[3rd Person POV]
Somewhere no man ever dared to transverse, a frown face of a god can be seen.
The god of the undead looked at the scenario that his "daughter" made, there is something wrong, something that is bothering him.
"Why is she so careful... If her subordinates cannot die?"
The supreme being who is watching his adopted child get past a rather basic and easy ordeal pondered, though not pondering for he already knows the reason why. Sophia might toss her previous self out of the window and decide to do anything in her power to gather undead, she is gathering them not for subordination.
There is no concern that she might not know what undead are capable of, for she hails herself as the promised child of her previous world, and thus that makes it impossible to conclude that she forgot that undead cannot die.
Knowing this, she still treated them, even though unconsciously as a companion, or more accurately, a family. This can't do, a subordinate shall be a subordinate and subordinate alone, this distinction is to not be burdened by emotional barriers when giving orders that happened just now, she just made the safest plan with the smallest chance of her subordinates that she is unknowingly thinking as her family dying.
This can't do, the god of undead thought. And thus his primordially wise mind twirled, thinking of ways to remove that emotional attachment his adopted daughter and hero has.
[Sophia's POV]
Bloated stomach, small physique as big as a newborn baby just like me, and a fucking ugly face, such is the perfect or rather the only description that I can make out of the creature that right in front of me right now, damn can't they be more like isekai goblins? Why did they look like the mythical ones?
Come one do your job properly designers!
Sigh... Well, no need to fret about appearances, the goblins immediately noticed my appearance and pointed their weapons towards me with their terrified eyes but just then, Philo pounced at the goblin caster and then went for her thigh, the headbutt from my bunny successfully landed and the goblin caster made a "Guh..." sound that is quite clear despite my expectations...
Huh... So it seems like monsters can speak in this forest, or most of them must I include because of the lack of data.
"We... Surrounded... small... Not alone..."
The other club-wielding goblin said, they can speak but are caveman-like, that's good info to hear. The moment they learned that their faces suddenly were contorted and their eyes went from terrified to bloodshot from what seemed to be anger.
Eh? Wait why the anger? Did they do that to align their fighting spirit and make it so that they at least have the right mindset? Isn't that too stupid?
First, you can't get angry on a whim, furthermore anger that only masks fear is nothing but an idiotic approach of retaliation, this just shows their small minds, I didn't even put too much thought into making them angry and develop a bipolar tendency, I still managed to do so.
I analyzed as such and decided that the one in front of me is not a threat at all, I gave one last check to Philo and Lyra, Lyra's using her arrows to make her target make a feet dance while Philo is just... Well, limping the caster and it's just a matter of time before they kill their victims. (which is not permissible)
I didn't hesitate any further and pounced on the goblin with my staff being used as a spear point in the head of the goblin, the goblin dodged the attack but was still struck in the ear, the goblin made an ear-splitting screech and swung his club, and to my surprise, the club was slow, not slow enough for me to dodge but slow enough to see it's trajectory, I parried the club with my staff to the goblin's surprise and smashed blunt attack again aiming at its head.
The goblin also parried the spear with a roar of "Graahh!!" he raised his hand and swung down, the attack became slower than before, but still not slow enough so that I can dodge it with ease, and thus I parried it again and to my surprise, the goblin quickly recovered, arched his back and made a sweeping attack using his legs.
I jumped on reflex and swung down on the goblin he parried it and used force to stagger me backward and gain some space for him to take a breath... damn, this is more fun than I expected, I bet he had kind of a swordsmanship skill of some sort to be able to have a proper clash of weapons with a higher witted individual... that or I just really suck in Spearmanship that a goblin can contend to me.
I bet it's the former, I mean it can't be the latter that would be embarrassing.
Back to the fight, the goblin huffed while circling me which I also did. Hmm, even though I wouldn't say that this fight is hard because it is obvious that the goblin is concealing his fear of me... And here comes a question.
Why is it, that even though I and my undead are low-leveled and not particularly strong, all of the monsters I am encountering are very scarce(either they are intelligent enough to avoid us, a prey like Philo in this case, or stupid like the goblins) because of that very reasons and I can't still understand why in the world that is the case?
Suddenly, as I am thinking of those things, the goblin made a move and jumped over my head, my thoughts of what kind of lore the undead have were thrown out of the window, I should probably ask [Guide] later on after the fight for what I saw is quite bizarre, the already in the air goblin is in the air in super slow motion as if a camera is recording it to be like so.
There is a catch in this fight, I am too slow to use any skill beyond [Spearmanship] because all of my limited amount of offensive skill needed some rock to be picked up, yeah, if you didn't notice, my [Throw] skill fucking sucks in a one on one confrontation and the [Punch] skill cannot be used because my grip of the staff that I am using as a main weapon will wane. Of course, right now the slow motion of the goblin is still not enough that I can use those skills and not suffer circumstances but one thing is, it is slow enough that I considered using them.
And, suddenly as I was pondering about this "Dynamic Vision" of mine, a system notification came dinging inside my head.
Notice [Continuous training has granted you the common skill: [Dynamic Vision] ]
And as I heard the skill notification, I looked at the goblin who became slower than when the notification didn't appear yet, it is already slow that I can read the description for a moment and dodge the attack with ease.
And so I did.
[Dynamic Vision]: Let an individual accurately anticipate the attack, a higher level grants next move prediction. The effects of the skill depend on the level gap between the user and the enemy.
Oh basically, the skill is all about... Dynamic Vision, but for it to be cooler, let me just say that it is a degraded version of sharingan, but with limitations like the eyes won't turn red, there can't be illusions to be cast and if you put it bluntly, the skill is just a plain Dynamic Vision with perks like next move prediction(though that would be in higher levels).
As I finished analyzing the full potential and use of the newfound skill I obtained, the goblin's jump is already near me, I casually sidestepped while stroking the pointed part of my staff right into his exposed ribcage.
"How... Smol... Dodged....!"
I just realized this but why are they calling me small if they are just as tall as me? I can now casually think of stupid things like that while earlier, I have to be on my toes to have a proper fight, damn, having [Dynamic Vision] as a skill made it so that this goblin that gives me an ample amount of challenge to be like a fuckin' child's play.
As one would expect, the once exciting battle turned duller by the second, I continued to dodge the goblin's attacks while punching the face of the goblin that is continuing to get enraged, the fight became one-sided and I started to just sidestep the attacks of the goblin assigned on me as if it was a child's reckless swats without even using my spear to repel.
What the hell is this, this is unfair, I am supposed to be just the same size as him but why am I the only one who has the natural edge? This is unfair(again), I want fun! MORE CHALLENGE!
But I will not complain, I decided to just end the fight, first, it is getting stale, and second is that I can't get anything, no upgrades no nothing for fighting an opponent much slower than me, and just used the power of wrath as some kind of balancer.
Thinking so, I stopped in my tracks and the goblin's eyes lit up, the goblin in all desperation pounced into me with his club in an overhead swinging stance in which I casually drove the tipped side of my staff into his chest, green-colored blood spurted out of the poor goblin's mouth as a look of disbelief but also defiance appeared in his eyes.
"Smol... Stole... Pretty..."
Before he gurgled his last breath and limply collapsed in my staff, making his head and limbs alike hang like an ornament, he said.
Now, it seems like this fallen warrior here has the hots for Lyra huh? So that's why he is the one who intercepted me, hoping that he can bring back his beloved.
How tragic, anyway, I waved my staff in the air until the corpse of the lover boy goblin made a small "thud" sound in the ground with matching snapping of bones, I then looked at my subordinates whom, it seems like in a while already have done their job, I seem to have too much fun in the fight... Hehe.
Anyway, their targets are already on the brink of death so I throw two stones at them using [Throw] skill and killed them by headshot for the mage and by a chest shot in the other club goblin.
And you know the process I turned them undead but it seems like I misunderstood the function of the [Necromancy] skill, that I can only have an EXP. Share benefits if I named them, which is wrong, I will still have that function plus the hivemind but no mana drained because of it compensating with the stats of my named people.
So I went against naming them for now, but I will be sure to name them later for I have limited mana and I calculated that my mana would be drained if I tried to name all of them, I don't have a storm dragon in my belly you know?
Anyway, even though I already guessed how the stats for Lyra will look like, I still looked at it because the hunt is already over.
Name: Lyra
HP: 27
Race: Mid-Goblin (Undead)
Mana: 7
Stamina: 30
[Level: 4
EXP: 17/300
Stats:
STR: 8
INT: 2
VIT: 4
AGI: 11
DEX: 10
LUK:1
Titles:
Skills:
Unique:
Common:
[Archery level.3]: Let individuals learn the way of bow and arrow
[Dash]: Dashes at fast speed increasing the damage of ramming-type attacks, can also be used as a way to dodge attacks from enemies
Passive:
[Aim LVL 4]: Adds 11% chance to make the projectile you have thrown or attack you have unleashed to perfectly hit the target.
]
Well, as you would expect from an archer, a backline unit, Lyra has lower HP than the two of us, and I can only say, as expected as I said earlier.
I mean, I am not shocked that an archer has a higher level [Aim] than me, it would be a disgrace if it so otherwise.
Anyway, my next objective is to ask [Guide] the lore of undead and why in the world are they feared in this forest.
But as I was about to ask that question, a gurgling sound came out of my stomach, I then decided to go back to the bushes we slept earlier to eat our fruits, after I ate, I proceeded to ask the question I am about to ask, but, for the first time in my short yet decorated life, a question I never thought I will ever ask to myself emerge out of my mind.
"What do I want to ask [Guide] again?"