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The journey would take them a total of 4 hours to reach the community. After that, the players would be free until the return trip made the next day. While it was possible that they could end up making the trip back on the same night, that would require a portion of the trip to happen at night which was far too dangerous for them, hence why the merchants hired them for multiple days.[break][break]

Normally, Natalya wouldn't take this type of mission, feeling that she was far too above such menial labor but it gave her an insight into the type of things that people needed. With her still being at a low level, this left her with a lot of free time since there was a limit to the abilities that she could go on. She had taken to spending that time reviewing all the information that was available about the system and had discovered quite a few interesting things with the most interesting being the guild system.[break][break]

One of the most interesting parts of the guild system was that they were allowed to establish their own cities once the guild grew enough in level. It was almost as if this earth-chan had been reading her deepest desires when she discovered that little nugget. With her goal now much more obtainable, Natalya then started to set out to lay the groundwork for her future empire, hence her taking this mission. She needed to impress upon the merchants that she was a reliable player so that once she started her guild, they'd be more inclined to trade with her, thus speeding up their growth.

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A band of goblins came streaming out of the woods, easily being about 2 dozen strong and seeming to be of various types. From her quick glance, they all seemed to be warrior types; armed with clubs though 6 had bows. "The ones with the bows will have to go first. They'll be trouble if we leave them." she thought before the battle erupted.[break][break]

The merchant proved that they weren't completely helpless as one of them quickly unlatched their horse and mounted it. She was surprised to see the horse gain armor and began to battle a small group of goblins. Pierre also jumped into the fray, an orange outline engulfing his body as he began to lash out with punches at the goblins.[break][break]

Natalya didn't have time to focus on the others after that as a group of 3 warrior goblins and an archer had decided to target the cart she was in. Seeing the archer goblin taking aim, Natalya quickly called up her thorn shield, catching the arrow in it as well as managing to stab into the bodies of the 3 warrior goblins, their skin developing the tale-tell purple tinge of poison.[break][break]

Natalya took the chance while her shield had crashed to fire her seed attack at the ranger, piercing one of its eyes and sending it reeling to the floor in pain.

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"All those years of gymnastics and ballet truly did end up paying off." the Russian thought as she once more dodged a club swing. She lashed out with a throat chop, stealing the breath from the goblin and sending it falling to the floor where it feel unmoving. A quick glance showed the other two laying on the floor, weakly groaning as blood pooled underneath them.[break][break]

"It seems that everything is under control here Mr. Bennington. I will be going to assist the others in their battles." she called out to the man, giving him a reassuring smile before she walked off. Mr. Bennington couldn't muster up any words, still in awe at how she had handled herself against the goblins. This was not his first time seeing players kill the beasts but to have someone so beautiful do so was another experience.[break][break]

Pierre and the Rider had taken care of most of the goblin hoard that had tried to assault the main three carriages so Natalya felt safe leaving him to his own devices. The other woman though seemed to be struggling with covering the front two with her own bow and arrow. She had allowed 2 of the goblins to engage her in close combat and they were keeping her occupied between them as another two began to raid the carriages of their goods.[break][break]

Firing a seed into the throat of one of the robbing goblins, Natalya announced her entrance into the battle. "Do you wish to dance?"

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Natalaya's decision to leave the other goblin to focus on the weakened one proved to be a terrible one. She had expected it to try to attack her but instead, it had decided to focus on the archer and landed a hard blow on the back of her thigh. This sent the girl falling to her knee where the other goblins began to wail on her.[break][break]

Sucking her teeth in irritation, Natalya ran her way over, firing her seed attack into the head of one of the goblins while swinging the club from her fallen opponent into the others. The goblin trio backed off, grouping a few meters away while Natalya stood in front of the fallen player keeping an eye on the monsters.[break][break]

"Can you stand?"

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It didn't take long before the poison for her attack kicked in, further weakening the goblins and allowing Natalya to land a hit on the middle goblin. Another arrow struck the goblin on the left, stabbing next to its companion and sending that goblin collapsing to the forest floor, dead.[break][break]

The third goblin attempted to take advantage of not being targetted to run away, having apparently had enough of dealing with these humans but a fist suddenly smashed into it from the side, killing it and revealing Pierre with some bruises of his own. He quickly close the distance and killed the goblin that Natalya was fighting, bringing an end to the battle.[break][break]

"Glad to see you're both doing alright." he stated, giving them both a once over before he moved to help pacify the merchants. Natalya turned to see that the archer's wounds had mysteriously healed as the woman gave her a sour look before moving off to wake up her merchant. "Interseting."[break][break]

Everything ended up being accounted for and besides a few lighting smashed boxes, everything was fine. The merchants had all been largely fine as well and the group soon moved on, wanting to put some distance from the battle site. After another hour of riding, the community soon came into view and Natalya disembarked after ensuring the safe arrival of her merchant before making her way around the site; curious to see the sights.

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