Chronicles of the True Wizard

Felix skulked back into the forest and out of sight then wrapped around to the front of the structure. Remaining behind the trees but close enough that the guards or any scouts would be able to see smoke, he piled the largest pile of leaves he could find. Then he lit the pile and quickly walked back and hid behind a tree.

As he had hoped, one of the guards on duty left to check the smoke while the other stood guard. As soon as the guard walked out of sight of the other Felix stepped out from behind a tree and hit the goblin with a modified Fire Blast in the back. This one had the fire minimized but the out ring size and thickness increased. The spell, from this close, launched the goblin forwards a few meters into the bonfire.

The goblin screeched as it quickly burned to death.

Ding You have slain [E - Common] Goblin Warrior (Lvl 15)

Ding You have gained 2 levels in [E - Common] Caster

As soon as the first goblin started screeching, the other guard immediately ran from his post to check out the commotion as well. As soon as he saw the goblin corpse in the fire he started laughing at it.

That makes me feel better about killing you, asshole. Thanks.

Felix hit this goblin with the exact same modified Fire Blast as the first. The goblin warrior fell into the fire and screeched just the same as the last.

Ding You have slain [E - Common] Goblin Warrior (Lvl 15)

Ding You have gained a level in [E - Common] Caster

Shortly after this goblin screeched, Felix peeked out from behind a tree and watched as three more goblin warriors exited the building. Two of them left to figure out what was going on as the other one stayed behind and guarded the door. The fire raged on behind Felix as they approached. A fire fueled by a pile of leaves and twigs does not burn long enough for all of the goblins to be burned in it, but Felix planned ahead. He gathered five piles nearby just in case, then just after the first burned alive he refueled the fire using one of his spare piles. He did the same after the second but used two piles this time to buy time for the goblins to exit the building.

The two goblin warriors walked right up to the fire just as the other ones had before. Felix popped out and shot one of them into the fire then ran as the other one searched for what happened. He spotted Felix and chased him around the fire. He was not very fast at all though. Felix charged up another of the same modified Fire Blast then slowed down and ran closer to the fire. The goblin chased him and, as planned, ran close enough to the fire that Felix's fire spell launched the goblin into the fire.

Wow, I REALLY over thought this. They are mentally and physically slow.

Felix walked back to his vantage point after refueling his bonfire to see what the other goblins were up to. What he saw was, no goblins at all. They had all turtled inside.

Ding You have slain 2 [E - Common] Goblin Warrior (Lvl 15)

Ding You have gained a level in [E - Common] Caster

Shit, well at least I got four of them. There is no way their archer's aren't just waiting now, right?

Felix walked through the trees back to the goblin outpost, hidden behind the last tree between him and the outpost. He pulled out the remaining meat from the skinned fox corpse and put a hat on it, then he stabbed that with his great sword. He slowly moved the corpse out from behind the tree using the great sword. As soon as the corpse was six inches out the great sword flew out of Felix's hand. Looking towards where it landed, he saw 5 arrows stuck in the skinned fox corpse all within an inch of each other.

So they make up for everything else with insane dexterity, got it. Five shots means likely five archers and there were five warriors with one left now. There could be more of either but that seems unlikely because it would too difficult for this dungeon, I hope. There could also be other types of goblins. I really hope there aren't any goblin assassins. What to do now. If I show any part of myself I get hit instantly by a handful of arrows. Actually, their perception must be pretty bad if they shot that, if I gamble on their only being five I could pull the same trick then I have a small window while they reload.

First things first, I need to be able to see them without them seeing me, I need a mirror. Next I can pick them off through the arrow slits as they try to hit me. Is my aim good enough to pick them off? Definitely not, at least, not without hours of trying. Could be good practice though. I could also try to bait them to fire through all their arrows but for all I know they have thousands stocked. Alright new plan, I take out the warrior then try to get them out from behind the arrow slits.

Felix ran back into the forest, away from the outpost and collected as many leaves and twigs as he could and stowed all them in his inventory. Then he ran back to his tree, retrieved his great sword hat and skinless corpse, then pulled out a boar corpse. He hung the corpse out from the tree and braced himself to hold it. Once again five arrows fired from the top floor of the outpost. Felix held the corpse steady and waited, three seconds passed and then five more arrows fired.

Now that he knew the timing between reloads, Felix pulled the corpse back behind the tree. He readied himself then stuck the corpse out and immediately five arrows thunked into it. He quickly jumped out from behind the tree and ran, after two seconds he pulled the boar's corpse out and crouched underneath it. Five arrows thunked into the corpse just over Felix's head. He stowed the corpse and speed walked towards the tower as fast as he could.

He shielded himself with corpses and ran, switching every three seconds or so until he made it to the door. The archers couldn't hit him from this angle thankfully. As expected the door was barred in some way. Felix prepared the spell construct for the same modified Fire Blast he used to push the goblin warriors into the bonfire and positioned it right behind the door. He stepped aside then pumped mana into the spell to try and push back whatever was barring the door. He heard a crash then pushed against the door and found it give an inch before being pushed back. He prepared another of the same spell and fired it blasting the last goblin warrior, trying to hold the door, back into the room. Felix shoved into the room and stabbed a dagger into the warriors throat.

Ding You have slain a [E - Common] Goblin Warrior (Lvl 15)

At this point Felix knew there were two things that could happen, the archers or someone else could come down and charge him or fire at him from the ladder opening at the center of the room. The other option was what ended up happening, no one came for him, they were going to wait for him on their floor. Unluckily for them, he was never going up there. Felix pulled out all the leaves and twigs he had stored in his inventory and piled them together. He had collected enough to fill most of the empty space in this room thanks to his inventory. The rest of the room was empty so Felix didn't have to worry about anything valuable burning. He lit the bonfire then walked outside, hugging the wall, and barred the door using biggest thing in his inventory, the giant toad corpse. He stood next to the corpse and kept his hand on it.

Felix looked up to the sky and watched. After almost five minutes smoke began pouring out of the arrow slits on the top floor. After ten minutes Felix was slightly worried. There was evidently no chimney as the smoke only poured out of the arrow slits and seeped through the cracks here and there in the building. After another few minutes, Felix heard banging on the door he had barred. Five minutes later, Felix got the notifications he was waiting for.

Ding You have slain 5 [E - Common] Goblin Archer (Lvl 17)

Ding You have gained 2 levels in [E - Common] Caster

Felix waited for the round end notification but, after a few minutes, nothing came. He stowed the toad corpse in his inventory and waited. When no one came out of the building he realized he would have to go back in and find them.

Whoever is left managed to survive, they're either smarter or just luckier. Also possible there is no one left in there and the rest of the round is elsewhere in the forest. That seems unlikely though considering my last run of this dungeon. I don't want to just go in there without knowing where they are because they could just ambush me coming through a doorway. The least I should do is wait for the smoke to dissipate.

Felix left the corpse just in case and sat down to meditate. He hadn't taken any damage thus far but he had expended some energy and a lot of mana, he might as well be as prepared as he could be.

After half an hour or so, the smoke had mostly cleared and his mana was fully replenished thanks to a battery. There was barely any smoke pouring out of the arrow slits anymore so Felix hoped that he would be able to see and breathe at least somewhat. He stood up and stowed the toad corpse back in his inventory.

Felix opened the door to the outpost and peered inside. The room was filled with ash and a grey haze. It wasn't impairing Felix's vision or breathing much so he ventured inside. He prepared a modified Fire Blast to knock someone off their feet figuring it was his safest bet against all kinds of enemies at melee range and carefully climbed to the second floor. The haze got slightly worse but the effects were still negligible. This floor was laid out with what appeared to be tables and chairs. The furniture was too small to be used by anything but small children, or goblins, but Felix still stowed them in his inventory, as he figured he might as well.

On the next floor there were multiple beds of a similarly miniature size as the furniture from the previous floor. There were eleven beds total with five on one side, five on another and one, bigger than the others, separated and off to the side.

If I killed five warriors, five archers then the last one probably belongs to this bigger bed. Must be the leader then, likely the strongest one. Please don't be an assassin.

Felix took all the beds and continued onwards to the next floor. The fourth floor was the first one with arrow slits around the room. There were three archer corpses in this room and one warrior. He stowed them and their weapons, which lay strewn around them, in his inventory. The equipment was likely too small for anyone to use, but he didn't want them to go to waste. Given there was only one more floor, Felix double checked the spell he had prepared, pulled out two daggers just in case, and carefully climbed to the next floor.

The smoke was immediately thicker making it hard to see through and started to burn Felix's lungs. He could only see a few feet in front of him as he walked around, dagger and spell at the ready. As he skulked around he quickly noticed the smoke grew much thicker in one direction. As soon as he noticed this, he also noticed a slight breeze in the room, he walked in the direction of the breeze. Suddenly, the smoke completely dissipated as Felix walked into what felt like a storm.

[E - Common] Goblin Shaman (Lvl 20)

Sitting on the floor in front of Felix sat a Goblin wearing a hide loin cloth and bearing tattoos covering the majority of their diminutive body. They lay on the ground with their legs raised vertically against the wall. Felix could also sense them pumping mana into a spell form hovering just above them. At first Felix flinched and almost dodged to the side preemptively, but then he realized they were constantly and consistently pumping mana into the spell form.

They are channeling the spell, that is so cool. I'm kind of annoyed I didn't think of trying that with my spells. I could make a Flame Thrower or a Mana Bolt turret, maybe, or it would just make a giant dart or something. Also, are they meditating? I guess different cultures? Is the logic that the blood leaves the legs and rushes to the brain?

Felix's mana senses are not quite good enough to be able to read the exact spell form from a spell being cast. He saw parts of the spell form but the finer details were initially unclear. Given the goblin Shaman didn't notice him yet, he spent a few moments focusing on the spell form in an attempt to mentally record it. After a few minutes, he could see it clearly enough that he could likely reconstruct the general form then figure it out from there. Luckily this spell appeared to be fairly simple, if it was complicated or had really minute details, he wouldn't have been able to read them at all. He was not well versed enough in spell forms to be able to tell what the spell did just from the spell form, maybe one day he could, but for now, Felix had a good guess based on the situation.

Well I feel bad just killing them like this, but they are higher level than me and I don't want to try fighting them honorably. Oh well. Maybe they will have the Gust spell book on them.

Daggers in hand, Felix walked right up to the Shaman and sunk knives into their neck. Their eyes shot open and the spell immediately dissipated. They fumbled their hands around their throat briefly before finally bleeding out with a slight shiver a moment later. . . . . .