With a little apprehension, I step into the portal feeling a slight chill cross my body where it intersects the swirling blue energy. It kind of gives me the creeps. My feet come down onto a slightly slick surface threatening to slide out from under me. Leaning forward to catch my balance, I accidentally put my head through, and immediately it’s jarring to the senses. Rather than the clean, sculpted, torchlit stairs along with the muffled sounds of commerce and excitement, I find myself standing in a damp cave ranging from about 20 feet in height at its peak down to just 10 at its lowest. The strangely shaped cave walls craft strange echoes as water drips into puddles underneath large stalactites that hang from the ceiling. Every so often I can almost imagine that I’m hearing quiet shuffling movements from the seven tunnels leading away from this entrance.

There is a soft green-blue glow emitting from some plant, or maybe it’s a fungus? I can’t really tell. What I do know, is that it’s the only reason that I’m able to see at all. It gives the cave an eerie appearance with the light bouncing off the ripples, creating shapes on the walls and ceiling I can almost swear are people out of the corner of my eye. I lean against a stalagmite letting my heart rate settle and taking everything in for a quiet moment. That chill from the portal wasn’t just magic, I realize, and I find myself very grateful that I brought a hoodie along. I push off from my rocky resting place and begin making my way forward into the largest of the tunnels branching off of this cave.

Drip.

I feel a drop of water find its way down the opening of my hoodie as I take a step forward. It could maybe do with a little waterproofing.

I can just barely reach the top of the eight foot tunnel I’m walking down, as I do the old tried and true slap the entryway for good luck. Making my way cautiously forward I begin to hear more of the shuffling noises I thought I was imagining before. I can’t tell how far the source of the noises might be or even what it may be as the concavity of the walls funnels them toward me and distorts the sound quite a bit. I continue walking forward, step by anxious step, closing in on the source of the noises. They grow louder and more pronounced, until I come to a corner and they suddenly stop. I take a deep, quiet breath hoping against hope whatever it is hasn’t heard me, and this is just coincidental.

I clench and unclench my fists to psych myself up, and prepare for my first dungeon encounter. I jump around the corner with my fists up and finally see the source of the noise! Aaaaand… it's a centipede. A large centipede, I’ll give it that, but it’s just kind of scuttling along the walls making slight scratchy noises. Kind of a let down, honestly. Dropping my guard slightly, I walk up to examine it. It’s definitely bigger than I would expect a centipede to be, but nothing I’d classify as a “monster” per se. Lifting my foot to step on it, I hear a slight noise from behind.

Turning to look, my throat catches, and I feel my heart rate skyrocket as time begins to slow. I see three pasty green creatures hanging mostly silently from a stalactite, fangs bared with disgusting yellow spittle dripping from the corners of their mouths. I almost don’t notice the stone shivs they hold in their hands as I’m shocked by the pure malice held in their bloodshot yellow eyes. As I turn and face them, one leg still poised for centipede squashing, I lose my balance falling on my back, which unfortunately gives them the perfect signal to pounce.

Instinctively I throw my hands out in front of me to try and stop the three naked green bodies hurtling at me with deadly intent. Suddenly, my voice decides to work again as a piercing scream ravages my throat the moment sharp pains erupt in my arms and then my shoulder as one goblin latches onto each of my arms and one of them lands on my chest, each plunging their shitty little daggers into whatever part of my body they can. In the corner of my vision, I see damage notifications pop up as their attacks land.

In a fit of panic, I begin flailing my arms, tossing one of the three foot creatures off of me, and slamming the other one into the ground, causing it to release its grip. I roll myself over and, still screaming, start slamming punches into the goblin that was latched onto my left arm, crushing its head into the ground twice before it goes still.

I completely ignore another set of notifications as the goblin on my chest continues to stab me with its shitty little shiv. I took two more shallow stab wounds in the process of dealing with the first goblin, as the little fucker on my chest decided my side needed some new holes punched into it. I grab the one that’s been gripping my chest this whole time and rip it off of me. Standing up, I raise it over my head and curl my body down as I slam it into the ground with full force. I hear a sickening crunch that I assume is its spine breaking as this one stills, its body contorted into a shape I don’t think even goblin joints are capable of making.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

I lean over this dead duo and it occurs to me that there were three of them. Another scream forces its way out of my already ravaged throat as I feel a sharp pain in my upper back as the goblin I’d tossed away lands on my back, shiv first. I scream in pain and rage as I try to reach over my shoulders to grab it, getting rewarded for my efforts with a gash in my forearm. I shout a hoarse, “Fuck you!” I jump in the air and land on the goblin, smearing it into the ground beneath me.

I stand up, hastily checking my surroundings, not wanting to be caught off guard so easily again. Once a solid 10 seconds had passed and the adrenaline high began to fade, the pain started creeping in. I groaned in pain for a moment before checking the notifications that had popped up as well as my status.

[-15 health]

[-17 health]

[-12 health]

[-19 health]

[-15 health]

[-21 health]

[Level 8 Goblin Slain - Exp. awarded]

[Level 6 Goblin Slain - Exp. awarded]

[Level 7 Goblin Slain - Exp. awarded]

[Level up]

[Level up]

[Michael Ward

HP - 121/280

Unassigned - Level 9

Strength - 31

Dexterity - 23

Defense - 22

Intelligence - 21

Vigor - 20

Charisma - 17

Skills - N/A

Mutations - N/A

Available stat points - 8]

I didn’t realize leveling up would give me stat points I could spend. If I put them all into strength, maybe I’ll be able to take out these goblins a bit easier. It may even help me put on a bit of muscle to get back to where I was pre-collapse. Realizing this, I bring up my menu and click on the new [Spend Stat Points] button. I immediately dump them into strength, raising it from 31 up to 39. I can almost feel the strength start flowing into my muscles, but unfortunately don’t notice any immediate size changes. “Maybe it’ll just take some time?” I sighed, wondering out loud.

Either way, I still need one more level before I can get assigned my class. I stretch, feeling the wounds I’d received pulling tight. They were all pretty shallow but there were a bunch of them. I still have enough HP to be safe fighting another small group of these goblins. It should be just enough to get me my class and get me out. I glance down at the pile of bodies, slightly shocked to see them slowly turning translucent, and then disappearing completely, leaving behind a pile of items in place of their bodies. James had described this to me, but it’s another thing entirely to watch it happen right in front of my eyes.

I kneel down and pick up the three items they’d dropped that showed up as [E- Grade Mana Crystals] when I examined them. Stuffing them in my hoodies front pocket, I picked up their 3x [Goblin Shivs] and decided dual wielding these was better than nothing, tossing the extra in with the mana crystals they’d dropped. Finally, I pick up the last item that must have been a slightly rarer drop, since only one of them spawned. Upon inspection it shows up as being a [Bracer of Grip]. Without really knowing what it does, I slip it on, figuring I could take all the help I can get. It expands to be able to fit around my hand, and then snaps tightly to my wrist. Squeezing my fists, it feels like my grip strength has gone up a noticeable amount from this, but I don’t really have any immediate way to test that out.

Firmly gripping my goblin shivs, I start walking further down the tunnel, just…looking around a bit more carefully this time. I don’t want to be caught off guard again. I feel confident I’d be better at fighting the next batch of goblins, having acquired some gear, some levels, and some experience in fighting them, but I really would prefer not to test that out with another ambush.