15 Chapter 15: Encountering the First Magical Creature, Gaining Fire Resistance!

'A short level 6 goblin?' Bates wondered how this was possible. 'He was holding a redwood stick, could it be a spellcaster?'

Looking at the short goblin, Bates hesitated for a moment. He had long known that this was a world where magic existed. For any normal monster, Bates knew that if he had the same level and attributes as the monster, he could kill them instantly. However, he had never met an existence before that had mastered magic!

'I can give it a try!' he thought. 'With my speed, even if I can't kill this spellcaster, I could easily escape. If I was able to kill this goblin, there could be unexpected rewards."

If he didn't face this magical creature now, he would encounter one in the future anyway, so he might as well give it a try!

Bates stopped his imagination from running wild, and he hid in the grass whilst slowly crawled towards the goblin woodworkers who were busy in the forest.

"Ding! You have killed a goblin woodworker. Obtained 10 experience points."

"Ding! You have killed a goblin hunter. Obtained 15 experience points."

Not long after, Bates had killed all the goblin woodworkers and hunters that were scattered throughout the surrounding forest!

Only the three goblin warriors in the camp and the goblin spellcaster, were left.

After hiding close to the goblins, he rushed out to attack the spellcaster. At that moment, the goblin saw Bates and yelled, "Enemy!"

Following the short goblin's angry shout, the three goblin warriors became nervous. They held a knife in one hand and a shield in the other, and protected the short goblin.

The short goblin raised the wooden stick in his hand, and shouted, "Elementary fireball spell!"

Next, a red fireball the size of a human fist shot out from the wooden stick and flew towards Bates!

Flames exploded around him, consuming his body. He felt as if he had fallen into a furnace, as intense pain ran through his body, making it feel like he melting.

Amidst the intense pain, Bates quickly looked at his status panel.

[ status ] : Health 89, Mana 110

The red fireball had reduced Bates' health by ten points, and continued to reduce his health by one point per second.

He was confused, and couldn't understand why he'd received very little damage from the fireball, when the level of the spellcaster was higher than the goblin warriors. If he was hit by the warrior's [ savage throw ], he would have been much more injured. In Bates' mind, the spellcasters magic far exceeded the damage a warrior could do. 

"Perhaps it's because of my [ tough armor ] skill?" Bates shook his head and stopped thinking about it.

Since the goblin spellcaster could only cause minor damage to him, then there was no reason for him to be hesitant.

As long as he could withstand the attacks of those fireballs, Bates would be able to rush to the side of the goblin spell caster and kill it!

'Wait!' Bates told himself, as he noticed a system notification flash up.

"Ding! Your shell has been burned by the flames. [ adaptability ] talent activated. You have obtained a skill fragment."

On the second panel, an additional skill fragment had appeared!

[ skill fragment ] : fire resistance 1/10

This was a surprise!

Bates glanced at his health, which had already dropped to 85 points, and stopped charging towards the spellcaster. Instead, he turned around and charged into the forest.

Bates had a new idea.

Not only did he want to get this goblin's attribute template, but he also wanted to get this new passive skill, flame resistance!

Resistance-type skills were very difficult to come by. With the skill [ flame resistance ], he could face a fire-type spellcaster and not worry about significant damage. It was much more precious than the attribute template he was trying to get.

After Bates had charged into the forest, the burning effect on his body continued for a further five seconds, then stopped when his health fell to 80 points.

Only then did he notice the charred marks across his body, and parts where his armor had been ruptured. However, that did not worry Bates.

He approached the corpse of one of the goblin hunters, and quickly bit down into its flesh with his fangs, and swallowed the meat.

As he continued to eat, another system notification rang out, stating that the meat was being absorbed by the [ limb regeneration ] skill, and quickly healed the injuries on his body.

In just a few minutes, Bates' injuries were completely healed, and his health was restored to full.

Bates' attention turned back to the goblins, and he charged out once again.

"Ding! Your shell has been burned by the flames. [ adaptability ] talent activated. You have obtained a skill fragment."

The second skill fragment had been obtained!

Bates once again went back into the forest to devour another goblin's corpse to recover from his injuries.

After his injuries had fully recovered, he charged out for the third time.

"Ding! Your shell has been burned by the flames. [ adaptability ] talent activated. You have obtained a skill fragment."

All the previous goblin camps Bates had ambushed, he'd killed everyone within a few minutes. However, this camp, which only had four goblins left, had occupied the last several hours. This was due to the spellcaster's limited mana points.

After consecutively casting seven elementary fireball spells, the goblin mana points were depleted. Bates had no choice but to patiently wait for its mana points to recover.

After a few hours, he finally managed to gather the last skill fragment!

"Ding! You have obtained 10 skill fragments. Do you wish to fuse them into a skill?"

"Fuse!"

Following the sound of the system notification, a new skill appeared on Bates' attribute panel.

[ fire resistance: passive skill, beginner. After being burned for a long period of time, with the [ adaptability ] talent, you have gained fire resistance. With this skill, you can greatly reduce the damage from basic fire skills, moderately reduce the damage from intermediate fire skills, and slightly reduce the damage from advanced fire skills. ]

When the skill was generated, Bates did not hesitate to add a soul point to the new [ fire resistance ] skill, upgrading the basic fire resistance to intermediate fire resistance.

[ fire resistance: passive skill, intermediate. With the help of mysterious power, your resistance to fire damage was greatly increased. With this skill, you could completely avoid damage from a basic fire skill, greatly reduce the damage from an intermediate fire skill, moderately reduce the damage from an advanced fire skill, and slightly reduce the damage from a top-tier fire skill. ]

Success!

Just by looking at the description of [ intermediate fire resistance ], Bates knew how powerful it was.

Unfortunately, [ intermediate fire resistance ] was already at its upgrade limit. Otherwise, Bates would have wanted to bring his fire resistance up to the highest level.

Following that, Bates upgraded his [ basic poison resistance ] to [ intermediate poison resistance ], which would greatly reduce the damage of poison-type spells on himself.

After doing all this, Bates crawled out of the forest again!

The battle would be won!