That was about a thousand times as effective as I thought it would be. I was curious what would happen if I set off a [Fireball] inside of a dome [Air Barrier] so I tested it with a troll mage. Apparently, the flames just swirl around inside when the barrier is strong enough to actually contain them, thus burning the contents repeatedly.

+7.41% Experience!

And these ones are so weak compared to the other three that they give me very little Experience. Well, and because I'm thirteen Levels higher than I was when the first two died. Now that I think about it, I should have gained less Experience from one of them than I did the other. Was one of them actually stronger than the other?

Focus on the fight, Max. The two troll mages attacking Peter's group had split up and attacked from different sides. Lady Elise's guards are helping her with one while Peter and his team were barely holding their own against the other.

Everyone in the group is covered in injuries, including the guards. They're all kind of stunned by the sudden death of this troll mage, too. I mean, I'm kind of shocked as well. I wasn't expecting that to actually kill it! They must have done a lot more damage to the monster than I'd thought.

Before I can join in and help them finish off the other troll, a spear of light slices into it from above, pinning it into the ground. The moment the tip of the spear of light stabs into the ground, flames burst out of the shaft, swirling around the final troll, consuming it.

Then Lord Benjamin steps into view, his party accompanying him.

"Troll mages," he scoffs. "Single-affinity ones are more annoying than anything. Elise, this is why you shouldn't have asked for Fifth Order guards. Father won't assign you Second Order or First Order guards, but you know he'll assign you Fourth Order and Third Order guards."

"What took you so long coming over here?" Lady Elise asks.

"I said they're more annoying than anything," he says. "They still took a bit to kill, they kept deflecting my spears. That one didn't see it coming, so didn't try. Good job killing that, Max. That's how we ended up killing ours, once we were able to get a [Fireball] past their defenses."

For the first time ever, I feel my face heating up at his praise. Why does it make me shy now when it didn't before? I'm just glad no one's berating me for stepping in.

"How did you kill yours?" Lord Benjamin asks. "I showed up right before you did, so I know Elise left you. Her guards aren't strong enough for that, even if she had stayed."

"How did you deal with Na'Maerul?" Lady Elise asks.

"Na'Maerul?" Lord Benjamin asks. "I had suspicions after seeing the troll mages, but he was here?"

"Yeah," I nod. "But Colt apparently had Rankers protecting him? But invisible, I guess. Thomas sent them to me before the trolls showed up, they said he signaled to them after sensing something was off."

How Thomas was able to tell that I needed more help, I don't know, but I'm grateful for that. At least I know he wants to see me alive. Or maybe he's planning on using me getting saved as a way of trying to convince me to work for the king?

"Rankers?" He asks. "I guess Alphonse and Henry didn't stay at the camp. The others probably did, though, if Thomas still needed help."

So those are their names. I never did ask because I didn't want to push my luck.

"They went to go help protect Colt after Thomas sent up the signal saying he still needed help," I say.

"Let's see if they still do," Thomas sends up the clear signal here.

After it goes off, a clear signal is sent up from where Thomas and Colt were.

"Looks like it's over there as well, then," Lord Benjamin says. "Let's meet up with them."

"The guards said to meet them at the entrance we all approached from," I inform him.

"Then let's go there," he says.

We return to the front, where Colt, Thomas, and the two other guards are just arriving as well. Colt looks extremely annoyed, and is in the middle of an argument with Thomas about how he should know when he has additional guards. They didn't tell him that he had other guards?

"You were told," Thomas says once Colt settles down a little. "Your father told you that he was not going to allow you out without additional protection. He then said you could go with me visible. You just didn't pick up on the fact that you had more."

"I should have been told!"

"You were," Thomas says. "Everyone else is here now."

"They are?" Colt looks over, then runs over. "Aaron! Cyrus! Nicholas! Max! You all survived! You guys are hurt, though! Why aren't you guys healing them?"

"Because we wished to return here and the injuries are not that serious," Lady Elise says. "We already healed the more severe wounds. You look okay."

Colt looks ruffled, but not injured.

"Thomas was able to stop most of the attacks," he nods. "None of the goblins or trolls or boars came our way. After a bit, though, the two troll mages showed up and attacked, and I helped fight them. Then my secret guards showed up and finished them off. I gained nineteen Levels! And I barely managed anything against them! Now I'm close to your Level, Max!"

"I gained thirteen Levels," I tell him.

"What Level are you now?" He asks.

"You didn't know what Level I was before," I look at Thomas. "Thank you for sending them to me."

"I didn't expect an attack on us," Thomas shakes his head. "They also didn't mention what you did, but that is Na'Maerul, his arm is over there, and that is his staff strapped to your pack. I take it you enhanced yourself?"

While I did rush over to Lady Elise and her group, I stopped to grab the staff first. I also stuffed his amulet into my pack.

"With 125 Mana per second," I nod. "They bought me a few seconds. I never would have succeeded if they hadn't. I would have killed him with that charge if he hadn't still managed to dodge."

And Na'Maerul would have killed me if they didn't immediately attack him after. I'm so glad they did that. The gods really made sure I was safe.

"Na'Maerul?" Lord Benjamin walks over to the goblin. "Damn. No wonder there were mage trolls at all sides. You have no idea the kind of thing his death is going to cause."

That doesn't sound good.

"Max," Lady Elise says. "He is referring to the stir which will be created by the death of the most powerful goblin other than a Goblin King. Na'Maerul has one of the largest bounties on his head out of all monsters. Has has killed a large number of powerful hunters and soldiers. His current bounty is thirty greater platinum rings."

That's a huge bounty. It's ridiculously high, even compared to Ak'Narul's bounty. There are things that actually cost or pay in greater platinum rings? I find the naming sense weird. A greater platinum is a platinum ring, but a high platinum is a greater platinum ring. It's one hundred platinum rings to a greater platinum ring.

The gods really do bless me. At least, as long as I don't have to give up my share of the bounty.

"That's what happens when you kill Rankers," the guard who healed me tells me. "Na'Maerul is the reason there are only six Rankers in Kedridal – he's killed four, two of whom had six affinities."

"Oh," I say. "So because you two did all the work, you get the bigger share, right? Um. You did all the work. I just stabbed. I wouldn't have succeeded without you, so I get… ten percent, right? That's fair, right? So I get… uh… one greater platinum ring?"

"Ten percent would be three," the guard who heals me says. "And we did equal share of the work, Max. Henry and I held him down and kept him from focusing on you so that you could deal the finishing blow. That's equal work. So we each earn a third of it."

"So… three greater platinum rings?"

"Ten," Alphonse says. "A third of thirty is ten."

"Oh."

Is it? One plus one plus one is three… oh, I forgot to add the zero back. He didn't try to take advantage of my mistake, either. Maybe he's trying to make me trust him?

What kind of name is Alphonse? I want to ask, but I'm nervous he'll get upset about it. Though I may be a little bit more… willing to be assertive, I'm not so assertive as to ask a question like that.

"I'm concerned about this," Lord Benjamin says. "This is clearly two goblin kingdoms now. Does that mean they have all been working together? Are the other outposts rebuilt? We need to report this incident and investigate it. Immediately."

"Let's get Max's loot first," Thomas says. "Colton, Max, are you two okay with us ending the camping trip now? As Benjamin stated, we need to report that this outpost was rebuilt and Na'Maerul was here."

"Also what Na'Maerul said," Alphonse adds.

"It's Max's choice," Colt looks at me. "Are you okay with us ending it now?"

"This was because I lost the bet," I state. "So it's your choice."

"We both have to agree," Colt holds up his right thumb. "I'm okay with us ending it now so that we can report this and get the investigation started."

Am I being tested again? At least I can answer honestly and not worry about future punishment.

"It's better for the kingdom," I nod. "So it's okay."

Your Blessed Oath with Colton Kedridal has been canceled by mutual agreement.

"I'll return now and tell my grandfather," Peter says.

"I will return with him," Lady Elise says. "Father will wish to hold a meeting immediately after learning of this. I was present for Na'Maerul's arrival, so I will be able to give him additional information before it begins."

"I'll let the guards know to pack up camp," Thomas says. "They'll rejoin us here. We'll loot this place first, then return to camp once we're done."

"You have another point to the plan as well," Lady Elise says.

"We do?" Thomas asks.

"Max looks like he wishes to burn this place to ashes," she informs him. "So let him do that."

"I have no issues with that," Thomas says.

Good, because I was going to do it anyway. There are other things I'm going to do to this place as well, but I'm looting it first. These goblins aren't the only ones I killed.

I do go through the goblins out here first, though. They're the easiest to get to, and others enter the ruined outpost to grab any loot. Though the law forbids stealing someone's loot, I'm still worried people are going to claim or hide some.

"Psst," I mutter as I add a pair of daggers to the loot in my pack. "Gods, can you make sure no one steals my loot? Please and thank you."

There we go. The odds of theft just lessened.

It takes us around an hour to finish finding any loot we can from this outpost and stuffing it all into my pack, and Colt's once the other guards arrive with the stuff from our camp because I run out of space in mine.

There was a lot of loot here.

With the place looted, I begin burning it, using [Flamethrower] to incinerate everything around. Some stuff melts instead of burns, some is stone, but that's okay. Once everything possible has been turned to ash, I get to work on the next stage. That one takes me awhile to do, and I have to recover my Mana twice before I finish.

Once I do, however, I'm quite satisfied with my work. Sure, it's not the best work, but it's good enough.

"Really?" Colt asks once I'm done.

"Yeah."

"Really?" He asks again.

"Is something wrong?" I look at him, finding that he's trying not to laugh. "Did I mess it up?"

"No, it's just… I was expecting something… else. Definitely not that."

"The sculpting isn't the best," I admit. "But I'm not that skilled with it, anyway. What were you expecting?"

"Not that!" Colt starts laughing, and that sets off some of the others.

I look at my work. Did I mess it up? No, it looks okay, even if the sculpting is rather amateur. I used earth magics to completely smooth the ground first. After that, I create some stone statues to mock the goblins, for when they try to rebuild the outpost.

Did I mess up the sculpture in some way? The goblins, trolls, and boars all look like goblins, trolls, and boars, and while it's not the best work, the statue of me they're all running from does look like me. I even included the scars, paler streaks of stone against the dark grey stone I created. I also tried out making colored stone this time, and the eyes of my statue are blue, though I'm not sure if they're the right blue.

There are seven [Stone Spear]s poking out of the ground surrounding my statue, angled outward, a couple of the statue monsters skewered by them, too. That should make it clear that the statue monsters are running from me.

"Did I mess it up?" I ask.

"No!" Colt laughs. "It's just… never mind, Max!"

"If you're done making art," Thomas tells me. "We should return to the city now."

I look at the sculptures, and after a few moments, nod to Thomas.

"I'm done."