Transmigrated as a Ghost

With night falling and both of them having said their goodbyes to the dead, Marcus and Lilia began leaving the burnt-out ruins that was all that was left of where Lilia and Irene used to live.

Continuing down the trail that was now becoming overgrown from disuse, Marcus found a nice clearing after the had traveled a few miles away.

"Okay Lilia we should rest here for the night, but in the morning, we are going to have some work to do. I did not tell you this earlier but the goblins in this area have become more of a threat than anyone has realized. At this point I am certain that the goblins that were seen close to the village were not strays but scouts that were testing the defenses of the village. So tomorrow we are going to go and take them out to make sure the village stays safe."

Her expression going serious Lilia said, "Should we really wait the night. What if the goblins decide to attack the village tonight? I am still good to go so we should go and take care of them right now."

Shaking his head Marcus said, "No we will have a better chance during the day. You do not have any skills that let you see in the dark and goblins are more active at night so we will be able to get the drop on them easier during the day. Anyway, I find it unlikely they attack the village tonight, especially since I took care of a bunch of the scouts they had watching this trail. They are more likely to be worried about a new enemy in the woods than going after a village they can deal with at any time. But on the off chance something happens I will send Blitz on ahead."

Marcus then told Blitz to head down the path and back to the perimeter of the village to keep and eye out for any possible goblin attacks.

'As you command my liege, I shall keep vigil over the village and make sure no harm shall come to it.'

After saying that to Marcus, Blitz shot down the path like a bolt of lightning heading back towards the village

"Now you should get some rest Lilia. It has been a long day and tomorrow we will have a lot to get done."

Once they had settled on their plan for tomorrow, Marcus and Lilia set up their tent and Marcus let her get some sleep while he sat out and waited.

He was certain that they were being watched as his he could almost feel the presence of dozens of eyes on him from the shadows in the forest.

'Hm one just got close enough for me to notice it with life sense. It does not feel very strong so it should be less than level fifteen. Now are they going to make a move even with me out here.'

Sitting around, Marcus waited for hours to see if anything was going to happen and during that time, he had felt at least fourteen goblins come into his life sense skill's range but so far nothing else had happened.

Yet around three hours before sunrise Marcus felt the presence of a stronger creature, though by his standards it was still insignificant, this one should have been in the low twenties in terms of the strength of its life force.

Then Marcus heard what sounded like a few grunts, before a bunch of flames lit up in the forest and the goblins unleashed a barrage of flaming arrows towards him and the tent Lilia and her beast companions were staying in.

'They are certainly smarter than the ones I saw last time.'

Seeing around twenty flaming arrows coming for him and the tent Marcus stood up and cast his iron threads spell, plucking each arrow out of the air.

With the incoming flaming arrows suspended in the air, Marcus aimed for the nearest goblin and flicked his iron threads sending them all back.

The goblin that was the target of these returned arrows went wide eyed and tried to jump out of the tree it had climbed up in, but it was unable to dodge all of the arrows and seven of them pieced into its body and before it hit the ground it was already dead.

With their initial assault ending in failure the goblins became restless. They did not expect their well-timed and executed ambush to be turned on them.

However, as some of the goblins contemplated retreat, there was a loud grunt from their leader who commanded all of them forward.

Walking out of the forest Marcus found saw that there were twenty-six regular goblins and in the lead was a single hobgoblin.

Checking their levels Marcus was pretty impressed since none of the goblins were below level twelve, with one being as high as level seventeen.

But the hobgoblin was a class above the rest being level twenty-three, and had decent looking armor made from the hide of a scaled bear.

It also had a large longbow wrapped around its should and a crude but still steel spiked mace.

'I though it might be a possibility, but it seems more likely now.'

Looking over the forces that had come to meet him, Marcus thought it was probable that at least one goblin had the creature appraisal skill.

Marcus had currently set his level to twenty-one and from all of the shuffling around the goblins did to execute this attack and the forces they had assembled, it was likely they had seen the level he had on display.

'There response is too precise otherwise. They specifically brought out a level twenty-three hobgoblin, and a number of other stronger than average goblins. And the way they are still brazenly attacking me, they must be confident that they can win.'

Unfortunately for these goblins Marcus was far stronger than what he had displayed and now that they had showed themselves to him none of them were going to escape.

Holding his right hand above his head Marcus conjured a ball of pure mana which he then separated into even smaller balls before firing them of at the goblins.

The pure mana projectiles when flying towards the normal goblins far faster than any of them could have reacted to, blowing their bodies apart and flying into the surrounding forest and knocking over dozens of trees before dissipating.

'Oops guess I used a bit too much power there.'

Looking at all the trees he had destroyed Marcus felt a bit bad, but in the end, it was still not that much damage considering how large the forest was.

With every one of the normal goblins now dead and reduced to piles of flesh, blood, and bones, the only remaining enemy was their hobgoblin leader.

Of course, Marcus had not missed, but purposefully left this hobgoblin alive since he had something special planned for it.

Marcus then began to approach the hobgoblin that could only look around at the force it had been commanding that were all dead.

It had not even seen how it had happened, there was just a bright green ball over its target's head and then everyone of its subordinates was dead.

Fear began to well up in the hobgoblin as Marcus approached and it knew that it would never get away.

Even a goblin could feel the true terror of hopelessness, and in a last desperate struggle to survive the hobgoblin ran towards Marcus with its spike mace, hoping by some miracle it could win.

Wham!

After swinging its weapon down with all the force it could muster, the hobgoblin thought it saw a chance for victory. It did not seem that Marcus had reacted at all making no move to dodge or block its attack.

However, when the hobgoblin looked down it saw that Marcus had grabbed its spiked mace with his bare hands and had suffered no damage.

The hobgoblin then tried to pull back its mace, but it felt like it was stuck to mountain.

The hobgoblin knowing it was doomed tried to flee, all of its instincts said to run, but as it tried to it found itself stuck in place.

Coiled around it was a shadowy tendril that was as cold as ice and had completely sealed off its movements. There was nothing it could do no matter how hard it struggled.

"Well, I really do not want to understand goblins better, but I need to see the information housed in your soul."

The hobgoblin then felt its soul being ripped from its body and within just a second it had been torn to oblivion and devoured by Marcus.

The strongest memories and feelings of the hobgoblin began to wash over Marcus, and he felt quite disgusted by it.

However, he wanted to see what its memories were, so he held out and sorted through the memories while pushing the hobgoblins depraved feelings into the back of his mind.

Going through the hobgoblin's memories the most prominent one was when it evolved, but others included a massive underground goblin stronghold, and their leader a goblin lord who all of the goblins revered.

After the process was over Marcus let out a sigh since he wondered how the soldiers from the kingdom could have missed something like this, but luckily the goblin lord had not become a king yet.