Polymath Redux

Chapter 37: Wait, I felt a great disturbance in the force

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Basically Goblins were a pest; they were the equivalent to cockroaches in this world. Their numbers grew exponentially if unchecked and they had very little sentience and operated mostly by instincts. They had no form of civilization to speak of and wondered around daily in search of food and slept whenever they were full.

They were also unhealthy for the ecosystem as their iron stomachs allowed them to eat whatever was in sight, be it bugs, trees, animals or whatever. Coupled with their exponential population growth it was easy to see why they needed to be trimmed down.

After half a day's worth of walking towards the edge of the goblin territory Alice was already feeling the effects of walking too far. Her feet started to hurt and she was feeling plenty thirsty, though she did not voice these in fear of becoming a burden for Tau.

With a keen eye and quick reflexes, Alice's main class was [archer] thus naturally her weapon was a bow and arrow and small daggers for a secondary weapon. Back in the village she was on the hunter team with some of the other adults and for the most part brought in the most game as well. For now her role was to support Tau whose class was [Warrior] and thus he was on the front line.

Tau pulled out his short sword and buckler and slowly proceeded forward deeper into the goblin territory. Not even ten minutes had passed since they already ran into a goblin. Rough and dirty looking, sickly brown coloration, sharp and disfigured teeth and piercing blood shot eyes. Equipped with a clumsy stone club it noticed their presence and went straight into combat mode.

"Get ready Alice."

Tau instructed as he got into combat mode himself. The goblin ran straight towards Tau without much thought to clobber him to death. Goblins were unintelligent, even compared to wild animals their intelligence was severely lacking with the only reason they survived this long was purely due to their population.

The goblin attacked in a much telegraphed manner that even the inexperienced Tau could easily dodge his strikes. Left, right, left, right, they were all plain as day and was easily exploited by Tau who countered attacked by blocking the next strike with the buckler and stabbing his sword through the goblin's chest. It didn't have much in the way of defenses either and just like that one goblin had already fallen.

In fact it was so easy that both Tau and Alice were confused as to just how easy it was. If all goblins were at this level then it was a cake walk from here on out; they could probably even do it with their eyes closed if they concentrated hard enough. Tau and Alice simply stared at the dead goblin with a disturbed looked, it was almost sinfully weak, like they were picking on the vulnerable and they even felt a bit of pity for it.

However they soon realized that it really was too easy as they found themselves surrounded by several dozens of goblins. Goblins were also known for being opportunistic and quickly tried to take advantage of their fallen. They used each other to gauge the strength of the outsider to their territory, and once they determined that they could have an advantage they attacked with overwhelming numbers.

Just in a single glance their numbers could easily total to about 50 or 60 of them. While Tau and Alice were confident that they could take on about 10 at a time any more would be impossible. The best course of action right now would be to run away and come up with a different strategy but as they tried to back away their escape routes were cut off by the appearance of more goblins.

"Tau, what should we do?"

Alice asked, slightly worried that their escape was cut off. 'Weren't these goblins supposed to be unintelligent?' she thought to herself. Indeed, for goblins these actions seemed much more premeditated than earlier anticipated. The goblins slowly started to draw closer, even this was unnatural. Earlier the dead goblin charged straight for them without a care in the world but now these mindless goblins showed signs of being cautious.