Looking at the quest prompt in confusion for a while, Kyle contemplated whether to do what it was telling him.

He thought of every possible way to kill both goblins and get out alive, but he could not see any way of doing it safely. The best outcome he kept seeing was killing one of them with a surprise attack, but that would wake up the other one, resulting in a one-on-one fight.

Knowing his skills and the last fight with the kobold, he knew he would be in great danger. To him, it was not worth it for a skill. While engrossed in strategizing, one of the goblins woke up, looked around, walked to his friend, and struck him with his leg a couple of times, waking him up.

Looking at his companion, the sleeping one said something angrily to him and went back to sleep. Confused, the goblin turned and walked toward the river.

Kyle, seeing one of them leave and now out of vision, got more confident, thinking he could maybe clear his quest now.

"Alright, one-on-one in stealth is manageable if I play my cards right. I'll have to dispatch the sleeping one quickly, hide the body, and then wait to ambush the second one. Simple and easy plan, right?"

With newfound determination, he positioned himself, planning to fall straight down on the sleeping one, hitting his head and body simultaneously, grabbing both weapons tightly, and jumped down.

But neither hit the desired spot. Upon impact, the sword impaled the dozing goblin straight through the neck, and the spear missed completely, breaking in half on the ground.

With the force of impact shattering his spear, Kyle lost his balance and tumbled sideways. The goblin, now roused but still groggy, emitted half-formed gurgling sounds, choking on its own blood.

Afraid of the second one hearing him, Kyle swiftly moved to silence it, clamping his hand over its mouth while gripping the sword with the other. The goblin started frantically struggling and flailing its hands, with its long nails clawing at him. Pushing it down with his body weight, Kyle remained resolute. With a determined twist and a swift motion, he aimed to cleanly sever its head.

But the moment he went for it, he locked eyes with the creature, making him halt. Its eyes were full of fear and despair; he could've sworn it was pleading for mercy. His heart started to flutter, and his grip loosened, but hearing the sound of the bushes around snapped him back.

Cursing under his breath, he twisted the sword with all his strength, cutting off the goblin's head. The notification sound rang in his ear, but he did not notice it, falling backward. Looking at the dead goblin, he felt a huge sense of sadness and disgust at the death he just caused.

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As the memory of the goblin's eyes flashed in his mind, Kyle felt a wave of nausea wash over him, causing him to gag and ultimately vomit. After a moment of lamenting on what he did, he suddenly heard the sound of the other goblin coming back.

"Wait, is it singing? Do goblins sing?"

Standing up, he saw it skipping and coming back to where its friend was. Panicked, he hurried to retrieve the body of the one he had slain, following his earlier plans. However, his strategy faltered as he had not accounted for the panic episode he had just experienced, and the separated head of the goblin. Knowing that there was no point in hiding the body now, he jumped back up the tree, waiting to repeat the prior strategy.

When the goblin reached the camp and saw its friend headless in a pool of blood, it started raging and screaming, looking around, and then ran to the body. It got down on its knees, held the body, and started hugging it. Kyle’s heart ached, and he felt sad for the creature, knowing it was his actions that caused the pain he was seeing.

But it was too late for that; his actions were already decided, and he could not back down now. Asking for forgiveness from a goblin? Do they even have sympathy for other races? And even if they did, what would he say?

“I’m sorry I killed your friend; it was a mistake?”

Too late, he now had to kill it too. Hardening his resolve and gripping his sword with both hands, Kyle took a deep breath and jumped down, aiming to hit its head with a vertical slash. Timing it just right with his landing, this time he was able to land a perfect hit. The goblin, smashed down while holding the body of its friend, twitched a bit then stopped moving. It was dead.

Multiple ding sounds popped in his head, but he was in no mood to check them right now. He sat down, mentally exhausted, looking at what he did, multiple thoughts coursing through his head, and after a few minutes, he stood back up.

"There is no point in thinking that right now. They would have killed me if I did not kill them, like the kobold tried to kill me before. I’m sure….”

His voice grew quiet, saying those words. “Am I sure?” Thinking to himself, looking at the bodies, he remembered that in every game he ever played, goblins were evil creatures.

He also remembered getting the goblin ears and presenting them to a guild would earn him some money, but he could not get himself to desecrate their bodies anymore. Instead of doing that, he decided to search them for any items he could use in his travels.

Looting the bodies, he found that both of them had a belt on their waist, and one had a holster. Equipping it and putting the sword in it, he felt like a full-fledged swordsman now, or maybe more of a bandit with his tattered, bloodied appearance and the rusted sword on his belt unsheathed and dangling.

He finished looting, finding two pouches. Opening them, he found an assortment of knick-knacks from small teeth to buttons, but also a couple of tattered and nicked coins. To be precise, 20 copper-looking coins and one silver coin with a crown on its head and a lion on its tail and other unreadable writing.

Emptying a sack and putting all of them in it, he tucked it in his pocket. Lastly, each of the goblins had a dagger. Both of them were chipped and seemed to have seen better days, but they were sharpened enough. Now with all his new found loot and a heavy heart, Kyle decided to start moving, not wanting to keep looking at the scene.