Pieces of my weapons went flying all over the place.

The Goblin wanted to take the opportunity to attack full on but I was prepared for it.

With my second sword at hand I swung towards the mouth of its stomach and proceeded to launch a series of consecutive attacks

[Successful combo] [Enemy Mountain Goblin hunter has lost 15 pts of health].

I was finally able to achieve my goal. He flew off with such force against one of the trees and it fell on top of him doing a lot of damage.

I grabbed my shield and took advantage of the fact that my opponent was stunned to execute a combo again.

The beast reacted faster than I expected, his sword hit my new shield barely giving me time to block it.

[You have lost 12 points of health] [Critical hit]

I had taken too much damage, the beast seemed too furious and started attacking me with more fury, speed and precision.

None of its attacks hit me directly but dodging them became much more difficult. At first it was easier because of the size difference but in the face of this unforeseen event the trees had become an obstacle to be reckoned with

"A trap behind you!"

The Goblin prepared another sword swing but I dodged it and ended up trapping his weapon in some wooden teeth.

He tried to pull it out for a split second, that time didn't last long as I gave him a direct attack

[Successful combo] [Enemy Mountain Goblin hunter has lost 15 health pts] [Successful combo] [Enemy Mountain Goblin hunter has lost 15 health pts] [Successful combo] [Enemy Mountain Goblin hunter has lost 15 health pts]

I attacked him without stopping for a single instant, that advantage wouldn't last too long if my enemy tried to defend himself back and I shouldn't give him that chance

Finally he crashed into several trees that fell on him and did quite a lot of damage

I ran between the logs to attack but he had torn off several pieces and used them as wooden stakes. At that moment I was with my guard down, when I tried to replenish my defenses a stake was thrown at me as a projectile piercing my side.

[You have lost 20 health points] [You have lost 25 health points]

I hadn't calculated that, I only had 2 health potions left and I hadn't foreseen having to use them in this scenario, I had to consume one of them in emergency while I was removing the stake from my side

[You have taken a basic health potion]. [Restoration of health pts in progress].

My opponent had gotten up, I still in pain from the last attack lunged at him while dodging and blocking as many attacks as I could

[You have lost 7 health points] [You have lost 10 pts of health] [You have lost 12 health points]

Finally I was able to get close enough and with a direct attack I stabbed him in the side with my sword.

[Enemy Mountain Goblin hunter has lost 20 health] [Critical hit]

I left my weapon buried there and quickly pulled out a my third sword from the pouch.

I attacked him until I pushed him back too far and finally his foot got stuck in one of his traps and my enemy fell while letting out a scream that shook the entire forest

[Successful combo] [Enemy Mountain Goblin hunter has lost 15 pts of health] [Successful combo] [Enemy Mountain Goblin hunter has lost 25 health pts] [Critical hit]

Unable to defend himself I took a long leap into his face and with a blunt attack my weapon ended up buried in his eye.

[Goblin mountain hunter has lost 50 health]. [You have defeated Goblin mountain hunter]. [You have gained 200 pts of exp]

With my health restored I went for the weapon that my enemy had dropped in the middle of our battle, there in front of me was a sword of great power

[Item detected]

[Robust rare oak sword] [Increases the wearer's physical attack by +7] [Increases attack speed by +1] [Durability: 67/100]

[Robust Goblin Fur] [Increases resistance to cold by +7] [Reduces speed debuffs due to cold]

[Large Goblin Fang] [Increases attack by +1]

[Crystalline diamonds] [useful for crafting items that use the ice element].

I wielded my new hunting weapon in my hands. From my bag I threw out some normal Goblin fangs as they were less useful and I had less and less space at my disposal

"My young friend, I think I should not have underestimated the courage of an elite knight such as yourself. Your strength may have returned to its beginnings but your wit is still that of a king" Talkain said as he patted me on the back.

I was only focused on my new weapon, my priority was to use that weapon to hunt the rare Kogart fish and get as many scales from them as I could.

I remember one time I was trying to sleep in the middle of the forest, it was too dark and cold a night and I was alone. At least that's what I thought until I saw a luminous silhouette fly with grace and speed from the deep rivers to the highest in the sky

At the time I wasn't sure what it was or if it could pose any kind of threat to me but I decided to follow the creature anyway.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

That glowing being turned out to be a lesser celestial Kogart.

Its glow was unlike any glow I have seen at any other time in my life. Very little is known about celestial creatures and their descendants and many theories have arisen about them. But what adventurers like me were interested in were the rewards of just being exposed to them.

The time I saw that fish was very brief but weeks later I heard that fishermen in the higher areas who had witnessed it saw how the scales of the Kogart they had caught began to emanate a multicolored light and became objects with a magic that was too powerful.

The phenomenon only affected a few scales out of the hundreds that some of them had but the fortune they gained was great.

Years later Siggurd read about it in the chronicles of the huntress Kraesha and in that account one of the fishermen had said that the fish seemed to have come out of the subway part of the river.

Although it was not something 100% proven, there was a belief that celestial creatures granted more miracles to those who were closer to the place they chose to manifest themselves in our reality.

But finding such a creature is not so simple and the miraculous events that these awakened were not very common Some adventurers have even gone through thousands of quests and entire lives without even seeing one of those creatures and even I with my status only witnessed 2 of those

"I am sure you will continue to show countless more feats. If only I could recount them to my past self they would make for quite entertaining tales to tell at a campfire night, now what more crazy things do you plan to try?"

"Hunting Kogart fish in the subway river for the next 17 days."

"Well, I guess fishing is exciting too."

That night I decided to set up a small campfire in an area much closer to the outside of the forest, there it would be rare for a Goblin or something similar to try to approach me.

"So young friend, you seem to have completed in less than a day what it took the young you weeks. Have you thought about how impressive all of that is? I look at it and just think how far you have progressed even since I first met you and you were still a clumsy, clueless young man."

"I guess that applies to everyone, people change."

"But not everyone gets a chance to relive their old days and overcome them as if life itself is a competition against oneself."

We slept early that night as I watched the starlight. In the distance was the mountain we were going to climb once we got enough scales.

One star shone a little brighter than usual near the mountain but in less than a second the star returned to its normal frequency....

It was a strange phenomenon, perhaps the upcoming arrival of the celestial Kogart was influencing that although I didn't remember a star shining so brightly my first time here.

Perhaps as I was simply paying more attention to the small details.

Before I knew it my eyes were blinking and I finally fell asleep.

[Necromancer's contract failed] [Time travel cancelled]

But when I opened my eyes I saw it again, that black sky of putrid and omnipresent eyes, that image was there again, it was there again.

I was sitting on a pile of homunculi corpses, my hands had returned to their usual white.

My first thought was that I had cancelled my own spell by falling asleep but my mind was considering even worse options.

I stood up trying to look for Talkain.

"Talkain! Where are you, the spell is working weird, I need you to be here again!"

But my partner was nowhere to be found. I ran out of there, but I didn't know where to go, or if I wanted to even be able to get answers

[Error] [Option not available]

My skill menu wasn't available, none of them were.

My skill menu was not available, none of them were.

[Error] [Option not available] [Error] [Option not available]

The sky eyes were getting bigger and bigger and closer and closer to me, I tried to look for a way to defend myself but my knife was nowhere to be found

[Error] [Option not available] [Error] [Option not available]

Finally I woke up

Finally the sky changed again, this time it was daytime and the forest, the mountain and everything else was normal. Despite the bad dream I had I felt as if I had rested perfectly.

I stopped in search of my companion but couldn't find him for a while until I finally saw his spirit standing among the trees.

I walked quickly towards him.

"I finally found you, we have to go."

He just stood there, unresponsive and unmoving as he kept his attention on something he had apparently found among the snow

"I think you might be interested in seeing this"

I approached and I certainly wasn't at all prepared for what I was about to see.

It was a normal Goblin skull but on top of it it looked like a black mass similar to the composition of homunculi had completely covered it.

I couldn't believe my eyes, something like that shouldn't be possible.

[Item detected] [Homunculus lvl 120 Black Matter].

The level of that thing was too high

"I think you might also be interested in seeing this."

We walked a little further and saw more pieces of that homunculus getting bigger and bigger and bigger

[Item detected] [Homunculus black matter lvl 120] [Item detected] [Homunculus black matter lvl 120] [Item detected] [Homunculus black matter lvl 120]

The trail didn't stop for miles

"Talkain, this was enough, we have to let the authorities know about this. The two of us won't be able to do anything in this situation."

[Homunculus lvl 120 black matter is evolving]

A new message had appeared in my menu

[Homunculus lvl 120 black matter is evolving] [Homunculus lvl 120 black matter is evolving]

That's when I opened my eyes once again

It was still night, my companion did not sleep as I expected but stayed among the highest of the trees observing in the surroundings.

I no longer knew what was real and what was not. I didn't know if something like what I had dreamed would become real right now or if it always was.

I felt tired, not just because I had slept badly. This whole situation so far had gone too well to be true and the thought that there might be a "but" in everything I do makes everything that much harder to cope with

Maybe I missed a little being able to fight for days on end without having to sleep.

Anyway by that time I had gotten some rest and little was much better than none.

"Come on, we'll hunt some more at this hour."

"Hey, I know you're excited about being able to fix the story but you shouldn't use that as an excuse for not sleeping properly."

"I'm not sleepy, I'll do better if we hunt some more. If you want you can stick around because I'm going hunting anyway."

My partner came down from where he was and accompanied me on my journey.

Hours passed and it was already beginning to dawn on the place.

Despite our long journey we found no Goblin around, absolutely none. The situation was a bit desperate but it was much better than dreaming again even if it was only for a few seconds

"Hey Natho, I think you might be interested in seeing this."

"Sorry what did you say?"

My whole body started shaking at that moment, my breath was agitated and I didn't want to see what Talkain wanted me to see.

"There's someone around here and he seems to be badly hurt."

"You mean a Goblin?"

"What, no, it's a human adventurer."

I approached the place and hid behind a tree, I could see clearly what Talkain was talking about.

It was a bandit with several wounds all over his body. His appearance looked too gaunt and he carried with him a hood and large clothes that made his appearance very unrecognizable.

At least to most he would be unrecognizable.

I knew who he was, I had seen him in the past. I clearly remembered his death and how his resources were the little I had on hand to survive in this place.

Several criminal groups had taken over the low lying villages days after the storm occurred and apparently he had come along with one of the first groups to a village near Iztakaf

"It's okay, I know what to do."

I drew my sword and prepared to face him.

"Natho, wait what the hell are you doing?"

The bandit started coughing up blood and the snow around him was getting more and more red in color. When he looked up what he saw was the edge of my sword surrounding his neck

"I could finish you off right now, it would be too easy and it wouldn't take me any effort."

"Natho stop, just because we are doing this mission is no excuse for you to kill an innocent person from your own Kingdom""

"I know the things you do, you're nothing but a dirty thief who's all about invading villages and stealing from adventurers. People like you are the ones I have never fought for and never intend to fight for. I don't care if a vile scum like you dies at the forefront of battle, you have already chosen a path from which you do not deserve the slightest redemption from."

"And is this how you want his life to end? Is this what a king would do?"

"I already told you that I was never any king, and even if I were I am being too mercyfull when compared to all the crimes committed by King Zimman."

"I always thought you were someone much better if we compared you to him."

My enemy saw me without any hope of being able to escape from this situation but still started crawling down the hill with minimal speed and minimal hope of being able to escape from me

"I saw him die originally, I benefited from his death and right now I can also benefit from the same"

"A wise king acknowledges his past mistakes, a king should know that the only option when given the chance to make things better is to make things better"

"You expect me to save this poor devil then?"

"I expect you to show why the whole kingdom has always admired you so much. Maybe you think you never deserved it but you'll never be sure unless you give yourself a chance to prove yourself otherwise."

I didn't move my sword another millimeter and finally returned it to its sheath, instead I reached into my pouch for the item I needed, it was the last healing potion I had left.

"I hope you have the sense to recognize who I am because if you plan to betray my trust right now it will be the last mistake you make. Don't waste your second chances."

I told him before I put the potion in his hand so he could take it.

He turned to me, his face had changed from one of despair to one of relief and he finally took the potion I had left for him.

His wounds healed successfully and the guy started to get up without saying a word.

We both looked directly into each other's eyes. I kept my sword in my grip waiting for a betrayal, from someone like him it was what I expected without any doubt.

But that didn't happen, the bandit made a gesture of thanks and began to retreat as fast as he could.

[Skill activated: Contractor's eyes]

[Contract] [Prevent his death and help him hunt down that celestial beast of chaos].