'heh...'

time slowed down for Mars as he drew his sword and easily slashed through the poorly made spear as well as the neck of the hobgoblin with his sword, then he activated [Instant movement] and instantly cut open another 6 hobgoblins, this thinned the group down to 3 hobgoblins which instantly turned and tried to flee however 2 of them was stuck down by shadow spears impaling them and just like planned only one managed to escape, Mars gave a nod everything went as he had planned

"why did... you let... it go?"

"because now it will run home to its village"

Victoria tilted her head to the side as her horns flashed again

"village?"

"yeah, can you do me a favor Victoria?"

"sure..?"

"okay then I need you to follow that hobgoblin back to its village then return here when you have found its home"

"okay... now I... see"

"that's because your a smart girl, now go I'll clean up this place"

Mars gave a smile and patted Victoria on the head

"ehehe... then I'll... go now"

Victoria melted into the shadows and disappeared from Mars' view

"well then 16 cla.s.s 4 cores that's 800 energy units... not bad at all"

Mars went to work with harvesting the magic beast cores while pilling the corpses in a pile in the middle of the clearing, after he was finished he sat down and meditated until nightfall when Victoria returned

"so how was it, did you find the village?"

"yes... it really... big too"

"nice, good job Victoria"

The next day a portal opened op in the clearing and soon Mars and Victoria stepped out of it and looked around, the pile of hobgoblin corpses had turned into a scattered pile cleanly picked bones, Mars however ignored this and kneeled down and patted Victoria on the head

"lead the way partner"

"okay..."

Victoria lead the way though the tropical forest, other than encountering a few low cla.s.s magic beasts that didn't know how to measure the strength of their opponents their journey went smoothly and just as the sun reached its zenith they reached the outskirts of a medium sized village which was made up of small mud huts and encircled by a simple fence with a few fragile looking watchtowers, it looked almost like an early stone age village Mars had seen simulations of so many times before in his past life except there was no humans only hobgoblins inhabiting this village

"good job Victoria"

Mars kneeled down and petted Victoria on the head as he praised her, while some might see an idyllic village Mars saw a goldmine that he had to 'mine' in order to get stronger

"Victoria can you do me another favor?"

Victoria tilted her head as her horns flashed

"sure..?"

"thanks... then make sure no hobgoblin gets away"

"okay...."

Victoria melted into a shadow and left Mars alone as he drew his sword but right before he stood up form behind the brushes a scene flashed in his mind, blood filled the ground like a river, the small straw huts had been set aflame and the pain he felt when he first saw that scene this made him tighten the grip on his sword as he muttered

"I am not a good person..."

Mars stood up and began slowly walking towards the village while another scene flashed tough his mind, his loved ones turned into obsidian statues like the ones in the backyard of Yimir's mansion

"I have to get stronger..."

the hobgoblins spotted him and made some excited sounds, they clearly saw him as an easy meal and therefor quickly climbed down their watchtowers before they ran at him with their primitive weapons, Mars gave a sigh and activated [Instant movement] and instantly slaughtered the excited hobgoblins before he leisurely walked past the gate to the village meanwhile the hobgoblins kept running at him, but alas Mars just swung his sword which reaped the lives of the hobgoblins every time it was swung. As time pa.s.sed and the amount of hobgoblin corpses neared a hundred they started to get a bit more cautious and encircled Mars, they clearly no longer saw him as easy pray Mars still had a cold expression on his face and easily dealt with the encirclement by predicting whenever one would attack him, almost like he had eyes in the back of his head. after about 30 minutes of being encircled and easily slaughtering the hobgoblins in ma.s.s an enraged roar sounded out from deeper within the village and a bigger more st.u.r.dy hobgoblin showed it self, it carried a rusty board sword, Mars gave a slight smile when he saw it and muttered

"so at last comes the king..."

Mars readied his sword as the king hobgoblin stormed over and raised his sword to meet the hobgoblin king's rusty board sword which swung down towards his head

*CLANG*

as the two swords met Mars vaguely felt something

'this is..?'

it almost distracted him from blocking the next blow which he only barely blocked

"no mistake, this definitely is that..."

Mars' smile suddenly widened to the extreme as he began laughing while he swung his sword to meet that of the hobgoblin king's, the feeling Mars was feeling right was like that of a cup slowly overflowing with water, in other words he was leveling up and it was his [Swordsmans.h.i.+p] that was leveling up to level 6. Mars' sword looked like it slowed down but it still managed to meet the rusty board sword without fail

"come on! just a little more!"

suddenly it happened, it felt like a soft membrane inside Mars broke apart and with what looked like a incredibility slow swing of his sword Mars met the rust board sword and suddenly a loud boom rang out which sent the rusty board sword flying out of the hands of the hands of the hobgoblin king which looked at Mars with horror before it turned and tried to run away

"not so fast you majesty!"

Mars sent out another slow slash in the direction of the fleeing hobgoblin king, mid swing his sword began glowing and suddenly a sword light was separated from his trusty bone sword and flew out and slashed the hobgoblin king into two pieces. Seeing their king get killed the hobgoblins yelled out in terror and began fleeing in all directions

"hahaha! not so fast!"

Mars went wild and sent out hundreds of sword lights which each slashed one or more hobgoblin apart and less then 10 minutes later the village was quiet Mars gave a sigh and removed his sheath form his belt and looked it over, it was a normal looking leather sheath that he had revived form Info, the former owner of the sheath was, accounting to Info a living G.o.d of the sword, Mars knew that the only reason he was able to break the level cap on the [Swordsmans.h.i.+p] skill was due to this sheath. Mars gave it a kiss and put it back on his belt before Victoria suddenly jumped out of a shadow in front of him with her horns flas.h.i.+ng

"no one... go away"

Mars gave a smile and kneeled down and petted Victoria on the head

"good job partner"

Victoria purred happily before she looked around and then her horns flashed again

"what should we... do now?"

"now we harvest all the cores from the hobgoblin corpses, but don't worry I'll do the dirty work myself you don't have to help"

"but... I want... to help"

Mars' smile widened slightly before he patted Victoria on the head again

"okay thanks Victoria, then can you start from that side?"

"sure..."

Mars and Victoria began harvesting the magic beast cores from the corpses of the hobgoblins and when the sun was about to set they finished and ended up with a total of 568 cla.s.s 4 magic beast cores and a single cla.s.s 6 core form the hobgoblin king, looking at the small hill of magic beast cores Mars' smile widened as he did some quick math in his head

"hmm... so this is about 28.600 energy units... this should put me just a stone throw away from level 60"

Victoria tilted her head at the side and asked

"is that... good?"

"yeah it's excellent for a days work, plus it put me a step closer to level 70"

"what... happens at... level 70?"

Mars gave a cold smile

"I kill Yirmir"

"okay...?"

Victoria was still a little confused but Mars didn't mind it and began to absorb the cores