Being hunted by a monster that nearly killed him... Definitely not a good thing. Taking into account the sheer force behind one of those swipes, at level 7 he was no match at all. It was pure luck that he had managed to come away from that with limbs intact, even more lucky that he was alive at all! The system had mentioned a penalty for death though so maybe... could he "Respawn"? Thoughts awhirl, he turned back and made his choice, speaking to the vice captain politely just in case. "Ma'am. I'd like to stay and help, I may not appear to be much but I'm a registered Adventurer with the guild in town. If I was given a run down on the monster life, locations, and habitats, I can weaken that creature by robbing it of its hunting grounds, making it angered. We might be able to ambush it, you had the guardsmen throw water at it earlier right? So we can safely say it has an affinity with fire." He put on his roughly stitched together equipment, noting they hadn't had a reduction in efficiency, and started to wander the encampment.
Several of the guardsman slapped him on the back as he went past, congratulating him on his toughness. It seems he'd been given the nickname of "Drake Bait" after his run in with it on the roads. Not much was to be said about the cobbled together barracks, storage rooms, and guard towers around the hotspot of activity, merchants camped in a wide area of the open center. Most offered him recovery items only to be in shock at his perfectly healthy appearance. "Maybe calling this skill trashy and insulting it wasn't all too fair.." He muttered to himself as he politely accepted a small kebab from one of the passing guards, his stomach roaring much louder than any beast. It looked like the more he healed with his passive, the more food he needed to consume to keep up.
[Beast not hunted by Player. No skills, stats, or HP will be gained.]
Oh that's a massive letdown. His eyes downcast, disappointment clear on his features, he somberly munched on the crispy outside of the unknown monster kebab, continuing on to the small exit. According to a booklet some guards were giving out, this particular Drakeling only hunted those headed towards safety, showing its shocking cunning. To hunt a freshly rested prey would be risky, yet hunting a prey exhausted from a trip would be much less dangerous. This thing was either a genius or secretly a fox in a dragon's body! Such sneaky, clever tactics could prove useful to employ later....
"I really need to get stronger. So I suppose I should get hunting?" Taking a few steps out, he started to notice an abundance of monster tracks. Looks like the Drakeling is actually causing the monsters to deviate from normal paths and intersect with human made trails more often. Picking one at random, he started to follow, finding that along the way the tracks were similar to a small childs in size and shape. "Goblins maybe? From the tracks, there must be a good few of them, maybe... Five? Six? I could try and take them one by one...?" He saw a small, crudely built campsite, a slew of bones from human and monster alike laying at the outskirts. In the darkness of the shade abundant trees, this grove shone like a beacon, letting him easily scale another tree to get a better look..
Six small figures were hunched around a bonfire, skewers of meat roasting a bit too much in the intense flames in front of them. Taking his blade from the sheathe on his hip, Kael inhaled slowly... and dove into combat without a plan. Relying on instinct, he jammed the jagged point straight into the collarbone of the first goblin, its blood triggering the devour form. He didn't know if it had to be a certain type of monster's blood, or just a specific amount, but he was happy to see it not only gave him increased bleed chance, but if latched around a body part it would be severed instantly if his opponent was lower level. "This is ridiculously strong!" He whooped with joy as he slashed his hand, drawing the blade through his first victim as its spine was severed, whirling around to the one beside it to whip his hungry dagger viciously around its neck, the jaws snapping shut and making a clean, perfect cut as it ended the goblin instantly.
[Devour Form: [?????] becomes Vorpal, increases bleed chance and rate to 25% infliction and 50% intensity, "Jaws" open and will sever any "Limbs" that get between them. Triggered when the User sheds enemy blood with intent to cause lethal damage (10%)]
Now that he's seen the trigger requirements flash in front of him, he turned to the goblins scrambling to collect weapons and shields, one wielding its dinner as a hot poker. Taking a step forward, he tried to mimic something he had read in a novel once, aiming obviously for a lethal point, and awkwardly snapping the blow away and angling it to hit an unexpected location. As he was only mimicking from what he read, it was clumsy and rough, but very effective on a stupid creature like the goblin, confusing it long enough for his weapon to impale its heart through a gap in its ribcage and kill it.
The remaining three panicked and started waving their crude spears at him, one nicking his cloak and looking in fear as the shoddy flint tip bounced off easily. Seeing this, Kael eagerly flung his dagger forward, throwing it at close range unexpectedly to catch the goblin off guard. This somewhat dirty trick did a number, the small green monster quickly coughing up blood and looking down to see a dagger's hilt protruding from its neck. Such a lucky throw wouldn't happen again though, as Kael attempted to use one of the flint spears to hit the other goblins, missing by a large margin. Conjuring his MP, he directed the massive bonfire to explode and rise up, the flames scorching both goblins badly. A malicious expression on his face, he conjured an illusion of a dragon in his mind and tried to make it appear in front of both goblins.
However, it didn't work at all, just making a Fire Salamander appear. Seeing as how he was only using low levelled illusions, and never saw an actual dragon in Valhalla before, it defaulted to something sort of like his intent. The goblins still reeled back, thinking they had somehow not noticed a Fire Salamander bathing in the flames earlier, beginning to retreat. Though, Kael was not one to let free EXP run away. He finally felt so strong, and deadly. It couldn't end just yet! Yanking his dagger free from the corpse of the fourth goblin, he channeled his MP again and lept onto the one staggering from the burns it had suffered. "[Heat Strike]!" As he called the skill to activation, the jaws snapped open and started to spew flame, a thin blade made of fire appearing in the maw of his OP weapon. The goblin knew that it was dead, and did not struggle as this unknown monster plunged the searing blade into its throat, ending its life in seconds. The final goblin fell, its small body nearly charred to ash and bleeding from several scratches.
[Goblin: [Weakened, Injured, Burned(L)]. Player has been offered a [Contract.] Goblin A has offered to give all of its EXP in exchange for its life. Accept? Y/N]
A gold mine! A short, ugly, green little gold mine! Swiftly accepting, he felt its accumulated life's EXP come into his bursting temporary storage. It seemed like only after a fight had ended or he was safe did his EXP level him up. The roasted goblin ran off into the forest, a dark shadow in the depths that soon faded away into the foliage. "Ahahaha, so much easy gains! This was almost like taking candy from a baby. Would it be taking EXP from a Goblin in my case?" His pride was bursting, feeling on top of everything after such a one sided slaughter of the unsuspecting monsters. Taking a seat near their now slowly dying fire, he took a glance at his stats...
[Player has slain Goblin B-F. Player has reached Level 10. Gift has been added to Player's Inventory, please open it at your discretion. [Battle Junkie] Title has been added to achievement list. Player has been given [Goblin Speech] Due to taking the EXP of Goblin A]
After reading through the status, he saw he had a whopping 10 free points, and his stats had gone up by 3! His HP was only at 105 now, but it was still enough for two hits of that thing to barely let him survive. That gift however is what excited him most....