Kei was unsure of how to approach the situation. If he stole the goblin’s skill(s), the goblin would be incapacitated. However, by doing so, he wouldn’t be able to gouge his own capacities by fighting the goblin at full strength. With little time to decide, he came up with an idea.

(I’ll test him at full strength and see if I can manage. If he’s too tough for me, I’ll try to beat him after stealing his skills.)

Since “Greed” must be activated for any chosen target(s) unless they’re killed or devoured, Kei’s decision could be executed. The goblin began slowly approaching him. Since Kei was in his slime form and did not have eyes, “Mimicry” compensated for this by allowing him to sense his surroundings in a manner that closely replicated eye sight. He began to notice the goblin slowly pulling back the hand holding his spear. It launched the spear straight towards Kei.

(Here goes!)

Expecting as much, Kei swiftly dodged the attack. But, contrarily to what he planned, the spear was quite fast, and he barely dodged it. Realizing the large difference in strength, Kei decided to steal the goblin’s skills. But, when in the midst of activating “Greed”, the goblin had already began charging at him.

(Crap! This is backfiring pretty quickly.)

Kei began bouncing back further into the cave. Luckily, as a slime, his speed was faster than the goblin and allowed him enough time to activate the skill.

[“Greed Activate!”]

{Greed has been activated.}

{Your opponent is within range. “Greed” has successfully stolen the following job and skills: “Job: Spear User”, “Goblin Language”, “Devour”.}

The excitement of uncovering newly gained skills motivated Kei to quickly defeat his opponent. However, even after stealing all of the goblin’s abilities, the goblin was still quite a bit larger than the slime; meaning that Kei still did not have the upper hand.

(It looks like I’m still too weak. I’ll have to find a way to cheat death this time again.)

Bouncing deeper into the cave, Kei still found a few unused torches. Taking into account “Hard” (the weak protective skill that he gained when stealing from a rock), he devised a plan.

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[“Activate Hard!”]

{Skill “Hard” has been activated.}

Unlike the slimes that Kei previously defeated, the goblin was more intelligent. He would not run straight into a fire and could make distance if a torch were to tip over. Kei had to get the goblin to purposely hit the area with the torches. The only way to draw the goblin would be for Kei to stand right in front of the pile of torches. The goblin was charging at full speed and closing in on him. Kei continued to stand there without any signs of movement.

(Let’s hope this works!)

The goblin swiped his hand at Kei. This resulted in Kei slamming into the cave wall on the other side. Coincidentally, the goblin also ended up knocking over the torches behind Kei. His hand was now bursting in flames.

(He took the bait!)

This was all according to Kei’s plan. To prevent any damage, he had activated his barrier. Nonetheless, the goblin was quite strong and managed to break the barrier and slightly damage him. But, the result was worth it. The goblin’s entire arm was engulfed in flames as they were slowly creeping down to the rest of his body. It began running around in circles.

Goblin: [“Lak ta Kataka!! Kataka! Lak ta kata!]

Kei did not understand the words of the goblin in the midst of such a gruesome sight. Forgetting to activate his new skill “Goblin Language”, he assumed it to be swearing.

Seeing the goblin close to death’s door, Kei could not help but feel a wave of relief.

(Phew! That worked well didn’t it?)

It did not take long for the goblin to disappear and burn to ash.

{Goblin defeated. Kei Daichi has received some EXP points.}

{As a result of defeating the opponent, passive skill “Greed” has now stolen: “Goblin mimicry”.}

{Item dropped: Spear. In order to understand this item Kei Daichi must obtain skill “Observe”.}

Kei was annoyed at the fact that he was told that the spear was dropped, when in reality, it was just there as a result of being thrown at him.

(I guess that this world is a bit more realistic than I originally thought…)

But, Kei quickly dismissed this thought. Having obtained a job and new skills, Kei was eager to begin learning about them and testing them out.