Chapter 240: A Lot of Goblins

He was able to tell right away that these goblins weren’t even Tier 3 yet. It seemed that all of them were around Tier 2 and that the main threat they posed was their numbers.

Not even because he was afraid they would overwhelm him, but because he believed that taking care of all of them without expending a lot of energy would be kind of difficult.

He didn’t feel threatened but he couldn’t help but feel wary about the first wave having so many enemies.

He had been half expecting a dozen or so monsters. Nothing like the horde of goblins running up the hill at him.

Shaking his head slightly, he prepared himself anyway.

He took a construct hovering over his shoulder and broke it down. Turned it into a couple dozen smaller needles of mana and took aim.

Once he was confident he sent them screeching through the air, razing over half the horde in a single attack. Not every needle hit a goblin in the head but the way he layered them, he was guaranteed that the needles to continue to the next target after they pierced the first goblin.

Only around a third of the needles were still usable after the first attack, but he still made sure to use them to finish off the rest of the goblins off, only targeting the goblins who were still running at him.

There were many who were injured on the ground, but the ones who could still fight posed a greater threat.

However, once that was done, he went over to the injured goblins. Some had missing limbs or holes in their chests and he quickly dispatched them.

What he did notice, was that these monsters didn’t act like the goblins he had fought in the past nor the monsters he had fought in any rift.

While monsters normally didn’t have the most impressive intelligence, they still had animalistic tendencies. These goblins were different though.

They had this weirdly feral attitude but also this dead stare in their eyes. It was quite unnerving to see up close.

He shook his head, pushing away those thoughts for the time being. He had to get ready for the next wave in ten minutes.

This was just the first wave, the easiest if the notification were to be trusted. He just hoped that the difficulty increments were not that drastic.

He was also very happy that he didn’t use much if any mana. He felt that he did a great job being efficient while also not taking too much time.

That being said, his opponents were only Tier 2, so it was hard to say it was a balanced fight. He also didn’t know if he would be facing more Tier 2s in the next wave.

Speaking of the next wave, Julius watched as the bodies of the goblins slowly evaporated into light and disappeared completely.

It was a very interesting thing to see, it must have been some sort of mechanism of the rift.

Congratulations, First Wave completed… Please wait ten minutes for the Second Wave.

As the bodies disappeared, he was left on top of the hill, just waiting there for the next wave to start. He knew that he was going to have to wait for ten minutes so while he waited, he decided to see if he could find himself an advantage.

He walked down the hill and took one of his constructs in hand. He then remolded it into a large shovel before attempting to jam it into the ground.

However, to his shock, he found himself completely unable to do so. It was like the grassy dirt was made of steel. But he also knew for a fact that it wasn’t. Just moments prior, he saw small holes created from his attack against the goblins.

Is the rift preventing me from using the terrain to my advantage? That doesn’t seem fair, what if I had some sort of trap-making skill set that required me to dig the ground up?

Regardless, now that he knew, he just stood back and waited for the ten minutes to be up.

***

Ten minutes were gone before he knew it. It was easy to see that was because another wave of tiny green monsters spawned before his very eyes.

They were still goblins, but this time it seemed the rift believed that fifty of them wasn’t enough of a challenge and sent a hundred of them this time around.

It really didn’t make much of a difference. The only thing that really changed was that he needed to use slightly more mana than last time. But that was all, he easily took care of the hundred goblins without any trouble.

Congratulations, Second Wave completed… Please wait ten minutes for the Third Wave.

***

The third wave thankfully didn’t double the amount of goblins and only added another fifty.

And the fourth wave did the same thing. A total of two hundred goblins all stormed up the hill at him with dead eyes and feral screams.

He couldn’t help but wonder how others would be fair if they were in his position. But he also didn’t know if they would be undergoing the same types of waves he was experiencing. It was possible that by choosing the hard difficulty each wave specifically presented monsters based on each Challenger’s abilities instead of something more standard.

Perhaps, Reinera was facing off against more powerful monsters but in smaller numbers. However, he didn’t doubt that she would choose hard, she liked to pretend she wasn’t but she was very competitive.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He was almost hoping for something like that instead. Because at this point there were so many goblins that were sprinting at him that he wasn’t able to take them out before they got closer than he wanted them to.

With that being said, they were still only Tier 2 and weren’t much of a problem at all.

In fact, it was actually more unnerving than anything else. He didn’t care if the goblins were weak, even for their tier, they just reminded him of an army of rats trying to take down an animal.

And in this case, he was the animal. With a shiver, he took out a small snack as he waited for his expended mana to recover.

Congratulations, Fourth Wave completed… Please wait ten minutes for the Fifth Wave.

***