It happened around the time when the sun was about to set.
A group of children came running towards where we were sitting. They seemed to be crying. The chief shushed them and asked what was wrong. One of the boys, who was the eldest of the bunch answered.
"A monster took Lulatina! It was a huge monster! Hurry up, we have to go save her!"
Both I and the chief stood up at once and after clearly hearing the details of the incident, it seemed they were playing hide and seek near the gates and she went near the outer forest to hide where she went missing. They searched the area but couldn't find anyone. The monster part wasn't clear. Some said it was a beast while others said it was walking on two feet.
The village chief spat his tobacco and quickly went to the town gate to inform the guards and arrange a search party. I didn't know who Lulatina was but if she was taken by monsters, I doubted that these people would be able to enter deep within the forest with the clear lack of weapons and stats. In fact, it would have been better if I went along with my high stats, Katana and Map.
While they were gathering the male villagers with farming tools as weapons and shaky legs, I decided to offer them help. It was obvious they were scared but securing the girl was necessary after all. She was a part of their giant family.
I went close to the village chief and asked if he would allow me to go in first.
"No way… It's dangerous at this time. Can't ye' see how scared everyone is right now? What can ye' do alone anyway? Ye'll end up dying if ye' went there alone, boy."
I reminded him that I had a proper weapon and knew magic and was strong enough to defeat a wolf pack on my own. And that if I didn't come in 30 minutes, they could enter as well with everyone.
It would have been better than risking the lives of so many non-fighters.
"But…"
"Old man, let him go. He's a magician. He can fight monsters much better than us. It's infuriating but he's much better than us farmers and peasants."
Jack came in between us and helped my case. Even Hawk came in to help.
"True! A magician is much better than us weaklings."
The old chief was reluctant at first but with Jack and Hawk, who surprisingly came backing me up, he agreed to my suggestion.
I took a deep breath and opened my Map and took out my Katana. Nobody could see a screen floating on the right side of my vision other than me but they noticed the gorgeous weapon I was holding in my hands and it seemed to calm them a bit.
I ran at normal speed towards the forest and then once when I was deep enough, I started my dash at the full speed that I could manage in that mildly dense area. I was constantly checking the area around me for monsters and signs of life. Since the incident had happened not that long ago, I doubted she would have been taken too deep but there was no saying anything.
I hoped that she is at least alive.
I came upon some groups of goblins and sliced through them without stopping for even a minute, taking their corpses inside Inventory. My strength and speed were quite high for these low-level noobs. They couldn't even see what hit them.
[You've leveled up!]
[New Abilities have been acquired!]
[New System abilities have been unlocked!]
I heard the system's notification but ignored them. I could check them out later. Now wasn't the time for it.
After about 15 minutes of dashing here and there and filling out a decent chunk of the forest area, I finally caught a dot that showed it wasn't from a monster. But along with it were about 20 red dots.
Shit! I gotta hurry!
I ran at the fastest speed possible there and finally reached that place.
Woah, that's a lot of goblins in one place.
It was swarming with goblins. Among them in the center was a goblin who looked different from the rest. He even had a giant ax on his shoulders. The ax seemed like it would weigh at least a couple of KGs.
I appraised him immediately.
Name: Noname
Age: 3 years
Gender: Male
Race: Goblin (General)
---
Level: 32
HP: 320/320
MP: 10/10
---
Stats:
STR: 100
DEX: 65
DEF: 70
AGI: 55
VIT: 90
INT: 20
Luck: 0
---
Abilities:
Ax Technique I, Leadership I, Intimidation I
***
A Goblin General? Is he the leader of all the goblins in this area?
No, before that. Where's the girl?… Ah! There!
The girl, Lulatina, lay in front of him and some other goblins who surrounded her. Her face was on the other side but I knew she was definitely the person I was looking for since the Appraisal showed the right name.
Now then, how do I rescue her from this horde? I can't just bulldoze. They might end up hurting her if I am careless.
Now, I had to think of a way to rescue her without these monsters letting a single finger on her. I had confidence in my strength but the number of goblins here exceeded 30. If I wasn't fast enough they could form an encirclement around me and then I would have to fight them in a slightly prolonged battle. It was not ideal.
I looked for a gap between the goblins and ran at full speed towards the girl while slicing any goblins that would come in the range of my Katana.
I wanted to plan out my moves properly but I got too nervous and ended up doing what was probably a non-ideal strategy.
The surrounding goblins fell into panic and even the general finally noticed me
but it was too late, I took the girl and jumped out of the center towards where I had entered from. There was still a convenient passage open from all the dead goblins. My speed was so fast that the goblins couldn't follow properly and non of them luckily threw their weapons or stones at me.
Now, I could run away from these guys and take the girl to the villagers…
… But if they keep following me and reach the village, it would be disastrous.
I found a corner that was covered from two sides with rocks and used
Okay, this will do.
Now then, shall I start the retribution on this fucking monsters? How dare you kidnap a little girl, you fuckers!
I turned and dashed towards the still-following goblins. That surprised them a little.
Using their state of confusion, I sliced through all of their heads and was nearly halfway done when I felt an attack coming from my left me. I dodged it to the side and looked at the one who attacked me.
It was the goblin general.
His ax stuck on the ground from that move and he had to pull it back to attack again while growling at me, but that time gap was enough for me. I gripped my Katana and sliced off vertically through his chest which was pretty much on the level of my shoulders. The upper portion fell down followed by the lower portion.
The goblin general now laid on the ground limp, his ax still on the ground. The remaining goblins noticed that their leader was down and were in a state of panic and confusion, but I took them all down before they could run away.
This is your punishment for your heinous crime. Don't fucking kidnap people, ever!
… Not that you guys can hear me now.
With this, the rescue-cum-retribution was over. Only around 20 minutes had passed since I entered the forest and the battle barely lasted 5 minutes in reality. I looked around once more to see if I had left some goblin alive but there were none. None on sight and none on the map. I started storing them all in my inventory and then looked at the green blood-filled scene of slaughter.
Ugh. Why do these nasty creatures have green blood? It really grosses me out, dude. Future hyper-realism in VR video games will officially suck for me if they also decide to implement realistic gore.
No… it might not suck if it's inside a game. It sucks precisely because this is not inside a video game. Oh boy, is monster-slaying gonna be a normal thing for me in this world? … Well, at least, I am leveling up… Huh?
It dawned upon me then that the level-up messages hadn't come up yet. Usually, they came right after the battle was over but this time's message hadn't come. It was then that I noticed a big red dot approaching me in a straight line on the map.
The hell? Was there one left? And it looks like a big one too.
The trees were bustling and the surroundings suddenly went silent. I had my attention in the direction where the red dot was coming from.
Just as I saw its little nose poking out of the leaves, it sprung towards me at high speed and I had to quickly jump to the side to avoid the impact. It was much bigger than me and its body must weigh tons. It was the most ferocious monster I had found in this forest back when I was finding a settlement.
The Giant Viper.