Chapter 2
Into the mouth of Hell
After taking another bite of jerky and sip of water Klint put them away again. "I guess it's time to start making my way back home and see what this warped reality has done to it. I should probably conserve my food and water since I don't know how to get back to reality, who knows when I will get more and it's not like I'm getting them from creature drops." Klint had started his hike around 7am and judging from the suns position in the crimson sky it was near 3pm. "Only three or four more hours of light left and if I have to fight more creatures on the way I might not make it before sunset."
As Klint set out he decided to go after the other two creatures not knowing if creatures would get stronger the farther away from his shadow realm ingress point and not wanting to take unnecessary chances. "HA, fighting the monsters isn't the Unnecessary chance! I'm still not convinced that I'm not drooling in a hospital right now." The first creature that Klint came up to was a giant lizard who immediately charged Klint. He was shocked at how fast the lizard was but had no time to be paralyzed by it, Klint drew his katana and took a ready stance. The lizard came up to Klint's thigh in height and as in approached it leapt into the air and Klint thrust out with his katana stabbing it through the jaw and up into its brain.
The lizard immediately went limp as the katana pierced through the lizard's skull, but the weight and speed the lizard had didn't stop just because Klint had killed it. The momentum of the lizard combined with its weight came crashing down on Klint causing him to stumble back and crash to the ground under the lizard. That caused Klint to take a bad hit to his arm almost breaking it as it landed first and on a rock. Klint had a few other scrapes as well but those didn't bother him. What he found most odd was when he felt in his spirit for his health pool it hadn't changed at all.
Focusing on healing his scrapes and his rapidly bruising arm, he felt all the pain being washed away as his health pool then started to drain. "Interesting, my health pool doesn't represent a full status but instead a status of how much I can heal, and it seems it doesn't automatically heal me so it won't drain in a fight to heal minor wound's I can live with therefore leaving me empty when I need to heal the major wound's that would kill or cripple me."
As the essence filled his spirit, he didn't immediately channel it. Instead, worried about how long that would take and how long it would take to get back to his small town, he set off. Klint grabbed up the ten silver coins the lizard produced upon its death and with a pull he placed them into his storage space. It seems that not everything could go into his storage space as he tried to put his backpack in, but it wouldn't accept it. Klint then tried to put his katana in his storage space but again nothing happened. Klint thought may by only the coins could enter but then he felt the connection to the shin guards and bracers and they went right in and came out even being equipped going in both directions.
"The lizard must have left more coins because it didn't produce any items. There is so much for me to learn about how everything works." For the first time in years Klint felt excited about life and about his future. moving away from the lizard and to the third creature Klint felt he came up to what was a giant snake, this one didn't sit very high off the ground only coming to Klint's shin, but it had to be fifteen feet long. Klint immediately had a plan for killing this beast of a snake, he was going to crush its head with a big rock. looking around Klint found the murder weapon he thought would do the trick. grabbing it he started creeping closer to the snake, luckily the snake hadn't seen him yet and he was able to lob the rock at it.
It was a good throw but landed just behind the snake's head. it didn't kill it but wounded it severely, with the snake twitching all over Klint grabbed another rock and finished the job. He would have used his sword on the snake but didn't want to chance hitting the ground and dulling his blades edge. With another rush of essence Klint felt his spirit fill to the brim then the rest of the essence returned to the leftover pool of essence and formed twenty silver coins. Klint picked up his loot and put them in his storage space and sat down to channel the essence in his spirit.
"It only takes two monsters to fill my spirit, if I want to not waste any essence then I need to channel every monster or waste a little essence and allocate every two monsters. It takes me fifteen minutes to channel so what is the best solution? Do I channel every monster and not waste any essence, or do I waste a bit of essence and save some time? Maybe I can absorb more essence as I kill more creatures allowing my spirit to hold more, and maybe I can channel the essence faster as I get used to doing it."
Klint was hope full for both to be true, he wanted to be able to channel the essence while on the move even if there was pain involved with it now that Klint new about it he could be prepared for it and fight through. That is what he did as he started the process of channeling once again. "I don't know what kind of creatures or monsters or beasts I may face so I better keep bringing all my stats up evenly." Letting the meditative state fully take him now, he started to channel all the essence evenly.
Once the pain calmed down enough for him to move, he stood up and started for Virginia City. Despite its name Virginia City was a small town settled in the mountains southeast of Reno Nevada. as he walked, he encountered ten more creatures, six scorpions, three lizards and one snake. He beat them all fairly quick and spent more time channeling the essence than he did in the fights themselves. But at the end his hopes of being able to hold more essence was coming to pass as when he killed the tenth creature, he felt that he could hold just a little more essence. The number of coins seemed to very by monster and by how much essence he could absorb. The more he could hold the less the amount of silver he got.
With each time he channeled he became a little faster, a little stronger, his endurance increased, and his senses also had small improvements. All of this made his fights go faster as he could swing his sword more accurately and move in and out of position quicker, he reacted to attacks faster than he's ever been able to react before. In a silly pose with his sword held one handed above his head he yelled "I have the power!"
"I feel like a nerd, I'm not even using the correct sword type." Continuing on he came across a creature right out of fantasy, a Goblin. The goblin had a rusted short sword that looked like it had blood on it, it came up to his chest in height and was clothed in what looked like an old potato sack. "Good thing I freshly channeled, this goblin looks tough." It may be small but its muscles were not. The goblin hadn't seen him yet and he drew his katana as he took cover.
This was the first monster he could actually feel the strength of, and it excited him, "I am stronger and faster than I use to be, I can do this." gathering his nerves he came out from his cover and readied himself. The goblin spotted him and started forward but not wildly. It was slow and methodical in its approach, both prepared for combat. Klint had the advantage in size and reach and he didn't want to let that go to waste it came into striking distance and he slashed out only for the goblin to block with his sword. he made a couple quick steps back to get out of striking range, but the goblin rushed in.
With a slash of its own, the goblin slashed Klint on the thigh, it wasn't very deep as he had made another step to the side turning what would have been a amputating blow into a one-inch-deep gash. Klint however was able to follow up and thrust his katana through the goblin's chest. the rush of essence that followed was unlike anything he had felt so far, it was rich and heavy and filled his spirit completely. The left-over essence of the goblin was substantial and Klint could only wish he had enough space in his spirit to hold more. Then it formed twenty-five silver coins. He then reconsidered his previous thoughts. "If I keep getting silver like this, I'm going to be rich, If I can survive that is."
To his disappointment even the goblins sword disappeared. "It would have been nice to have a backup weapon." He was curious about the item drop he got from the first and second scorpion as he hadn't gotten anything but money since. Then he remembered the cut on his leg. His adrenaline had been through the roof and now that it was wearing off the pain started kicking in. Focusing on his wound and tapping into his health pool he felt the wound start to close up. It took nearly half of his health pool to fully heal his leg.
Klint pulled the silver into his spirit space and then began to meditate. once again channeling the essence he earned. This essence though covered more ground filling each channel more than three of the other creatures had. The pain that accompanied it was as bad as it had ever been. The pain he felt was indescribable as his spirit and soul filled up and stretched adapting to the changes Klint was putting it through. He could now distinctly feel how much room was in his spirit to hold unchanneled essence, it felt like he could fight a goblin and a scorpion without overflowing but not much more.
Had he been doing it wrong this whole time? maybe by letting the essence overflow it would stretch his spirit more allowing him to hold more. He didn't like that though as it would take longer to get stronger, and as the last fight showed him, he needed to get stronger if he was going to survive this shadow realm. So, for now he will channel if he was close to full or after if the creature would only barely make him overflow. With another internal debate solved he started again for his home.
As he got ever closer, he felt a new type of monster with his spirit sense, he crept closer so he could get a view of it before it spotted him. Klint came over a small rise and tucked himself behind a high elevation pine tree. as he peered around the tree, he saw a giant horned lizard otherwise known as a Horny toad. This thing was big, really big. It stood on all four legs at head height. It must have weighed at least a ton. "I don't think I'm ready for this fight, but maybe there is a way."
The Horny toad was wondering around looking for prey, humanoid prey was its favorite. It had eaten a few goblins already, but they won't go near it anymore then it heard something, it was near the trees. There it was again; the Horny toad ran over to inspect. It could taste the scent of something that smelled good, another sound a bit deeper in, the scent was strong and centered on a tree. Klint was hiding up in the tree with a pocket full of small rocks. As the Horny toad moved into position Klint jumped out of the tree sword first and rammed his blade through the head of the Horny toad.
The rush of essence was far more than the goblin and Klint tried to channel the essence as it entered his spirit, he was partially successful but was cut off when the pain hit, even with channeling some of essence it still filled his spirit. Along with the essence came the silver coins and something else, Horned shoulder pauldrons. He picked up the shoulder pauldrons and put them and the silver in his spirit space. He then pulled the pauldrons out of his spirit space and with a thought they materialized equipped on his shoulders.
Needing to again channel his essence he wasn't looking forward to the pain, just the small taste of it he had a moment ago was enough to make him hesitate. Even with that though he was starting to get use to the pain. This essence was so heavy and rich it took him more than an hour to channel it, the pain was so intense that he had to stop several times. but when it was done, he felt twice as powerful as he was before. His senses twice as sharp. He jumped into the air easily jumping more than six feet in the air.
"Wow I feel great, the pain may be unbearable but once it's over the power I feel is amazing!" noticing the sun was getting low and he still had a way to go he decided to head to a small cave he knew of. "I'll take shelter in the cave for the night and head back at first light." After ten more minutes of walking, he arrived at the cave, but it was far different than before. Calling it a cave was technically not true, as before it was an old mine entrance. Now it looked like a proper cave, but it had an ominous feel to it. Gripping his katana he drew it from its scabbard. "Into the mouth of Hell I go."
A few dozen yards into the cave he saw a goblin with its back turned to him, it seemed to be dragging something. Klint snuck up behind the goblin and stabbed him in the heart through his back. "At least if their biology was similar to humans, it would be the heart." with the rush of essence he knew that he had killed it, luckily it had died before it sounded an alarm, unluckily its body hit the ground hard and crashed into crude clay pots that shattered making a lot of noise. "I have a bad feeling about this" he quoted as he readied himself for more goblins.
Looking around in the goblin den for anything he could hide behind he noticed what the goblin was dragging, "Are those Human bones?" The bones were in a tight weaved net, opening the net a little a skull came rolling out. "Now I really have a bad feeling about this, apparently I'm not the only human to have been brought here? or is there other native humans who live in the shadow realm?" Just as he was feeling sick three goblins came rushing up from the tunnels below. Two of them had clubs and one had a wooden shield and crude spear with a sharpened stone as its tip. Not wanting to be the goblins next victim and angry at these monsters for killing another human he was filled with an anger he didn't know he was capable of.
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It led his next few actions as he rushed the three goblins, taken off guard by the sudden ferocity of him the goblins momentarily froze in place. But that was all the time Klint needed, he swung out at the first goblin cutting it in half diagonally from right shoulder to left hip. The spear wielding goblin thrust out at him, but he grabbed the spear just below the stone tip and pulled the goblin forward, at the same time he plunged his sword into the goblins throat and twisted the blade. The third goblin hit him in the ribs cracking half of them along the right side of his body but when the goblin went to swing again it was struck by the spear wielding goblins body Klint had grabbed and used as his own club. taking the spear Klint shoved it down into the final goblins head.
With a rush of essence from all three goblins Klint noticed he could hold a lot more in his spirit now, he felt as though he could hold twenty times this amount. Despite him still being able to hold more essence each goblins dropped fifteen silver coins each. "I'll be back to give you a proper burial." With a quick word to the fallen human Klint headed deeper into the goblin den.
Klint's ribs were hurting but it wasn't unmanageable, he decided to not to heal up just yet, he might need the healing for a more severe wound. setting down farther into the cave he was grateful it was lit with torches along the walls. A few minutes of walking and he felt his leg brush up against something, out of nowhere two wooden spikes attached to a longer flexible piece of wood spang to life as the wood spikes sank deep into his leg. but there was more, the trap had bells on it alerting the trap makers of any who sprung the trap.
Pulling the wood spike's out of his leg he quickly focused on the wound and the health pool feeling it drain. the hole in his leg closed up but was still sore, and he cut off the healing just as two goblins wielding spiked clubs came running at him. He dodged one goblins attack and blocked the other then used the momentum of the block to strike back at the first goblin who blocked his attack. He used that momentum to get a glancing blow on the second goblins face leaving a deep gash across its cheek. Then he jumped backward a dozen feet and nearly fell over forgetting how far and how high he could jump.
The goblins wasted no time and came right at him again, he had an idea though and decided to go for it taking two steps and jumping he did a half cartwheel in the air so he was above the first goblin and upside down he then did a front flip slash catching the goblin in the stomach and splitting it in half from the stomach to its head. The look of fear in the second goblin was clear as Klint landed on his feet, bending over he grabbed the spiked club before it disappeared and threw it at the goblin, they were close together, so the club didn't have far to travel and the spike's dug deep into the goblins head.
"That was stupid! Every RPG I've ever played that had goblins in it the goblins made traps, why wasn't I on the lookout for them? I need to be more careful." Checking his spirit, he felt for his health pool to see how much was left, it was only a quarter drained. After the last fight his ribs were quickly getting to the point to where every movement hurt so after a few minutes of talking himself into it, he decided to use the health pool and heal his ribs. He didn't heal them fully but got them to the point of only being bruised and not cracked that way he could save some of his health pool, which was sitting around a third now.
Collecting his loot, he sat down to rest for a few minutes, this day had been long. Klint was starting to get mentally exhausted. Several cycles of fighting then channeling then pain and more hiking all while being stuck in this Bizzaro shadow realm. He was getting frantic and needed to calm his mind down. He was worried about his son, worried if he'd be able to make it back home to see him again. "Does he exist in this realm? Is he some twisted shadow thing or is this place completely separate from the reality I know?"
He knew his parents were looking out for his son, but he couldn't help but feel they would be worried about him sending search parties out in hopes to find him. "I never told them where I was hiking today, and I left my phone at home so they can't even track my last location. Even if they knew where I was hiking, they might end up in this place while they're looking for me. No, I need to get stronger than figure out how to leave this place."
With his mind settled he decided to meditate to see if he could speed up his body's natural recovery, to his amazement he could, but he also felt how long it would take and didn't feel like he had hours to waste on a sore leg and bruised ribs. After his increase from the Horny toad he felt like these goblins were not as much of a threat as they were before. He could probably take on six or seven at a time with minimal risk but any more than that would be pushing it.
Now that he was ready, he started down the tunnel again and was met with a split in the cave, one path to the left and one to the right. "Doesn't matter what way I go; I'm going to clear out every section of this goblin den. Feeling with his spirit he felt more danger from the right path, he decided to go left and save the big bad for last. "Boss fight's always have to be last right?"
The left path sloped downward and was shaped like a corkscrew leading him down. He eventually reached the bottom where he slaughtered four more unsuspecting goblins. He killed two of them before they realized anyone was there and the other two before they could bring their weapons to bear. He was then met with another choice of left and right, again he chose left. The passage became a little narrower and then opened up into what looked like barracks. There were ten goblins in there just milling about not doing anything.
Not doing anything that is, until one of them was cut in half. Klint stepped in cut one down right away and then retreated down the passageway where they would have to face him one at a time, he like those odds, he liked them a lot. One by one the goblins fell to his blade and when it was over he felt, well he wasn't sure how he felt. "These battles are life and death, I've never felt so alive in my life, but I've never been one for killing for sport. I don't enjoy taking life, do I?" Going back into the barrack's he started looking for anything he could use or sell when he got back to reality. He didn't find anything.
He returned to the previous fork in the tunnel and this time followed it to the right. After several more minutes of walking, he came across another fork in the tunnel. "Seriously? How many forks are in here?" Again, he took the left fork and came into an opening, eight goblins were in here and they were armed and ready for a fight. The fight was tough, but Klint was able to dodge all the attacks the goblins threw at him, but it was hard to get a counterattack in with the sheer numbers the goblins had over him.
Eventually though he was able to start taking them down, it started with a wound to one, severing another one's arm. This caused the momentum to shift in Klint's favor and after fifteen minutes of dodging and attacking he took them all down. "My spirit is getting close to full I maybe can take another group or two that size and then I'll need to channel the essence. collecting all the gold coins he returned to the previous fork and went right.
This tunnel went on and on for what felt like miles, when he finally got to the end there was nothing there but some empty cages and an underground spring that had a small current to it. Disappointed and relived that there weren't any goblins to fight he knelt down next to the pond and tasted the water. It tasted fresh and it sped up the recovery of his health pool. Dumping out the rest of the water from both water bottles he refilled them in the spring. Then he drank his fill.
Not only did the spring speed up the recovery of his health pool he could feel it trying to boost his mana regeneration and heal small injuries on his body. It also eliminated his fatigue. "Is this the fountain of youth?" Feeling his mana being invigorated Klint sat down and started focusing on his mana pool. Why hadn't he got a skill or something that allowed him to use mana? Spiritually gripping his mana, he started moving it through his body. He was barely able to budge it, but Klint kept trying regardless. After an hour of budging his mana, he was able to freely move it to any part of his body, though it did take considerable effort and concentration to do so and if he lost focus for even a second the mana would snap back to his mana pool.
What he found interesting was when he moved it to his eyes, he could see far more detail in his surroundings and how much mana something had, also it was a bit easier to put mana there and keeping it in his eyes took far less concentration than anywhere else in his body. Keeping it active in his eyes however cost mana and was draining it at an incredible rate. While he was sure there was more, he could do with his mana, he was now thoroughly exhausted and was sweeting from his whole body. Getting up he headed back over to the spring to refill his mana pool and relieve his fatigue.
"I'll need to practice with my mana if I ever want to be able to channel it without wearing myself out like that. I know there is more to mana than just using it for mana sight." After a few minutes of laying by the spring he felt his fatigue lift from his body and he got to his feet once more, ready to head down the right path from the first fork in the tunnel. It took him nearly an hour to get back to the first fork and he immediately set down the right path, while he didn't encounter any traps when he followed the left fork the right fork was riddled with them. He was always on the lookout for them through and didn't set any of them off, but it did slow his progress down quite a lot.
He came to a few areas that were bigger than the barracks were, there was no goblins in them, only more empty cages save for a few. three of the cages held scorpions in them, all dismembered but not dead, all three had their pincers and stingers removed from them. Klint walked over to the cages and ran his blade through each of the scorpions, putting them out of their misery. "Even if they are twisted mutant creatures from this shadow realm, they don't deserve to suffer." The essence washed over him filling his spirit ever fuller to the point to which he needed to channel.
After another twenty minutes of walking, he finally came Apon a cavern that held more goblins, carefully creeping closer so he could see better he started counting. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven." He froze, sitting farther back on a throne made of bones was a different variant of goblin, if he had to guess he would say it was a hob goblin. taller, more muscular and brandishing a steel weapon, the first goblin he'd seen using one except for the scout he killed before entering the goblin den. "What should I do?" I don't know the strengths of the hob goblin.
Klint sent a trickle of mana to his eyes to try and gauge the strength of the hob goblin he could see that in terms of mana this hob has double what the normal goblins have. "Well hopefully it's like me and has mana but can't use it." Upon further inspection all the other goblins also had steel weapons two with war hammers, three with swords and two with bows. Keeping the mana there was taxing and he released the mana for now.
"If it was just the goblins, I'm sure I could take them, even with the addition of the bow user's, it would be nice if one of the monsters would have dropped a ranged weapon for me. No point in wishing for what I don't have, that will get me nowhere at best." Once again Klint took his perception to his mana core wondering why he had mana but no way to use it. Pushing on his mana he tried to make it flow again forming the idea of a gauntlet made of mana on his hands, for just an instant the mana started to whisp out. But, just as fast as it came it receded. "I know I'm onto something with that, there has to be more but now isn't the time, I have goblins to slay."
Drawing his katana he stepped out from behind the cavern entrance, stepped out, into battle. Four things happened at once, the hob goblin roared at his goblin minions, the archers drew their bows, the melee goblins immediately prepared for a fight and Klint tripped a trap taking a scorpion's stinger to the left thigh. He swung his sword down hard on the wooden spring that held the stinger breaking it off. He then grabbed the stinger out of his thigh and swayed to the side dodging one arrow, but another arrow sprouted from his left shoulder.
Here he was trying to fight a small squad of goblins with a squad leader (the hob goblin) and he had already been injured twice bad and poisoned at least once. "I'm going to need to finish this fast, maybe the spring could cure the poison. retreating back up the tunnel to get out of line of fire he pulled out the arrow from his shoulder and sent half of his regeneration pool to his wounds stopping the bleeding but not fully healing them, just enough to give his mobility back. He could hear the goblins running after him, that was good maybe he could take them without worrying about the archers. he retreated a bit farther up the cave tunnel and then turned to fight the goblins.
The first goblin to reach him got there just after he turned around and the goblin swung his sword at him, Klint blocked the sword with his bracer and felt his arm go numb under the force of the blow another goblin struck him in the side with the flat of a war hammer. Yelling in pain Klint swung his sword back on the first goblin taking its head off, then jumping back away from a follow up swing by the war hammer goblin. He grabbed the right side of his ribs, and the other two melee goblins joined the fray. Feinting a thrust at the war hammer goblin he side stepped and then thrust his sword into the throat of the other sword goblin, the goblin tried to beck step but there wasn't enough room in the cavern and tripped over the second war hammer goblin, which saved it's life with the backwards fall because Klint's thrust would have gone clear through its throat.
Instead, it left a deep gash on the face from its chin all the way to its right eye, blinding it in that eye. The first war hammer goblin swung again at Klint's exposed right ribs aiming for the same spot but this time with the spike of its hammer, but Klint didn't thrust at the first goblin without knowing that was a possibility and he turned his thrust to a slash taking the war hammer goblins arm off. Then he stabbed through the two goblins heads as the first goblin had made both of them fall down leaving both of them vulnerable. That only left one melee goblin left and he had just disarmed it, literally.
All this happened in about thirty seconds and no other goblins came to join. The disarmed goblin turned to run back to its other goblins and their leader but Klint grabbed it by the back of its dirty ragged tunic slightly lifting it off the ground. Now that Klint had a shield he felt a lot more confident in taking on the archers, he paused for a moment and sent half of his remaining regeneration pool to his ribs dulling the pain. Luckily, he was regaining feeling in his left arm the arm he used to block the first attack with his bracer.