Peering out through the opening that led down a hallway from the room I had started in I checked the hall for signs of movement. Egg under one arm and spear in the other hand, I was thanking my stars I had some staff training in my previous life, though it was with a slightly longer weapon I still figured I could make this one work. If all else failed, the pointy end towards the bad guy, right? Seeing nothing in the hallway I walked down the hall toward the next area. The hallway was only about fifty yards long and it ended in a T-shaped junction with a path leading off to the left and to the right. That was great, I thought to myself sardonically, I could get in a position where someone was coming from behind me and not know it no matter which direction I took.
I peered first left then right around the corners and saw nothing immediately. Guessing it didn't matter which direction I chose, I decided on the path to the right first. Setting out walking down the path, I got about halfway down the path and a goblin scout came around a bend in the path. The goblin's eyes went wide for a moment as I swore, then his mouth fell open in shock. He must have seen the egg. Panicking, I threw the spear at him with all the strength I could muster with only one arm while holding an egg under the other. Apparently, a Luck stat of ten was enough, as the throw was absolutely perfect and the spear took him right in the eye, crushing a good part of his face like a coconut at the same time and killed him instantly. I was just going for a distraction long enough for me to close in with the dagger, but a win is a win!
Knowing I couldn't do that again no matter how much I wanted to, I went to retrieve the spear quickly. I put my foot on the dead goblin's chest, removed the spear from the goblin's head with a wet squelching noise, and patted this goblin down as well. A few more copper coins, another rusty dagger, another pouch, this one with a hole in it so I didn't keep it, and he had a necklace on as well.
Item:
Necklace of Health
Item Type: Accessory
Durability: 30/30
Enchantment: Wearing this necklace will give the wearer +20 HP
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Common
That was some welcome help. It wasn't a lot, but it might save my skin. Then again, I thought looking down at the dead goblin who had been wearing the necklace, maybe not. I put the dagger in my belt with the other one and put the necklace on anyway. As I put the necklace on my neck, a sensation of vitality hit me. It wasn't a huge difference, but it was a bit like when you took a deep breath after having been congested for a week, where you just felt healthier. I also decided to check the XP for this goblin.
Battle Log:
-Callan hits goblin scout in a critical area for 250 points of damage
-Goblin scout slain +450 XP
That is just as I thought. As I get stronger and level up, the amount of XP each monster kill will give me will decrease based on my level. It was the same kind of goblin as before, according to Inspect, and the same level five, so as I got stronger the XP I got would go down. Pretty standard. It was way overpowered for the same tiny monsters to give the same amount of XP as I leveled. If it had I could just farm little easy level-five goblins until I hit whatever the max was. Where was the balance in that?
I had to catch myself, that was game thinking, and while it was OK to keep that in the back of my mind, I had to focus on the fact that this was real life, not a game. If I got sucked in I would get careless, and I couldn't afford to do that right now. Wishing there was more I could do to hide the body, I took the cloth this goblin pitifully called clothes and put it in the pouch. Just a couple more goblins and I could make something for carrying the egg around. This egg was going to be the one thing that might get me killed above all else. Having my fate tied to something completely defenseless and normally on a breakfast menu was not what I needed right now. Still, I couldn't leave it behind. Mostly at this point because if I did and it was destroyed I would just drop dead apparently, but also because there was a part of me that really wanted to see what would happen if I hatched a dragon familiar.
If this was really a dungeon, it needed to work on its loot drops. Sure these were easy monsters, but come on, was it too much to ask for a guy to get some armor or a sword? I knew that was really asking too much considering I was just killing off some low-level goblins, and I was not really looking forward to figuring out what might drop the good stuff. I kept walking down the path until I heard more of the talking in that language the goblins used, but there were more of them this time. I crouched low and tried to sneak up to the entry to the room. As I did I got a notification.
Congratulations:
Skill Unlocked: Stealth
You can use stealth to help conceal yourself when sneaking. Each level in this skill will make you more silent when moving in stealth as well as make you harder to be detected by enemies.
Skill Level: 1
Skill Rank: Beginner
Score! Stealth was always a super helpful skill to have. Level one really just meant I wouldn't bumble into the room making a racket, but I'd take what I could get. Peering into the room I saw there were four goblins, three of which looked to be the same type with weapons and armor better than the scouts and what I would guess was a magic user of some kind based on the robes he wore. Was I profiling? Yes...I guess I was. I inspected them to see if I could get more information on them.
Goblin Fighter:
Level: 5
HP: 170/170
MP: 10/10
SP: 120/120
Goblin fighters are more skilled than the average goblin in combat. They are better armored and harder to kill.
Goblin Mage:
Level: 5
HP: 100/100
MP: 100/100
SP: 50/50
Goblin Mages are a dangerous batch to mess with. They can lob spells from a distance and are hot-headed. They are squishier than their brethren though.
That was odd. I hadn't seen whatever system was delegating these messages to use a gaming word like squishy before. The A.I. lady I talked to before hadn't even known about video games. Well, one more mystery to add to the ever-growing list of them here. There would be time to worry about that later. Now was the time to think of a strategy for these goblins. That mage was going to be a problem if I didn't take care of him first. No telling what kind of spells he has. Fireballs, ice daggers, and healing would be a worst-case scenario really. I needed to do something about him. Fortunately, he was actually closer to the entrance than the others were. Settling on the old distraction smash-and-grab routine, I found a rock on the ground that I could use and peered into the room one more time carefully. There, at the back of the room, were some shelves that held supplies, some of which were in glass containers. I wasn't a great shot, but I could at least hit the shelves. Centering myself, I committed to my actions, placing the egg on the floor outside the room for safekeeping. One thing you learn in martial arts is the importance of committing to your actions no matter what. Any hesitation can cause disaster. Stepping back, I stood up and aimed at the shelves before taking one step forward and throwing the stone at the shelves.
Bullseye. I hit one of the glass jars causing its contents, some kind of seeds, to spill out onto the floor causing an even bigger noise than I had thought. Which was perfect, because as soon as the noise sounded I bounded into the room with the spear in one hand and a dagger in the other. No yelling, just an angry look on my face. The mage was so surprised out of his confusion at what was happening in the back of the room he couldn't even scream before I plunged the dagger into the side of his neck and bounded away from him to the next goblin, yanking the dagger out of his neck, twisting as I went, causing the wound to tear open making it even worse. The goblin fighter I chose as my second target hadn't turned back around yet either, and was even taking a step or two towards the shelves before hearing my footfalls coming towards him. Taking him in the back, near the base of the spine with the spear, I lifted him bodily off the ground on the end of the short spear. His eyes were wide as he flailed his arms around wildly, screaming in pain. His legs didn't move, which told me I had severed the spinal cord.
By this point, the other two fighters had heard me, seen the devastation, and taken out what appeared to be short swords, though in their hands they were the equivalent of long swords. They were facing me when I looked at them, goblin kabob still held in one hand, though the kabob was getting heavy. I needed to get myself ready again. Kicking a table over that was between me and the goblins, I let out a roar of battle and then performed a front thrust kick to the back of the table sending it sliding toward them. They tried to move out of the way but one got trapped behind it and pushed into a wall. While the table was moving I slammed the goblin kabob down on the ground and twisted the spear sharply, nearly cutting him in half before ripping it out to let him bleed, effectively killing him, and turned to face the next threat. The goblin not behind the table was charging at me. Readying myself, I parried his first attack with the spear which he continued awkwardly into a second strike recovering poorly. Stepping left, I avoided the swing and then feinted an attack with the spear stabbing towards his left so the goblin had to move to his right to get out of the way of the weapon, at which point I drove the dagger into his sword arm at the shoulder. The goblin screamed in pain and dropped his weapon. I slashed the spear tip across his face and then stabbed it in the chest. Leaving the spear there, I yanked out my dagger from his arm while taking the other out from my belt and swept his legs out from under him, causing him to fall forward onto the spear, driving it all the way through his chest, before moving to the left around behind him and turning to face where the last goblin was.
It was a good thing I made this move to the left because the last goblin had freed itself from behind the table and in my brief skirmish with the other fighter was coming up behind me to stab me in the back. He missed entirely though thanks to my stepping around the goblin, and actually tripped over his fallen comrade. Taking full advantage of this, I put my foot on the top goblin's back so he couldn't try to get back up, and drove both daggers into the sides of his neck, silencing him. I looked around quickly to ensure that I hadn't missed any other goblins in the room.
With all of the goblins dispatched I went to the hallway to retrieve my egg before doing anything so I could have it in my sight. I set it on a chair I turned over and placed on top of a table temporarily, so the egg could rest on the legs of the chair, while I checked over my victory. That had gone really well actually. It was at this point that I threw up all over the ground. The violence I had unleashed was beginning to haunt me. How could I be so callous toward another's life? It was me or them, but I had really let loose on the devastation. The feeling was as though I was outside my body and watching when it was happening and the killing was auto-piloted.
I noticed my hit points were back up to one hundred when checking to see if I took any damage and looked at the wound on my stomach and it appeared to just be a slightly angry red line. So, healing was faster in this world too. Good to know. I noticed there were a set of notifications in my vision but they were minimized to the right side. Again, I was grateful that they hadn't popped up in front of me while I was fighting.
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Opening the notifications to see what was there, I tried to read through all of the battle log info. There was way too much info to go through. Each strike that was dealt had a line with damage dealt and more. I decided to see if I could have it summarized. Thinking about reviewing just XP notifications for kills, I was rewarded with fewer notifications to look at.
Congratulations!
Skill Level Up: Spears
Through the use of spears, you have leveled this skill.
Skill level: 2
Skill Rank: Beginner
Congratulations!
Skill Level Up: Small Blades
Through the use of daggers, you have leveled this skill.
Skill level: 2
Skill Rank: Beginner
XP Notification:
For killing 3 goblin fighters you have been awarded a total of 1800 XP
XP Notification:
For killing 1 goblin mage you have been awarded a total of 500 XP
Level Up!
You have earned enough XP to advance to the next level. You are now level 3! Continue to work hard and push yourself to gain more XP to continue to level up. As a human, you now have 5 attribute points to distribute as you see fit.
Seeing the level-up notification I did a fist pump in the air with a little "whoo hoo!" and decided to look at my stats. Now with ten points to spend, I felt better about distributing some around to the stats I thought I would use the most while in the dungeon. I placed two points each into Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and Endurance. Looking over my skill sheet, I could see some progress being made.
Name: Callan Ryder
Race: Human
Class: Dragon Rider
Level: 3
HP: 140/140 *(+20 Necklace)
MP: 100/100
SP: 120/120
Total XP: 3750
XP to Next Level: 2250
Attributes:
Unused Attribute Points: 2
Strength: 12
Constitution: 12
Dexterity: 12
Endurance: 12
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 10
Luck: 10
Non-Combat Skills:
Combat Skills:
Inspect: Beginner 1
Unarmed Combat: Beginner 1
Spears: Beginner 2
Short Blades: Beginner 2
That felt better. I could feel my body shift slightly to accommodate the changes, but because I had rounded off the four complimentary physical stats my body didn't feel that much different than it had before. However, I felt like I could be more effective with my movements. My muscles felt more limber and my ability to move seemed more precise. The health boost should help as well.
Now for those goblins. They better be holding better gear than the scouts. I went over to take the weapons first from the goblins.
Item:
Iron Shortsword x3
Item Type: Weapon
Durability: 45/50, 42/50, & 44/50
Attack: 8-10 damage
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Common
Item:
Staff of the Fire Mage
Item Type: Weapon
Durability: 20/20
Attack: Shoots a firebolt at an enemy for 18-25 damage
Charges: 12/15
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Uncommon
Hey hey, that was something new. I hadn't seen the mage holding that staff. It was a long piece of wood carved and then polished to a nice smooth shiny finish and the top of the staff had a dragon's head carved into it with a small red gem sitting in the mouth of the dragon. This could come in handy if I could figure out how to use it. For now, I figured I should take the rest of the loot and look around. The three fighters had the shortswords, a few pieces of leather armor, fifteen silver between them, more of the rocks and string, and one of them had a ring.
Item:
Leather Cuirass
Item Type: Armor
Durability: 120/150
Armor: +15
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Common
Weight: Light Armor
Item:
Leather bracers
Item Type: Armor
Durability: 64/75
Armor: +10
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Common
Weight: Light Armor
Item:
Leather Boots
Item Type: Armor
Durability: 56/75
Armor: +10
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Common
Weight: Light Armor
Item:
Leather Tassets
Item Type: Armor
Durability: 68/75
Armor: +15
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Common
Weight: Light Armor
Item:
Ring of Strength
Item Type: Accessory
Durability: 45/50
Enchantment: The wearer of this ring is granted a +5 to Strength
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Uncommon
That is a nice addition to my armory right there. The leather armor wasn't anything to write home about, but it was a massive step up from the rags I was wearing, and the added strength could only help. Slipping the ring on, I could feel myself becoming stronger. Looking at the armor though, I realized it was sized for goblins, which was going to be a problem. As I thought this though, the armor resized to be something that would fit me. Well, that was handy. When I looted something it would magically resize to fit me? That might make tailors a little less busy then. Of course, then I thought of all the sophisticated ladies' ball gowns and realized there would likely be plenty of work to keep a tailor in business. I would be curious to know if this was something that happened as a result of these items technically being dungeon loot, or if all armor magically resized to fit anyone. With no way to confirm or disprove this, I decided to let it go. I then moved over to the mage to check what he dropped.
Item:
Ring of Mana
Item Type: Accessory
Durability: 42/50
Enchantment: The wearer of this ring is granted a +20 to their mana pool
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Uncommon
Item:
Scroll of Minor Healing
Item Type: Spell
Durability: 38/50
Ability: Reading this scroll will teach the person the spell Minor Healing
Spell: Minor Healing: Heals the target for 25 HP. This effect will increase as the level of the spell increases. Learn this spell for more information.
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Uncommon
Item:
Scroll of Shocking Bolt
Item Type: Spell
Durability: 42/50
Ability: Reading this scroll will teach the person the spell Shocking Bolt
Spell: Shocking Bolt: This spell emits a small bolt of lightning toward a target dealing 18-25 damage. Learn this spell for more information.
Item Quality: Average
Item Rarity: Uncommon
I was in shock. Why had this goblin just been holding these spell scrolls? Or was this dungeon loot? No matter the case I was stoked! I was going to get to learn magic. Quickly slipping the ring on, completely ignoring the feeling it gave me as it expanded my mana pool, I almost destroyed the paper trying to get the seal off of the scroll and unrolled it. I couldn't get it open fast enough. As I started reading over the scroll the words began to light up and swirl around on the page. Then a notification popped up in my vision.
Warning:
You are about to begin learning the spell Minor Healing. Are you sure you want to learn this spell? Learning this spell from this scroll will destroy the scroll.
YES NO
Without even thinking I selected YES and a wave of pain burst behind my eyes again. The swirling letters on the page began to flow in a stream through my eyes and into my brain. The pain intensified for about ten seconds then shut off abruptly and I collapsed to the ground with relief.
Congratulations:
Spell Learned: Minor Healing
Casting minor healing on a target allows you to heal them for 25 HP. This amount will increase as you level the spell.
Casting Time: 1 second
Mana Cost: 20
Cooldown: N/A
Spell School: Life
Spell Range: 30 feet
Spell Level: 1
Spell Rank: Beginner
That was excruciatingly painful. Getting back to my feet, I paused while the remaining headache subsided. Once that was gone, I pulled up a chair this time, though it was like sitting in a chair made for children, and I prepared for the pain that would come again. No pain was going to keep me from learning magic at this point. I opened this scroll as well. The same process happened and the same prompt appeared. Selecting YES again, the letters and symbols once again flowed into my eyes. The sensation was not nearly as painful the second time as the first and I didn't even feel a minor headache after.
Congratulations:
Spell Learned: Shocking Bolt
Casting Shocking Bolt emits a small bolt of lightning toward a target dealing 18-25 damage. The amount of damage will increase with the level of this spell.
Casting Time: 1 second
Mana Cost: 20
Cooldown: N/A
Spell School: Air
Spell Range: 60 feet
Spell Level: 1
Spell Rank: Beginner
I absolutely had to try this out immediately. Searching around, I found a small target hidden in the back of the room that looked like it had been used for archery practice by someone at some point and set it up against the wall. Vaguely thinking about the implications of an archery practice target, meaning that there were archers in this dungeon...I let all thoughts of that slip from my mind as I thought about casting magic for the first time in either of my lives. I called upon the knowledge the scroll had put in my mind, followed a basic hand gesture, and cast a shocking bolt at the target! From out of my hand jumped a tiny lightning bolt, it raced to the target in the blink of an eye, striking it in the center. A blackened mark was left where it struck the target. Practically giddy with delight, I danced in place for a moment. Then I thought better of that, realizing I probably looked ridiculous and changed to silent double fist-pumping for about five straight minutes.
Once I calmed down and regained my composure, I decided to have a look around the room too. There were a few more racks of armor just like the ones I was wearing, and some more short swords, rusty daggers, and a couple of spears, but I had all of those and a very limited carrying capacity. On one shelf though there was a lock box. Picking it up, I found that, of course, it was locked. But there was a key sitting right next to it.
"There's no way...They couldn't be that stupid...Could they?" I said out loud, such was the level of my astonishment.
I put the key in the lock. Sure enough, it unlocked it. The logic of goblins was astounding. Inside was a small leather pouch. Picking it up, I inspected it.
Item:
Bag of Holding
Item Type: Accessory
Durability: 200/200
Enchantment: This bag was enchanted with spatial magic to allow for a pocket dimension to be placed inside of it. It can hold items in a 5x5 grid and reduces the weight of the items inside by 70%
Item Quality: Well Crafted
Item Rarity: Rare
No freaking way. This can't be...the holy grail of adventuring items was found this early on! I almost fainted, but again gained my composure and tied it to my waist. Taking the coins first, I put them into the pouch. They fell into the bag as one would expect, but there was no clinking sound like a normal bag. Holding my hand over the bag, an inventory popped up in my vision showing a five-by-five grid. In one of the slots were my copper coins and in another were my silver coins. A little eight in the corner of the copper and fifteen in the corner of the silver coins let me know how many of each I had. So the individual coin types stack but not as a whole for money. Good to know. Time to put all my non-equipped belongings in now. I put in one of the daggers, one of the shortswords, and the spear as well. They all fell in without a sound, which was a little jarring watching the entire spear sink down into the small bag and appear in the grid as an item taking up a slot. This was fantastic. Thinking about the egg for a moment I then realized even if I knew it was safe to put the egg in there, which I did not, it would not fit in the opening. So I nixed that idea for those reasons. Next, I scoured the shelves a bit more but didn't come up with much else. There was a bit of dried jerky of unknown meat origin, and a few water skins that I took and put into the bag of holding. All of those stacked into one slot each as well.
Finding leather sheaths for the swords, I added them to my belt and put the shortswords in as well as secured the egg to my back in a pouch made from some spare leather I found with the cloth I got from the other goblins. With the egg secured to my back like a backpack I could take on and off without harming the egg, I set off back down the corridor I had come through to backtrack to the other direction in the hall, now confident I would not be snuck up on from this direction.