GOBLIN LVL 1
HP: 10/10 (100%)
The name, level, and HP value appeared above the head of the target. I don't have an appraisal skill, so it might just be how things work in this world when someone is up against a monster. . . then again, it could easily be something more complicated.
Regardless, this shouldn't be too bad. It's only level one.
It's proportions made no sense. It had a large head, big stomach with small, skinny legs and long arms. It held a large mace with both hands and it's small, beady eyes stared into mine. It had a long, twisted smile on its face. Without even a moment of hesitation, it charged me.
I dropped the torch on the ground.
My hand reached for the sheet, and quickly untied it. Sadly, I wasn't fast enough, so the Goblin was already at my feet.
"Shit!" I exclaimed.
I stepped back, and I kicked it in the head. It was just like kicking a soccer ball. It flew across the hallway.
Okay, a bit more time to breathe. Good. I grabbed hold of my sword, and held it with both hands. Sweat rolled off of me, but I was able to pull through my anxiety to take a step forward. The Goblin slowly stood up. It looked surprised as it held its hands over its face. But wait. . . something is missing.
Looking down to my feet, I see the mace.
It dropped the mace!
I grabbed it without hesitation, gripping it tightly. I must have kicked it so hard that it lost its grip.
The Goblin must have been terrified after it lost its weapon. Too bad, greenie, you gotta die. Survival of the fittest!
I charged the goblin, it struggled to crawl away, but I stomped its small legs to stop it from moving. My newly acquired mace smashed into its skull, killing it instantly.
After I pumped my fist into the air, finding myself victorious after such an easy opponent. A screen popped up in front of me once again.
EXP: 15 Points
TOTAL EXP: 15/100
+1 Steel Mace
+1 Goblin Ear
+1 Goblin Fang
The voice from before got in my head again.
「New Skill acquired. You have learned Mace Proficiency E LVL 1 .」
I learned a skill by using a weapon only once? Weird. But cool! I got a new skill. So if I killed the Goblin with my sword, then I probably would've gotten Sword Proficiency, then. Well, I can't change the past.
I went back to grab the sheet that held my sword and tied it to my back again. My new mace was then held by the sheet I have around my waist.
Going back to the previous screen, it looked like I got some other items aside from the mace. A Goblin ear and fang. There must be some sort of use for them. Without an appraisal skill, I can't know for sure. So, I slip the materials into my pant pocket.
Without an inventory, I'll quickly lose space to put the materials I get from killing monsters. I'll have to make pouches out of some more sheets.
That'll have to wait, though. I'll focus on leveling up for now, and I'll get rid of any unneeded materials.
Anything that looks good, I'll keep.
I looked down at the Goblin corpse, and as soon as I did, my stomach reacted with a loud groan.
"Shit. . . I really don't want to eat goblin meat. But if I don't, I won't be able to think straight or fight properly. . ."
I was reluctant to grab the body. I don't even have anything to cut it or use to make a fire. If I found some fresh wood, then I could probably make a fire.
There aren't any more options. It's either waiting to find wood to make a fire, or eating the Goblin meat raw.
. . .
Screw it.
I picked up the body and walked into a cell. The door was blown off its hinges, and I sat in the middle of the room.
Apparently, Goblin bodies are incredibly frail. Without much resistance, I was able to tear off its left arm.
God, I hate this idea. It's the worst case scenario. Why did I have to wake up in a prison of all places? I would've been happier in the middle of a forest.
Okay, okay, okay. . . just gotta not think about it, right?
Yeah, just imagine it as some chicken, right?
Gah, this is way too gross.
I took a deep breath. I decided to man up and take a bite out of it. Some of the blood was drained out of it already when I squeezed it. I tore off the meat from its bones, and chewed it thoroughly. Then, I swallowed the piece of meat.
"Hmm. . . actually, not that bad." It wasn't great, but it was serviceable. The meat had sort of a bland taste to it, but that taste let me keep eating the Goblin.
I left the stomach, as I was not about to risk being drenched with Goblin acid.
After walking out the cell, my hand was wrapped around the mace at my hip. The torch from before was still lit, surprisingly, so I picked it back up and decided to take a right, just past the cell I was previously in.
That meat should probably keep me active for about a day or so. That was good enough for me.
But now, I've started to become a little bit more cautious. If there's one monster in this prison, then there are probably hundreds of them. It might just be Goblins in the prison, but they have something that makes up for their lack of intelligence: numbers. In most works of fiction, be it a book, comic, manga, or video game, there is never just one of them in a cave or forest. Most see either three or four in a group. But, my gut is telling me that there are many more of them in here.
Groan. . .
Hack. . .
Graaaahhh. . .
The sounds of the damned ran through the halls once more.
These sounded like Goblins, but there were too many noises for me to count how many were there.
They were getting closer.
With split second thinking, I darted into the closest cell, and hid behind the wall. The torch light was quickly put out with a quick blow of air.
There were Goblins out there, for sure. All of them walked past the cell. Some of them had torches in their hands, others with weapons like daggers, shortswords, maces, flings. A few had bows on them.
Hold on a second.
I spotted a few with cloaks on them. Could there be Goblins that knew magic? I was about to walk out as soon as they left. Suddenly, the ground started to shake. Close behind the Goblins would be something much larger than any of them. It was green, like the rest, but far more muscular, and its proportions were similar to that of a bodybuilder. In its hands would be a large sword. It was longer than it was tall, and the flat of the blade was held over its shoulder. It wore human clothing: a brown tunic with scratched and torn up trousers. It's face was scarred and it had two, large fangs on its lower set of teeth. One was sharp like a dagger, and the other was chipped.
If it can wear human clothing, and wield a weapon like that in a way most strong warriors would, then it probably has some pretty high level of intelligence.
Yeah, definitely not fighting that with a one-handed mace and crappy wooden weapon.
I'll have to make sure they spread out, so I can pick them off and take their weapons. I'll take every weapon they have, and use them against the big guy. Due to his size, coupled with the fact that he's not attacking the Goblins, it's probably safe to assume that he's a Hobgoblin.
In RPGs and fantasy novels, these guys are usually the boss of the tribe. They take control of everything, and lead all the lesser Goblins.
He must be tailing behind to keep them in line. That just proves that they do have higher intelligence. From the looks of it, he even has them in a specific position.
The cloaked Goblins are in the back, most likely for support with Archers in front of them to provide covering fire while the ones wielding melee weapons stayed in front to take care of whatever was in front of them.
I hate to say it, but that is pretty smart.
There's not a doubt in my mind that it knows its way around fighting as well. It probably fought against a few humans as well. That assumption made me cautious of what it can do.
While thinking of my strategy, I got to thinking of a different plan. Previously, I was devising a plan with the goal of killing all the goblins, one-by-one while they were out and about.
But, the idea of waiting for them to get tired and having them lead me to their camp seemed to be a better idea. There, I could find some way to start a fire, and get some water in my body. When they got back to the camp, it was likely that they'd all be tired, so everyone would be asleep. I know not the number of goblins in the camp, but killing the Hobgoblin during its slumber would make fighting them far more manageable. I could get its sword, too.
Alright, I'll just wait it out then. And if any Goblin comes into the cell, I'll kill it and make it look like a suicide after dragging it out into the hall again. Goblins seem to immediately cower in fear when they are alone without weapons, which means that they would probably do anything to get out of a scary situation. So if I played it like it killed itself, then I should probably be in the clear if I make it look believable.
Just gotta pray to whatever God is out there in this world and hope that the big guy doesn't waltz in. If there isn't one here, then I hope that luck is on my side. . .
Wait. . .
I took a quick look at my stats.
. . .
My Luck stat is zero!?
Shit!
Now I'm panicking like crazy. Does this mean that the worst case scenario is more likely to happen now? If it's zero, then that must mean I don't have any luck at all! This might be better than having bad luck, but this means it's all down to chance and probability.
But, the Hobgoblin seems focused only on keeping the Goblins in position, and only allowing them to spread out when he orders them to. So maybe he is less likely to be doing the looking himself?
Yep, the more I thought of this situation, the more I start to panic and get anxious. I knew this would happen the moment I doubted myself and started talking about praying to God and all that.