Bones cracked under the weight, muscles snapped under the tension. A single healing berry every minute or two fixed it, it was the price of putting all his stat points into strength while ignoring vitality. Jack could feel his mistake in every step he took, after an hour he made it though, he entered the clearing and the human camp.
As rough forest terrain gave way to the grassland all of the sudden he felt stronger, being able to walk forward while not looking at every step he took felt like heaven. People started collecting at his sides, leaving the path in front of him to walk.
Gasps and whispers followed after him. “Look at the size of that thing.” “How much does it weigh?” “How strong is he?” “Is he still even human?” There were many more comments. After a few minutes he finally arrived at the middle of the camp, hundreds of people followed after him from the outskirts, hungry for meat.
“Where did you find it?” The old man Brian looked on from the entrance to the palisaded part of the camp. There were few other men with him, former policemen, firefighters or other former soldiers, they were the one keeping power in the camp, or rather keeping any order in it, there was no power to be had babysitting people.
As the boar hit the ground the ground shook a bit and a loud thud resounded around the camp. Jack could literally feel the weight off his shoulders disappear, but there was still some weight left, this time it was a feeling of dependence and responsibility that he never asked for.
"I got it from the dungeon, south east of here, meant for ten people." He answered, making the old man nod at him, in appreciation of the information given.
Jack didn't need gratification though, he just wanted to fight, no.. He just wanted to feel alive, and only fighting provided him that. As he was looking on all those people looking on at the boar with greed, some had saliva dripping off their mouths.
Another thought made him shiver a bit. Murderer was right, the world has changed, they had a new god, and it was the System. Their new god has decreed, everyone got armor and a spear, meaning everyone was supposed to fight for their life, everyone was to be a warrior.
He entertained them with free food, alongside several others that hunted in the forests, though for different reasons than him. Some wanted to be strong, others simply wanted to feed their families, all in all only few hundred entered the forest at least once, some died, but most became stronger, strong enough to grip their fate in their hands.
Jack once again looked at the people that followed the meat to this place. Hundreds, or even over a thousand were present now that news of giant boar has spread. Free food was a drug to them, and Jack himself was now their dealer. They would not take matters in their own hands if he provided everything to them.
"I'm leaving…" It was almost a whisper, but one that old man Brian heard well enough.
"You should rest." The man didn't understand, making Jack look straight into his eyes and say so again.
"I'm leaving." This time the man grimaced. "Maybe I will show up from time to time." His voice was smooth, as sure as it could get. "Farewell." With that Jack simply walked away, none tried to stop him. None dared.
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As he entered the forest knowing that thousands of people behind his back were no longer his worry, he smiled. The last weight dropped off of his shoulders as he stepped further into the woods. He was now free.
-
Few wolves died as well as two boars.
[Polearm mastery increased to 21.]
He made a campfire to cook one of them as he became hungry. A bunch of meat was grilled, but the smoke created a problem. Jack was noticed.
Sounds of footsteps could be heard by him for a while now, he hid on the tree on one of the thick branches as the meat was left to roast over the fire. Finally his adversaries have shown their little green stature, making it sure that they were his enemies. There were only ten of them, but one of them…
Hobgoblin, that was the name given to the ones that evolved in all the movies he has seen before the System came. If not for their color skin and roughness of their futures one could mistake them for humans. Jack smiled, his heart pounding faster. They were also much stronger than regular goblins.
He jumped from the branch he was in, straight onto the hobgoblin with his glaive descending in an arc together with him, all of his 36 strength put into his first strike. Jack wasn’t one to play with his enemies, it was a live or die situation for him, always.
The hobgoblin moved making glaive sail past him and into the ground, it was a dodge full of grace though as it fell to one side, startled by Jack’s sudden attack. Screeches started as other goblins noticed his presence, yet none of them moved. At the same time as he pulled his weapon from the ground, hobgoblin stood up and backed away slightly. Jack was surrounded by enemies, and his ambush attack failed to kill any of them.
His heart started to rumble louder, turning his smile maniacal. The goblins still refused to move, showing a bit of restraint this time around, Jack didn’t know if it was caused by hobgoblin presence or not. Not that he really cared.
Unexpectedly Jack dashed forward, slashing at the three goblins with a wide arc. He didn’t catch any in their necks with his blade, but they still toppled to the ground cut in half. His enemies followed him, yet even the hobgoblin lacked the strength to capitalize in Jack choosing one direction over the others, as they arrived close to him he was already turning, his glaive in yet another wide arc sped up by his muscles and the rotation. Two goblins were in the perfect range of the glaive, not surviving the attack, one other was closer getting hit only by the wooden part, yet still a few cracks could be heard as it was hit. One goblin was in perfect place to pass through the attack, stabbing at Jack’s stomach.
[Polearm mastery increased to 22.]
It connected, the goblin pushed at the spear with all its strength drawing blood. The leather armor failed. Jack stood still with the spear in his guts, or rather the spear as it failed to penetrate through his muscles, the goblin was simply too weak. With a swipe of his glaive the goblin lost his head, leaving only one goblin and a hobgoblin that watched on as his fellow kin died. Screeching could be heard from the stronger of his enemies, orders were given.
The lone goblin that was left in any shape to fight stared at Jack, it was well aware of its changes against the person that killed off most of their group. An expected notification appeared.
[Fear applied to the enemy!]
A second later the goblin started running, but before Jack had a chance to dash after it the hobgoblin killed it with a simple stab through its chest. There were only two of the left, Jack was waiting for this, he wanted to test its strength.
Just like before Jack rushed first, swinging his bladed polearm aiming at the neck, it was always the softest place to aim at. The hobgoblin evaded back, this time not falling over and following with an attack of his own, aiming his spear straight at Jack's heart. The glaive fell to the ground.
Jack used his free left hand to catch the spear, pushing it away from his chest while still keeping a grip on it, while his right hand formed a fist. Hobgoblin knew well what was coming.
[Fear applied to the enemy!]
With the first punch the hobgoblin fell to the ground, letting go of his spear making Jack kneel on top of him, blocking the use of the green being held by his legs and punched again, and again…
At the tenth punch he got a notification.
[Level up! You are now level 16.]
[Unarmed mastery increased to 2.]
Hobgoblin died. It was easier to defeat it than Jack anticipated, the entire fight lasted only two minutes at most, but given the disparity in strength between him and the goblins it wasn’t that surprising. Only eight hundred billion of them left. Jack smiled softly, his armor covered in blood.
As Jack came back to the fire, he noticed that the meat was already done. Not bothering with looting bodies he left soon after eating. His goal was north, he was looking for goblin camp, the clearing full of goblins.