James threw the crude club, the head of another goblin getting crushed in with the bash of the rock, making its head snap back in a sickening wet sound. These were truly creatures that appeared in the games he played as weak cannon fodder, they were probably as strong as a five or six year old child. With the body of a ten year old you’d expect that he was weaker, but that was not the case, he actually seemed to be stronger than his old self.
“The System corrects me.” He frowned as he knew that attack would have gone off course if it wasn’t for the slight adjustment from the system he would have missed. After receiving the notification that he could create another pair of boots he declined it. He hit level five on his way back to camp, and the goblins seemed to be thinning, the blood on his clothes seemed to make most avoid him.
His binding seemed to be going up as he walked, and moved around inside of the boots he had created, going faster as he used the skills attached. So as he walked he ate random leaves and berries which made everything taste at least decent, grass tasting somewhat like very dry tuna. The skill finally popping up with something interesting..
Soul Bound Skill
Eat Everything is now level 10, it will now be a permanent skill.
He didn’t understand why Eat Everything was added to a pair of boots, he understood why sneak was added as it dealt with movement. The system will require more studying, he thought as he pulled at the necklace that was around the goblin’s neck. Taking them for later, the crude weapons that they had were rather useless and was mostly sharpened sticks to get a little bit of distance between themselves and their enemy.
“They must have made these necklaces around the goblin’s neck.” Their heads were much larger than normal, which made taking the necklace off nearly impossible without breaking it. There was little use for it, but some of the trinkets looked to be crystals or gold, which if there are shops then these might be able to be used as currency.
As he steps near the water, he pulls out a series of leather straps that the goblins had, using a knife made from their own claws cutting at the wood. Slicing the stick into four pieces, he slid down some of the claws into it creating something like thorns along the top of it. Using strips of leather, he wrapped the wood together until they fit together.
“God I can’t wait until I don’t have to upgrade my weapons every few days.” Looking at his stats it seemed this weapon had an additional five damage. A blue screen showed in front of him as he sat there..
Notice:
100 players have reached the first capstone, level 5! This is considered the first capstone, and many people will not get past. This requires something more than just killing random beasts, learn grow and become strong!
Waving his hand getting rid of the notice James didn’t care, leveling up didn’t seem as important as skill levels. Pulling up crude weapons he looked over it, with a thoughtful expression.
Crude Weapons Level 5
With your crude weapons like clubs you gain a bonus to damage equal to the level of the skill.
He wasn’t sure if it would be better to upgrade to metal weapons later if he raised this high enough. Wanting to never be without a weapon though he chose to only use the weapons he created in the case of emergencies.
There wasn’t much training he had with martial arts, just a few things taught while he was in the military. Going to one of the trees he started the training you see in both anime, and movies, punching into it…
Pain Tolerance Gained!
“Fuck you…” Gripping his hand, and cursing made the pain less, as his hand seemed to throb. “How the fuck is this supposed to help?” The cold water on his knuckles made the throbbing stop for a bit as he sighed.
Maybe gaining more pain tolerance would help him in the future, but he couldn’t believe that those movies were very well done. This seems to be completely unrealistic to do this continuously.
“Screw that shit…” Maybe martial arts wasn’t his forte, but punching a goblin didn’t seem to be a bad idea, they seemed to be softer than trees. A rather morbid idea came to his mind, and he went off grabbing one of the nearby corpses. Strapping one onto the same tree he started kicking and punching into the body of the goblin, with less resistance the punches and kicks didn’t bother him as much.
An five hours went by before he stopped, gaining 10 levels in unarmed combat, which brought up something more interesting.
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Upgrade Path:
Unarmed combat can be upgraded into two paths, martial arts or brawling. Please choose one.
Without a second thought he brought up brawling immediately.
Brawling Level 1
Fighting through battles without any formal training has taught you that to fight fair is childish, jabs to vulnerable areas now deal more damage when unarmed. Damage is increased by 10.
He shrugged and went back to punching at the goblin that he had tied up to the tree, an hour went by before he noticed that there were no further advancements in it. Without vulnerable areas on the corpse in front of him he couldn’t advance his fighting any more, with just a punching bag.
As if the gods understood his plight… the goblins attacked… To James they were overzealous with their help though as more than thirty goblins appeared from the trees.
“Ah.. this isn’t what it.. looks like…” Looking to the tied up goblin corpse, he could tell that these goblins weren’t too happy by their hanging friend being beaten to a pulp even after death. The glares from all around him let him know they weren’t buying it as they screamed out what could only be understood as a warcry.
Stepping forward into the uneven ground he kept the small stream between him and most of the goblins, they were smart but didn’t seem to think that the water would bother them that much. A swift kick to the chest of the first goblin showed off his increased damage, a wet snapping sound followed by a goblin bullet hit the other charging creature behind him killing them both.
With a twist of his body, the hook of his foot slammed a head into the ground before kicking up the body to block a spear being thrown at him. Blood pouring out against James face, and chest before the body fell to the ground, a hand moving out like a cobra to grab another goblin’s face.
A lone archer goblin, the first one that James had ever seen had a short and uneventful entrance as another goblin found its way herling like a comet at the other’s head. With a heavy crack, both of them fell to their deaths out of the tree, as the human stood there cracking his knuckles.
“Anyone else?” He said to the surviving ten goblins, half of their troops had fallen to this man’s fists and kicks. In their eyes they saw a barbarian of great strength, like a primitive predator. That archer was the only one that got a meaningful hit on the beast, an arrow was protruding out of his shoulder, everything else was meaningless scrapes and bruises.
“N-no… We surrender…” The goblins looked fearful, but the human looked surprised.
“Well I guess I can’t eat you, I don’t like knowing that what I’m eating can speak my language.” He smiled a bit, and threw some berries into his mouth. He had found these little things to be very helpful, as each one healed five health.
“Those.. are goberries, are you an offspring of goblins?!” The biggest goblin took a step back seemingly shocked, and pointed. “Your skin is pink like a sick salmon, I have seen blue, green, and black but no pink goblins.”
“No, I’m human… and so that’s why the name HP berries didn’t stick.” He ate another wondering why eating them was such a big deal.
“Goberries are poisonous to anyone but the goblin race. I’ve seen a few of your kind killed by them, but they weren’t pink like you. Are you a variant of the human race?”
“No, just white.” The goblins were slowly making their way back to the forest, which made James touch the edges of his clubs like he was getting ready for a quick draw. He thanked his new boots for his survival up until this point as apparently eat anything allowed him to digest poisons, “We just come in different colors.”
“You’re pink, not white…” The goblin looked confused before looking back to his group, “Are you.. going to let us go?”
“Just tell me your name, and promise not to attack here again. If you bring even more goblins, I’ll actually pull out my weapons. You saw how powerful I was without one.” The goblins nodded and ran away right after. “I’ll have to change where I live after tonight.”
The area was littered with goblin corpses, a large portion of them floating in the water which had to be moved immediately, before they contaminate the water. Stripping them of their necklaces, he made a pile for the goblins against a tree to the side. Their dark green bodies adding to the reds and oranges of the leaves making them stand out more.
He was about to add another color to the whole thing, his face hardening as he pulled out one of the crude goblin daggers. Blue blood spilling to the ground as he cut one of the corpses open letting it pool to the sides, the knife worked expertly moving swift to cut and more often than not tear at the skin in his hand. By the time night had fell he had three fairly good goblin skins to his side, knowing little about tanning he attached the skins to rocks throwing them into the steam further down so flowing water would go over it all night.
He needed to know if recreating a goblin hide boot would have similar effects as his own boots or if this crafting method using their souls was special at all. Using his hands not wanting to let the body go to waste the ribs were forced open, a cracking sound heard as they were forced open showing off its intestines. Pressing down in various areas he took note of where each part was, and sighed, “This is basically the same as a human body from what I remember from high school. I can’t quite identify some pieces but that could be because I don’t know every part of a human body.”
Not bothering to close the corpse he went to wash his hands, the bright blue going along his arms made this all surreal. “I feel like I’m murdering smurfs... “ He muttered to himself as he washed off his arms.
In the process another blue box appeared, the same color as the small stream…
Upgrade Path:
Survival can be upgraded into two paths, hunter or gatherer. Please choose one.
Maybe it was just a bit of laziness on his part, but gatherer was immediately chosen, he couldn’t see himself running after various beasts through the wild for hours. Exploring and picking up resources that were around him seemed to be a much better prospect.
Gatherer Level 1
They say that mother earth provides for her children, and the supplies she offers to those who take care of her are immeasurable. Knowledge of flora has expanded, and uses for the plants will appear when you look at them. Gains Alchemy.
Alchemy Level 1
Able to craft various products out of plants and other materials to create potions, and herbal medicines.
Looking through his list he also brought up two skills he gained while preparing the goblins earlier..
Skinning Level 3
Cutting the skin off of creatures, and preparing them for tanning.
Anatomy Level 2
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
The anatomy box looked weird quoting Sun Tzu, but he ignored it, and wondered what benefit they would provide to him later. If they all split off at level ten he wondered what anatomy would turn into. Somehow he knew that cutting up the goblins in the pile wouldn’t provide much more benefit to anatomy though.