[basic healing potion] [Restores up to 50 pts of health]. [activation time: 30 seconds]

[basic mana restoring potion] [Increases the natural mana regeneration ability x1.25 for 1 minute] [activation time: 1 minute]

[basic sword] [Increases the user's physical attack by +2] [durability: 50/50]

[basic shield] [Increases the user's physical defense by +3] [durability: 300/300]

[spell scroll: ball of fire lvl 1] [activates the spell Fireball lvl 1 spell without needing to be activated by a spellcaster and without needing to consume mana] [single use item]

[spell scroll: Smoke Screen lvl 1] [activates the spell Smoke Screen lvl 1 spell without needing to be activated by a spellcaster and without needing to consume mana] [single use item]

[cold boots] [Increases cold resistance by +3] [reduces speed debuffs due to cold]

There were in total 4 healing potions, 2 mana restoration potions, 3 swords, 2 shields, 1 pair of boots and 1 spell scroll of each type.

I took the items at my disposal. I left the room to the main hall just to grab a few more items for my adventure.

I found holsters for weapons from the counter, a bag from one of my old companions to put my items in and I also took some precious metal items but without much value from the drawers.

Finally I was armed and ready to take on the enemies in the lower levels of the place.

When I was younger surviving in the forest was a nightmare and I had to manage to take a simple dagger from a dead man and even with that I almost lost my life several times trying to get stronger.

At the time we all knew that the boss had a secret room where he kept relatively useful items for adventurers.

We weren't sure why he had them, perhaps he himself planned to become an adventurer someday despite his age or he wanted to save his items for a son we didn't know existed or he planned to sell it somewhere other than our dead-end town.

Originally when I considered doing what I was doing at the time but I already in the forest and was too afraid to go back with everyone dead in my village.

I really was too weak back then

"I can't believe you're resorting to these kinds of tactics."

"What's not worth it if it's for the greater good? We are warriors, in our years of fighting we have done far worse"

"None of those have involved taking advantage of our former comrades."

"Hey, I worked here a long time ago and honestly no one here I liked too much. Standing next to them was completely a formality."

"So is that the esteem in which you hold the people of your kingdom?"

"Of course not!"

"They are also part of Kaazar."

"I take advantage of them to save Kaazar, it's totally justified."

I left the conversation there and walked out the way I had come in.

We walked into the forest. All the vegetation was up the mountain so the journey was a bit tiring but it didn't take us too long to get there.

Once we saw the first tree I proceeded to go straight into the deepest part of the forest.

The trees here were as big as I remembered them, at least 20 meters for the smaller ones, and the snow covered them and the ground almost completely.

The snow was much more intense here than below and my special boots helped me not to be affected in the least.

The area that separated the rest of the forest from the outside was quite quiet and from there we used to get firewood, but once we got deeper into the forest was where we would find our first potential enemies and that was what I wanted at that moment.

After a lot of walking I reached an area without so many trees and prepared a space in the snow to put several of the items I had collected so we could wait for our next prey.

"I understand, you plan to use hunter tactics to attract Goblins. It's a tactic most beginners avoid using because they're afraid of losing valuable items in the process."

I got everything ready and hid behind the vegetation waiting for my next enemy.

It didn't take long. 3 Goblins with grayish skin and protruding fangs appeared and moved slowly towards my trap

[enemy detected] [Mountain Goblin lvl 1].

Those Goblins were not very strong and looked too harmless, I remembered the homunculus Goblins I had encountered after the apocalypse.

I really always hated Goblins, they seemed to me disgusting creatures, without morals, horrible and in general, living beings that had no redeeming qualities. But seeing them in such clean and harmless versions gave me a little calm in comparison to the aberrations that had swallowed me alive.

The Goblins began to circle the objects I had left behind, one of them motioned for the rest to back off and bent down to sniff and finally pick up a piece of metal.

That was my chance

I ran towards my enemies with shield in hand. The closest one didn't react when I blocked his sight as I drove him back with a clean, straight sword.

[Enemy Mountain Goblin has lost 7 health].

The other 2 reacted in anger and ran at me from both directions.

The first one was blocked by my shield, the second one I also attacked with my sword to get him away from me.

[Enemy Mountain Goblin has lost 7 health].

The remaining one took erratic swipes and bites at my shield.

[You have lost 1 pt of health] [You have lost 1 pt of health] [You have lost 1 pt of health]

The attacks slowly pushed me back but finally the last one also received an attack

[Enemy Mountain Goblin has lost 7 pts of health].

All 3 were away from me and each other. I wielded my 2 weapons ready for whatever was to come, my enemies and I were now ready for combat.

I ran to attack again. The battle was fierce and erratic, I was able to make several slashes at them at the same time as they managed to bite me by attacking me through my weak spots without the shield until I ended up taking them out with a slashing cut or a blow from my shield.

[Enemy Mountain Goblin has lost 7 health]. [Enemy Mountain Goblin has lost 7 health]. [You have lost 3 health] [Enemy Mountain Goblin has lost 7 health]. [You have lost 3 health] [Enemy Mountain Goblin has lost 7 health]. [Enemy Mountain Goblin has lost 7 health]. [You have lost 3 health]

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Finally after a long battle one of them began to feel the effects of fatigue and that's when my sword gave him a deep cut in the chest, then another, then one in the face and then one of his hands was separated from his body as he crashed into a tree and his blood stained the snow

[Combo successful] [Enemy Mountain Goblin has lost 35 pts of health].

Before the beast noticed I was already in front of him and with one more attack of my sword his heart stopped beating

[Enemy Mountain Goblin has lost 20 pts of health] [Critical hit] [You have defeated the enemy Mountain Goblin] [You have gained 5 pts of exp]

The other 2 were also fatigued, I could see the look of terror on their faces as the blood of their companion now stained my sword and shield.

Even under that stress the creatures tried to attack me again with a leap. I covered myself from both of them with my shield as they pushed me back, the fury of battle had made them even more aggressive and frantic than they were already

[You have lost 1 pt of health]

[You have lost 1 pt of health]

[You have lost 1 pt of health]

[You have lost 3 health]

[Critical hit] [Critical hit]

One of the Goblins had already managed to climb my shield and seemed to have every intention of attacking me directly.

With all the strength I possessed I threw the shield away along with the creature and then immediately proceeded to attack its companion with my sword

[Enemy Mountain Goblin has lost 20 health]

[Critical Hit]

[Enemy Mountain Goblin has lost 20 pts of health]

[Critical hit]

The creature's pieces flew and its blood fell like a drizzle that showered the ground between me and my last enemy

[You have defeated the enemy Mountain Goblin] [You have defeated the enemy Mountain Goblin] [You have defeated the enemy Mountain Goblin]

[You have gained 5 pts of exp]

The last Goblin had grabbed my shield and tried to use it against me as with his maximum speed.

I immediately pulled out my second shield and we both struggled for a few seconds. I was able to destabilize his balance, my shield hit the whose several times until he ended up totally unprotected, finally I managed to attack several times until I left him dead on the ground

[Successful combo] [Enemy Mountain Goblin has lost 35 health points] [You have defeated enemy Mountain Goblin] [You have gained 5 pts of exp]

[Items found]

[Crystal fragment] [Usable in the forging of magical weapons]

[Mountain Goblin's Fangs] [Usable in weapon forging or for decoration]

[Mountain fruit] [Staple food for restoring durability and preventing fatigue accumulation].

I took what was rightfully mine and stuffed it straight into my bag.

I almost forgot how good it felt to win such an evenly matched battle, I felt too agitated and excited,. My heart was fluttering, my muscles ached and seeing the guts of my enemies had been my reward after something I had to invest maximum concentration into.

As a Lich I was incapable of feeling all that. The situation was limited to not dying permanently and that was something that couldn't even happen in the first place.

"Hey, you look excited."

"I guess I am."

I smiled, it was little moments like that that gave my life a little meaning but I must not forget what I had come to do at this time.

"We have more to do."

[Combo successful] [You have defeated enemy Mountain Goblin] [You have gained 5 pts of exp]

[Combo successful] [You have defeated enemy Mountain Goblin] [You have gained 5 pts of exp]

[Combo successful] [You have defeated enemy Mountain Goblin] [You have gained 5 pts of exp]

My plan remained exactly the same, with all my experience and skill it was not difficult for me to hunt down hundreds of Goblins before nightfall and I only had to consume a single potion between battles.

It was a total massacre and finally I had leveled up....

[You have leveled up to lvl 2] [All your health points have been restored] [All your mana points have been restored] [All your durability points have been restored]

[vitality] [3(+2)] [Stamina] [3(+2)] [Strenght] [4(+3)] [Speed] [3(+2)] [Mana Affinity] [3(+2)] [Health] [105/105(+5)] [Durability]

[55/55(+5)]

[Mana] [10/10]

There was still something I was wondering at this point and that was about Talkain's location, I had thought that maybe he could be my trusted subject to give him as much information as possible about the eternal midnight

"So...exactly how can I find you?"

"I'm here, you've already found me."

"I was referring to the you of these years Do you remember?"

Talkain probably wasn't going to be able to remember the exact location minutely but I figured any details might be useful to me

"Hmm, I think so, I remember I was training on Neo-Draco Island. There things were intense, I was on a mission to get the dragon breath ability. I was hunting for years and years. I remember one day like today I was bathing in boiling lava while meditating as deeply as possible. What's more, I'm doing it right now."

My companion certainly remembered in all too minute detail what he had been doing this day.

"It's not an exaggeration, I see and feel myself doing this."

"Is there anything you can do? I think if you could pass on your memories to your self from this time it would also be quite helpful, perhaps you could try to communicate with yourself "

"No...I can't, try to communicate with myself but it doesn't seem to work...Sorry, looks like if you want to talk to me you'll have to wait a couple more years for me to get off the island Neo-Draco."

That was unfortunate but at least I wasn't counting on that detail to carry out my plan so it didn't affect me too much.

I walked more, this time I tried to pay more attention to the trees and if they had any strange marks.

At first most of them looked normal but eventually I found one with a mark of having suffered a pretty strong attack. I decided to follow the trees that looked like that for a while even as the cuts on them got bigger and bigger.

"We've been a while without hunting anything. Should I find out what your next target is?"

"A Goblin hunter, that's my target."

"Isn't your current level insufficient to take on one of those? It's too rare for such a species to be below level 3"

"Yes."

It didn't matter much to me, I already had experience fighting against enemies that surpassed me even by more levels

I made it to an area that felt much emptier, there was almost no noise there at all, that was the perfect area where a hunting Goblin would catch their potential prey.

I bent down and picked up several of the objects I had previously used as bait for the more normal Goblins. I tossed them toward random points and wooden teeth activated, shattering my items into pieces.

There was no doubt that the beast was near.

At any moment it was going to appear to attack me.

"Don't say it, it's behind me."

I dodged an attack as fast as I could, and prepared myself with weapons in hand, in front of me was a Goblin of almost 3 meters with wearing a thick fur and carrying a sword made of an extremely resistant wood.

[enemy detected] [Mountain Goblin hunter lvl 3].

The battle began.

With shield in hand I exchanged several attacks against my opponent, the impact was affecting both of us and although he clearly surpassed me in terms of strength but I was faster.

[you have lost 6 health] [Goblin Mountain hunter has lost 2 health]. [Mountain Goblin hunter has lost 2 health] [you have lost 6 health] [Goblin Mountain hunter has lost 2 health] [Goblin Mountain hunter has lost 2 health] [Goblin Mountain hunter has lost 2 health]

I moved all over the battlefield and several of my attacks and theirs impacted directly against the surrounding trees making deeper and deeper cuts.

After a long and prolonged exchange of attacks one of his blows hit me harder than the rest, the impact sent me several meters into a tree.

[you have lost 25 health] [Critical hit]

I was not in the best of conditions and it was then that I took my second health potion.

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

I dodged my enemy's attacks while my health returned to normal and then went back to counter-attack.

In the midst of the exchange I passed quite close to many of his traps but He didn't seem to lose speed despite knowing I was also close to them.

The only two options were that he was either dumb enough not to know the location of his own traps or that he was smart enough to know them perfectly, I didn't see any middle ground.

[Basic shield has been destroyed] [Basic sword has been destroyed] [You have lost 35 health] [Critical hit] [Health in critical state]