James was attacking his meal with such vigor that other customers stayed quite a few miles away from the young man. If they wanted to get their limbs intact of course.
This was the largest yet the cheapest meal he could afford with his last silver coin. The meal consisted of raw eggs, porridge, bread and broth. He needed the meal to refill his mana.
He had chanted 'recycle' twice this morning alone. One to cut the metal plate into two and the second to fix his broken short sword. He needed it for work anyway. Thanks to his skill, the rust and damage were fixed at the cost of three quarters of his mana. The drawback was that he got an appetite the size of half guild.
"Easy there boy! you scare my customers away." Elly the innkeeper said frostily. She was a plump middle aged lady with red hair and green eyes.
James was embarrassed and looked sheepish. " Sorry Miss Elly, your exceptional cooking skill made my stomach go crazy."
"Flattery is not enough to pay your bill young man." Elly sneered.
"One can try, Miss Elly. One can try." James said sagely. He slid a silver coin across the counter. "Good day, Miss Elly!"
James trudged down along the busy road of Callen. His destination was Ewwin's stalls. He usually had a job for James.
"You're late." The stall owner frowned as James came over.
"Overslept." James said shortly.
"Fresh Goblin balls. Get as many as you can. Fangs and eyeballs whatever you catch." Ewwin threw a glass jar which James caught it with both of his hands. It was a special glass jar that turned anything that was put in it into static. It was as if the time was frozen in the jar.
James scratched his chin to look for anything of use on the older man's stall. He hoped for a shield of better quality than his previous purchase but he found none.
He left without saying anything to the stall owner.
The trek to pass the front gate was an uneventful journey. No sneer or bad mouthing from the guard. They were too busy robbing a green grocer who sold too much cabbage.
He walked down a dirt path to the goblin corpse he left yesterday. If he was lucky more goblins would be interested to see what brought their friend demise. With better equipment he was sure that he had a better chance to kill the goblins.
James was not surprised to see two goblins standing over his hunt. One goblin was a bit bigger and taller than the other. The taller goblin's skin was brownish green while the shorter one was grayish green. They seemed to be arguing over something.
James definitely had the element of surprise. He readied his short sword to eliminate one threat at a time. Taking down the monsters at the same time would be downright dangerous and suicidal.
After taking several calming breaths, James took off with a sprint. The goblins were too careless not to check their surroundings. The brunette's sword easily pierced the shorter goblin's chest. He also kicked the taller goblin while in midair. The monster was thrown ten yards away.
The shorter goblin was dead before its body touched the ground.
KRAAAAA
The last goblin raised a wooden spear and charged. The spear was likely made of a long stake. It was easy to avoid the attack so long that James knew where the pointy side was faced.
The key to defeat an enemy with a longer weapon was to keep fighting in close ranged combat. Yet again it was easier said than done.
James had to dodge and duck every now and then to avoid the greenish humanoid creature's relentless attack. Everytime James was closing up to deliver an attack, the goblin rashly swung its weapon to anticipate his opponent's attack. Its kick was not something that could be ignored either.
The two combatants took several steps back to catch their breath. If James was honest, he loathed fighting humanoid creatures. It was similar to fighting fellow humans. They grew stronger through experience.
Unexpectedly the goblin threw its spear and it went directly towards James' head. Instead of ducking, the boy rolled out of the way.
From his peripheral vision, the monster jumped over its companion corpse and took its weapon. A small crossbow.
"Damn!" James cursed himself for being too careless. It slipped his mind to secure any potential weapon first.
The goblin grinned evilly as it pointed the crossbow to James' way. Thankfully it was empty.
"KRAAAAH!" It let out a frustrated scream and kicked its buddy. The monster began rummaging its friend's body to find a bolt.
James used the distraction to launch his attack. With a sprint he charged swiftly and slashed the goblin's chest. There was a long gash from its lower left abdomen to the middle of its chest. He spun on the spot and delivered a roundhouse kick to the goblin's head. The creature was then launched ten yards away.
The monster dragged and rolled by the force of James' kick. It laid on its stomach motionless.
"Fyuuh! That was one hell of a fight." James mused.
The brunette dug his knapsack to find the glass jar and began bisecting the smaller goblin as it was closer to him. The process only took less than ten minutes as James was beginning to get used to it. He cut off its left ear, gouged the eyeballs, pulled out the fangs and cut the nutsack.
The boy then proceeded to walk to the next goblin. It laid still. The kick must be that powerful to bring instant death to the target.
It was just two steps away from the goblin when the monster suddenly flipped over, loaded crossbow in hand.
It shot.
James was dazed by the sudden movement. The bolt was released before he managed to duck. The iron bolt embedded on his left shoulder.
He shook himself to clear the daze. Ignoring the pain that was beginning to bloom, he charged and stabbed his opponent's chest. He pulled out the bolt then proceeded to stab the goblin's neck.
"KRAAAAAAAH!"
"Die you bastard!"
The goblin trashed and turned to get away from James but to no avail. Green blood sprouted and smeared the ground and James' vest. Half a minute later, the motion stopped completely. The goblin's eyes became lifeless.
James rolled over from the goblin. Bolt wounds really hurt once the adrenaline wore off. Even after he pulled out the bolt.
The young man suspected that the bolt was covered in poison. That means this wound will be very dangerous if left unattended.
James tore off his shirt, folded it and pressed it against the wound to stop the bleeding in order to slow the spread of the poison.
"Reduce!" He cast 'reduce' several times to neutralize the poison effect. By the time he ran out of mana, the poison on the wound no longer gave him trouble. He was too tired to lift a single finger let alone move his entire body. He opted to sleep then and there.