Jean walked down the stairs without taking her seriously; Guardian Whisper didn't warn her of any real danger. “Saving the world from what's coming... The truth is, I still don't know what's out there. Since I woke up, I haven't stopped running into treacherous bastards who have possibly planned to infect me with this shit. Do you really think I'm going to do what they're asking me to do?”

Ilya lowered the bow slightly and looked at Jean suspiciously. Her doubts only grew stronger, but... “Don't do this to me! I have a mission! I can't do it alone!”

“Then, don't do it! Be free the short time you say this world will last!”

“How can you say that?! How can you be so selfish?!”

Jean turned just enough to see her out of the corner of her eye. “I don't intend to cast aside those who have truly helped me to help those who only seek to exploit me.”

Jean descended steadily down the stairs, especially when the structure around her changed abruptly. The well carved gave way to more irregular ones, typical of caverns. The large hole that seemed to have no end also came to an end, and the stairs gradually disappeared until they transformed into a steep ramp in a narrow corridor not even a meter wide.

To Jean's surprise, Ilya reluctantly followed her, keeping her distance. However, her footsteps were not what alerted her. There was noise at the end of the corridor.

“I'd recognize those bellows wherever I am. Those are goblins!” Ilya pointed out.

Jean turned to her. She was going to give her a chance for now. “Great! Are they tough?”

“No... They are not particularly tough, but they tend to attack in large groups and are very treacherous. The rest goes without saying, doesn't it? Pray they never capture you alive. With just the two of us, it's suicide. We'd better turn around.”

Jean smirked at the suggestion. “Please...”

Jean hurried her pace without worrying about being overheard, equipping a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. The voices of the goblins stopped abruptly; they already knew of her presence.

Ilya stayed behind. “You're crazy! I'm not going to follow you!”

“And yet you're not leaving.” Jean murmured.

A foul smell became almost palpable and the sound of footsteps was replaced by the sound of thousands of tiny paws. It sounded like there were hundreds of cockroaches nearby. That gave her a bad feeling and she halted. She waited patiently despite the hunger inside her growing immeasurably.

In the end, it was the goblins who lost their patience first. There were at least 15 of them, and they were much smaller than Jean expected. One meter twenty at the most. Big pointy ears and mouths full of sharp, dirty teeth. Completely hairless and almost naked. Only a loincloth and some ridiculously primitive weapons of bone, wood or stone.

»Black Goblin«

Alignment: Very Hostile

Level 6

Highest Attribute (Agility): 16

Name: Twisted-tooth

Skills: [Stealthy], [Dark Vision]

Marks: [Rat Eater], [Killer], [Torturer]

Details: Even affected by corruption, this adversary is insignificant to you.

Jean smiled maliciously. Overly sure of what was about to happen. She wasn't wrong. As soon as they saw Jean's huge figure, all the goblins froze. All except one who retreated. That was like a starting pistol for them all. She ran after them as they ran for their lives. She soon understood why. It was a trap. There were dozens of them hiding behind a grotto that opened up to the left. However, that didn't matter to Jean. She was going to show them what a real hunter was. Something that gave her a certain degree of excitement.

Jean imbued her shield with red as she took several of them down. Their bones broke under the weight of her boots. She didn't bother to see if they would eventually get up. She went for the ones in the back and stabbed them to death. None of them posed a real problem, the most they managed to do was to scratch her legs. Those primitive knives were no threat to her Toughness.

The recently arrived level 12 goblins met her two-handed hammer and spear. Some tried to escape despite their broken limbs, but Jean grabbed some kunai and played target practice. They all landed on their small backs after leaving an orange trail. Nothing was left alive except the two of them.

Ilya had an indelible look of revulsion on her face. “Do you always fight that way?”

Covered in blood. “It never hurts to relieve a little frustration now and then! Try it!”

“Hard pass!” Ilya looked around for a second. “I have to admit that you fight well despite your level! Don't get confused! Against a bunch of goblin offspring even I... What the hell are you doing!?”

Jean began to store the goblin corpses in the inventory. “Yuck! Why do you store that with how much they weigh?” Jean simply dedicated herself to transmute and devour according to her needs. “Oh! I see! That's what everyone says the children of Nimireth do. ... Doesn't it revolt you to be like that?!”

“Asking me that is rather idiotic, don't you think? Do you lick everything that comes into your inventory?” Ilya remained silent for a moment. “Why are you following me? I'm not going to go kill that poor devil!”

Ilya raised her voice indignantly. “Poor devil?! You don't know what you're saying! Targets are never mere idiots that someone has put in their sights. Come and I'll prove it to you! They're real bastards!”

Jean didn't turn around, but she didn't lack the urge. “Real bastards, you say? More than sentencing someone to corruption for their selfish purposes? ... What's wrong with you? Do you owe them something?”

“These are not selfish purposes! The targets help spread the very evil you carry. They...”

“Precisely! The same evil they made sure I got screwed by. And I bet you'll end up the same way!”

“No, it can't be!”

Jean turned and looked her square in the eye. “I've seen hundreds of idiots like you turned into soulless empty shells. Most likely sent under the pretext of destroying or containing the evil they themselves ended up passing on to me. The only thing their sacrifice served for was to feed me after corrupting me.”

Ilya remained silent the entire time it took Jean to store the corpses. Whispers soon warned that they needed more genetic material for a new skill, but they had enough to ...

[Devourer Vision has increased to Expert Rank. Unique skill.

Consumes negligible amounts of mana to greatly amplify the reception of light photons. Ideal for dark environments. It also increases the detection of heat and energy sources.]

[You have learned Sneaking Mastery— Basic Rank.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

You have learned to slightly reduce the noise of your footsteps.]

The whispers also announced that she had reached level 14. “Yeah, but it's not a good time for a nap. Buy me more remedies, please! At least three!”

With all the ground clear, she had two choices. Advance left through the narrow grotto where the foul goblin smell hurt her nose or go straight ahead.

The grotto on the left was decorated with dozens of bones. Jean guessed that they belonged to large rats and other goblins, because there were no player's souls in sight. In fact, she hadn't seen them anywhere so far. That was odd. How is it possible that a player has never died there before?

Straight ahead, the corridor descended along a very dangerous slope. The peace of mind of being able to buy more remedies made the decision obvious. She did her best to avoid breathing through her nose, but the smell intensified to the point of nausea. The rotting remains of cockroach-ridden animals were everywhere. Jean thought about killing and devouring them, but preferred to save them for an emergency.

Step by step, she ventured into that gloomy place full of twists and turns where the feeling of being watched did not leave her at any time. Someone using some kind of invisibility. Devourer Vision couldn't discern his outline, but she could perceive the warmth of his body now.

At first, Jean thought that there was only one goblin left and that he kept avoiding her at every turn. After a couple of minutes, she realized that he wasn't running away from her, but using passages she couldn't get through to trick her into going deeper and deeper. Jean smiled maliciously. It reeked of a trap, but she had already decided not to come out of there empty-handed.

She kept moving onwards, leaving behind cavern dwellings with filthy straw beds, cockroach breeding grounds, huge moles caged in bone prisons, and crops of glowing mushrooms. There were even some very narrow tunnels that seemed to lead to the surface. Surely the smaller goblins climbed up these to steal.

Finally, she came to a much larger area with a huge stone throne a few steps away from the wall. Its picturesque decoration of bones of all kinds hinted that it was the throne room of some goblin chieftain. She did not need to turn around to realize that there was no way out and that she was no longer alone.

Several goblins came out of their hiding places to cut her off, confident that she had fallen into their trap. They were larger than the rest, and certainly better equipped. All except one. The sneaky goblin that had led her there. That one slipped behind them and walked away laughing.

The goblin in the rear was a goblin shaman. Level 21. With a horse skull for a helmet and filthy fabric adorned with feathers and bones. He had a staff that glowed yellow due to a strange gem embedded in the top.

The second was a goblin warrior. Level 23. With many bones tied together all over his torso simulating an armor. He had a leather shield also coated with bones and a bone club stained with dried black blood.

The third was a brute. Much larger than the others. He was visibly overfed, but he had muscle under that fat. He wore only a loincloth and bone spiked gloves. That one seemed the most dangerous by far.

»Brute Black Goblin«

Alignment: Very Hostile

Level 28

Highest Attribute (Strength): 52

Name: Heavy Fist

Skills: [Rage], [Dark Vision], [Stealthy]

Marks: [Rat Eater], [Mole Eater], [Killer], [Torturer]

Details: The corruption that afflicts you equates your attributes with those of this creature.

At first they were somewhat intimidated by Jean's size, but as soon as they saw her level, they laughed in complicity. Even more so when they gazed at her with eyes brimming with sadism and lust.

The first to attack was the shaman. He created a tiny fireball at a speed that caught Jean off guard. A projectile no bigger than a bullet that Jean narrowly blocked with the shield imbued with a purple glow.

The impact was neither powerful nor particularly dangerous, but it was incendiary. Right where the projectile hit, the shield continued to burn like there was oil. She had to block two more projectiles as the creatures laughed sickly.

They wanted to invite Jean to a barbecue, but she did not intend to put her meat on the grill. Behind the shield, she equipped one of the stones from her inventory and charged it with mana. Without raising suspicion with the effect of Perception, she added the effects Strength, Dexterity, Agility and Wisdom to it. She did so until the whispers warned her that it was dangerous to continue.

When a fourth fireball hit the shield, Jean cowered in feigned fear. Their sadistic laughter grew even louder. The warrior began to approach, anxious to hurt her.

Their laughter gradually stopped as they became aware of a stone flying over their heads. It left a multicolored trail until it detonated over the shaman. It was so powerful that it smashed him against the ground, almost breaking his skull, his neck and covering him in his own blood from the dozens of punctures and cuts.

The other two were not unscathed. They were pushed to the ground in the same way, but only the brute ended up with perforations and slight cuts. The warrior's protections were really effective. As soon as they saw that their shaman companion was barely able to heal, they pounced on Jean.

The most daring was the warrior. He seemed better equipped than prepared, for he charged with his club held high and his shield as an ornament. Before he reached his destination, he received a frontal kick in the chest that illuminated the cavern in red and white. His bones snapped from the impact, and shattered when he crashed into the wall.

The brute stood momentarily dumbfounded with both fists raised. He wanted to do that with his feet too, and tried to imitate her by delivering a kick from her back. Jean easily dodged that one and the next two, so he decided to do what he did best. After a powerful battle cry, her body glowed in a reddish orange tone. It looked like an effect, but it was a skill. Rage.

Not a second later, he leaped at Jean with both fists ready. His attacks became much faster. So much so that Jean had to block them with the shield. The ochre glow and the barrier barely mitigated the damage. That bastard was hitting like a damn cannon now. If he hit her in the head, he would shatter it. It was time to use that brain of hers.

She focused on withstanding the brute's fearsome blows while improving each of her movements with the Dexterity and Agility effects. She quickly learned to deflect them with the shield, and after gradually learning to avoid them, she found openings to exploit. However, her attacks only caused small cuts to his arms or side. That goblin was tough.

Seeing how evenly matched the combat was, the brute shouted, giving orders to the rest. This awakened the warrior goblin who had managed to get up and was approaching to help the shaman.

Jean panicked when she realized that the only bones she had broken were those of the goblin's armor. He was virtually unharmed and raring to charge again.

She retreated behind the throne. A hiding place that, due to the shape of the cave, prevented her from being flanked. She didn't mind being cornered behind the shield to avoid being surrounded. With the size of the brute, they would have to take turns attacking.

The problem was now that she couldn't dodge, and her attacks felt like wrecking balls that she could barely mitigate with the barrier and the effects. The screams of pain distracted him long enough for him not to notice the stone she clutched in her other hand.

By the time he noticed the stone rolling under his feet, Jean had already braced herself with the effects of Resistance and Toughness. Dozens of orange and yellow mana shears and blades stabbed into the goblins inner thighs and genitals. Blood immediately gushed out accompanied by screams.

All the brute's self-importance was deflated in an instant as his intestines began to spill out of his belly through a slash that ended in Jean's dagger. “Surprise, surprise, motherfucker!”

His eyes almost popped out of their sockets. He barely managed to hold his intestines as they slipped out of his hands and onto the floor. The goblin warrior relieved him by lashing out madly. However, all his attacks were blocked as the cave lit up in brown and white.

Jean's shield glowed with the first and she emanated the second. The goblin glanced sideways at the shaman who was still trying to heal himself. She was far from being able to receive help from him. Desperate, he increased the speed of his attacks without anything else mattering; he even tossed his shield to the ground and grabbed the club with both hands.

The goblin let himself go into a frenzy when he noticed that Jean was cowering more and more under the shield. He didn't even notice that she had traded the dagger for the sword. A shield bash to the face combined with a thrust to the leg, and he fell to the ground unable to stop her from smashing his legs with the sledgehammer. He didn't manage to comprehend how she changed weapons so quickly.

The three goblins screamed in anger and despair as she broke their legs and hands. “Oh, come on! What's with the faces?” She had completely fooled them. “What's wrong? It's not fun the other way around, is it? It's not so funny when you are the one begging for his life!”

The shaman tried to catch her off guard with a fireball, but Jean pinned her hand to the ground with the dagger. “My father always said; Don't do anything you might regret! And if you do, bear the consequences!”

None of them showed any sign of having understood her. That didn't matter to her at all.