‘A small Den right off the bat?!’
The more Damian pressed on through this reality patch, the more he realized how unreliable his experience as a player was.
Playing Fate’s Guide for so long had definitely allowed him to adapt faster, but things were less systematic in reality.
‘The game could get pretty random as well, but this is crazy.’
The number of Goblins inside this new cave were at least 5 and those were just the ones that Damian could see.
In Fate’s Guide, a group of 3 monsters were the maximum number a character could encounter during their first real fight, yet Damian had to deal with such a big gang early on.
‘I guess that guy wasn’t a tutorial monster…’
The Goblin who had killed him over 10 times was likely also a part of this place. In the end, Damian realized how naive he had been just because things went exactly as they did in the game so far.
“Greee!”
To make matters worse, it only took Damian a few seconds of glancing for one of the Goblins to notice him. This was yet another disparity from the game!
Just like he could now move freely, the Goblins’ range, usually restricted to two pixel squares around them, was much larger when they were right there in the flesh!
‘It’s too late to go for a stealth approach.’
Based on the departed’s Goblin’s persistence, Damian was at least able to confirm one thing that was true in both game and reality. Once a Goblin locked on to a target, they wouldn’t let go until they killed it or got killed trying.
‘It would be a different story if I could outrun them, but…’
Having already proven that he wasn’t a match for the agile monsters earlier, Damian had a single strategy left.
Charging head forward!
This run was already ruined by the many unexpected variables, but why lose hope? Even in Fate’s Guide, Damian made sure to properly use every life instead of just loading back to the Save File.
This wasn’t just about scouting the place, he also had to try and battle. Who knew? This might be easier than expected!
Swish!
Heading to the Goblin closest to him, Damian swung his cracking sword, shaving off half the Goblin’s neck.
If there was one thing that Damian had learned from dissecting the Goblin earlier, it was that their neck was the point that had the least amount of defense!
[ You have defeated a Goblin. FP +1 ]
“Lesgoooooo!”
Feeling his blood rising as he took down his target in one strike, Damian screamed in exhilaration. It felt so much better to insta-kill instead of being insta-killed!
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Greee, grreeeen!”
Although the Goblins were already considered to have reacted quickly, Damian was pumped full of adrenaline coupled with a momentary lack of fear.
However, that couldn’t allow him to have the edge for long.
“Greeeen!”
By the time Damian started running towards the second Goblin, he realized that he was already surrounded. Maneuvering the area was no longer an option.
“You are going down at least.”
Feeling empowered by wielding the sharper weapon, Damian ignored the rest as he slashed at the second closest the Goblin. Unfortunately…
Klink!
“Grreeeeee!”
While the Goblin lit out a deafening shrill, it wasn’t because his neck was sliced off. Rather, the sword broke off in its neck.
‘Garbage beginner weapon!’
Even though no defeat notifications had sounded out, another Goblin was considered temporarily neutralized. However, Damian also lost one of his very few advantages alongside it.
‘Inventory.’
Damian took out the rest of the weapons he had, holding a knife in each hand. At first, he considered using only life to keep the other hand free for grappling, but he quickly decided against it.
‘There are still four more.’
Not to mention that neither Damian nor Iris were skilled in full-contact combat, the Goblins’ still outnumbered him by too much.
He might have the advantage over a singular one of them if he grabbed it, but once Damian got busy handling that one, the rest of the Goblins would join to turn him into a piece of swiss cheese in the meantime…
“Stay back!”
On the other hand, while Damian’s dual wielding wasn’t that much better, having blades at both ends was helpful in keeping some distance. It didn’t matter if he was holding it like a kitchen knife or not.
“Greee!”
Nonetheless, after one died and the other was quickly bleeding to death while holding its neck, the Goblins also had no fear either. They turned on their fully aggressive mode and charged at Damian.
Swish, sish, shish…
Damian kept swinging the knives to the best of his ability, but it was haphazard swinging at best. Although he managed to leave a few nicks on the Goblins, more of their blades got through his ruined armor.
‘It’s that damn poison again.’
Feeling the stings all over his body, Leo’s view was starting to turn blurry. In fact, he was staggering not too differently from one of the four Goblins, they had exchanged the very same poison.
[ Poison Dagger: A small knife smeared in paralytic poison. ]
‘I can still do this…’
As more of his consciousness faded away, Damian kept his legs glued to the ground. Even if he knew that would end his pain and turn everything anew, he couldn’t just let go now.
“Iris, make sure to memorize everything!”
Screaming at his silent companion, Damian rushed forward to tackle the staggering Goblins. If he was going to fall down, he might as well do so with one of his targets!
Shick! Shick!
Damian could feel the other three Goblins’ stabs in his back but he kept his hold over the one Goblin under his mercy. With all the strength he had left, he kept striking with the degraded knife to tear its neck apart.
[ You have defeated a Goblin. FP +1 ]
[ You have defeated a Goblin. FP +1 ]
Two notifications came at the same time, announcing to both this Goblin and the one bleeding from earlier were both gone.
‘Only three left… I can still go on.’
Their death announcement gave rise to whatever energy Damian had left. He could at least take down one more, right?
{Watch out!}
However, following Iris’ late advice, Damian received his greatest shock yet. It felt like someone directly kicked him into space as everything turned dark at record speed.
[ You have died. ]