Chapter 19 - Unlimited EXP Exploit
Jae lost count of exactly how much time had passed since he first escaped the palace and awoke at the foot of the cliff.
It ‘probably’ hadn’t been a month, but the severe monotony of the endlessly recycled days made it impossible to tell one way or the other.
A process of wandering in whatever direction he thought was east until he found goblins, then killing and eating them, then wandering some more until night fell―rinse and repeat.
Although, that loop had somewhat altered somewhere along the way.
Having adapted to the goblins’ schedule―or perhaps, having simply adopted the schedule of a seasoned hunter―Jae would wake up at the fall of dusk, proceed to hunt goblins and travel until he was tired, then fall asleep and repeat.
Thankfully, however, due to the possession of Exhaustion Resistance as well as his vastly increased Endurance, it was not often that he did end up sleeping; on one hand, it could be seen as a benefit, as it meant he could cover more ground during his waking hours without the worry of guarding his vulnerable, unconscious body.
On the other hand, there was a potential risk of the consistently lessening sleep causing his mental faculties to deteriorate, but well, something like that could be covered by Steadfast Mind, right?
It was perhaps a natural adaptation of his body’s screwed-up circadian rhythm as he continued to stay awake for a longer and longer duration each time in order to hunt more goblins and cover more distance.
A bigger problem, from Jae’s perspective, was the fact that this eternal forest felt entirely unchanging no matter how far he travelled or in which direction. He had climbed to the tops of towering trees a few times to get a grasp of where he should be going, but it was still hard to figure out which direction was best, so he ended up making the ever-distant mountain range his goal as it was the only visible landmark.
Nonetheless, despite having an objective to work towards, the boredom and repetitiveness he endured each day were tormenting; aside from the various basic fauna he had already seen dozens of times before, Jae had yet to find a fantasy-type creature that wasn’t a goblin, and the severe lack of variety was beginning to stretch his nerves thin.
Moreover, since the most effective way to acquire skills was by eating monsters―both in the form of Resistance Skills and those that were absorbed through Gluttony―Jae’s diet already consisted of nothing but goblin flesh for a long time now.
Of course, as the likelihood of acquiring skills through Gluttony was incredibly rare in the first place, it only made Jae feel even worse. But, he didn’t give himself a choice.
After all, if what he wanted was growth, then the pleasant path was to be avoided.
And thus.
Goblins for breakfast, goblins for lunch, goblins for dinner, goblins for breakfast again, and even goblin desserts and snacks.
At this point, the only things he ate that weren’t goblins were the various luminescent plants and the odd fruit if he was lucky... Then again, the only reason he ate those was because they had a high chance of being toxic, and therefore, raising the proficiency of his Resistance Skills.
But even that peculiarity was beginning to lose its novelty, as the higher Jae’s skills grew in level, the slower their continued growth consequently became.
It felt to Jae as if there were some kind of breakpoints in the levels of skills, and when those breakpoints were reached, the amount of proficiency it took to level them up further increased exponentially.
The only way skills would increase at this point was a rare occurrence through Gluttony, and even the Sin Skill Tree had not increased beyond Level 4 in almost two weeks.
Furthermore...
Fwoosh~!
“G-gieeeeh...!?”
[Hahaha! Yes...!! Roast them all!]
“......”
To top it all off was the trio of voices inside his head that consistently made Jae feel like he was going insane.
Gulp.
[Ah, nothing again...?? Don’t worry! Just keep eating more~! You’ll get lucky eventually~!]
“......”
Oh, my god... Someone take me out, please...
Clutching his head as he shuddered from the lingering sensation of sticky goblin flesh and blood clinging to the back of his throat, the revolting odour that travelled up the roof of his mouth and into the nasal cavity, causing him to convulse.
“Eugh...”
Thud.
“Haaaah......”
Slamming his head into his knees, he let his hands drop to the floor like a puppet with its strings severed, heaving an extensive sigh. Sitting on a log, Jae stayed in this position for a short while until he heard a raspy voice.
[Boy. Are you alright?]
Slightly lifting his head, Jae stared soulessly at the space in front of him. He never knew where to look when talking to these guys, so he always just assumed he was looking at them wherever he turned.
“...Do I look alright?”
[Not at all.]
“......”
Why did you ask, then, asshole?
[I thought it was polite manners among humans to ask such a thing. Has the culture changed since I was alive?]
[You look like a man whose very soul has been plucked; a person at his wits’ end.]
“Hah...”
Drooping his head once more, a stifled voice let itself out.
“It’s how I feel, too.”
[......]
Envy hadn’t talked as much in the past days. Even when he did, he never said something snarky or sarcastic like he used to when he first awakened. It wasn't something to complain about, of course, but it almost got to the point where Jae forgot he even existed.
Of course, he could never really forget, though.
[Come on. Do not get depressed. You have stuff you need to do; a goal to accomplish.]
“...Haaah.”
Letting out yet another sigh between his knees, Jae then raised his torso and responded with a frown.
“What, you want me to do your bidding and find these domains of yours or whatever, huh? That’s all it is, so why do you pretend you personally care? Just piss off.”
[No. Naturally, it would be good if that’s what you did, but at the moment, it is my understanding that stopping you from continuing to act the way you are is a much higher priority.]
Hearing Envy’s words, the corners of Jae’s mouth rose as if to smile in ridicule.
“Ahh. So, now you want to control the way I act? Is that how it is? Laugh at me for acting the way I am. Mock me however you want. But, I can’t even act depressed for a little bit? Fuck you guys. Seriously. Speaking of which, where’d those two run off to, huh? Don’t tell me those bastards will only speak when I don’t want them to?”
[...I am suppressing them from coming out right now because I know they would only exacerbate your situation. Specifically, Wrath.]
“You can do that, huh... Well. It would’ve been nice if you did it earlier. Hah.”
[It’s not something that can be done often because it requires a lot of energy. Anyway, I am not laughing at you. What reason is there for me to laugh at you? I want you to be who you were when I first awakened. Where did all that passion to escape go, that vigour? At this rate, you’ll become a mindless husk that does nothing but roam around the forest devouring goblins.]
Shutting his eyes, Jae roughly scratched his head.
“Argh, shit, man.”
“Ha. Like, what the hell do you want me to do? It’s not like I can just go ‘Ah. I wish I was out of this forest’ and ‘Poof-!’, is it?”
“Oh, at this point, what does it even matter...? Hah. Fuck. It’s not like I can die even if I kill myself, right? In the first place, I don’t want to die; of course, I don’t want to. So, I’ve got no choice. You hear me? I. Have. No. Choice.”
“I’ll get out of here, just like I said I would. And, you know what? Any goblins will be damn extinct by the time I’m out of here. Then, I’ll probably starve to death a million times before I get out, but, well! So what? I’ll come back anyway, right? Haha. Shit. Ah. If that’s the case, then what the hell am I even being so careful for? It doesn’t matter how long it takes since I’ll eventually get out of here either way, so why bother?”
“Right?”
Envy had a thought as it watched Jae talking faster and faster to himself; his shoulders even occasionally jumping with self-derision in a manner that couldn’t possibly be called a laugh.
‘Why?’
It was a question as simple as that.
Something it had never witnessed despite living for an untold number of years.
‘Were humans always this emotionally fragile?’
If that was the case, then for what purpose did it struggle for so long?
Reflecting on the past, bearing witness to Jae’s current state helped it to see what happened in a different light, albeit unwittingly.
Then, something surfaced in its mind.
‘Child...’
An image of a now faceless, now nameless human with whom it once crossed paths.
A fraction of a memory briefly recurred and ruptured with a refraction of decaying light.
‘...It’ll be hard for you.’
If it could smile.
If it could place a hand on the head of the struggling boy in front of it.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
[......]
If it was there, it might very well have done so at that moment.
‘Nonetheless, you have to endure.’
If not for himself, then at least for those waiting for him; he wasn’t the type of person who could do things just because he wanted to do them, after all.
‘Otherwise...’
Envy knew.
If the kid ever chose to resist that.
‘...You would forever regret walking such a path.’
It knew because it had witnessed a similar event happen a long time ago.
----------------------------------------
Waking up at dusk.
Falling asleep at noon the next day.
Living off nothing but raw goblins and inedible, probably toxic plants.
Ensnared within this prison of Mother Nature, where escape felt impossible.
Not to mention the trio of voices in his head whose only purpose in life seemed to be to give him constant headaches.
It was obvious to anyone watching his situation that this kind of existence was “unusual” to say the least.
But Jae knew better than anyone else.
“Oh. Another Blue Blue. It’s been a while. Ahm... Oh, this one isn’t so bad? Is it because Poison Resistance levelled up to 7 since the last time I had one?”
This wasn’t the type of life a normal human being should be living.
“Hm... I don’t think this’ll be enough to raise the level any further, at least by itself. The last time I had one was with Level 4 Poison Resistance, right? Would it be more effective if I ate more of them at once, or do I need to find something with a more potent toxin...? Oh, maybe I should just rely on eating goblins for it instead since it’s easier...”
Jae knew that anyone else would have assuredly gone mad in his situation. For that, he was immensely thankful for his trait, Steadfast Mind, which was certain to have played the biggest role in preventing his descent into madness.
“Well, whatever. I’ll just gather them up whenever I find them, then try taking them with some of the others. Hopefully, that’ll be enough, and if not, the gobs’ll do the rest.”
Fortunately, there was no need to worry about the plants not being enough either way since Gluttony was able to absorb skills from defeated goblins at a low chance. Needless to say, the Resistance Skills relating to disease and poison were included in that, which is why they sat at such an abnormally high level in comparison to his other skills.
Skills in a similar vein were Night Vision and Goblin Language Comprehension, which had risen to levels 8 and 9, respectively.
Oh, and of course, Smell and Vision Enhancement, which were now both Level 7.
The former was perhaps the only skill in Jae’s possession that he would rather not have acquired because of its unfortunate synergy with the goblin flesh he had no choice but to eat, but it's not like he had a choice in the matter.
Aside from that, the only other skills that the goblins so far seemed to possess were Tough Skin, Fighting Spirit and Club Mastery, but as not every goblin owned these skills, they were naturally rarer and currently sat at levels 4, 5 and 5; they weren’t much compared to the others, but even Club Mastery was a higher level than Jae’s Level 4 Dagger Mastery trained from scratch.
Every time he opened his Status, Jae realised once again just how absurd a skill like Gluttony was; if it weren’t for that, all of his skills would’ve been stuck at the plateau of Level 4.
Yeah. Imagine all the skills I’ll be able to rack up when I can eat something that isn’t a fucking goblin, lol...
He shook his head.
“Seriously, though, isn’t this kinda bs? Hey, Wrath, you better watch out. Once I get out of this forest, you’re done. You still think I need ten thousand years?”
[Bah! Try as you might, you’ll never be a match for me, impudent human.]
So he says. I know you’re getting intimidated, you bastard. You’ll be quaking where you stand real quick.
Just as he held a middle finger up to the empty air and smirked triumphantly, Jae paused as he caught something moving in the periphery of his vision.
Rustle~
Immediately bracing himself, he lowered his stance and gripped the handle of the dagger tucked into his waistband.
All was without a sound.
“......”
Rustle~
“...?”
Sensing something was off with the incessant rustling of greenery in the not-too-far distance, Jae furrowed his brows.
He couldn’t hear it very well, but that didn’t mean his other senses were also useless.
Narrowing his gaze, it was difficult to pick out what was going on through the dense thickets and obscuring leaves even with Vision Enhancement.
Sniff.
Suddenly, something tickled his nostrils. Jae pinched his nose reflexively as it started to itch as if burning.
Poison...?
It could only have been a group of small critters or a pack of goblins, but if that was the case, this reaction would make no sense. No goblins he had encountered until now had emanated poison, either, so this was evidently something different.
Realising why he had suddenly been on edge against what should have been a worthless thing, Jae lessened the grasp of his dagger’s hilt and crept towards a nearby tree, climbing it swiftly yet stealthily.
“!!”
The moment he laid eyes on the source of the abrupt disturbance, Jae’s eyes widened.
“Gigigi~”
It wasn’t just one goblin.
“Gii, gehe.”
It wasn’t merely a pack of goblins, either.
“Gieeee...!”
“Gih, gih! Gehg!”
A horde of goblins, bigger than he had ever seen, and all travelling together in one direction.
“Gehehehe!”
“......”
Jae was rendered speechless, only gawking as he watched what seemed like an army of goblins march through the forest.
It wasn’t that they were emanating poison, but that the collective stench of so many unwashed goblins in a concentrated area might as well be called one.
Like a deadly miasma formed by the mere presence of a large gathering of vile monsters.
“Gii, giih...!”
Unlike before, Jae didn’t hear the wild and nonsensical noises made by the goblins.
To be precise, his brain simply registered them differently.
“March! Until evil human is dead!”
“Kill! Find and kill evil human!”
With Goblin Language Comprehension having recently reached a whopping Level 9 thanks to Gluttony, Jae’s ears only recognised plain words of English as he listened to the throaty grunts and groans of the monsters.
“This...” He muttered under his breath, “...Insane...”
From what he could see, they were regular goblins for the most part, but there were just so many of them that to count would be impractical.
Their numbers were far higher than he had anticipated.
What should I do?
Although he was remarking about it earlier during one of his depressive episodes, there was no way in hell that Jae would mindlessly run in and fight them directly, even if he could resurrect afterwards; who knows what would happen to his body if he died in the midst of battle, after all?
Jae had no intention of finding out. He would gladly eat poison to increase his resistance, but he wasn’t that mad.
At that point, is bravery or courage even the right word?
No, it was definitely plain recklessness.
Do I just follow them...?
Deciding that postponing a decisive choice would be the best course of action for now, Jae focused on hiding his presence with Sneak and tailed them from within the trees.
Time passed like this for a few hours, and fortunately, there was no sign of Jae being caught. The innate obscurity of the night-time darkness was a great help, of course, but there was also the fact that goblins didn’t appear to be the most perceptive of creatures in the first place.
The goblins continued to march around without a clear destination in mind, and it was only when dawn began to break that a change occurred.
“Hm?”
Jae’s ears perked up as he listened to the goblins’ grumbling.
“Human is gone again.”
“Getting late. Tired.”
“Return to rest?”
“Return to rest.”
“Aye.”
Soon, the common consensus among the drained goblins became that they should return home to rest for now, and then come back later to continue when they had more energy.
And so they did just that.
Observing the goblins as they walked towards a mossy rock wall covered with vines and vegetation, Jae’s brows furrowed as he watched them burrow into a certain spot of the wall and vanish from sight.
What? Oh, is it a hidden cave...?
Unexpectedly, Jae had stumbled across the goblins’ den.
He closed his mouth tight so as to not let out a sound.
Isn’t this...
Keeping an eye on the exact spot the goblins were disappearing into the wall, Jae could only have one thought.
“...Hah.”
Unable to keep his mouth shut for long, he let out a subdued laugh and mumbled.
“Jackpot...?”
Touching his face, he found the ends of his lips curling upwards into a wide grin. It was the result of inadvertently discovering something potentially game-breaking, but this exhilaration wasn’t a feeling he had experienced in a while.
Placing a hand on his chest, Jae tried to calm his racing heartbeat.
“Hoo.”
He took a deep in- and exhale, then steadied his breathing. Now, what was most important was to act with utmost caution.
Waiting patiently until all the goblins had retreated into the cave, Jae didn’t move for a further five minutes to confirm that there would be no remainders before making his way towards the entrance.
Tap.
Jae placed a hand on the bit of the rock wall the goblins had disappeared, then fumbled around the messy greenery for the hole in which they went through, which he quickly located.
Pushing aside the vines that veiled the entrance, Jae finally stood at the gateway of what was functionally the goblin dungeon.
“......”
Staring into the black abyss of the cave in front of him that seemed to lead only deep underground, Jae felt extremely reluctant to enter the domain.
He wasn’t claustrophobic, but even an inexperienced greenhorn like him knew that fighting in an enclosed space like a cave tunnel when all he had was a chipped dagger wasn’t a smart idea.
What’s more, he had already clearly witnessed the sheer amount of goblins that lay within, and he was certain that those weren’t close to the full extent of their forces, either.
“I wonder...”
Turning around from the cave opening, Jae looked around the ground for a moment before picking something up with two hands.
“Hup-!”
It was a log; there were more than just a couple of felled trees in the area―supposedly the goblins’ doing―and they didn’t seem to have transferred all of it to their cave just yet.
Thud-!
Trudging back over to the entrance of the cave, Jae roughly dumped the wood halfway in before going and finding another one, doing the same thing.
“Hup-!”
Thud-!
“Hup-!”
Thud-!
“Hup-!”
Thud-!
He repeated the seemingly meaningless action until the opening of the cave was almost all but filled. It wasn’t a very wide opening―only just about large enough for an adult male to squeeze through if he ducked his head―and so it didn’t take long.
“Haah. Alright.”
When all was done, Jae wiped the sweat from his brow and exhaled.
There was only one thing left to do; one slot left open for a regular-sized branch to fill.
Holding that final piece in his hand, Jae opened his mouth.
“Wrath.”
Fwoosh~
Within an instant, the branch was engulfed in flames. Jae then casually placed it in the small hole in the entrance that had been left for it and pushed it through to the other side.
He waited briefly, and a few moments later, a thin trail of smoke began to pour out of the gaps between the logs.
“Ahah.”
Jae smirked and nodded, filling all the noticeable gaps in the entrance with sticks. Then, he quickly gathered more branches, set them on fire with Wrath, and popped them through the hole as well.
He did this continuously for ten full minutes before blocking the hole as best he could with another branch and some sticks, then taking a step back to observe.
“It should be fine like this, right...?”
There was no more smoke exiting the cave from the entrance, so his work was finished.
Now, all he had to do was wait.
“Ah. Then, let’s see how it goes.”
Dropping down to take a seat on another log he had brought over, Jae waited to see the results of his experiment.
And, surprisingly, it didn’t take long.
You have levelled up
Less than two minutes passed before a notification appeared.
You have levelled up
Thirty seconds later, so did another.
“......”
Jae’s mouth slowly gaped at the influx of messages, but his bewilderment soon transformed into a mixture of thrill and delight as his eyes lit up.
The result was simple.
You have levelled up
“Yes... Yes...!”
A resounding success.
You have levelled up
“Yes! Hahahaha! Get fucked, damn gobbos! Ahahaha...!”
Was this world really a game, or did it just like to imitate one?
Whatever the case, Jae knew one thing.
You have levelled up
God should curse him a second time for being such an exploitative bastard.