Nathan came to a stop when he heard sounds coming from further in the forest. He had been walking for about 20 minutes, and due to his currently lacking physique, he could already feel a faint burning in his legs.
That was something he would have to work on as soon as possible, he decided, but first, he would deal with whatever was prancing around just out of his field of view. Straining his hearing, he heard another twig snap, a telltale sign that whatever was moving around was not a wild animal; those would instinctively move silently.
Making sure that his soon-to-be prey was upwind from him, Nathan slowly made his way toward them. Soon, he was near enough to see. They were goblins, the species most likely to make these kinds of noises on the first floor.
Goblins were truly an evolutionary marvel; they were akin to the cockroaches of the tower. No matter where you went, no matter how harsh the conditions, goblins would always find a way to thrive.
And despite what popular fantasy would tell you, they were not exactly all weak, either. Sure, those small patrols he found on the first floor were hardly a real threat to any serious climber, but goblins had multiple evolutionary paths that enabled them to either cast powerful shamanic magic or obtain surprising bodily strength. Many climbers had met their end due to underestimating these ugly creatures.
And ugly they were. The ones he could currently see were a dark shade of green, with tiny eyes and teeth that were humongous in comparison to their faces. Their skin seemed too big for them, so they ended up wrinkly, and Nathan now regretted his decision to stay downwind from them as their stench was truly horrendous.
As for equipment, they were only clad in badly processed furs and wielded stone weapons. Just as he was about to sneak up on them to take one of the three out with a surprise strike, he spotted something just a little further out. The trick to noticing things in forests that didn't belong was to look for shapes, specifically for straight lines.
With his low perception, he would be unable to actually make out another goblin if it was hidden, but merely noticing a shape that should not naturally exist was far more manageable. That was another thing you had to give to goblins: they were cunning. In this case, they were cunning enough to split apart their group and let their fourth member trail about a dozen meters away to protect against people like him.
If he had to guess, he would say that fourth goblin was wielding a slingshot, a weapon often underappreciated by people new to the tower. Making sure that none of the little creatures had noticed him, he trailed them for a while, advancing steadily toward the position of the fourth goblin. Soon, he was only barely keeping out of sight of his first intended victim, his breathing quiet, and his whole body fully ready to erupt into violence.
The fourth member of the team was far more alert than the others, but it kept its focus mostly on the rest of the group. Breaking into a sprint, Nathan quickly crossed the distance and started swinging his crutch toward the goblin's head. The goblin, however, seemed to have been alerted by some noise and immediately dropped into a crouch.
Nathan continued his sprint and simply bowled the creature over, letting himself land heavily on it. In response, the goblin let out a shriek and bit into Nathan's shoulder, though its teeth didn't penetrate his jacket. Nathan simply took hold of its head and broke its neck with a crunch before immediately springing up and picking up his crutch.
He could already hear the rest of the group coming toward him, and without looking in their direction, he swung his crutch with all his might. It hit the second goblin on the head and broke on impact, though the creature crumpled to the ground.
Retreating a few steps to catch his breath, Nathan made sure to keep the remaining two goblins in his field of view. They were far more wary than their crumpled friend, advancing together with their spears held before them.
Without telegraphing his move, Nathan suddenly lunged forward and hit the left goblin in the eye with the sharp end of his now broken crutch, bowling its spear out of the way. On instinct, ingrained through countless hours of training, he dodged out of the way of the poorly performed stab its compatriot managed to muster while letting go of his crutch.
Not giving the last goblin time to react, he grabbed its spear while performing a powerful kick that hit its chest, sending it flying against a tree. Before the goblin could stand up, Nathan cleared the distance and stomped its head in, making sure it was dead.
Before allowing himself to relax, he ensured all four of the creatures were down for good and would not attack him once he let his guard down. Only then did the adrenaline finally leave him, and he let out a shaky breath. “Still got it.”
Now that the fight was over, the system made itself known.
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Congratulations, Nathan Andrews
You have levelled up
He had already planned where to invest his stat points. His Spearman class would supply him with constitution and reflexes, and Sanguinomancer would eventually cover his recovery.
“Invest my free stat point in perception.” Immediately, he could feel a slight tingle going through his body, though it was mostly focused on his eyes.
Soon after, the world seemed just a bit sharper, the colours just a touch more vibrant, and he felt as if he could almost grasp something hidden just behind a veil. “Well, it will take a bit more perception to truly see ephemeral energies,” he mused to himself.
“Though now that I’ve come across a goblin patrol, I have a better idea of where exactly I am.” Nathan rested for a couple more minutes before picking up the two fallen spears, keeping one in his hand and depositing the other in his backpack in a way that would make it easy to remove.
With a sigh, he used the edge of the spearhead to take the left ear of all the goblins. It was grisly work, and he truly hated getting his hand covered in blood like this, but he would need the bounty in order to get by once he found somewhere he could turn it in.
Once again, taking in the position of the sun through the trees, he slightly reoriented himself and started walking. “I should probably get at least a couple more levels before I find a village. And I'm finally armed again, though it would be a miracle if these spears were better than trash grade. Still enough to get the class as long as I pick up all the goblins I come across while on the way.”
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Nathan was currently crouched next to a tree, taking a break from traversing through the forest. His spear was laid out in front of him, and he was taking a drink.
The forest around him had started to clear up, the trees letting through far more sunlight now. Along the way, he had come upon two more goblin patrols, though each had only three members.
He managed to take them out without much of a problem, though he could feel a dull pain in his left ankle; he seemed to have sprained it. His level had increased once more, and this time he invested his stat point into constitution. He would have liked to invest a few more into perception before changing it up, but it seemed necessary to keep the exhaustion at bay.
From what he could tell, it would take about one more hour to finally leave the forest. Once he was out of it, he should quickly be able to find a village, and from the exhausted state of his body, finding a safe space to sleep was steadily becoming more important.
Lost in his thoughts, Nathan was suddenly rattled as something heavy impacted him and bowled him over. Despite his conscious mind not quite having caught up with what was happening, long-ingrained instincts led him to distance himself from the place he had fallen and spring into action. The adrenaline allowed his thoughts to come clearer, his focus sharpening. Grabbing his backup spear from his backpack, he made sure to avoid sudden movements, steadily surveying the canopy in search of his attacker.
His one hand drifted down to the side of his stomach, feeling his torn shirt and the slow dripping of blood. “I allowed myself to relax too much,” Nathan chided himself. “I have to keep in mind how weak I currently am.”
Slowly retreating backward, Nathan continued to analyse the situation. “Some sort of wild animal. It must have stalked me for quite a while until it attacked when I had my guard down. Sharp claws, silent movement, and faster than me. It has to be a shadow-cat.”
The situation was bad for him. He was already exhausted and bleeding; the feline could simply track him while it waited for him to weaken.
Finally, Nathan's gaze settled on a part of the foliage that was slightly darker than the surrounding area, though he continued looking around in order not to alert the predator. Had he not known exactly what he was searching for, the cat would have stayed hidden.
Nathan feigned ignorance of its position while he crouched down and picked up a big stone from the forest floor. He then proceeded to advance toward the direction of the cat, though in such a way that he would walk a few meters by its side if he kept on walking.
Once he was sufficiently near, he suddenly tensed and threw his spear toward where the shadow-cat seemed to be hiding. This alerted the beast as it suddenly became visible and tried to dodge, though it couldn't evade completely, and its flank was torn open.
Nathan reoriented himself and gripped the stone in his hands, though his grip was slippery with sweat.
His adversary's fur was a deep black, and he knew from experience that it would be nigh impossible to locate even without its instinctive magic when in dark places. Only its purple eyes would be visible. The cat stood about as tall as his hip but moved with a grace that belied its size, though it favoured its right side at the moment as the long wound from the spear marred its left one.
The cat let out a long hiss and started circling him, while Nathan kept up his vigil. Now that it was wounded even worse than he was, it either had to attack or retreat.
After a few more seconds, the cat turned around completely silently and slunk away deeper into the woods. Nathan let out a relieved sigh; had it come down to a fight to the death, it could have ended either way.
As quickly as possible, he bandaged his wounds, picked up his main spear, which had lain on the ground for the entirety of the struggle, and set out with renewed determination. The predator might continue to stalk him while he was in the forest, though it was unlikely, and he wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.
This was not the tower he knew, Nathan reminded himself. He was one of the first climbers to enter it, and even the first floors presented lethal dangers now that no one had dealt with them before he even entered.