Steady, steady...

Carefully, I snuck past the few goblin guards in the hall. They're too much of muscleheads to notice me when I'm running my stealth skill set, so sneaking from shadow to shadow is enough to keep me undetected. And thanks to the freaky "furniture" in this hall. I don't wanna imagine what this poor exoskeleton's owner had to endure when the goblins were building this place.

Rassel's commotion outside has left all but two goblin guards behind along with the black-cloaked goblin boss. They're not too tough, but let's aim to take out the head first. Literally.

Positioning the Nightmare Dagger in my hand, I aimed at the black cloak who was busy doing something up at the altar's podium. He's got this weird bottle that looks a little like an HP Potion on top of it, but that's not so important right now. FIRE!

As quietly and deadly as an owl, the dagger flew toward the goblin's thick-headed skull. For a moment there, I got this nasty feeling that his head might be TOO thick for the dagger alone to be enough, but my worries were for nothing.

Because the dagger got deflected by a freaking, gross-looking barrier!!

Come on, you stupid deity! Don't meddle with us mortals!! I know that guy is your Warlock or something, but that doesn't mean you can block my perfect throw with that stupid barricade of yours!!

So yeah, the goblin is safe. The barrier as mentioned earlier suddenly appeared from the altar, defending the goblin right before my dagger managed to penetrate his eyeball. Tch. And now he's found me and ordered his goons to attack. The stealthskills... seem to have been turned off. This is new...but should I expect anything less when the other side has some divine backup on their field?

Using the Apport skill to return my dagger to my hand, I turned it into its scythe form and started battling the goblin guards. They're armored and using swords as if they were trying to imitate real knights. Hmph. You two have nothing on Mira or Iron, doofuses. My scythesmanship alone is enough to fend them off.

I mean, I don't need to do any fancy tricks. The scythe's longer length alone compared to their puny swords is all that is needed to make the goblins grunt and make funny faces out of frustration of not hitting me.

Just as I started to wound those little green devils, a new light started to appear from the shrine altar. The black cloak had placed the potion from before on top of the pedestal and the contents of the bottle were slowly disappearing in front of my eyes. Is it evaporating?

Or...not. Now the goblin guards are glowing with some aura. And it is in the same colors as the slowly draining contents of the potion bottle.

"Bloom, fill me in," I said while leaping away from the goblin guards. You can never be too cowardly when facing glowing goblins. Or anything that's glowing due to some heretical temple's powers.

"It seems to be...some power-enhancing potion? The Feral Goblin Leader seems to be using it as an offering in exchange for asking his god to grant similar effects to his troops." - Bloom

"Good thing they didn't steal from the apothecaries in Velantas when they stole the equipment production facilities. Those potions never last long. They're only delaying the inevitable..." - Garami

Crap. Did I just jinx myself now?

"Actually...Master? It seems that the god of this temple..." - Bloom

Bloom never got to finish as the "transformation scene" for the two goblins had ended, the two looking much more...buff now. I never knew muscles could grow so much in such a short amount of time.

It's not only their appearance that's gotten a boost. Their attack power and speed have grown exceptionally. I tried to parry one of the gobs' swords, but the impact from the clash was enough to knock my scythe out of my hand and have it lodge into one of the pillars! And my hand hurts now...

The gobs, the black cloak included, seem to enjoy that. Let's not spoil their fun by using Apport. Not just yet, anyway.

Still, power-up or no power-up, the goblins are far too slow to get a good shot at me even now. However, that doesn't equal to me being able to defeat them in a flash. I mean, I could, but that would cause the black cloak to call on more guards. He's having a blast seeing me being chased by his two goons, but if I defeat these two chumps, he's going to call on the goblins outside. Sounds of combat can still be heard from behind the entrance door, proof that Rassel hasn't finished them off yet.

But man, that potion trick is just unfair. Those jerks have powered up enough to be equivalent to D-rank gobs now. The altar must have drunk the potion in place of the gobs and then spread the effect to them both. It might even have boosted the potion's effect.

Hmm? Oho~. I just got a nasty idea~. A risky idea, I have to agree, but if it works, I get more than just one nasty thorn in my back removed.

"Tch! Just blow up already!" - Garami

Faking some frustration, I threw a bottle I'd taken out of my Storage toward one of the gobs. My throw was too weak, so the gob caught the bottle before it could break.

"Master, what are...!?!? WHAT ARE YOU THROWING AROUND!?!?" - Bloom

Bloom saw the purple bottle in the goblin's hand and freaked out. Can't blame her, but zip it, fairy! You're spoiling my plan!

"Geh!! That wasn't the Bomb Bottle, but the Super Power Potion!" - Garami

"Super? Power...?" - Bloom

Seriously, zip it already! What if they catch on to my ruse?

The three goblins didn't seem to notice Bloom's confusion and grinned wickedly as they looked at the small vial with its purple content. The warrior goblin threw the bottle to the black cloak. The bottle passed through the barrier with no problems. It must be designed only to fend off attacks. The black cloak caught it...NOT! HEY! Don't drop it! Don't you dare drop it!! ...Phew. That was close. The black cloak needs to play some more baseball. He almost dropped the vial there.

While I was fearing for my life there for that split second, the other goblin warrior had been trying to keep me away from those lousy ball throwers. It was honestly not that difficult. The gob seems to want the effect of the "Super Power Potion" before going for the kill. A strategic decision? Or one that just wants the glee of using my items against me? Probably the latter.

Anywho, while I was busy playing tag, the black cloak placed the purple vial on top of the pedestal again. The contents were slowly disappearing from the bottle as if it was evaporating. The black cloak turned around to watch his guards...

Collapse on the floor, spewing blood out of every hole of their head. GROSS!!

The black cloak made a surprised gasp, and to be honest, so did I. I figured that stupid poison would be lethal, but I didn't expect it would snuff them out in less than a moment! The goblins' expressions don't even betray a single emotion of surprise or pain. Their death was instant. Literally.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Now, most people may have already guessed it, but that "Super Power Potion" is a big hoax. Its true identity is the last bottle of Distilled Hydra Poisons that I still had on me. Of the three I originally had, one was watered out into several barrels used during the boss rush in the Water-Knot (thanks to the Sahuagin Witch Doctor who did most of the work watering out the poison), one I gave to Blot as a present of sorts (though my real intention was to get rid of it to someone with at least the facilities to properly supervise it), which left me with this final bottle biohazard liquid in my interdimensional pocket.

After seeing the altar's power to enhance the goblins by using liquids as a medium, I thought it would be the perfect chance to get rid of one more of those deadly vials. There was a slight risk of the contents of the vials being transported into the goblins or some other weird effects, or the goblins getting a poison-based power bonus instead of the poison killing them, but it seems I won this bet.

"Hey, hey~. You lonely or something~?" - Garami

Now to finish the job. I taunted the black cloak, who was still in shock over seeing his allies die in a pool of their blood and knocked him back to his senses. He raised his bone wand and chanted something in Goblinish before a huge blast of dark magic came flying toward me. It was big, but I could see it coming from a mile away. Dodging it was easy, even if the spell-chanting was faster than that of any other spells I've seen before. Probably something cooked up by the Warlock class' [Invocation] skill.

Seeing as I dodged all his blasts, the black cloak gradually turned redder and redder from pure anger. After the nth spell, the black cloak jumped out from his protective barrier and tried to clobber me with his skull staff while being clouded by wrath. Or maybe his MP simply ran out and he decided to go for the direct approach.

Using Apport, I returned my scythe to my hand and activated [Flash], blinding the still-airborne black cloak. This gave me the chance to test out one of the few [Assassination Arts] I had the chance to unlock before coming to this island: "Assassinate (Scythe)". The name's not so impressive, and it should be. That's because it is one of the most basic Combat Arts belonging to this skill, with the effect of guaranteeing a "critical hit" with extra damage if you attack an unsuspecting enemy. FYI, this is a scythe weapon variant of the Combat Art. There also exist versions for other types of weapons. I've only unlocked this and the dagger variant though.

The trick here is that the target doesn't need to be unaware of your existence. Even in a direct fight, as long as you distract the target for a moment, the "Assassinate" Combat Art's bonus effect will still be applied.

However, in the end...wasn't this too much of an overkill? Yet again, I mean. The black cloak's race is a Feral Goblin Leader. An LP specialist. Even a common slash from my scythe would be enough to tear out his throat. Sorry, buddy, but you started this fight. Better regret down in hell.

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

Conditions cleared:

Acquired Blessing: [Proof of Agnir].

Acquired skill: [Burning Warlust Lv.1].

Huh? Hey, hey, where did this guy come from?

"Master, come over here and take a look!" - Bloom

"What is it? I'm currently straddled with my problem... What the ****?" - Garami

Bloom made me come to the crystal pedestal (the barrier had disappeared with the black cloak's death) and had me look at the various screens attached to it. It showed a bunch of goblin corpses, all over the island. Don't tell me...this potion trick was applied to ALL the Feral Goblins?

And not only that, there's also a bunch of other people on the screens. Including Mira and the others, several adventurers could be seen spread out over the island. It looks like they've been fighting against the Feral Goblin forces until the moment the latter group died from the Hydra Poison.

"Where did they all come from?" - Garami

"It seems like they are the people we tried to reach out to for assistance to save Rassel before we traveled to this island." - Bloom

"Meaning... Those guys didn't refuse our invitation. They only used too much time getting ready that we left before we could get any reply." - Garami

Among the various groups, I noticed some of the adventurers we had fought alongside during the incident at Plain Island, a group of Sahuagins riding some familiar-looking dinosaur monsters, a trio of giant dinosaurs that I'm also acquainted with, and there's even a bunch of knights here too! Did Velantas have their knight order?

"Well, no wonder I won the good grace of a goddess that seems to favor war." - Garami

The situation shown on the screens can only be described as the aftermath of a small war. And the one who ended the whole shebang, including defeating the head of the goblin forces, is me.

"Goddess Agnir is the Ultimate Goddess of Fire, but she also is a Goddess of War." - Bloom

"Figures. Let's worry about that for later and have Rassel...crap." - Garami

When I turned and looked at the front entrance I was greeted by the sorry sight of the whole thing having been buried under a ton of rubble. The culprit is probably one of those [Invocation] blasts from the black cloak.

"Ehm...what should we do now?" - Bloom

"Compared to cleaning that up, locating the instruction manuals for the barrier is way easier. Could you try and poof outside the door and tell Rassel that I'm alright, but it will take some time getting out?" - Garami

"Roger-doger, Master~." - Bloom

And with that, Bloom disappeared in a poof of smoke. I didn't ask for special effects when I asked you to "poof outside", you silly fairy...

Whatever. Let's see what I can do about that barrier from this altar. [Identification] [Evil Eye of Darksight], and [Intuition] don't warn me of any potential danger, so it should be fine looking around for some "barrier off" button on this thing...

But man, this place is the pits! The black cloak might have been a Warlock for the god this shrine is dedicated to, but only according to a Feral's standards. Bloodstains, rotten meat, and remains of unspeakable stuff are spread all over the place.

Partly as a way to make the god connected to this shrine a little less pissed off at me for having killed their "believer", I cleaned up the altar while looking for a way to turn off the barrier. Or rather, the Skeletons I summoned did that job for me. Doesn't this thing come with an instruction manual?

In the end, nothing at the shrine told me how to cancel the barricade. The cleaning of the altar ended without any trouble though. And the result isn't half bad. It's still evil-looking, but now it's at least a clean evil-like look.

And as a bonus, we found a treasure chest hidden underneath dirt and blood. Several raw crystal fragments and pieces of cloth were found inside it. It seems to be what that pedestal and the Feral Goblin Leader's black cloak were made of, respectively. The materials have some sort of strange aura to them, so they might be worth something. Let's take them home with me.

"Master? I think I found something." - Bloom

Bloom pointed at a strange console that was hidden behind the altar. I didn't notice it before I had the skeletons clean the place. It was hidden behind most of the gore, which may explain why we didn't notice it until now.

"You think this has anything to do with the barrier?" - Bloom

"Let me see..." - Garami

I tried looking at the console, but none of these buttons or symbols made any sense to me. And when I tried to touch it...a shocking spark of lightning from the console hit me.

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

Conditions cleared:

Acquired Blessing: [Apostle of Altruine, Goddess of Ruin and Trickery].

Due to the Blessing, the following abilities are acquired:

The trait: [Albino] has been developed into the trait: [Pale Beauty].

Acquired skill: [Cursed Nemesis Mantle].

Wha-wha-what's go-go-goi-i-ing o-o-on-!?

A moment later, after the paralysis and (surprisingly low amount of) pain faded away, I could finally start taking in what happened. Beside me, I could see Bloom still twitching on the ground. Around us, the Skeletons I had summoned were in the same situation. The good news, however, seems to be that the barrier is lifted. The nasty feeling coming from the temple has lifted, at the very least.

Then...it's this weird System Message. Another Blessing? Are they that easy to come over? When I get back to Velantas, I should try to find and talk to an expert about this stuff.

Anyway, now I can clearly say that our business with Iron Isle is finally over. Let's go home, ASAP!!