The smell of iron permeated the air around the room, the heavy stench of vile liquids spilled out of the goblins' stomachs who had been cut in two and settled into the once fresh air. The carnage that was scattered over the room was horrific to the eyes as well, limbs that had been severed and laid on the floor were everywhere, organs slowly fell out of the torsos of still twitching bodies.
One particular goblin remained alive, he was nothing special, he survived until now merely due to his overly cautious nature. Unlike the other goblins spawned by the System, this one was created with a slightly lower fear tolerance. It wasn't a great difference from the others, but it was enough for him to hesitate a single step where his comrades didn't. His terrifyingly skillful opponent had assumed he, like the goblin who was side by side with him, would take two large steps to launch their attack. But he faltered.
That single step he failed to take was the difference from being beheaded like his fellow spawn and his throat being slashed.
It was the fate of a coward. He lived longer than the others, but it was much worse for him than the alternative. The other goblins had suffered fatal blows that had killed them almost instantly, his enemy ensured that every attack was deliberate and resulted in fatalities of dexterity he could not hope to match. He could recognize that much, he was simply outclassed.
Unlike those that had died without much pain, he remained. Slowly and slowly his life escaped him. Gasping for breath he struggled against the empty harsh pain that assaulted his small lungs. He would take in air through his nose, but it escaped with a horrible sound through the hole in his neck. His life was dimming with each passing second.
The pain was agonizing. His hands were stretched out and they desperately searched out anything on the ground, where he laid face-up, what his hands were searching for? Even he did not know. He just wanted to hopelessly reach anything, something to ground him.
Unfortunately, all his hands found were the pools of blood from his and his fellow goblins, the warm liquid was all he could reach. Slowly and slowly his body began to grow cold. Something was leaving his body.
Was it blood? Air? Or even his soul?
He didn't know. If he couldn't be saved, he just wanted it to be over. He regretted not taking that step with his brethren.
The soft sounds of liquid quietly splashing faintly approached him. It must have taken a few seconds at most, but to his dying mind, it was an eternity of pain and torment. Every second he spent in this state was a torture too long.
A shadow blocked the bright lights that were bothering his eyes, he was a creature that chose to live underground, away from the light of the sun. The shadows were much more preferable, a small comfort in his sea of misery.
His hands had long since stopped trying to grab hold of anything, the strength in his body was fleeting. An effort was made however, he gathered all his remaining vitality and looked at the figure which stood over him. One feature stood out past everything else, past over the shinning blade at his side, past the blood that stained his face.
His eyes. Gray piercing eyes.
The eyes that had watched every single one of his moves in the fight, the eyes that studied every intention in the goblin's bodies, the eyes that didn't miss a thing. Those same eyes that had carried out the massacre that was around him, those same eyes now rested solely on him.
However now they lacked the cold steel and calculating relentless from before, now only a word could be found within.
Sorrow.
His eyes were filled with sadness for him, he was being looked at with compassion and regret.
The human then spoke.
"I'm sorry… You must have suffered."
The strange voice said in a language the goblin failed to understand. Unlike the grunts and screechings goblins used to communicate, this voice used many sounds and complex pronunciations to get a message across, it was lost on him. Only one thing was carried through, the kindness in his words.
There was no mockery in his tone, no arrogance or gloating, only a sincere benevolence.
In its last moments, the cowardly little goblin only had one question in its clouded mind.
Why do I exist?
A swift mercy in the form of lightning fast steel was delivered to his neck. His life expired into a flash of nonexistence.
Level up!
Enough EXP has been gathered for class evolution! Starter Rogue → Rogue.
Rogue: The blade strikes and becomes clearer to you; your growing expertise will cut down all your foes (+32% to STR & +23% to AGI & +15% to INT).
Due to class evolution transferable skills have progressed by two levels!
Shadow Strike Lvl 3 → 5 (MAX): Your blade is your soul, sharpen it till even the world is cut away. An assassination skill that deals +275% damage (+40% True Damage if enemy is unaware of attack or with the Stun status effect
Shadow Step Lvl 3 → 5 (MAX): Shadows are your friends, let them be your guide and no attack will find its way to you. +225% to AGI (+275% if user is in shadows) +75% PER.
Assassinate Lvl 2 → 4: You have taken the first step into perfecting your strike, no armor will stand against you. +520% damage on strike (+70% True Damage).
Lateo Jump Lvl 1 → 3: Move between the shadows and the light. Short distance teleport which brings you into the back of your target, a successive uninterrupted attack will deal+ 215% damage and stun the target.)
As the last goblin died, Damien received a last chunk of EXP, even without the prompts of the leveling up, he felt Bold's boost disappear once he began to kill the goblins. He was able to deduce he leveled up past the goblins own levels.
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Looking at the list of messages, he spotted a class evolution and a new skill.
It wasn't his main concern at the moment however, what was in his mind was the dead monsters around him. He was supposed to lose here, after he had been explicitly told by Admin the purpose of this exercise and why it was important, despite that, he had won. The topic of Calamities swirled his mind with worry.
“How interesting,” Admin’s voice drew him out of his thoughts, she slowly walked towards him, “It seems that little hiccups occur like this every once in a while so please don’t mind it,” despite her encouraging words, her usual emotionless face was not able to contain her massively wicked smile from emerging.
Doubts of how artificial Admin was, appeared in Damien’s mind, but as those thoughts arose Admin returned to her stoic expression. It would be impossible for him to figure her out while she stood in front of her as she read his mind, there was nothing he could do other than simply play along with her.
“I see, even so, I was able to learn much from this, so it wasn’t a waste,” dumbing himself down and suppressing his intelligence around Admin was like poking a hole in his lifeboat while he faced the world’s greatest hurricane, the incomparable acumen in her eyes made him feel like an ant in front of a giant.
He was almost able to see the satisfaction in her face as he acted subserviently and played along with her, whatever was happening to him, Admin was at the very least partially responsible.
“I had planned on allow you two to kill more goblins after this exercise, but seeing that Mister Desmond is resting and you have leveled up past what I had been expecting,” she explained as she gestured to the bloody floor, “I think it’s best you just take the rest of the day off. Besides I’m sure that you can use the time, you have a task today, don’t you?”
She was right, looking at the empty air in front of himself, he willed information to appear in the form of a blue box,
Day 2 of Phase 2: Have another Climber show you their Status screen (Climber must be different from Day 1’s target (If applicable)) (50 Points).
The question of how he would go about actually seeing another person’s Status screen was another matter entirely, she was right however, he did need to get this done.
“To answer your question, a person must simply think of sharing their Status information with another person, a prompt will resolve all the rest,” she preemptively answered his thoughts.
Placing his sword back on his hip, he turned to leave. He was headed for his room, while his armor was useful to fight in, in terms of comfort, the white clothing in his room was much better, “Thank you for the information, If you’ll excuse me…”
But as he was walking out the doors into the hall, Admin gave one last call, as though she just remembered something, “Oh and please, don’t forget to keep the Familiar Core with you at all times, I did work hard on it so it would be a shame if it didn’t hatch properly.”
Keeping his grimace and worry in check, he answered in an even neutral tone, "Of course," the door closed behind him with a dull hiss.
The minimalistic hallway soothed his concerns, he wasn't an architect, but he was able to understand that the uncomplicated design and color palette was meant to keep your kind in a similar state and therefore reduce stress.
After a brief walk through the empty hallway with doors that were labeled with each class, he reached the housing section of the complex.
Walking upstairs to his room, he quickly changed and checked to ensure his pendant was still in the place he left it in. It was supposed to be completely safe, but after finding out the true value of the shiny piece of metal, he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy about leaving it out of his sight.
Satisfied with the pendant's security, he reached into his side pocket. In the secured pouch he grabbed a black sphere, the incredibly smooth surface was brought into the light so he could study the shape within. The once faint white figure inside was quickly gaining more definition, pawed feet was the one thing he could clearly make out.
Familiar Core (A+): A familiar core personally designed by Admin, the ??? within has progressed into hatching by 21%. Currently bound to Damien.
The core was quickly getting close to 100%, he assumed the thing would transform into a creature of some kind, what exactly that would be he was not sure. Although he had initially been excited to see it, his interactions with Admin had soured his enthusiasm greatly.
Is this thing really just a boon? If you can't trust someone, then obviously you can't trust what they give you. I don't think she has my best interests in mind, although I chucked up my inability to read her as I do with others to the fact that she was emotionless as part of the System; she has an actual personality.
I can't read her aside from what she willingly shows me… Something is wrong here, I just can't see it.
Damien had long come to the mindset that he should only focus actively on the things he could act on, which at the moment was the daily task given to him by the System.
The theme of these so far had been rather consistent, the trust of others. The first task had asked him to enter another person's room, a situation where their guaranteed haven was placed into question. Now he had to see another person's Status, he could see why this would be an issue. He wouldn't want to show another person his Status screen for fear of revealing his exact strength, his HP and his weaknesses. It would be far too easy to use that knowledge against him, and because he could see the reasons he wouldn't show his Status to others he could understand why others would do the same.
If he was allowed to ask Zen this might be incredibly far easier. She had already begun to develop trust in him, he could figure out a way to get this done with her. However the System deemed that too easy, it had to be somebody else.
Although theoretically, he had over a dozen choices of Climbers to choose from in reality he only had about two or three.
Everyone else but these two would take too much time to gain their trust, due to his first-place status the other Climbers had grown cautious of him. It was to be expected, it would take more than a day to work them to a state where they would be willing to share their personal information. Realistically speaking there were only two choices.
It will have to be either Donovan or Jane…