The Level 32 Hobgoblin Spearman marched with his army in a steady rhythm. He was tasked by Goblin Shaman Groque to kill a couple of humans who had challenged the authority of the goblins. If he failed the task, he would earn the displeasure of their leader, which by no means was something he wanted to happen.

Suddenly, he saw a white blur coming his way. He instinctively raised his spear, and it appeared.

It was Bi Yuan, the little bunny, brandishing her Fork of Perforation imbued with Sacred Ash.

The HobGoblin felt the scorching sensation of divine power and was mortified to learn that he was no match for it. He had thrust his spear with all he had, trying to counter-attack the assailant, however, he was overwhelmed.

Bi yuan landed lightly on the ground as the HobGoblin exploded with his flesh and guts raining down on them. 

The price of her brave attack was being stuck in the middle of the enemy formation, and the loss of more than half of her health points.

[Bi Yuan | Vitality: 47%]

The goblins surrounding her attacked at once. Goblin Soldiers who wore leather armor and wielded their spears thrust their weapons at her. Bi Yuan dodged them nimbly, but a few still managed to graze her. 

Bi Yuam single-mindedly focused on killing as much as she could. She used Spirit Shackle on a Goblin Archer and proceeded to stab the monster in the heart. She deployed as many skills as she could and killed as many as she could. Shortly after, more than half of the elite goblins were killed, and with the death of their leader, the whole goblin army had fallen into confusion.

Though no matter how many Bi Yuan killed, it was inevitable that she would not survive this. Because of her decreasing vitality and the too numerous opponents, she was burdened with all sorts of debuffs from being bled, fractured, and crippled.

Finally, the little bunny was overwhelmed by the assault of the goblins and as she was in the middle of their formation, it was suffice to say that Bi Yuanj had surpassed all expectations considering the damage she had inflicted.

[Bi Yuan | Vitality: 0%]

[GAME OVER]

~~~

Nee Chen watched the little bunny's heroic might, and it was now put to him and Xiang Ya to finish the quest in one go. With his sword in his hands, he slew the goblins in front of him. Thanks to Xiang Ya's pain nullification, Nee Chen had become braver in fighting as even pain was no longer an issue to him.

His sword created a flash of silver as it decapitated, dismembered, and diced every goblin that dared cross his path.

Xiang Ya was similarly putting her all despite this being the first time she had to be exposed to this many enemies. She relied on her own Pain Nullification to fearlessly charge beside Nee Chen so that she could offer every healing that the warrior would need. Nee Chen similarly reciprocated the gesture by covering Xiang Ya as best as he could. It was basic knowledge after all for players to always protect the healer.

The goblins fearlessly swarmed at the duo, however, with Nee Chen's lead, he kited the weaker goblins to him, and away from the stronger goblins in the rear.

"There were too many of them..."  Xiang Ya quickly felt the exhaustion. It was mental exhaustion, and something her Heal spell, and Pain Nullification spell could not do as these spells were generally meant to alleviate physical fatigue. "HAH!" She spiritedly shouted as she punched and swung her mace.

The mace in Xiang Ya's hand was a weapon she picked up from a dead goblin, and it was quite effective in her hand

Nee Chen had shown his consideration for Xiang Ya by giving her as much breathing space as possible. "Ya, get used to it fast. I reckoned this kind of battle in the future would be more frequent." Despite the momentum of the enemies, Nee Chen still had the leeway to talk to her. This showed how reliable Nee Chen was.

This was the result of the accumulation of his combined deaths and his experiences of repeatedly throwing himself into reckless situations

Among the players, the most daring was definitely Nee Chen. For Heaven's sake, he stabbed himself just to check if he could resurrect!

Xiang Ya grinned. "I leveled up."

Ping!

[Xiang Ya | Lady Luck | Level 30]

For players, every major increase in rank such as from 1st stage to 2nd stage would render them an additional skill slot. Parallel to this, level-ups also offered rewards. An additional level-up for players meant an increase in Attribute Points, and a number of Skill Points.

"I could upgrade Heal to give more justice in healing, but Chen, if you could trust me, I'd like to upgrade Barrier instead." Xiang Ya shouted in the heat of the battle. She swung her mace sideward at a goblin from her right and followed with a kick to another goblin who dared to lunge from her left.

Attribute Points or AP had a single use, and that was to invest points to different attributes such as Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Charm, Constitution, and Wisdom.

Meanwhile.

Skill Points or SP had two uses. The first usage of SP was to buy a skill to fill up the skill slot. And the second was to spend SP on upgrading skills.

"I trust you, Ya! Whatever you were planning to do, do it!"

Xiang Ya killed all of her emotions at once. She spent all of her AP on wisdom which influenced qi recovery and mental defense. Finally, she upgraded her 'Barrier' spell to 'Barrier II' which had the additional effect of repelling foreign objects.

There were many options for an upgrade, but Xiang Ya chose this among the many options for a good reason.

"Chen, I'd like to focus on healing and micromanagement so I apologized." With one swift motion, she discarded her mace and jumped on Nee Chen's back. She clipped her legs on Nee Chen's waist and hugged his neck from behind. She pushed her weight upwards, careful not to strangle her companion.

"Ya? W-what were you doing?" Nee Chen was flustered.

"Less talking, more killing." Xiang Ya demanded, and so Nee Chen had committed to slaying the goblins.

There was a game mechanic that a player could regenerate their qi faster if they were not moving, and Xiang Ya had taken full advantage of this by riding on Nee Chen. Nee Chen swung his sword with more ease as the space he needed to take more control had become less with Xiang Ya on his back.

Xiang Ya hugged Nee Chen tighter causing the latter to blush, but he was too busy that he just went on swinging his sword regardless of the distraction. The more Nee Chen swung his sword, the clearer the sensation of Xiang Ya's bosom behind him.

Meanwhile, with a single-minded focus, Xiang Ya provided Heal spells to Nee Chen, and then there was the occasional Barrier II spell.

The Barrier II spell offered defense to the player, and the option that Xiang Ya chose to upgrade this spell was that it would repel foreign objects. Covered by Barier II, the projectile weapons that the goblins were using were rendered useless. Arrows or pebbles could hardly penetrate the barrier that encased Nee Chen and Xiang Ya.

The most impressive was that the Barrier II was a spell specifically used on a single target, meaning that Nee Chen and Xiang Ya could stand on one another, while the Barrier II was in effect, thus superimposing two barriers into one! This would have a bugged effect on the defenses given by the spell to be multiplied by twofold.

"Tackle them!" Xiang Ya shouted while pointing at two adjacent elite goblins who were level 25 and level 27. 

Nee Chen did as Xiang Ya instructed. He ran to two goblins in front of him. Xiang Ya had cast Barrier II simultaneously on the two goblins.

When Nee Chen tackled them, the two goblins were sent flying away in an arch with little effort. The reason for this was when their barriers collided, the repelling force was multiplied several folds and the one with lighter weight would be flung away.

"Xiang Ya... How did you know all of this?" Nee Chen was sincerely surprised.

"It was... theoretical at first, but it looked like it worked." Xiang Ya embraced Nee Chen tighter as her confidence grew with this battle. "Let's go fight more!" At this moment, Xiang Ya's talent was budding, and her understanding of skills had been fully showcased.

The Goblin Menace was slowly fragmenting to pieces as more than three-quarters of their force was annihilated.