Within the span of a few seconds, three of the five goblins perished with their faces melted off their skull. The remaining two didn’t engage; They were terrified of what happened to the rest of their groups and knelt down, shivering from the terror.
It puzzled me to see them act this way. This behavior…
Why are they acting like this?
Three casts were what it took to rid half of their group. Checking my MANA, I expected that I’d only have two more casts remaining, but the MANA absorbed from my kills added six more MANA, which meant I regained two MANA per goblin kill.
I’d prefer to save the remaining MANA for the other group since this group had lost their will to fight back. That meant I’d have to slam them with my staff, but…
To see them kneeling this way; I felt like I was about to beat a helpless child. Doing that is just… not an act I was prepared for.
I understood that I couldn’t be this hesitant if I desired strength. After all, this is the reality of the new world that I was thrown into. The motto of ‘strength above all’ was more and more apparent as the gears of time continued turning.
And before you say I wouldn’t kill them, I wasn’t one to be all naive and planned to spare these goblins.
I’m just… confused.
I stepped closer, prompting one of the goblins to turn its head upwards, peering at me with its glassy eyes. I didn’t know goblins could cry. We spoke different languages, but its gaze sent a message that I knew all too well.
It was trembling. Its eyes were shedding tears. Its cheeks quivered as it gritted its teeth. The other goblin wasn’t faring any better too.
“Sorry…” A single word was all that I said. The staff felt so much heavier in my arms all of a sudden, and yet, I forced myself to lift it up. Both eyebrows furrowing, I closed my eyes to avoid looking at what I was about to unleash on them.
Slam.
No, I didn’t hear any cries from having its face slammed in.
Slam.
Two dead goblins later, half of the mission had been completed. I felt dirty somehow, even when I knew this is what I had to do, but shrugged it off since there were more important things that I needed to finish before leaving. There were no positive feelings to be had from killing them anymore, even if it made me stronger.
I just want to get out of here.
My eyes spotted another group of goblins a few minutes later. They were acting as carefree as they could be, then displayed the same reaction when my Death Bolt ripped their numbers apart. My eyes were as cold as they could get since my entire focus was honed in on finishing this mission as fast as possible.
Slamming the other goblins dead, the mission was complete. There were no fanfares nor any glimpse of delight as I stared at the mission clear message; My mind was stuck on the faces of the surrendering goblins before.
I know, this wasn’t the first time I’d kill things. But they’d never acted so human, so… lifelike. I had to force my brain to conclude them as monsters and move on with my life. I had to remind myself multiple times that I’d died at the monster’s hand too, And none of them had any reservations about killing me; which helped me.
Mission Completed - Hunt all Goblins.
Rewards - 1 : 100 pts.
Rewards - 2 : 1 Minor healing potion.
The potion materialized in front of my eyes, akin to the spellbook from before. I put it in my inventory and closed my eyes when I was teleported back into the Nexus.
Either way… The mission is done. I swallowed another deep breath as I returned to the Nexus. My legs started to buckle when I sat down on the floor, releasing a massive sigh while staring into nowhere.
There were even fewer people around this time. The once chatty and crowded hall was now almost empty, save for a few that were conducting their business with the obelisk.
“Can we talk?” A voice rang behind me right when I was about to open my status page to track my progress.
I turned around, expecting it to be Phillip, but it wasn’t him. Instead of a giant, I was face to face with another guy with an unnatural, uncanny expression. He brought with him the same vibes that The Observer did.
Strange…
He looked European, with messy blond hair that covered most of his forehead. Both of his irises reflected black, and coupled with agreeable facial features, made him someone that I considered as handsome. His smile, however, was disingenuous, a sign of someone who never showed their true feelings and motivations. And that smile brought nothing but sickness in the pit of my stomach.
He tilted his head to the side, perhaps uncomfortable by my obvious glare.
“Sorry… What’s up?” I said, after realizing what I was doing.
“A staff… Did you buy the spell book?” He raised his arm, pointing at my staff, his eyes glimmering with curiosity. “How is it? Is it good?”
Is… what good? He pointed at my staff, so… magic?
“You meant magic, right?” I recalled the sheer destruction the spell rained upon the poor goblins. “It’s… better than I thought? I don’t know, there weren’t exactly any real life comparisons that I can make…”
“I see…” He stroked his chin with his right arm. “I recognized you from somewhere…”
“Ah! Gray Mors, right? I remembered!” He clapped his hands, his nefarious smile turning up to 11, “I heard you when you are talking with Phillip!”
What? I was taken aback by the fact that he was eavesdropping on my conversation with Phillip before, which wasn’t a good conversation starter if his purpose was to put me at ease.
What kind of sicko was I talking with? “Y-Yeah… Wh.. What’s your name?”
His eyes twinkled, “John Sidwell. I’m a few numbers below Phillip, there.” He said almost too nonchalantly.
Another one? “I… see… That’s cool.” His revelation, while not surprising, did catch me off-guard with how relaxed he was, similar to how Phillip acted before. “Are you planning to use magic?”
“I don’t know… kinda on the fence about it, really. Unlike… well, all of you, I can only use one weapon…” I felt his eyes wandering at my weapons, “Shield with a staff, huh? That’s an interesting choice.”
Stolen novel; please report.
From just a glance, he appeared to be ordinary. I wondered how he managed to kill that lizard, What kind of skills does he have?
His little smirk showed that he knew what I was thinking about. “I had a few tricks up my sleeve, but they proved to be useless against what came after.”
A part of me wanted to ask what tricks he had, but I knew not to pry as he didn’t sound like he wanted to talk about those. Well, to be honest, I didn’t want to know much about him, anyway… He was too slimy for my tastes.
He stopped short, then turned around. A hesitant sigh later, he shared a few parting words that confused me even more than I already was. “Before I leave, think of this as a piece of advice…” He said, smiling, perhaps the grimiest smile he’d ever shown. “He’s not good, Gray.”
I was dumbfounded by his sudden warning, glaring at his back as he left the nexus. Weird guy…
While I wouldn’t claim that I knew Phillip well, he’d lent me points that he had no reason to do so. In my eyes, no one was perfect, and I had no expectations that Phillip was outside of that rule. Even Sidwell himself, as snakey as he was, might have been a social outcast his entire life.
No, who am I kidding, Guy’s bad news no matter how I see it.
Sighing, I opened my status window. Just ignore him.
STATUS
HEALTH
37/37
MANA
22/22
RANK
-
Level
1
POINTS
118
RACE
HUMAN - 1
ACTIVE CLASS
none
SUB CLASS
none
FREE ATTR. PTS
3
ATTRIBUTES - BODY
ATTRIBUTES
Progress (%)
Total Attr.
STRENGTH
3 ( +1 )
58
4
SPEED
1
92
1
TOUGHNESS
2 (+3)
55
5
VITALITY
3 (+3)
19
6
RESISTANCE
0
0
-
ATTRIBUTES - MIND
ATTRIBUTES
Progress (%)
Total Attr.
ARCANE
1 (+5)
10
6
ARCANE. POWER
4 (+1)
12
5
ARCANE. DEFENSE
0
0
-
WILLPOWER
1
12
1
AFFINITIES
??? - unlocked after clearing the trial
My level… It’s gone up? So all I had to do was kill things…
The added level also granted me 1 more free attribute point. I was tempted to put more points into my mind stat, but I decided to keep it until I was sure about what I needed for the next encounter.
The level increase aside, my recent usage of spells increased my Mind attributes, mainly, both ARCANE and ARCANE. POWER. Good improvements overall, but I wished I had more goblins to shoot at to increase those attributes. I had only a few days before the first Trial began, so I need to make sure to abuse as many of my spells as I could.
The melted faces of the goblins were still fresh in my mind, then the crying, and the begging…
I had to stop myself from continuing that line of thought and focused on the other missions I could do.
Next, The elephant in the room. Could I deal with two lizard spearmen with my current strength? I was a bit stronger and faster, but the biggest difference was the access to my magic. The bolts were strong, as shown by the melted faces of the Goblins, but those were just goblins. A strong slam on the head would cave their head in too, the only difference between my magic and my physicality was the method by which I delivered the killing.
What if, let’s say, the lizards had thicker skin? With their speed and senses, avoiding my magical attacks wouldn’t be difficult for them to handle too. I admit that it would be silly to assume that the spell wouldn’t damage them if it hit — after seeing what happened to those goblins — so I at least had that going on for me.
If the Lizards weren’t a viable option, then should I do the secret mission first?
I looked around for any signs of Phillip. Ideally, I’d only tackle that mission after knowing more about that mission. But I felt that I’d depended on him too much. The loan from his points was one thing — and it was a big deal — but if I kept waiting for the forerunners before making my decision, instead of doing it Phillip’s way, which was just a reflection of the slogan: just do it, Could I ever be their equal? Was there a possibility of that in the first place?
That’s why I am trying so hard, right? To see how far I can go?
If all I did was wait for the others to make their move, I’d never be able to stand alongside them. Pursuing strength was never an easy feat in the first place, and the best way to catch up to them was to take risks — sometimes, more than necessary — and also be lucky at the same time.
Closing my eyes, I considered my options once more. Eventually, with a begrudging groan, I opened up the mission menu and entered the secret mission.
[You will now partake in the secret mission.]
My vision went lights out. All my senses vanished, and I was stuck in a black sea of nothingness for more than a few seconds. My heart rate jumped up as I’d never been teleported in this manner before, there was something about this place that felt… sinister. Almost evil, in a way.
Then, as my senses returned, I stood in the middle of darkness, with not a single thread of light existing in this cold, empty space.
In this space, there was no direction that I could go. No matter how enlarged my irises were, the sheer lack of light was so overwhelming that I began to wonder if I’d gone blind.
Hiss…
The hairs on my neck stood upright when I heard a hissing sound coming from somewhere to my right. It wasn’t a loud sound, but the lack of any sort of background noise emphasized any other noise that was made in its stead.
A snake? Or is this… the lizardman?
No, that couldn’t be it. The lizardman never made these types of sounds when we fought. I turned to face the source of the hiss, trying to spot it even if there was nothing that could be seen in this pitch-black darkness.
Hiss…
Another hiss, and this time, it is perceptibly closer.