Merlin turned around, making sure that Typhoeus was still watching him as he showcased his power. He did this in hopes that it would inspire him to turn off the combat assistance earlier. This was Typhoeus’ major complaint in the previous timeline, that he was so reliant on the combat assistance that it was hard for him to break away from it later in the beta.

Merlin considered this to be his way of paying back what Typhoeus had originally done for him, without his guidance he would never have grown to where he was. Merlin turned towards the cave and walked in. A notification window appeared before him.

┌───────────────────

You have entered the “Lycoa Goblin Nest”.

• Clear Condition: Kill the boss.

└───────────────────

Merlin stared into the cave, however he couldn’t see very far in as the light from outside quickly fades away to complete darkness.

“Open inventory.” Merlin chanted, and an inventory window opened before him. Merlin spent a few minutes getting himself prepared, he took out one torch and set it alight with the tinderbox before throwing the tinderbox back in his inventory. He took two more items out before closing his inventory, one oil flask and the dagger that dropped from the goblin, he pocketed the oil flask and sheathed the dagger on his belt.

Merlin held the torch with his shield hand and unsheathed his sword before moving further inside the cave. Merlin made sure to take light steps, even though the torch announced his position from a mile away, that was only for goblins who saw it. If he gave away his position through sound it would be another disadvantage stacked onto an already precarious situation.

It didn’t take long for a lone goblin to notice Merlin approach. It let out a gargling screech before charging at him, as it got closer to the only source of light in the cave, the hideous malformations on the goblin’s face became even more glaringly obvious as they formed long shadows.

Merlin made short work of this goblin, slicing its head off cleanly from the rest of its body. Merlin made sure to wipe the blood from his blade while he had the chance, if he had to deal with more goblins the blood would start caking up, rendering his weapon unusable.

Merlin continued further into the cave, making sure to pay close attention to his flank. Goblin nests were notorious for having hidden areas behind blind corners where a goblin could hide and ambush the less durable players, such as ranged attackers and healers, players who typically stood at the back of the party.

As he turned a corner and travelled a few steps further, he came across a goblin effigy. It was a long wooden stick dug into the ground that had various bones tied to it with what looked like strips of hemp, most likely torn from the clothing of their victims.

Merlin continued walking past the effigy, a few moments later he heard a light pitter-patter sound that quickly got louder, the sound was coming from behind him. As Merlin turned around, two goblins were running towards him. Merlin dashed towards one and slammed into it with the shield, utilising his strength to send the goblin flying into a cave wall.

The other goblin slashed towards Merlin with what looked to be a chipped shortsword, but the blade was parried out of the goblin’s hand. Instead of slashing the goblin, he decided to punch the goblin with his shield, sending it back in a stagger, before rushing forward and beating the goblin with the shield again. A layer of black blood started forming around his shield’s edge as Merlin continued pummelling the goblin, eventually the goblin died.

The other goblin that was knocked to the wall stood up once more and began charging at Merlin. Attempting to stab him with what looked to be like a kitchen knife, although poorly taken care of.

Merlin knocked the knife goblin back once more, the kitchen knife embedded itself in his shield, disarming the goblin. Merlin spent the next couple seconds beating this goblin to death with his shield too.

Wanting to make sure of something, Merlin loaded up the information for the useless title. The small information window appeared before him.

┌───────────────────

[The Best Defence. (Beginner)]

It takes hits, but sometimes it hits back.

• Shield Damage: +3%

Upgrade Requirements: Shield Kills (2/20)

└───────────────────

“Perfect.” Merlin smiled to himself, it was useless, but he didn’t see any problem with farming it. Any trump card he could possibly use to his advantage he was glad to use, especially as a solo player. Thinking back, Merlin wondered why he didn’t think of this when he was farming the wild hares, it probably would have been less of a hassle.

Merlin sheathed his gladius and instead picked up the goblin’s chipped shortsword, it was a temporary weapon, but it was better to use the temporary garbage on the trash mobs, he didn’t want his blade to be rendered useless, only to get into a situation where he needs it.

As Merlin walked further into the cave, it suddenly expanded into a wider room. Merlin glanced into the room, from what he could see there was roughly six goblins within. Although his light source didn’t light up the rest of the room, there could be more hiding in the darkness.

Although he would have liked approaching the cave more stealthily, his torch grabbed the attention of all six goblins who all turned to face him. The sight of several goblin eyes lighting up in the darkness, all staring directly at him, while their bodies were still somewhat concealed by darkness was still a terrifying sight, even for someone as experienced as Merlin.

The gargling battle cry of one of the goblins spurred the rest into charging forward, all six of them were converging on Merlin, who was still currently standing in the tunnel. Merlin took a few steps back as the goblins continued to converge closer, naturally funnelling in due to the tighter space requirements.

As they finally got close to Merlin’s position, they had formed a closer group. Merlin reached into his pocket and pulled out the oil flask, only to throw the flask at the cave ceiling, just above the goblins. The flask shattered, raining down shards of glass upon the group of goblins, while also spraying the group with lantern oil.

The goblins recoiled in surprise, this moment of hesitation was enough time for Merlin to throw his torch at the group. Within seconds all the goblins had been set alight, some of the goblins began running around while trying to pat the fire out, others were rolling on the floor in pain.

This wasn’t enough to kill them however, due to him having to spread half a litre of lantern oil amongst six enemies, it would burn out much faster than using the entire flask on a single target.

Merlin ran forward and began crushing the goblin’s skulls while they were distracted, starting with the ones rolling around on the ground. As Merlin finished off the fifth goblin, the fires had completely burnt out. The only remaining fire was his torch that was laying on the stone floor, flickering weakly.

The sixth goblin charged at Merlin, its face had been burnt black. Merlin didn’t notice at first due to the poor visibility, but managed to deflect its attack before it could connect. Like the others, this goblin was made short work of, ending up as nothing more than a black smudge on his shield.

Out of all the goblins he had just killed, only one of them dropped an item, a single copper piece. Merlin walked over to the torch and picked it back up, the flame on the torch brightened once more.

Merlin opened his inventory, pulling out another oil flask and pocketing it. They were extremely convenient distractions when fighting hoards, it was a shame that they were so expensive.

He turned around, travelling back into the wide room he had just run from. Suddenly the sound of creaking wood echoed within the room, Merlin attempted to take a defensive stance but it was too late, Merlin felt an impact, followed by a sharp pain in his shoulder.

Merlin recoiled in pain, quickly glancing around the room he noticed a rock formation that could act as temporary cover. Merlin ran for it as he heard yet another creaking sound in the distance. Merlin threw himself behind cover, successfully sliding behind cover as an arrow flew past his face.

As Merlin laid there with his back to the rock formation he glanced over to his shoulder, only to see the shaft of the arrow mere inches from his face. Merlin reached over and ripped the arrow out of his shoulder while gritting his teeth, throwing it to the ground beside him.

It was fortunate that this goblin didn’t use a special arrow, like one laced with poison. Although he was pretty sure that there shouldn’t be anything of the sort this early in the game, with the tutorial’s goblin archer being the sole exception.

Merlin glanced over his condition while lost in thought. The arrow had done nine damage leaving him at twenty-one health, and that was just for the shoulder. If it had hit him in the head, throat or heart the damage would have been even more devastating.