro said he had never heard of a skill that could provoke others into attacking him.

Yang Yu was shocked.

The most practical skill wasn't widely known?

Were all warriors just brutishly charging into battle? No wonder most of the skills they could learn were combat-oriented, and the defensive skills available were either exorbitantly expensive or utterly useless.

What now? "Taunt" was an important skill for defensive battles, capable of saving the life of a fragile teammate at a critical moment, allowing her to focus on her output.

Yang Yu had to find a way to get his hands on this skill.

It wasn't necessary to formally learn skills; the "Clover Cultivation" skill came after countless times of cultivating clovers. Perhaps by continuously taunting others, he could come to understand "Taunt."

It didn't cost anything, so it was worth a try. If he could master the knack for comprehending skills, it would greatly reduce the consumption of his skill points.

Having made up his mind, Yang Yu decided to figure out how to get "Shield Counter" first, as 100 skill points was a sizable amount. He needed to level up.

"Now that we're full, it's time to get moving!"

After settling the bill, Yang Yu led Bai Jin to the task board, which was plastered with all kinds of tasks, big and small.

At a glance, he immediately had his eye on a particular task.

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The unlimited hunting task was perfect for leveling up.

Around this task, Yang Yu also took on quite a few side tasks, doing whatever he could along the way, which was one of the fastest methods to level up.

After taking the tasks, Yang Yu updated his equipment.

As someone from Africa, Yang Yu never counted on looting anything good from monsters. The tools he used for strategizing were either available for purchase in shops or could be acquired through relentless effort.

The small handheld shield added a lot of defense without impacting speed and was cost-effective, making it an excellent choice for adventurers; Yang Yu liked it very much.

Besides for himself, Yang Yu also equipped Bai Jin.

"Is it really okay for me to have this?"

Bai Jin looked at the white pendant in her hand, uncertain if she should accept the gift.

The item was named Heart of White Dew and priced at 1100G; such equipment would require the killing of at least 22 goblins to afford, and Yang Yu had casually given it to her.

"It will help you in battle, don't fail at the critical moment."

The Heart of White Dew was the best mana-recovery equipment Yang Yu could find, increasing the MP limit by 100 points, and regenerating two points every five seconds, which was twenty-four points a minute, rounding up to a billion.

Although 1100G was not cheap, Bai Jin was the main source of damage during early-stage monster farming and leveling, so the investment was necessary.

After spending some time getting used to the feel of the new equipment, Yang Yu set off for Goblin Forest with Bai Jin.

Priests were scarce, and with a newbie monster tamer and a curse mage who looked rather unreliable in the party, it was even harder to recruit a priest.

Aware of this, Yang Yu didn't bother posting a recruitment notice for a priest, as it would be a waste of time. In the early stages, monsters didn't cause much damage, and priests often stood idle; it was better to wait until the mid to late stages when reputation and charm had increased to recruit a high-level priest.

There was another reason for not recruiting a priest early on; using his extensive fitness knowledge, Yang Yu had won over the fitness coach—ah, spit, the newbie warrior mentor Andro, and scored a free "Heroic Spirit."

With this skill activated, allies within a three-meter radius of oneself would recover three percent of the damage they dealt, so there was no worry about losing too much health in the early stages. After all, how could initial-level creatures like goblins keep kiting one to death?

After walking for a while, Yang Yu found signs of a used campfire in the forest, with no other lingering traces. Upon closer inspection, there were only some charred branches and animal bones, and a few specks of spices.

Many branches nearby were missing, as if someone had been hungry and decided to barbecue right there.

Yang Yu's instincts told him that this was not simple; the gnawed animal bones clearly showed signs of having been nibbled by sharp teeth, and the silence around him was eerie as if it were a trap.

The leaves rustled, and suddenly, numerous stone axes whooshed through the air.

"Get behind me!" he commanded, raising his shield in front of Bai Jin, "Interception!"

A glow from Yang Yu's shield extended outwards, forming a protective light shield around him, which deflected all the incoming stone axes.

"Come out!"

Yang Yu looked toward the treetops as leaves rustled, and one by one, ugly, long-nosed, pointy-eared green-skinned creatures jumped from the canopy, picking up their fallen axes and eyeing the light-skinned humans with piercing laughter.

Yes, they were laughing.

Twenty against two, a clear numerical advantage. How could you lose when fighting a dragon head-on?

Everything was just as that person said, arrogant humans had not understood the greatness of goblins, who at first would enter in just a few teams before fighting on their own; by banding together, it would be easy to capture them.

Despair! Wail! A team of only two people couldn't possibly do anything!

That should have been the case, but the Yang Yu in the goblins' eyes showed no sign of panic, leisurely drawing his sword, and giving a sly smile.

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