The third arrow struck Hiro and embedded itself deep into his thigh.
Three arrows were more than enough ti for Hiro to regain his wits. One thought dominated his mind.
'More arrows are coming.'
Pain surged through his body, but his mind worked faster than ever. He forced himself to react imdiately. With great speed, he created a spherical Force Vector that surrounded him.
The latest volley of arrows struck the invisible barrier and bounced away.
At the sa ti, Tara's voice echoed in his mind. Trouble was brewing at the camp. However, he couldn't afford to split his focus right now. Therefore, he ended the telepathic link so he could focus completely.
Blood seeped from his wounds and the ambushers still remained hidden in the shadows. His situation was far from good.
The only reason he was still alive was because of his STR stat. His increased muscle density had prevented the arrows from piercing too deep and reaching any of his vital organs.
His STR stat also enhanced his body's natural regeneration. But at this mont, it wasn't high enough for his wounds to heal instantly.
His Carna was depleting at an alarming rate. Even amidst the pain and discomfort, Hiro noticed sothing new.
Whenever his Force Vectors t an object, he "sensed" it. Maybe this was due to his increased MAGIC stat. For example, right now, as arrows struck his barrier, he got a rough idea of the position, direction and force with which they were hitting.
By focusing on these deformations, he could roughly determine the direction the arrows were coming from.
While that was a great realization to have, there were also a few not-so-great things about the current situation.
First of all, he seed to be surrounded by whoever was shooting.
And secondly, moving around was hard. His thigh, shoulder and abdon had been hit. Large movents were impossible.
'My Carna!' In addition, Hiro realized that he had lost 50 Carna in just a few seconds. But he did not dare to reduce the power of the Force Vector around him.
'Relax, relax. I'm safe as long as I have Carna,' Hiro told himself, mainly in order to regain his cool.
'I don't think I can effectively fight back with my current injuries though. Is there sothing I can do to treat them?' Hiro started thinking.
"Carnalia, any ideas?" Two brains were better than one.
However, there was no response from Carnalia. Seeing that there was no response, Hiro felt a little embarrassed.
'I kind of deserve the silent treatnt. I talked big after killing the Hill Giant and got into a near death situation almost imdiately...'
That was obviously not the real reason why Carnalia wasn't responding. Her telepathic connection with Hiro was cut off by the Rules because of the kind of situation Hiro was in. But he did not know that yet.
"Still not saying anything? That's petty." Hiro figured he did not have ti to deal with Carnalia right now.
He continued thinking on his own.
'Right, the stone tablet!'
Hiro realized that he could summon the stone tablet and buy sothing from its Shop which could heal him. His mind relaxed further after realizing that even in the worst case scenario, he would at least survive.
'The Shop is absolutely going to rip off though,' Hiro sighed. But now was not the ti to worry about stuff like that. He was about to summon the stone tablet.
But in that mont, sothing changed in front of him.
A strange magical phenonon started happening around the bulge of the mysterious plant. The plant produced a fruit which quickly grew in size in real ti.
Inhale.
For the first ti in his life, Hiro realized what "life", or rather "lifeforce" slled like. It was a deeply refreshing and intoxicating sll. The more Hiro slled it, the greedier he beca for more.
The fruit practically radiated lifeforce.
The number of arrows that were fired in his direction increased all of a sudden.
'They must also be after this fruit,' Hiro realized.
And then, a couple of hobgoblins wielding lee weapons entered the clearing. They raised their weapons and shouted so incomprehensible battle cry before charging straight at him.
'It's fricking goblins again!'
Seeing them approach, Hiro's intuition scread at him. His body protested with pain, but he forced himself toward the plant. Fortunately, one of his hands was still free of arrows.
With that hand, he gripped the fruit and yanked it forcefully, tearing it from the plant before stuffing it into his mouth and swallowing it whole.
His intuition had not failed him. A ticklish sensation spread across his wounds, and in real ti, he could feel himself healing. And not just healing—he was healing fast. The arrows were pushed out of his body as new flesh rapidly took their place.
A notification appeared on his status screen.
[Your natural lifespan has increased by 3 years.]
The goblins beca furious the mont they saw Hiro devour the 'treasure' they had been after. But before the lee hobgoblins could reach him, an invisible force blocked their advance.
When he first got ambushed, in a mont of panic, Hiro had cranked up the magnitude of his defensive Force Vector far too much. It wasn't just blocking the arrows—it was even preventing the hobgoblins from getting close to him.
That explained the ridiculously high Carna consumption.
Just as the lee attackers were thrown back, Hiro's healing completed. Now, he was ready to fight for real.
He slowly decreased the magnitude of the spherical Force Vector, adjusting it so it would still block the arrows but no longer prevent the hobgoblins from entering.
This dramatically reduced the rate at which his Carna was being drained.
While keeping the Force Vector around himself, Hiro shot forward, club in hand, blitzing across the clearing. The lee hobgoblins barely had ti to react, much less resist.
There was nothing refined about Hiro's movents. He aid for their heads, nothing more. Each swing of his club was a single, decisive strike. One bonk. One dead hobgoblin. That was how the fight unfolded.
It did not take long for the lee attackers to lay lifeless on the ground. Yet, funnily enough, the ranged ambushers were STILL firing their arrows.
'How stupid are these monsters? Can't they see how ineffective their attacks are?'
To be fair, their attacks were still draining his Carna, but there was no way for the goblins to know that.
Hiro did not imdiately rush into the woods to kill the goblin archers.
'I wonder if there's an elegant and efficient way to locate their positions... Wait! Would that work? I need to test this.'
A realization dawned on him. He wanted to take full advantage of his newfound ability to "feel" whenever his Force Vectors ca into contact with an object.
He did not waste any ti before starting his experint.
While keeping his spherical defensive vector intact, Hiro created a new Vector.
This one took the shape of a large cuboid. However, despite its size, the actual magnitude of the force was extrely small. Because of this, the Carna consumption for this new Force Vector remained very low.
He then began slowly expanding the force vector in a square formation along the horizontal plane. Essentially, the cuboid grew along the X and Y axes but not the Z axis.
As the cuboid expanded, Hiro perceived every object it touched.
So had the shape of trees and plants.
So had the shape of rocks.
And so had the shape of goblins. His experint was a success.
Hiro grinned. "Found you!"
There were three archers positioned on three different sides of him. Naturally, with their locations exposed, none of them survived for long.
Very soon, the last goblin archer lay dead at Hiro's feet, its skull caved in. Goblin blood coated his steel club. But now was not the ti to admire his success.
After killing the final goblin, the very first thing Hiro did was check on Tara.
Although he had severed the telepathic link, the Harem Link itself remained active, which ant she was still alive. Rather than using telepathy to speak to her, Hiro activated [Inspect Sense] to directly observe what was happening at the camp.
Reviews
All reviews (0)