The most prominent detail in the room was the stench. There was no reason to be polite about it, these goblins absolutely reeked. Was it because they had no running water up above the trees, or was it because of the fact that they were monsters? He had no way of knowing, but he also didn’t care to find out the answer either. He just wanted to take his newly sensitive nose and get out of the room he was in.

Four wooden white walls trapped him inside of a rather small room with the Elder of the purple goblin village, with the only furniture being two mats made of yellow grass on the floor for them to sit on. He crossed his legs at the ankles and leaned his elbows forward on his knees while the Elder sat across from him on his knees.

Is this Asian themed?

The white-bearded goblin lowered his head. “Please save this village’s wayward child.” Contrary to his frail and wrinkled appearance, his voice wasn’t feeble at all. It was strong and steady, filled with confidence, but it was also withered. Weakening, as all things do with time. Had he always been this in tune with acute details?

“Tell me what it is I must do.” He kept it curt for many reasons. Not only was he starting to get overwhelmed by his nose and ears once again, but he found himself being taken over by powerful feelings as well. Was he empathizing with the Elder?

“Seru is to be sacrificed come moonrise. Infiltrate their village before then.”

“Give me a map.”

“Thank you, G–”

“Say nothing else. I need to make haste.”

The Elder nodded and produced a map from the folds of his robe. Once he took it for himself, he received a notification that his minimap had been updated. Upon checking it, he now had a layout of the village he was in as well as all the noteworthy locations, a few landmarks in the forest, and the location of the enemy village.

He nodded in return and rose from his seat, walking out of the room and heading on his way. His footsteps felt heavy against the wooden floor, but he wasn’t sure why that was the case. Was he weighed down by the gravity of the situation? Was he scared? He’d survived his fight against one regular goblin… barely. Now he was stronger, yes, but that didn’t mean he magically knew how to fight. His enemy was a warchief! They definitely earned that title through combat.

While walking down the hall, a lavender glimmer caught the corner of his eye. He turned to it and saw a sparkling book on the shelf, which he instinctively walked towards. They wouldn’t mind him looking at a book, right? He was their savior sent by their Goddess.

That which serves to light the fire within you ablaze also serves as the kindling for the fire you must use to cleanse the world.

The book was filled with pages and pages of information, but that message literally jumped off of the paper and hovered in the air in front of him. It was safe to assume that that was the important part of the book, so he closed it and set it back down on the shelf. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure of what it meant, but he figured the importance of the details would present themselves when the time was right.

He found himself conflicted when he left the village and followed his map. The task was a solo one, thankfully. A companion was a gamble, and right now he couldn’t afford to take the risk of accruing dead weight. He wasn’t even sure what cliches he planned on following. He had to make it home to his family. Plus this was his one opportunity to live out all of his fantasies, so he couldn’t squander it. His life was also on the line.

He didn’t particularly want to go down the harem route so it was a good thing for him to avoid recruiting party members for the time being. He hadn’t even decided on a signature move that would serve as the foundation for his future skills and fighting style. He wanted to be skillful with multiple weapons, including his bare hands, while also being able to mix powerful magic in the middle of his attacks. But the only magic spell he knew was the Mana Ball!

He was sure he could create a Mana Arrow, but he didn’t want to go down that route. He could also create a dagger to dual wield with the one he already had and spec his skills into a Necromancer route, but that was so played out. His only halfway decent ideas were shooting balls from his fingertips and punching balls suspended in the air to use them as a shotgun barrage.

He formed a Mana Ball in the palm of his hand and focused on flattening it. He had only just started earlier that day, but he got the hang of manipulating his mana pretty quickly. It was way easier when he could see it, but once he got accustomed to the feeling of how the mana flowed he could find his way through doing it before it physically manifested as well.

The ball eventually became a circle, which he then opened up so that it was like a halo above his palm. Then, it clicked to him! He smirked to himself. Everything was falling into position.

Two of the suns had set and the third one was on its descent below the horizon as the young man crouched in the trees. The setting of the suns had taken about thirty five hours since he left the Elder’s hut, and in that time he had done quite a few things. He practiced traveling through the trees, learned two new skills, found a cool rock, and, most importantly, scouted the enemy village.

He was currently just outside of the walls erected by the blue goblins, near the front gate where one goblin armed with a spear stood guard. A spear would have been a welcome addition to his slowly growing arsenal. He didn’t have the time to learn the bow, but he also needed a weapon that would give him some distance in combat.

Nightfall was upon them. The guards switched out. The replacement watchman, watch goblin?, had an identical spear but also a lit torch in his spare hand so that he could light the torches mounted on either side of the gate’s entrance. Once he passed the torch over to the other goblin, they parted ways.

The night was still. The moon had not yet risen, making it difficult for anyone to see outside of the range of where the flames could illuminate. Though he was quite a ways away from the flames, he could still see everything piercingly clear if he bothered to focus.

From his inventory, he retrieved one of the few smaller stones he’d picked up while looking for his rock. Then, he took a deep breath to ready himself for what was to come. Once his nerves were calmed, he jumped out of the tree and launched the stone at the goblin’s knee.

The first of his new skills was a simple Throw. He summoned Mana Balls and threw them for a while before the skill generated, but once he had it it was very useful. He could throw anything that he could get his hands on, and as long as he had the strength to give it a good overhead toss he would throw it with heightened speed, impact, and accuracy.

The sickening crunch of bone shattering flooded his ears as the stone made contact. The goblin normally would have screamed out in pain from the sudden assault, but there was no chance for it to do such a thing.

“Guillotine..” he uttered before he even hit the ground. His eyes were locked on the goblin while the projectile was en route to striking its target. Once he said the name of the skill, a halo appeared around the goblin’s neck, only to quickly close in on itself from all angles and slice the goblin’s head clean off.

That was the second skill he’d learned. It was more accurate to say he created this one, actually. He took what he knew of the skill system so far and practiced it relentlessly until they eventually awarded him with his skill.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

He received his experience and his item drop from the goblin dying, boosting him to level four. Once he made it to the entrance, he held his hand out and focused on his inventory. The new stone spear wasn’t what he summoned. Instead, a boulder materialized in front of the gate, completely blocking the only entrance and exit to the village. His next action was his easiest yet.

He took the torch off of the gate and pressed it against the wall, lighting it aflame. Was this what the clue he had read in the village alluding to? Maybe, maybe not, but it was the conclusion he had come to. He wanted to avoid direct confrontation at all costs, so he returned to his perch in the trees, where he could see very clearly into the village.

Since he had disposed of the guard, there was no one to alert the village of the imminent danger until the houses had already begun to burn. Panicked screams began to fill the air, betraying the silence that had pervaded the atmosphere for such an expansive stretch of time. As he expected, all of the goblins rushed towards the now sealed entrance.

They were halted by the boulder, and they couldn’t climb the walls since they were on fire. Goblins were dressed for combat, seeing as this could be nothing but an enemy attack, but there was nothing they could do in their current situation. That was, of course, until their warchief entered the scene. Even from his distance, he could tell that this would be a formidable foe. This blue goblin was much larger than the others, bursting with muscles that spoke for his inhuman strength. It was no surprise that the other goblins had unwavering faith in their leader, especially with his confidence on display. While the others panicked, he calmly walked up to the boulder and stabbed his mighty greatsword into the ground before he got himself into his stance.

His feet were spread apart but sturdy. He centered himself and winded up an attack. He was facing the obstacle head on, like the powerful and seemingly honorable warrior he was.

Unfortunately for the warchief, honor didn’t exist on both sides of the battlefield.

“Guillotine,” he uttered once more, sending shivers down his own spine. He was overjoyed when the trademark halo of the skill appeared around the warchief’s ankle, severing his foot as he leaned into it to destroy the boulder. Nobody knew what to do when he fell to the ground, clutching at his missing limb.

His own foot pressed into the wood beneath him, launching his body through the trees and circling to the back of the village, where the chief’s home was. Nobody was paying any attention, so it was simple for him to jump over the walls and into the burning village.

He slipped into the house and followed the lavender footsteps that he assumed were leading him toward some kind of hidden treasure. When he opened the door, he found a purple skinned goblin woman tied to the floor. He sucked his teeth softly, disappointed to see that there was no treasure to be found in the room.

“Do you wish to be rescued?” he asked earnestly. He wasn’t so dense that he couldn’t notice the dead look in her eyes. What she could have gone through, he had no clue, but it was something that took a toll on who she really was.

She initially looked bewildered by his inquiry, but after a moment of reflection her gaze hardened and she nodded sternly.

He didn’t plan to actually look for Seru since he despised escort quests, but since she was right here he figured he might as well save her. He began to undo the ropes as he considered how he was going to get both of them out of the village. He was confident that he could scale the walls with one jump, but could she? Could he do it while carrying her?

Once she was free, he helped her up to her feet and gave her the dagger from his inventory. He then equipped himself with the spear and instructed her to follow behind him, to which she readily agreed. He saw no more footsteps leading the way, nor did he see any other shiny spots, so he left the house to find that the goblins had banded together to push the boulder as a group. A few of them stayed on the sidelines to tend to their warchief, who lay on the ground pale and sweaty, presumably from blood loss.

Seru looked at the sight with awe, before looking over to the human that had rescued her with a slight tilt of her head. “You did this?”

He nodded softly, choosing not to speak so that he could think. Everything was so loud! The crackling of the flames fought to stay in his foreground senses, but the sounds of infant goblins crying and the multiple warriors grunting in effort while they tried to free their village fought with the fire for supremacy.

When he glanced over to Seru and saw the way she was looking up at him, it took everything in his being not to smile from ear to ear. He saw the admiration in her eyes, he’d just saved her life and singlehandedly laid waste to the powerful enemies that had been oppressing her people. This was his opportunity to have someone witness him, so he needed to put on a show!

His right foot pressed into the ground, worn away and hardened by the constant foot traffic in and out of the chief’s home. As it slid ever so slightly forward, his body twisted so that he reared his left arm, which rose the spear to a position horizontal from the ground. It’d been a while since he had thrown a football, but he figured it shared most of the same basics as spear throwing.

He tightened his core, stood on the toes of his back foot, and launched the spear with all of his might while simultaneously activating the throw skill. It cut silently through the air before piercing into the skull of the warchief and causing blood to splatter onto the goblins that were trying to heal him.

A few screens popped up in front of him, alerting him of his level ups and quest completion. The defeat of the warchief boosted him all the way to level six, but more importantly, it gave him quite a few skills. He received the class skills of Recruit and Summon, then a blank skill page that told him he could create his own custom skill. He knew what kind of skill he needed, but he didn’t have the time to iron out the kinks since his attention was pulled elsewhere.

More screams climbed over one another in a race to the top of the air, alerting the 2 dozen or so warriors of his presence. They all turned to him in unison and brandished their weapons. This was going to be the best part of his performance, so he didn’t have any time to second guess himself. He created the new skill as he ran toward the enemies before they could get ready for their own charge.

He saw the first and bravest of the goblins step forward to intercept him, raising its sword for an overhead slash. Pulling a stone from his inventory, he threw it at the goblin’s shoulder before he was within striking range. Once he was close enough, he punched the goblin in the face and knocked it back into some of its allies. He knew he did damage, too, because its face was bloody and its shoulder was clearly bruised (the blue skin had darkened to navy).

One of the spear-goblins thrust forward at him, aiming to pierce his torso, but he could clearly see its intentions. He jumped to the side and summoned a Mana Ball, only to punch it in the air where it was suspended and send multiple balls of mana flying toward the goblins. This attack didn’t have much destructive force to it yet, so all it really did was scratch them up a bit. Well, it also distracted them from focusing on him dashing through their line to pick up the weapon they had disregarded.

The warchief’s greatsword, which was almost as large as he was, was easy to lift out of the ground. He felt as if he were being filled with energy and calmness as he looked at the goblins, who were just now managing to refocus on him.

He could see exactly what he needed to do. All of them were now highlighted in his eyes, with their critical zones giving off a green aura, their slightly defended areas shining yellow, and the heavily defended ones reddened.

His new skill was working perfectly. He readied himself to be thrown into the fray once more, but a notification popped up.

‘Would you like to use Blue Moon Greatsword’s special ability Absorption?’

He chose yes, partially out of curiosity and partially because he knew it couldn’t have been anything too bad. He had to look as good as possible for his debut fight, so he had to take a few risks.

The silver blade enveloped itself with a pale blue radiance that seemed as if it would be melted away by the growing flames. Icelike mana filled the air as the blue skinned goblins all fell to their knees, then rapidly grew more pale and frail until they died.

Once there was no more energy to be absorbed, the blade stopped glowing. Once again, he leveled up. Twice this time, so now he was at level eight.

He wanted to scream with joy over how neatly this had wrapped itself up, but he held his composure and sent the greatsword to his inventory. He looted in silence, seemingly unbothered by the growing heat. Truthfully, he was burning up. He was sweating profusely and he was also tense from the combat, but he couldn’t drop the act yet.

Once all of the weapons were in his inventory, he walked up to the boulder and returned it to his inventory. Now that the path was cleared, he walked out of the massacred village without a second word.

Seru, stunned in place, eventually picked her jaw up off of the ground and ran behind him.

“Please take me under your wing!” she exclaimed, which filled him with joy. There was no way she could actually come with him on his journey, this was just some kind of tutorial and it was already too difficult for her. Besides, he’d probably get transported somewhere random after this.

He nodded to himself, satisfied with his results. He didn’t have any specific plotline in mind with Seru after this, he just wanted her to think he was cool. Kids needed heroes to look up to, after all.