A refreshing breeze blew softly as three figures were running through a mountain forest.
In the lead was a young man wearing torn pajamas, each of his ever more unsteady steps mildly attenuated by a dirty pair of plain blue crocs.
His pursuers were somehow even worse off; dirty rags dangling from their midsections barely managed to cover their privates, while their bare feet left shallow marks on the rich soil. The color of their skin was closer to that of the leaves surrounding them than that of the man they were pursuing, and the sounds they made would puzzle even the most scholarly of linguists.
Thankfully the young man just meters ahead could easily make out the main point they were trying to get across by their mimicry, as chasing someone while pointing a sword at their backs universally could have only one meaning.
Robin, the only human in the group, whipped his head around for a moment to cast Inspect on his pursuers.
(Common) Goblin - Level 3 Humanoid
Hostile
Agility: similar
Endurance: similar
Intelligence: higher
Perception: similar
Resistance: lower
Strength: higher
Vitality: higher
Willpower: similar
(Common) Goblin – Level 3 Humanoid
Hostile
Agility: higher
Endurance: similar
Intelligence: higher
Perception: similar
Resistance: similar
Strength: higher
Vitality: higher
Willpower: similar
His Inspect was just an Uncommon grade Skill, and could only reveal how the user's stats compared to those of their target, as well as the grade, level and category of target.
Every bit of information was helpful in this situation, and Robin was relieved to see that he wasn't overwhelmingly outmatched.
Unfortunately he wasn't in a great spot either, as his health was still below halfway, he had ran out of mana just before the two goblins began the chase, and his stamina was quickly trickling down towards a quarter of his total.
"Damn, I should've been more careful."
Robin had left his modest dwelling pretty happy with himself. After hours of failed attempts, the Nexus had finally recognized what he had created as a weapon.
Well, ‘weapon’ may be a bit much, as it had been evaluated as an Inferior grade spear… probably due to it being just a longer stick with a sharpened end.
Nevertheless, crafting his ‘weapon’ had somewhat reinforced it, making it into a better sharpened stick. The success had given him a nice confidence boost, and holding it made him feel safer and stronger.
It had such an impact on his mood that when he spotted a Level 6 Goblin on his daily foraging trip, instead of just sneaking around it and moving on, he decided to try and defeat it.
He won that fight, albeit with more cuts and bruises than he would have predicted, considering he had an advantage in both his parlor trick spells and his weapon’s reach.
Unfortunately, he was reminded soon after that goblins were social creatures, and they always hunted in groups. As Robin was wiping drops of gooey blood off his face, 3 more of the disproportionate bastards came out of the shrubbery, drawn in by the commotion.
Seeing them filled him with adrenaline, and after making sure with a quick Inspect that they were all weaker than him, he charged at the smartest of the group.
In his excitement, he managed to land a critical hit on the party leader, taking him in the neck, but this success had cost him another shallow cut. Even while choking on his own blood, the leader held onto the newly made Inferior spear in a determined double handed grip long enough for his mates to snap out of their daze. The whole ordeal had cost Robin a bit more than 50% of his Health and Stamina, his whole Mana pool and his weapon.
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"I shouldn't have-
His stamina dropping to 25% brought him out of his daydreaming.
He figured this was going to be as good as it was going to get and nearly stopped, before realizing the goblins' shrieks had stopped.
Leaves were still rustling behind him, but those were the only proof of his pursuers.
“Now that I think about it, I was only running while they were screaming and flailing as well. That had to have some impact on their stamina, and considering how they shut up, they’re now probably pretty close to exhaustion as well.”
If he could get them to burn through their stamina before him, he would win by default; In this world, if one reached 0 stamina they would get the Exhausted status effect – generally meaning they would be unable to move until they regenerated back up to 25%.
With that in mind, Robin got an idea.
He picked up a random rock, then in a second turned around, threw it at the closest one of them and started to run again.
He hit a bullseye – well, goblinseye in this case – and sounds once again erupted from behind him, with newfound vigor.
Over the course of the next 15 seconds Robin’s Health got above the 50% mark and his stamina reached 10%. His health was as high as it was going to get and his stamina was too low for him to continue running.
The screaming behind him also got close enough that it made the hair Robin’s back straighten. It looked like he had managed to piss them off a little too much, and they were gaining ground.
He turned around and took what felt to him like a fighting stance.
The screamer was 3 meters away from him, and the other was another 8 behind it.
“Looks like you had some kind of running Skill after all. Thank you for finally using it and giving me a fair chance.” he thought as he took a deep breath.
Barely 2 meters away, Screamer leaped, both of its smelly hands bringing its shortsword down in an overhead strike aimed at Robin’s head. The two of them had been more or less even until that point - while Robin had an advantage in some of his physical stats, the goblin had a weapon.
Fortunately for him, in its rage, the goblin threw away any possibility it had to dodge a counter with its telegraphed leap attack.
Robin responded to it by planting his left foot down, and kicking as hard as he could with his right.
The difference in height made it so his foot connected with his target before the goblin’s sword came close to reaching him.
The combination of his higher strength, the goblin's low Vitality and Resistance, as well as its momentum and the speed of the kick made sure most of its small ribs broke on impact.
Its expression turned from rage to terror in less than half a second, and even before it hit the ground, the shock meant it had already let go of its weapon and started clutching at his chest in pain.
Not enjoying seeing it suffer, and also because its friend was getting closer every moment, Robin was more than happy to use the newly liberated sword to relieve its former wielder from its pain. With a quick slash, everything went quiet.
"Wait, Everything?"
Robin looked up from the body expecting another leap attack because the sound of running stopped, only to see the other goblin frozen stiff where it stood.
Seeming to realize the roles of predator and prey had switched now that it had become a one-on-one fight with both sides wielding a weapon, the bugger's brain seemed to short-circuit, and it just stood there, motionless. Robin wondered if he could just wait for it to fall unconscious, as it seemed the last survivor had stopped breathing as well.
Honored by the reaction, but unwilling to let the small devil recover its wits, Robin dropped his sword, quickly lifted the 40-kilogram corpse with barely a grunt thanks to the help of his improved Strength stat and, using it as a sweaty meat-shield, charged.
Getting the wind knocked out of it seemed to snap the goblin back to conscious thought, but when laying on the ground with a corpse of similar weight to its own pinning it down. It was a little too late to start resisting when the tip of a blade was approaching its throat.
Robin started his walk back to camp with a spring in his step, holding a Common grade shortsword in each hand, and marveling at how close his experience bar was to reaching level 4.
“It took barely a week for a normal day to go from playing video games, reading and maybe a bit of studying to foraging, crafting, and maybe a bit of killing.” he shook his head slowly, while the corners of his mouth stretched upwards. Today had been a productive day.
----------------------------------------
Seven days ago, everything was normal. Robin was a normal 20-year-old student living life as best he could. He was smart enough to get anything that he needed to done, but lazy enough to always come up short of achieving the best results.
Gaming was a huge part of his life, both from a social and a recreational standpoint. He would play virtually every kind of multiplayer game, from RPG’s to Shooters and RTS’s, and get to interact with a plethora of people - each of them from various cultures and corners of the world, and each of them swearing in a different language.
His life’s turning point was the night of his 20th birthday. He hadn't planned to have a party or anything like that; he spent the day like he would any other – online.
The clock had just hit 04:00 when a sound very similar to his dog pissing on the carpet woke him up.
“Ugh… fuck’s sake, I thought we were over this.” he thought, and let out a tired breath while propping himself up to a sitting position.
He looked around while still half-asleep so as to locate either the supposed piss puddle or the culprit, but his vision was too blurry to see anything smaller than his chair.
His room felt awfully chilly for a day in the middle of summer, but he wasn't gonna complain. There had been nights when he couldn't fall asleep even butt-naked with no blanket due to how hot it was.
Robin rubbed his eyes thoroughly, and was surprised to discover that they were not the reason everything looked foggy.
His room was full of thick mist. And the playful, balls-licking ball of energy was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, something else sat there, right in the middle of his room, getting the whole damn floor wet. It was something that he’d seen hundreds of times before. The only thing was, they weren’t supposed to exist on Earth.
The source of the growing puddle on the floor, and most likely the mist as well, was a water elemental.
Of course, Robin didn’t even doubt for a second that he was actually still dreaming.
“My life is so interesting that my sleep paralysis demon is a mid-level mob. Wow.” he thought ruefully.
“Hello there.” he said with a quick wave.
“Considering how much sense some of my dreams make, I’m half-expecting it to grow tits and do the Macarena.”
It didn’t.