The cool night breeze in Training Forest Village hit me the moment I logged in, sending goosebumps prickling across my skin. I breathed in the fresh air, letting the system loosen up on the realism filters for a moment.
Alright, time to get back to work.
I pulled out the two skill books and confirmed the usage for them. A pleasant warm sensation seeped into my body, and the books softly crumbled to dust.
YOU HAVE LEARNED THE SKILLS, Dash and Pummel!
Dash - Sprint: The most elementary type of a dash, where you push off your legs and go fast!
Pummel - Shield: While not a club nor a blade, a shield does hurt if swung hard enough. Ever been hit by a door? Hopefully never, but imagine that on a smaller scale.
While I still wanted to hunt slimes to complete the bestiary collection, the allure of potentially better gear dropping from the neighboring zone was too tempting. The walk to the village’s south gate also gave me enough time to sort out my skills. Since I had no eligible weapons for it, Stab and Slash had to be replaced by my new skills. I did feel a bit of anxiety about going to a new area when I still didn’t know how Pummel felt to use, but since I had three defensive options… Well, it would probably be fine.
YOU HAVE TOGGLED ON MANA AS YOUR PRIMARY RESOURCE. YOU CAN NOW ADJUST YOUR SKILLS WITH MANA TO ENHANCE THEIR EFFECTS!
YOU HAVE ASSIGNED MANA TO PUMMEL. PLEASE ADJUST THE VALUES AS NEEDED.
Despite the flavor text reassuring me that Pummel was fine to use, I decided to amplify it with Mana. I did consider toggling Rage on as my primary resource, but the lack of information I had on the monsters I was fighting made me too wary.
Pummel - Shield [MANA]: By imbuing MANA into your shield, you have made the blunt force more powerful.
I liked the idea of using limitless Bolts to give myself space if I needed Mana to slowly regenerate. I contemplated applying the modifier to Block, just in case, but I decided that it would be more efficient to take the hits. Every Mana enhanced Block could deny me a Pummel, and probably end up making the fight longer and more difficult. Now that I thought about it, my main defensive tool lacking an enhancement could also be problematic.
Whatever, I’ll just take them down before it’s an issue.
The layers of ugly player homes had only gotten deeper since I had entered the village. Even at night, there were still no signs of life in the shabby huts, and now that I thought about it, there wasn’t even a real estate NPC in the village.
NEW LOCATION FOUND! New Training Forest: Outside the Village HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR MAP!
The funniest thing about traveling to the village outskirts was seeing how much more compact the fragile structures became, as more players (Or the same player? It was impossible to tell…) attempted to squeeze their illegitimate stake to some land. Dancing shadows and flickering light from the border torches intertwined with the uneven texture of the buildings to create an unending wall of straw.
One could only imagine what would happen if an ambitious stray ember decided to make Equilibrium history.
WARNING: CERTAIN MONSTERS ARE MORE AGGRESSIVE AT NIGHT!
I ventured into the dark treeline, keeping my right hand loose and left arm slightly tensed. While the rat mentioned that the System would notify me if I got ambushed, I hadn’t noticed any time dilation during the tutorial sequence. It didn’t help at all that it was apparently a new moon, meaning that there was essentially no natural light filtering through the leaves and branches above.
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TRAINING FOREST GOBLIN SCOUT HAS INITIATED COMBAT!
“KREEE!“
I looked up in time to notice glowing yellow eyes descending from the branches above me. While it was too dark to see what the weapon was, the malicious red aura clearly highlighted it against the canopy above.
“Bolt!”
Despite being a bright amalgamation of energy, the Bolt provided no illumination to my surroundings. Thankfully, the wispy shockwave of the projectile hitting the goblin midair gave me a good grasp of where my opponent was — knocked sideways of its original trajectory.
“Pummel!”
My Mana bar dropped by a quarter, which somehow felt appropriate. My left arm and shield confidently flexed with crackling azure sparks and swung towards the dropping figure. There was no longer a red aura, but my eyes could still track the dark silhouette.
Crunch!
Upon feeling the fleshy impact, I made sure to follow through the swing with my whole body. The moderate weight increased briefly as I fought gravity with my leg and core muscles, flinging the goblin to crash hard into a nearby tree trunk.
“KRAAAHH!”
“Bolt!”
Unluckily for me, the goblin didn’t land head first, and it recovered quickly. My Bolt slammed into nothing but tree, and I once again only had menacing eyes to locate my opponent. I met the slant, golden voids for a moment, before they vanished.
“KREEE! KREEE!”
The goblin’s screech was even louder than it normally had been. I held my breath, waiting for it to reveal its eyes.
…
If the night hadn’t been completely still, I would’ve mistook the rustling for the wind. The red aura suddenly came to life near my shieldess right arm, the sinister yellow sneer flitting to life immediately after.
“Bloc- agh!”
The wispy green energy was shattered before it had a chance to solidify, and the jagged dagger blade dug deep into my abdomen. I fired off another Bolt before the goblin could twist its weapon and tear up my insides, but the motion of the blade ripping out of me also tore out another chunk of my health bar.
DANGER! YOU ARE BLEEDING OUT. YOU WILL SLOWLY TAKE DAMAGE UNTIL YOU ARE AT 1% HEALTH.
It appeared that losing limbs was much more impactful than simply being stabbed. There was still a decent amount of my health bar left, but since I couldn’t see the goblin’s health bar, I had no clue how I was faring comparatively. The goblin slowly backed away, its figure slowly blending into the darkness. Eventually, its eyes disappeared once again.
“Bolt! Bolt! Bolt!”
The goblin’s eyes snapped open to my shouts, dodging the first shot, but taking the next two in its chest and kneecap. It stumbled, and I was already taking the opportunity.
“Dash! Pummel!”
I caught up to the briefly dazed goblin, slamming my shield into its head, which bounced violently, then simply against the ground. I attempted to grab the grimy dagger from its limp hand.
YOU CANNOT STEAL AN ENEMY’S EQUIPPED WEAPON!
An invisible force blocked my hand, so I went for the next most appealing option.
“Pummel!”
This final Pummel took the remaining half of my mana, and was immensely satisfying to throw out. As expected, using the shield’s edge let me aim the strike more carefully, landing right on the goblin’s unprotected neck and snapping it. The goblin’s corpse immediately began evaporating, barely giving me enough time to examine its child-like height before only its item pouch remained.
Crooked Copper Dagger: Rusted - [Weapon] A short blade with a twisted edge. It hasn’t been maintained very well, but it has clearly seen use and will definitely still get the job done. Hopefully when it breaks, the tip will be stuck in the thing you’re trying to kill.
Forest Goblin Scout’s Ear: LQ - [Material] Scout Goblin ears have a particular piercing to signify their role in the pack. This ear is mangled beyond recognition, but the copper piercing is unmistakable.
I went ahead and equipped the dagger, swapping out Roll for Stab. It was definitely too dark to effectively roll, and I wasn’t going to try my luck slashing with such a fragile looking blade. My health and Mana topped themselves off after my fight, so I decided to venture deeper.
With my new weapon, I managed to take down a dozen more scout goblins. It got easier as I progressed, since they all stuck to a similar pattern: Ambush, hide, ambush. If the moon had been out and shining, the fights would have been much easier, but at least I got to see how my health bar was affected by various stab wounds.
~~~
Training Forest Goblin Scout
The scout variant of a particularly degenerate race of creatures. As the smallest and lightest of their kind, they prey on unaware travelers. Don’t be fooled. They may be weak, but they are no less nasty than their stronger cousins.
Skills: Goblin Scout’s Vicious Stab - [RAGE] -IX: To hide their lack of physical muscle, goblin scouts put their full emotions into every killing blow. These stabs could be more powerful if the goblins ever trained…
Visible Health Bar: ??? (Defeat 37 more to unlock)
Drops: ??? (Defeat 90 more to unlock)
~~~
Eventually, I came across a fenced area with totems and animal carcasses littering the perimeter. I walked up to a dimly lit path and smacked myself against an invisible wall.