Jack is holding the goblin at spearpoint, the wolf is acting out but the rider has calmed it down somehow, "What?"

"First question, where did you come from?" Jack is almost entirely certain that they're from the United Goblin Town but needs to make sure.

"Jax sent us down the goblin hidey hole, we walked here" The goblin points towards the grasses they came out of. Jack looks over at the grasses but can't see anything, it's just an extra thick patch of grass.

"Second question, what are you doing here?" Jack looks at the rest of the goblins, they're running away for their lives.

"Jax told us to collect things that can turn evil" the goblin rider doesn't even look at the ones running away, he's too busy stroking the wolf as if Jack isn't holding a spear towards him defusing the situation slightly.

"Tell those guys to stop running otherwise they might get hurt"

The goblin looks at Jack like he's an idiot, "Dem boys are stupid, they're here to earn smart shiney so they won’t listen unless you whip them" the goblin throws a whip toward Jack but it just lands on the ground awkwardly.

Jack looks at the goblin and can see that he's entirely serious, "What's smart shiney?"

"Dunno, Jax goes into the cave and brings it out, you can ask him if you want"

"Why are you telling me so much?"

"Jax said that if we come across someone with dragon power, we need to be respectful"

"What makes you think I have dragon power?"

The goblin sniffs the air for a few moments, "You have the smell of a dragon, you hide it but I can smell it from your spear"

Jack feels awkward now holding the spear so threateningly towards the non-threatening goblin rider, putting the spear by his side he sneakily sniffs the spear a few times but can't smell anything. In the distance, Sleipner can be hear whinnying as some goblin yells are heard, it seems that the horse is taking some of its aggression out on the goblins but neither Jack or the goblin rider care.

Jack looks around the area as he tries to make a decision, it's around noon so the sun is high in the sky leaving no shadows. This place is like the rest of the plains with a few patches of long differently coloured grasses with very few creatures around, the slime is bouncing around in the area but apart from it, the goblins, Sleipner and Jack the area is almost entirely still giving the sense that there's no life here.

"I want to meet Jax, I'll be waiting here for two hours"

The goblin smiles upon hearing this, "Sure I'll go get him" he kicks the wolf and the two run off toward the long grass where they appeared. He can be heard singing a bad song, “The great leader shall give me a reward, what a great leader, what a marvellous leader”

 

The goblin and wolf disappear into the long grasses leaving the goblins here while they’re in the distance yelling and carrying on but Sleipner is having his own fun with them, chasing after them and flipping them into the air which Jack ignores while creeping over to the long grasses, he's curious as to what a 'goblin hidey hole' is.

Jack enters the long grass area and starts to investigate, there doesn't appear to be anything obviously different upon first visual inspection but using his divine sense to investigate the area it uncovers a hole that is covered by two things, a large leaf and some sort of barrier. Standing over the hole, one wouldn't even know there's anything except dirt but kicking at it does produce a very subtle shimmer.

It's not identified as anything by the system but Jack is very curious as to what this is as it can't be created by the goblins, using a tool from the storage ring Jack starts to dig up on the outside of the hole and is rather surprised by what he can see, it looks exactly like a hard clump of dirt with the eye but using the divine sense Jack can actually see that it's a very thick vine, the same type of vine that was used to climb down into that crevasse sometime ago but much larger, able to fit a goblin riding on top of a wolf through it.

 

The vine itself seems very robust, unable to be damaged by the digging tool but upon bringing some dragon fire qi close to it, the vine starts to wriggle away from the fire as if it's afraid. Some more experiments reveal that the vine is indeed alive but the barrier is incredibly strong, unsure if the barrier includes an illusion formation with the defensive barrier but not wanting to actually damage the vine, Jack is forced to settle with these simple experiments.

 

The smaller vines run almost everywhere across the plains area but this is the first time Jack has come across any of them so thick, there might be some meaning behind them but the goblins will know more than Jack at this point and he's about to meet with the goblin leader, Jax giving him the opportunity to do this.

Jack isn't sure what's going to happen during the meeting but he needs to make a few plans, taking another survey of the area Jack identifies a few areas that might have other 'goblin hidey holes' allowing another ambush point, a couple vantage points from the grasses that will allow a goblin to hide and use their bow and all sorts of other things.

The first hour passes by quickly, Jack spent the time clearing up the field of hidden dangers while ignoring Sleipner and the goblins having 'fun' in the distance before he takes a seat in a position able to look over the suspicious spots while he cultivates, circulating the qi within his body he can feel that his meridians are still sore but could maybe support a single fireball without damage. If he doesn't push anything but the qi naturally circulating within his meridians, he can support it appearing outside his body but it can't support anything excess coming from his forehead stars.

Jack's body is cultivating almost automatically as his mind is also analysing the battle he had with the ants, the high speed battle was difficult but has allowed greater insights into using the technique that the visions never provided him with, upon looking back at the visions he received upon using the technique crystal.

The spear technique within the vision that the woman used was beautiful and powerful capable of a single motion but ten thousand strikes, her attacks contained elegance and grace but that's also a problem because Jack isn't able to replicate her technique exactly because he doesn't have the same qi type.

The technique seemed tied to a particular qi causing Jack to be confused as to how he's able to use it so easily but it's just the first two stages for now, they focus mostly on the physical side of things such as the eyes and muscles without pushing qi into the technique itself. The only qi that Jack has used with the technique is related to the explosions produced by the fire spear which provides some explanation.

Thinking back to the visions, the first vision Jack received of the third motion is the woman using the spear technique to attack an evil looking man holding someone at knife point, she holds the spear out like the first two motions but she suddenly jabs out whilst a flower appears from her hand causing a spear made out of flower petal shaped qi to shoot out and stab into the man when a flower ends up blooming upon contact, the man's starts to shrivel up as the flower emits more flower petals into the environment like it’s sucking his life force causing an interesting but a problematic scene for Jack.

 

The last part of this vision seems entirely related to the flower qi cultivation technique and the long range aspect of the attack also seems tied to the flower qi, Jack has a faint feeling about how to replicate the long range aspect of the technique as his focus turns towards the woman’s hand; before the spear leaves her hand, the flower contained within it changes shape into a spear-shaped qi weapon in a split moment before it leaves her hand somehow, the qi weapon might be related to a higher cultivation stage but Jack can replicate creating a small flower within his hand using fire qi.

Jack at first pushes a small amount of fire qi into his hand before trying to shape it, the strangely shaped fire qi within his hand is slowly morphed into a vague single petal shape, a far cry from the beautiful two layered 16-petals lotus looking flower within his vision but Jack doesn't let that get him down as he recalls his qi cultivation technique for Stage 2, and eventually forms two ugly petals made of dragon fire qi.

There's about 30 minutes left for the goblin leader to show up and the young man is feeling impatient so picking up the spear Jack wants to practise holding the two petals within his hand as he uses the first two motions of 'Heavens Piercing Thrust', holding the spear in a ready position Jack looks at a long grass swaying in the wind not too far away and shouts in his mind, 'First motion, breaching the first layer' as he thrusts out the spear toward the swaying grass holding the two ugly petals in his hand.

*SWISH*

The spear pierces through the air quickly and cuts off the end of the grass easily, a faint fire qi also travels down the spear from his hand lighting some of the surrounding grass on fire from the air catching on fire, Jack follows up by shouting in his mind, 'Second motion, if one fails, one thousand shall succeed' as his eyes dart around at all the grasses swaying in the wind.

*SWISH SWISH SWISH*

Jack thrusts out with the spear in a single motion but three sounds can be heard cutting through the air, as 15 of the grasses that are cut down the fire qi yet again travels along the spear from the ugly petals and lights more of the grass on fire but Jack has a smile on his face as he was able to take aim at 15 targets this time. The young man looks at the grass surrounding him as he readies the first motion yet again, a target slightly further away.

*SWISH*

The spear jabs out but lands short of the target but it still catches on fire, Jack uses the second motion and aims at the rest of the grasses with a similar result, the fire is able to jump 20cm regardless of which motion he's using causing him to pause for a moment to consider the result, perhaps if he masters this and forms a proper flower shape within his hand, he'll be able to use the third motion.

He calmly practises this while bringing his body back up to peak condition ready for the goblin leader that should be here soon.

Sleipner is done 'playing' with the goblins and runs up to Jack as if sensing that something is going to happen, the horse lightly nudges Jack with its head stopping him from practising the spear technique, "I hope you're ready" Jack pats the horse slightly to which it responds by loudly snorting by Jacks ear, the scaled horse's horn starts so slightly glow but a painful zap crosses between Jack's ear and the horse.

"Owww, what was that for?" Jack yells out cradling his ear, the horse also shakes its head as if it's trying to shake off the pain.

Suddenly the grasses in the distance start to sway as a kingly pressure fills the area, a small group of goblins appear from the long grasses riding some wolves.

There's three goblins that look like the previous goblin rider's that Jack has encountered and one larger one, he's riding a large wolf that only has one eye emitting a wolf king pressure, Sleipner looks coldly at the wolf while it emits its own kingly pressure that is much stronger as if showing that it has a superior bloodline while the wolf has been tainted by goblin blood.

The wolf angrily glares at the horse as the two have an invisible battle of pressures, Jack is also coldly looking at the goblin sitting atop the wolf, their eye level isn't much different but the goblin is very different to the others as he's larger and has a different colour, brownish grey instead of green.

"I presume you're Jax, where are my kobolds?" Jack coldly and calmly speaks to the goblin, the spear by his side showing that he's ready for anything.

"I presume that you're the Dragon Envoy or maybe Dragon Lord Sir?" Jax responds coldly yet not overbearing, the other goblins aren't saying anything but they're coldly glaring at Jack.

Jack squints his eyes before holding out his hand and creating two fire petals, it's emitting a dragon qi pressure that fills the area, the arrogance of the dragons who consider themselves the king of all beasts and overlord of all creatures.

The goblin leader squints at Jack's hand before his eyes flash a greedy glint for a moment, it's suppressed quickly but Jack was able to sense it causing him to raise his guard and subtly check the surroundings to make sure no one is hiding but finding nothing changed.

"Is that enough proof?" Jack holds the petals out for a few moments before lowering his hand, "Now answer my question, where are my kobolds?"

The other goblins are clearly agitated as some speak out; "Smelly Human", "Show our leader respect", "Dragons should be below goblins", one of them even pulls out a bow but Jax holds up his hand causing the goblins to pause and become quiet. The situation is tense while Jack and Jax look at each other sizing each other up, Jack tightly grips the spear while his senses spread everywhere prepared for anything.

 

"Your kobolds are safe, they are coming through the hidey hole but I want to ask you, do you really care about the useless kobolds?" Jax asks calmly.

 

"It doesn't matter if I care about them or not, they're my people who have submitted to me" Jack takes one last look at the surrounding area not detecting anyone else before looking at all the goblins that showed up, the 3 normal goblins don't look strong and will most likely take a single spear strike, Jack returns to look at the goblin leader, Jax before placing his spear out in a position ready to use.

 

"Are you willing to submit to me?" Jack asks bluntly and calmly; the area goes quiet as not even the wind can be heard as the goblins have anger in their eyes including Jax.

"I won’t submit to anyone weaker than me, I don’t care about your ancient dragon aura or tribulation aura, you need to prove your strength to me!" Jax cracks his knuckles as if indicating that he's ready to fight.

Jack takes a breath as he readies his next movements, quietly pushing his qi into the spear and readying a small explosion as he holds the petal in his other hand increasing the drain on his qi and almost reaching the limit of his hurt meridians, 'Bunny Dash' Jack uses his movement skill not allowing the goblin any time to prepare as he takes aim at the shoulder.

 

Jax coldly closes his eyes before opening them suddenly as a black shimmer in his eyes appears, his shoulder is glowing silvery-black before it spreads down his entire arm coating it in a metal qi as though he can sense where Jack is aiming for.

 

Jack flickers as he disappears from the spot travelling 200 metres to the goblin in two movements, the rest of the wolves react by jumping away but Jax remains stationary as his fist starts to glow black and he punches out, Jack reappears half a step away from the goblin leader while his spear is travelling toward the fist launched by the goblin.

 

Jack's eyes go wide upon seeing the punch almost make contact with the glowing spearhead but the spearhead shifts and realigns itself to the goblin's shoulder, the first motion allowing the spearhead to always make contact with the target.

*BOOOOOM*

A booming sound can be heard as the fist makes contact with the spear shaft but the glowing spearhead easily passed through the goblin's metal qi enhanced skin, Jack is thrown back a hundred metres back from the force of the goblin's punch while the goblin is knocked off the wolf as a second smaller explosion is heard from his shoulder a split moment later, his arm flying off in another direction while Jack is tumbling over the ground coming to a stop after a couple seconds.

Jack's body is shaken up as he wipes some blood from the corner of his mouth, the force was negated by the spear's shaft. He has a smile on his face but knows that if the strike landed on his body, he would have a new hole in it. Pushing himself off the ground Jack looks around the field, the other goblins are scared and rushing toward their leader to make sure that he's still alive, the arm that flew off is burning up from contact with the spear filling the air with a strange odour.

This was caused by the flower petal giving Jack something to think about in the future, it seems like it’ll be a good defensive measure but now isn’t the time to think about that sort of stuff.

Jax sits up from the ground looking at Jack with both respect and fury, holding his shoulder where the arm was located as the other goblins surround him and start to treat the wound, "I'm fine!" Jax shouts causing the goblins to back away, he stands up with difficulty and walks over the Jack with unsteady steps, his nose is twitching while Jack spits out some blood from his mouth.

 

The goblin leader comes before Jack, "I said I'd submit if you're stronger than me, you have proven that you're stronger than me so I shall submit to you" he announces before kneeling before Jack.

 

A prompt comes up, ‘SYSTEM NOTIFICATION – United Goblin Town would like to submit to you, do you accept?’ while a whole host of other notifications also come up announcing that other villages have been created in his territory causing Jack to smirk.