YOU HAVE DISCOVERED THE GOBLIN’S FORWARD ENCAMPMENT (TRAINING FOREST)! THIS IS A GROUP INSTANCED ZONE, WHERE MORE THAN ONE MONSTER MAY ATTACK YOU SIMULTANEOUSLY.

YOU ARE NOT IN A GROUP. DO YOU STILL WANT TO ENTER?

Eh, why not.

SOLO PLAYER DETECTED. SOLO DIFFICULTY AND REWARDS WILL BE LOADED.

I pushed through the thin barrier, the world behind me blurring. Thankfully, the environment in this zone was better lit due to the haphazardly placed torches. Then I thought a bit more — the lighting in the area was actually quite suspicious, since all the goblin scouts I had fought so far relied on the darkness.

I slumped my shoulders to allow myself a deep sigh. This type of gameplay was pretty tiring, having to emotionally invest so much into each fight. A strained smile spread across my face as I silently blamed my girlfriend for subconsciously tempting me to do some solo gameplay in a social game.

Guess it didn’t help that Felix had spawned in a different zone either. Games were more fun with our constant bickering.

I checked the dents on my shield and swapped my rusty dagger for another slightly less rusty dagger. One more deep breath, and I let myself push on. I was probably not going to particularly enjoy the incoming solo experience. The first bend in the road revealed a pair of muscular goblins, both wielding large clubs and about a head shorter than me.

“GREE. GREE? GREE.” One of them saw me and they both immediately turned around to lock their beady red eyes with me.

TRAINING FOREST GOBLIN WARRIORS HAVE INITIATED COMBAT!

“GRAAAAA!”

“GRAAAAH!”

Both goblin warriors let out a monstrous roar, misty red auras doubling up over their bodies. Even with the System’s sensory filters, I could feel the deep bass rattle my ribs, and I had the sinking feeling that I had just let them both buff for free.

“GRA!” The monsters galloped towards me, somehow fully adept with using three limbs to imitate a horse. The club wielding arm was raised above their head, slowly building a green veneer of energy as they moved faster.

“Bolt!”

I tried to shoot their legs out, but due to how compact their bodies were, my Bolts slammed against their shoulders, only mildly inconveniencing them. Before long, one of them had reached my right side, fully extending their torso to swing their now glistening green club down at me.

Roll!

Out of habit, I mentally shouted the defunct skill name, but managed to duck under the deadly piece of lumber, feeling the air resistance ruffle my hair. The other goblin made an annoyed shout as I used its buddy as a temporary wall.

“Stab!”

Making sure to utilize the leftover forward momentum from the roll, I attempted to drive the crooked dagger deep into the goblin warrior’s chest. While the tip easily pierced the shabby fabric armor, its skin was surprisingly firm. I fired a Bolt into my own right hand, using the percussive blast to get the extra force needed to drive the knife deeper and earned an aggravated growl from the goblin. I let go of the dagger and immediately rolled backwards, taking out another from my inventory. My skill icons flickered briefly as the System actively adjusted my loadout.

WARNING! BOLT CAN CAUSE FRIENDLY FIRE!

My next Bolt was parried by the other goblin’s club, giving the injured one a moment to catch its breath. They both warily stared at the buried hilt, seemingly unsure if they needed to pull it out.

With this moment of indecision, I Dashed at the pair, brandishing my weapon. The uninjured goblin protectively stood in front of the other, stomping its foot and screaming at me. When I got close enough, It swung sideways, attempting to cover as many horizontal options as it could, which was an admittedly smart move.

A sudden moment of clarity told me that I had worryingly few combat options on the ground, so I decided to do an impromptu experiment.

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I tried jumping as high as I could.

The flow of energy in my legs faded as I kicked off the ground, but there was enough remaining force from the skill buff that I could feel myself soar to an arguable unnatural height. I managed to barely clear the club, but I wasn’t in striking range nor were my hands pointed at the right angle to fire off a proper bolt. A sudden memory from my PvP duel gave me more inspiration.

Bolt!

I inhaled deeply, and imagined the skill bursting from my mouth. With a sharp exhale, the familiar sensation emerged from the unfamiliar area, and the silver burst of energy flew out, once again slamming into the dagger.

Unfortunately, my plan didn’t account for the landing. The club from earlier was already angrily swinging back, and I definitely did not have enough time to roll out of the way. I raised my shield and tried to support it the best I could with a barrier of energy from Block.

CRACK!!

The two energized pieces of wood collided and something exploded, throwing me backwards into the road. My back hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of my lungs. I wheezed as urgently I could and got up through watery vision, hoping that the goblins were not suddenly in my view. It looked like only one remained, looking bewildered at its shattered club. I attempted to turn my left arm to check my shield’s status, but it refused to respond. I ended up having to use my right arm to pull over the left to examine its status. There was a solid imprint from the impact point, but it still held its shape.

My health bar looked decent at first glance, until I realized that I had only taken one hit so far and shuddered. There was a third of it missing, and my left arm was useless for a second time in the day – a status that I dryly hoped wouldn’t become a trend.

“GAH ROO! GAH ROO!”

The remaining goblin warrior discarded the scrap of wood and began to beat its chest. The red aura welled up again, its shade becoming a deeper shade of velvet. With my left arm still useless, I shot another Bolt from my mouth in an attempt to interrupt.

“GRAAAAAA!”

I got what I wanted, but not in the way I imagined. The monster stopped beating its chest, glared at me, bellowed in pure anger, and then launched itself at me, almost reaching me in one leap. The fury of the enhanced Punch was terrifying to be on the receiving end for, and I almost felt bad for Kevin XYY.

“Stab!”

In retrospect, I probably should have attempted to put up a shoddy Block around my body. Instead, I chose an offensive move, bringing my dagger downwards and into the goblin’s forearm. The blade sank through its skins and muscles, before it was stopped short by bone.

What didn’t stop was the punch. It plowed straight into my abdomen, dropping me instantly to my knees. I still had not fully caught my breath, and this new development clearly did not help. The impact itself was filtered through the System as a sensation of a mild tummy rumble, but I could tell the damage was serious. My health dropped to a critical level, and the goblin screeched with glee, before preparing the empowered Swing at me.

Roll!

I managed to find the muscle contractions required to limply dodge to the side. The goblin’s fist struck the ground, kicking up a massive amount of dirt. I managed to prop myself up on one leg, and my lungs caught the minimum requirement of oxygen for my brain to think of one last idea.

I spit another Bolt at the goblin’s kneecap, buckling it down to my level. I snapped my uninjured arm out, gripping on the side of its head and involuntarily wincing at how leathery the texture was. For good measure, I blasted it again straight on the nose, its red eyes glazing over as its nose shattered on impact.

“Pummel!”

This time, the blue electricity crackled and leapt from my core to the fingertips of my unresponsive left hand. I could instinctively feel the almost comical amount of Mana that the Pummel would consume, but it was probably justified in this scenario. A sharp tingle shot down my spine as I aggressively twisted my body to fling my shield towards the still slumped goblin.

SNAP!!

Wonder if there’s a title for snapping necks.

I let out a relieved exhale as I felt the vitality rush back to my body — a sign that the battle was over. The stuck dagger softly thumped into the road, and the other dagger was completely gone. Hopefully, the two loot bags had something good, but I doubted it. There was a notification about reduced solo rewards after all…

Forest Goblin Warrior’s Ear: NQ - [Material] A trophy torn off a healthy Goblin Warrior. The cartilage is valuable, used in certain home remedies among the NPCs in Equilibrium.

Training Wooden Club - [Weapon] The Stick’s bigger and sturdier cousin. There is a bit more heft to this piece of wood.

I didn’t make it much further into the encampment. The next goblin pack was a pair of warriors joined by an archer. It wasn’t a totally lost cause — I managed to get the archer to inflict some friendly fire and give the warriors some pretty nasty gashes on their arms and legs.

Sadly, I could only do so much when I was so outnumbered and inexperienced. A moment of panic had me using Block on an arrow instead of an incoming club, and my kneecap was blown out. It didn’t take much more time for the two goblin warriors to zero out my health bar.

YOU HAVE DIED!

YOU HAVE LOST 25% OF YOUR COPPER.

YOUR WEAPON, Crooked Copper Dagger, HAS SHATTERED!

NOW REVIVING IN LAST VISITED SAFE ZONE.