When she looked over the board it seemed to be about as mundane as it usually was, a few herb gathering quests, animal hunting and the odd monster hunting request.
After looking over it for a little while Qu decided that some monster hunting wouldn't be so bad, so she looked over the different types.
-hunt a small band of goblins, 3 copper per kill (confirm by bringing an ear per goblin)
-exterminate dire rats, 2 copper per kill (confirm by bringing back teeth and/or claws)
-kill a dire bear, 25 copper (confirm by bringing back a claw)
She may be confident in her abilities, but for such a high payment even she wasn't going to risk the dire bear.
The dire rats will be easy to kill but only if she transforms into her dire rat form or another smaller form, but it could risk her getting caught as the dire rats lived close to a farm.
So after taking all of these into account she chose to hunt the goblins.
She brought the piece of paper to the owner and he registered the quest, he then gave her details on the quest.
The party of goblins was last known to have 4 members. One seemed to focus on tanking damage and had a piece of strong bark to act as a tower shield and nothing else.
Another one of them seemed to act as a warrior, brandishing a damaged iron sword which he probably stole from an adventurer.
The third one seemed to be a type of mage, this one seemed to focus on a type of nature magic, but what type is unknown.
And finally the last one was unknown, all that is known is that it is a goblin and that is all.
She then got the location of where the goblins were last seen, and temporarily given a knife so that she could cut off the ears once she is done.
She then immediately began to head to the location where they were last seen, this in itself took over 30 minuets. The whole way to the location Qu played around with her fire trying just to get a small bit closer to breaking through to the next rank.
When she arrived at the area she instantly activate her mana sense to try and locate the mage of the group, but from where she was there was no sign of them, so she chose to walk through the forest until she got some sort of location on the goblins.
After around 10 minuets of walking through the forest she finally saw the slightest hint of magic, off in the distance there seemed to be a small greenish blur.
As soon as she saw this she started to run towards the mana signature, and when she got relatively close to the mana signature she slowed down and started to sneak towards the area.
As she got closer she started to get a clear view of what she was stalking, and it was indeed the goblin party.
Apon inspection it seemed that the information was correct and that the equipment of the party stayed the same.
Then she gazed her eyes on the mage, just by feeling the aura it gave off it made her skin crawl, but she couldn't pinpoint what the element the mage used was.
Then she looked over to the mystery goblin, and well nothing seemed special about it, it looked bland, it wasn't a mage and when looking at its status it was average except for a high level of mana.
There was no point in wasting time so she got straight to work, the first thing she did was figure out the formation they were using.
It was the tanker in front, mage and mystery goblin in middle and the warrior at the back.
She chose that the best bet was to take out the warrior first, seeing it would be one of the damage dealers of the group.
So she slowly crept up behind the warrior and activated her dream venom flame and went to try and stuff it into his mouth to prevent noise and killing him.
But the moment she activated her flame, the mage goblin turned around and alerted the group, which just got rid of the stealth option all together.
Due to these circ.u.mstances she quickly changed to her dire rat form and slit his legs and ankles open and allowed her flames to begin to run through his body, which it did and it quickly burnt his heart completely.
She then dropped the body, but before she knew it the tank was already in front of her, preparing to try and crush her from with his shield.
To retaliate to this she changed to her horned human form, in doing so it brought her back to full height and also impaled his shield, stopping him from being able to use it.
In this time however the mage took on a drastic change, parts of its body seemed to be covered in a light brown sh.e.l.l like substance, and parts of its body seemed half way through transformation, with those parts being light brown leathery skin. Its arms seemed to have some sharp claws made from this sh.e.l.l like substance and its mouth seemed to get a small set of mandibles.
She quickly ignored this however as it seemed that the mage was into close combat and wasn't close enough to her yet.
She coated her arms in flames and quickly prepared 'burning streak' on one hand and focused on fending off the tank with the other.
Despite her best efforts the tank was starting to get some solid hits on her and her body began to lightly bruise in the areas she was. .h.i.t.
But just before it could get another hit in, her spell had finished and she blew a hole through the stomach of the goblin.
After doing so she went to move on the to the mage, but the sight she saw before her was disgusting indeed.
The mystery goblin was currently willingly being eaten alive by the mage, with it ripping its arms off and practically chomping them down in one bite.
But what she did notice is that with each bite his body became more and more complete into its bug like form, and before she could even get close the mage the goblin had completely eaten the other and had completed its form.
It had grown in height, now eye level with Qu. It body was completely covered in plates of armour that her system identified as chitin. It had a pair of jagged mandibles over its mouth and large compound eyes. It fingers and toes were larger and sharper and one of its hands had transformed into a full blown blade!
It seemed that the other goblin had sacrificed itself to power up the mage, a good tactic for sure, but I doubt they can get as many goblins as willing as the last one.
It seemed that the request was a little bit harder than she first thought, but nonetheless she was a bit too deep to quit now.
So she activated her dream venom flame, and changed to her fire elemental human form.
But before she began she tried something, she set fire to the ground around her to give her an supply of fire that doesn't just come from her body.
But just before she went to attack the creature, the system interrupted her.
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"fire magic has now reached the uncommon rank....
Due to large use of flames with a function independent of itself (dream venom flame running through the bodies of victims) you have specialised in the creation of life...
You will now be able to shape and instruct fire, but only in basic ways and the fire is not sentient...
you will still be able to cast spells such as 'burning streak' you have just added to your abilities"
"just popping in to say congratulations on the promotion"
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