Taking one last glance at the group of goblins they had just killed, Dante turned away after acknowledging he would have to come to terms with the violence of this world. Waya was fine though, blood dripped from her mouth and fur, she took everything in her stride, to her the attack they carried out was normal. As they walked back to meet up with Otus, they saw him waiting nervously, keeping his worried thoughts occupied by writing down in his notebook. When Otus saw Dante their eyes connected and Otus could immediately tell that something was distracting him.
“Is everything alright Dante?” He asked with concern in his voice.
“I think so… maybe,” Dante awkwardly scratched at his short hair, looking lost in thought. “I’m still not used to killing is all, I used what you said as fuel but those creatures never did anything to me.”
“Ah,” It was Otus’s turn to feel a bit awkward, he had dumped all his emotions and problems on Dante. Making the human feel responsible for things he wasn’t familiar with. “I’m Sorry Dante, I let my past get the better of me. Once this is all over I’ll tell you my story. Until then, if it’s any consolation you probably saved people from a terrible fate at the hands of those goblins.”
Dante just nodded, the trio started moving again, walking along a stone path with loose stones that led towards the marked cave.
Trying to make sense of his actions, Dante started making a comparison between the world of his memories and the one he was in. ‘It’s not like Earth was perfect before this happened, there were wars, terrorism, famine and violence happening all over the world. I just feel that I must have lived a life away from all that, I must have grown up in a comfortable and safe environment. I guess I just don’t have the tools necessary to make sense of the day to day violence of this world.’
“Otus, You honestly believe that what I did was good?”
The owlish man started making humming noises while rubbing his eyebrows, “Good is relative, from my perspective what you did was good. From my personal experiences with goblins, I can’t help but feel that what you did was necessary, if those goblins spotted you first they wouldn’t hesitate to attack. The situation could have been very different.”
“Is that right?..”
Otus patted Dante’s back as a comforting gesture, he didn’t realise what he had set in motion.
After a few more minutes of walking, Waya started making a low growl, ‘She must have sensed something. I’m so distracted I didn’t notice anything wrong.’
Dante’s senses were on full alert, he could hear the nearby crunching sound of creatures walking on the gravel pathway, a small group of goblins rounded a corner. The goblins were oblivious to the fact they were walking right into danger as they stepped out from behind a large rocky outcrop. They saw the trio and immediately took defensive stances.
After scanning the goblins, there were five in total, their levels were similar to the last group, between 2-4. ‘They must be scouting parties in groups of 5 then.’ Dante didn’t feel threatened by this group at all, he wanted to see something for himself so he didn’t react to their appearance.
“They are scouts! You’ll have to kill them quickly before they alert more!” Otus shouted, he turned to see that Dante was standing still, not reacting to the Goblins, he just stared at them in a nonthreatening manner.
The goblins were hissing and spitting at the floor, one of them started taking the lead amongst them, giving out orders. Some goblins took out slings and others started brandishing their crude spears and one even had a rusted sword, yet Dante stood his ground. He neither moved nor made any effort to display any threatening gestures.
“Dante, what are you doing?!”
The wolf’s hackles were up, Waya started protectively pacing before Dante, she seemed uncertain of his behaviour yet wasn’t going to charge the goblins without him.
Dante didn’t respond, his behaviour was agitating Otus, but there was nothing the man could do to force the human to act.
Rabid screeching noises came from the group of goblins, they smacked their weapons against the boulders and ground, they appeared to be making rude and threatening gestures. One of them seemed to point at Otus and made gyrating motions with its hips while cackling. The rest of the goblins looked at each other a little confused, why wasn’t this group of people reacting to their taunts? They were waiting for someone to make the first move.
The leader had enough, it was going to take the initiative, pointing his short sword forward and screeching an order to attack. A goblin that was spinning a sling released a stone with a crack, the projectile shot forward and smashed into Dante’s skull. His head tilted backwards, A trickle of blood leaked from his wound but he didn’t budge, he raised his hand to his head then pulled away and stared at the blood drawn by the goblins. He sighed deeply as orange razor-sharp claws grew out of his fingers.
“So be it, I guess he was right. Waya stay back, leave this to me!” Dante barked his order, the wolf retreated seemingly understanding his intentions.
Two spear-wielding goblins charged toward the group while another was winding up a sling ready to fire at them. A red bolt of mana tore off the goblins arm before it had a chance to release its second shot, the goblin stood dumbfounded, then clasped its hand over its missing arm to try and stem the flow of blood.
Dante met the spear-wielding goblins head-on, running towards them at an incredible speed. Swiping his claws at the nearest goblin, his hand easily cut through the spear before tearing a long gash that bisected the goblin from top to bottom. The other charging goblin stumbled a few steps at the sight, then renewed its commitment to the attack whilst Dante’s back was facing it.
The goblin saw the man’s head swivel around, vicious eyes met their own before a flurry of attacks were exchanged. Dante easily leapt over the goblin’s charging attack, then stomped on the creatures head causing it to stumble to the ground. It rolled onto its back and jabbed its spear towards Dante, each time missing as its target nimbly dodged each attack. Dante struck the spear multiple times with his claws, each time shortening the weapon until it was turned into a useless stub.
The goblin threw the stub away and tried to scramble backwards, kicking and pushing at the ground with its hands and feet, but it was too late. Dante’s glimmering crystal clawed hand shot towards the goblins head, his fingers pierced the rat-like creature’s cranium causing its whole body to go limp.
A stone struck Dante’s back, he just shrugged it off before firing another bolt of mana at the last sling wielding goblin. The mana bolt tore a hole in the creature’s chest, the spinning sling dropped to the floor as the goblin took several steps backwards. The sword-swinging goblin looked to either side of it, it watched as one goblin bled to death and the other dropped to its knees remaining motionless. It had lost all its confidence after having watched Dante easily dispatch the others.
It turned around to run away, Dante chased after it, closing the distance in seconds. The goblin sensed that it had no chance of escaping, it turned around swinging its sword wildly at Dante. Each time he dodged and manoeuvred around the goblins ineffectual attacks, a loud clang rang out as the goblin’s sword struck a boulder. A small cleft was made in the stone, chipped pieces of the stone flew away and the blade broke in half.
Moving closer to the goblin, Dante knocked aside the damaged weapon as it made one last desperate attack. His crystal claw cleaved the goblin’s arm at the wrist, its hand and weapon clattered to the ground. A horrified screech was stifled by Dante as his hand wrapped around the goblin’s throat.
He lifted the goblin from the floor, bringing the creature face to face with him. The goblin squirmed and tried to fight back but couldn’t resist the man’s strength. When the goblin realised it was doomed any sense of self-preservation was drained from it.
“All you had to do was not attack me, this is on you.” With his last words, he crushed the goblin’s throat and threw its body to the side. Tiny white threads left its body and chased after Dante as he walked back to Waya and Otus.
Taking a bottle of water from his spatial ring, Dante washed his hands of the blood and other unknown fluids and bits of flesh that clung to his fingers. Once he had cleaned up he knelt before Waya and scratched her head.
“Sorry Waya, thank you.”
Dante stood up and faced Otus, “I’m sorry to you too Otus, I believe what you said, I just had to see for myself. Now I can have some amount of peace knowing I’m not murdering innocent creatures.”
Otus nodded in understanding, he didn’t appreciate not being informed of Dante’s intentions. He feared for the man’s sanity, yet respected what he had done. “I understand… just telling me next time would be appreciated, I nearly shat my pants when you just stood there.”
Laughter broke out of Dante, incongruous hysterical laughter that didn’t match with the surrounding death. When it died down, he spoke up, “You’re right, I get stuck inside my head so much. I’ll try and talk more. You deserved to know what I was planning, Sorry for making you worry.”
The group eventually found themselves outside the entrance to the goblin cave. Small piles of animal bones and remains were stacked up either side of the entrance, it was undoubtedly the same cave that was marked in Dante's mental map. They had just taken care of three guards that were doing a terrible job of protecting the entrance to the cave.
Dante and Waya had charged at them together, he had quickly disposed of two of them by slashing his claws through their throats which prevented them from screaming. Waya had tackled hers to the ground from behind and snapped its spine with her powerful jaws.
The goblin Waya was supposed to have killed twitched on the ground, its legs were shaking violently and it was starting to distract Dante. “Waya can you take care of that?” He said while pointing. Dante swore he saw Waya shrug before crunching down on the creature’s neck which seemed to stop the small movements.
A relieved “Thank you,” Left Dante’s lips.
Dante decided it was a good time to take account of his resources for the coming fight in the cave.
[Goblins level 2-4 Killed (10 of 27)]
[Gained 942 Combat experience]
[Skills: Hand to hand combat - T1 - 19%]
After checking earlier he noticed that the system notification that displayed the total remaining had started counting down, each of Waya’s kills was deducted from the total. He worked out from the number of goblins killed the total must have been around 30 goblins, now it said 27. ‘So, possibly as many as 17 goblins remaining in these caves? Unless there are more scouting parties.’
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“Waya, please look after me a moment.”
Dante sat down and started meditating, ready to make some upgrades before he entered the cave. He took a moment to review his attributes and decide what to focus on. Dante checked his total experience.
[Combat experience: 1,387]
‘Awesome, I can upgrade up to 13 attributes.’
In preparation for what he might encounter in the cave, Dante considered that he wouldn’t want to announce himself by waving around a torch or some other source of light, so Perception was a must. He wanted to increase his combat effectiveness, so he planned to put more points in Strength and Agility.
Reflecting on how well the recent fights with the goblins had gone, his constitution was holding up well. He still liked to keep some of the points remaining for emergency recovery, he was also somewhat confident he would get a lot more experience in a few moments once he started clearing out the cave.
Excited about the impending upgrades, he then meditated on improving Strength, Agility and Perception by 2 points each. Then he threw a single point into Intelligence for good measure. ‘It might help me make fewer stupid decisions…’
‘Status’
[ Name: Dante]
[Species: Human]
[ System Level: 5]
[Title’s: Reject of Earth, First Kill, Natural Born Killer, Tree Dweller, Man's best friend]
[Mana: 6 / 11 (13 max)] 12→13
[Reserved Mana: Spatial ring (2)]
[Mana Mastery: 8] 7 → 8
[Strength: 10] 8 → 10
[Agility: 9] 7 → 9
[Intelligence: 6] 5 → 6
[Perception: 7 ] 5 → 7
[Vitality: 8]
[Constitution: 9 ]
[Total System Attributes: 57]
[Combat experience: 687]
[Ascension points: 0]
[Abilities: Mana claws - T1, Mana bolt - T1]
[Skills: Hand to hand combat - T1 - 19%, Spear Mastery - T1 - 4%, Tracking - T1 - 5%]
[Production Skills: Crafting - T1 - 5%]
[100% bonus barehanded melee modifier]
[20% bonus combat]
His muscles rippled on his body, he felt them grow, then shrink as if they were being refined. His skin was toughened and his senses sharpened, Dante could see further into the dark cave, he swore he could start to detect signs of life inside the cave that he didn’t notice moments before. The sensation of upgrading his attributes was always euphoric, almost addictive.
His persistent training with mana had also rewarded him with another point in maximum mana, he was also almost ready to receive his next mana mastery point.
To his surprise, a notification was waiting for him to read.
[Tier 1 strength Achieved. Strength has reached the first attribute cap, would you like to spend 2 ascension points to unlock strength related ability? (Yes/No)]
Trying to contain his growing excitement, he didn’t want to invite Otus’s attention by making an outburst. ‘Woah! A skill? The first Cap? So I can’t upgrade my strength attribute anymore or what?’
After spending a short amount of time, he decided to go ahead and obtain the skill, it could make a huge difference in the coming fight.
[Strength ability unlocked: Immovability]
[Strength cap unlocked - further upgrades will require 2 ascension points]
[Tier 1 Strength: You have chosen the path of improving Strength, you have unlocked Immovability. You’re better able to stand your ground against enemies and return their attacks. ]
‘Immoveability? I can stand my ground better? What’s that got to do with strength?’ Dante felt an initial bout of disappointment. Then the skill text window dinged into his head.
[Immovability - Tier 1: This skill will allow you to use your strength to absorb kinetic forces, the energy is stored for later use which can be released in a single explosive attack. You are less inclined to be moved from your position.
While the skill is active you resist the kinetic forces, preventing you from being moved until the duration ends or the energy cap is exceeded.
While the skill is active you will absorb any kinetic attacks as energy and nullify the received damage.
Elementally aligned attacks will only have the kinetic energy absorbed, other elemental effects will still injure skill user.
Total energy capacity: Strength x (3 * Bonus)
Duration: 30 seconds
Cooldown: 10 minutes
Immovability bonus: 0%]
‘Damn, I want to test this out now… but I don’t want to create too much of a disturbance.’
Dante started to contemplate raising his next highest attribute and seeing if there was a skill to unlock, but it was potentially risky. He might have to retreat at a moment's notice and depend upon the ability to recover from any grievous wounds he might receive. ‘Patience Dante, you’ll get more experience in a moment, you can unlock those skills soon. In the meantime, I really want to try this out.’
“Ok, I’m ready. I’ll be heading in.”
Otus pushed himself away from the wall he was leaning on, “Be Safe Dante, I’ll wait outside.” He started walking away from the cave, seemingly looking for a place to hide while the goblins were being taken care of.
Dante nodded, then made his way to the cave entrance, Waya was following behind. He looked back to Waya, then gestured for her to stay back while he took the lead this time. Taking cautious steps as he walked through the mouth of the cave entrance, the bones of small animals crunched under his feet, his cloak dampened the sound to an almost light crisp crackle as if he was walking on dry leaves.
The entrance of the cave led to a narrow tunnel, there was a light wind blowing towards him that carried the faint reeking smells that the goblins produced, then he felt a small gust from the back of his neck. The cave seemed as though it was alive and breathing, A rhythmic flow of wind blowing in and out of the cave.
They stepped further into the cave, cautiously moving forwards. Dante’s eyes pierced the dark, he could make out almost everything in dull greyed colours. There were strings of dangling bones hanging from the ceiling, he pushed past them, the rattling noises they made were dulled. As the pair progressed deeper into the cave there were signs of several more of the shrine-like stacks of rocks with skulls and blood on them. He could hear the occasional patter of feet, sporadic garbled voices and screeches.
Upon reaching a branching point within the cave, he placed his back to the leftmost wall. Lowering himself to a crouch and peering around the corner into the side passage.
He could make out steady breathing coming from several of the creatures, some of the sounds were rhythmic others sounded like the rattles and sniffles of sleep apnea. Turning to Waya, Dante gestured for her to remain in place to cover his back.
Dante inched his way down the side passage that went on for several meters, it started to shrink down until he was crawling on his hands and knees. His vision was getting darker as less light reached this part of the cave, he could barely make out his surroundings and there was a feeling of the gradual onset of a claustrophobic attack.
Dante’s breathing was kicking up small clouds of dirt as his face was nearly pressed to the floor, he started to panic a little. Stopping to take a moment to breathe ‘You can do this Dante, you’re stronger now. You need to do this. This is the world you live in now.’ After mentally psyching himself up, he continued down the tight passageway that seemed to be burrowed into the walls by the goblins or perhaps the previous caves tenants.
He made it to the entrance of what appeared to be the sleeping quarters for the goblins, he was struck by the disgusting stench of faeces, urine and recent rutting, he held back a gag and controlled his senses to reduce the impact of the smell.
There were clear glowing stones placed around the sleeping area, they let off a small amount of ambient light. There was just enough visibility for Dante to make out the bundles of straw where he saw goblins splayed out. There were also two sets of paired up goblins with their limbs overlapping each other, legs over a torso and arms covering faces. They were completely unaware of what was about to happen to them.
Dante felt terrible for what he was about to do, he was ready to just give up entirely. It seemed so inhumane to just burst into someones home and murder them in their sleep. These goblins hadn’t done anything to him, he had to remind himself of the conversation that he had with Otus on his way to the cave. He then reflected on how even when he presented himself as non-threatening to the patrolling group, they attacked him without hesitation.
Plucking up the courage to do what must be done, Dante snuck to the closest goblin, he then knelt next to it. Staring at the sleeping form that was releasing slow gentle breaths, its body twitched then the goblin's lips raised in a smirk. It was possibly a pleasant dream, blissfully unaware… it was better than most could ask for.
Dante firmly placed his hand over the goblin's mouth then ran his claws that felt zero resistance along its neck, five long lines were drawn across the sleeping goblin's throat. Dark blood rapidly spilt from the goblin's neck, its eye’s fluttering open, reaching its hands towards its neck and Dante’s arm in a brief and feeble struggle before the light faded from the sickly green eyes. The goblin’s struggle vanished, its arms dropped to the ground and the creature no longer breathed.
Getting up and moving to the next goblin, the process was much the same. He smoothly moved between each Goblin. Holding them down and slashing their throat open. Some didn’t wake up at all, the others pathetically struggled but couldn’t resist Dante’s strength. Within a short amount of time he had killed five sleeping goblins, it was far too easy, but he kept reminding himself that this was necessary. Every vermin he killed spared someone else the fate of experiencing a goblin’s cruelty, the small consolation to himself was that he felt the way he was killing them was somewhat humane. ‘Probably better than what other creatures would experience at the hands of these goblins.’
The last two pairs of goblins were left, ‘these might be the most difficult, I might have to take care of two at a time.’
Moving towards the first couple, he thought about how to dispatch them safely. Staring at the goblins that were wrapped up in each other's limbs, a tangle of grey flesh. He crouched down towards the pair, then looked at the other sleeping couple. A single Green eye blinked at Dante. Fear, Horror and absolute terror was written all over its face. ‘Shit!’
He swiftly moved towards the goblin that was staring at him, it was too late. A piercing screech left its lungs and echoed through the cave, Dante slashed out at the frightened goblin, turning the screech into a sickening gurgle as the goblin held its throat and began to choke on its own blood.
The remaining three got up shaking in fear and confusion, they stumbled and scrambled around, tripping over corpses as they moved away from whatever had snuck into their sleeping quarters. One of the escaping goblins slipped in a pool of blood, then crashed to the ground before getting up and letting out another screech. The escaping goblin ran to the tight crawl space, desperate to get away from the butchery that was taking place behind it.
A goblin was clutching to the one who had spotted Dante when he was sneaking around, it was making pitiful noises as it tried to stifle the bleeding of its partner's neck. Noticing how hopeless it was to save its partner, The goblin turned to Dante with venom in its menacing green eyes.
Dante was distracted by the commotion of the scrambling Goblins. He felt a sudden pain in his calf as a crude spear stabbed towards it, the spear slipped along his leg, unable to penetrate the tough muscle the spear scraped along the surface of his skin and left a small wound.
While he was distracted with being stabbed the vengeful goblin leapt towards Dante, it bit down on his collarbone and drew blood from the skin. There wasn’t much point in sneaking anymore, he yelled out “Enough!”
Grabbing at the goblin that was clambering over him, his claws sunk into its back. He tore the furious goblin off himself, flinging it into a wall. The rabid goblin struck the wall with a crunch as its skull cracked open from the sudden force. It lay motionless on the floor, its face was still staring furiously at Dante.
Dante swung his body around, his other hand wheeled in a long arc that slashed through the face of the remaining Goblin that had some fight left in it. His claws slid past the goblin's eyes, they exploded in blood and fluid, the goblin dropped its spear before reaching for its blinded face. Dante thrust his clawed hand forward into the blinded goblin's chest, then twisted his hand around shredding the goblin's organs to ensure a fast death. He shook his hand to remove the corpse that was impaled by his claws.
He had no time to be concerned about the carnage he had just created, he scrambled towards the entrance to the sleeping quarters, he had to get the one that had escaped before it could warn all the others.
Crawling through the tight space, he gradually made his way out until he was able to get to his feet and run. He neared the split in the cave, his eyes caught a glimpse of Waya tearing the remaining goblin’s body with her claws.
There was a brief lull once Waya had finished snuffing out the goblin that had managed to escape him. He and Waya were panting from the brief exertion.
Dante thought that he possibly got away with the ruckus in the sleeping quarters. A short moment later the sound of pattering feet and screeches echoed off the cave walls. Waya and Dante were greeted with multiple pairs of green eyes that grew larger in the darkness as they made their approach.