Lewis gathered around with the remaining soldiers, the body of the dead man having had his eyes closed as they all took a moment to pay their respects, their minds all abounded with the shock and realization that it could have been any of them, and still might be. It hadn't even been a full day yet, and already someone had died. What would happen between now and the next three months, and how many more of them would perish?
Sensing the heavy mood, Patch stepped up once more to get everyone back on track.
"This should serve as a reminder that danger is everywhere out here; we can't afford to let down our guards, or we'll all end up dead." He declared
"As such, I plan on hunting down the source of these goblins and exterminating them for good, before the one that got away manages to come back with an army of these creatures. We've found tracks leading deeper into the woods, and Lue here has experience tracking prey. I think it's best that we split up into two teams for this: those who can fight head-on, and a backup group that will act as support." He added, some murmurs began at the thought of searching for more of the speedy green devils.
"I'm in," Lewis spoke up, feeling like this was his best chance to both get stronger and vent some anger.
Several eyes turned to him, but Lewis no longer felt like he was the runt of the group, the fight just now proving that he was likely even the strongest person here with his unique set of skills, able to fight with the physical might of a warrior and overcome even powerful magic, not to mention the new revelations about the nature of his powers and mana, which required further testing, something he was more than happy to use these speedy goblins for.
"I'm in too, but I think we should learn from this encounter. These goblins have some sort of black daggers that are obscenely sharp, and Lewis and I even found a sort of fireball spell artifact that let them cast the spell simply by channeling mana through the artifact. It broke, but if these are things they have made themselves, which I highly doubt, then they are hardly the dimwitted creatures from popular fantasy and should be dealt with that in mind. Not to mention their resources might prove invaluable for our survival if we found them." Matt called, sounding surprisingly serious and compelling as he spoke, a stark change from his usual attitude.
And he was most definitely right. The creature's actions and behavior were far beyond the group's imagination, seeming to have focused entirely on speed and allowing their weapons to do all the damage. That sort of build optimization isn't something one would expect from a creature such as that; it seemed too smart for a monster. Then again, their only other encounter had been with a bunch of suicidal teddy bears, so who's to say?
But looking down at the black dagger he had taken from the dead goblin, he realised he had neglected to check it with his mana detection, so he pushed his new sense towards the dagger and wasn't too surprised to discover a sliver of mana permeating the black dagger. It wasn't too surprising based on how ridiculously well they cut, but it reminded him that he might not actually be able to wield it if he planned to also use his mana.
That gnawing frustration only grew as he realized this, recalling how the red fireball stone had crumbled when he had injected his anti-mana into it. But then again, this black dagger felt entirely different to his senses, reminding Lewis a bit of the feeling he got from Matt's barrier spell, whereas the ruby felt more like his fireball, which wasn't suprising because it litteral was, but he meant in the physical sense, the rock having crumbled like when he had destabilized the spell that first time.
Figuring he might as well test his theory, he picked up a discarded black dagger from the ground and repeated his actions from before by infusing his mana into the blade. It felt more like splashing water on it as the dagger didn't have dedicated pathways for the mana to travel through, acting more like a sponge if anything. As such, when his mana connected with it, he still felt it dim in his mana detection, the lines of tightly packed together mana being eaten away, at least on the surface of the blade, but it didn't crumble away as a result.
Lewis ignored the others speaking among each other as he brought the anti-mana bathed dagger up to his unchanged dagger and hit them together. As expected, the unchanged dagger remains unaffected, while the mana-deprived one chipped and cracked along the edge, small pieces falling off, but still remaining surprisingly whole. It was still a sturdy material after all; even if it lost some of its mana reinforcement, it remained a densely compressed material.
Alright, I guess it won't be completely useless if it touches my mana at least, that's good to know. Mind you, now that I think about it, it might have been cool if it had crumbled away; at least then I could have used my anti-magic to destroy the goblin's blades entirely instead of dodging, but oh well.
Discarding the cracked blade, he focused on sensing the pattern of mana with the black dagger and realized why it felt so familiar to the barrier spell. Unlike a field converting mana from one aspect or element to another, the barrier spell only enforced a pattern on the mana, reinforcing the desired shape. And the mana inside the blade was layered like the rings of a tree, weaving itself through the black material and compounding against each other, enforcing a structured pattern to the weapon, the mana in his senses appearing almost like the phantom of the weapon.
[Obsidian blade (rare)]
Skill: Identify has reached Level 2
Whoa, what just happened? I didn't even mean to identify it, nor did I realize the skill even worked on items. Still, not like it told me much about the weapon, other than the fact that it was made from obsidian.
When the group finished discussing their plan, they split up as intended, Jonny, Patch, Lue, Matt, and Lewis all going to track the runaway goblin in the hopes of discovering its lair, while the rest would search the area, clearing out any monsters they found or retreating if necessary. The idea was for them to form a safe zone for them to return to, as well as a defensible camp for the night.
Lewis was surprised he didn't feel more exhausted from the hectic day, but he was still full of energy and roaring to go as they set off deeper into the woods, Lue taking the lead as they moved at a fast pace, keeping low and quiet as they listened out for any goblins.
The consensus about the creatures is that the group they encountered was a hunting squad, trained to take on prey by scattering them with that initial large fireball, then using their superior speed to wipe them out. Since Lewis had averted that first blow, they had been at a severe disadvantage and tried to stretch out the fight to pick them off one by one, but that didn't work out for them in the end either. That being said, Lewis wasn't sure things would have gone so well without him here. He wasn't trying to be smug or anything, but was worried about what others might be dealing with if they also encountered these speedy gremlins.
Perhaps the system has created multiple anti-magic mages? It wouldn't be too surprising, considering I myself never had a choice in the matter. If that's the case, then perhaps it was a way for it to give us tutorial attendies a fighting chance in a world already used to wielding magic. It's a shit deal for anyone slapped with anti-magic mana, but it's undoubtedly helped us survive this far.
But Lewis's pondering was cut short when Lue held up his hand and pointed towards a very clear footprint in a patch of soft earth, the size no bigger than a child's and similar to that of the goblins, as it only possessed four spread toes. The track was very fresh, barely a few minutes old, and indicated that the sole surviving goblin was heading towards a mountainous side of the forest where the trees clung to a series of steep slopes overlooking a forested canyon.
The tracks became harder to follow after that, the steep and rocky terrain making it hard to tell where the creature went, but we kept exploring for the next hour until we eventually came across a clue.
Tucked between two overlapping slopes, a cavern had formed, the formation only visible from a specific angle that we happened to come across; the only reason we noticed it was because of an obsidian spear tip that was glinting from the sunlight, the light catching Jonny's eye.
We made our way down to the cavern as stealthily as possible. Not an easy feat when we were descending a rocky slope, stones being jostled loose with nearly every step, but they made it down unnoticed and discovered lots of tracks around the cavern, the four-toed footprints clearly indicating goblin activity in the area.
"Looks like this is it. There's no way to tell how many of them are living inside, and going in blind would be suicidal." Patch said, idly scratching his chin as they all hid behind some large boulders a ways from the cavern's entrance.
"So what now? We wait for them to come out and jump them?" Matt asked, not sounding happy about that plan.
"I'm not a fan of waiting around for something we aren't even a hundred percent sure will happen. We can't go into enemy territory guns blazing, especially not inside a dark cave. We'll be at too much of a disadvantage, not to mention we don't know what we will be walking into. No, we need to scout it out." Jonny jumped in, nodding confidently as he spoke.
"I guess I'm up then," Lue said. Everyone turned to him with surprise.
The native-american merely shrugged.
"I'm a rogue, remember, sneaking about is kind of my entire skillset." He added, before his body seemed to shimmer like the surface of water, and he faded from the world right before their eyes.
They could still see a vague outline of a person, but he was all blurry and transparent, hard to keep track of him even as he stood right before them.
"That's awesome." Matt called, never missing an opportunity to act childish, his face shone with excitement as he tried to keep track of the rogue, the man moving towards the entrance of the cave, his footsteps soundless as he made his approach.
"Hey, Matt, can't you still see him with your mana sight?" Lewis whispered to the excitable mage.
"No, I tried that too, but it's still just blurry and hard to spot him."
Lewis just nodded, his expression carefully neutral as he watched the rogue move away, his mana detection perfectly picking up the feild surrounding the man, one that seemed to bend light around him somehow, but was only slighty unfocused to his senses, Lewis getting the feeling that it not only obscured him from sight but also obscured mana senses, something Matt just confirmed, yet he still had no issue seeing the concealed rogue.
What the hell is up with my skills then? How can I see mana without a mana-based skill to begin with? Surely whatever a spirit is must be related to mana in a strong way, but if that's the case, then why doesn't everyone use spirit skills instead of mana ones? None of this makes any sense to me. Perhaps I should go talk to the system guide again, surely I could get some useful information if I used my TP.