Kazimir followed the short figure of the Goblin through the forest. He kept watch over his surroundings, and realized that none of the plants or animals looked familiar. The trees were slightly different from what he'd seen in his past, and even the grass looked like it was shaped differently compared to the forests of his old world.
The small critters in the trees, and birds in the sky were different.
Kazimir noticed flowers and other types of plants that had no business growing in a forest like this. This world's plants did not grow according to his previous world's knowledge.
He thought, maybe the difference in ecology is the reason my Survival skill is so low in level. This point wasn't clear up, but thinking so made him feel a little better about himself.
His grandfather had tried to prepare him as much as possible, drilling him on botany, carpentry, and tool making knowledge that would be useful. It pained Kazimir to think that all those hours spent on studying botany might be wasted.
As he followed the small goblin, he started noticing movement in their surroundings. The goblin Obie, who was chattering all this time, noticed the weird atmosphere surrounding them. He finally shut his trap, and started nervously scanning their surroundings.
Kazimir drew out the makeshift spear, and got into a combat ready stance. He stepped away from Obie, unsure if this was an ambush for him alone or if it was for the both of them.
"Ga-graaaahh!" A growling, dog-head humanoid jumped out and swung a club at Kazimir, right as another dog-head with a spear charged at Obie.
Kazimir avoided the club in a flowing motion using circular footwork. With a twist of his body, he caught the momentum from dodging the club and used it to throw the spear to the side, right at the dog-head targeting Obie.
*Thwock!*
The spear hit the dog-head in the chest. The powerful throw lifted its body off the ground. Blood spurted out as it fell, completely lifeless. Obie yelped in fear, and went to run away. He tripped and fell to the ground as he made to escape in a panic.
Another dog-head appeared behind Kazimir and ran at him, this one carried a rusted short sword.
Taking advantage of Kazimir turning away, the club wielding dog-head tried to hit him again.
These are called... Kobolds.
This thought without tension appeared during combat. Kazimir wasn't pressured much by this fight. He had enough leeway to think about and identify his new enemies.
He stepped closer than the striking range of the club as the kobold charged, making the strike ineffective. The kobold flinched as it wasn't expecting its unarmed opponent to meet it head on.
Sliding in, Kazimir grabbed the arm holding the club, and executed a skillful over the shoulder hip throw while still maintaining his grip on its arm. He aimed this throw at the Kobold with the sword.
*Crash!*
The kobolds were slammed heavily to the ground, their bodies entangled. One of them dropped the club from its arm that was now connected at an unnatural angle. The other was stunned by the hit and hadn't recovered yet. Kazimir recalled the dagger that he had at his waist, took it out with his free hand, and swung the dagger in a downward arc. Two bodies were relieved of their dog-heads and hot blood sprayed out.
In the moment that the Kobolds died, Kazimir felt a warm energy flush through his whole body. The feeling only lasted a moment. He was feeling vitalized and couldn't detect any fatigue from this skirmish after the feeling passed.
He looked around and saw that there weren't any more enemies, he cleaned off the dagger and picked up the short sword and the Kobold's spear, which was sturdier and sharper than the goblin one.
Obie popped his head up, and seeing that the situation was resolved, he let out a deep breath.
"Sahnk yoo! Ay almoss dieded!" (Thank you! I almost died!)
Kazimir looked over the small goblin, "You look fine so get up, we need to continue on."
"Veight, letss ghet the bodies, eets good meet." (Wait, lets get the bodies, it's good meat.) Obie walked to one of the kobold bodies and expectantly stared at Kazimir.
*sigh*
"Okay, I'll release your restraints so you can grab one, but don't try anything funny." Kazimir considered the goblin's request, walked to its side and undid the bindings.
After seeing him fight, Obie's opinion of this human had improved. This human was a powerful warrior that could kill three dog-heads by himself. He even bested two of them barehanded and made it look easy! Rather than scheming to kill him, Obie now thought that this human may have other uses.
"All goblins will liek se meet, all villaj will be thankvul." (All goblins will like the meat, all village will be thankful.)
"Will they like it enough to forget about your two dead friends, the ones we left behind us?" Kazimir snorted in disdain at this unlikely thought.
"Yesss! Meet iz mor importand zan goblins. Dogg-hed act like the own se forrest, so goblins kant ghet food, an many goblins died. Even yung goblins die from lak of fud. Yoo get food and kil dogg-heds, thhe villaj wil like you!" (Yes! Meat is more important than goblins. Dog-heads act like they own the forest, so goblins cant get food, and many goblins died. Even young goblins die from lack of food. You get food and kill dog-heads, the village will like you.)
This was true, the two that died were just his bodyguards. They were poor hunters, and ate more than they contributed. Obie wasn't thinking of their deaths as a loss.
Kazimir released Obie's bindings. He felt more confident now that he had a sturdy spear and a metal sword.
With his arms untied, Obie was barely able to lift up the lightest of the kobolds. Kazimir had a smile on his face at seeing the goblin struggle to pick up the kobold which was bigger than itself. He grabbed another body, which luckily was not bleeding much. His smile soured and he wrinkled his nose as the wet dog smell from the Kobolds assaulted his nostrils. He checked the last body that they would be leaving behind, but didn't find anything else useful.
"Are the Kobolds individually stronger than your village, or are there more of them? Why they act like they own the forest?"
"Both mor annd sey ar stronger zan mai villahge. Dogg-hedz are fastr and stronger san goblins." (Both more and they are stronger than my village. Dog-heads are faster and stronger than goblins.)
Despite Obie's high estimate of their abilities, the Kobolds seemed to be weaker than the average casual martial artist from the previous world. Kazimir thought about how good it was that his martial arts techniques were so effective in this world.
Kazimir had great difficulty decoding each thing Obie said due to the bad pronunciation and Obie's fast rate of speech, so he commented "Take your time with speaking Common. It's a little hard to understand you."
"Z- Sorry about id. Ay- I vill try harter." (Sorry about it, I will try harder.)
"Well, don't worry about it too much, just speak slower."
As the two were walking, the small figure kept making small talk about every little thing it saw. Also, all the different ways that a Kobold could be cooked. Kazimir had eaten dog meat stew in a specialty restaurant in his past world, but no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't imagine eating a humanoid creature like a Kobold.
'Oh yeah, I killed a few creatures and there was that unusual feeling too. I wonder if I leveled up?' Once this though popped up in Kazimir's head, he got excited.
"[Status]" once again a transparent status page appeared in Kazimir's sight.
"V-what?"
"Nothing."
Name: Kazimir Lin
Race: Human
Level: 3 Class: N/A
Strength: 7 [+]
Agility: 8 [+]
Vitality: 6 [+]
Intelligence: 6 [+]
Spirit: 1 [ ]
Unassigned points: <2>
Titles: N/A
Skills:
Kazimir had a depressed expression on his face. He leveled up, but only got 1 attribute point per level up. Who's ever heard of an RPG so stingy with its rewards!? What kind of cheap bastard of a system is this?! Furthermore, the smallest stat (Spirit) couldn't even be increased. After a quick deliberation, Kazimir decided to hold off on using his points until he really need to improve himself.
Kazimir was looking forward to meeting enemies so strong that he would need his attributes increased to challenge them.
"Hey Obie."
The goblin looked back at Kazimir in question.
"Besides kobolds, are there any other opponents that give your village trouble?"
"Ze- there are other goblin villajes. Lizardheads in ze forres svamp. Also, ogres live hai in mountainz." (There are other goblin villages. Lizard-heads in the forest's swamp. Also, ogres live high in the mountains.)
"Ok, sounds like I should be fine for now." Obie gave him very general info, so Kazimir took the given info with a grain of salt.
"Oh yehh, v-what isz yu-your name?" (Oh yeah, what is your name?)
"...Kazimir."
"Kasi-, kazir... ?"
"You can just call me Kaz."
"Kaz... Yu-your name isz wird." (Kaz... Your name is weird.)
"At least you could say my name, yours was weirder."
The two continued on through the forest together.