Chapter 23
Randin had just given Grey a history lesson before heading off to forge some equipment, leaving Grey alone in the cave with his share of the crystal in hand.
Seeing Randin leave, Grey quickly decided to absorb the crystal, hoping to increase his Earth affinity—and it worked.
"The core gave me twenty points?! It even surpassed my wind attribute. And I'm not limited to the Earth in my hand—I can control the Earth around me!" Grey grinned, excitement bubbling in his chest.
"How do I test this?" He mumbled, scanning his surroundings until his eyes landed on the cave wall. "Time to get to work."
Stepping forward, Grey stretched his hands toward the rock without touching it. He moved them in a circular motion before pulling back and shouting, "Earth Shard!"
A small spike of Earth jutted out from the wall.
Without hesitation, he thrust his hands forward, launching the shard at another part of the wall. The spike embedded itself three inches deep.
"Haha! Perfect!" Grey grinned before sitting cross-legged to recover his mana.
"Now that I'm not limited to the Earth in my hand, I can be much more versatile. As long as I'm surrounded by Earth, I can use it." He closed his eyes, falling into meditation.
'According to the book, apart from absorbing crystals, I can also increase my Earth affinity by meditating in an Earth-rich environment. Since my hideout is surrounded by Earth, I'll do that when I return.'
After a few minutes of deep meditation, Grey's mana had fully recovered. He stood up and stretched.
"Now, where did that dwarf run off to?" Grey muttered, stepping out of the cave.
He scanned the area, but with countless caves around, spotting Randin was impossible. Resorting to another method, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Randin! Where are you?!"
Using wind magic, his voice traveled far, and soon, a response came. "Right here!"
Listening closely, Grey pinpointed the voice coming from the south. Activating his basic wind flight spell, he gently soared toward the mountain where Randin stood.
The mountain was massive, large enough to fit at least fifty regular humans inside. At its base, Randin stood with an irritated expression.
"Why the hell did you have to shout?!" Randin scowled.
"I couldn't find you, so I resorted to shouting. Any problem?" Grey raised an eyebrow.
"You fool! You could've attracted unwanted attention." Randin smacked his forehead.
"Unwanted attention? What kind? The beasts are far away and—" Grey paused mid-sentence, noticing Randin's serious expression. Before he could react, Randin pulled out his sword and pointed it—not at Grey, but behind him.
"You wanna fight me?" Grey laughed until Randin shook his head and then pointed his head to the side behind Grey.
Grey slowly turned around, and his eyes widened.
A dozen short, green creatures stood before them. Each had pointy ears, small fangs, and crude spears aimed directly at them.
"What are they?" Grey asked. "They don't look like beasts."
"Goblins." Randin's voice was grim. "They came to this planet with the otherworlders. They hunt any remaining dwarves. And right now, I'm the only one left."
Grey frowned. "So you've been hiding from them?"
"Of course! I know I'm not strong enough to fight them. But thanks to you, I've been caught."
"Do they have any special abilities?" Grey asked as he subtly twirled his fingers. The goblins' spears began glowing bright blue.
"Not them—but their weapons do!" Randin shouted as a blue lightning bolt shot toward them.
Randin rolled to the side while Grey used wind magic to propel himself away.
Regaining his footing, Grey stared at the goblins, shock and confusion evident on his face. "Their weapons have the lightning attribute?! But how?"
"I'd give you a history lesson, but now's not the time!" Randin tapped his wrist, and before Grey's eyes, armor wrapped around the dwarf's body. A helmet settled into place last.
"One last question—are they intelligent? And do they have a leader?"
"They're somewhat intelligent. They understand human language but can't speak it. And yes, they have a leader—the Goblin Lord. And he's very intelligent."
"Good." Grey smirked as flames erupted from his right arm and jagged rocks encased his left. "Cause after this place, I think I will visit the goblin lord next."
'When I first saw them, my instincts screamed at me to run. But if I run, Randin will struggle against them. And if I keep running from danger, how can I become a great mage?'
He clenched his fists. 'I've decided—I'll stay and fight. And maybe, I'll take their spears too.'
"Before you charge in, don't destroy their weapons. I need to examine them later." Randin warned.
"Wasn't planning on it!" Grey grinned before launching himself forward using wind magic.
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{A/N}
I know this is coming in late but hey guys! I'm going through a massive editing of my chapters for some days so as to enhance readability and edit grammatical errors which I have spotted a lot, and also punctuation errors.
In the process, my word count has come out to be a little short hence the dozens of author's note for a few chapters back. I'm so sorry for that because my negligence has cost both me and you all a little so my apologies.
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500 power stones= 2 extra chapters plus the normal release rate making it a total of 4 chapters to be released.
500 Golden tickets= 2 extra chapters plus the normal release rate making it a total of 4 chapters to be released.
Magic Castle= 5 chapters.
Spacecraft= 10 chapters.
Golden Gachapon= 15 chapters. Thank you all for your support and cooperation 😊✌️