Chương 25

I went back to the square in a daze, unsure if the slight headache was due to low mana or from what I had seen. The simple fact was that we were outclassed in every conceivable way. If they attacked right now, we would all be killed. Even if we tried to run, those scouts would see us, and no one besides me could see them. I racked my brain, but couldn't think of any plausible scenario in which we could come out victorious. The one advantage we had right now was my skill allowing me to remain unseen.

However, I had only confirmed that my skill worked on the goblin scouts, not on any of the evolved monsters. If a goblin scout had turned into a hobgoblin scout, would my skill still keep me hidden? Even if it did, what could I do alone against hundreds of them. Pump all points into mana, sneak inside their base and kill them one by one in their sleep? I mentally snorted at the stupidity of that plan. Perhaps poisoning their food supply could work…?

Even if I ignore the fact that I had no poison or any means to get some, reaching their base, locating the food supply, poisoning it, and then sneaking out all in the limited amount of time I had under my skill was next to impossible. And that's assuming there was just one place where all the food was prepared. No, the answer was that we had to collectively use the one resource we had right now – the system.

Levelling up, gaining stats, evolving classes and skills, that was the only way I could think of that would maybe allow us to have a fighting chance. And that's only if the goblins kept waiting. Which begs the question… Why weren't they attacking? As far as I could see, they had no upside to waiting. Allowing us time to grow stronger and build some defenses would only hurt them the longer they waited.

And it's not like they were indifferent to us, otherwise they won't have had a team of scouts watching us day and night. No, there was something else stopping them. The most likely explanation was that the system was somehow stopping them from steamrolling us. It is a tutorial after all… The lack of any information from the system had made me forget, but this was a tutorial, which the system itself had described as 'a specially designed area to give new Users time to get familiar with the system'.

If the goblins were allowed to attack us, then it won't translate to the system giving us 'time' to get familiar. But was the system actually stopping them? The first encounter could be chalked up to chance; we were exploring and must have run into a goblin patrol or something. But after that, goblins had attacked us and the system hadn't done anything to stop them. It did warn us though. Not directly, but it did send a message. Could it be that the system had imposed restrictions on them after that attack?

Or perhaps it had limited the number of goblins that could attack at a time, and the goblins knew attacking again with a similar number would be a waste. But the number didn't make sense either. They had attacked with around forty or fifty goblins at the time, and a similar number of hobgoblins or ogres, or a mix of them, would have decimated us. It was then that it clicked for me. The system is restricting by quality. As soon as that thought came to me, I knew it was the one that made the most sense.

Stopping the more powerful hobgoblins and ogres, and instead allowing goblins to attack, makes the setting feel more 'tutorial' like. The question now was; how long would this protection last? I finally made it back, and upon entering the square, I marveled at how a couple hours changes perspective. In the morning, I had been impressed at the progress everyone was making, especially with the fence. Now, the four-foot fence seemed flimsy and something a child would make.

Shaking my head at the absurdity, I went inside the longhouse that I always slept in, and made my way to the end of the hall, ensuring I was alone before turning off concealed presence. I then stepped back out, looking around for Lucas or the others. I couldn't see anyone around, and the only thing I knew was that they had gone exploring on the other side of the river.

I wasn't going to go search for them blindly across the river; I hadn't even seen the river yet, so I had no idea how large it was or which section they had gone to. But there was one person who might know. They had mentioned that they would get Mason to scout out the shoreline in case they couldn't figure out a way to cross it, so that's where I headed. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Lucas, Sara, Mason, Ben, Madelline, Omar, and Marcus were all seated around me in the center of the square, with varying expressions of horror as they listened to all I had to say. Previously, I had spoken about the goblin scouts only to Lucas so that everyone didn't panic and ruin the advantage we had. But now, I think we needed a bit of panic, or urgency I should say.

I still didn't think the invisible goblin scouts should be mentioned to all, but I did believe I had to explain everything I knew to a lot more people. It was clear I couldn't do it all alone. Thus, I told them everything I knew. Not just about the goblins and their base, but also about how I had been able to upgrade my skill, and my theories on the system itself.

Sure, I could usually observe something and make an informed decision, but here, I couldn't observe even close to everything, and information was scarce, at best. I needed more minds to work on the problems we were facing. After I had finished, there was silence. Everyone was justifiably mortified at everything I had dumped on them and were taking the time to process it all. Even Lucas, who knew about the goblin scouts, looked lost at the scale of the goblin base I had described.

I gave them time, but the silence continued stretching, a bit longer than I thought was necessary.

"Is anyone going to say anything…?" I asked. A few of them jerked at my voice, having been so lost in spiraling thoughts that they had forgotten their surroundings. I know the feeling… Sara cleared her throat before speaking.

"What can we even say after hearing all that? It frankly sounds unbelievable." She looked around the square and shuddered, "you mean to say that we are being watched right now?"

"Yes, I can see about seven or eight of them observing us at the moment" I replied, not hiding anything. A collective shudder passed through the group and they started looking around with fear and disbelief. This is going nowhere. I looked at Lucas, trying to convey my thoughts through my eyes. He must've understood something, as he then spoke up.

"Let's start with something simple everyone. Why don't we just let everyone know of our levels?" he said.

"I'll start; I'm at level 6, what about you, Omar?" Thankfully, a brief moment of surprise later, Omar responded "I'm at 7. I guess I have you beat!" he laughed boastfully at that, and his infectious energy immediately spread through the group and calmed them down. Sara then spoke up about her reaching level 5, and everyone else then responded with their levels, which all hovered between 3 and 5.

Marcus was the lowest level at 3, followed by Madelline at 4 and Mason, surprisingly, at 5 with his Uncommon Production Class of Wildsman. It was an interesting Class, related to the production of a number of small but practical things that one could find in the wild. My turn to say my level came up last, and at my reveal of level 9, everyone went a bit silent again, until Omar spoke out, "Enjoy the moment my friend, I'll catch you soon!"

"I'd like to see you try!" I answered. The group then became active again, discussing my level, how it was unfair that stumbling upon an 'easy hack' with the kobolds led me to become the highest level here. A bit of teasing then fell onto Marcus, who complained that it was extremely hard for a healer to level. Lucas pointed out how Marcus wanted everyone to be near death after a fight so he could get experience, and that's why he was friends with me.

A bit more back and forth resulted in the group calming down, and moving onto the real matter at hand.

"I think we can all agree that we need to level up, gain some stats, and put them into perception so we can see the little bastards" Sara said.

"Not necessarily" I replied. At Sara's surprised expression, I explained my thought process.

"I wasn't referring to levelling up, that is absolutely needed. I meant putting points into perception. Every stat has its usefulness, and I think if someone here doesn't need perception at the moment, then don't put the stats in. Instead, focus on your core strengths. A team of tanks which had put their focus on Endurance, Vitality, and a bit of Strength and Dexterity, would be more useful in a fight rather than a team of different classes, all of whom have balanced stats."

I could see she was still not convinced, so I continued "Something Lucas made me realize is that we are not individuals here, we are a collective. And so are they. Having our own dedicated team of people with high perception to counter their scouts makes more sense to me. Leave the few scouts to them, and have the others focus on their class strengths to have the maximum firepower." Everyone looked thoughtful at that, but Sara was still not budging.

"That's a fine point, but I'm not going to stay blind and be unaware of something coming up to attack me when I can do something to prevent it. It'll only cost me 4 stats, so it's not a big deal. I would have done it already if I had the stats available." It looked like she wouldn't budge, and even though I knew logically my way made more sense, I could somewhat agree with her point too.

The group was fairly divided as well, and we spent a while discussing different build ideas and different strategies to come up with against the goblins. Out of the group, only Lucas and Omar had stats above the 10 mark, having Endurance and Intelligence past 10 respectively. The difference between those of us who had uncommon classes and those who didn't was becoming evident now. It was unanimously decided to level up so everyone could get stat points and start raising some stats past the threshold.

We were so focused on the bigger stuff like classes, stat optimizations, and build synergies, that we almost forgot a pretty basic element. Thankfully, it came to my mind, and I posed the question to the group.

"Um… guys, does anyone here actually know how to fight?" Blank faces stared back at me. Yup, we're definitely screwed.