10,000x Reward Multiplier: Hell-level Kingdom Building-Chapter 13: [0] Den’s Secret

"Young chief is not back yet," Anton confided in Jabba with a deep frown on his face.

"I noticed," Jabba responded, staring in the direction Floki had chased the goblin, silently hoping he would soon emerge from the bushes.

But nothing really happened.

"This is not good. The young chief should’ve been back by now... Unless.."

Anton’s eyes widened, and he quickly turned to his brother with a panicking expression spreading across his face.

"The goblin den we found that day. Wasn’t it near this place?"

At the mention of it, Jabba’s expression froze as he instantly understood what that meant.

"We cannot let the young chief enter that place!"

Jabba bellowed with urgency and immediately began to sprint with all the agility his legs could possibly muster.

Anton did not hesitate at all and quickly followed behind his brother.

There were many reasons they had not dared to enter this particular goblin den.

If their young master were to enter that den, dying a quick death would be mercy!

"Faster!"

Jabba bellowed loudly at Anton as he accelerated forward even more.

======

PHEW!

The menacing sound echoed as the basketball sized fireball released by the three goblin mages shot speedily through the air in Floki’s direction.

Cursing his bad luck, Floki mustered all the strength he could manage and flung his body toward his left flank, ignoring the rough texture of the ground that could easily injure him.

BOOM!

The fireball exploded against the wall behind him with a loud sound that shook that region of the passageway.

The goblins, undeterred by their failed attack, began to chant and make strange hand movements as they prepared another fireball.

’Damnit, they have mages too!’

Floki barked inwardly.

Goblin mages were pretty rare from what he knew through his sources, and they were the perfect long range fighters. Of course, except for the goblin archers who were also pretty rare.

’So this den has one... this makes everything a lot trickier, especially considering I have no long range skill in my possession,’ he analyzed in his mind.

He kept his eyes fixed on the goblin mages as they continued with their strange magic ritual.

Aside from knowing about the rarity of their race, he also understood most of their strong points and weak points.

But are these guys the same as the ones he read about in novels? he wondered.

There were many different novels, and some authors had made their goblin mages special in many ways that made it difficult for him to pick a specific pattern for these guys.

This only left him with one option.

To observe, analyze, and come up with his own strategy.

With that in mind, he acted.

He quickly created a step by step plan in his mind to execute the goblin mages.

He carefully watched their movements and listened to the rhythm of their chants while inwardly counting how much time it took them to activate their spell.

With a final loud collective chant from the three goblins, a fireball much bigger than a basketball flew outward toward him. This one was noticeably faster. The sound as it sliced through the dry air was much louder and more terrifying than the last.

But Floki was less fazed than before.

He simply laid down flat on the ground in the midst of the corpses, not regarding the pool of smelly blood that stained his body.

The fireball flew over his head. He could tell by the brief moment of intense heat that beat against his back.

Once he heard the familiar booming sound of the fireball exploding, he stood up, grabbed the smallest goblin corpse he could find, and began sprinting toward the goblin mages who had already begun chanting once more.

’Because of my currently low stamina, my speed and strength have been reduced by almost 70%,’ Floki muttered inwardly.

’It takes the goblins about ten seconds to finish their casting. Right now their chants and hand signals are the same as before, so they would be releasing a big fireball again and casting under the same timing.’

’The passageway is quite long and with this goblin weight slowing me down, it would take at most thirty seconds to reach them.’

’But I cannot throw this goblin corpse away. I need it.’

Floki’s thoughts ran wildly as he cautiously and sluggishly closed the distance with the goblin mages. His current movement pace could be compared to someone walking fast or lightly jogging.

But it was the wisest approach in the current situation.

’Now!’

Floki barked inwardly and immediately fell flat to the ground once more. This time he placed the goblin corpse on his back to weaken the incoming heat.

As he expected, the fireball was released and flew straight over him.

The goblin mages were not smart enough to lower their spells.

That was another point he quickly noted in his mind.

With the available points in his mental arsenal, he was certain he could kill them despite his low stamina.

He rose up once more even though his body felt extremely worn out.

But this time he did not move immediately. He maintained a stable posture and then rolled the goblin corpse from his hands across the ground.

The goblin corpse rolled a short distance before halting, leaving a long trail of blood behind it.

’Good, no traps in this part,’ he thought to himself.

Then he followed that particular path carefully until he arrived at the goblin corpse, which he picked up again.

At that moment, just as Floki had predicted, another fireball was released.

And this time it was much lower than the previous two.

’They picked up already but no matter.’

This time he held the corpse tightly against his chest and moved to his right, pressing his body against the wall until the fireball flew past him, failing to catch him once again.

Floki acted quickly once more. He rolled the goblin corpse on the ground again and this time it activated traps.

Above the ceiling, a wooden structure constructed by the goblins revealed itself, and immediately afterward a barrage of arrows fired toward the position of the corpse.

"I knew it!" Floki smirked before rushing forward to close the distance with the corpse.

His step by step strategy became his main method at that moment.

He repeated the same set of actions again and again until, after some time, he finally arrived in front of the goblin mages who had begun to panic.

As Floki predicted, goblin mages had very low physical strength and defense in comparison to their high magic stats. As a result, a level 5 goblin mage was only as strong as a level 2 or at most level 3 goblin warrior.

Using this to his advantage, he grabbed the arrows he had collected earlier from the trap that had been activated and stabbed the three of them to death one after another without hesitation.

[ You’ve slain x3 goblin mage, EXP +75 ]

[ 10x multiplier applied. EXP +750 ]

[ Total EXP: 3450 ]

With this much experience points in his reserve and his current condition, it would be unwise not to level up.

So he poured 1000 experience points and rose to level 6, now left with 2450 experience points.

His body felt revitalized at that moment. His tiredness was relieved slightly, though not completely.

Just as he was interacting with his system, his ears suddenly picked up a series of sounds that should not exist in a place like this.

And when he slowly turned his head toward the direction of the sound, what he saw made his mind go blank for a few seconds.