Forest sounds played a melody for him, little birds, crickets together with rustling of the leaves moved by the wind formed a symphony.

Jack could feel his heart pumping blood to his legs, wanting them to pounce, his hands wanting to slash and stab on their own, but he restrained himself, for now. “I got you.” His smile was true as he spoke, entirely different from every other one he has shown for the past few years, he finally felt alive.

“You are yet another one of those weaklings. Come any closer and you will die.” The murderer spoke, a man who killed dozens in their sleep to… No. Jack knew the true reason why he did that, the man was a craven, and that was all.

The smile going wider on Jack’s face was the only thing he entertained the murderer with for a while. He mocked him even more, as he took one slow step forward. “Well.. It seems you have to kill me now.” Jack never stopped smiling, a soft laugh escaped his lips after he spoke.

“Stay away!” The murderer raised his hand to use his magic, a single small icicle the size of a fist raced towards Jack who stood only ten meters away. He didn’t care, he let it smash on his left hand right, stopping it from smashing his chest, right in the heart. Jack could feel the hit, the pain that the broken bone caused made his heart pump even faster.

[Bloodlust increased to level 4.]

[Physical resistance increased to level 9.]

His smile remained in its place. “That’s not how you attack.” Jack pulled the spear to his side, lowering his body, as if he was a tiger ready to pounce. “I will teach you!” He shot off from his spot, his strength boosted by bloodlust. In a mere second he was right in front of the murderer, his glaive in a wide arc with a target being the neck of the other man. Another icicle shot past him, missing its target. The smile itself made the job easy.

[Fear applied to the enemy!]

The rolling head hit the ground, the blood followed soon after, the clean hit made the body stand for a second longer than Jack himself thought possible.

[Level up! You are now level 11.]

[Polearm mastery increased to 14.]

The murderer was dead, not that he knew the name of the man, or even names of the one he killed. He was a craven, killing only in sleep those who could not fight back. Jack could understand why the man did so, fear, greed and stupidity. Those two emotions were also felt by him, yet he did not let them dictate his life. He grabbed a few healing berries from his satchel, eating them to regenerate his broken and battered arm. It was handy that they grew in this forest, then again perhaps it was a special measure to keep warriors close to battle at all times created by the System.

“You caught him.” A simple acknowledgement made Jack turn around, the older man, called Brian met his eyes, a former soldier, veteran of a bloody war that happened before Jack was even born. “Good.” The man’s face was steel, never showing any emotions. By now Jack’s face was the same, no.. Boredom was easily visible, perhaps even disappointment could be seen. He had expected more from the murderer, the one that killed dozens and gained all the experience and levels from it.

The old man looked through the possessions of the dead guy, yet it was to no avail. Everyone got the same gear, the same weapons and only dungeons could give something better, the man was too craven to enter a dungeon after all. Jack looked at his own weapon. Glaive was also a spear, he heard someone say once, it was merely a blade on a stick like most polearms but it was so much better than the regular spear given to everyone at start. He loved the glaive, the dungeon that he ran through every day consisting only of one beast was well worth it, even if it was easy. A mere bigger than normal wolf against three humans was too easy.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“We should head back.” Brian spoke, but once again, the unwelcome company stopped their plans. Jack cracked a smile as he heard the screeches, ones that sounded almost like a language. The old man noticed again, raising his hand and stilling to focus on listening. He had watched enough war movies to know it meant ‘hold’, and he also wanted to hear more himself. It wasn't humans and that made Jack smile.

“We should check it.” He whispered, an opportunity for another fight, it was something he liked. The old man looked at him as another screeched and a weird scream sounded, there was a fight not far from them, maybe a mile at most given the muffled sounds that they could barely hear. Jack could almost see the old man weighing the options, he was no warrior, despite being the second most leveled person from the camp of ten thousand… well, more like nine thousand and a few hundred now that a few days have passed. People were starving, raging, stealing and murdering, cannibalism was proposed a few times already much to Jake amusement, there was enough food in the forest for everyone, but most chose to die from fear with the face of starvation.

The old man knew it as well. “Silently.” Brian knew it well how desperate the situation of the camp was, how close they were to chaos and loss of any form of order, the dream of any anarchist. Jack smiled, he tended to do so more often as of late.

They creeped together slowly, making sure there was nothing to spot them, minutes passed but finally they found what they were looking for. Several dozen little green humanoids were dancing around the larger than normal boar hitting it trying not to get hit themselves. ‘Goblins.’ Both of them thought to themselves, they looked similar enough from fantasy movies that were so popular.

Several were already lying dead. “Twenty eight of them alive.” Jack could feel his heart start pumping faster. “Can you do it?” The old man added later, as if sensing his intentions. Smile was the only answer the old man got in return. “I will try to cover you.” Brian pulled his short bow closer to him, preparing himself.

Jack didn’t lose any time. Getting up a few branches by jumping he used the tree to jump in the middle of few goblins, intuition told him it was the go to spot. His glaive was put in motion immidiately, going wide around Jack himself as he spun quickly in spot, seven heads had rolled to the ground. Another goblin life was claimed by an arrow.

[Level up! You are now level 12.]

[Polearm mastery increased to 15.]

The rest of the goblins were stunned for a second by interruption in their hunt, but they themselves were bloodlusty and attacked Jack by racing at him. While he himself liked fighting, getting bogged down by twenty enemies wasn’t in his plans, Jack dashed back by literally kicking the ground in front of him and leaning back, higher than normal strength had its perks. In a matter of a second he created a distance of twenty meters between him and the goblins, luck was at his side as he didn't hit any tree during that stunt.

Goblins weren't so lucky though, nor were they smart enough to understand that turning their back to a large boar that they pissed off, wasn't a great idea. The boar charged through the group of goblins, killing a few instantly with its mass and sharp tusks, while the rest was simply not in its way, or got away with few broken bones. Jack liked boars.

It didn’t stop though and charged straight at Jack who stood and watched on, as the boar was a mere two meters from him he jumped almost two meter into the air and spun at his axis while starting a swing of his glaive in the meantime, as he descended he landed at the still running boar’s back with on of his legs, facing the same direction as the beast, and in the same moment the glaive descended, beheading the boar in one swing. He really liked stupid and large opponents, that couldn't jump or turn too easily, boars were basically free food.

[Polearm mastery increased to 16.]

As he turned back to the goblins he noticed that two more dead with arrows stuck in their bodies, but it was something else that Jack noticed. None of the ten that remained capable of walking moved, and while he wasn’t an expert on the goblins he could have sworn he felt fear emanate from them. It made his smile wider.

[Fear applied to the enemy!]

[Bloodlust increased to level 5.]

It took the first enemy to start running to make every other goblin follow, but instead of charging at Jack they decided to run in the other direction, to run. This time it was him that charged, none of the goblins survived.

[Level up! You are now level 13.]

[Polearm mastery increased to 17.]

It was a good day to level.

As old man Brian and Jack were looking over the dead bodies of the goblins, they came to the same conclusion. Same gear, same weapon but smaller and shorter to accommodate for their smaller build was given to them by the system. “It is a problem. They have the same level of equipment as us, meaning also the same leveling system, even if their base stats seem to be lower.” Jack didn’t see it as a problem, rather as an opportunity. A system has given them a game to play, it was for the better that every being had the same chances.

[Supremacy!

Species that are most numerous will gain leadership and domination over the planet and other surviving species!

Krehak: 845 493 940 125 alive.

Redkin: 19 392 673 112 alive.

Mankind: 7 674 124 alive.

Coravin: 4 030 437 alive.

Aen: 1 083 954 904 alive.

Gantili: 240 894 380 alive.

Elfar: 63 839 001 alive.

Dorakin: 345 843 alive.

Time left: 361 days.]

So what if they were somewhat outnumbered.