In a small secluded area in between the forest, using a device to cast a huge dimensional barrier that isolates the surroundings, five people sat beside each other with many scratches and bruises, two people were seriously injured and were now unconsciously laid on the ground.
They have been quite unlucky from the moment they have stopped here. Two instructors had already died leaving seven of them to deal with the crisis, who were now grievously injured, out of the seven, two were already hanging between life and death.
"I can't understand, how is this place full of monsters." One of them spoke with a solemn expression.
"Even, I am wondering about that. It looked as if there is a dungeon breakdown and these monsters after breaking out of the dungeon had made a small tribe in the nearby forest."
"Going by your notion and taking into account the goblins have high reproduction ability it looked like the dungeon breakdown happened before a year or two."He spoke.
One of the instructors who was subconscious before woke up and stabilising himself cursed" Who is that asshole that reported that a dungeon had appeared here recently? I want to tear that asshole into pieces."
He coughed a few mouths filled with blood as he spoke unable to contain his internal injury.
"Hey don't overexert yourself, most of the healing potions have been used."One of them spoke, seeing his friend's pitiful condition.
Seeing his comrade waking up, another one spoke with a serious expression"Was it a trap? Did someone lure us here to deal with the students?"
Everyone's mood became heavy on hearing the possibility of being led to the trap.
The surroundings here have been brimming with monsters and beasts.
Till now they had already fought with 19 C rank goblins. If not for killing the stronger ones, the students in the village would already have died.
When they were engaging with the stronger ones, the smaller one slipped in between the fight and went towards the village after the children.
After fighting as much as possible, they ran towards the village only to find a goblin mage along with hundred of goblins fighting other instructors there.
The goblin mage attack was quite frightening and because of the other two instructors' sacrifices that they were able to come out alive.
They regrouped with the remaining and instead of immediately searching for the students, decided to recuperate and then find out about the goblins tribe and destroy it.
"How is the situation of the students." One of them asked.
Before their departure, each of thr students was given a tracker bracelet that could be used to track them down.
The trackers on the students would emit mana frequency of a certain wavelength and it would be shown on the map, each instructor had the device with them.
The instructor took out a black disk-like device and poured mana into it. A projection emerged from the disk that showed the map around the whole region.
On the projection, many small red dots represent the students followed by the blue dots which represented thr instructor appeared.
They frowned on seeing the projection. Instead of dots converging at close points, the dots were scattered and what was more frustrating was that one blue dot was far away from the area.
"Did he just abandon the children and fled, leaving us to fight till death."
"Asshole."
"Traitor."
Their mood worsened on seeing the situation. They were taking time to recover some of thier energy cause they were assured thinking that the 5-Star instructor was along with the students and with proper coordination could sweep the remaining weaker ones.
But instead of protecting the students that bastard just escaped by himself.
They all sighed thinking about the dangerous situation ahead.
They were wary about the highest level of monster the goblin had. Since the goblin had already formed a tribe, there had to goblin chief supervising them and he must be strong enough to tame these wild unruly monsters.
As they were discussing what to do next, one of them stood up and said"I will go to look after the students. You all stay here and recuperate"
"You stay here and protect others. We two are in the best condition. You all recover quite a bit and try to find the location of thier tribe. We have to report everything to the superiors." He spoke in a resolute.
They can't leave the students alone to fend off themselves after all the safety of the students were their responsibility and they have to assure that each child leaves safely from this place.
"Okay, we are going. One of you tracks the other students who have separated and tried to escape on thier own." He spoke before leaving.
Everyone present thier nodded.
Exiting the dimensional barrier he moved.
.............
While the instructor was on their way, Lucas and others were struggling to fight thier way through the hoard of the goblins.
The entire village has been ruined with the goblins to spot on here and there.
Goblins were starting to spawn from everywhere. The whole village had been doomed, only God knows how many months or years had been since the village had been taken over by these damn goblins.
Seeing Lucas, Fredrick, Parth and Rose fighting with this goblin many started to raise thier weapons as helping hands.
Most of the goblins they were encountering now were only G rank but there were dozens of them.
Those who were crawling with fear an hour ago were now mustering their courage and fighting with the goblins. They tried to push back their fear and lend a helping hand to increases the chances of their survival.
Some of them got injured but still, they were able to take down the goblins at the end.
No one was seriously injured and they just had a few scratches and bruises.
With the future Goddess of Archery and Spear Saint guarding them and interfering with the ones who were not able to take on the stronger goblins, they came across, their journey towards the village mansion carried on without hitch.
Their pace was quite slow as they were marching ahead with cautiousness and the village chief head manor was just a few miles from now.
Some were unable to tolerate the tiredness and pains of the wounds and wanted to take potions but Fredrick forbade them. Unless they have got a serious wound or were in a difficult situation, it's better to the potions for later.
While some were engaging in fights and some were recovering thier energy. Lucas calmly observed the battlefield with his hawk-like eyes.
Although it looked like everything was proceeding smoothly but there is no possibility that it will remain like that.
Moreover what Lucas worried about, was not the wounds his classmate got from the battle but the mental pressure each of them had to face from now on.
You can take on potions to revitalise and shake away your physical exhaustion but overcoming mental exhaustion was something that needed some time to recover.
Lucas remembered sometimes, he just wanted to throw away his weapons and ran out of the dungeons because he was too mentally tired after going on for three days without an hour's sleep. It was only because of Aaron and his fellow skies member jokes and lightheartedness that he was able to endure.
But here, not all are close enough like the Skies member and without anywhere to vent the pressure, they just have to suffer.
No one knows just how many days will it take to get out of here and how many would be able to survive from this point.
Lucas was afraid of someone may lose his sanity unable to bear the pressure.
Suddenly Lucas who was at the back felt something and halted his steps.
Seeing Lucas stop behind, Fredrick looked back and frowned feeling the danger and shouted"All of you regroup from a close formation."
Giving the command, Fredrick leapt forward signalling Parth and Rose to prepare.
Lucas, Fredrick, Parth and Rose can be said to be the strongest among the ones present here and were carrying the pillar of the burden of guiding the weaker ones.
Fredrick asked the 2-Star to prepare themselves and advised the 1-Star to be ready to flee if the situation get out of hand.
Lucas's pupil contracted on feeling the pressure that the hoard goblins as they were coming near them.
Although he couldn't tell the exact number there were several E rank and F ranks in that hoard and if there was a D rank monster present in that crowd, they might have to go through a death fight.
Lucas looked at Fredrick with a solemn expression. There was a slight panic in Fredrick's eyes.
After all, though Fredrick is a protagonist still he was a human at the end of the day and is in no way invincible or omniscient.
The disaster that they were facing now might be too much Fredrick to bear.
If it was too much even for Fredrick to bear, how can it be easy for Lucas to face the situation, who just started to spread his wings and was supposed to be an extra before?
'I think it's time to use that. Thank God that I listened to my gut feeling and brought dozens of them.' Lucas's lips curled upwards thinking about it. He was quite expected to see the results of the items.
Lucas noticed that there was still some time for them to face off the goblins so he asked Fredrick to gather the mage and asked them to dig some traps in the form of shallow trenches. The trap shouldn't be too deep or too narrow. It should be enough to just make them fall in the pit.
Lucas wanted to use the goblin's mage strategy against them to trap them in a pit and....
