‘Phase 2..’ Michael’s expression hardened as he looked around himself, the world once again in motion.
“Adventurer, stop dozing off and get in formation!” A voice startled him out of his thoughts, the man who seemed to be the leader was shouting at him.
The leader kept barking out orders at every single one of the people present, it seemed that not only were the guards involved but also the adventurers too.
Michael found a spot in the formation that had no one present and awaited further instruction.
He noticed some familiar faces too, the Guildmaster from before was present as well and the first adventurers he met were here too.
“Listen here! The goblins have finally decided to attack us! They are coveting our riches, so don’t hold back and kill them all!” The leader’s voice resounded, encouraging everyone present to do whatever they wanted.
‘Goblins? As in those level 13-15 monsters? There is no way this trial is going to be this simple.’ Michael thought with a frown when suddenly the ground began shaking.
In the distance, he saw frail looking goblins marching at a steady pace.
However, the sheer number of how many there were sent a shiver down Michael’s spine, there were at the very least a couple of thousand.
Ever since the wall broke down, the surroundings shifted in a way that Michael could see further than 50 meters, if he had to guess, the ashen land he saw earlier was more like a hint for what was to come.
He would think about this scenario a bit later, currently, he had some things to deal with first.
Michael began focusing and channeling his mana faster, however, as he was doing so he noticed something off, his Blessing of Stats skill had been disabled.
‘Fuck.. don’t tell me’ He began trying to cast all of his skills in order but none of them seemed to work, the mana was just not flowing out as it should have.
Physical Enhancement still worked, so he assumed it had something to do with the system itself, though he had hoped something like this would happen later, rather than now when he most needed it.
Meanwhile, Mana Projection was the only long range ability he had, better yet, he didn’t even know how to use it properly, before today the only thing he knew how to do was form blobs of mana.
Michael tried doing that again and it formed instantly, this time, however, he was able to freely control the shape and the mana drain was not as large as before, it really did feel like some shackles were lifted.
The downside? He was struggling to use his system skills now.
As the Goblins’ approach neared, adventurers were the first to make their moves, meanwhile, the guards acted as more of a ranged unit, providing cover fire with their bows.
‘This is the second war I have participated in already’ Michael chuckled as he also began forming colorless Mana Spears in the air and running towards the Goblins.
He would have used his sniper, but at this point, he no longer felt like it suited his way of fighting, it was more of a weapon he would use for covert battles maybe, though not something like a full scale war.
The enemy commander was not even visible, all the goblins looked the exact same, so all he would be doing was wasting his mana on fodder when he could just practice his Mana Projection instead.
Michael quickly arrived at the front lines, he noticed the others were not that strong, in the standard of levels, they would be around level 50.
However, they were more than strong enough to deal with measly goblins and so was Michael.
He got into closer range and began hurling his Mana Spears right at them, making the goblins’ bodies explode on the slightest impact.
His accuracy was not that great yet as it was his first time trying something like this out, however he quickly adjusted to it, as well as the speed.
Even though active skills did not work, passives did, there was a single passive which had some things missing however, it was Eyes of the Healer.
He could no longer see the HP amount of the people around him, however, he could roughly feel their strength, and if one of them had an illness, his brain took note of that as well.
Michael honestly preferred it that way as it was not a massive strain to his eyes, he was just glad the other skills worked as intended.
One of them was Shooting Mastery, as it provided him the extra speed that applied to all projectiles, those directly created from his mana seemed to count as well.
Dodging the incoming goblins, Michael set up a barrier around himself, combining Physical Enhancement and Mana Projection, he strengthened his body and made the outer layer spiky.
It looked ridiculous, however, it got the job done, every single time a goblin got near him and landed a hit, the goblin would instantly get recoiled back with half its body missing.
‘This is so satisfying’ He couldn’t help but think as he kept sending the Mana Spears at the goblins, each hit piercing and killing multiple in its wake.
But he was the only one sharing this sentiment, as a scream suddenly resounded from his side.
“AAAAAAAH!” It was a man who had a bunch of goblins on top of him, it seemed like they were trying to eat him alive, hence the screaming.
Michael quickly reacted and sent a Mana Spear in the man’s direction piercing multiple goblins and giving him slight leeway to free himself from their clutches.
‘Oh..shit’ He had noticed the state of the man, while he was able to escape their clutches, his guts were spilling out, it did not seem like he would last any longer.
‘Come on..why can’t my healing fucking work’ Michael exclaimed in a frustrated tone. Just yesterday he was considered a Saint, his healing abilities seemed unparalleled, yet here he was, powerless in the face of his incompetence.
He had relied too much on the system and therefore he was not able to cast any of the skills he could previously.
The only thing he managed to do with his so called training, was the create a branch of abilities that were different from his skills, yet they both relied on the same source of energy, mana.
Yet he never thought a day like this would come, he did not practice casting the skills on his own.
The only skill that he managed to somewhat replicate, was Blessing of Stats, something he had no use for currently.
‘Fuck…’
Michael watched as the man bled out and finally stopped struggling, the surrounding goblins jumping on him and feasting on his flesh.
As they were doing that, they all suddenly exploded, with the body right below them suffering the same fate, they were all engulfed in a colorless mass of mana.
‘Rest in peace..even if you are not real’ Michael thought with a conflicted look as he began clearing out the goblins in a wider area.
And after a bit more fighting, it was finally over or so it seemed, however, he still had a bad feeling about this, even if there were a couple of casualties, could this even be considered a war?
It was more like a one sided slaughter.
He didn’t have to wait for long to get his answer, as the ground once again began rumbling, this time with much more intensity.
‘I just had to jinx it…’
