The morning was a blur in Peter’s mind, they had done so much to prepare for the monsters. Raul had given him a spear, or rather a sharpened stick. The slit through which you could enter the cave was even more hidden now, being covered by some ivy they found.

There was now a pit where they could there fresh water, digging the pit alone took three hours, but it was totally worth it.

Peters hand shook, the time was almost there. The sun was at around the same position as it was when the blue box popped up. He sat next to Raul talking about strategy.

“So we’ll try to lure the monsters to the cave entrance, where we’ll go inside the cave, and then kill them. Just stab them while they go inside, it’ll work.”

“Okay, okay. Can we maybe capture one alive though?”

“Why, we should just kill all of those monsters.”

Spit flew out of Raul’s mouth, as if the monsters had slaughtered his entire family, hatred was apparent on his face.

“Because I want to feed one this plant.”

It was an excellent chance for Peter to find out what the green plant did, he already felt pity for the poor monster. He had to steel himself though, just like Raul. Either they died or he did, and a choice like that was easily made.

Protection has dropped!

Monsters are encouraged to hunt humans.

They were coming, Peter could almost smell the tension in the air. He heard howls through the forest, must have been wolves or something.

“Fuck, wolves are coming too. Hope they don’t catch our scent.”

Peter hoped that too as he had prior experience. These wolves were scary, with those red eyes they had a crazed look. Shivering, Peter likened the color to blood. Blood red eyes, wolves only hunting for blood and raw human meat.

Quickly he activated meditation, because scary thoughts had no place in his mind. The howls got closer and closer. Then Raul gave the signal to enter the cave.

The wolves had arrived just after they had entered the cave. Peter couldn’t really see what they were doing, but they must have been searching. Searching for their scent, smelling the air with their scary noses. They would be unpleasantly surprised because after they tried entering the cave, if they even could, they would meet their end by their spears.

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Peter wanted to get stronger and their essence would help him reach his goal. He heard scratching at the entrance and Raul went to the front of the cave to look if they came. They couldn’t enter, a fact for which Peter was grateful, even though he wanted their essence.

He and Raul sat in silence for about an hour, but then the scratching suddenly stopped. Had the wolves given up?

They heard some scurrying and then suddenly a green head popped out of the entrance. It was a goblin! He let out a primal roar and ran towards the green bugger, pointing his spear at its stomach. Raul ran towards it as well and soon the entrance was blocked by a dead goblin. Their spears had easily made the goblin as dead as dead could be. Peter could almost feel the essence flowing into him.

As they began dragging the body deeper into the cave, in an effort to free the entrance, the next goblin already popped in. Like a well-oiled machine two sticks stabbed him. Peter had to much adrenaline in him to think about ethics and the easy with which he slaughtered these poor creatures.

They repeated this process for what seemed like an eternity, and when the cave was almost filled to the brim the goblins stopped coming. The scratching had also stopped, either the wolves had lost interested or they were waiting to ambush them as soon as the stepped out of the cave.

A blue box popped up however, freeing him of his doubts.

You have survived your first wave of monsters! Monsters have temporarily leaved.

195 Essence gained.

You leveled up! 1 attribute point available.

“It seems were safe now. Lets quickly get these corpses out of the cave before it begins to stink.”

Raul had just said it and then he realized how much blood there was. It smelled like poop too, but even worse. Some stomachs and intestines must have been cut open. Dragging bodies out of a very small entrances was a hellish chore, Peter now knew that. He felt sick, so much lost life. All at the cost of making him a bit quicker, a bit faster. He would think about how to use his attribute point later, after the cave was clean, and after he had gotten a good nights sleep. Because by God, he needed the rest.