-You must be my companions that know the location of the incident, right? my name is Grace and I am the strongest adventurer here  (Grace)

Grace made a pose trying to show how great she was but apparently, she forgot that she had her hooded mantle still on so we could not see anything.

I just wanted to see if her claims were true, and they were, for the most part... I mean she is level 89 and had more base strength and more bosted defense than my own base, anyway, she also has [swordsmanship] level 3, an affinity for light and earth magic, and [magic control] of level 2, also [shield control] level 3, and also[bow mastery] level 1, and finally [instinct] level 2.

but what was the most interesting was this:

-nice to meet you Grace, my name is Blake and this one behind me is Luna, shall we depart now? (Blake)

with that, we three went into the smaller secondary gate showed the permit, and headed out of the city.

---

3 hours must have passed, but there was little chatting in between us. mainly about our weapons and tactics and how we normally worked in a group. but then we got to the crater I left the other day on the goblin camp... but I am not gonna say that out loud now.

in any case, when we got there I saw the carnage that I made, the dried green goblin blood was everywhere and all the simple structures were in ruins, but still, we separated and investigated the area and I found something that almost made me laugh, you see I found a single goblin's corpse that was not dismembered or with signs of impalement, but it had something interesting, well... lack thereof... it didn't have a face, but it did have a seam along the sides which made me think of the goblin's head that I kicked the other day, head that somehow must have hit this guy and fused both heads together, I found it kind of hilarious.

I also went to the crater and I found my sword that... let's face it, it's a katana imitation, why an imitation you ask? it's because a katana has way more things like for example the steel that I used, was low-quality normal steel and a katana uses tamahagane, or that you have to use a clay mixture to coat a section of the blade so that it gets a differential tempering ³The proses of heat treating just a section of a blade while the other does not get treated and don't get me started to the handle.

I also found Luna's polearm thrown on the side close by, both weapons were in really bad condition they had their blades nicked, all because of the quality of the metal and the fact that we were cutting bones, I quickly store them on my inventory and moved out of the hole that it must have been about 4∼5 meters radius and about 2 meters deep.

Grace and Luna and I got together after investigating and found no signs of any recent activity aside from the one that indicated the escape direction, we moved in that direction and after a while, we started to make a simple camp to take a rest before continuing, I also sent my scouts ahead to find the goblins signs.

once the camp was completed I took out the polearm and my sword to make some much-needed repairs and maintenance but what I could do was minimal, and while I was at it.

-Grace... we are supposed to signal the goblins location so that they get blown up, right?  how are we supposed to do that? (Blake)

-you were not told? mmm... you see, I have light magic affinity, I can use it to make a bright light that can only be visible by me or the one that I want to signal, we will use that to mark the location. (Grace)

-ask her about her magic been rare I am sure that she will say something about her title (system)

-I see, light affinity isn't it supposed to be really rare and hard to use? (Blake)

-yes it is, that's why I was taken to the temple and later nearly became a paladin (Grace)

-nearly? (Blake)

-...I can't talk much about it... mmm tell you what if you manage to defeat me in a spar, I will tell you everything, but you don't look too strong to me.

-fine, but after we finish the quest (Blake)

I finished with the weapons and gave luna hers, I also stealthily consumed some meat that I had on reserve just in case about 100 kg to have a safety margin, after all my scouts found what we came here to exterminate about 15km ahead there was a part of a mountain range and in a hidden place was a rather big goblin's village, but that was not all in the back of the village in the side of the mountain there was a cave with goblin knights as guards.

for the time being, I ignore it, I have to keep my instincts in check because if I don't... I could go on a rampage again, but kept a mental note on where it was, and waited a bit, then we undid our little camp, and continued advancing following the trail when we were closer to the village about 2 km, goblin patrols started to appear which we dispatched pretty quickly while moving forward.

once we got close to about 200 meters of the village we got into an overwatch position to get a visual over the trees to then get confirmation of the location, to which Grace chant something along the lines of "o light of the day signal my ally of what I need" I could feel the mana gathering on her palm forming a shining sphere that got invisible a second later.

neither my scouts nor my radar/map combo found any captured females that we might have to rescue so I didn't stop her.

then the feel of the mana moved right into the middle of the goblin village, then it went into the sky to then get released in a sort of explosion.

how do I feel the mana you ask? because I can feed on it that's why... well... on natural and the affinity that I have but that's beside the point.

well after some minutes, I felt a tremendous amount of mana coming in this direction and when I looked, I saw what could be described as a literal wall of fire but if you looked closely it was a large amount of fire like lances coming down on the goblins village when it hit it shock the earth and the village was no more, but then, another barrage came but far more condensed and entered right into the cave hole making an even bigger shock wave and pillar of fire but surprisingly the cave did not collapse... impressive.

but what was even more impressive was that second volley, condensing them into such a small formation to hit right into the cave entrance is really impressive, I wonder how they did it...

---

POV change

"well... our MC will learn this later... maybe, but I will tell you how they did it"

 

 

inside the airship, the captain, was cursing at the air because of his luck. 

he was seated on a comfy seat with his head resting on the hand which was on the armrest right in the middle of the bridge but he was not happy, he was not happy when his superior informed him of an emergency scouting mission but he put up with it, and did it anyway, as his duty to his empire, but then when they got to the designated area a massive explosion was located some distance away which caused his men to become worried so he reported it to his empire by magic coms, he was not happy.

but then the city officials came with information of a possible goblin settlement and under the "international anti-monster treaty" they had to provide assistance, so they scrambled their long-range scout mages to start the search.

but then in the afternoon of the day after he was informed by the adventurers guild's officials about concerning information about that explosion and the goblins, and they were asked to provide aerial bombardment on the goblin's settlement to which he had to comply so he had moved his ship closer to the area of the explosion following the adventurers scouting party and was now waiting for the signal that will indicate the location.

-haaaa..... this was supposed to be an easy scouting mission... (captan)

he should have been in his home with his beautiful wife and daughter resting because today was supposed to be the start of his 7-day vacation... he wasn't a noble but thanks to his achievements in the past war he skyrocketed through the ranks and became a captain of his own vessel.

-I'm going to trade some favors after this for more vacation days... my daughter... I miss you... /whisper/(captan)

-Captan!! the signal has been confirmed!! (look-out)

-location confirmed goblin settlement sighted! cave system confirmed! (scout mage)

-we are making the calculations now, ready on your signal captan *Salute* (mage leader)

the captain smiled, stood from his seat, saw the mage gunner teams reading their wands out on the deck, and said.

-burn them to the ground!!! then flush them out of their hole !!!! (captan)

-AYE AYE!! Captan!!

then the bridge became noisy and the mages outside again chanting.

a few seconds later a wall of flame lances went into the direction of the settlement burning everything to the ground.

then a mage made a force concentration formation in the sky, this formation receives during 10 seconds all incoming magical attacks and then compresses all the spells that pass through it into a single formation increasing destructive power and precision.

then another barrage of fire lances was let loose into the formation then came out compressed and when it hit we saw a sizable pillar of fire coming out of the cave.

I gave the order to stop firing and to return, I doubt that a goblin king managed to survive that, and even if he did he will die shortly after all my mages are all really competent level 150s but now they deserve some rest, under combat, it would be another story and they would need MP potions but in this situation, we can relax a bit before going back to our mission.

---

pov change MC

we observed the burning remains of the village and as we saw no movement, we moved closer.

I also noticed a few levels up just some 35 extra levels, for luna, it was only 13, and it was only 4 for grace

-I moved some of the XP that went into the mages to your party (system)

-you can do that? that's impressive on its own (Blake)

-appreciate more master, but I do this only for you master, and remember you still owe me a name (system)

-yes, I know, I just want a name that really fits you (Blake)

we got pretty close to the now burning village and we searched for any survivors but found nothing, I have my radar/map combo and I saw some dots disappearing slowly inside the cave so I kept my guard up, just in case, but our quest was only to mark the location so we decided to move back into the city.

but nothing is as easy as that isn't it?

I expected this to some extent but... someone raised the flag ...right?

why do I say that? ...well... because after a minute of walking back we heard a roar from... you guessed it, the cave, the only red dot that remains is the one from the goblin king that's running out of the cave.

I just turned around and unsheathed my sword, luna wielded her polearm and grace unsheathed her sword and shield.

then it came out something that was about 2 and a half meters high and had a lot of muscles and was one of the ugliest son of a bitch that you can't find, its face was disfigured, burned, cut... its body was burned all over and it was breathing heavily and was carrying a black sword of about 2 meters, luckily it hadn't seen us yet.

-Grace, Luna we need to get the hell out of here, I don't think that we can take it on, even when it is that wounded we better go back and...(Blake)

-It's wounded let's go kill it!! (Grace)

and she took off headed straight to the wounded goblin king which looked at her and started running albeit slowly but with the intent to kill.

I just stood dumbfounded for a second before moving to help that idiot, luna followed me closely.

but before we could help grace was sent flying by a swing of that massive sword and landed right on a tree right beside me, thankfully she blocked it with her shield so she didn't get cleaved in too, but she was disoriented.

-FOR FUCKS SAKE, WHAT DID I JUST SAY!!! (Blake)

Grace was about to lose consciousness but she clung to it with all her might.

-Luna cover her, I'll take care of this (Blake)

Luna went towards Grace and took out a bottle from one of Grace's pouches, I am guessing that it is a health potion. and made Grace drink it.

-HE is on a berserker state ⁴lowers INT and DEX while increasing STR you know? (system)

I say nothing in return while I run towards the goblin king which tried and failed to connect a swing of his massive sword, I slide under his sword and jumped behind him before it hit him and made a cut albeit small right behind his knee, this is only possible thanks to the level of damage that he has, I don't use my tentacles due to the fact that Grace is still conscious to some extent and tentacles don't have the best of reputations.

sadly the cut wasn't deep enough and didn't do what I needed that was to make him fall... how tough his skin is? tho I can't say much, I can turn myself into any type of metal that I have on hand.

the goblin king swung his sword again trying to cut me in half again but I dodged behind, but then he saw in the corner of his vision Luna finishing with Grace and started to run in that direction and I gave chase

-Fuck!! Luna!!! watch out!!! (Blake)

While I said that I changed the armor that luna had into a metal one, she doesn't have a high enough defense to resist a hit.

Luna noticed and run to face the goblin king but instead of taking the hit head-on she tried to parry it... that would have worked if she was parrying the sword...

*SLAP*

what she got hit by was the open palm of the goblin king sending her flying.

 then he started running towards Grace but then the goblin king fell on his head.

then was pulled back by his leg and risen in the air like he weighed nothing right at the height of my head.

 he, annoyed, looked Into my eyes.

MY cold and dead eyes and he froze by fear.

he knew instinctually that he was finished.

-no one... (Blake)

*SLASH* *BREAK*

I swung my sword at his head breaking it at the middle.

-can SLAP...(Blake)

for more tentacles covered in metal scales shot out of my back piercing the upper chest and lower abdomen of the goblin king and rising him over my head.

the goblin king was squirming around and swinging his sword trying to get free.

my hands changed to metal claws that pierced his chest.

-...LUNA... EXCEPT FOR ME!!!!! (Blake)

then I rip the goblin king in two.

then only when the two parts fell to my sides and a giant magic stone fell in front of me I calmed down

then I stored the stone in my inventory and absorbed the body of the goblin king then retracted my tentacles, pick up his sword, then my broken sword, and threw them in my inventory.

I know that Luna is alive, she is now unconscious but pretty beat up, and Grace is against a tree and also unconscious.

I looked into the night sky.

-*Sigh*... Fuck...(Blake)

I cloned myself, one went to investigate the now empty and hot cave for something that might be useful, the other went to puck up grace, and I went to pick up Luna to then make a camp so that they can rest.

When my clone picked up Grace and her hood fell off, I could not help but be mesmerized by a nicely proportioned face with relatively long red hair.

I could feel my instincts trying to take over again, trying to tempt me into fuking her mind empty.

but I must not...

...at least not now...

I left them beside a tree while I made a simple tent with some hide from my inventory and some wood from the surrounding

when it was finished I placed the black bear pelt on the ground to work as a cover then threw other hides inside to work as a blanket.

then I placed luna inside then I removed the armor from Grace and noticed a really toned body that... was just tempting me, but I resisted it and left her armor beside her and placed her on the improvised bed inside the tent.

 

I left the two inside the tent and went to a clearing and started looking into the night sky and remembered... that this was the last night I had paid on the inn.

-fuck... there goes my money (Blake)

then I seated in a meditation position and did as I was once told and started to gather my mana into myself.

world note: Damage system: the damage is calculated taking into consideration the STR/or mana amount + weapon/spell damage Damage + buffs if the result is over the enemy DEF it deals damage to the HP if it is lower it strikes directly at the DEF temporarily lowering it (it restores after a while) if it is a boosted defense then the object that it is boosting receives damage.