Here’s the problem – I have no way of killing that party of 5 in front of the bagel cafe entrance in a face-to-face conflict. There’s too many of them and they’re far too well armed.
But that doesn’t mean I need to confront them in the first place. I set down the final piece of my trap, going over the plan in my hand once more to make sure I didn’t mess anything up.
I’d start by picking off the goblin carrying the bow with my own – I couldn’t risk having him shoot me right at the start. Once he’s killed, it’s a certainty that his mates would come after me to enact revenge, but the bow would give me enough of a head start to proceed to the second part of my plan.
A tripwire was set up to dump bleach and ammonia gas onto them from above, which would expose them to a high enough concentration of chlorine gas to kill them; or at the very least, incapacitate them. I shuddered a bit at the plan. Toxic gas was… well, a bit extreme. Based on what I learned about it, it caused nothing less than agonizing pain, flooding of the lungs, and – obviously – eventual death.
If there is a god (s)?, I could only pray that he’d understand why I took such drastic measures.
After doing a quick check on the working parts of the plan while keeping a wary eye out for other enemies, I readied my bow, drawing back while taking a deep breath in…
Twing!
The shot was perfect – it sailed through the air, coming to a complete stop after firmly implanting itself into the skull of the goblin bowman.
Bullseye!
Once noticing the arrow imbedded in their archer’s forehead, the goblins immediately turned to face down the hall in my direction. I stood there for a handful of seconds, allowing them to narrow their vision onto me – and just as I planned, I could hear their guttural cries of anger while they bull-rushed towards where I stood not a second ago – but also felt the whisper of a dagger right beside my ear the moment I turned, almost splitting my ear in two.
‘Now!’
I turned and ran down the hallway, feeling the rush of adrenaline course through my veins. I only had one shot at veering them into the room with the trap set up – one tiny mistake would cost me my life.
Shooting into the classroom at full speed, I immediately stopped and hid right beside the doorway, desperately trying to slow my breathing. Any further and I would’ve tripped the wire set right between two chairs I’d placed earlier, which was connected to two garbage cans filled with the liquids.
Right on cue, the monsters crashed into the room without noticing me, almost running each other over with their momentum – one goblin tripped and slammed into the far wall, immediately triggering the wire. With sweat dripping from my forehead and slick hands, I quickly slipped out of the room while slamming the door shut, making sure to lock the door from the inside with the lock button on the handle and additionally secured it on the outside with my belt. The door immediately shuddered, shaking as the force of multiple hands began smashing against it from the inside accompanied by horrible, blood chilling screams.
It didn’t take long for the banging and screams to stop, replaced by the quiet gasps of mouths desperately trying to suck in air - only to find the suffocating and burning pain of gas. It was impossible for them to survive for too long, as I had blocked off all vents in the room to prevent gas from going in or out. Desperate to get out, the goblins still left standing could be heard throwing their bodies at the door with their last bits of remaining strength – but to no avail.
Silence filled the air, eventually disturbed by the sound of pinging.
[You have slain: Goblins (Lv. 3, 4, 4, 5)]
[You have reached: Level 4]
[Gained: 4 Attribute Points | 4 Skill Points]
[Would you like to spend points now? Y | N ]
Holy crap: I gained 2 levels in one move! I even had 4 more attribute points to play with – that was huge!
Feeling much better than I had just a moment ago, I quickly pulled up the attribute menu.
[Class Selection: Locked]
[Primary Attributes Selection]
[Strength: 4/20] [Add +1]
[Agility: 11/20] [Add +1]
[Constitution: 5/20] [Add +1]
[Wisdom: 3/20] [Add +1]
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[Intelligence: 8/20] [Add +1]
[Charisma: 3/20] [Add +1]
[Secondary Attributes Selection: Locked]
My agility was high enough for the time being, although putting additional points wouldn’t necessarily hurt it either. It did, however, seem like a bit of a waste, considering how lacking my other stats were. After pondering for a bit more, I decided to allocate 4 additional points into strength, and another point into agility.
[Strength: 6/20]
[Agility: 12/20]
Just as how I’d increased in agility, I could physically feel my muscles growing tougher, stronger – almost as if I’d worked out for weeks on end without the strain of actual physical labor. Although the feeling wasn’t unpleasant per se, I didn’t know how to feel about these changes to my body. Even if I did increase to the highest level, I wouldn’t have adapted to using that strength to its fullest potential as if I’d actually gained it over time. But having a bit more never hurt.
Smiling in satisfaction, I took a moment to look back into the room with the now-deceased goblins. All of the lost gear was a shame, but it wasn’t as if I had other people to equip with weapons for the time being. Additionally, I had a greater insight into how the goblins operated and fought – they were physically strong and quick but lacked critical thinking abilities to fully plan a good course of action.
Yet something didn’t feel right, despite the plan working flawlessly. It wasn’t the moral or ethical dilemma I had about the gas or killing the goblins, nor was it the loss of the gear. Just what could it be? I quickly traced my steps back, thinking about what had just happened…
My eyes opened in shock, remembering what I had seen. There had only been four confirmed kills! I looked back into the room through the window on the door and saw a figure charge right towards -
BANG!
I dived out from the doorway, feeling the chunks of wood flying and hitting my legs. I had just barely made it out – one second more and I would have been trampled!
Quickly getting my bearings, I stood up to face the tall, angered goblin. It was clear he’d been affected by the gas - not only did he excrete copious amounts of drool and snot drained out of his nose, but he was covering his eyes, swinging wildly at anything in his vicinity. Feeling dread wash over me despite his condition, I briefly considered my options and their consequences. I could choose to run now right to the bagel cafe door, but there was no guarantee that they would let me in. Also, who was to say that he wouldn’t heal right back up and come after me with some new friends?
I charged in with my dagger, feeling its cool leather handle rest on my palm – I could almost hear it call my name, demanding me to spill the goblin’s blood. I swung upwards with as much force as I could muster, feeling the dagger bite and rip into the tall goblin’s bicep as he lashed out towards the sound of my footsteps. He roared in anger, swinging his other arm blindly overhead towards where I stood not a second ago– but I had already rolled forwards, hearing the floor crack under the strength of his attack. I lashed out again, this time aiming for his spinal cord. Despite his blindness, the goblin turned immediately, deflecting my stab with his iron gauntlet, its force almost launching the dagger out of my hand – and countered quickly with a punch, almost threatening to take my head off, but found nothing but the hood of my sweatshirt. Dashing around to the other side, I feigned an attack above, but immediately dashed below – and the goblin responded to the upwards feign, swinging his beefy arm around but smashed into the door frame.
Feeling the moment of opportunity, I made a fast swing towards the goblin’s Achilles tendon, feeling the blade slice through without resistance - severing its ability to stand up on its leg. It crumpled immediately, wailing in pain as blood poured from the cut, but still madly swung around its arms, almost taking off my head in the process. I stood back, letting the goblin swing ferociously while hopping on one leg, waiting for an opportunity to strike once more. The opportunity came as he left his back open, allowing me to dash in and slit his throat, but not before catching a fist into my sternum.
The impact threw me back, driving out all of the air left in my lungs. In the midst of my wheezing for breath, I watched with small satisfaction as the goblin’s movements slowed, the fire in his blinded eyes dimming with the smother of death – and eventually slumped over, blood pooling around from its slit throat.
Had I done it? Would it stand once more to grind my bones into dust?
Ding!
[You have slain: Mauler Goblin (Lv. 7)]
[You have reached: Level 5]
[Gained: 2 Attribute Points | 2 Skill Points]
[Would you like to spend points now? Y | N ]
Taking a moment to catch my breath and relishing the sweet, sweet moment of victory, I opened the menu to use the skill points. My eyes drifted over to strength once more, considering investing the two points I had to bring it to a total of 8. It would be worth it if I could – wait, what happened to my wisdom level?
[Wisdom: 4/20] [Add +1]
‘Did my wisdom level… go up?’
None of my attribute points had been used into wisdom – just how did it manage to go up by one point? Could it have been some sort of error? No skin off my back if it was, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what had caused it to change.
After eyeing the rest of my attributes, sighing at how low they were, I dumped the rest of my points into intelligence which brought it up to 10/20. It did feel like a bit of a waste – but considering how much I’ve been using my brain, I’d take as much brain power as I could get.
Standing up with great difficulty, I looted the iron greaves and gauntlets from the mauler goblin. Both were a little bit big on me, but were a huge step up from wearing normal clothes – and I was grateful for the added protection. Despite how much difficulty the goblin gave me, I felt a deep sense of respect for it – it had used every bit of strength it could to take me down, despite being blinded and burnt from the gas. That much I could respect.
I came up to the bagel cafe door, feeling the exertion from the battle – adrenaline had long since dissipated from my bloodstream, leaving me nothing but sore muscles and aching lungs. Despite this, I knocked on the door multiple times, hoping to see a friendly human face right away.
Nothing response from the inside.
Frustrated, I started to bang on the door – there must have been somebody inside the café , considering how the goblins had stood guard outside. Yet, nobody responded to my repeated banging. I grabbed the handle, considering smashing it to open the lock.
Eh? The door was open?
I swung the door open with my bag in hand, ready to loot whatever food was left in the café. I could already taste the delicious bagels inside, especially their soft, exquisite blueberry muffins…!
The last thing I saw was a pair of frightened doe eyes glancing at me behind a flipped table.