A rain of arrows and throwing spears swept in from all directions, the thuds of them embedding themselves in the tree trunks echoing one after another.
The two wild boars rampaged beneath the trees.
Roger kept leaping and shifting through the tree canopy. With the enhancement of Windwalk, the goblins and wild boars were always a step behind him.
However, his remaining mana reserves, which were now less than half, reminded him that the longer this dragged on, the lower his chances of victory.
During a brief pause between leaps, he opened the system shop once more and quickly searched for the keyword “poison.” The holographic interface expanded before his eyes, displaying a vertical column of icons.
His gaze landed on a new entry:
【Name: Hallucinogen
Quality: Common
Description: A potion mixed with neurotoxins extracted from psychedelic mushrooms and poisonous fungi. Once hit, the toxin rapidly enters the brain through blood circulation, causing the target to experience intense hallucinations in a short period. They will gradually lose the ability to distinguish friend from foe, showing a tendency to attack all moving objects indiscriminately.
The duration of the effect depends on the target's size and constitution; larger targets may require a higher dosage to take effect.
Exchange Points: 200】
“Points -200, balance 920.”
Roger pressed the exchange button, and a bottle of dark blue potion appeared in his hand.
After leaping to the next tree, he uncorked the bottle as quickly as possible and coated the tip of a common arrow with the hallucinogen.
Nocking the arrow, Roger aimed at the wild boar that had not been shot yet. At this moment, the boar was scraping its hooves on the ground nearest to the goblin horde, preparing for its next charge.
Roger released the bowstring, and the arrow embedded itself precisely into the wild boar's back.
The wild boar shuddered and shook its head, as if trying to shake off the sudden sting on its back.
It snorted a few times, scraped its hooves on the ground twice, and then stopped, its eyes bloodshot.
A few seconds later, it suddenly whipped its head around, let out a piercing squeal, and violently gored to the side with its tusks.
A nearby goblin was tossed high into the air, landing in the distant bushes with no further movement.
The remaining goblins had not expected this at all. They stared blankly as the suddenly crazed wild boar rampaged through their ranks.
The spear-wielders raised their short spears to surround it, but they couldn't withstand the impact of the tusks. In the blink of an eye, several more goblins were flung away, their screams and curses blending together.
Before the goblins could recover from the chaos, Roger quickly coated a second common arrow with the hallucinogen and shot it at the other wild boar.
The other wild boar's eyes also gradually became bloodshot, and it began to launch indiscriminate attacks on the surrounding goblins.
Seeing this, a goblin commander riding a large bird shouted repeatedly in a raspy voice at its subordinates below, driving them forward to block the rampaging wild boar.
Immediately after, an arrow struck its neck. It fell backward off the bird's back, twitched a few times on the ground, and stopped moving.
“Points +60, balance 980.”
Without stopping for a second, Roger drew another arrow and aimed at the last bird-riding goblin.
In the next instant, the arrow pierced its body.
“Points +60, balance 1,040.”
The last bird-riding goblin tumbled from its mount, trampled twice by the rampaging wild boar as it hit the ground.
With all three commanders shot down in less than a minute, the goblins below suddenly lost their leader.
The once tight encirclement quickly dissolved without a leader, turning into dozens of scattered stragglers running around like headless chickens.
As for Roger perched in the tree, he seemed to have been temporarily forgotten. He coated his remaining common arrows with the hallucinogen and shot them at the wild boars to keep the effect going.
As the crazed wild boars continued to rampage through the goblin crowd, Roger took advantage of the chaos to leap to a more distant tree, staying away from the melee to ensure he wouldn't be caught by the boars or stray arrows.
The two wild boars under the influence of the hallucinogen quickly spotted each other. In the next second, they charged simultaneously, their massive heads slamming together with immense force.
With tusks locked, they bit, gored, and thrashed at each other, locked in a fierce struggle in the middle of the goblin crowd.
The surrounding goblins scrambled to escape, but several were still caught in the crossfire, trampled into mush during the clash between the two wild boars.
While the goblins' attention was entirely occupied by the wild boars, Roger hid in the shadows of the canopy and began picking off the goblin archers.
Arrows flew silently from the darkness of the tree crown. With every twang of the bowstring, a goblin archer collapsed to the ground.
“Points +250, balance 1,290.”
After he shot down five archers in a row, the remaining goblins finally snapped out of the chaos caused by the wild boars and spotted the figure firing from the canopy.
Some of the archers hastily turned their bows to fire back, their arrows clattering against the branches and leaves where he hid.
Roger immediately cast Windwalk again. Carried by an updraft, his body leapt lightly away from the branch, shifting to another tree before the archers' arrows could catch up to him.
The two wild boars had been goring each other for a long time, both punctured with numerous holes by the other's tusks. Their movements grew slower, and their squeals weakened.
Ultimately, they let out low whimpers almost simultaneously, their bodies collapsing to the ground one after the other.
“Points +600, balance 1,890.”
Watching from a distance, Roger let out a sigh of relief.
With these two major threats gone, the remaining goblins were nothing more than fish on a cutting board to him. He drew his bow and began methodically raining arrows down on the goblins within his line of sight.
The twang of the bowstring echoed repeatedly through the dark forest, each shot calmly and precisely hitting its target.
“Points +750, balance 2,640.”
By the time Roger fired his last common arrow, the forest had returned to silence, and there were barely any goblins left standing in his sight.
Some were dead, others had fled. Only a handful of the slowest and luckiest ones remained, throwing down their weapons and curling up on the ground, shivering in fear.
Roger did not hesitate either, treating each green skin to a Fireball, praising them for being sensible and not putting up a useless resistance.
Goblins were creatures that never showed mercy to captives, so he had no intention of wasting his own mercy.
“Points +250, balance 2,890.”
Roger then looted all the equipment dropped by these green skins and recycled them into the system, earning another 400 points, bringing his total to 3,290.
He cast a final glance at the goblin corpses scattered across the battlefield, then turned and walked back toward the camp.
Everyone in the camp was busy with their own tasks, and no one noticed that Roger had slipped out and returned.
Roger walked through the camp, heading straight for Baron Raymond's tent.
The two guards outside the tent naturally recognized the young mercenary. Seeing him approach, one of them stepped forward to ask his business.
Roger got straight to the point. “I have some matters to report to Lord Raymond.”
The guard nodded, turning and entering the tent to report. In less than a minute, he lifted the tent flap, walked back out, and gestured for Roger to enter.
Upon meeting Baron Raymond, Roger detailed everything he had seen and heard in the forest, though he intentionally concealed his reason for entering, merely claiming he had dropped something.
Hearing this, Baron Raymond pondered briefly before speaking:
“I am glad you brought back this information in time. The scouts' previous reports indeed had major omissions. This gives us a rough understanding of the actual scale of the goblins in the forest, so we won't march in blindly without knowing anything.”
“However, I still hope that before you take any action next time, you will inform me in advance.”
Roger nodded in agreement without offering any excuses.
Accepting a few gold coins from Baron Raymond as a reward, Roger bowed to him and left the tent.
Avoiding the crowded areas, he walked straight back to his own tent, pulled the flap shut, lay down on his bedding, and pretended to be asleep.
After reviewing his recent achievements in his mind, he opened the system shop and exchanged points for the 【Alchemy Specialization】 he had his eye on.
“Points -600, balance 2,690.”
Before entering the forest, his plan had been to use his accumulated points to learn alchemy and exchange them for some alchemical equipment like crucibles and flasks to process all the medicinal herbs he had stored into finished products.
But now, looking at his points which had surpassed three thousand, he had a new idea.
Alchemy was definitely something he had to learn; alchemical potions with various uses were one of his foundational assets for survival, and he would have to unlock it sooner or later.
As for how to allocate the remaining points after learning alchemy, two ideas clashed in Roger's mind.
The first was to save the remaining points for future emergencies.
The second was to exchange them for more basic skills to make his combat style more versatile.
As for why he didn't just save up enough points to exchange directly for a high-level skill, the reason was simple.
Aside from being far from having enough points, many high-level skills had strict requirements for base attributes.
With his current levels of Life Energy and magic, even if he gritted his teeth and saved up enough points, he would likely only be able to stare helplessly because he couldn't meet the requirements.
After thinking it over, he decided not to commit fully to either path but to take a bit of both.
Since he had already spent six hundred on alchemy, he would browse the remaining points first. If there was something suitable, he would learn one or two more; if not, he would save them.
He turned his gaze back to the holographic panel, and before long, his eyes stopped on a certain entry.
This was the one.
Rate on N.U.
