Roy has started to love the sweet sounds of system notifications. It gave him a sense of accomplishment that he seldom felt. Also, he could instinctively feel that he has become stronger. Maybe even stronger than he has ever been.
It had been a long night without a moment of sleep. Even though Roy’s body ached with exhaustion, he felt satisfied. He opened his status screen and reviewed his gains for the day.
Name: Roy Williams
Age: 20
Sex: Male
Species: Human (G)
Class: Spell-Sword Level 7
Traits: Absolute Nullification
Titles: N/A
Feats: N/A
Vitality: 17
Endurance: 11
Strength: 11
Dexterity: 34
Constitution: 10
Perception: 09
Mind: 28
Wisdom: 27
Free Points: 12
HP: 85
SP: 55
MP: 140
Skills:
Active:
Mana Nullification-Lvl 2
Lord's View-Lvl 1
Basic Sorcery-Lvl 1(Common)
Passive:
Common Language (Static)
Swordsmanship-Lvl 3(Common)
Dual Wielding-Lvl 3(Common)
[Mana Nullification] has been an excellent help for Roy. At first, Roy just wanted to practice putting his anti-magic spell on weapons, so that he could get some practice and raise its proficiency. But as his mastery over the spell got higher and higher, he soon realized that, some of the higher-level goblins had a natural mana coating over their skin. This mana coating makes their skin harder to damage. And to Roy’s surprise, [Mana Nullification] can basically ignore this mana coating and allow his swords to cut through flesh and mana alike.
Though Roy had not yet faced anything more than level 10, Roy could still easily realize that this skill might not work the same way with them. That is why he is trying to level it up. But practicing on your own is nearly not as effective as practicing them in real battles.
Other than [Mana Nullification] reaching level 2, his other two skills [Swordsmanship] and [Dual Wielding] also leveled up to 3. And Roy could somehow feel that both these skills had reached their bottleneck. If he continues with the assassinations, then there is very little possibility of leveling up these skills. He needed something more; A battle that will decide his life or death.
Last night Roy has already killed around 50 Worker Goblins. Most of them were lower than level 5. The only reason Roy reached level 7 is because he killed so many of them. Also due to Roy’s goblin slaughter last night, the outskirts of the goblin village are now fully deserted. In the morning one of the larger goblins of the inner village came and swiftly reported the devastation back to the chief. In response to Roy’s slaughter, the chief basically barred the inner village though and though. A large wall was built with a height that reached about 20 feet.
Roy was not yet strong enough to jump 20 feet high.
Roy waited around all day observing, occasionally, drinking the water he got from the lake. He was also able to catch a couple of fishes. It was kind of funny how he caught those fishes.
Actually, when Roy went to the lake to get water, his other objective was to find a small animal to hunt. After all he needed food to function properly. But when he saw a fish in the lake, he absentmindedly swung his sword. And to his surprise, his high dexterity and [Swordsmanship] worked together and cut the moving fish in half; and now he has fish cutlet (burnt fish) for his lunch.
Roy was still hiding in the outskirts of the village. He was now wearing his normal clothes as his armor was hanging off a tree right now. Roy did not like the slimy feeling that blood and gore had on his armor. So, the first thing he did after going to the lake was to clean the armor.
Suddenly Roy noticed a movement coming from the outer gate of the village. The door opened and two huge warrior goblins came out. After getting out, they used a stone to seal the doors again. Roy’s mana sensitivity gave him a warning the moment the weird stone was used. It must’ve been made by the goblin shaman. And Roy had neither the means nor the strength to go up against that magical defense. Even his [Mana Nullification] would not help.
So, the only way to get inside was to defeat those two large warriors. Roy got closer to them and tried to gauge their level.
[Goblin Warrior-Lvl 16]
[Goblin Warrior-Lvl 16]
Roy has recently learned how system identification works. There were some conditions to be fulfilled for properly identifying a monster. First of all, the monster needs to be properly visible. For this very reason Roy could not see the levels of the goblins he killed last night. But there was another condition. And that was that, he needed to remain close to the target. It was required for him to stay around 100 feet from the target. Any more distance than that and the identification will fail.
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It was kind of annoying to be totally honest.
But enough about that. Roy needed to beat these two [Goblin Warrior] to get the stone and enter the inner village. This was going to be the first life and death battle for Roy. In this fight Roy is going to have too many disadvantages.
Firstly, the huge 9 level gap between Roy and the goblins. Also, the 2v1 fight arrangement isn’t going to be easy for Roy. The absence of any hiding spot also didn’t help him.
All in all, Roy had way too many disadvantages in this fight. In order to kill both them, Roy needed to level the playing field to some extent. And that was exactly what Roy was going to do.
During his hunt last night, Roy noticed that the goblins had really bad night vision. It was even worse than humans. Most probably it was a tradeoff for their enhanced hearing. And that is exactly what Roy was going to use.
Roy quickly dumped all his free points in perception. And he could instantly feel the change. He could see better; he could even hear the breathing of the goblins and he could smell the goblin blood too. It felt extraordinary. Roy was now confident that he could even spot some assassins now
His preparations were over. Now comes the wait.
After what felt like an eternity Roy got out of the bush he was hiding. The sun has set almost an hour ago. His current [Perception: 21] is helping him immensely right now.
Roy unsheathed his swords and coated them with null-magic. As Roy was not hiding, both the goblins took notice of him, but did not charge at him. They were probably ordered not to go too far from the village.
But that was good. Roy noticed that his hands were already shaking from excitement. But this was not the time for that, this was the time for the battle. Roy tried to calm down. He needed to give it his all if he wanted to win. So, he gave the order in his mind and suddenly heard the sound of the notification.
[Lord’s View activated.]
The moment Roy activated [Lord’s View], his perception of the whole world had already changed. His eyes changed. It felt as if nothing was truly important in this universe. The only thing that was really important was his objective to kill the [Goblin Warriors].
Roy rushed forward towards the warrior duo with a speed that could put professional athletes to shame. Seeing Roy rush forward, both warriors readied their weapons. The moment Roy was in their range they charged with their club. Roy knew that a direct hit with even one of those weapons can cause him to have some serious injuries.
But that’s not all, the speed in which they charged him was abnormal for their size. They were fast, really fast. But Roy was faster.
He sidestepped towards his right at the last moment and dodged their attacks. He heard a huge BOOM behind him, but that was not his concern.
Roy flung himself at the side of the first goblin and slashed across its legs, his blades coated with anti-magic.
SHAANG!
His hit connected the exact spot he wanted to hit with perfect precision. But he did not feel as if he had hit flesh, it felt as if he was trying to slash across steel.
But he did not despair as he saw in the corner of his eyes a red streak of blood in the goblin’s leg, right where he had slashed. This meant that Roy could damage it. And if you can damage something, then you certainly have the capability to kill it.
Roy did not stop moving after his hit. Within mere moments he was already at the back of the second goblin. By this time both the goblins have recovered. They charged with their club again. This time faster but weaker jabs. And just as the previous time Roy dodged at the last moment. But he had no room for any counterattack as the goblins started a barrage of attacks.
Roy dodged one after another attack while at the same time thinking about a new strategy. But he knew very well that, if he wanted to win, then he had to reduce their numbers. And with that very mantra, Roy retaliated.
Roy slid down in one swift motion and dodged their attacks again. But this time he crouched harder, staying close to the ground and charged the second goblin. Using both his swords and [Mana Nullification] Roy slashed across both its legs.
But this time he did not feel as if he had hit steel. This time his swords have penetrated the skin. It did not do much damage. But that was never the goal of the attack.
After getting slashed both its legs, the huge goblin staggered. It was already mid attack, so this stagger had completely thrown it off its balance.
And as the goblin dropped down in one knee, Roy smiled. His plan has succeeded.
Roy dodged yet another attack by the first goblin and charged at the kneeling goblin. The goblin realized what Roy was trying to do, but Roy was too fast for it to react.
Roy jumped at the goblin which was now at his level and stabbed one of his swords in its eyes. A disdainful cry came out of its throat. But with [Lord’s View] active, Roy could not even be bothered by it.
Roy quickly positioned his other sword and slashed. This time the target was its neck.
Roy knew very well from his previous testing that; it was impossible to fully decapitate the [Goblin Warrior] with only one anti-magic slash from his sword. And that is why, the moment his other sword penetrated the goblin’s eyes, he deactivated [Mana Nullification] and reactivated again. He used all his concentration towards his sword that was midair and created the strongest null-magic blade that he could make. But that was still not enough. He needed a weakness, and [Lord’s View] was there to the rescue as he noticed that the mana barrier at the back of it neck was weaker than the other parts of its body.
His slash hit the [Goblin Warrior] exactly at its weak spot. For the first time in this fight, He felt his blades to cut through flesh.
SHHUUNGG
By the time his sword has finished its arc, Roy had already heard the sweet notification he was waiting for. Roy looked at the goblin head stuck to his sword through the eye and felt pure satisfaction. Roy thought to himself, “This is f…”
BAAAAAMMM
Before he could even finish his thought, Roy was already up in the air. Thrown off like a ragdoll with the hit of the remaining goblin.
Roy landed around 20 feet away. He could feel that he had several broken bones.
He was upset. Not for the broken bones. They would heal automatically if given the time. But he was more upset at himself. He had prioritized the other goblin too much and totally shifted his focus off the other one. His greed has cost him.
But it was too late for any regrets. Roy held onto his consciousness as he saw the [Goblin Warrior] scream madly at its companion’s death. It looked at Roy with a hateful gaze and jumped at him.
Now, this was a true life and death battle.