A pair of deer bounded away from the water's edge as Zeke walked to the kills he made earlier, they ran with an unexpected speed and dexterity through the tightly packed trees. A verdant rhino just gave the stink-eye as Zeke hovered over and Avarice'd the evil green goblins. The bogs of course, were oblivious to anything not within 10cm of their face as per usual. Zeke noted how the fast-paced stream was so calm and soothing without any goblin presence. Except the several goblin corpses on the bank, but they weren't disrupting the wildlife so they didn't count.

+1 Strength (53)

+1 Affinity (30)

+2 Agility (33)

The series of lucky Avarices reminded Zeke of the 4 free attribute points he earned from leveling up to 9, and leveling his class. It was a toss up between affinity and agility, either more stabbing finesse and speed, or more fireballs. Zeke ending up going with affinity because he already outclassed the goblins in speed, an extra fireball or two could possibly eliminate several goblins at a time.

+4 Affinity (34)

In all honesty, physical attributes and their capabilities paled in comparison to magic.

A fighter with 20 strength, 20 endurance, and 20 agility would fall to a mage with only 20 affinity in terms of firepower. The only hope for the fighter would be to dodge the mage's attack, then the mage would be a weaponless. It was only just now, did Zeke realize the weakness of mages, they were essentially glass cannons, something that wouldn't affect Zeke because of Avarice supplementing his stats across the board. With that line of thinking, maybe investing all his stat points into affinity and intelligence was the most efficient option? Questions for another day he thought dismissively.

Finished with the power stealing Zeke then waded through the cool stream as the golden fish nibbled his exposed skin. The nibbling fish brought back fond memories of the grilled fish he cooked a couple of nights ago, making him hungry for more. But that would have to wait, there were tracks to be followed and goblins to be raided. Since the time he last fought a few hours ago, Zeke's health had healed back to 90% with Blood Regenerations help, all the cuts and bruises, and even the broken ribs were now just ignorable aches and pains. His mana was only at the meager amount of 27 out of the new capacity of 65, courtesy of his Mana Concealment's recovery drawback, hopefully it would recover more as he followed the well-traveled hunting path.

As Zeke was trailing the path he noticed few dead goblin bodies that were collecting insects next to the dirt path. It was clear to Zeke that any mortally injured goblins were abandoned by the rest, not worth saving in their eyes. It was more evident by the fact that dried blood stains indicated that they were kicked into the bushes to die alone.

The path came to a t-section after a few more minutes of walking, another path like the one Zeke was on joined into a wider, heavily-trodden road of sorts. Zeke chose the larger path, guessing the smaller one would lead to another area where the goblins hunted for food and/or materials. While tempting, today was a day for true revenge, not a some minor battle.

More and more decomposing goblins piled up alongside the path's edge, the rancid smell was like a knife to the brain, it was that bad. Zeke already knew goblins had a tendency to ignore personal hygiene, almost making an effort to smell like shit, but these corpses were something else... perhaps the 'aroma' was a first line of defence against invaders? Regardless, Zeke made an effort to breathe through his nose, it was painful, but he had to get used to it a one point.

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It was quite ironic how large goblin noses were.

Zeke swam through the physical stench, he wasn't sure how far away the end of the road was, but if the widening of the path was any clue, he must be getting close. Just as Zeke began to reconsider his purpose in life, a small group of goblins rounded the corner up ahead, exactly 6 normal green goblins, no hobgoblins.

Zeke dived into the treeline of rotten skeletons, narrowly avoiding the eyesight of the bumbling gobs. There was a loud squelch as maggot infested flesh squished underfoot, it was now, Zeke was glad he chose to endure the smell earlier without covering his mouth, because it was ten times worse right next to the source. Thankfully, the adrenaline of a brewing fight was enough for Zeke to hold down his stomach.

He waited patiently as the six goblins pushed and shoved each other as the walked, in a semblance of comradery. They walked past Zeke's hiding place without a care in the word, Zeke was glad that his total annihilation of the hunting army hadn't been reported as of yet. He gave the passing goblins a 2 minute grace period before leaving the trees, just to make sure there were no more following.

Zeke broke into a light jog after the goblins, being mindful of his footing as to catch them unawares, It only took 20 seconds to catch up.

Zeke slowed down to a fast walk as he drew the first javelin, after all, there was nothing wrong with a little target practice. Throwing the spear Zeke did his best to hush the sounds of his physical exertion, as soon as the javelin left his finger tips he reach for the second. As soon as the second was thrown, out came the third.

Three of the six goblins instantly dropped dead with huge javelins sticking out of their abdomens, another one was hit over the head with a metal club, accompanied by grinning Zeke. The last two ran in fear, one up the path, and one down the path, tears streaming down their ugly noses and dripping off like a leaky faucet.

Zeke walked over to the dead goblins and retrieved a javelin from the lifeless torso and sniped down the goblin that had ran towards the stream. Zeke then reclaimed the last two javelins and returned them to their sheath as he ran after the last goblin. He was going in that direction anyway, so he could just finish it in a drive-by clubbing.

The poor goblin tripped and fell over it's own clumsy feet, it didn't even make it 20 meters away before Zeke bashed in it's frantic figure.

Zeke was immensely satisfied by the performance of his new metal club after this little test run. It was much heavier than the branch, like comparing a stone to a boulder, but Zeke's high strength had no problems with the extra weight, in fact, he liked the little 'omphf' to each swing. If there was one issue, it was the length, it was a little too short for a human. For a hobgoblin is was perfect... for Zeke it was more akin to a large hammer. Still, an upgrade was an upgrade, he would take what he could get, not to mention that killing things with their own things had a certain charm to it.

Zeke then chastised himself for not avarice'ing the six goblins, he completely forgot about it, too immersed with ambush. He didn't turn back though, he'd already covered a fair distance.

Zeke's idling thoughts were pushed aside when a menacing wall of sharpened logs came to view at the end of the path. The was a narrow gap in the 2 meter high upright logs that denoted the entrance to whatever this place was, and guarding the entrance was a single hobgoblin. It was 'supposed' to be watching the entrance from any invaders, but fortunately for Zeke it was sitting on the ground with its eyes closed in blissful rest.

Normally this would be considered a lucky break to most... to Zeke... it was an insult.

Do they really think I'd be unable to reach this far?

Am I really that little of a threat?

Peaceful enough to sleep on the job, huh?

These were the fleeting thoughts that rushed through Zeke's scowling face as he marched directly to the sleeping goblin, all pretenses of stealth forgotten. Not that he'd admit it, but, provocation was extremely effective against Zeke, intentional or not, and especially from goblins.

Zeke stood over the sleeping guard, casting a shadow over it's resting face that seemed to disturb whatever dream it was having. Not once did Zeke even take notice of his surroundings, for all he knew there were 10 more goblins waiting right around the gate, not that it was important right now.

The hobgoblins eyes fluttered opened in sleepy delirium to Zeke's looming stance, just in time to receive a full strength solid metal ball of death to the side of it's face, sending it rag dolling to the side of the entrance.

"Now you have my permission to sleep" Zeke growled at the limp hobgoblin with blood seeping from it's mouth.

Without a second thought, Zeke turned to the wooden gate and waltzed right in, fuming in anger and ready to take it out on some more goblin scum.

The belly of the beast, the goblin village.