Chapter 4

Five more.

Five more bodies were left scattered around the orb, each with distinguishable slash marks around their throats.

At the center stood a lone figure, panting from the exertion of the battles.

Unbeknownst to him, a halo of light emerged from the smoke – and came to rest on top of his head.

…..

[You have slain: Goblin (Lv. 2)]

[Gained: +445/455 XP]

“Damn it!”

I was so close to hitting level 3 – all I needed was 10 more points! Chewing my lower lip in frustration, I pulled up my attribute window.

[Class Selection: Locked]

[Primary Attributes Selection]

[Strength: 4/20] [Add +1]

[Agility: 8/20] [Add +1]

[Constitution: 5/20] [Add +1]

[Wisdom: 3/20] [Add +1]

[Intelligence: 8/20] [Add +1]

[Charisma: 3/20] [Add +1]

[Secondary Attributes Selection: Locked]

[Attribute Points Remaining: 1]

While my stats hadn’t changed much, I’d previously invested another precious attribute point into the strength category as another goblin had come close to beating me in a hand-to-hand scuffle… which was far more embarrassing than I’d care to admit.

At least I had some decent gear to work with now. The other goblins had dropped a wide range of weapons, ranging from clubs, swords, and a bow with arrows which I had slung over my shoulder. The sword was definitely the weapon that I was most familiar with - after all, who hasn’t watched medieval movies of big, burly men swinging their blades against one another? The only issue was – surprise, surprise! – my strength level.

Besides the weapons, one robe-wearing goblin (a mage?) had dropped a scroll written with a language that resembled Egyptian hieroglyphics – useless, since I couldn’t read it. Regardless, I stashed it into my jacket pocket hoping it’d be worth something later.

After lounging around for a bit, the orb began flashing once more, signaling a new goblin spawn. I had already figured out that the orb was clearly a goblin spawner, and it did so in regular intervals. The only unfortunate part was that it only spawned one goblin every few minutes, placing a cap on how many I could kill to level up – which I suspected that my presence in the room had something to do with.

Dispatching the goblin quickly and finally reaching Level 3, I quickly dumped my remaining 3 attribute points into Agility (11/20). After some research, I had found out that agility not only had improved my reflexes and speed, but also my accuracy with weapons – and especially the bow, a weapon I was starting to really warm up to. More importantly, I felt confident in handling myself against these little buggers.

But that orc… How was I going to kill that orc?

I had only seen it for a handful of seconds, but it was enough to know that it would easily flatten me into the ground. Relying on my strength was out of the question. However, I had confidence that I’d be able to outpace it, maybe run away until I could get out of the building – but I’d need to distract it first before it could target me.

I didn’t have any tools that could provide reliable sources of distraction. I could use my phone and slide it out through the doorway, but that would only buy me a handful of seconds – not to mention that I didn’t want to throw my phone away, just in case I could find a way to contact the authorities.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Then it hit me – I could use fire!

I quickly got to work cutting up the carpet on the ground, separating them into small, throwable rolled up segments. Since I had a lighter in my pocket, I could light them on fire and throw them at the orc’s eyes. Throwing them on the run would hopefully buy me a few precious seconds that I would need to run to the exit.

After readying my bow and dagger and tucking the rest of the goblin’s weaponry in a corner, I counted to three.

‘One… two… three!’

Dashing out of the room, I readied my carpet strips, wildly looking around for the orc’s massive body, charging at…

Wait, where was it? The orc I had seen was nowhere to be found besides the carnage it had left. It was beyond gruesome - almost all of the bodies strewn around were unrecognizable, crumpled and smashed with body parts and innards left lying across the hall.

That could only mean one thing – the spawners weren’t only limited to the room I was in, and those creatures had already spilled out into the rest of the building. But where on earth were the authorities and all of the security guards posted throughout the building? Had they just ran away?

Forcing myself to look away, I slowly began sneaking towards the exit closest to me.

My suspicions of the guards were unconfirmed as I slowly creeped through the hallway towards the nearest exit, careful to avoid making any sound that could draw attention to my position. The telltale outfit the security guards wore was present on one of the corpses – he had been killed before he could use his taser or his baton, although I doubted either one would deal much damage. However, both might be of some use later, so I stuffed them both into a backpack I had found on my journey. I started moving on, closing my eyes every time I came across another body – but taking a few seconds to search their corpses as well, praying that their souls would understand why I was disrespecting their belongings.

I could almost feel joy bursting out of my chest as I inched closer and closer to the East exit, knowing that I was just a few moments away from escaping this terrible nightmare. Just a few more minutes and all of this is over.

“N-no, get away from me! Help, somebody please help me!” A panicking voice screamed, coming from the steps next to me.

I swore, almost tripping over a potted plant. The voice was bound to draw monsters this way to the stairway, if there were any nearby. It shouldn’t be too bad of a situation though; I could easily just hide down the stairs into the basement since they’d be going upstairs…

Curse my soft heart! Yes, I knew it’s suicidal to go up there by my lonesome to save a single person – but I knew my consciousness would scream at me from this moment forward if I didn’t do anything. Scrambling up the stairs while gripping the carpet strips, I started sprinting towards where the voice had been. If I could just get there before the other monsters, I might be able to save them and get them out of there before –

“Agh!”

Swerving to the side at the very last moment to avoid splitting my head into two pieces, I collided with what felt to be a two-ton tank. Immediately turning around, I glanced at what I had almost run over.

Two piercing blue eyes surrounded by a golden, long hair stared back, eyes highlighted with fear.

“Thank god! You’ve got to get me out of here!” She said with relief palpable in her voice.

Immediately acting, I grabbed her hand and slung her with me to the janitor’s closet next to us, shutting the door as quickly as possible without making noise. At the same time, I sealed my hand around her lips.

“Mmph-“

“Be quiet,” I hissed into her ear, “You’re going to get us both killed!”

With realization dawning on her face, she thankfully stopped struggling allowing me to put my hand down. Multiple heavy footsteps thundered past the door, one even brushing past the door – even that minimal force caused the supply shelves to rattle.

After what felt like years, the sounds of footsteps and growling eventually subsided, allowing us to breath sighs of relief despite the light pattering of feet that could be heard outside. While calming my breathing, I assessed at the small broom closet I’d thrown us both into.

It was like any other storage closet, with brooms, mops, a shelf holding a variety of cleaning chemicals, and a spigot on the far wall. Mercifully the spigot was in functioning order, allowing me to take sips of water to calm my rising thirst – it had been hours since I last had a drink of water. After relaxing a bit more, I looked at the girl once more.

The same blue eyes were observing me, friendly enough but were hesitant to meet my eyes.

“Thank you…” she whispered, her voice trailing off at the end.

I nodded, still trying to think of something comforting to say.

“Sure, I heard you call out for help. Are you hurt at all?”

“A-a tiny bit, but nothing too bad. I think I sprained my ankle…”

I looked over, grabbing her ankle to take a closer look at it. She whimpered a bit in pain, pulling her leg back.

“Oh…! Sorry, I didn’t mean to… I mean, I want to take a closer look at…”

Ugh. I sighed, trying to slow my thoughts.

“Sorry, I’m just trying to get a closer look at your ankle. Could I take a look at it? I promise I’m not going to hurt you.”

She nodded tentatively, extending her leg out so I could take a better look.

It was definitely sprained given its swelling, but thankfully didn’t appear to be broken. Not that I would really know.

“It doesn’t look broken, but you’re going to need to reinforce your ankle with something. Maybe…”

While there weren’t any splints in the room, it wouldn’t be too difficult to craft one. I grabbed a thin mop handle, slowly sawing it with my dagger so not to draw attention. I additionally braided the thin mop strands into a few sections of rope, tying the cut mop handle to her ankle.

“Can you move around a bit?” I asked quietly.

She stood and walked around with a slight limp but didn’t seem to struggle too much. Sighing a breath of relief, she sat down again.

“Thank you… that feels a lot better.” She whispered.

I nodded. Both of us sat there in awkward silence, listening carefully for any more footsteps. They gradually receded, leaving the room completely silent.

Pensively staring at her after the sounds completely subsided, I asked the question I’d been dying to know the answer to.

“What the hell happened?”