Chapter 25: Goblin Camping Ground (1)
TL: Haku
Editor: Stealth
Rukin, who followed the punitive force with his guild members for the Goblin Camping Ground Quest, was incredibly baffled as he looked at the empty entrance of Saumur Canyons.
“What the h.e.l.l, where did all the scouts go?”
His colleagues, Falcon and Millun, were just as baffled.
“No kidding, wasn’t it packed just this morning when we did the ‘Scouts’ Quest’?”
“That’s what I’m saying. The Scouts’ EXP was quite good, too… Did a high-ranker with nothing to do pa.s.s by and wiped the place out of boredom?”
Monsters in a normal hunting ground each had their own regen time, so when that certain time pa.s.sed, the monster formed again in a designated location. However, the Goblin monsters in the Goblin Camping Ground map weren’t like that. Because they were a kind of event monster, it was a system where the Camping Ground Quest needed to be completely finished once and the Chief needed to be killed in order for the Goblins to regen a couple days later.
That’s why Rukin’s party was completely baffled.
“You may not get to level up today even if you go around the place once.”
Truthfully, Falcon and Millun’s main goal wasn’t the Camping Ground Quest. They were users that followed Rukin and came to Saumur Canyon to help Rukin level up, or in other words, take the role of the so-called bus driver[1].
Rukin was lv 34 while Falcon and Millun were in the early lv 50s.
“No kidding… I need to hit lv 35 by today… The Chief Priest Quest is too hard for you guys, right?”
The Chief Priest Quest was a kind of hidden quest. It was a quest that occurred when you went into the tunnel at the rear of the Camping Ground before returning to the vigilante once the Goblin Camping Ground was swept.
“Well, I don’t think it will be that hard. From what I remember, the Goblin Chief Priest’s is around lv 55 and rather than the Chief Priest being strong, it’s difficult because there are a lot of Goblin Warriors in front. It should be easily possible if we pull the Goblin Warriors beforehand while doing the ‘Camping Ground Quest’ and catch them with the vigilantes.”
“That’s right, if we just take care of the Goblin Warriors beforehand, the two of us are enough for the Chief Priest.”
“Really? That’s a relief. I’ll have to fill up my EXP from there at least.”
However, losing the enormous EXP the Scouts gave unsettled his stomach.
“Hmph.”
Rukin licked his lips as though saying he was disappointed and began to move.
“Firstly, let’s go report that there are no Scouts. We need to progress through the quests.”
Rukin nodded his head and responded.
“Alright, let’s go back.”
The trio returned to the captain of the punitive forces, NPC Hugo, and reported the situation.
“Captain of the punitive forces, there are not a lot of Scouts left. I think you can hit the military headquarters immediately.”
At those words, Hugo was delighted and stood up.
“Oh-ho, is that so? Good, good. We’ll be able to minimize the damage of our vigilante. We had better get going!”
Rukin grumbled internally.
‘All the EXP bundles disappeared, so what’s so good about it? It’s just making me irritated.’
Aside from his irritation, he only took himself into consideration as he needed to gather even the smallest EXP.
“Could the three of us perform as the spearhead of the battle?”
At those words, Hugo joyfully nodded his head.
“Of course. Can you really do that for us?”
“Yes, we will stand as the lead.”
“Thank you.”
Hugo had a delighted expression and the three, including Rukin, moved quickly and stood at the head of the unit.
Shortly after, Hugo followed behind them and began to advance towards the Goblin Camping Ground, leading over 100 NPC vigilantes.
Just then, one NPC vigilante called Hugo and stopped him.
“Captain, the new mercenary reinforcements have arrived.”
At those words, Hugo momentarily stopped and turned towards the direction that the vigilante was directing to.
The new mercenaries were none other than Ian and Harin.
As the two people reached close by, Hugo held out his hand.
“Oh, new reinforcements. The more people giving their strength, the easier the suppression should be. Thank you for coming all the way here.”
Ian held Hugo’s hand equally and bowed his head slightly.
“We’re just doing the obvious job.”
Ian let out a sigh of relief at the fact that they had arrived at the exact time before the quest started. If he came on his own, he would have ridden Ly and arrived at the start but because he came with Harin, he was much later than he had expected.
“Now, today we’re going to completely wipe out the Goblins in Saumur Canyons! Everyone charge forward!”
As Hugo let out the command, the vigilantes let out a shout and ran forward.
From the front, likewise, tons of pitch black Goblin Warriors were running out of the Camping Ground.
Even with just a glance at the hundreds of Goblin Warriors, Harin looked a little frightened.
“Uh, Ian… will it be okay?”
However, different from Harin, Ian only saw all of those Goblins as bundles of EXP.
“It will be alright. You just need to do what we talked about on the way here.”
“Can we really do that? If we do that, though, then it will really be just you fighting.”
“No, that’s not true. Basically, you’re going to be buffing us and you taking aggro with the s.h.i.+eld will be a big help.”
Among the Priest’s skills, there was a skill called ‘s.h.i.+eld of Brilliance’ and that skill was the best defensive skill that Priests could use to protect themselves.
The s.h.i.+eld of Brilliance transformed a Priest’s divine magic into a s.h.i.+eld at a specific ratio that would protect them from losing health until their divine magic was completely consumed.
The downside was that they could only cast it on themselves, but the ratio of divine magic consumed and the s.h.i.+eld was so incredibly efficient that if a Priest poured all their divine magic into the s.h.i.+eld of Brilliance, it was enough to ‘out-tank’ decent tankers.
Ian a.s.sumed that faint-hearted Harin would have a high proficiency with that skill based on her personality and as expected, the s.h.i.+eld of Brilliance was Harin’s main skill. It was even a situation where the s.h.i.+eld of Brilliance’s proficiency was absurdly high.
That’s why the strategy that the two people made was simple. Harin would focus all her divine magic onto the s.h.i.+eld of Brilliance and use it only to protect herself while buffing Ian and Ly whenever the cooldown time was over.
When summarized in one word, she was a buff shuttle[2] that didn’t die.
That was not all. Ian was currently setting an ambitious plan to drag Harin to fight on the frontlines.
‘Harin’s level is comparably high for coming to the Goblin Camping Ground anyways. On top of that, the proficiency of her s.h.i.+eld of Brilliance is equal to about lv 60.’
In other words, as long as she poured all her efforts into her s.h.i.+eld, no matter how bad she is at the game, he calculated that there would be almost no chance of her dying here.
‘We’ll have to use Harin as a tanker.’
If they fought comfortably in the back along with the vigilantes, Harin would most likely be useless.
‘Although there isn’t really a problem if we just fight…’
As he’s already brought Harin, Ian’s thoughts were that he should bring out her strongest advantages and maximize their hunting efficiency.
To clean it up in one word, his plan was to toss Harin out to the frontlines, and once the aggro was leaning towards her, he would pick up all the EXP with Ly.
In this plan, Harin’s role was in simple terms a ‘meat s.h.i.+eld’. And if Harin was worse at the game than he thought, or if the aggro leaning towards her was more than he had expected, the chance to die was not impossible.
“Alright. I’ll believe in you, Ian.”
Despite hearing Ian’s plan, Harin didn’t catch onto the main point and just nodded her head slowly.
As if his conscience made him feel slightly guilty, he looked afar and petted Ly.
“You just need to believe in this one, not me.”
Ian rationalized to himself.
‘As long as Harin doesn’t die, it’s a plan that would allow her to get a huge amount of EXP….’
In no way was it because Ly got to eat something more delicious than him and he was holding a grudge.
[1] bus driver = a player that is carrying a person/party.
[2] shuttle = another term for carrier