I cursed the system under my breath as I continued onwards with the trio. On the bright side, I am invincible against these Goblins, so that’s a plus.

I stomp a Goblin under my foot and crushed another’s head while tanking a blow from another Goblin with a rusty iron sword. Newsflash, the sword broke when it came in contact with my unarmored leg.

‘At least all is not lost with this Tank class… I’ll just have to find a way to change classes with the Dungeon Market later, and if not possible, grab all the benefits of this class before switching to a hybrid one later on…’

Now, the next problem is as follows…

75 EXP gained!

EXP: 220 / 10000

This is my recent problem… The goddamn system increased the EXP total necessary to move to the next level by 10-folds!

‘What is this unnecessary nerf? It’s like they want me to fucking struggle…’ I stomped smashed another Goblin to a pulp with a growl.

25 EXP gained!

‘Argh! Fuck this, I’ll let tomorrow’s me handle this. I want some Goblin heads to smash open.’

“Jionni, this area’s clear, time to move to the next,” I heard Lennon from a few meters over who was pulling out his sword from a Goblin corpse. Kayla, who was next to Lennon, was busy wiping the blood from her blade as the result of too many Goblins killed. I think that Goblins here are incredibly nerfed as well since even over 100 is not enough to stop an average party of Hunters… On the flip side, they are panicking, so there’s that…

“On it,” I moved over to their location as we prepared ourself for the last push. When done with our preparations, we moved and killed more panicking Goblins.

125 EXP gained!

‘I swear, these Goblins are too uncoordinated… Goblin Slayer would be pleased to know this, since they would be easier to kill,’ I thought in my head as we continued onward.

175 EXP gained!

A few more Goblin heads bashed in, we finally arrived at the center of the nest. On the opposite side from where we are, Sogtharoch and the Elf twins were busy culling even more Goblins, but this time, these Goblins were working together to bring them down. A quick observation to the middle of the area led me to the sight of a larger than normal Goblin surrounded with dozens of other Goblins who are better equipped than the others.

“There it is, the Goblin Leader…” Lennon said quietly. “It seems they haven’t notices us yet. Jionni, the three of us will drag the attention of its underlings, while you kill it.”

“Okay,” I nodded and separated from the trio. I searched for an area where it would be hard to spot me under all this chaos and confusion. Let it be known that a Gorilla can be sneaky when they’re not being noisy…

A clang of steel enters my ears, and I look towards the source. Seeing Lennon and his group drawing the attention of the remaining Goblins, I decide it was time to strike. Gathering Mana, I focus on the Goblin Leader who remained behind with a handful of his underlings. Letting the Mana flow, I use [Earth Manipulation] to create an immense wall between the fighting Goblins and Hunters, causing the two groups to separate.

Now that their chain of command is temporarily disabled, I channel another bout of Mana to create a pit underneath the panicking Goblins and Goblin Leader. They fall into the pit which was the height of two average adult humans, and land on top of each other, some bones broken because of some heavy equipment. I then focus more Mana into [Fire Manipulation] and do what I consider the most terrifying thing.

Go Pyro on these bitches. Good news every level up, my MP replenishes itself, but not my HP… Weird, some food for thought…

A gout of flame conjures from my palm and into the panicking Goblins within the pit, burning them alive. No Goblin is safe from my flamethrower, and if their screaming shows anything, it was hell to be inside in the impromptu barbecue session, starring their bodies as the meat.

The Goblin Leader, however, makes a move that made me widen my eyes.

‘Well, looks like not all Goblins are nerfed after all…’ the Goblin Leader conjured water and made a safe path towards the opposite of my position to safely get out of the frying pan. Too bad he went into a fire instead.

I cut off the Mana supplying my flamethrower and run towards the other end of the pit. It would take some time before the Goblin Leader could make it up, so why not be ready to greet him?

The screaming Goblins burning alive thankfully masked my footsteps, and the Goblin Leader was none the wiser about my incoming approach.

I arrive before the Goblin Leader could make it to the top and try to create an Earth Spike to impale it, but decide otherwise since I wanted to test out my new skills.

Namely, the [Cannon Blow]. I want to see the result of using that skill at it. I wait for the Goblin Leader while thinking if I should lower the wall or not, since I could make out that the sounds of fighting behind the wall went silent a few minutes ago. I decided no since I didn’t want to be distracted when fighting the Goblin Leader.

A hand grabbed the ledge, and I grinned.

The Goblin Leader appears by dragging itself out of the inferno I created below it. I give it time to steady itself since I want to use the skill when it knows it’s going to get punched. It saw me, then snarled, yelling in a language I do not understand.

Probably profanity.

It conjures a water arrow and has it fly towards me. I tank the hit with my armor, the water harmlessly splashing against it, creating a damp area where the arrow hit. The Goblin Leader growled as a result and drew its sword. It looks like a broadsword, and I have no idea if it’s good or not since I have no clue about blacksmithing yet – although I have the [Blacksmithing] skill – so I opt for killing it quickly. I don’t want to be caught off guard if that sword is magic and kills me before I kill it.

I dash towards the Goblin, my figure like a raging bull in its eyes… probably… and the Goblin Leader dodges to the side, not keen on receiving my charge since it knows it will die if it did so. While doing so, it slashed against my unarmored arm, a sharp clang of steel hitting something hard resulting in the blow, causing the Goblin Leader to widen its eyes in shock.

‘… Hmm. I guess the Tank class isn’t all useless after all…’ I retaliate by grabbing the sword the Goblin Leader and pulling it towards me, the Goblin Leader taken along for the ride. It tries to let go, but my other hand refuses its decision for him by grabbing its arm to make sure it does not escape.

My prey now caught within my clutches, I let go of the sword and cock my fist back, grinning all the while underneath my helmet.

“[CANNON BLOW!]” I activated my skill with a shout, primarily to intimidate it with my gruff voice since it had no idea what I was saying, making the fear and intimidation factor rise as an effect. The Goblin Leader tries to block it with its sword arm by letting go of its sword, but its block was no use. Why?

I allocated approximately half of my total HP to that blow. I felt my strength increase but my energy dwindle energy because of the act, not like I would care, it was the last enemy for this nest, anyway.

My fist landed against the arm of the Goblin Leader. It exploded into a pile of flesh and blood, and the Goblin Leader tried to scream, only for my arm to land against its body.

The result? Its entire body exploded into bits of flesh and gore, the only remaining proof that the Goblin Leader was alive, was the dismembered arm I still held in my hand. I would’ve barfed at the gore in the past, but killing a lot of Goblins in gory ways, and the adrenaline coursing through my body prevented that.

I heave a sigh, the battle finally over.

400 EXP gained!

‘According to the EXP rewarded, the Goblin Leader gave 250 EXP, ten times the amount of a normal Goblin,’ I move to pick up the sword that was on the ground after the Goblin Leader let it go to block my strike, which failed, and toss it in my inventory. ‘My spoil.’

HP: 2958 / 5800

MP: 256 / 1607

… Looks like I went HAM on them with my Mana… That said, looks like my HP regeneration was still going… that, and it seemed like I have taken no damage from when the Goblins and Goblin Leader attacked me… I’ll admit it, [Tank Body] is useful against low-leveled enemies… I really need an [Observe] just so I can see who are low-leveled and who are high-leveled…

I look at the wall I created earlier behind me. It is still standing tall, and since the fight at the other stopped, I can guess that the Goblins are all done. I climb the wall while creating some ledges, since it isn’t that tall, it didn’t take too long to reach the top. On the top, I see the group of Hunters busy scavenging the loot from the dead Goblins.

I look at the pit I made with flame still tossed inside… Yep, no loot for me then…

I drop to the ground, unminding about the long fall. I land with a loud thud, dust scattering from the point of impact. The group of Hunters looks towards me with a cautious gaze at first, which settled to an appreciative nod at the moment of recognition. Though, that didn’t mean they trusted me yet, take the Elves and Dwarf as an example.

“Genius work there, big guy!” Sogtharoch grinned while giving me with a thumbs up. “Breaking the command line with a wall, good stuff!”

“Easy there, Sogtharoch,” Lennon said with a straight gaze while cutting out something from a Goblin corpse. “We still need to get the core of the Goblin Leader… You killed it right?”

My sweat dropped.

“Does obliterating it to oblivion count?” I ask with my serious face. No point in looking nervous and sheepish. That would just let them think I’m weak. I need to show some strength so they won’t decide to raid my dungeon. That said, they’re not the problem. The problem is when a stronger force raids my dungeon after I repel/kill them.

“… Haah… Mariona, Merethyl, please confirm,” Lennon sighed with a tired face. The Elves nodded right before sending me a threatening frown.

‘Note to self, don’t obliterate enemies… Unless required…’ I thought to myself as I helped them with gathering the cores, right after I asked them how to do so.