Prepared to leave the hardware store, I peaked out of the window to see if there were any monsters close by. The fight earlier should have attracted some attention , but the coast seemed to be clear. I quickly made a mental map of the neighborhood in my head and decided on what would be the most optimal route to my parents house. If I left the store and took a right in the alley and headed all the way to the back, I would come across a second street that would lead me straight to 74th street and continental. That’s where my parents house was located. The only problem with this route was that I would have to go across 11 city blocks which were full with stores and residential buildings.

Ordering my minions was a simple matter, all I had to do was think what I wanted them to do and they would do it. I equipped them with some basic weapons. I gave two of them hatchets to carry and I gave the other a rake that was on display in the window. My plan was simple, the goblin with the rake would act as the tank and the other two goblins will be the damage dealers.

My plan was to form a dungeon group set up. In order to achieve my goal I still needed to get my hands on a ranged damage dealer , preferably a caster type and a healer type. Goblins had elemental mages and darkened priests in their race so coming across one of those was going to be dangerous yet fortuitous for my plans.

We left the store when the coast was still clear , we quickly dashed towards the alley to the right and made a run forward. We needed to get to the back of the alley to check how to situation on the main street. The goblins ran effortlessly as they seemed to posses endless stamina. Surprisingly my stamina and speed seemed to have grown to new heights as I was keeping pace with the minions with little to no effort now.

Having 19 stamina and 20 agility was having a significant impact on my body, and the fact that I still had 20 points left to spend after killing those goblins inside the store was making me feel happy for some reason. It seems like I have really came to terms with the new world if I was this excited.

Quickly stopping at the end of the street I took the opportunity to distribute my points. Deciding on agility and stamina was no brainer for me. Being faster and being able to maintain a constant movement was what’s important for the situation at hand. I quickly added 10 points to stamina and 10 points to agility.

[ John kova ]

Level 8

290/290 Health points

Strength 31

Fortitude 29

Stamina 30

Agility 29

Intellect 25

Wisdom 22

Defense 11

Luck 20

Mana 250

Mana Regen 2.2 per second ( 132 per minute )

Further Stats will be added upon Discovery.

Since I was done with my stat points, I ordered one of the hatchet carrying goblins to go take a look ahead and relay what he finds. I realized earlier that the minions have very basic mental capacity and can telepathically relay what they see and they are incapable of speech . I needed to test the telepathic link further and see what was the range on this ability and how to better utilize that , but that was a worry for another time.

A few minutes passed and the goblin I sent ahead came back and relayed what he saw. There were a few monsters here and there along the street, a few goblins and a few mutated humanoids. Thinking that we can handle small numbers we moved to the corner of the street and saw that there was a goblin standing in the middle of the street, I decided to quickly take care of that goblin by luring him into an ambush. I ordered my three goblins to stay where they were and I moved ahead so I was in clear view of the lone goblin.

I used analyze on the goblin

[ Goblin Warrior Level 13 ]

The goblin saw me and made horrible shrieking sound and dashed straight towards me. When the goblin was getting closer to me, I quickly ran to the alley and moved behind the three stationed goblins. As soon as the warrior goblin came into view I ordered my minions to kill the monster. The fight was quick and brutal, the lone goblin stood no chance whatsoever . The three minions pounced on the warrior according to the formation I mentally transmitted to them. The rake wielding goblin was in the middle and the hatchet goblins were standing behind him.

The chasing goblin first went to target the rake goblin and as soon as the rake goblin was holding him at place by piercing him in the stomach with the twisting metal that was at the end of the rake, the other two goblins joined the fight , each goblin from the right and the left.

The fight was quick and brutal.

I was forced to order the goblins to stop attacking, it seemed that if I did not give the command they would have continued to attack until there was nothing left of the poor green monster. The head of the dead warrior was laying in a pool of blood and guts and surprisingly this view didn’t make me uncomfortable in any way. “ Ah I am getting too used to this new world” I thought to myself again.

I went ahead and touched the severed head of the goblin and thought “ Loot “ . Few copper coins dropped and a healing vial which I pocketed and put in my backpack. There were items that were similar to “ Inventory” that most other games had , but they were either drops or sold at the auction house of major cities in the form of Adventurer backpacks. This new world should also have auction houses, I just needed to find out where they were located.

Deciding that the current monsters were not a serious threat I ordered my minions to stand in front of me and slowly walk up the street, we could handle one or two monsters at a time at this point and I wanted to get moving faster.

We continued the farm…err hunt for an hour straight, I acted as the bait and drew monsters into our well oiled formation over and over again. The monsters here were low level so I couldn’t get a better soul to harvest just yet as most did not pass the level 15 mark. I did gain another level so that was great as I was now at level 9 and had 10 points to spend. Spending the points could wait for now as we continued forward.

We arrived to 71st street and continental , this was a very busy four way intersection with massive amount of shops on the other side of the street. The former bustling area was now dead of activity and an eerie silence stood as the street was littered with useless cars and body parts of both humans and monsters.

Something caught my attention across the street so I decided to silently approach the other side. Taking cover behind the cars we moved forward cautiously. When we arrived to the last truck that was right at the end of the crossroad I saw the first human since this apocalypse began. The human was sitting against a lamp post right near the crossroad, the guy was a young, probably in his mid twenties, he had a nasty gash on the side of his face that looked very similar to a claw mark. His chest was slowly heaving it seems that he was still alive.

As I decided to move towards the young man I heard footsteps coming from the right side of the street, I was hidden behind the truck with my minions so I could not see what was coming but the footsteps indicated that there were at least a few of them.

Few seconds later I saw five goblins coming to a stop near the young man. They grabbed his legs and were now dragging him toward the direction in which they came from. This situation was weird since all that monsters did up until this point was to immediately kill any human they saw with prejudice. This situation demanded investigation so I decided to follow them from a distance while taking cover behind vehicles along the way.

Few minutes later the goblins stopped in front of a small coffee shop and dragged the man inside. I did not want to be rash and follow them inside so I decided to go to a better spot to be able to see inside the store. I noticed that there was yellow cab right in front of the coffee shop so I ordered my minions to remain where they were and I silently crouched and reached my destination .

Inside the shop there were at least 10 goblins inside standing over three bound humans lying on the floor. There were two man, one of them was the guy from earlier and one female, they were alive as I could hear whimpering and sobbing sounds coming from them.

Two goblins were standing guard over the humans while their companions were sitting near a fire in the corner of the store . The goblins around the fire were busy eating the meat that was roasting on the fire when a loud roar came from inside the store . A huge goblin the size of an adult human male came out of the back of the store and slapped a goblin that was busy eating . The pissed off goblin hissed and shrieked toward the offending goblin. It seemed that the big goblin did not take to that kindly as the next thing he did was to grab the goblin by the throat and proceeded to crush the windpipe of the small goblin. The big goblin tossed the body of the goblin and sat at the middle of the group of goblins, he took a piece of meat from the fire and proceeded to join the rest in eating.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Using analyze of the group of goblins I saw that most of them were in the level 10 to 14 range. There was one darkened priest among their group as well. The big goblin was what caught my eye though.

[Jaduk, Level 25 Goblin]

War-chief

This war chief was a named monster, meaning he was boss rank as also indicated by the golden color of his name. Immediately I began to formulate ideas on how to defeat the group inside the store, not because I wanted to save the semi dead humans but because I wanted that big beautiful goblins soul. That was a boss rank monster, which means that if I gained his soul, he would most likely be capable of growth.

I moved back toward my stationed minions and ordered them to follow me as I headed toward the middle of the intersection to find a place to sit down and solidify my plan to eradicate that goblin horde.

I have to use the tools at my disposal , and in contrast to the game, this was real life. Meaning that I could use the environment to my advantage. There are cars all over the place which I can use as explosives. All I needed to do was open a few gas tanks on the cars and wet the ground with kerosene followed by drawing that horde towards such an ambush would result in instant goblin BBQ.

Remembering that there was a liquor store close by I headed there immediately. I needed to some supplies to help me with my plan. The liquor store doors were open but there were no signs that someone has been here before me. The shelfs still were full with the usual assortment of booze and nothing seemed out of place. I went ahead and grabbed a multiple vodka bottles and emptied them on the spot. What I needed were empty bottles to make into improvised Molotov cocktails as backup . Using the fuel from the cars in the cocktails was better than using the alcohol itself.

I also found a hose to use in syphoning the fuel from the cars. Before leaving the store I took a few lighters that were on the counter and I grabbed a few packs of Madburo cigarettes that were behind the counter on the wall. Testing the lighter I found out that they were useable as apparently mechanical items still worked in the new world.

My plan was in motion, I filled a few bottles with kerosene from a nearby car , I used rags which I found in that same car as the ignition part of the explosive. As soon as I finished making the Molotov cocktails a bell sound went in my head and immediately analyzed the bottle.

" Flame Cocktail "

Rank - Amateur

50 - 60 Fire damage

Inflicts 15 Fire damage per second for 10 seconds to all targets in the radios of the explosion. ]

The flame cocktails turned out to be quite deadly. I will need to use them wisely.

Next on the agenda was planning the location for the ambush for the goblin horde. After looking around for a short while I found the idea location. There were six cars parked quite close to each other with a small area in between them, and since there were no nearby cars it would mean that the explosions would not spread out. I opened the cars gas tanks and with the hose drained some fuel to wet the car itself and a small trail leading to the other cars as well.

My plan was to place two minions underneath the cars on either side of the car encirclement and have them ignite the fire with the lighters I got earlier from the liquor store. Since the preparations were now finished I ordered the remaining goblin to stay close to me at all times. This is a huge risk I am taking here, but the prospect of possessing a boss soul was more then worth the risk and if my actions would lead me to saving those tied up people in the store that could be a bonus as well.

I went to the front of the store and hid behind the same car as before. I took out two cocktails from my backpack and placed one of them on the ground while I lit the other one and stood up. The War- Chief immediately spotted me and I decided to recuperate the stare with the loudest roar that I could. The entire goblin horde stood up and turned towards me and took off in a run at my direction. I waited for a few seconds and as soon as the entire horde was halfway from my location I tossed the cocktail right in the middle of their group. I grabbed the other cocktail from the ground and took off in a run towards the ambush site. I did not turn back to see the damage I caused but I could hear the painful shrieks and unintelligible yelling from them.

Getting to the ambush site took me a few minutes and I could still hear the goblins chasing me, they were a decent distance away from me but still on my tail. I got to a safe distance away from the car encirclement and turned around. The goblins were about to reach the spot so I ordered the goblin that was with me to go and stand in front of me.

The goblin war-chief was leading the charge, he appeared to sustain some small amount of burn damage from my earlier attack and he looked pissed off and angry. Angrier then what most goblins usually looked like.

The second the horde got to the ambush area I ordered the two goblins to light up the fire. All it took was a second for the fire to spread all over the cars on either side of the horde . The war-chief immediately stopped and tried to turn around however the horde was right behind him so he was unable to move, that was all the time it took for the cars to explode.

Bell Sounds went off in my head but I ignored them for now.

The sound of the explosion was deafening and the shockwave from the explosion tossed me back for quite a distance. My body was battered but I could still move so I stood up and saw goblins running while they are caught on fire only to fall after a short distance, the other goblins were not as lucky as there was only body parts left of them.

The war-chief appeared to have survived the fight alongside the darkened priest. They looked to be half dead but still alive. The war-chiefs health and defense must have kept him alive whilst the priest used a defensive spell to survive the explosion. Killing the priest first was a priority as I couldn’t afford him healing the war-chief.

I analyzed the priest and saw that his health bar was blinking red. All I needed was one good hit and he would die but the problem was that he was on his knees behind the war-chief coughing and holding his severed leg. I had to use this opportunity quickly so I ordered my minion to go and engage the war-chief even to buy me a few seconds to light the cocktail in my hand.

While my minion dashed toward the war-chief I lit and tossed the cocktail towards the priest. The war-chief was faster though. He grabbed a dead goblins body and tossed it toward the incoming cocktail. The impact of the cocktail with the dead goblin body caused the explosion to take place midair. Deciding to not let what just happened get to me I quickly grabbed two hatchets from my backpack and took a stance. I was going to wait for my minion to draw the attention of the war-chief to allow me to take a good swing towards the priest.

My minion did not disappoint, he ran straight at the towering goblin with his rake at hand. I took off running towards the priest the second the war-chief and my minion collided. Getting a decent running start I hurled the hatchet right at the priest but the priest quickly used his defensive spell and the hatchet bounced off of him. I didn’t despair, I saw that the priest was at his last leg as he fell forward barely able to hold himself upward with his hands. I took aim with my second hatchet and threw it with all the strength I could muster. The throw was perfect as the hatchet buried itself right at the goblins face , causing the goblins head to split from the impact.

Things were looking good or so I thought .

The war-chief, even though he was battered and bruised quickly took care of my minion, killing him in seconds by simply punching the goblin to death which caused the minion to vanish in a puff of smoke.

I was now facing the war-chief alone, all I had left was my spear, sword and the remaining Molotov cocktails. I was out of hatchets so I could not make this a ranged fight. The war-chief seemed to half about a fourth of his life remaining so I had to take it down as soon as possible.

Jaduk was walking towards me now, he was limping so I was able to maintain a small distance between us. I decided to shave his health a bit more by taking my spear and tossing it right at him in a javelin throw. The monster decided to ignore the spear toss and blocked it with his arm. He thought that the spear was my last attempt before he would kill me. He was sorely mistaken, and should have avoided the spear because my goal was not to inflict a killing blow but inflict the special function of the spear which was a bleeding effect .

" Crude Bleeding Spear "

Uncommon - Rank

23 - 26 Damage

Special Function : Causes bleeding damage of 5 health points per second for 10 seconds

Durability 9/20

The war-chief must have noticed the debuff he now as he started to snarl and yell , he was foaming at the mouth from his anger towards me. He tried to pick up his pace while I took the sword from my backpack and maintained my distance.

My plan went smoothly up until the point where a half dead goblin came out of nowhere and tackled me to the ground. The goblin was badly hurt so all it took was a stab to the stomach to kill off the goblin which was followed by a bell sound. The problem was that by the time I managed to get the goblin off of me the war-chief was right on top of me.

Jaduk tried to stomp me but I managed to dodge to the left , right at the path of his follow up kick right to my stomach which was so strong that caused me to slide on the asphalt for a few feet . The air got sucked out of me and I couldn’t breath, I was coughing and trying to breath.

Jaduk grabbed me by my hair and lifted me up which caused me to yell out in pain but that was what also allowed me to finally take a breath of air. All I could think about was that I was not going to die today, so out of desperation I dug my fingers at Jaduks eyes . The sudden attack caused the monster to tumble back and fall. I was now on top of him still digging my fingers deeper and deeper when the monster tossed me with his massive strength right at the windshield of a nearby car.

The impact was painful and I saw that my health was blinking red.

“ This is how I die I thought to myself” while lying on the broken windshield unable to move from the pain and exhaustion. I waited there for what seemed to be ages but death did not come for me. What greeted me was the sound of the sweetest sound In the world. The bell.

Jaduk was dead and I was alive.

I needed to go and get his soul immediately so I managed to drink the health vial from my backpack which gave immediate relief. I got off the car and got to the dead body of the toughest bastard I faced so far in the new world.

I used Soul Extract and the familiar black and purple smoke engulfed the war-chief. A few seconds later a notification popped up.

[ Soul Extract Failed. Please try again.]

“Failing on my first attempt was within expectations as this was a strong monster and his soul shouldn’t be this easy to obtain” , I thought while trying to comfort myself.

Thankfully my second attempt was successful as I was greeted by a notification I was dying to read, and quite literally almost.

[ Soul Extract successful . You have gained the Soul of a level 25 Goblin War-Chief]