"It will be easier to show you than to explain," Thorian turned and looked at the Magus statue in the distance. With most of the trees already cut, he could see it even through the night. "Follow me."
Thorian led the excited pack to the statue while Nox walked next to him. Once he arrived at his destination, he turned around and said, "This statue will give you magical abilities like my fireball."
Thorian opened his palm and activated his spell. The fireball floating in his hand had its intended effect and mesmerized the simple kobloids, "You can get a fireball like mine, a Waterball, a wind gust, or a rock bullet. They are all good spells, and we will need all of them. Who wants to become a Magus?"
At Thorian's question, almost all the kobloids screamed and shouted "Me!" with fervor in their faces.
Seeing this reaction, Thorian sighed, "Not all of you should become Magus, the other classes are equally as impressive and important."
Knowing that they would waste even more time if he let them choose as they pleased, Thorian randomly pointed at four kobloids. "You four will become Magus. From right to left, you'll get the fireball spell, Waterball, wind gust, and rock bullet. Is that understood?"
The four kobloids did not even wait for Thorian to finish speaking before howling in happiness. Their tails whipped left and right with enthusiasm, and their eyes gleefully sparked.
"Put your hand on the statue," Thorian shook his head and said.
The kobloids jumped for joy and ran toward the statue as if it was a race. Once they touched the statue, they raised their eyebrows in surprise as a blue light encompassed them. They looked blankly in front of them, presumably reading through the invisible screen panels that gave them the choice for their starting skills.
After a few seconds, their eyes finally focused, and they looked around in excitement. One of the kobloids opened his palm as Thorian had done so many times, and a fireball appeared on his palm. However, unlike Thorian, the kobloid could not control the fireball and launched it to the side, setting a small tree on fire.
Thorian clicked his tongue and turned toward the second kobloid who was taken aback by the situation, "Hey, you. You have Waterball, right?"
The small kobloid looked shocked and confused for a second before hesitantly nodding.
"Go to that tree and use Waterball before the fire spreads," Thorian ordered. He then looked back at the perpetrator whose expression was frozen in fear, "And you, don't just randomly throw your skills. You could have killed someone."
The small kobloid hastily nodded, "Sorry."
Thorian took a deep breath before focusing back on the kobloid he ordered to quench the fire. The poor little monster walked toward the fire with hesitant steps before raising his palm and pointing at the burning tree. The fire was rapidly spreading through the roots and the grass on the ground.
A ball of water appeared in front of the kobloid's palm and rapidly grew to a considerable size. Once the spell reached its maximum capacity, the kobloid launched the Waterball with recoil, and the spell rapidly flew toward its target.
The water skill destroyed the tree with its impact, but the fire was almost immediately extinguished. A large amount of steam covered the area, blocking everyone's view, but the orange hue of the flames was nowhere to be seen.
Thorian walked toward the scene, and after a few seconds, the steam dissipated. What remained was a charred and destroyed tree and a few embers amidst the ash on the ground.
If I let this pass, they will become truly unhinged. A good talk is in order.
After stomping out the last few embers with his foot, Thorian turned around and said, "Let that be a lesson. Do not get high on your power and always be careful. If that fireball had hit someone's face, I would have taken personal revenge in their stead."
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Thorian then focused on the perpetrator who was shamefully looking down and laid out his decree, "As punishment for causing such trouble, you shall spend the next hours guarding this place and cutting trees. By the time we finish our hunt, I want those big trees to be cut and cleaned of all branches. Is that understood?"
The kobloid nodded and meekly said, "Understood?"
Thorian clicked his tongue at the weak response, "I don't hear you, speak up!"
The kobloid hesitated for a second before responding with a louder voice, "Understood!"
Even though the little monster did not dare maintain eye contact with Thorian, the latter did not bother him much longer. He just said, "Your duties start now. Pick up your axe and get to cutting."
Not willing to waste any more time, Thorian focused back on the rest of the kobloids. Some were looking at the fire magus with pity, while others just snickered and grinned.
"Let's continue; there are still three other classes left."
Thorian took the lead while the rest of the kobloids formed a beeline behind him. Only Nox and the kobold walked with relaxed strides beside him.
The second statue was one of a man clad in armor, brandishing a menacing battle-axe. His fierce expression and poised stance exuded a warrior's spirit.
"This is the warrior class statue," Thorian explained. "For those of you that want to fight up close and personal, this is a perfect class. A true warrior can delve into an army of enemies and slaughter them all with his weapon and indomitable will."
Half of the kobloids that did not have a class looked at the statue with bright eyes, wishing to be chosen. Even the kobold looked with interest after Thorian finished his explanation.
"Warrior strong. Me like."
"Whoever wants the warrior class can become one," Thorian simply stated. "I do not have any specific inclinations toward any skill, so you can choose whichever you want."
Thorian's words were like that of an angel opening heaven's gates to the kobloids. As Thorian had hoped, the stout one that came second in the tree-cutting competition was also interested and walked along the rest toward the statue.
Green light illuminated the dark forest as four kobloids and a kobold shone brightly. After a few seconds, their eyes regained focus, signaling to Thorian that they had finished choosing their skills.
"No wasting time, let's move to the rest."
As such, the group made their way to the Assassin statue. This time, only three kobloids chose the class and were filled with the shadow aura. After they chose their skills, Thorian led them to the final class statue.
Venturing south of the Territory Altar, they discovered a two-meter-tall statue of a woman draped in ceremonial robes. Her delicate hands were raised in a gesture of blessing, while her serene expression conveyed an aura of divine wisdom.
Looking back at the group, Thorian thought, Only two are left? I guess that's good enough; we just need those two skills.
“You and you,” Thorian pointed at the last two kobloids without a class. “One of you will choose Healing, the other will choose Radiance. I don’t care who chooses what, just choose fast.”
The two kobloids were taken by surprise before one of them pointed at his chest and said, "Me Healing."
Thorian nodded, "Good, that makes things easy. Now go and claim your class."
The two hesitantly walked forward before placing their hands on the statue. A dim golden light covered them as they chose their skills. Once they were done, Thorian could finally breathe out a sigh of relief.
Good, with this much power, we should be able to deal with the hobgoblins fairly easily.
After the two new priest kobloids joined the rest of the pack, Thorian laid out his next plan.
"I am sure that all of you must be feeling great with your new powers," The kobloids grinned, and some of them whistled and howled before Thorian continued, "But do not get too cocky; the opponents we will be facing are not easy. We will go to the goblin cave and exterminate all of them."
The kobold's eyes glinted at the proposal, while Nox looked confused. However, neither of their thoughts or feelings mattered in front of the excited howls of the kobloids.
Thorian turned toward Nox and smiled, "You will understand soon enough. Killing the hobgoblins is going to help us tremendously."
As usual, Thorian did not waste any more time. With his plan now clear, he guided the pack of monsters through the forest. Even though they needed to run at the speed of their slowest member, the pace they had set was still much faster than any human could hope to achieve.
On their way to the goblin cave, they found all kinds of animals, predator or otherwise. Seeing all of them as free bags of experience, the kobloids razed the forest and left a trail of blood behind them. Any animal large enough to be seen was large enough to be killed.
After half an hour of hunting and running, they finally reached the rock outcropping close to the goblin cave. Their class levels averaged around 3, with the kobold already at level 4 and inching close to 5.
Looking at the cave from behind the large rocks, Thorian could not see any of the green monsters outside.
I guess they are asleep? Good for us.
Without saying a word, he signaled for the pack of kobloids to follow behind him. Tonight, carnage was on the menu.