Chapter 232 Stress Relief Toy

How should a mage go about clearing a goblin cave in the most efficient and thorough way possible?

To some extent, this wasn't even a question worth discussing. After all, even the lowest-ranking Mage Apprentice still held the status of a Spellcaster.

The lowest-level cantrips they mastered, such as Blade Ward, Friends Spell, and Mending, were enough to make these Mage Apprentices the second most sought-after adventuring companions across most of the continent, trailing only behind Clerics.

Any Adventurer Squad capable of securing a permanent Spellcaster member generally no longer relied on hunting bottom-tier monsters like goblins to make a living.

Given the high cost of magical supplies, targeting a Goblin Lair as a primary mission objective would likely result in a net loss of over a dozen gold coins per trip.

Therefore, barring special circumstances, professional mages with comprehensive spell lists had neither the time nor the interest to waste their energy clearing out goblin tribes like low-level adventurers did.

At most, they would casually toss a Fireball inside, or perhaps stuff the cave with a stinking cloud of corrosive toxins, ensuring no living creature remained within.

This was similarly not an issue for Verol. Perhaps due to her own objectives, she couldn't afford to crudely reduce the goblins to ash or puddles of pus like the methods mentioned above.

However, as a former Transcendent Tier Grade Academy Faction Spellcaster, the complete spell list engraved into her soul's memory over a long academic career ensured that, even though she could currently only cast 1st and 2nd Circle Spells under normal conditions, she still possessed countless ways to turn these filthy, stunted, and ugly monsters into cold corpses while keeping the environment as intact as possible.

Whiz— An extremely condensed speck of light, much like a falling star in the night sky, carried energy fluctuations that emitted a sharp, piercing shriek through the air. Moving at a speed far beyond what ordinary creatures could react to, it deftly navigated the cramped, narrow tunnel and shot straight into the core area where the goblins lived.

It rose, hovered near the cave ceiling, and came to a halt.

"Scree?"

The inexplicable light invading their lair gave the foolish green-skins a fright. Yet, driven by instinct, they craned their necks and raised their heads, their twig-thin legs constantly hopping as they waved their ridiculous wooden clubs in an attempt to smash the speck of light above them.

But in the very next second.

That fingernail-sized, hyper-condensed orb of light suddenly expanded.

Boom—

It was as if daylight had descended; a blinding, brilliant radiance filled the entire cave in an instant.

1st Circle Evocation: [Kubo's Enhanced Dancing Lights]

Acting like an overpowered flashbang, the dazzling light that suddenly erupted in the gloomy lair instantly blinded the fragile monsters staring at it. Howling in agony, they fell into a stunned state of paralysis.

At the same time, light and steady footsteps echoed leisurely from the entrance tunnel nearby.

With every step forward, an ochre-red, miniature Magic Missile howled as it shot out from the tunnel.

1st Circle Evocation: [Arcane Swarm]

A spell variant of the 1st Circle [Magic Missile].

While retaining the special properties of force damage, it sacrificed the power of an individual missile in exchange for increasing the sheer number of missiles that could be fired.

It was a version specifically modified and optimized to target bottom-tier monsters with fragile bodies and massive numbers, such as goblins.

And the feature of this type of spell that troubled Spellcasters the most—the extreme requirement for precise mental control—was practically nonexistent for Verol.

Step by step.

When she emerged from the tunnel, the moment the leather boots beneath her beige robe truly stepped onto the floor of the lair...

...there were no living creatures left on the scene.

All that remained were broken corpses with their skulls smashed open or bloody holes hollowed out in their chests.

Her amber eyes slightly shifted, sweeping her gaze across the cavern.

She advanced no further.

The greyish-white staff in her hand traced a subtle arc in the air, the dark green, black Opal at its tip shimmering faintly.

The standard somatic and verbal components were completely skipped. In an instant, the glow of the 1st Circle Divination ritual spell, [Detect Magic], shrouded the entire cave.

"Hm?"

Sensing the utter emptiness transmitted to her mind, Verol couldn't help but frown.

"Nothing? That shouldn't be..."

The reason she had entered the Misty Forest was precisely because this Goblin Lair she currently stood in was one of her objectives.

A rather high-quality magic ring, enchanted with an unknown abjuration spell, was supposed to be hidden here.

She didn't have much interest in the ring's special effects; if it was purely for self-defense, as a Spellcaster, she had plenty of other choices and could adapt flexibly based on the situation.

What truly gave Verol ideas was the ring's origin.

A high-ranking arcanist from the Sea of Stars who owned a mage tower.

The ring was said to be an heirloom passed down from his ancestors, only ending up here due to upheavals in his family.

With this ring, she would be able to establish a connection with him. Using that favor as leverage to access his family's channels, she could invite a certain professor from the Sea of Stars Enchanting Academy to enchant her staff.

This would save Verol a massive amount of gold coins.

Under normal circumstances, given her current strength and status, it would be extremely difficult to commission an enchanting master of that caliber.

And the reason she was so clear about the ring's origin and its potential uses was because, in her memories of working at the mage tower in the future, a certain colleague of hers had been the owner of this very ring.

It was exactly by relying on this connection with that arcanist from the Sea of Stars that her colleague had received a recommendation. Despite possessing less-than-stellar arcane mastery, he had gained the opportunity to work alongside her, striving in their mentor's laboratory.

During a casual chat after an experiment, he had thoroughly and clearly recounted the ring's origins, including when he acquired it and the specific location where it had been hidden.

But...

Calculating her current position in her mind, Verol was certain she hadn't found the wrong place.

And aside from this cave, there were no other Goblin Lairs in the vicinity.

As for whether someone else had beaten her to it... she clearly remembered that her colleague wouldn't pass through Rivervale Town as a Mage Apprentice for another two whole years. At that time, he would stay in the town briefly to scrape together material fees by joining an Adventurer Squad to take on quests.

The enchanted ring was exactly what he had obtained during that mission.

Furthermore, according to what he had said, the ring came from an adult Bugbear. But right now, let alone a Bugbear, there were barely ten goblins scattered around the lair, clearly indicating that this tribe had only recently formed.

'Could it be that I arrived too early, and the ring hasn't fallen into the goblins' hands yet?'

Verol guessed internally. She repeatedly checked the area twice more. Once she confirmed there was nothing to be found, she finally turned and walked toward the exit.

A magical radiance flashed as flames burst forth from her fingertips.

Tendrils of fire rapidly spread from beneath her feet, incinerating and devouring the entire cave along with the corpses inside at a visible rate.

Verol stood at the cave exit, billowing heat waves and pungent, thick smoke rising behind her.

Although she hadn't obtained her expected outcome, her emotions didn't fluctuate much.

On one hand, this was due to the composure granted by her memories of the future and her former identity as a Transcendent Tier Grade Spellcaster.

On the other hand, this enchanted ring wasn't the reason she had made a special trip to Rivervale Town, nor was it why she had entered the Misty Forest.

The reason she had spent so much time traversing the entirety of Cloudclimb Province to reach this remote town was for a crucial plan—one that was far more important and would immensely aid her in achieving her milestone objectives before her class transition.

Considering the chain reactions her presence might cause, she hadn't even hesitated to sacrifice the precious time she usually hoarded for sleep, arriving in Rivervale Town more than two months early just to eliminate any possibility of missing out.

Compared to this plan, the enchanted ring was merely something to pick up in passing. If she couldn't get it, it didn't matter; it simply wasn't worth investing more energy to track down.

It was just that her sudden encounter with the "Death Omen", Xia Nan, his growth speed that vastly exceeded expectations, and the inexplicably missing magic ring in the lair... all of this made her feel like there might be some sort of connection between them.

Shaking her head slightly, she stopped dwelling on it.

Her thoughts circulated, and the gemstone atop her staff flickered once again. The translucent, protective dome of her modified Alarm quietly materialized around her body.

Recently, due to her encounters in the Adventurers' Association and her experiences in the Misty Forest, her already limited time had been severely depleted for no good reason.

Her original plans had been slightly disrupted.

Fortunately, by sacrificing her sleep over the past few days, she had already made up for quite a bit of it.

According to her calculations, she should be able to sleep for an extra two hours tonight.

At this thought, Verol couldn't help but feel delighted, her ponytail bouncing lightly behind her head.

But for some unknown reason, her just-relaxed brows suddenly furrowed again.

'Should I... just forget about it?'

After training the [Extend Spell] Feat for such a long time, she was already on the verge of mastering it.

Perhaps she was only those two hours away.

For a crucial Feat like this that could drastically elevate her combat power, comprehending it even one day earlier would add an extra margin of victory for her future.

'Yeah, I should just forget about sleeping.'

Crushing the last shred of laziness in her heart, her slightly hopeful expression gradually returned to calmness; she had made her decision.

Buzz— The translucent dome enveloping her body suddenly vibrated, and Verol's attention instantly focused.

She looked toward the direction of the disturbance.

There, she saw a small squad of goblins carrying half the rotting corpse of a woodland wildebeest, joyfully approaching her position.

The modified [Alarm] ensured that even though Verol was standing just a short distance ahead of them, these foolish, bottom-tier monsters still failed to spot the slender mage girl.

Under normal circumstances, having achieved her objective and confirmed there was no Magic Equipment in the lair, Verol—following the principle of maximizing efficiency—should not have engaged in any unnecessary conflict with these few goblins.

She could simply leave under the cover of her Alarm; they wouldn't be able to find her anyway.

But perhaps it was because the goblins had stepped with their left feet first as they approached her, or maybe it was the maggots wriggling on the rotting wildebeest corpse. It absolutely couldn't have been a tiny bout of petulance caused by the two hours of sleep she had just decided to sacrifice tonight for her Feat training.

The concealing dome of the Alarm quietly dissipated.

Accompanied by the goblins' excited shrieks at discovering fresh prey, the sharp howl of a Magic Missile tearing through the air erupted.

Smash! The fragile skulls instantly shattered under the impact of the ochre-red force energy.

Splintered bone fragments, wrapped in viscous red and white gore, splattered across the ground.

The goblins' scrawny, frail, headless bodies swayed in place a couple of times like broken toys before collapsing limply to the ground.

Xia Nan retracted his fist, which still glowed with a faint ochre-red light under the augmentation of [Gravity Etching].

His gaze swept over the characters floating in the void ahead of him: "Proficiency +1".

On his face, splattered with enemy blood, was an expression of unparalleled satisfaction and enjoyment.

"That hits the spot."

A slightly morbid, uncontrollable smile hung on the corners of his mouth.

As for exactly what felt so good, it probably wasn't the [Gravity Etching] that was approaching Level 2 proficiency after his arduous daily training.

Nor was it the nearly max-leveled [Fang Hunt], which he had pushed to almost halfway through Level 4 by dedicating the vast majority of his time over the past two months to rigorous training.

That satisfaction, enjoyment, pleasure, and relaxation primarily stemmed from the dismembered corpses scattered around Xia Nan right now.

Most of them had been battered beyond recognition, making it impossible to discern their species.

However, judging by the dimly lit underground cave he was in, the long, twisted severed ears in the corners, the scrawny dark-green arms, and the crude wooden clubs dropped in pools of blood, it was easy to deduce these corpses were "goblins".

'Goblins really are the perfect Stress Relief Toy.'

Looking at the butchered remains covering the ground, Xia Nan couldn't help but muse inwardly.

They were numerous, widely distributed, and killing them carried zero guilt. The difficulty was low, too. Even without using his two most reliable weapons or activating [Glimmer], he could smash away to his heart's content using purely his fists and combat techniques.

Especially those fragile yet slightly elastic skulls—the sensation of reducing them to pulp with a single punch was simply too exhilarating.

This was already the third Goblin Lair Xia Nan had cleared out over the past half-month.

Although the monsters were too weak—making the increase to his combat experience negligible—and he wasn't relying on the bleeding effect of the Decapitating Longsword to absorb vitality, the frequent battles still accumulated a deep fatigue that was hard to shake off, even with the supplies he carried.

Yet Xia Nan's mood, compared to when he had first entered the Misty Forest, was unprecedentedly relaxed—as light and cheerful as a butterfly breaking from its cocoon.

Through the high-intensity slaughter of the past half-month, his nerves—which had been constantly suppressed and taut due to the deterrence effect of his Challenge Rating 1 fine steel greaves—were finally and thoroughly soothed.

Even now that he had stopped moving, that extreme irritability—the sensation of a sharp foreign object piercing his cerebral cortex and constantly scrambling his cranial nerves—had subsided.

For the past half-month, whenever he closed his eyes, all he saw was flying gore or mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Even when he forced himself into a light sleep, he would constantly reenact his daytime battles in his dreams, trapped in a bizarre state of brutally slaughtering those goblins over and over. Now, that was finally coming to an end.

"Phew... the side effects of this equipment are really tough to handle for a user with low mental fortitude."

Breathing a long sigh of relief, Xia Nan muttered to himself self-deprecatingly.

He was well aware his mental state over the past half-month hadn't been right. He had been like a lit powder keg, or a lunatic overdosing on hallucinogens, ready to go berserk at the slightest provocation.

Thankfully, he was in the Misty Forest, a place where he could legitimately vent his murderous desires and where no bottom-tier monsters were capable of threatening his life.

If this had been the modern society of his past life, the current Xia Nan would have probably been gunned down a hundred times over, his ashes scattered in a septic tank.