As our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we realized with horror what the figure was doing. It was an ice goblin, and it was feeding on one of our fellow scientists.
We froze, unsure of what to do. If we attacked, we risked alerting other goblins to our presence. But if we didn't, we were leaving one of our own to die.
What should we do?
As we stood frozen in the doorway, the ice goblin lifted its head and turned towards us, its eyes glowing in the darkness. It let out a hiss, revealing its razor-sharp teeth, and began to advance toward us.
Without hesitation, I ordered my two nano-praying mantis to stop the goblin. They both rushed toward it and cut its two arms. We could see the two arms flying in the air for a while, and the goblin let out a screech of pain.
*Yaaaahhhhh*
We braced ourselves for a fight, but to our surprise, the goblin turned and ran towards the back of the room, disappearing through a small opening in the wall.
I gulped down and waited. Would it come back immediately?
Once the stress died down, I looked at my comrades before looking at the man who was being eaten by the goblin earlier.
We rushed to his side, but it was too late. He was already gone, his body drained of life by the goblin's feeding.
I clicked my tongue. I knew that such a thing would happen, but seeing it with a calmer heart was harder to take in.
"August, are you alright?" Roselle asked as she saw me tremble.
I nodded, but in reality, I wasn't alright at all. It wasn't because I knew worlds like this through books that it was easy to adapt. No, far from it. It was because I knew the reality of things that it was harder. I knew that as we will progress further, we'll have much more chances to die.
Death was the greatest fear, and it wasn't easy overcoming it.
But as of now, we had other priorities, and it was to survive until we could get out of the lab.
We quickly searched the area for any other threats and found none. The room was empty, except for the body of our fallen colleague.
"We need to keep moving," I said. "We can't stay here."
The others nodded in agreement, and we continued down the dark hallway, our weapons at the ready. The silence was deafening, broken only by the sound of our footsteps echoing off the cold stone walls.
As we rounded a corner, we came face to face with another group of ice goblins. They were huddled together, whispering and laughing amongst themselves.
I signaled for my team to stay back and slowly crept forward, trying to get a better look at them. They seemed to be in the middle of some sort of ritual, their voices growing louder and more frenzied with each passing moment.
Suddenly, one of the goblins turned toward me and let out a bloodcurdling scream. The others quickly followed suit, and before I knew it, they were charging toward us, their weapons raised high.
We were outnumbered, and I knew that we couldn't take them all on. I quickly ordered my team to fall back, and we retreated down the hallway, the goblins hot on our heels.
As we ran, we stumbled upon a door and burst through it, slamming it shut behind us. We were safe, for now.
We caught our breath and looked around the room, taking in our surroundings. It was a laboratory, filled with strange equipment and machines we had never seen before. The three of us only stay on the last floor and didn't see what the other scientists were working on, so it wasn't strange for us not to know about those things.
"We n-need to find a way out o-of h-here," I said, my eyes scanning the room for any clues. "But f-first, we need to figure out w-what to do with the g-goblins following us. It'll only be a matter of time u-until they find us a-again."
Roselle nodded in agreement, her hand gripping her weapon tightly. "We could set up a trap," she suggested. "Use some of these machines to lure them in and then attack them from behind."
I nodded, impressed with her quick thinking. "G-good idea," I said. "B-but we need to be c-careful. We don't k-know what kind of machines t-these are, and we d-don't want to a-accidentally set o-off something that c-could harm us."
We spent the next few minutes examining the machines and figuring out how they worked. We found a few that seemed to emit a high-pitched sound, and we realized that it could be used to lure the goblins toward us.
We set up the machines and waited, our weapons at the ready. It didn't take long for the goblins to find us.
*Hyaaaah*
*Harrrrr*
They burst into the room, screeching and hissing, but we were ready for them.
As they charged toward us, we activated the machines, and the high-pitched sound filled the room. Thankfully we protected our ears or else we would have been in very bad shape. The sound was so high that it still made us dizzy. As for the goblins, they were momentarily disoriented, giving us the perfect opportunity to attack.
We rushed towards them, our weapons swinging. It was a fierce battle, but we emerged victorious. The goblins lay dead at our feet, their bodies mangled and broken. Unfortunately for us, there were only 3 goblins on the ground. I didn't know where was the other that chased us earlier, but it wasn't good for us to stay here.
[Congratulation, you are now level 3]
[1 free stat point has been given]
[Magic power is restored]
[You can now earn coins by killing monsters]
[Please choose a reward for your level up:
- Random Stats Points
- Random exclusive skill
- Random equipment]
A lot of messages popped up in front of me. Thanks to the system, I already knew part of it, but I couldn't help but be happy seeing the reward, and my magic power being restored as well. Still, I couldn't dwell for long as we needed to move.
We caught our breath and looked at each other, relief washing over us. "Let's k-keep m-moving," I said. "W-we need to f-find a way out of h-here before more o-of them s-show up."
We left the room and continued down the hallway, our weapons at the ready. The silence was eerie, and we couldn't shake off the feeling that we were being watched.
As we turned a corner, we found ourselves face to face with the rest of the group of goblins, led by a towering figure in a robe. The figure held a staff, and its eyes glowed with an otherworldly light.
We realized that we were in trouble. We were outnumbered and outmatched, and we didn't stand a chance against this powerful creature.
But we didn't back down. We stood our ground, our weapons at the ready, ready to fight for our survival.
'I'll choose a random exclusive skill.' As I thought that, a bright light illuminated the surrounding, blinding all of us.
[You acquired the exclusive skill: Elemental nanobots
Elemental nanobots: The nanobots you will create in the future will get an affinity. You must be familiar with the corresponding affinity to give them to your nanobots. Affinity is built the more you're surrounded by a certain type of magic.]
My eyes grew wide at this new skill. I never expected such an overpowered skill. 'I knew that it was a great idea to choose that reward.' A smile grew on my face as a tab opened.
[Available affinity:
Ice: 50%
Fire: 10%
Telekinesis: 30%
Time: 1%]
I could clearly see that I didn't have any affinity yet, but it was still very clear in my mind. The ice increased so much because we were surrounded by a constant cold. The fire was because I burned myself when I was a kid. Telekinesis because I'm always by Roselle's side, and the same applies for time.
"What do we do, August?" Julius asked as he saw the ice goblin with a staff chanting a spell. "We must hurry!"
Indeed we needed to act quickly.
I quickly used my nanobots to create a nano-dog and a nano-cat. I barely had enough magic power as both of them cost me 55 magic power to make.
However, now that we matched the numbers, I felt a little bit relieved. 7 on our side, and 7 ice goblins, including this shaman-goblin.