The group headed forward to the entrance of the castle. After surveying the area, it seemed clear, and they decided to enter the stone building.
However, one figure intentionally remained behind.
It was Callum.
After unlocking the Soul Bank feature through the Soulmancy Talent, he wanted to collect the soul of at least one goblin as a first test.
Callum placed his right hand on the corpse of one of the Goblin Warriors, and then a series of messages appeared on the interface.
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[Do you want to collect the soul of this Goblin Warrior?]
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"Yes," he quickly responded with a slight grin, his eyes filled with anticipation.
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[Collection Failed!]
[The soul of the Goblin Warrior didn't reach the minimum compatibility rate]
[Minimum Compatibility Rate: 30%]
[When a monster's soul has less than 30% compatibility rate with Soulmancy, the Soul Collection and Storage will fail]
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Callum frowned. "That doesn't sound too good," he commented.
Staring at the Goblin Warrior's compatibility rate, which happened to be 11%, he withdrew his hand and tried to check on a Goblin Champion.
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[Collection Failed!]
[The soul of the Goblin Champion didn't reach the minimum compatibility rate]
[Minimum Compatibility Rate: 30%]
[Goblin Champion's Compatibility Rate: 18%]
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Unfortunately again, the Goblin Champion's soul wasn't compatible enough for the collection, and Callum had to back off.
He even tried testing other Goblin Warriors and Champions, but it still gave the same result.
"Callum! The hell are you doing there?!"
Alexa suddenly called from the top of the castle, and Callum had no choice but to leave the scene. He quickly met up with the group on the second floor of the castle, and they headed to the third and final floor.
It was amazing how the goblins had built the castle with this structure, using stones and mud for attachments. They even created stone steps that led to the upper floors, and large supportive stone pillars to hold it strong.
The group ended up not finding a single goblin on the first and second floors, but there was no doubt that the Goblin King and the Goblin Guardians would be on the third.
When they reached the final floor—the first and only room where the Goblin King's bone throne was spotted—they found no goblin.
Not even a single Goblin Guardian was seen.
"They are trying to escape the territory, over there," the young girl who had always predicted certain significant occasions spoke.
She pointed at a round opening at the back of the Goblin King's bone throne and approached it first.
There, a long ladder made with arm and thigh bones, tied together with white thick wooden threads, could be seen dropping to the ground.
They spotted three goblins, completely clad in real steel armor, leading and surrounding a slightly larger goblin with silver armor and a silver crown on his head.
"Let's go after them!" Alexa shouted and quickly began to descend through the ladders.
Callum followed suit immediately, and the other two did the same.
The group chased the goblins at the highest speed they could muster, and somehow, Alexa happened to have used Blitz Step to reach them first, blocking the escaping group while she bought time for the rest of the group to arrive.
When Callum and the others reached the scene, Alexa was already facing off with a Goblin Guardian.
The Goblin Guardians had one sole duty, which was to protect the Goblin King. The other two Goblin Guardians attacked Callum and the chain guy, fighting with the peak of their might.
However, this wasn't the kind of battle their enemies wanted... Whether they liked it or not, the Goblin King must die!
"Hey!" Callum called to the mysteriously predictive girl. "Over to you!"
Callum quickly diverted and moved away from the Goblin Guardian. Smartly enough, the girl already understood his plan and quickly took Callum's position in fighting the Goblin Guardian.
Thus, Callum walked toward the Goblin King...
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Goblin Name: [Goblin King]
Goblin Rank: [S]
Vitality: [100%]
Skill: [Bash Blow, Devour, Territorial Escape]
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Callum smirked at the last skill the Goblin King possessed. "Territorial Escape... That's got to be the shittiest skill a monster like a Goblin King could have."
Although the goblin must have been trying to escape for some reason, that didn't mean it was weak. The stats could tell… Unlike the rest of the goblins, it was S-ranked and had quite good stats.
That was something pretty impressive, but it wasn't going to stop Callum from fighting the Goblin King to its death.
With about 45 Mana left, he activated Crimson Severance and attacked with his sword.
Thus, the final battle of the Dreadpines Grove began.
Of course, the Goblin King wasn't carrying an actual weapon, but its body was a weapon itself.
The Goblin King's fists were wrapped with steel-like pointed structures that looked like nails, though much larger. These pointed steels were about 15 centimeters long, which would guarantee brutal damage if successfully launched against an opponent.
While Callum looked forward to attacking the Goblin King, he still had to be careful and defensive or he might get killed.
As a Level 2, the rate of his Vitality reducing after successful attacks against him would be large.
Callum didn't want to die...
CRAAAANK!
The first successful strike, with the combined force of Crimson Severance and his longsword, hit the Goblin's armor, and a loud clang of steel meeting steel reverberated through the scene.
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Vitality: [60%]
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After the first strike, the Goblin's Vitality surprisingly dropped by 40%.
After recalculating the rates, he now understood how it worked. Crimson Severance normally ignored 30% of the Goblin King's defense, which had reduced its life by 30%. And the 10% additional vitality loss was the actual damage the strike could cause to the Goblin King after piercing through the armor.
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Vitality: [59%]
Vitality: [58%]
...
Vitality: [55%]
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The next moment, Callum noticed the Goblin King's Vitality drop to 55%.
He nodded. Lingering Severance. It's one of the effects of the skill, which repeats 10% of the initial damage on the enemy every second for five seconds.
Since the initial damage was 10%, it meant 10% of that was 1%.
The Goblin King noticed it was dying after that crazy moment and didn't hesitate to throw itself at Callum.
Thanks to Callum's growing agility, he was able to avoid a full Bash Blow, though he unfortunately got clipped on the left arm by the tip of one of the nails. That didn't stop him from making another strike.
This time, he made sure to make two consecutive strikes at once, finishing the Goblin King before it could even react.
The last strike was to its neck, beheading the king of Dreadpines Grove without remorse.
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[You have slain an S-Rank Ordinary Monster: Goblin King of the Dreadpines Grove. A Territory Boss. +220 EXP]
[You have gained 10 Stat Points!]
[Goblin King has dropped a Loot]
[Loot Name: Goblin King's Cursed Hide Cloak]
[You have leveled up to Level 3!]
Level: [3] (225/350 EXP)
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Seeing the notification on the interface, Callum smiled as he breathed almost heavily.
Without wasting a second, he quickly placed his hand on the corpse of the Goblin King after a thought crossed his mind.
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[Do you want to collect the soul of the Goblin King?]
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"Mm-hmm," Callum nodded at once.
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[Collection Analyzed! Compatible Collection Verified]
[Collection in progress...]
[Collection Complete!]
[Soul Bank has successfully accepted the soul of the Goblin King. Stored!]
[Congratulations, you have collected and stored your first soul!]
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Callum sighed, a satisfied look appearing on his face.
"Hey Callum, that was fast! Your skill is really a good one," Alexa approached him shortly, smiling, visibly delighted.
"Of course, and we have your father to thank for that," Callum replied and grabbed the loot the Goblin King dropped.
.
.
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[A/N: Kindly try to support the book with power stones to fuel the author's energy to write more. Thanks for reading!]