Sally offered her hand out to me and produced a black bow with a sickly green tinge emanating from it.

I took it gladly and focused on it, causing the notification to pop up.

You have received a new item:

Longbow of the Giant Goblin

This bow was carved from the forearm bone of a unique monster: Gertrude the Giant Goblin.

Just as she smashed her old clan into oblivion, you smashed her. You dirty bugger.

I mean, whatever tickles your pickle am I right?

I’m still judging you though.

Longbows can fire accurately over longer distances.

+5% strength

Grants use of the skill: Sniper

*Sniper can only be used whilst this item is equipped*

I desperately needed a new bow after my old one snapped in two from the impact with the tree. This one seemed far superior to my old one too.

+5% strength was a decent bonus and it came with a new skill. I wondered what the skill did.

I accepted the bow into my inventory and focused on it in there. The notification for the bow appeared, along with a further notification explaining the new skill.

New Skill:

Sniper

Not to be confused with sniping, the skill; sniper allows the user to see further distances. Like a telescope built into your eyes.

Don’t go using it to creep on catonids whilst they’re changing. I know you’re a furry, but at least don’t be a creep.

“I am not a furry!” I said forcefully, looking up into the air.

Panda howled with laugher as I lamented the dickish system and its insulting notifications.

That aside, the skill was quite useful. It’d definitely help me take shots from further away, which I guess was the point.

I had no idea what sniping was, though I assumed it was dirty. It didn’t matter, I’d received a new bow and it came with an attached skill.

I quickly checked my stamina and saw that it had increased by 10. It wasn’t as good as the 10% vitality boon my boots gave me, but it was still 10 extra points for free.

“This is great! Thank you.” I said to Sally who ignored me and continued walking.

As I followed her she said: “That’s the only loot you’re getting from that fight. Everything else was worthless, but a bow has no use for me. I’ll have to sell the crap I looted when we get back.

“That’s another thing about adventuring. Reward money is alright, but selling loot is the best way to make a living. You don’t need much for general provisions but if you want to get better equipment you’ll need more than most nobles.

“Good equipment is rare and therefore it costs a bomb. You probably noticed, but that quiver of yours was an inferior item and it still cost its weight in gold.”

I had noticed the odd discrepancy between cost of living and adventurer equipment. It was like the difference between buying a loaf of bread or buying a car back home.

As she brought up gold I winced as I remembered my blessing of the god of wealth. I’d probably missed out on a small fortune by letting Sally loot everything.

I dropped back slightly to walk next to Panda.

“Should I tell Sally about my wealth blessing? We just missed out on a truck load of gold back there.” I asked in a hushed whisper.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I wouldn’t. It’s a great blessing but you got it from Chrysus. He’s not well liked among the adventuring community, or anyone with a shred of morality really.”

I nodded and picked up my pace to catch back up with Sally as she cleaved her way through dense shrubbery with her massive sword.

I wondered if she’d understand if I explained how I got the blessing. It wasn’t like I’d asked for it, I didn’t like the guy either.

It was kinda forced on me, and it was a good bargain. Who didn’t like gold?

In the end I decided to keep it to myself for now. There would be other opportunities for me to loot things, if not on this quest, then on the other two.

We continued walk for a long time, mostly in silence. Slowly but surely the looming mountain came closer into view. It was a natural behemoth, towering above us and stretching out as far as the eye could see.

It still reminded me of a volcano, but I couldn’t be certain of that. I’d never even seen one in real life, only on TV. Besides, for all I knew, volcanos didn’t even exist in this world.

After a few hours of walking, I’d consumed both of the inferior potions I’d purchased, and two of the basic potions I’d been given in a loot box and my health was finally full.

I noticed that my HP increased slowly over time, at my best guess it refilled by about one point every ten minutes. That was painfully slow. I wondered if there was a skill that would make it go faster.

My stamina increased too, even though I was walking. It seemed to increase by roughly one point per minute so after a few hours it was past halfway.

There was so much to learn about the way my new body worked. The stats had the ability to give me superhuman strength. Potions healed broken bones like it was nothing.

Yet I could still break them, I could easily die. Stats were still taking some getting used to. I’d played video games before, who hadn’t right? But I wasn’t an avid gamer. I spent too much time at work.

So though I understood the concept of stats and had the common sense to guess what they did, I still wasn’t overly confident with some of them.

“I can’t believe you murdered all of those innocent books.” Panda said suddenly, it was the first time any of us had spoken in a few hours. “All this walking is boring the shit out of me. You couldn’t have even kept just a couple of them so I could do something whilst we walk?”

“Honestly, at the time I was seconds away from being crushed to death so the thought didn’t really occur to me.” I replied. “Next time I’m being crushed by a goblin horde I’ll make sure to make your potential boredom my top priority.”

“That’s all I ask… I tried to save some of them you know?” He replied quietly. “But they were all tarnished, ripped, unsalvageable”.

“I’ll buy you some more when we get back.” I relented. “At least I got a huge boost to my levels.”

“Don’t be too self-congratulatory, you still have a long way to go.” Sally said, dropping back to walk at my side.

I looked at her and nodded. I knew she was right, but wasn’t I allowed to be happy for myself, even just a little?

“Most people of this world hit the level 30 plateau by the time they’re 18. Everything below that is still considered to be kid’s levels.” She smirked teasingly.

“Maybe so, but I’m not that far off and I’ve only been in this world a few days.”

“True, but you have been fighting monsters which is the easiest way to level up. It’s a phase two technique. Usually those below level 30 have never even seen a monster and gain their levels through apprenticeships and education.” She replied.

As I watched her I noticed her eyes scanned everything around us. She reminded me of a beast stalking its prey.

“What is phase two?” I asked, suddenly very confused.

“Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that you don’t know anything. The levelling system is split into phases. Phase one encompasses levels 1 to 30. In this phase it’s very easy to level up and you don’t even need to fight monsters to gain the required experience.

“Phase two, levels 30 to 50, is harder and you either have to kill things or become very good as a professional. Phase three is levels 50 to 90. Most people on the island will never even reach this phase and those who do will usually be stuck in it unless they go to the continent.

“Phase three, for an adventurer at least, is all about killing high level monsters. You gain experience from the skill and difficulty it takes to slay them. You can grind through it like in phase two, but it’d take decades.

“Phase four is where I’m at now and I’ve been stuck at it for about a year. I haven’t gone up a single level yet, though that could be because I haven’t left the island since I was in phase three.

“Phase four is 90 – 100 and it’s the wall that most never cross. Even on the continent it’s rare for people outside of the Adventure Society to hit the level cap.

“There’s also something called phase five that’s apparently about beating the level cap but I don’t know much about it yet. The director is supposed to be a phase five but I’ve never asked him about it.”

That was a serious amount of information to take in all at once. I’d store it away for later. For now the important thing to focus on was that it would get harder at level 30.

So, right now level 30 was my goal. I would reach it before the exam at the least. Maybe if I was lucky I’d reach it by the end of this quest.

We didn’t see a single other goblin for the rest of the day. It was eerily quiet in the jungle and Sally was certain there were more around.

The lack of contact put us all on edge. I got a feeling they were watching us, waiting to attack. But Sally said goblins aren’t smart enough for that and I needed to get out of my own head.

Eventually, after about five hours of walking in mostly silence. We reached the foot of the mountain. It was so big that I couldn’t see the top or the sides from where I stood.

It was a bit of an odd mountain in that it started very suddenly. One moment you were stood on soil in a jungle and then bam, a mountain like a brick wall was there.

It looked as if it had been ripped from a different place entirely and was dropped on the Forbidden Isle.

Sally grabbed me all of a sudden and threw me over her shoulder. She picked up Panda by the scruff of the neck to his vulgarly phrased protests.

“What are you doing?” I asked, much less calmly that I would have liked.

In lieu of answering she squatted down and I felt a circulating and pulsing power through her skin. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was exactly, but it felt strong, feral even.

“Don’t you dare!” Panda shouted.

I looked at his panicked face just in time for her jump. And when I say jump, it was more like a rocket taking off.

“Fuck!” Panda screamed.

We were above the trees in seconds and I saw a platform on the mountain which was now below us. We landed with a crash and then Sally let me down.

I felt dizzy and disoriented, but the whole ordeal was over pretty quick which was… something.

As my head finally stopped spinning I had a quick look around the area. Embedded into the mountain before us was a huge, iron door.

“I’m guessing we have to go in there?” I asked.

“We certainly do.” Sally replied with a devilish smile and battle drunk eyes. “There are still a few hours of light left. We’ll scout out the interior then retreat and make camp here for the night.”

Before giving us a chance to reply, Sally stepped up to the huge iron doors. They were intricately carved, depicting a goblin sitting on a throne with a crown of light hovering above its head.

I was getting some serious dungeon vibes.

Sally pushed on the doors and they swung open inwardly.

Nervously, I followed her inside.