Zeke blissfully wandered through the forest, the sunlight filtering through the busy treetop and gracing his face with it's welcoming touch. Insects buzzed lazily in relaxing heat and thousands of birds chirped their songs. Each bird had it's own unique sound, but they all melded into one great rhapsody of nature. Zeke normally wasn't a huge fan of the noisy wildlife, although recently he had started to enjoy the little things in life, like sound, any noise really. His memories of yesterday were still fresh and he was doing his best to distract himself with the minor things in life.

While he was strolling through the vibrant woods he happened across a type of berry bush he remembered. It was the bush with the red berries that tasted of water, no flavour but at least they were edible. With a merry smile he plucked the ripe little spheres of happiness from the charitable bush and gleefully enjoyed the texture of the skin as he chewed. From this demeanour alone one may not suspect that this man was on his way to mass murder a large number of goblins, but that was the case.

Zeke was marking a path around the Scarlet Ent's domain, as he now called it, trailblazing a new path to the goblin stream. This time he was leaving a less conspicuous mark to find his way on the tree, he would call a flame and burn a vertical line into the tree. It might sound more obvious than two triangles, but the black burn actually blended in quite well against that already dark brown of the trees. Zeke had another, bigger reason for changing the marking he left, as of recently, Zeke had acquired a somewhat fearful disposition towards triangles in general and especially triangles on trees.

About an hour passed as Zeke leisurely hiked around before the refreshing sound of running water greeted him. He had arrived.

Zeke took in a deep breath and relished the smells of earthy plant life. It was time to do what he does best, introducing his large arsenal of weapons to as many green faces as possible, in the shortness amount of time possible. For the past two days there wasn't so much as single goblin sighting so he was feeling a bit rusty, as if he just took a vacation from work. Albeit, it wasn't the most relaxing vacation, but nevertheless, it gave him a new appreciation for his hobby.

Relaxing thoughts finished, Zeke then adopted a hunter's mindset and his lofty smile fell back into the passive neutral of fierce concerntration.

Crouching down and sticking to the cover of trees, Zeke advanced. The stream came into sight with all it's goblin glory as the many trees parted ways before him. Maybe 'all it's gloy' was an overstatement, there weren't as many goblins as three days ago, but still quite the number, maybe half?

Did they reduce their numbers because of the Scarlet Ent?

They must have thought I died to it, or that maybe the Ent was keeping them safe from me, Zeke thought.

Funny, the Ent was really only killing the goblins and keeping me safe. Well it did nearly catch me, but let's not think about that, the sooner I forget the better.

The total number of goblins hunting by the stream was about 40, from the once 80 they had. The hunting parties were comprised of weaker goblins and much to Zeke's dissipointment the patrolling party with the goblin mage was nowhere to be seen. He really wanted to get his hands on the magical staff and study it, unraveling the secrets within.

Despite the lack of a mage Zeke retained his moral, the forces before him should be child's play, He guessed all 40 goblins here at the stream would only be slightly stronger than the 10 elite goblins he fought in the forest. Back then Zeke didn't even have offensive magic!

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

But now that he thought about it, he had fought the sword goblin unit exactly where that Ent was currently sitting/standing/living. That lump in his stomach returned at the thought. He really was responsible for that twisted almalgamation of hatred wasnt he? Oh well, problems for another day, I just wish it would stop dominating my every waking moment.

With a much more solemn attitude Zeke stalked his way closer to a pack of goblins.

Several goblins were crowding around a collapsed, but still breathing bog, chuckling visciously as they hacked away at the helpless limbs with their dull stone weapons, the bog could only watch faintly as it's limbs were ruthlessly removed from it's body. Four more goblins were strewn across the battlefield with mangled arms and legs from when they were unable to dodge. Zeke was sure that one of the unmoving bodies was really dead, as a thick pool of pale blood puddled around it's unnaturaly twisted head.

So really all Zeke had to do was kill the seven that were crowded up, then put the straglers out of their misery. Good thing, he had just the right plan of achieving this.

Zeke inched closer, crawling with the many insects in the grass as he made his way behind the closest tree to the unsuspecting goblins. Once he made it to the tree he slowly slid his back up the trunk as he stood while remaining dead silent. It was a bit overkill to be so sneaky for the less perceptive goblins, but Zeke took the precautions anyway.

Now that he was standing upright, he summoned forth his majestic blue fire and a small flame danced in his palm that grew as he fed it his mana. 10 mana gone and it was fist-sized, 5 more mana and a head-sized ball of flames waited patiently to be unleashed. For the moment it was still at a lower than expected temperature, but once he threw it he would crank it up at the cost of more mana. It was just easier to concentrate on casting his spells if the spell wasn't burning his arms while he manipulated it.

Preparations complete, he stepped out from cover and thrusted his hand at the crowded group while he increased the flame temperature, the fireball flying at a perfect trajectory. The flames themselves made no sound, but the unreal spectrum of blue that painted over the forest greens alerted the goblins to the strange magic. What they saw was the sight of their impending doom.

The fireball made contact with the targets just seconds after release and a silent explosion lit up the area in blue flames. All seven of the goblin were hit in some way or another and they screamed desperately as the super-heated fire burnt into their flesh. Many of them rolled on the ground in attempt to extinguish the fire and one goblin actually had the intelligence to jump into the water, but it was all futile as the persistent magic continued to burn.

Zeke briskly ran towards the engulfed goblins, a few of the unlucky ones who took the brunt of the hit were already dead, but the others clawed furiously at their own charred skin. In all of Zeke's boundless mercy, he promptly finished off the pleading goblins with his battle worn club and extended that same mercy to the already incapacitated goblins too. The ambush was over instantly.

In just 5 seconds, Zeke had killed all 10 goblins as if it were as easy as cleaning his clothes.

+ Bludgeoner has reached level 2, New skill awarded

+ 1 Attribute Point

+ Skill Earned: Harden

A new skill huh? For something as early as level 2? Also a single attribute point, which isn't much for me but still good, better use it now before I forget later, like usual.

+ 1 Affinity (29)

"Status"

Zeke Level 8, Survivor

Health: 224/224

Mana: 49/51

Skills: Avarice, Blood Regeneration, Mana Concealment, Fireball, Harden

Classes: Spearman 1, Bludgeoner 2

Zeke focused his thoughts on the new ability to conjure the infomation on it.

Skill: Harden

By pouring mana into a weapon, one can give a minor increase to the weapon's durability for a short amount of time.

Such a simple thing, fairly useful too, considering the state of my club, in fact, its almost perfect to have at the moment, he thought to himself.

"Harden" Zeke chanted while examining his club.

He felt a bit of mana leave him, about 8 or 9, the club shone briefly with blue light and then returned to it's deep brown. It was a little expensive, almost as much as a regular fireball, but hopefully it was worth the cost. He gave the club a few test swings into the vacant air. It hadn't gained any weight, or feel any different in his grip, so he walked up the closest tree.

"Please don't break on me" he nicely asked the club in his hand as he drew it back.

With that, Zeke gave the old branch a serious slam into the tree's side.

He felt the club creak in his hands in protest to hitting such a solid thing, but it still remained in one piece, proving the Harden had lived up to it's promise. Zeke inspected the tree to find the bark had been obliterated where he struck, his club however, seemed to have only gained another few splinters. Satisfied with the test, he let out a pent up breathe. It would of been really sad if the club broke, the weapon had saved his life many times in the past and he didn't want to snap it doing something stupid. It was like a comrade to Zeke, the only thing in his life that had survived through everything he's been through.

He gave his classes another look over and decided that Spearman would be the next to level. He only had three spears at the moment so he would throw two and stab with the other, hopefully collecting the thrown ones later. Leveling his Spearman class next would be a good way if seeing if the benefits gained were the same across all classes. Would he get a new skill and attribute point at level 2? Hopefully.

While thinking these things, Zeke walked from corpse to corpse and activated Avarice, it had been a while since he'd used the skill, which was a shame because it was so god-damn powerful, stupidly unfair really.

+1 Agility (29)

+1 Endurance (36)

+1 Strength (46)

Three out of ten, 'not bad' Zeke hummed in content.

Time to get some more.