He reached the towering palisade that surrounded the goblin village after a few minutes of steady walking. He could have ran all of the way there, but there was no need to rush. He had all the time in the world.

Once he reached the palisade he slowed his pace and made sure he kept to the treeline. He had no desire to be spotted by one of the guards in the watchtowers before he was ready to break into the village.

It wasn't that he didn't believe he could kill them, but simply that he wanted to avoid the chaos that had followed his breaking into the village the last time he'd been in the harder difficulty tutorial.

Back then he'd been chasing a runaway goblin from stage 3, and caused a huge commotion as he smashed his way inside. That in turn had drawn far too much attention and ended with an angry horde of goblins charging at him, eventually tearing him limb from limb and bringing a premature end to his tutorial attempt.

It took another minute to get in range of the gate. The goblins inside the watchtower were keeping a close eye on the treeline, wanting to spot threats the moment they appeared.

Ronan tried to figure out how he could get past without being spotted. A mana bolt would let him take out the guards before they could see him, but that would create too much noise. Not to mention the ensuing explosion that would probably blast the roof off the watchtower.

Every goblin in the village would hear and see that, leading to the same outcome as his last attempt. He needed more stealth.

If only I had an invisibility skill, he moaned inwardly. There was no changing his arsenal, however, which meant he had to rely on the tools currently at his disposal. You know what, screw caution. I'm confident I can handle any number of goblins. I have rainbow bombs now!

With the area of effect spell, Ronan could wipe the goblins out much faster and more efficiently than ever before. He remembered how effective the kaleidoscopic explosions had been against the ants in the rift gate. These goblins were equally weak and he suspected they would die just as easily if he tossed a swirling rainbow bomb at them.

His mind made up, he began to form a rainbow bomb in his right hand. He usually used his left for spells, as he often had a weapon in his dominant hand, but seeing as he had the opportunity, he figured he might as well use the hand with the most precise aim.

He didn't want to send the bomb flying past the watchtower, after all. That would be an embarrassing way to begin his assault.

Once the rainbow bomb was packed with as much mana as it could handle, vibrating and trying to break free from his control, he cocked his arm back. It was time to blow some goblins to hell.

While Ronan wasn't sure of the exact power that a single rainbow bomb produced, he knew it would cause a big enough blast to accomplish what he wanted. Aiming at the base of the watchtower, he whipped his arm forwards and released the bomb.

The swirling mass of mana soared through the air towards the palisade. The goblin guards spotted it before it struck. Rainbow bombs weren't that fast compared to mana bolts, but it was still too quick for the monsters to react.

Not that goblins had any way to stop his spell, even knowing it was coming. The rainbow bomb struck the palisade near the base of the tower, the mana coming to a brief halt as it crashed into the large wooden stakes.

It exploded outwards, seeming to shatter space around the wall and up above it. The goblins in the watchtower were frozen, mouths open, fingers pointing towards the treeline where Ronan was already running towards them. Then it exploded in a fiery shower of vibrant colour, the palisade exploding into a thousand splinters that blasted in every direction.

The two guards at the top of the watchtower were consumed by the bomb, along with any goblins that had the misfortune to be near the other side of the gate. A large hole had opened up in the wall, which Ronan entered through by vaulting over the charred stumps in the ground.

His gaze was on a swivel from the moment he entered. There were no goblins nearby, only a few burnt body parts. That was all that remained of the monsters who'd fallen victim to his opening spell.

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In the distance he could see the sprawling settlement of the goblins. Small blots moved between the mostly wooden structure—goblins going about their business.

Ronan wasn't going for a stealthy approach. He already saw a few of the goblins had stopped, presumably staring towards the huge explosion of colour that had blasted the walls of their city open.

However, he had little desire to get caught in a stampede as he'd done the first time he attacked this place. With that thought in mind he rushed towards the buildings, hoping to use the tighter spaces between them to engage smaller groups of goblins at a time.

The streets would also act as a funnel for the rainbow bombs, transferring the force of the blast into a more precise area and hopefully killing more goblins than it would in a wide open space. When he was halfway to the settlement, the first curious goblins who'd been walking towards the blast to investigate spotted him.

Their screeches alerted the others instantly. All the nearby goblins began to stream towards Ronan. He was ready for them.

As soon as he'd started running towards the buildings he was preparing a second rainbow bomb in his left hand. When the first goblins approached, he conjured a shortsword in his right.

Against the low level enemies he doubted he would need more than the spell, but with its lacking accuracy and indiscriminate damage, there would be stragglers he had to finish off with the blade. He also wanted to be ready for when tougher goblins appeared. This was stage 4, after all, and he was hoping for a mini-boss or even the boss monster to be a challenge.

Tharaxes had pushed him, despite the hobgoblin lich's relatively low level. He believed that the boss of the harder difficulty tutorial might have its own unique advantages that he would need to figure out on the fly.

When the goblins drew close enough to one another, he launched the rainbow bomb. It exploded in the dirt, sending out shattered lines of colour that tore the monsters apart. A few of them escaped the worst of the blast, yelling incoherently and glaring at him with burning rage. He cut them down shortly after.

The second blast, having detonated so close to the goblins' homes, really grabbed their attention. Hundreds of the little green bastards streamed out of every building as though they'd been stuffed to the rafters with them. They all spotted Ronan striding confidently through the dirt streets and charged at him as a unified mass.

The horde had gathered and he needed to ensure it didn't swallow him whole. A third rainbow bomb was already gathering mana in his hand, but he needed to engage the closest enemies in melee as they rushed to attack.

Goblins fell as his blade carved wide arcs across the street. The lacking range of a shortsword meant he was suffering a few wounds as the goblins swarmed him, biting, stabbing, and clawing at his legs and stomach.

The moment the rainbow bomb was ready he tossed it in front of him. The short range meant the blast would hit him, too, but he was ready for it and pulled out a shield while bracing himself. The goblins, on the other hand, were too caught up in their rage to realise what was coming.

It exploded two seconds after he launched it, catching on the head of a taller goblin and unravelling. As the first thread of mana burst into colour, he raised the shield and lowered his stance to get as much of his body behind it as possible. Given that it was made for a goblin, that was a challenge.

The skin on his lower legs was burned as the searing blastwave washed past him, but the goblins that had been scratching and screeching at him a moment before were incinerated by the explosion that merely singed him. Once the colour faded, leaving the settlement slightly duller—insofar as it was possible to make a mass of brown and grey huts on dirt more dull—Ronan stood up, his legs being healed by the restoration of a level up.

Glancing at his status, he saw that he'd reached the 40s thanks to the sheer number of goblins he was slaughtering. Not only that, but a few of them had been elites and dropped shards. Just in case the boss or potential mini-boss proved too tough to beat, he took one out and started using idle cultivation as he looked around for more enemies.

They weren't hard to find. The goblins seemed to be crawling out of thin air. Even after blowing up nearly a hundred with each rainbow bomb, the horde continued to grow in size. It was a startling step-up in difficulty from the first three stages, but this particular tutorial difficulty was radically different to those that came before it.

No matter how many of the ugly green monsters threw themselves at him, Ronan would be ready for them. As he advanced to the nearest group, he heard a loud roar. Unlike the rambling shrieks of the weaker goblins, it sounded like a battle-cry. He heard loud, thudding footsteps on the dirt, the swarm parting before a muscular goblin carrying a huge sword balanced on one shoulder.

Swirling red tattoos covered its body, reminiscent of a viking berserker. The monster reached the same height as Ronan and was a wall of lean, corded muscle. Despite its fearsome appearance, the bastard was still ugly as hell, with a crooked nose and yellow, twisted teeth.

[Zagbar the Bloodthirsty - MINI BOSS][Hobgoblin Champion Lv.40]

The first real opponent of the fiftieth iteration had appeared. Ronan grinned at the snarling hobgoblin, twirling his shortsword in anticipation of the fight.

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