Chapter 166: Level 19

Red shook his sword to the side, getting rid of the kobold’s blood. Then he released a deep breath. He stabbed the sword into the ground as his right hand reached to the back of his shoulder. Despite his speed, an arrow hit the back of his left shoulder.

His hand reached the arrow and pulled it out right away. His face flinched, but that was his only reaction to pulling the arrow. He threw the arrow and looked at the battle.

He had wiped out the normal Kobold Archers and the Elite Kobold Archers on the right side. But he was not so sure about the other side. He sent them a fireball, and that was it.

Red turned around to look for the Chief, to check the main battle. The Elite Kobold Fighters were obviously struggling. They were originally weaker than the Goblin Champions, and they were caught off guard when the Chief suddenly jumped on them. That initial move seemed to decide the flow of the battle.

Meanwhile, the hobgoblins led the goblins, pushing the normal kobolds back to the forest. Once he made the archers busy on him, that allowed them to push the kobold head on.

Just to make sure the situation was handled, he rushed to the other side to make sure all the archers were taken care of. He didn’t move on top of the tree anymore. Fighting with his sword made him more confident to move freely on the ground.

He was confident, but it didn’t mean he was being careless. He made sure no one sneaked up on him, whether it was an archer, warrior, or even a scout.

Red reached the other side of the kobold force. There were surviving kobold archers, the fire survivors. To his delight, all Elite Kobold Archers were on the ground. They either burned to death or writhed in agony on the ground.

He quickly went into action, coming for the remaining Kobold Archers. There were only seven of them alive, and he was quick to dispose of them because they were close to each other.

He dashed to the back of the kobold archers, a single swing of his sword killing two of them right away. Then he spun his body, using the swing momentum to land a spinning kick on one of them. That threw another archer down to the ground.

That was when the kobold archers realized that they were attacked from behind. But they were too late to do anything, as another swing swept three of them at once. The sword was not coated in mana, and it only managed to cut through one kobold. However, the second kobold was swept along with the third kobold. Their bodies were thrown to the side.

With that, only one Kobold Archer remained standing. It was consumed by fear and terror, and froze on the spot. That didn’t take any effort from Red to kill the last one. A thrust to the chest, then he forcefully brought the sword down. It cut through the chest and belly open.

Red turned toward the two Kobold Archers that he threw to the side. They were still alive, and he finished them off before they could get back on their feet. He finished the seven archers within ten seconds or maybe less.

A smile formed on his lips as he felt exhilarated from tearing apart his enemy with his sword. That was more satisfying than shooting them down from a distance with the bow.

For some reason, Levelheaded was triggered and calmed him down. He didn’t know why the skill was triggered, but that got him cleared. There was a strong urge inside him to rush to continue the fight, but the urge subsided.

Red calmed down and scanned his surroundings. He noticed that some of the Kobold Archers tried to get back on their feet. But they were obviously unable to fight anymore.

The battle in front was in their favor already. It was just a matter of time for them to finish the fight. The reason he didn’t help was because of the condition he had with the Chief. If he killed more than what he did, there would be no more loot for others. That was right; he was sharing the loot with the goblin.

Red started to make his round and finished off the Elite Kobold Archers one by one. Four of them were still alive, and he beheaded them. He got the loot as well while at it.

Twelve Elite Kobold Archers gave him thirty-five mediocre-quality cores, with twenty Magic Cores and fifteen Might Cores. He only had space for thirty cores in his Storage Pouch. He was holding five Magic Cores.

Red found a kobold archer’s body with rough leather that was used to cover their lower half. He pulled the leather and used it to carry the cores. Unfortunately, he didn’t use Appraisal on the normal Kobold Archer, so he left it behind, a charity for the goblins.

Then he started to move again to look for more bodies. This time he was looking for the group of twelve Elite Kobold Archers that were hit by his first fireball. One of them survived and joined the right-side force, which meant eleven were dead.

He found their charred bodies, eleven of them. Not exactly close to each other, but he managed to find them all. His luck was not good for this loot, worse than the first round of loot. He got twenty-six mediocre quality cores, fifteen Magic Cores, and eleven Might Cores.

Red didn’t really bother with the battle anymore; getting his loot was his top priority right now. He had absolute confidence that the battle was in their hands.

He made the last round of looting. The twelve Elite Kobold Archers got thirty-four mediocre-quality cores; the normal kobold archers he killed got twenty-six cores.

He just shoved the cores into his temporary bag and climbed up to the tree, looking for a spot to absorb the cores. He got to the highest branch and sat there.

Red didn’t immediately absorb the core. The first thing he did was to check on his status. His Strength would reach the threshold with 0.4 Strength, His Vitality needed 3.6, and Dexterity needed 3 while his Endurance was already in the threshold. His Magic Stat was closer to the threshold, with Intelligence and Wisdom already at the threshold. Arcane Perception only needed 0.8, and his Mind only needed 3.2 to reach the threshold.

That was why he wanted to keep the mediocre quality cores for later. With his Status open to monitor his progress, he started to absorb the cores.

He wanted to absorb the mediocre quality Might Cores first, but then his current Strength stopped him from doing so. If his luck was rotten, the first Mediocre Might Core might increase his Strength. He ended up starting with the inferior quality first.

The first and second might cores increased his Vitality and Dexterity, and the third one pushed his Strength to the threshold. Then he grabbed the mediocre quality cores, a few of them, to push the remaining two Might Stats close to the threshold.

[You have reached level 18!]

He reached level 18 after absorbing eight inferior quality cores and four mediocre cores. His smile widened at the notification as he continued to absorb the remaining cores.

Not long after that, he reached level 19. He brute-forced his way to level 19 with his mediocre quality cores.

[You have reached level 19!]

Red counted the remaining cores in his possession, including the ones in his Storage Pouch.

13 Inferior Quality Cores: 9 Might Cores and 4 Magic Cores

40 Mediocre Quality Cores: 18 Might Cores and 22 Magic Cores.

He decided not to push to level 19 with his remaining cores. If he was lucky with the increase, he might reach level 19, but he was aware that was unlikely to happen. He saved 10 Mediocre Might Cores and 10 Mediocre Magic Cores in his Storage Pouch, and absorbed the remaining cores.

Then he looked at his Status once more, more than satisfied with his progress. He was not expecting to reach level 19 today. He predicted it would be close, but no, he had reached level 19 and was halfway to level 20.

Name: ???

Level: 19

Health: 2078 Stamina: 1525 (+100) Mana: 2189

[Tier 1 Might]

Strength: 261.4 (+16.4, +65) Endurance: 213.6 (+13.6, +20) Vitality: 218.2 (+16,+25) Dexterity: 363.6 (+16.6,+170)

[Tier 1 Magic]

Intelligence: 287 (+27) Wisdom: 284.4 (+24.4) Arcane Perception: 284.2 (+25) Mind: 285.2 (+28.4)

Skills:

Tier 1 Skill: Mana Sense - Level 18, Levelheaded (Passive) - Level 22, Appraisal - Level 19, Bleeding - Level 2, Fireball - Level 7 (+1), Bow Mastery - Level 7, Burst Leap - Level 1, Sword Mastery - Level 2 (+1)

Tier 3: Mana Smelting - Level 6, Mana Refining - Level 4, Mana Sharpening - Level 3, Mana Repair - Level 3

Tier 4: Mana Forging - Level 1, Mana Tempering - Level 3, Mana Authority - Level 7, Rune Weaving - Level 1, Rune Engraving - Level 1, Rune Restoration - Level 1

Tier 5 Skill: Infernal Berserk - Level 1

Positive Attribute:

Mystic Chef Blessing: +65 Strength, +20 Endurance, +25 Vitality, +170 Dexterity +170, +100 Stamina

Minor Health Regeneration I

Minor Stamina Regeneration IMinor Stamina Regeneration I