The archers swiftly nocked their arrows, drawing their bows as they sprinted after the fleeing goblins. The others let out fierce war cries, their voices echoing through the night as they charged forward on foot. Rowan and Blaze led the pursuit, their forms a blur as they surged ahead of the rest.
"Don't let them escape into the forest!" Rowan shouted over his shoulder.
Blaze growled in agreement, flames flickering around its paws as it bounded beside him.
Nearby, Captain Roland rallied a group of soldiers. "Cut off their path! Surround them!"
The soldiers split into smaller groups, flanking the goblins to prevent their escape. The air was filled with the twang of bowstrings and the clash of steel as they closed in.
A goblin turned to face Rowan, desperation in its eyes. It lunged with a crude spear, but Rowan sidestepped effortlessly. "Too slow," he muttered, striking it down with a swift slash.
Blaze leaped into the fray, unleashing a wave of fire that blocked several goblins' path. They shrieked and stumbled back, only to be met by the advancing soldiers.
"Push forward!" Captain Bryce and Josh yelled simultaneously, their swords gleaming under the moonlight.
For the next two hours, the battle raged on. The soldiers fought tirelessly, their unity and determination overpowering the dwindling goblin forces. One by one, the goblins fell until none were left standing.
Rowan received a series of notifications from the system, which made him smile menacingly as he slew more hobgoblins in front of him.
He was a little bit disheartened that no loot fell from the goblins like the last time, but at the same time, he was positive he was going to harvest a lot of monster cores from the hobgoblins after the battle.
While Rowan didn't have a use for monster cores himself, he could use them for Blaze in the future or sell them to merchants when his village started branching out and forming connections with other big territories.
Also, in the game, cores from monsters could be added to weapons to enchant them and make them more powerful.
With all this in mind, he didn't think too much about the unavailability of immediate loot from slaying the goblins.
As dawn approached, the battlefield grew quiet. The first rays of sunlight cast a pale glow over the scene. Rowan stood amidst the fallen goblins, his breathing steady as he surveyed the area with a calm and proud smile on his face.
"We did it," Captain Roland said, walking up beside him.
Rowan nodded. "Good work, everyone."
The soldiers gathered around, their faces showing a mix of exhaustion and relief. They looked at the goblins with proud expressions—most of them couldn't really believe that they were able to defeat so many goblins themselves.
The last time, a smaller group of goblins attacked the village, but none of them were able to slay a single one.
This victory reminded them of their growth over the past few weeks, and this growth was all thanks to Rowan. They felt even prouder of themselves for serving such a wonderful Lord.
Blaze sat next to Rowan and observed the corpses as well; there was a calm fiery aura radiating from its fur.
Rowan turned to the group. "Start collecting their weapons. We can make use of them in the future."
The soldiers agreed without hesitation and proceeded with the task, using the pale light of the morning sun to complete the task at hand.
Rowan glanced at the bodies of the hobgoblins and gave instructions to the soldiers with swords to start digging into the heads of the monsters to bring out the monster cores stored in them.
The soldiers were hesitant at first when they received this order since they hadn't done such a thing before and also found it strange that a crystal might be hiding in the head of a monster.
Rowan had to explain to them how it works before they finally understood and proceeded with it.
The first hour of the day was spent harvesting monster cores and looting the weapons of the goblins.
Fortunately, Rowan got a good harvest of monster cores totaling 322 monster cores; each of them was F rank.
The weapons they got were numerous as well—it was a nice harvest.
Rowan also checked his total evolution points and was pretty amazed with the new number.
[ Evolution points: 925,770,321 ]
"Almost a billion evolution points!" Rowan almost yelled out of pure excitement when he saw this.
If these evolution points were to be converted to coins, it would definitely feed a whole country for a few months or even years!
After checking his evolution point balance, he proceeded to observe his soldiers and saw that a new tab had appeared on each of their character statuses.
---
[ Captain Roland ] [ Occupation: Captain ] [ Power: N/A (1900/100000) ] [ Special skill: Sword master ] [ Status: Proud ]
[ Winston ] [ Occupation: Soldier ] [ Power: N/A (700/10000) ] [ Special skill: Sword master ] [ Status: Excited ]
---
What Rowan noticed made him smile but also made him frown at the same time.
He was happy that his soldiers were now on a path to getting stronger.
On the other hand, he was pretty dismayed by the fact that all of them needed just one hundred thousand evolution points for their first evolution.
"The system was cheating me all this while," Rowan thought with a deep frown on his face.
The system made him spend one million evolution points for his first evolution, which is ten times the normal quota for others.
It made Rowan pretty jealous, but he sighed and calmed himself with the fact that he got one hundred times the evolution points anytime he slew monsters.
He turned to the soldiers who were already done with looting and spoke to them, thanking them for their valiant actions. Since they didn't get enough sleep for the night due to the monster attacks, he told them to relax for the rest of the day to get their strength back.
The soldiers chanted his name and thanked him.
Rowan nodded and proceeded to ask them for one last favor, which was gathering the corpses of the goblins in one place so he could burn them up.
The soldiers agreed and worked together to bring the goblin corpses together, while Rowan carried the gigantic hobgoblins alone using his insane strength, which amazed his soldiers even though they were already aware of it.
When the soldiers were done with their task, they left for their houses to rest, leaving only Rowan and Blaze with the tall hill of goblin corpses.
Rowan placed his hand on his waist and stared at the corpses in front of him with a pretty tired expression on his face.
"Blaze, can you burn this up with your flame magic?" he turned to Blaze and asked.
Blaze looked at the corpses and then at Rowan with a plain expression on his face.
"Just answer me, dammit," Rowan felt like beating Blaze for not answering.
He needed to remove the corpses from this place or else it would cause a heck of a mess and even make the area reek pretty badly.
The only option was to burn it and he needed fuel but that doesn't exist in this world.
Luckily he has a pet with fire magic but the strength of its flame at this point would not be able to consume the whole pile of corpse at once.
"I think its time you breakthrough, Blaze." Rowan turned to look at blaze with a sigh.
Blaze returned his gaze with a pretty excited expression on its face as if asking, "Really?"
Rowan brought out some monster cores from his inventory and tossed them at Blaze.
Blaze leapt into the air and caught all of it precisely with its mouth, swallowing all of it at once.
Blaze landed softly after consuming the monster cores. A faint glow shimmered around his body, growing brighter with each passing moment. His fur rippled with energy as the aura intensified.
Slowly, he lifted off the ground, hovering inches above the earth, enveloped in radiant light. The air pulsed gently around him, charged with the mana he absorbed. A soft hum resonated in the silence.
Minutes passed as Blaze remained suspended, eyes closed in deep concentration. The glow flickered and swirled, reflecting the rapid flow of energy within. Subtle changes appeared—muscles tightened, senses sharpened, a newfound strength emanated from him.
Rowan watched intently, awe evident in his eyes. The transformation was mesmerizing. He could feel the surge of energy from Blaze, a testament to his growing power. The atmosphere was charged, the air vibrating with potential.
As the glow began to fade, Blaze descended gracefully back to the ground. His paws touched the earth lightly, and the aura dissipated. Opening his eyes, a new clarity shone in his gaze, signaling the successful breakthrough.
The transformation was complete. Blaze had absorbed the mana, elevating his abilities. The air felt different now—calmer, yet filled with untapped potential.
[ Your pet has broken through ]