My opinion was irrelevant. And now all that was left were the goblin warrior, the goblin knight, and Grumpy (the other mount that came as reinforcement was already repelled by Cali, and the wolves still alive escaped).
Considering everything, it doesn't surprise me that everyone has already leveled up at least once, and will level up again after they finish here. Now Connor is level 11, Cali and the twins are level 9, and Anna is level 8.
I can't see how much experience they need to level up, but if I had to guess, I'd say Cali is almost level 10 and Connor shouldn't be far from level 12.
Which, by the standards of this world, would put our young archer on the necessary edge to enter the second circle of a knightly order. Basically, putting him on the same level as his master and Kamila, the dungeon's "receptionist."
Of course, there would still be a big difference between them. But for it to take him less than half a year to go from the rank of a stable boy (or squire, if you prefer) to the same level as a second-class knight is quite impressive. Even without fully understanding how things really worked around here.
[In fact, even though Connor doesn't have, as you might say, the "halo of favorable encounters" that protagonists have, or at least not in large quantities, that doesn't change the fact that he has extraordinary potential and impressive dedication.]
'Certainly, I imagine how he'll fare on the other floors, and of course, for the rest of his life.'
Their fights didn't stop while we talked, but not much changed.
Max and Mav continued to pressure the warrior, who in turn opened up more openings for attacks. But he inflicted as much damage on both of them as he received.
Cali and Anna were having difficulty keeping up with the agile white wolf on the "semi-rugged" terrain that the goblins (in this case, me) had built the village on, but the knight also couldn't land definitive hits, no matter how strong his blows were.
And finally, Connor and Grumpy were in a very... dynamic combat?
Grumpy approached with quick, deadly slashes. Connor managed to evade her by retreating or forcing her to stop, firing arrows at specific points on Grumpy's body: shoulder, thigh, foot, torso, etc. But without putting mana into them, not even 1 point, their lethal power wasn't very high (at least not for my hobgoblin boss).
The arrows were either blocked by Grumpy's armor, or he dodged them, or he simply accepted the attack to strike back.
Because of this constant exchange of blows that had already lasted several minutes, they had all already depleted their potion stocks (both authentic and fruit juices), keeping only one or two potions in case of emergency. And fatigue was already accumulating.
Not only them, Andreas and his subordinates in front, Yaou and his group on the left, and on the right almost everyone had already retreated without properly entering the village.
The right side, despite being the most "intact," was also one of the most tired, and therefore retreated soon after "taking" the right side.
On their way back to their base at the River Hut, they saw Andreas's condition and left the less tired or injured to assist.
This allowed Andreas himself to check on Yaou's situation. At the moment, the two of them, along with some subordinates, had moved a little away from the village and were still fighting the shadow bear. But that doesn't matter at the moment.
'After all, no matter how strong they are, Poh is a secret boss. Unless they have the entire Raid group (about 7 or 10 individuals) at least 2 levels below him, he simply won't fall.'
The only way to "win" would be to make him retreat, and there are only 3 ways for that to happen: I order him to do it directly, he feels threatened enough to fear for his life (yes, he's the type that if he's below 5% he'll try to flee, making every effort so far useless, unless he's in Berserk state). And finally, defeat Grumpy.
One thing might seem unrelated to the other, but that's not the case.
I created them so they would have a kind of symbiotic relationship and a defined synergy. Grumpy would offer a portion of his hunt (mostly dead challengers) to Poh, and Poh would answer Grumpy's call when requested.
However, Poh would only respond to Grumpy, not to the goblins. Therefore, when Grumpy "died," the agreement would automatically end and he goes away.
'To make things a little more fun, I also made it so that if Grumpy was about to die and Poh managed to reach him, they would "merge" and form an extremely difficult Raid boss to beat at level 35 in an environment where the challengers would be at most level 15.'
'Speaking of which, Grumpy's current state is…'
[Name: Grumpy
Level: 15
Class: Goblin Chief
HP: 73/120
MP: 21/60]
Hmm, hmm. Almost at the second stage.
'Good luck with what's going to happen soon, Connor. You'll need it.'
****************
Connor's POV
For some reason I felt a chill down my spine, but not from the goblin chief in front of me, it was something... different.
*Zing*
He attacked from above again and I responded with a roll and firing an arrow in a crossbow position that Mr. Andreas had taught me.
I don't know what a crossbow is, but from what Mr. Andreas said it's a type of bow that the Marquis invented in the last war. Strong enough to pierce knight armor up to the 3rd circle without needing to channel Aether, but slow to reload.
'Well, if the soldier could channel Aether into an arrow, he would surely abandon the bow and use a sword, eventually becoming a knight.'
That's why there are almost no Aether users of bows.
Most who use bows are highly eccentric mages or low-ranking knights, who use the bow to compensate for long-range attacks. That's why it was easy for my master to retrain as a hunter after leaving his order.
'Although to this day I wonder how the order he belonged to let him go without major problems. Whenever I asked, he never gave a direct answer.'
*Zing, Bom*
'That's for later, now, concentration!'
Not that I wasn't already concentrating, but since the goblin chief was also getting tired, his attacks were now "easier to dodge," even though I was also getting quite tired.
He advanced with a side slash, and I unsheathed my sword. I dove towards the slash and let my body slide across the ground, my leather pants managing to withstand the abrasion of the ground and not cut my legs.
I painlessly ripped one of the arrows stuck in his torso with one hand, and twisting my body slightly, I made a deep cut in a part of his thigh not protected by armor, near the goblin's waist.
From the resistance I felt, I think I must have chipped his bone, maybe his pelvis, maybe his femur, I don't know. But I know it certainly hurt him quite a bit, considering how much blood gushed from the wound.
Moving behind him, as I slid across the ground, I picked up my bow again and used the [quick shot] skill, firing three arrows in almost instantaneous succession. One hit the back of his knee, another managed to enter the hollow cavity of the hot skull he wore as an ornament on his shoulder, and the last one only grazed his neck.
'Tsk, that was close.'
If he hadn't moved his head, it would have ended there.
With an arrow lodged in the back of his knee, he obviously fell, but he forced his body backward, bringing his sword with him for a strong but predictable cut. I only needed to take a step back to dodge.
Before I could definitively eliminate the source of my nightmares, I again sensed a danger whose origin I didn't know, but I dodged it anyway, moving further away from the fallen leader. In the place where I was, an axe enveloped in red Aether appeared, creating a crater almost my size, even though it was shallow.
The goblin with two axes that Max and Mav were fighting threw one at me and used the other to, I don't know how, rip Max's shield off. Followed by a kick to his torso that sent him flying onto one of the huts.
Even from that distance, I could see that the impact knocked him unconscious; I could also see blood running from his mouth and head. I didn't even think about what to do; before I knew it, I was beside him checking on him.
Luckily, he had only fainted, but the head wound didn't look good at all.
'He must have hit one of the support beams, what bad luck.'
At least he didn't die from the force of the blow or the impact, so I guess we can say it was luck. I was already out of potions or fruits, but luckily he still had two in his pockets, I squeezed them and let the juice go into his mouth.
'As expected from the Trial fruits, even just this juice is enough for first aid.'
I thought, watching the cut on his head stop bleeding.
And what did Mav do during all this...?
*Bang, Whoops, Boommmm*
A blur passed behind me. Just from the sound I could tell that, even if I had looked, I could only see clearly what it was. But I wouldn't even need to see to know it was the two-axed goblin, now without any axe.
Soon after, another blur, almost as fast as the first, appeared.
*Boom*
The goblin, showing great resistance and tenacity, after being sent to the small hill where there was another tent, got up and dodged Mav's visceral attack.
Not stopping when he saw that the thrust, which had buried almost half of his sword in the ground, hadn't worked. He pushed it (still buried) and went after the goblin.
The goblin was no less ferocious; as soon as he moved away a little, he got down on all fours and lunged at Mav. Using his claws, he tried to scratch the swordsman's legs, but only received a kick to the chin in response. Still ferocious, he delivered his own kick, to the knee Mav was supporting himself on.
Mav fell to his knees and the goblin was again sent flying, falling to the ground with a dry thud. But he quickly got up and ran towards Mav.