Chapter 278: First Contact
Reivyn felt the dense Mana all around him as he trudged along through the open field. The grass was weighed down by its own weight so it only reached up to his hips. The wind was clearly visible in snaking lines among the greenery. Walking through the thick grass and thick Mana gave the impression that it was more difficult to move than it actually was. It was like having the expectation of wading through shallow water only to find that one’s feet moved effortlessly forward.
Moving fully into the Tier 5 Region brought equal parts relief and trepidation. There had been no more encounters with rogue trap portals or mysterious beasts that could camouflage themselves from his Divine Sense - that he knew of. They were also lucky to avoid any encounters with higher Tier monsters or beasts on the backend of their journey through the Wilderness.
The Wilderness was a wildcard. It was more likely that they would run into generic Tier 4 and 5 creatures, but there was always the possibility of something much more terrifying randomly appearing. The Tier 5 Region was populated almost exclusively by Tier 5 creatures, though the occasional Tier 6 could be found in the deeper areas as well as along the border to the Tier 6 Regions.
Coming out of the Wilderness was a relief that they wouldn’t run into any more tentacle monsters or have a bad random encounter, but now they had to worry about the hordes of Tier 5 goblins spoken about universally in the journals they had read about the Upper Region. The goblins were nomadic for the most part, and for some unknown reason they liked to separate into small bands that broke up into groups of twos and threes to wander around the countryside.
There were mentions of goblin settlements in the deeper areas led by the hobgoblin variants, but those large groups with the Tier 6 leaders were never found near the border to the Wilderness. There was no explanation given, but Reivyn didn’t really care why it worked that way. He was just happy that it did.
He wasn’t worried about running into a singular Tier 6 monster. Their Party could handle such an encounter, especially with the Honor Guard still following along. The problem with Tier 6 hobgoblins, though, was that they were always surrounded by hundreds of Tier 5 goblins.
The goblins in the tribes headed by hobgoblins were semi-sapient. They seemed to have their own culture and politics from what was read in the records, but they became uncontrollably bloodthirsty in the presence of humans. Some of the reading material mentioned witnessing warring factions of goblins, but if the humans watching were ever discovered by even one goblin, both sides would halt their hostilities to chase down the intruding humans until the bloodlust wore off.
Reivyn was much more confident in fending off small bands of twenty or so goblins as opposed to several hundred. He would reserve judgment until after first contact, but he was pretty sure, especially with his parents along for the expedition, that they wouldn’t need to resort to building a temporary fort to successfully fight off a roving band.
Reivyn kept his eyes on the horizon as they walked through the open field. Keeping his focus on the distance allowed him to view everything that happened between him and his focal point. The trick was to not focus on something closer than the absolute distance, because it was much harder to catch something beyond focus than something out of focus inside the range of his vision.