Reincarnated As A Dragon With Cheats-Chapter 39: The Named Goblins (2)

Chapter 39: The Named Goblins (2)

Ding!

[Your first avatar, Azeth, is in danger.]

While Pebbles was gathering some information from Azatoth, the notification popped up.

He paused and glanced at the system screen. In a third-person perspective, the scene came into view.

Azeth was using his skills back to back, but the opponents seemed more or less unscathed.

’A shaman...?’ Pebbles thought to himself.

Azatoth had already mentioned the shaman, and now he was visible to Pebbles. However, Pebbles had not expected him to be around the Chunk Village.

Pebbles had not considered the possibility that the village was already under the Shaman’s control.

"We need to hurry."

Pebbles turned around and used his skill [Run].

He was a bit too fast for Nightstone, and hence he had made sure Azatoth would carry her.

"Bring your senior along."

"Yes, master."

Azatoth picked Nightstone up with ease. She crawled upward and climbed onto his back after the initial lift.

After that, he ran right behind Pebbles, making sure to keep no more than a meter of distance between them.

Pebbles kept looking at the system and asking questions at the same time, all while dodging roots and pushing through bushes in the dark.

It was difficult to run like that while watching the screen, but his instincts had sharpened.

Furthermore, due to his recent leveling up, he could now feel his surroundings even with his eyes closed, so his bad eyesight didn’t hinder.

’The mission said to gain the trust of these goblins, didn’t it? Then why are they attacking?’

[Note: Goblins are naturally hostile toward dragons.]

Pebbles knew that was not the only reason.

’Azatoth mentioned that the Shaman is uniting the goblin tribes... has he already become their leader?’

Pebbles glanced back for just a second as he asked,

"Azatoth, the Shaman has taken control of the Chunk Tribe. Did you know about that?" 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"Pardon?"

"Yes. Azeth is fighting the goblins from the Chunk Tribe. And there’s a Shaman there."

Azatoth’s gaze fell as he realized the gravity of the situation.

He had been instructed by the voice to protect the village.

Now he finally understood why the voice had stopped speaking a few days ago.

Azatoth had eliminated half of the Frog-Men, but in the process he had been injured and poisoned.

He had dragged the corpses of the Frog-Men he killed into a cave and began eating them to absorb their life energy.

As a being with the Death attribute, he could do that naturally.

However, it took him quite some time to recover.

And just as he had fully healed, he had become Pebbles’ avatar.

Because of that, he had completely missed the latest changes in the village.

But after hearing such a thing, he paused in his tracks. It was too sudden. His legs scraped against the mushy ground as some roots got entangled with his claws.

He simply lifted his legs and broke free.

Pebbles wouldn’t have stopped if not for Nightstone’s girlish scream.

"Kyaa!"

He turned back, walked a few steps, and asked after stabilizing his breath,

"What’s wrong?"

Azatoth gulped hard. His expression was worth seeing... quite nervous and astonished.

"Master, I think the Shaman is planning something big."

"Something big?"

"Yes, master. Like... maybe preparing sacrifices?"

Pebbles found the idea interesting and slightly amusing.

"Sacrifices? You mean for a ritual or something?" Pebbles had already seen a ritual of sorts back in the dungeon, so perhaps it was the same, if not quite similar.

"Yes, master. I think he wants to conduct a ritual... and he needs many sacrifices. Goblins are weak and exist in great numbers. They are the perfect dummies for rituals."

Pebbles raised his right hand and placed it on his mask, right above his mouth as he thought about it.

Azatoth was absolutely right.

Terrifyingly right.

The sacrifices in the dungeon had not been that many. But if each goblin tribe had roughly five hundred goblins... then what the Shaman was trying to do was not just a simple power-up.

Pebbles instantly looked at the system screen again and said loudly,

"Azeth, a very important order. Get out of the village!"

Right after saying that, he resumed his sprint.

.

.

.

Almost thirty goblins jumped.

They were mid-air as Azeth thought of using his Dragon Breath skill.

He changed his mind.

’Master wants to gain their trust... killing them would be a bad idea.’

His mouth had opened wide. Very wide. A small orb of black flames had almost formed within it.

But he stopped.

That hesitation gave the goblins enough time to get closer.

They landed as near as possible, just a few centimeters away.

This time, it was the goblins who opened their mouths wide, revealing yellowish, somewhat sharp but broken rows of disordered teeth.

Along with that, they used their claws as weapons and tried to harm Azeth.

It was anything but harm.

It tickled him.

He almost laughed.

Elder Lake noticed that the bites were ineffective. Five goblins had tried first, but then the rest followed.

All of their teeth simply broke.

Due to pain, they flinched backward, only to make way for more goblins to jump in... and they too had their teeth shattered.

In the end, no one learned the lesson.

All thirty goblins ended up with broken teeth and chipped claws.

Azeth stood there covered in slimy saliva that smelled absolutely terrible.

Azeth wrinkled his nose in annoyance and covered it with one claw.

"You... idiot, Bongo! Uck!"

The Shaman had distanced himself from Azeth because of the smell. But the primary reason was that he wanted a good seat to watch the battle.

The thirty or so goblins took several steps back.

"His skin is strong!" said one of them.

"We can’t break it. Run!"

"Run!" they repeated in synchrony as they scattered around, trying to escape.

They were, in fact, an embarrassment to everyone present.

An embarrassment for named monsters.

"Pathetic."

Azeth’s words reached Elder Lake, who lowered his gaze instantly.

After a few seconds of silence, he raised his head again. During that pause, he had scanned the surroundings, noticing the looks of disdain from the younger goblins.

"Gather around!" he screamed as he lifted the stick that had been supporting him until now.

He pointed it toward Azeth and made a bold declaration.

"You cowards! What are you running away for!? We have the protection of our great Lord! We can easily kill someone like this guy!"

The goblins paused in their tracks.

But the speech was not convincing enough.

Zobo was one of the goblins who had not participated despite having a name. Right now, his mouth was full of rat meat.

He seemed to enjoy the food more than the scene in front of him.

When he saw the elder getting angry, a wide smile spread across his face.

"Look at me. I will kill him alone. Watch me!"

Elder Lake glanced back at the Shaman, who was floating about five meters in the air, sitting comfortably on a wooden chair.

Then he stepped forward.

He pointed his left hand toward Azeth and made a gesture, as if inviting him to attack first.

"Bring it on."

Azeth could not help but look confused.

He glanced at the younger goblins, who were almost on the verge of cheering for Elder Lake.

Then he asked,

"Has your elder gone senile or what? Surely you don’t think he can survive my Dragon Breath, do you?"

In truth, none of them believed he could.

After all, those superior wolves had almost turned to ashes after Azeth’s brief demonstration earlier.

The cheering stopped.

Now only nervous gulps could be heard.

That, and the heavy footsteps of Elder Lake approaching.

’Sigh. I didn’t want to, Bongo... but killing one won’t make a difference... surely...’