Skullius hid in a corner as he anticipated the arrival of the last two goblins who were coming for him after he had hacked away at their staff wielding buddy.

Admittedly, it was hard to manoeuvre with a sword and two staves when you had one hand and Skullius knew he had to solve this issue soon.

Somehow.

As he heard the approaching footsteps from the goblins, he quickly checked the information of the new staff on his guidance field. He hoped it would be as useful as the one he already had.

~~~

[Short magic staff]

<Common>

A staff for the basic manipulation of the element of fire.

-Damage-

20-40_.

-Durability-

28/40

-Special Effect-

[Skill: Flame Shot]

Release a burst of condensed fire at the target.

Mana Requirements: 70 Mana Points

Cooldown: 30 seconds

~~~

As he saw the information, Skullius saw the difference between the two staves that he held. The short magic staff was indeed shorter than the crooked magic staff he had. It had a darker shade on its surface which went well with what it represented.

A staff for wielding fire.

This was a great addition to his collection and he couldn’t wait to test out how it fared in comparison to the other. Who better to test this out on than the two goblins that were rushing towards him.

‘Funny. These guys don’t make me as anxious any more, even though their stronger than most I’ve faced so far,’ Skullius thought.

The footsteps stopped by the entrance to the hut, Skullius’ pursuers being vigilant and not entering immediately in case they got slaughtered in one unexpected move.

‘Tktktktkt. Stall all you want bros. It gives me enough time for the cooldown,’ Skullius thought as his devilish thoughts of slaughter swirled in his mind.

While Red Rage was off killing the archers, Skullius was dealing with this and it had barely been ten seconds since he and his Apostle had split up.

The goblins didn’t stall much longer, rushing in with one facing the front with its sword while the other faced the back with an arrow nocked on its bow!

As the two scoured the interior of the hut, the crude ceiling and uneven walls of mud in their view, they felt a burst of heat that made their skin crawl!

From the corner, in their sights, a skeleton with the light of blue flames flickering in its sockets  pointed their companion’s staff at them, a bright red flame condensing at the staff’s tip!

Tktktktktktktk!

The two heard the unsettling sound of the skeleton’s teeth clacking as in the next moment, the bright red ball of fire shot towards them!

The heat it exuded was felt before it was upon them, its speed being so fast that the two only responded a moment later, when it was merely an inch away!

The goblin with the bow loosened its arrow which was dodged by Skullius by leaping to the side.

BOOOM!

A scorching heat and explosion rocked the hut with the screams of the two goblins ringing out at the same time!

The floor was charred and the temperature rode with a tinges of red on the surface that had been blasted by the attack!

Skullius knew the two were not dead as one of them had dived to the side while the other jumped back as it loosened its arrow before the [Flame Shot] hit, thus he dropped the short staff and raced towards the two who were undoubtedly injured!

With his sword, he aimed for the archer first, leaping above the still smoking floor and stabbing at the figure that was coughing with burns all over its body!

Skullius’ steel sword plunged deep into the goblin’s neck and he viciously slashed it through the side to rip out a large chunk of flesh from the goblin!

Blood gushed out as the goblin screeched.

He immediately turned to the other goblin that had already stood up and struggled to hold its sword properly as its arm was charred.

Skullius jumped up and brought down his sword again, exerting the majority of his force downwards to overpower the goblin which could  only look at the figure of a tall, robed skeleton descend upon it cruelly.

It barely cost Skullius a few seconds to kill the goblin, numbers of experience gains gushing into his guidance field!

Afterwards the tall Boneman reached for his staff and began to extract the Null Life Essence within a large range, the two goblins he had just killed being included.

Before long, 820 points of NLE in total were his to splurge.

Skullius nodded in excitement as he saw the numbers but his joy died down after he saw the figure of experience points he required for the next level. He could only sigh as he wondered.

‘I first thought that I would manage somehow to reach Tier 1 before 24 hours, but this ‘triple the amount of experience’ thing is really… Argh! I need hundreds of thousands of experience points to reach Tier 1! How am I supposed to do that? Is becoming Tier 1 for me that big of a deal? These goblins are just so weak even as Tier 1. Will it be that different for me?’ he thought in frustration. ‘It better be worth it.’

Even with this thought, Skullius didn’t let the seemingly impossible task bother him. He was patient.

He could probably scrape something up right? Atrocious luck aside.

Soon, Red Rage popped into the hut having finished his mission.

Skullius instructed him to grab the arrows from the goblin he had just killed which seemed to have some kind of poison.

The two walked out of the hut and felt a terrifying shock on the ground with a muffled booms that emanated a short distance away!

“Right! There’s that fight!” Skullius thought as he rushed through the space between the huts hurriedly followed by his trusty companion.

Strewn on the ground were dead bodies and blood amidst the raging smoke and fires.

Soon, they hid within a burning hut as they looked at the fight from a closer distance.

A goblin with a saber and one who fought bare handed were facing off.

If Skullius could swallow lumps of saliva, he would, as when he checked the statuses of these goblins, plus the one of the goblin which had a looming hazy figure above it, he almost dropped his jaw…