Right off the bat, Alon wasn't given the chance to adjust his vision as arrows flew his way. Using his sensitive hearing, he could tell where the trajectories of the arrows would hit. Following the noise, he stepped to the side to dodge all of the arrows and caught one arrow that was about to hit him.
He placed the arrowhead near his nose and gave it a thorough sniff.
' It's coated with a very potent poison, if I get hit by this arrow, I'll be immobilized for 2 hours so I have to be careful.'
With his vision quickly adjusting to the darkness, he was able to see the goblins hiding on a boulder. He was able to sense their presence from afar and from what he could tell, there were at least 10 goblins.
Alon broke the arrowhead of the arrow and dashed through a nearby rock as he concealed his aura. He slowed down his breathing until his presence disappeared as he lay waiting on ambush.
Ting~
[Goblin (0)] [Common Monster]
Level: 19
HP: 2000/2000]
Soon, the goblins carefully draw nearer at Alon's location to retrieved the arrows expecting that some of the arrows had struck him. When a goblin neared Alon's range, he quickly pulled it towards him and stabbed the throat of the little gremlin using the broken arrow rendering it from making any noise.
[Critical strike has been inflicted! Doubles the damage]
-2000!
[You have killed a goblin!]
[Level difference: 1, experience gain +20%]
[+10,900 EXP]
The damage quickly depleted its health to zero and he carefully placed it on the ground as he grabbed another broken arrow and a wooden bow that the Goblin used.
[Brittle Bow (0)
Type: Ranged weapon
Rank: Common
Durability: 4/5
+2 Physical damage
+10 Range
Requirements: None]
When the goblins saw that none of their arrows had hit their target, they immediately realized that something was amiss. Before they could try and look for their prey, Alon aimed and fired the bow at 5 goblins who were lining up in a straight line.
Xiu! (I could not make up how a flying arrow sounds in words but I know that it sounds like a sharp whistle.)
The arrow flew rapidly in a straight line and accurately striked at the throats of the goblins. The arrow penetrated through their neck one after another and the next thing you know, 5 goblins fell on the ground simultaneously whilst a window panel appeared in his view.
[Level Up!]
Before the goblins could notice their fallen companions, Alon distributed the 5 status points to his Agility granting him more movement speed as he activated Dash. He instantly arrived at the 4 remaining goblins who were stunned after seeing him appear like a ghost but before they could even make a slight whimper, Alon activated Slash beheading all of them simultaneously. Their heads fell on the ground as with their bodies and with all the goblins dead, everything became silent.
'Now let's see how you guys taste like.'
The reason why he had deliberately broken the Arrowhead of the arrows was that he didn't want to put poison on his food.
Alon bit threw the chewy soft meat of the goblin and as he chewed on the meat in his mouth, he swallowed the contents and tried to process the taste.
'It's bitter but it has a sweet and sour aftertaste.'
Since his health was still full, it didn't give him any healing properties but he continued eating the goblin meat.
Ting~
[You have been inflicted with Food Poisoning!]
[You have been inflicted with small poison!]
.
.
.
.
.
A series of notifications appeared on his view as his health started dropping at a fast rate. He didn't knew that goblin meat would be so poisonous that even if his health bar started healing with the added effect of his Monster Eater skill, his health would still fall by half after he finished eating the whole goblin.
Ting~
[Monster Eater Proficiency has increased by 7%]
[+1 Poison Element]
[Poison Element: 1
+5 magic resistance
+1% Chance to inflict Poisoning effect for 1 second
+1% Chance of dealing with Bleeding effect for 1 second
+5 Poison-based magic damage
+2 Poison Resistance]
'I thought I'd be forced to stop eating goblins but it seems that I can gain a poison Element from them. With this, I'm going to be more hungry for goblins in the future!'
Alon started devouring all of the dead goblins in the area. After finishing, his health had fallen below 80% so he drank 2 lesser healing potions and a lesser antidote to remove the poison effect.
Ting~
[Lesser Healing Potion
Type: Consumable
Heals 200 HP every second for 5 seconds
Cooldown: 1 minute]
[Lesser Antidote
Type: Consumbake
Cures lesser poisoning and lesser venom
Cooldown: 5 minutes]
After his health was full, Alon started venturing deeper into the cave. From the goblin corpses he had eaten, he obtained 2 additional Poison Elemental points, a 1% increase in his skill proficiency, and 2 additional status points: 1 Agility, and 1 intelligence.
He was quite satisfied with his gains and after reaching deep into the cave, he found three tunnels that lead through different parts of the cave system. Right in front of the tunnels was a crowd of goblins on guard around a campfire. Each one held small spears, bows, and daggers and they number up to 60 units.
Their number far exceeded his expectations. Usually, a group of goblins was compromised of 5 to 10 members yet in front of him was sextuple at that. He thought that only their battle prowess was improved, it seems that their numbers were also multiplied by a few folds.
Currently, on a pouch that he had plundered from one of the goblins, it contained dozens of bone spikes that he crafted using the rib bones of the goblins. Since goblins had thin and brittle bones, they would easily break if he used them as melee weapons. He had no other choice but to turn these bones into throwables.
His Weapon Enthusiast proficiency had increased by 2%.
He readied himself with the bone spikes in his hands and stealthy crouched to the crowd of goblins. As soon as he got near a group of goblins, he activated Slash with his blade-like hand lopping off their heads. In an instant, 6 goblins died raising his experience by 8%.
Before the goblins could react to the slumping bodies of its companion, Alon threw the bone spikes that darted in the air like bullets quickly killing a dozen goblins at the same time. Each goblin spike contained 120% of his strength attribute so it was able to easily pierce through a goblin's body penetrating one goblin to another.
In an instant, 23 goblins died. Before the other goblins could retaliate, the speed in which Alon threw the bone spikes overwhelmed the goblins by a large margin so before they could even place an arrow on their bows, their heads had already been pierced by the bone spikes.
It didn't even take 15 seconds for all of the goblins to die and as a result, Alon gained another level allowing him to finally reach level 20 in which the system granted him with a random reward and he also gained 3% on his Weapon Enthusiast proficiency.
Ting~
[Serrated Knife (0)
Type: Non-combat Melee weapon
Rank: Common (Growth)
Durability: 250/250
-Allows the collection of monster meat from monster corpses.
+20% increase in collection speed
+10 Dexterity
Collect 50 different types of monster meat to upgrade to the next rank. (0/50)]
"..!"
Alon was stunned after reading the information about the weapon. Although Non-combat weapons were uncommon, Growth type weapons were very rare. It was rarer than Unique weapons since Growth weapons could be upgraded to the Legendary rank making it's price reach for a million dollars. That money could buy you a hundred thousand dildos and why the hell would you buy a warehouse full of dildos? I have no idea.
It was like finding a shiny Zubat. You'd have more chance of finding a woman on the streets that 'might' like you than finding a Zubat that has only a 0.22% chance of you encountering and you can't even be sure if you could capture it in 100% certainty if you don't have a master ball.
'With this knife, I can collect monster meat to eat when I go for a long journey. I might even try selling monster meat, who knows? People might buy them.'
Alon tried the Serrated Knife on the dead bodies of the goblins. Just like magic, he was surprised at how fast he could dissect the meat, bones, and inedible parts very efficiently.
[Goblin Meat (0)
Type: Consumables
Meat contains nutrients, healing, and poison. Although it is edible, not only does it taste bitter, it also inflicts you with food poisoning and small poison so it is not recommended to be eaten raw unless one is desperate.]
'This knife works like a charm! Now I don't have to rip through the meat like a madman. With this, it'll help greatly at speeding up my devouring process.'
Alon smiled and admired the serrated knife in his hands. Without stopping, he started cutting the goblins into parts. From meat, and bones to organs, he stored all of them in his spatial storage for future use.
He also started devouring all of the meat to gain more Poison Elemental and Status attribute points. In no less than 15 minutes, he was finally done dissecting the scattered goblin corpses and ate all of the meat giving him 5 Poison Elemental points and 7 free status attributes 3 strength, 3 agility, and 1 intelligence. His Monster Eater skill had also gained an increase of percentage on its Proficiency and now racking up to 9%, as long as he ate various types of monster meats, it won't be long until the skill would be upgraded to tier 1.
Alon turned the bones he collected into bone spikes which immediately filled up his pouch. Now he had 2 pouches filled to the brim with bone spikes which he placed on his waist for a quick retrieval.
While trying to trace the scent of each cave, Alon could smell the intense goblin odor from each cave. It didn't matter what tunnel he'd choose since he'll simply be facing more goblins plus, he wanted to explore every inch of this giant cave system before he killed the boss monster.
He went to the left side of the cave that had the weaker scent of goblins. Although he enjoyed the thrill, he didn't want to go all out right off the bat, that'd be too reckless. He would never underestimate Hell-mode difficulty dungeons.
Lurking deeper down the tunnel, he started to see a faint light. This light got brighter and brighter as he got close to its source. Upon finding the source of the light, what he found was a gruesome sight.
Rotten corpses of women spread out on the ground. Some corpses had seemed to be left out for months since only bones remained while some looked a day old as he could fresh marks of sexual assault.
Suddenly, his danger senses rang like a loud bell. He immediately averted his gaze to his back and just as he expected, a giant wooden bat slammed just an inch over his face.
'It's a trap!'
His body moved unconsciously as he bent it in a very unusual manner dodging the giant bat with a breadth of a hair.
Ting~
[Hob Goblin (0)] [Chieftan Boss Monster]
Level: 35
HP: 500,000/500,000]
'It's a boss monster!'
Seeing the monster information popped out of his view. His face revealed a grin and grim look. The Hobgoblin was nearly 10 feet tall and stood like a towering giant. His body was like a giant lump of blob but Alon could tell that the Hobgoblin was made up of mostly muscles.
Giyaaaah!
It let out a loud bellow as it swung its giant wooden bat on the ground. Alon quickly rolled on the ground to avoid it and threw dozens of bone spikes but despite having a relatively thick and heavy stature, it was quick enough to block the speeding bone spikes using its thick arm.
-3,670
-4,030
-3,980
.
.
.
The damage he dealt was rather low but it was only normal considering that it didn't manage to hit any weak spots plus the goblin had a huge health pool and defense.
If he wanted to kill it with just the bone spikes, he'd have to empty his entire two pouches.
Ting~
[The Hobgoblin has activated Ululate]
Giyaaaah!!!!
It screamed a defeaning roar that made Alon lose the strength in his body as he slump to the ground. The corpses around him flew away leaving him kneeling and forcing himself not to fall.
Ting~
[The scream has affected your fighting morale!]
[Status has been weakened by 40%!]
Ting~
[Firm Resolve has nullified the effect!]
'Phew..'
He was thankful for the effect of his innate skill as he quickly stood up but despite resisting the effects, his body still tensed up. His danger sense was ringing all over the place and he could feel numerous presences drawing near the walls.
Kayak!
Kayak!
.
.
.
The walls of the cave were actually illusions that revealed small tunneling systems and through these small entrances burst out an entire clan of goblins.
From what he could count, there were at the very least 500 goblins. Some goblins were as big as an average human and one particular humanoid goblin gave off a strong distressed signal. It was a goblin that was wearing garments and held a wooden staff in his hand and although it had a thinner body structure compared to the other humanoid goblins, it gave off a very dangerous aura, even more, dangerous than the Hobgoblin who towered over everyone.
Without any hesitation, Alon threw a bone spike at this particular humanoid goblin and once the bone was an inch away at the humanoid, a transport barrier appeared around it leaving a small visible crack.
Ting~
[Goblin Shaman (1)] [Lord Boss Monster]
Level: 40
HP: 100,000/100,000]
'A tier 1 boss monster! To think I'll be facing two sub-bosses at the same time. This guys should be able to push me to my limits.'
"Haah~ this is gonna be fun!"
Kayak!!
Instantly, the Goblin Shaman commanded all of the goblins to attack. Arrows rained down at Alon and the goblin melees charge at him like rabid dogs. Alon quickly activated Dash to evade all of the incoming arrows and while some arrows managed to cut him, their poison effects didn't prove very effective since Alon's Poison Element gave him some Poison Resistance. The stinging pain of the potent poison only gave him a boost of adrenaline.
His speed was like a moving bullet and the goblins couldn't follow up with their naked eyes. They tried to catch up with him but the only thing that they caught up with was the bone spikes that pierce through their brains.
Alon started madly throwing the bone spikes into his pouch and each of the spikes managed to kill 2-3 goblins in an instant. His experience bar rapidly increased and before he knew it, he gained a level.
His footwork was simply too hard to follow with the naked eye and it made it look like he was appearing and disappearing in their sights. This technique was a mix of all the martial art footwork he learned to what he named, Shadow Steps. It was a highly evasive maneuver that made it impossible for the opponent to predict his actions by turning his entire body to a blur. This was very mentally taxing to the body but Alon had long perfected this technique since he made it himself.
Without any target for them to aim, the goblins were lost at a standstill. Right after he could appear in their eyes, a dozen goblins would fall on the ground lifeless. The Hobgoblin had started to get annoyed at this predicament as he quickly slammed his giant bat at the ground.
Ting~
[The Hobgoblin has activated Crushing Blow]
Boom!
The entire ground exploded that formed a giant crater at the center of the cave destroying not only the enemy but also anyone nearby, it didn't distinguish allies from foes and since it was a powerful AOE attack, it inflicted a powerful stun on any surviving targets.
'Too slow!'
Alon had long predicted the attack so he quickly jumped high in the air to avoid the shockwave and minimize the damage he would received. He only lost a fraction of his health from the powerful attack.
Cut!
[Skill Proficiency has reached 105%, and the damage has been enhanced by 380%!]
Alon appeared right at the Hobgoblin's right side and performed a karate chop. The chop sliced the entire arm of the Hobgoblin clean causing it to growl in the pain.
Kiyaaah!!
Its health immediately fell to 60% and although it was a chieftain boss that allowed it to heal 1% of its health every 5 seconds. He was fortunate that he was able to empower the attack with a poison effect which decreased the monster's healing abilities by 50%.
Although he wasn't able to deal a critical strike, being able to render it from using its weapon would make the situation a lot easier.
Crash!
'Shit!'
A huge ball of flame shot right at his face and Alon quickly counter the attack by blocking it using a goblin as a meatshield. The goblin turned into scorched meat that smelled good and although he drooled at the cooked goblin on his hand, he decided to throw it away after finding more barrage of fireballs coming right at him.
Alon performed a donkey roll to avoid the exploding fireballs. He searched for the source of the fireballs and found the Goblin Shaman incantating a spell.
[Goblin Shaman has activated Lesser Hymn of Power]
Orange light flashed from the Goblin Shaman's staff that gave all of the surviving goblins a boost of power. Their skins turned red and their eyes were filled with a murderous aura staring at Alon like a predator looking for its prey.
Ting~
[Goblin (0)] [Evolved Common Monster]
Level: 20
HP: 10,000/10,000
A green light then appeared from the staff which started healing the Hobgoblin and its arm started growing back at a visible rate and its health started regenerating rapidly.
Ting~
[Hobgoblin (0)] [Chieftan Boss Monster]
Level 35
HP: 401,290/500,000
'Shit and I thought I had the situation under control it seems like I have to kill the most annoying one first.'
Alon grinned and he instantly vanished leaving a trace of lightning in his wake.
Flash!