Survive in the parallel world, please!

Chapter 104: Don’t underestimate goblins, please! part

“I’m so tired, it was so hard to sleep like that”

Now it was my turn to have bags under my eyes and walk slowly with a tired expression on my face. Sera’s mischief caused me a lot of trouble.

“I noticed”

Sera giggled covering her mouth, I would say something but I’m to tired to even care about her dirty joke.

“Why does every time we travel it feels the way back is longer?”

Luke sighed looking at his own feet as he walked the path.

“I don’t know about that, but on the way here we were excited for the adventure, now all I want is to go back to Veronika”

.....

Bob too was looking at the ground as he walked.

“It’s only natural, we spent a night on the wild and even though it may not seem so, you did fight difficult monsters. I’m really pleased with the result”

“Diffult? those weaklings?”

Luke sneered.

“Mister Ryu, is it really necessary for you to pick up so many herbs on the way back?”

Now that Sera said so, I was picking up anything I thought could be even remotely helpful and my bag was almost full.

“It’s just a habit, it helps me distract myself from the tiresome walk. Hey, what’s the matter? why are you squirming like that”

Sera rubs her legs and wiggles awkwardly while blushing.

“I need to go...”

“Go where? oh... Excuse me, mister Lorenzo, is there a chance for us to take a small break?”

“You need to be more serious, if you got tired after only this much you wouldn’t stand a chance against a thorny lizard”

I pointed at Sera to clear the misunderstanding and Lorenzo seemed to quickly understand the situation and asked Bob and Luke to stop. Sera tugged on my sleeve asking me to accompany her and for an instant I though of letting her go alone in revenge for what she did to me last night.

She put me in an awkward situation, but I can’t deny it was pleasurable and she didn’t have any ill intentions. Now, instead, If I let her go alone she could even be in danger, I’m not familiar with this forest and it could be dangerous.

We strand a bit from the path we were following to get some privacy, normally, it wouldn’t take long for us to find a secluded space, but since Luke is nearby Sera thought he would find an excuse to peep on her and didn’t feel safe. Apparently, on the way to Celarent Luke would find any excuse to follow her while she was about to do her business, it got so bad she got used to holding it in for a long period of time.

“Just a little bit further”

Sera pleaded, and I followed her closely from behind. Just as I was starting to think maybe she had other plans on her dirty mind, she found a suitable place and asked me to stand guard nearby.

Without anything else to do I distract myself using Identify on different plants as I scan the surroundings.

Sapling, wooly bud, red leaved fern, philodendron, fern, cup flower, and many other kinds of plants. Some times identify skill would show different results giving me the idea that there might be a chance for it to level up some time. That reminds me Ebi told me my defenses were as weak as those of a newborn, and that applied for my companions too. But thinking back on the time I spent on Ironwoods, I got cold resistance way before the rest did and It made a huge difference.

Maybe that’s the reasons why other hunters were able to wear lighter clothes even during winter, that would mean that the spring festival where they go to hunt wearing only boots and pants must also be some sort of training to increase their cold resistance.

I guess it can’t be helped, my group must have pretty low defenses compared to the rest of the people in this world since we’re only starting to face disease and weather conditions, it must take some time before defenses start building up.

The reason why we managed to survive up to this point is because we were well fed most of the time, but when Anne fell ill it was a lot harder on her that it would have been on any other townsmen.

Lost in my thoughts I heard a creaking sound, despite the fact that this should be a safe area and the only person who’s nearby is Sera, I put myself on alert. It was a branch breaking in the distance coming from the same distance Sera was doing her business. I walk towards the sound to see if everything is ok, she should have finished by now.

“Are you done Sera?”

But it wasn’t her, Instead, a small green creature poked out of the bush. It seemed as shocked as I was by the sudden encounter and quickly pointed it’s dagger towards me while grunting and making noise.

Without time to think I acted by reflex and unsheathed my sword, but the creature barely gave me enough time to block its attack with my sword half drawn from the scabbard. I put all my strength into pushing it back but it’s strength was far superior than mine.

“Sera! run back! there’s a goblin in here!”

Sera came back running from behind the goblin and it took a few steps backwards giving me a much needed respite.

“Are you sure it’s ok? I could help you beat it”

She spoke fast, agitated by my sudden call for help.

“I can manage to hold until you guys come to help me, just hurry up!”

I pointed the sword at the goblin making it fall back a few steps more, allowing Sera to walk around without being in harms way and she ran towards the rest of the group. My offensive stance seems to be very effective since the small creature is left without any chance of attacking me without getting hurt.

It moves from side to side waving it’s short knife, ocassionally attacking to make me lose my stance. After realizing how futile it was, it seemed to give up and went back into the bush.

Just as I was about to finally retreat, an arrow is shot at me from the distance.

“Shit! it wasn’t trying to make me lose my stance, it was stalling for time!”

The arrow nested deep into my left arm, rendering it useless in battle. I looked at my soulbound card for a brief second to confirm my status, fearing I may have been poisoned but a different kind of message took me by surprise.

Quest: defeat the goblin party.

The what!? Goblins can make parties just like humans!?

Then, that would mean I’m at a serious disadvantage here. Since it says its a party there must be a few goblins around, but since they’re so short and green they camuflage into the vegetation with ease. Not only that, apart from the numerical advantage they hold, they don’t even need to fight close range with me and all they would need to do is shoot arrows at my position.

Even if they miss, I feel the intense pressure of being pointed at by ranged weapons from an unknown location.

An arrow passes next to my head making a low vibrating sound, it’s clearly a bad quality arrow. Whenever one of Anne’s arrow made a sound like that she would ask me to make her a new one complaining that she can’t fire crap like that.

I now realize that if I’m alive at this point is by sheer luck, if that arrow wasnt defective i would’ve been shot to the head just now. But this is my chance, now I have a clear grasp of where the enemy is hidden.

There’s only one archer, I know because of the shooting cadence. I can almost imagine it drawing an arrow clumsily after each shot.

Compelled by the quest that just appeared on my soulbound card I run forward looking for the enemies, my strenght stat may not be as high as the guys but I’m confident in the quality of my sword.

It may be cursed, but it’s the finest piece of equipment I’ve seen so far.

I walk past the bushes where the goblin I saw hid and it inmediately attacks me from the left side, because of my wound I can’t use my left arm properly and i’m forced to parry with my right arm only.

Even with my two arms the goblin was stronger than me and the only thing I can do to push him back is to use my body weight. The creature loses ground as I push himo and it triest to take some distance again, but an horizontal slash from my blade forces him to keep his attention on me.

Now I’m the one stalling for time.