Initially wanting to try out his newly gotten skills, Thiago had already thoroughly examined them and now he was only missing a chance to check them in actual combat. While he was just having this thought, he perceived something green out of the corner of his eyes, which in return attracted his attention.
He quickly moved his gaze in a certain direction, and there he saw that about 50 meters away from him, a goblin trudging in his direction.
The goblin was 3 meters tall and looked extremely ugly, he had scars all around his exposed upper body and only his most essential parts were covered with some type of beast leather. Sweeping his gaze up and down alongside its body he guessed that it might be a male species.
As usual some information about the goblin was being displayed on his panel when he moved his gaze upon him.
[Forest Goblin]
[Cultivation: 5th Tier of the student realm]
'Heh, this goblin appeared here at the perfect time to let me practice my skills on him.' Thiago sneered, after looking at the information displayed on his panel.
The reason, he did not take the goblin serious despite him having a higher realm than Thiago, was in fact, because Thiago had realized since his first fight inside this forest, that he seemed to be stronger than those beasts or monsters at the same realm, so he also saw no problem in fighting this goblin who was one small realm higher than him.
The goblin had probably been attracted by the fighting noises or mana fluctuations Thiago made while he was trying out his new skills.
But that was obviously a good thing for Thiago, so inside he was even a little grateful to the goblin for being his 'sparring partner'.
Seemingly seeing Thiago's sneering expression, he immediately became enraged and sprinted towards him, while at the same time exerting strength in his arms to create momentum with his axe.
Noticing all this Thiago wasn't the least bit intimidated and only had an unruffling facial expression which was as stable as an ancient well. Just before the goblin reached a spot 10 meters away from him, Thiago muttered in his heart "Shadow binding" and subsequently numerous black chains condensed from the ground around the goblin and shot towards the unsuspecting him at breaking neck speed.
The goblin could only realize how he was suddenly bound by numerous chains because he did not have time to react fast enough before. Nevertheless, this made him only more aggressive and enraged than he already was and he exerted so much strength to break those chains that his veins were pulsating around his neck and face.
Unfortunately, he was not strong enough, so as long as Thiago could continuously supply the chains with dark mana, the goblin would not be able to free himself.
The thing is that Thiago himself could not really judge how long he could supply the chains with mana, because even though he felt a slight depletion of the mana inside his demon core, it was so minuscule, that he couldn't accurately predict the time it would take for his reserves to be used up.
This low rate of mana depletion was only possible because firstly his mana was extremely dense and pure and secondly because the skill in itself did not use up that much mana, so combining these factors we receive this low amount of depletion.
Now noticing that the goblin was utterly incapable of destroying or breaking free from his skill
As if understanding Thiago's disdaining words directed at him, the goblin once again went into a frenzy but it did not change the outcome and he was still not able to break these chains which were currently binding him.
"Heh, futile struggle, but I'll set you free now as I have other skills yet to test." exclaimed Thiago towards the goblin, a predator like smile visible on his face.
Just shortly after, Thiago released his Shadow binding and the goblin immediately became free again, and this time as if having learnt nothing out of this lesson just now, the goblin once again attacked Thiago, which he had naturally already expected simply because most goblins were unintelligent monsters and they would often court death.
Before the goblin could take three steps, Thiago once again uttered the name of a certain skill inside his mind. "Poisonous Black Mist"
Immediately with Thiago as the centre, a toxic miasma spread out like dark smoke and enveloped the goblin, who immediately cried out in agony because the black mist was corroding his skin, causing his skin to look like it was boiling, with many Blisters and pustules appearing.
While his skin was corroding, the poison also invaded his body through the pores and dealt him another round of damage and pain, but in retrospect the poison was not that strong enough yet to really cause heavy damage and could only cause some slight injuries.
Hearing these cries of agony, Thiago showed no mercy, because why should he, this goblin obviously was the first to attack, so now he could also suffer the consequences for his wrongdoings.
Well, despite the pian the goblin was obviously perceiving, there was not much damage done by the poisonous black mist, because the goblins body was strong enough to withstand most of it and mainly because the
Seeing these results, Thiago was still quite satisfied with this skill and chose to end this farce with the last one of his new skills namely the
"Alright let's end this" Thiago declared while he released the
The goblin who suddenly felt the corroding sensation of his skin disappear and simultaneously saw the black mist receding, was just about to feel happy when suddenly his body was pierced through by numerous black thorns made of dark mana shooting out of the ground.
Almost immediately the light inside his eyes disappeared and he stood unmoving supported by the thorns still inside his body, so he couldn't fall down while seemingly endless volumes of dark green blood sprayed out at the intersection between the thorns and his body.
"Wow! This skill is actually stronger then I had expected" Theo exclaimed after seeing how the goblin one small realm higher than him was mercilessly penetrated by the black Thorns and immediately killed by those.
Of course he was clear about the fact that the goblin was definitely not in top condition because he had tested his two other skills beforehand on the poor goblin and the last skill was only used as a finishing strike, but nevertheless the Shadow Thorns still held unquestionable penetrating power, which could be seen on how easily the goblin's thick and hard skin had been instantly pierced.
So all in all he was really happy with all three of his newly bought skills after having thoroughly checked them out in this fight with the goblin just now.
What also made him sigh with emotion, is that he realized how much easier and comfortable it was to fight with skills instead of only fighting with brute force like he had done before. But on second thought, he instantly remembered that he had no other chance because he did not have enough system points before and it also wasn't that necessary when he still had a lower realm.
Coming back to his senses, he turned towards the goblin's blood ridden corpse lying on the floor and stepped towards it.
It is obvious what would happen next, because he had already done so numerous times before, he would now skin the goblin.
No, just kidding, he will obviously use his
Not dilly dallying, he promptly activated
Moving his tail above the goblin's body, the vortex's suction force acted on the corpse that directly started levitating under this force's influence and was then drawn into the black vortex, where it then disappeared without a trace.
This instant, Thiago also could make the usual decision between [Essence] and [System points] and almost instinctively he chose [Essence].
Shortly after he had received and absorbed the [Essence], he actually felt signs of an impending breakthrough and he was right, a few seconds later an illusory and intangible barrier seemed to have been pierced by the overflowing mana inside his demon core and he had actually managed to advance to the 5th Tier of the Student realm.
"Haha, another breakthrough this time!" He exclaimed after having broken through just now while inwardly once again deeply thanking the now already deceased goblin for his appearance today or else he would not have had such an easy time breaking through.
While he thought of this, the Systems congratulations also arrived at this time.
[Congratulations! You have advanced: 5th Tier of the Student realm]
Deciding to take a look at his status he promptly thought of 'open Status' in his mind and the recognizable panel appeared in front of him.
Name: Thiago Khan
Breed: Black Tiger
Species: Magic beast
Cultivation: 5th Tier of the Student realm
___
System points: 20
Shop
Affinities
Darkness
Poison
___
Skills
< Shadow binding > Level 1
< Poisonous Black Mist > Level 1
< Shadow Thorns > Level 1
_____
Special skill
< Black Hole> Level 2
Cultivation technique:
Abyssal Darkness (Basic understanding)
Heavenly Demon soul transmogrifying Art (Incomplete)
________
Scanning his status, he noticed some slight changes, like adding all of his newly purchased abilities, and when he clicked on his
Not seeing any other new important changes, he closed his status again and was just about to leave the scene, when he suddenly discovered a pouch lying some distance away from where he had just devoured the goblin.
It seemed as if the goblin had been carrying this pouch on him and had then lost it in the course of the fight, so it ended up lying there.
Not being able to restrain his curiosity he quickly moved over to the place where it was lying and tried to open it with his paws, which turned out to be not so easy.
Nevertheless, after some trying he still made it work somehow, by cutting the top of the pouch open with his razor sharp claws in the end.
Looking at the now opened pouch he saw something that appeared to be a map made by someone who obviously couldn't really draw, because the contents of the map were all looking horrendous and wrong.
But after studying the map for a few minutes Thiago recognized that this map was probably drawn with the forest he was currently in as a basis and somewhere on the middle of the map, a sign that looked like a house, which could probably stand for a village was drawn. After following this train of thought Thiago seemed as if he was suddenly enlightened.
"Maybe this goblin has a bad memory and this map helps him find his way back to his village after being somewhere else in the forest. If that is the case then maybe I have struck the jackpot and this village can become a huge opportunity for me." Thiago thought out loud.
"Well, then let's try to find this place marked on the map first and then I will see how powerful the strongest in this goblin village is, assuming that my theory of it being a goblin village is right in the first place." Theo mumbled.
He was a person that does what he says, so he did not hesitate any longer and tried to find some reference points on this map with his geography knowledge he had from when he had been in high school back on Earth.