Ackster dove into the midst of the goblins, his fists already swinging wildly. One of the goblins was a little bigger than the other, and its wooden club was a shade darker as well. But it wasn't enough to make Ackster pay any more attention to it.
All goblins were equal pieces of meat for him to butcher in his eyes.
He got a clean sucker punch in on the first goblin and then dodged a wooden club from the second before uppercutting it with enough strength to lift it off the ground.
He had to take a blow to his back for that, though. But it wasn't enough to stop him, and he continued toward his next target, which he tackled to the ground and elbowed in the head while his back took another two blows and knocked him off the third victim.
Ackster rolled on the ground to put some distance between himself and the two goblins, who were now fully alert. He could see the first goblin he had punched standing on unsteady feet, but it didn't worry him.
His initial assault had gone surprisingly well, and now that he had reduced the numbers, it would only get easier.
Ackster kicked some dirt at the goblins. One of them flinched and lashed out with its club.
'Where do they get these clubs?'
Ackster saw the gap the goblin revealed after its swing and darted forward. He jumped up and kicked the goblin in the head, transitioning into landing on the goblin's head and chest.
The goblin that he had pushed over with his jump didn't even have time to react before Ackster stomped like an angry child throwing a tantrum and smashed both its chest cage and head.
The sloshy feeling mixed with sharp bone fragments on his bare feet told Ackster just how sticky the goblin's brain, blood, and organs were.
But he had walked around in the forest without shoes for a while now. With his Strong Body skill helping his feet recover every time he cut them or wore down the skin, his feet were getting sturdy and durable enough that he practically didn't need shoes anymore.
Ackster stepped off the goblin's corpse, flicking his feet to shake off the blood as he looked at the goblin in front of him while using his hearing to keep track of the goblin behind him.
Although the goblins were stupid, Ackster and his assault seemed to have spurred them into being smart enough to launch a joint attack.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for them.
With the strength and agility he had now, he could just barely jump high enough to avoid the two goblins. When combined with his flexibility, which let him bend his legs up even further, Ackster easily dodged the two goblins' attacks before landing on them and using his feet to knock their heads together with a loud crack.
Ackster finished off all the goblins. He wasn't satisfied.
"Well… That was too easy."
'I shouldn't have thinned them out like that.'
The fight with the goblins had been too easy. He had only taken a few hits, none of which were critical, before he killed them all. Ackster had also killed or incapacitated the goblins with one strike of his own.
He had grown too quickly, quicker than he had estimated, at least. He had almost died fighting a single goblin just a few days ago, and now, he had slaughtered an entire pack on his own. He had ambushed close to ten of them, but he had confronted five of them head-on.
He would have to look for stronger targets if he wanted to continue growing and challenging himself in terms of battle.
But first….
"You awake? Wait– Do slimes sleep?"
Ackster opened his bag, which he had put on the ground nearby before he fought, and spoke to the slime within, only half-expecting an answer.
It did look like the goblin shook a little, but it could have been because he himself had rustled the bag. And since the slime still couldn't speak, there wasn't much hope of a vocal response.
Ackster grabbed the slime and set it down next to one of the goblin corpses.
He watched on expectantly as the slime kind of shimmied closer to the blood leaking from the goblin and took a sip. The slime then continued forward and stretched forward part of its jelly-like body in a claw-like shape toward the goblin's corpse.
The slime then closed the jaw-like claw shape around a piece of meat on the goblin's arm and took a bite.
"I guess you were pretty hungry, huh?"
Ackster didn't know what to think of a slime eating like it had a mouth. It even chewed the food before swallowing it. The whole illusion of the process was ruined by the fact that Ackster could see the goblin's meat swim around inside the goblin. But it was still something Ackster hadn't expected, and he watched with raised eyebrows as the slime returned to the bag.
"Not much of a big-eater, I take it. No problem. That just leaves more for me."
Ackster put the slime in the bag and the bag on his back as he rounded up the goblin corpses. It was time for another feast.
With the experience of last time – the same stones as well – Ackster got a proper fire burning in no time, and he indulged in the chewy, bitter, and putrid goblin meat while feeding the slime with some of his own flesh and blood.
Since the slime was carnivorous, it would probably prefer human meat over goblin meat, which was famously known as inedible.
Ackster was right. The slime slurped up the blood and munched on his flesh with satisfied glooping and smacking sounds. It even spat out what remained of the goblin's flesh since it preferred Ackster's.
Ackster didn't know what to think of that or the slime itself that he had randomly picked up while looking for a Doppelganger Slime to die in his place.
Low-ranking slimes – most slimes, in fact – were usually too dumb to be so expressive and have clear will and decision-making abilities. But it was obvious that the slime in front of him was no ordinary slime. It just hadn't had time to shine yet.
After looking at the slime for a bit, Ackster looked at the sun as it set beyond a couple of hills.
Almost as if waiting for it, a flock of birds took off toward the night sky as soon as the day's light faded, and only the faint dusk shone upon the world. He didn't know what the orange and dark-blue birds were, but they were beautiful as they flapped toward the invisible sky.
His eyes followed a feather, slowly falling and dangling through the air back to the ground, proof that even birds are bound by the laws of gravity.
"...Shit!"
Ackster swore and stood up in a panic.
"Fuck! I can't believe I forgot about that!"