I and Gothra walked to the outskirts of town and into the forest. We had to go a bit deeper because a lot of people were excited over the first day, and there were too few monsters nearby.
After some more minutes of walking, we encountered a wild group of about 10 goblins. Just enough to clear our first quest. They looked like small little old people with rugged green skin, warts all over, and very triangular shapes.
Yep, it's the rapey ones alright.
The trip over here wasn't that long of a journey as we were now faster, though Gothra actually had me beat in speed because I focused more on strength and my defenses. Oh, and while I spent all my starting money on my large long hammer, like a paladin's but dark, Gothra was now wearing a plain black robe which allows her to move faster. She wanted a gothic lolita dress, but what starter shop would have that? So she settled for something that makes her look like a mage or assassin with an intimidating mace.
"RAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Came a crazed scream. No, not from the goblins. That's Gothra, raising her mace and swinging it wide!
Thump!
It clashed against the goblins head, sending droplets of blood flying, but it wasn't actually dead yet!
Oh yeah... Gothra's strength stat is, in a word, abysmal. She hasn't invested in it at all.
But, well, that didn't stop her.
"ORAAAAAHHH!!" If one hit doesn't do it, then... she'll do ten, twenty, as many as it takes. She smashed her mace over and over into the goblin like a madman, cracking its bones and crushing its innards until blood leaks out of its every orifice!
"URIIYYAAHHH!!" Wow, they even added actual screams of pain for the mobs, but that won't make it any harder for Gothra. Rather, it's having the opposite based on the big sadistic smile on her face! That expression is honestly... hot. I'll never tell these thoughts to anyone!!
Maces have both blunt and blade damage, and it's showing masterfully here. It has great knockback too, leaving this one goblin defenseless.
But, well, there were nine more.
"BEREO!" Gothra shouted as Bereo suddenly manifested, pointing its rifle at the goblins and showering them with bullets!
Trtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrt!!!!
The goblins... did not die! It is barely dealing any damage! However, the knockback is very impressive! They cannot get closer as Gothra finally fully crushed the goblins head, splitting it like a watermelon!
SPLAT!
She smiled triumphantly as she was soaked entirely in blood. It's barely visible because of the black color, but her clothes too were dreched.
"Hehehe... hahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Fear! Fear me! Pathetic little goblins! I'll show you what hell is like!"
For a moment, despite being programs that shouldn't have emotions, the goblins seemed to show terror in their eyes.
"Oh hey, I levelep up." She casually changed her mood and looked at her status, ignoring the goblins still being held back by Bereo. I feel for you buddy.
She pressed some things, before turning to me, "I'm level 2 now! Got another 15 points. I did like 5 on strength to give me a little bit more damage, guns might require some strength to equip, and if not, I wouldn't mind mixing things up for this game since Bereo has the gun already. I just think guns are very fucking cool, but bashing someone up close is also very satisfying!"
"Well, it's up to you how you enjoy the game. I do get adapting to what character you have instead of your personal tastes or aesthetic though." I checked my own status, seeing 20 stat points waiting to be spent. We're in a party and we get the same exp so I leveled up too. That's nice. This game just gives everyone in the party the full EXP. I used my new 20 stat points mostly on strength and about 5 on speed, then I rushed towards the group of goblins myself.
"Raaahhh!!" I'm no Gothra, but it does feel nice to shout in battle. The goblins were at about 90% health by now because of the constant gunfire.
THUMP!
I hit one goblin right on its head, instantly bringing its health down to below 50%, and then I braced myself once more and crushed the goblin from above with my hammer!
"Hey, save some for me!" Cried Gothra as she rushed into the scene herself. It took her about 15 strikes this time to kill one goblin, an improvement from last time's over twenty.
We did a pincer attack from both sides, me from the right, Gothra from the left, meanwhile Bereo kept up the pressure with its knockback bullets. The poor little buggers didn't even manage to get a single hit in, until they were finally wiped out.
"God may show you mercy..." Gothra decided to offer a prayer even to these obviously, clearly undeserving goblins, "...but I never will."
Oh wait, never mind.
"Whew! That was really fun!" Gothra said, getting the blood off from herself. It didn't take long as she eventually remembered that she can just use a command in the game to automatically get it off. You can even make it so the blood never actually sticks to you despite being present in the game world, but she'll obviously never do that.
"Yeah, I'm digging the gameplay."
It does feel really nice. This is just phase 1 of my build, it's still missing a lot of things. I chose a long two-handed hammer because it is the best for both melee damage and magic. The equipment of this game doesn't actually add any stats, but they do add damage like +15% physical damage or something, which is what my hammer has. It can also add a lot more magic damage than other melee weapons.
The main problem with this weapon archetype is its debuff on accuracy. It's specially difficult to actually aim your spells with it compared with a staff. But well, that's not a problem with my Unique Skill as it allows me to predict trajectories. I don't have it perfected yet, but with that auto assist, I'd be able to aim very well even with a hammer. I'd even be able to dodge with accuracy far above my speed stat if I practice hard enough.
"The graphics are amazing!" Gothra suddenly exclaimed after closing her status. She was doing her level up stat points, I presume. "The blood is so vivid, and they cry like helpless pigs!"
"Ah, that's what you're into."
"Don't make it weird. But well, it's great right? Really sucks you into the world."
"Yeah, it definitely does, but isn't this just standard nowadays?"
"Well, yeah. But you know how there are games where the blood are like digital or something? Or they might mot even have blood at all."
"Oh yeah, that happens in a lot of games I think. But those are more artistic choices than anything. I'm pretty sure these graphics are easily achievable with The System's support."
"Yeah, I know, but that's why I really like what they chose to do here! The vivid expressions and screams of our victims are also just... Ahhh, it's great."
"Hey, hey. Get a room. For yourself. Hahaha!"
"Yeah, yeah. It's kinda the point of the game given the graphics, no?"
"Sure..."
"Come on. You were enjoying yourself a lot too!"
"Well, yeah, but not in the same way you were! Though it was satisfying, the moment of impact and all..."
"What was that? You want to make them squeel like pigs? Turns out you were the goblin all along! Hahaha!"
"Oi! Not like that! Fucking hell... I meant learning how to handle the hammer more efficiently is really fun, and so was experimenting with my prediction abilities. Not that it mattered because the goblins couldn't even move from their spot. Rather... What the fuck was that!? Bereo didn't deal even that much damage, but that constant knockback over a wide range..."
"Hahaha, yeah! I didn't actually realize that at first. I just wanted him to like aggro them or something."
"Well he definitely did, but they weren't able to reach him."
After that we collected the loot dropped and just sat in the the forest.
"So, what now?" Asked Gothra, "we finished one quest, but cashing in each time we finish one would honestly take a lot of time. We can teleport back to the village, but not back to here."
"Yeah, instant travel is very limited here. It's best we just keep on grinding."
"Hmm, yeah, I get that. But I wish we had some food."
"We don't need-"
"Yeah, I know we don't ever even get hungry! But I wanna eat you know? Like after every hunt, I don't wanna just tirelessly go after the next one. Though were are actually tireless."
"Hmm, yea, I definitely get that, but the food costs gold, and we're getting you a gun ASAP, right? Tough it out until then."
"Argh, I know! But... this game allows you to save whole entire corpses right? They don't just dissipate."
"I think they'll dissipate if no one claims them though."
"Well, yeah, but if the corpses are still here, that means we have some meat, right?"
"Uh-huh... wait you wanna eat goblins!?"
"Well... if that's what we have... We don't necessarily have to go buy anything. We can cook our own food!"
"We can sell the materials too, I think... but that's not the worse proposal. Not the goblin meat though!"
"Ehh, but haven't you read novels where they actually taste good??"
"Err, well, I have but... it just feels wrong! I don't think I've ever eaten a humanoid in any game."
"But they'll no longer be humanoid if we cut them real good!"
...
"Think about it. Ground meat. Ground goblin meat. You can't even tell the difference!"
"It's a matter of spirit!" I exclaimed.
"Eeehh, come on. Are you saying that you've never even tried orc?"
"Nope."
"They usually taste just like pork! I've tried em' in other games!"
"Eww, you actually ate those!?"
"What? It's tasty. Don't be so picky. It's not even even the taste you're being picky about!" She said, dangling over me a piece of goblin corpse.
"Gah! Get that away from me. Eat it by yourself!"
"Che, okay... actually do I need a cooking skill or something?"
"Oh... hmmm... hard to say. Why not just try roasting it and see what happens? I'm guessing it'd work since this game's rules are based on proficiency. Not that I'm condoning your behavior or anything!"
"--Baka! Bahahahaha!"
"I did not say that!"
"I can see now why you were so adamant to defend these shitty goblins!"
"Argh! Whatever, let's just cook up these goblins. That's far kinkier if you ask me."
"How is cooking kinky...? Man, truly, I am in awe of your knowledge. The extensive research you must have poured into learning everything you can about goblin physiology. And all those practical sessions... What a hero. Such sacrifice."
"Truly, how hard those times were... Wait! You're not gonna pull me along! I never made those sacrifices you fuck!"
"Hahahaha!"
With plenty of laughter in our hearts, and specially in Gothra's stupid face, we resumed our grand adventure, not knowing what awaited us...
Really, I don't know! What does await us?
Even my [System Algorhitm] is powerless to predict the flow of time.
(For the weirdos who don't think being stepped on is hot. Baka means cow. In Filipino. In Japanese, it means that you are the idiot cow that you are, baka!)