When the skeletons died, their skulls broke to pieces, and all their joints disconnected, leaving piles of bones. On top of these bones are 4 marbles with a faint red glow to them. These are the mana cores that belong to the skeletons and they were also the red glow in their eye sockets.

Rin wonders how these skeletons were able to move without the support of muscles and such. He understands that magic can create limitless possibilities but that doesn’t stop him from being baffled. He pushes the thoughts to the back of his mind and grabs the mana cores.

Rin scours the house for any more hostile then searches for anything useful. The only thing that he found was some beef jerky so he adds it to his provisions and heads back to the street. There were extra spears where the bokin corpse was so he takes 1 and puts the club back in the backpack.

Rin guesses that the bokins and skeletons were fighting here. It’s even possible for the 5 bokins from yesterday to be from the same group as these ones here, they escaped the losing battle and thus ended up at that farmer’s house.

Rin was about to continue east but since he looted some more cores, he decides to learn the skill [Web Foot]. He currently has 8 bokin cores, 1 goblin core, and 4 skeleton cores.

He heads back inside the house where the skeletons were staying and uses [Inspect Mana Core] on 2 bokin cores and 1 skeleton core.

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[Mana Core: bokin]

Skills:

[Spear Mastery] Cost: 5 bokin cores or 5 skill points [Web Foot level 1] No longer hampered by muddy terrain. Move 10% faster in muddy terrain Swim 10% faster Cost: 2 Bokin cores or 2 skill points [Amphibian Lungs] Can breathe underwater Cost: 3 bokin cores or 3 skill points Note: 3 bokin cores can be absorbed for 1 skill point

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[Mana Core: skeleton]

Skills:

None Note: 4 skeleton cores can be absorbed for 1 core point

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The two bokin cores were the same as the ones from yesterday. Rin wasn’t surprised when he saw the skeleton’s info. Their patterns were too simple whereas the bokins could become a threat if they play their cards right.

Rin plans to absorb the skeleton cores for core points, but that will be for later. He has to spend a mana point on each one to absorb them, which he doesn’t want to do right now otherwise he would have to wait longer for his mana to regenerate and he doesn’t want to waste daylight.

Rin holds the 3 bokin cores and cast [Skill Plunder]. It doesn’t take long for the skill to finish.

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[You learn Web Foot level 1]

[Skill Armory level 1]

[Water Magic lvl 2] [Web Foot lvl 1] Change skills = 1/1

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Rin already filled up the slots for [Skill Armory]. He can still plunder additional skills but he wouldn’t be able to use them. Even if he unequips [Water Magic], for example, he still retains the knowledge about the skill but will be incapable of casting it whatsoever. That is the restriction placed upon him.

‘I need to increase the level but I don't know how. I hope it’s not through changing skills. That has a 15-hour cooldown, it would be arduous to do so.’

Rin drags all the bokin bodies inside the house. There’s a chance that he might come back this way so he hides the bodies inside so that he doesn’t encounter anything that could get attracted to them.

Rin continues east when his mana is back to full. It doesn’t take long for a brown house to come into view. He also spots the town just beyond the house, he is close.

Rin walks toward the house to loot it before continuing but when he walks near a tree in front of the house, he hears a scream from above. He looks up and sees a small green figure falling towards him. The green figure slashes at Rin with a knife as it falls.

Rin got spooked by the ambush. He jolts backward on reflex and raises his staff to shield him. But because he was caught by surprise, he couldn’t access the situation clearly. So the staff did not interrupt the knife and it slashes his left arm.

Rin creates some distance from his aggressor. Now that he gets a good look at the figure, he sees that it’s a goblin with a kitchen knife. The kitchen knife is thin so getting slashed by it would only create a flesh wound but the goblin dropped at a higher elevation so it was able to cut deeper than normal due to gravity. His left arm stings and blood is dripping.

A moment later, 3 more goblins run out of the house and head toward Rin. They heard their companion’s yell just now and came out to engage their enemy. The 3 goblins are equipped with knives like the first one.

Rin drops his backpack and runs away but the 4 goblins give chase, not wanting to let go an injured prey. After a few moments, Rin turns around and conjures a wave of water toward the goblins.

Rin’s intention wasn’t to run away. They were too close to the road, so he led them toward an area with more soil and conjures a wave with all his mana. This feat wasn’t too difficult as he only needs to conjure the water in front of him and pushes it toward the goblins.

His practice from yesterday paid off, he is no longer limited to the simple water ball but he still couldn’t shape it into anything refined, like a humanoid shape.

He created a wall of water and when he push it in a direction, the water moves like a wave. He doesn’t need to continuously control it, a slight push is all he needs to do and the water will move on its own. He wasn’t able to conjure as much water as the bokin so the terrain is smaller but it is sufficient for this battle.

The goblins ignore Rin’s effort and continue to chase him with all their might. Then, they put too much pressure on their next step, causing them to slip and fall. Seeing this opportunity, Rin drops the staff and rushes to the nearest goblin.

As Rin runs on the mud, the ground does not cave in to his steps thanks to the [Web Foot] skill, which also gives him a small boost to his running.

Rin reaches the first goblin before it could stand. He pierces the goblin’s neck from above with the spear then runs for the second goblin, which was halfway from getting up. But Rin stabs his neck from the side before he can stand.

By now, the last 2 of the goblins were already on their legs and they were both side by side. But Rin doesn’t care about that and rushes to both of them. Earlier, he was afraid of fighting 4 globins simultaneously because if he attacks one then that leaves him open to the other 3. But he believes that he can handle 2 as long as he keeps track of both of them.

The goblins didn’t know what to do in this situation, the tables turned too quickly for them to think of a solution for their current predicament. Not having the luxury to think of a plan, they simply decide to trade blows with Rin.

Rin goes for the one on the left and aims for the torso. He decides not to aim for the neck like usual just in case the goblin dodges it, their leg movements may be limited but not their upper body.

Rin successfully pierces him but it wasn’t enough to make him drop. The goblin tries his best to slash Rin with the knife but is unable to reach him. Rin pulls out the spear and goes for another stab. The strike connected but Rin had to let go of the spear to dodge a knife that was flying toward him.

The fourth goblin hadn’t moved because he fears falling again. But seeing that Rin has a longer reach than them, he decides to throw his knife while Rin was occupied. Unfortunately, Rin did not forget about him and was watching his movements the whole time.

The third goblin drops and now the last goblin is unarmed. Rin picks up his spear and quickly ends him.

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[4 Tier 1 goblins has been slain]

[+8 exp]

[Exp: 4/7] 🠖 [Exp: 5/9]

[Level up]

[Level 2 🠖 level 3]

[+2 stat points]