"Bronze rank and below adventurers must retreat now!" shouted one of the gold-rank adventurers. "We can't protect you from these 2nd evolution creatures."
This time Alexander didn't ignore the retreat command and retreated along with the bronze rank adventurers. He considered it would be very problematic to abuse luck, as he could end up being caught by surprise.
Once reunited with Ocean, Alexander took her to run along the back of the formation, killing any creature of wave that was about to die, because this increased the XP points they were obtaining.
After another 15 to 20 minutes of combat, only the 2nd evolution creatures remained. But they were much stronger than the previous ones and the number of adventurers still fighting was much smaller.
"Wait. Where are the 3rd evolution monster and the other gold-rank adventurer?" Alexander asked himself, finally noticing their absence.
Concentrating on searching for them, he managed to hear sounds of fighting in the distance. And turning towards the sound, he realized how intense the fight must be, because the location didn't seem nearby.
"It seems I won't need to worry about the {Berserker Orc} for now," pondered Alexander. "But it's better to try to finish this here as quickly as possible so unforeseen events don't happen."
With a new objective defined, he threw caution to the wind and used the skill |Throw| to launch combat needles at the monsters that were close to breaking the defensive formation.
Just as the salesman said, the needles were capable of penetrating 2nd evolution creatures. But even so, Alexander only attacked humanoid creatures, because he seriously doubted his ability to escape from non-humanoid creatures with his current attributes.
He used all the needles he had, both from the bag and from the ring, but the situation wasn't even close to being as good as before, because his poison wasn't as effective on 2nd evolution creatures. Which was to be expected, since his poison was still of the 1st evolution.
At most he managed to hinder the movements of the creatures he hit over time, but this helped the adventurers, who were losing, to gain some margin of maneuver.
Even with some adventurers regaining the advantage, the number of wounded continued to increase and so the battle dragged on until only 15 2nd evolution creatures remained against 1 gold-rank adventurer, 10 silver-rank adventurers, and the "kill-stealing" duo, Alexander and Ocean, who watched the situation from afar. All the others were too incapacitated to fight, or had died.
Seeing the situation was complicated, he decided to stop waiting for easy kills, ordered Ocean to cover him from afar, and activated the skill |Magical Body Strengthening| to fight.
After studying his possible opponents a bit, Alexander took some needles from the bodies of the slain creatures and launched them at the creature that seemed weakest to him. Interestingly, the 2nd evolution creature he chose was a {Superior Hobgoblin}.
"If I could use all the potential of {Evolutionary Metamorphosis} the fight would be easier," he pondered before fighting. "But using it here would potentially be even riskier than fighting this hobgoblin without it."
As soon as he began fighting the hobgoblin, Alexander felt his body was afraid, but not just any fear, an instinctive fear.
The creature's anger for being attacked by the needles made it release an oppressive aura over his body, which could feel that the hobgoblin's evolution level was above his.
This oppressive feeling didn't hinder him much during the fight, but it was persistent, as if telling him he shouldn't be doing this.
After successfully attracting the {Superior Hobgoblin}, Alexander kept as far away as possible and fought using spells, because he knew the only thing that allowed him to face a 2nd evolution monster were the extra attributes from his ring.
During the fight, he managed to hit a |Water Blade| spell, but contrary to what happened against the bandits, the damage caused was small, because the natural defense of a 2nd evolution creature's body is no joke.
Not achieving the desired effectiveness with his |Water Blade| spell, Alexander thought about using |Water Cannon|, but soon discarded this idea, because it would take a while to condense the water and this would give the hobgoblin enough time to approach.
Seeing his situation wasn't easy, Alexander called Ocean through their connection. And feeling him calling her, she launched a large magical skill at the hobgoblin and ran in his direction.
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Feeling her approach, Alexander advanced to attract as much of the hobgoblin's attention as he could. And as soon as he felt Ocean's inherent arrival, he kicked the hobgoblin back and crouched so she could use his back as a jumping platform to leap over the {Superior Hobgoblin}.
Completely caught off guard by this combination, the hobgoblin did its best to use its sharp instincts and avoid Ocean's |Bite|, which aimed at its neck.
Alexander, who already expected it to dodge, at least partially, took this opportunity to attack the hobgoblin and plunged his poisoned dagger into the wound |Water Blade| had made.
Despite all his plan, his dagger only went in halfway. But that was enough for the hobgoblin to get red eyes of anger and begin pursuing him, ignoring everything else.
Seeing the situation reach this point, he didn't think twice and ordered Ocean to retreat while beginning to run for his life. His only plan was to survive long enough for the poison to take effect.
Feeling his mana and the effect of |Magical Body Strengthening| were ending, Alexander looked for his mana potions, but discovered he only had one left, as he had already consumed, or given to others, the other potions.
Trying to avoid casting more spells so his mana wouldn't run out and he would become weakened because of it, Alexander continued to run and dodge attacks as best he could.
When the poison finally began to take effect and he was about to begin his counterattack, a large fireball entered his field of vision and exploded on the {Superior Hobgoblin}'s head.
Incredulous at the situation, Alexander turned in the direction from which the ball came, but this only served to find the gold-rank mage adventurer giving him a look of respect and saying: "You did very well, kid."
After taking a deep breath to resist the urge to stab the mage to death so he could recover the XP that was stolen from him, he just smiled a bit forcedly.
With the Hobgoblin dead, Alexander looked around and realized the adventurers had won the battle, because only 2 monsters remained, and they were already under control.
Seeing this, he threw some needles at them, which he picked up from the ground, and fell exhausted. This battle had drained almost all of his energy, mana, and MP.
"It seems there were some good silver-rank adventurers around here, or they wouldn't be able to overcome this disparity," Alexander analyzed while resting. "But it's not as if that has anything to do with me… Better to focus on myself and see the information I ignored during the fight."
Ding!
[Your familiar (Ocean) leveled up.]
Ding!
[You leveled up. But due to the interference of the special skill |Attribute Control|, all your attribute increases upon leveling up were denied and converted into free attribute points.]
*[+30 free attribute points]*
*[+1 growth point]*
[Your familiar (Ocean) leveled up.]
[Your familiar (Ocean) leveled up.]
[You leveled up…]
Ding!
[|Throw (Intermediate)| leveled up to |Throw (Advanced)|]
[Your familiar (Ocean) leveled up.]
[You leveled up…]
[Your familiar (Ocean) leveled up.]
"Despite all this wear, the gains from this battle were high," thought Alexander. "The amount of XP Ocean and I gained was abundant… Not to mention the combat and collaboration experience we gained."
Reviewing the information, Alexander noticed the mission still hadn't been completed and only then remembered the 3rd evolution monster leading the wave. Unfortunately he no longer had the strength to try to obtain the reward for killing it.
All he could do in his condition was wait while preparing to flee to the city, if necessary.
Ding!
[Mission completed]
Seeing that notification gave him great relief. But he still chose to set aside the system mission for now until completing the adventurer's guild mission.
Sometime after he received the notification, a group of adventurers led by a burly man appeared. They were injured, but also very happy to be able to say they had managed to kill a 3rd evolution monster.
As soon as the battle ended, the Guild sent people to take the fallen adventurers who lived in the city to their respective loved ones.
Later, more people were sent, but these were sent to collect the bodies of the slain creatures, because they still needed to be disassembled and prepared for sale.
"Those who can still walk must go to the Guild tomorrow morning to receive their reward," shouted a guild representative. "And those who can't, send a representative!"
Upon learning he wouldn't receive anything that day, Alexander decided to end the day and "dragged" himself with Ocean to the Guild dormitory to sleep. But as soon as he got near the Guild, he was intercepted by his usual receptionist, who seemed to look at him in a strangely different way.
"You had a great performance today," the receptionist praised, smiling. But upon seeing doubt blossom on his face, she explained: "The Guild has scouts responsible for observing the battlefield, so it can stay informed if emergency decisions need to be made."
"According to what they reported to the Guild, your combat power isn't far from that of a silver-rank adventurer and you are even more versatile and useful than most at that level," she continued, very enthusiastic.
"Just luck," replied Alexander in a tired tone. "Not to mention I wouldn't be able to do as much if the silver-rank adventurers weren't blocking the wave's advance."
"No need to be so modest. The Guild always recognizes and is generous with its members," said the receptionist. "It is so generous that it will promote you directly from iron rank under evaluation to silver rank."
"But what about you? Will you also be 'generous' with me?" he teased, aiming to embarrass her, because he wanted to go sleep.
"…" Receptionist.
To his total surprise, the receptionist didn't leave angry or embarrassed because of his teasing. She just blushed a bit and began thinking about her options.
"Better not…" said the receptionist after thinking a bit. "But I'll need your identification to be able to promote you to silver rank."
Seeing no problem or sensing any malice, Alexander handed over his identification and headed to his room. But as soon as he took a few steps, a voice reached him. "At least for now it should be a no…"
