Max dashed towards the fifteen goblins charging at him and unleashed ten magic bullets. He targeted only the Level 2 goblins, deliberately ignoring the Level 3 ones.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Level 2 goblins stood no chance against Max's bullets. Their heads exploded, and gaping holes appeared in their bodies.
But five goblins remained, three of them at Level 3.
Max swiftly appeared before one of the Level 2 goblins and swung his sword in a horizontal arc.
Slash!
A deep gash appeared on the goblin's body, but that was it—his attack only caused this much damage.
Max frowned at the sight but didn't have time to dwell on it as he saw the level 3 goblins taking action. They sprinted towards him with their shiny swords.
'I will have to finish this one.' Max fired a bullet at the one he had just injured.
Bang!
Its head exploded, and it died.
He quickly dashed back, creating distance between them, while aiming at the last level 2 goblin and shot forward a magic bullet.
Bang!
The bullet hit its body, creating a big gaping hole through it.
'This Basic Sword Art skill at level 1 mastery is trash,' Max thought as he maintained some distance from the three level 3 goblins who were charging towards him.
'I will have to increase my mastery of the Basic Sword Art to at least level 10 too after this,' he thought while aiming three bullets at the three level 3 goblins.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Grr!" "Grr!" "Grr!"
The bullets hit the three goblins, causing green blood to seep out of their bodies. Although the bullets failed to kill the goblins, they made them immobile and heavily injured them. They fell to the ground with green blood flowing out of them.
'My mana is also low. I can only shoot another ten bullets at most.' Max frowned, seeing the magic bullets fail to kill them. 'It's good that it's only three of them and not an entire crowd.'
He dashed towards them and arrived before them. Seeing them lying in the green blood, Max showed no pity and fired three bullets at their heads, killing them.
Their bodies disappeared soon after, leaving behind some shiny swords and other drops from the regular goblins. But what he cared about were the three cores they dropped.
Max stored them all in his storage space and headed towards the others at the back. He noticed that the students had begun handling the ones at the back that he left for them, leaving behind the items dropped by the goblins he had killed.
He smiled at the sight and collected everything into his storage space before silently disappearing from there.
---
Max moved around at the edge of the village while looking for a place to silently level up. He also wanted to train for some hours in the Basic Sword Art to take it to level 10.
While moving along the edge of the village, he arrived at the other entrance of the village at the opposite end. He encountered many level 2 goblins along the way, but he killed them all before arriving there.
The situation at the other entrance was the same as the one he came from. Goblins surrounded the students, who fought them with difficulty, but Max didn't help as he didn't see any level 3 goblins among them.
He thought that when the village was attacked, the three level 3 goblins headed towards their entrance, leaving the other entrance with loads of level 2 goblins.
'William, Zixi, and Henry are with them, so they should be able to handle the goblins here,' Max thought, seeing some familiar faces among them. He hid behind a hut so they couldn't see him while they were busy fighting the goblins.
'I should leave.' Max moved towards the middle area of the village. He noticed that level 2 goblins kept coming and guarding the edge of the village even after he killed some, so he decided to check out the middle area to see if he could find a good place.
'I have absorbed all the cores from the level 1 goblins I killed back at the narrow hallway, and though I failed to level up, my mana is restored to its peak,' Max thought as he sneaked towards the middle of the village. He knew that he would encounter more level 3 goblins in this region, so he couldn't help but tread carefully.
After silently moving through the middle, Max suddenly hid behind a crate, for he saw a large number of level 1 and level 2 goblins moving in this region. They all had weapons with them—wooden knives and rusty swords. Some even carried clubs.
'Damn, I really want to go ahead and kill them all.' Max resisted the urge to massacre them as he also saw many level 3 goblins around the mob.
'I will hav—' Max wanted to leave the area when he suddenly felt something. His body reacted to something in this area.
His skill Three Dimensional Body had been active all the time, and as he looked through that vision of omniscience, he didn't find anything unusual.
'But I still felt something…' Max frowned and stepped back from the crate. He closed his eyes for a moment and focused on the sensation. 'It came from my Three Dimensional Body skill!'
He opened his eyes and sneakily moved towards the area where the feeling was coming from. He didn't forget to stay wary of the goblins, so he tried to avoid them; those he couldn't avoid, he sent them to hell silently on their way.
After some time of sneaking, Max arrived before a small tent. The tent wasn't far away, but because it was in the middle region of the village filled with level 3 goblins, Max had to be cautious while coming here.
'The feeling is coming from this tent.' Max observed the tent and noticed that it looked exactly the same as any other tent in the village. It was made up of leaves and wood.
'Let's see what's so great about this tent.' He cautiously moved and entered inside.
However, what he found inside shocked him slightly. He saw that he appeared in a large hall, which had many things inside. From swords to spears to clubs to knives, but he noticed all of them were rusty and wooden like the ones level 1 and level 2 goblins used. He also noticed many other things inside, but what attracted his attention the most was the goblin standing at the far end of the hall.
The goblin's strength seemed to be at level 4, and it carried a staff in its hand, unlike the other goblins Max had encountered in the dungeon.
"Wait a minute... Could this be a Goblin Shaman?" Max's eyes widened. Goblin Shamans were typically boss-type monsters in low-rank dungeons, but this one didn't seem to be the dungeon boss.
'I see, I have hit the jackpot! This may be a Hidden Chamber of this dungeon,' Max realized now, and he also understood why his Three Dimensional Body skill led him here. 'Since the Three Dimensional Body skill is a space-related ability, it could have sensed the strangeness in the space around the tent,' he speculated.
"GRRRR!"
However, Max had no time to dwell on his thoughts. The Goblin Shaman wasted no moment and launched an attack, conjuring a blazing fireball with a flick of its staff.
The attack was swift, giving Max only seconds to react.