'Damn, I might have stumbled upon something big here.' Lyle said to himself as he was crouching atop a tree and watching down at a large group of goblins and hobgoblins.
The goblins and hobgoblins were sitting down on the ground while primitive cages could be seen around them. There were some beasts and monsters that were inside the cages, while a cave that was a couple of meters from the monsters seemed to contain even more.
Suddenly screams could be heard as Lyle looked back.
He couldn't see anybody since the sound was far away, but it was slowly coming closer to him.
Lyle simply waited patiently. The screams became louder and louder and Lyle could tell that it was probably humans that were making them, both males and females.
After a couple of seconds, he was able to see a peculiar sight.
A group of hobgoblins was bringing three girls and two guys with them. The humans seemed to only be about 18 – 19 years old and from looking at their old and worn-out clothes, Lyle could guess that they were from a nearby village.
'They have already started attacking the nearby villages?'
'That's too fast, they should still be fearful of the city guards, was it because of me?' Lyle suddenly thought back on what happened yesterday. He had used his transformation and the incredible aura of a Vampire Lord, a Tier VI being was released, making the whole forest and the city aware of his existence.
The powerful aura definitely scared the monsters, but it might have also forced their primal urges to kick in. Monsters and animals were bred in order to leave descendants after they died. The presence of a much more powerful monster might have urged the monsters in the forest to breed and pass on their genes much faster than usual.
Ding!
[ The host has found a mysterious sight. ]
[ Thanks to the host transforming and releasing the aura of a Vampire Lord, the monsters in the forest had started acting erratically, especially those like goblins and hobgoblins that needed humans or other humanoid creatures to mate. ]
[ The system asks the host to defeat the group of hobgoblins in front of him and to destroy their outpost, the system will give the host the following rewards for doing so: ]
- 60 S Coins
- 1 Level up
- The host will be able to gain a beginner-level book of poisons
"A book of poisons?" Lyle suddenly widened his eyes after seeing the final reward.
'Tch, you're doing this on purpose, aren't you?' Lyle asked the system but only got silence as a response.
He needed that book.
He had a lot of flasks and small bottles that contained poison from Ilya and had no idea what each one did.
The book, although it might not help him with identifying all the poisons, might help him out with at least figuring out what some of them might do and how powerful they were.
Also, since it said that it was a beginner-level book, there probably existed those of a higher level as well. Who knows whether the system would reward him with better ones in the future?
Lyle looked down on the goblins and hobgoblins and first waited until the new additions entered the cave. From outside, one wasn't able to see just how large the cave is, but after the party entered, the sounds of screaming became less and less audible until Lyle was barely able to hear them anymore.
'Tch, if the sound really became this quiet because of the distance, then the cave has to be massive, or goes down and has some tunnels, that will be a bother to deal with.' Lyle thought as he looked down at the goblins and hobgoblins that were down in front of the cave.
He was now level 16 as he had already spent a couple of hours in the forest hunting monsters and leveling up.
Lyle first had to deal with the monsters in front of the cave before entering the cave.
But simply attacking them wouldn't be good as the ones in the cave would be alerted of his presence.
He already had a general idea of what he would be able to find inside the cave and knew that if he was to enter stealthily, he would probably be able to kill half if not even more than half of the monsters inside before being found out.
' Hmm, 6 goblins and 2 hobgoblins, it should be doable.' Lyle said as he counted out the number of monsters that were outside.
The goblins stuck together most of the time, but there were occasions when they would leave each other's side. As for the hobgoblins who were taller and stronger compared to the goblins, they mostly kept to themselves.
They didn't even stand together and were divided in three directions, with each one doing something else.
One of the hobgoblins was roasting something on a small fire they had, another was using a stick to annoy a wolf that they had caught and the third one was sitting down and watching the forest.
Killing those three without being noticed would be easy once the goblins were dead, but he first needed to do that without alerting any of them.
The first target showed itself soon. One of the goblins departed from the group and went to the forest as he had apparently seen something. It was a small flower that the goblin had noticed and wanted to take it for some reason.
Lyle didn't care what reason the little monster had as this was a perfect opportunity to kill it. He glanced at the other monsters, and upon seeing that none of them were paying attention to the goblins, he quickly moved from the tree and went down without creating any noise.
He then quickly appeared behind the goblin and with one swift slash, he cut off its head.
Lyle quickly grabbed the head and the headless body before going deeper inside the forest and hiding the body in a bush while keeping the head.
He stared at the goblin's head in his hand before a creepy smile appeared on his face. He glanced back at the body before his smile deepened even further.
About two minutes later, one of the goblins from the group looked around before seeing their companion that had gone into the forest. The goblin looked at him with slight confusion as the latter was waving him over with a weird expression on its face.
The goblin was behind a tree, which felt incredibly weird for the other one. It got up from the ground, mumbled something to the other goblins who were currently feasting on some flesh and went to check out why the other one was calling out to him.
As the goblin came closer to the one behind the tree, the latter suddenly disappeared behind it. The goblin was again confused but continued further until he was at the tree. Coming around it, the goblin was surprised to see that nobody was there.
It looked around, before spotting something very weird. It spotted blood on the ground, and not a small amount.
It suddenly gulped before looking up. Its eyes widened in shock and it opened its mouth, only for a spear to penetrate through it and the rest of its body before stabbing through the ground below it.
Lyle quickly came down and pulled his spear lightly which only went out of the ground. He then lifted it and looked at the goblin which looked like a shish-kebab.
He quickly went up the tree before removing the spear from the body and using some thread to tie the corpse to a branch.
Right next to the corpse was a goblin's head and an arm that Lyle had cut off from the first one he had killed.
He then proceeded to use his ability and coat the tips of his throwing knives and daggers with the blood of the dead goblin. There were four goblins left, and Lyle knew that using the same tactic again wouldn't work.
They would soon notice that the two of them had disappeared, and even with the low intelligence the goblins had, they would understand that something was wrong.
Goblins were meek creatures that would get scared easily, and Lyle wasn't about to let them get scared by the disappearance of the two and raise an alarm or alert the hobgoblins who were currently not paying any attention to them.
He quickly moved and got atop a tree that was closest to the group of goblins. He first held a stone in his hand before throwing it.
The stone fell to the ground and the goblins looked in the direction where the faint sound came from.
Two of them turned around, and it was at that point that the two goblins behind them suddenly stiffened up and rolled their eyes backward before falling down on the ground. Two throwing knives were stuck in their heads, and after hitting them, Lyle used his ability to make the blood on them explode and destroy the goblin's brains.
The moment they fell, Lyle appeared behind the two goblins that had turned around previously. Before the two could turn around after hearing the sound of two bodies falling down, their heads flew through the air as Lyle had decapitated them. The goblins were below level 10 and barely gave him any Soul Power, but it was fine.
Lyle didn't stand, he quickly moved to the hobgoblins.
The one that was playing with the wolf didn't hear anything, while the one that was staring at the forest was turning around.
Before the hobgoblins were able to fully turn around, a spear penetrated through his back and destroyed his heart while Lyle threw one of his daggers that were coated in blood at the one that was roasting meat.
The dagger hit the hobgoblin and penetrated through the throat before Lyle used mana and made the blood explode and destroy his neck completely.
That was when the final hobgoblin finally realized something had happened. He was able to hear the one closest to him fall down as the wolf he was annoying quieted down after Lyle had appeared.
The hobgoblin turned around and was horrified to see everybody had been killed.
Before it could do anything, however, Lyle appeared in front of him.
The hobgoblin used the stick in his hand to try and block Lyle's dagger, only for the dagger to easily cut through the stick and open his throat.
Lyle then quickly spun the knife in his hand and used it in a reverse grip before stabbing down at the hobgoblin and penetrating through its eye.
The monsters were all dead.