The young goblin eyes were fixated at the person responsible for its father's death.
A young man whose sword was soaked in fresh blood was slowly approaching it.
At that moment, the mysterious crystal it had discovered near a meteorite crash site, due to being in close proximity with the soulless body of the chieftain, began pulsating and with a mortifying voice, whispered to the goblin ...
~Usee meeee ...
The goblin, mesmerized by the voice of unknown origin and seeking revenge for its dead father, placed the uncanny crystal above him and started chanting the words that appeared in its mind.
The corpse dematerialized and was sucked into the peculiar object, which in return merged with the goblin.
All of a sudden the goblin chieftain's strength, mixed with a dark sinister power entered its body,
The goblin's body underwent a violent transformation with its skin turning dark grey, it's pupils becoming pitch black, and a small horn growing on the top of his head.
With its newfound power and immense madness, the now possessed goblin stormed his enemy.
....
-Fuck...
With Julius unconscious, the chances of me winning the upcoming fight in a direct confrontation were slim, if not zero.
And so, after making sure that the possessed goblin's target was solely me, I started running towards the forest.
The monster, although its speed far surpassed mine, was yet unaccustomed to its current body, and thus by constantly making sharp turns I was succeeding in momentarily escaping its line of sight.
Immediately after confirming that the distance between us was optimal, I masked my presence and hid on a branch of a tall tree.
Passing right below me, it violently sprinted to the direction I was last seen.
As I had guessed while escaping, the goblin's perception was that of a common goblin's, if not worse due to the madness it was experiencing, therefore it relied heavily on its eyesight.
"If I want to defeat it I will have to wait till nightfall"
Therefore with the remaining time I had left till night, I began training my senses.
After some experimenting, I became aware that instead of gathering my aura in a circular area around me, I could expand it into a straight line with a little help from my magi and see further away.
Therefore, in order to practice and gauge my body's limits, I started scouting the area around me, and jumping from branch to branch after making sure the goblin wasn't close.
"Haha it feels like I am a monkey or something"
The gentle wind was softly brushing my face, the humidity in the air was making my breathing irregular and the moist tree leaves were grazing my skin.
...
"What is that ?"
While surveying the area in front of me I saw a cave that despite its small entrance had an interior the size of a stadium.
"There is a faint blue aura residing in the interior of the cave, better check that out"
Upon reaching the cave's entrance I was faced with the sight of dozens of skeletons, with some of them having noticeable cracks on their bones while others had been crushed to pieces
"A fight must have broken out "
Since the bone structure was similar to that of a goblin I guessed that this might have been a territorial fight.
"It's a shame there isn't any equipment around, the winning side probably took it"
Passing by the pile of bones I was met with the lingering aura that was leaking out from the corpse of a tall goblin.
Its source was a rusty necklace pendant covered in dirt that had a small crystal in its center.
"The goblins must have thought it was trash"
I approached the seemingly empty crystal, expecting it to have broken, and grabbed the pendant, when my the peculiar "status viewer" in my wrist began to vibrate.
Several letters appeared and the cause was the rusty pendant I had picked up.
[Pendant of Sacrifice (Sealed)]
The artifact belonging to the glorious goblin king that he gave as a gift to his daughter's groom before his expedition to a faraway land. The wicked king, out of spite for his son in law's incompetence, sealed the artifact's power, leading to the death of the soon to be prince.
-Condition : Permanently sacrifice one of your senses to unlock the artifact's power
-Effect : Temporarily increase agility
...
"To think that this fella had such cruel in-laws, well... one's misfortune is another's happiness I guess or something along those lines"
"With this, I can probably overpower the goblin"
"But is it worth it? I already have a plan for defeating it without the necklace"
"Although I can't always bet on stealth attacks to work and who knows how rare are these artifacts"
"Better safe than sorry"
While firmly grabbing the pendant I supplied magi into it and confidently whispered the sense I wanted to sacrifice.
The transparent crystal instantly glowed and its color became bright blue.
I looked at the artifact's description again and my eyes shined from excitement
[Pendant of Sacrifice (Rank D)]
-Effect : Temporarily increase agility by 2 for 30 seconds. The crystal's charge is depleted upon use and replenishes after 72 hours.
...
"And it's only rank D? Can't wait to see the effects of higher tier artifacts "
-Given that there is a high chance that the ranking system will be similar to the one used in Earth, it probably ranges from rank F, which is the lowest, to rank A, the highest.
To confirm the validity of the "transaction" I did, I pulled a piece of meat covered in leaves I had prepared and took a small bite.
"As expected ..."
Although from the smell I could tell that it was still in good condition, I couldn't distinguish any of the flavors I had savored while resting near the fire.
"Tasteless "
....