NOVEL NEXT Chapter 280 Marching Into Danger
Chapter 280 Marching Into Danger
(Should I take this risk?)
Tyler gazed at these elite, armed goblin soldiers, weighing the risks and rewards in his heart.
If he were to abandon Sibyl's body, finding someone from the Scarlet Family would cost Tyler a significant amount of time.
Not only might he fail to find them, but the Scarlet Family might also complete their conquest of the Aqua Nest before Tyler could locate them.
On the other hand, if he dared to seize or steal Sibyl's body, Tyler might end up like Sibyl, hanging from the tower—in the form of a corpse, of course.
Time was slipping away, and to make the right decision, Tyler cautiously approached the orchard, using the binocle to identify key information about several goblin soldiers.
Guarding the tower were elite goblin sharpshooters, four on each tower, totaling sixteen. However, if Tyler positioned himself well, he would "only" need to face four simultaneously.
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Goblin sharpshooter, Male, 53-year-old
Goblin sharpshooter -? Lv67.
Skill: 3/3
Life Energy: 3118/3118
Endurance: 2410/2421
Magic Energy: 2120/2120
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Patrolling the orchard's perimeter were three squads, each with ten members. Leading each squad was a third-tier goblin elite captain, while the members were second-tier goblin sword-and-shield warriors—both quantity and quality were present.
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Goblin Elite Captain, Male, 49-year-old
Goblin Elite Captain -? Lv73
Skill: 3/3
Life Energy: 6321/6321
Endurance: 3014/3084
Magic Energy:1150/1150
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The elite captain had impressive life energy, and the sword-and-shield warriors' stats were proportionally scaled-down versions of the captain's. Each was a high-level, second-tier warrior in their forties or fifties.
Tyler estimated that if he were to charge head-on, he would have to face at least five third-tier goblins and nine second-tier soldiers simultaneously—a situation that couldn't be overcome with mere courage.
As for Tyler himself, after eight days of intense training, his strength had indeed improved significantly. However, due to the bottleneck of not yet advancing to the next tier, the ceiling effect still had a considerable impact.
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During the previous eight days of training, Tyler mainly focused on improving his skill levels, with the following changes:
Production Occupation - Hunter: Level 4+1↑;
Manufacturing Occupation - Pharmacist: Level 3+1↑;
Skill - Heart of Focus: Level 12+3↑;
Skill - Calculation Boost: Level 15+5↑;
Skill - Deceiver: Level 20+5↑;
Skill - Shadow Behind: Level 11+9↑;
The most direct benefit of raising occupation and skill levels was the increase in attribute values. As a second-tier, level 50 "Shadow Assassin," Tyler's attributes were somewhat "specialized".
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Tyler
Life Energy: 3100 (2840+260↑)
Endurance: 2439 (2088+351↑)
Magic Energy: 7690 (6590+1100↑)
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However, these attribute values were well-suited to Tyler's combat style. Without such a large amount of magic energy, he wouldn't be able to fully utilize his skills.
In addition to the increase in attribute values, several of Tyler's skills had reached new qualitative breakpoints.
1 Skill - Heart of Focus added an entry: +1 positive modifier when making evasion checks.
Although Tyler wasn't yet clear on the meaning of "checks" in the skill descriptions, this undoubtedly enhanced his dodging ability.
2 Skill - Calculation Boost's overclock entry had grown several times, allowing Tyler to double his calculation ability. The value of this could only be understood through actual experience, as it brought a sense of agile thinking and joy.
3 The most crucial skill was Shadow Behind.
After reaching level 20, the range for summoning shadow duplicates expanded to 20 meters, and the duplicates' existence time increased to 25 seconds.
Since the skill's cooldown was only 15 seconds, this meant that Tyler could now summon up to two shadow duplicates simultaneously—a significant change that sparked the imagination!
Thanks to these improvements, Tyler could now face a third-tier Goblin Fearless Warrior alone without falling into a bitter struggle.
However, confronting five third-tier goblins and nine second-tier soldiers on enemy territory was still too risky.
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However, if brute force won't work, he gotta outsmart them.
Tyler's consistent style is to rely on his intellect to fight.
First, he circled the orchard stealthily, and an idea formed in his mind. The rest depended on whether the actual operation could match his expectations.
(Idiot Loli: Tyler, you're really addicted to taking risks.)
(Tyler: This is maximizing returns under the premise of taking moderate risks.)
Tyler glanced at the "T" character in his palm and activated the first "Delayed Trap."
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In the woods 200 meters away from the orchard, Tyler used vines as a fuse to set up an ignition device that would cause a large fire in about twenty minutes.
After activating this device, Tyler quickly moved to another side of the orchard, 150 meters away, and ignited a similar device.
Having completed these two preliminary actions, Tyler sneaked to a position only 100 meters away from the orchard and waited for the right moment.
The dense shrubs here were perfect for concealing his presence.
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Soon, Tyler saw black smoke rising from the southwest, which was the first fire point he had set.
The goblins in the orchard quickly discovered the fire, and a patrol team of goblins rushed towards the fire point.
After a while, black smoke rose from the second fire point, quickly drawing another team of goblins.
With this, only one team of goblins remained patrolling near the orchard, and the attention of the goblins in the watchtowers was diverted by the two fires.
Seizing this opportunity, Tyler ignited his fire arrows and shot three in a row into the densest part of the trees in the orchard, causing a third fire inside the orchard shortly after.
Now, most of the goblins in the orchard were in a state of panic, and even the goblins in the nearby camp rushed out to put out the fires.
Seeing the situation, Tyler knew the time had come and quickly ran towards the tower where Sibyl's body was hanging, summoning a shadow duplicate at the farthest distance and giving orders.
A few seconds later, Tyler was close enough to the tower. He activated the skill "Heart of Focus" and shot an arrow from a hundred meters away, accurately cutting the rope holding the body, letting it fall to the ground!
During this time, the shadow duplicate he had summoned earlier had already reached the base of the tower. It picked up the body and began sprinting towards the location Tyler had designated!
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At this point, everything had gone smoothly, but during the final retreat, the shadow duplicate was discovered by the archers on the tower.
As the nearest watchtower sounded the horn, the other three towers followed suit.
Arrows flew towards the shadow duplicate one after another, quickly hitting its shoulder and side.
Just as the shadow duplicate was about to be taken down, another shadow duplicate arrived, wielding an ironwood round shield!
After throwing a smoke bomb, it immediately began swinging the shield to help its companion block the arrows!
However, the smoke bomb's effect was not very effective, as the goblins quickly changed their strategy, using rapid and dense arrows to compensate for their lack of accuracy.
Moreover, after the horn sounded, loud wolf howls echoed from the goblin camp, and a large number of goblins riding giant wolves charged towards the shadow duplicates!