As we continued to march through the forest, Trin guided us toward the goblin she had tracked yesterday. But as a goblin, it wouldn't just stand still in one place, so we had to track it again.
It didn't take long, though, since the goblin was alone and had to not venture far during the night. There are many nocturnal monsters out there that could easily kill it.
When we found it, it was resting by a medium-sized boulder. We slowed down and kept ourselves just far enough for it to not hear us.
"All right, this is far as I guide you two. Remember, goblins are much stronger than a slime. I would only help if you are on the verge of dying," Trin said with a serious expression.
Although she said it casually, just thinking of being on the verge of dying was enough to make my body shiver.
We nodded at her words and began to fortify our resolve to face the goblin.
We walked slowly and carefully, not stepping on things such as twigs so as not to alert the oblivious goblin. We hid behind the trees to remain unseen.
When we got closer to it, I managed to finally clearly see its features. Its color was green, ears pointy and sharp but longer than an elf's, its nose was just as sharp and long but wrapped with an endless amount of wart. It had no hair, no eyebrows nor eyelashes, eyes that had no sparkle in it, only darkness. Its face was wrinkled, and warts could be seen on multiple, if not almost all around its face.
The goblins' stature was much lower than mine, maybe between my abdomen and chest. I couldn't really tell as it was sitting, but its body was more muscular than mine. It was wearing clothing that covered one of its chests to its abdomen sideways and the big or small thing below it.
The clothing looked like a mixture of leaves and fur.
As I looked at the horrifying goblin, I lost myself a little and accidentally stepped on a twig, alerting the monster.
It immediately grabbed its makeshift spear that lay on the ground and stood up. It turned its head in the direction of the sound and looked directly in my eyes.
'Crap.'
I stopped hiding behind the tree to face the monster. Holding the dagger in my hand and ready to amplify myself at a moments notice.
Soon, the goblin ran, seemingly faster than I currently am, and aimed its spear to my neck.
I narrowedly escaped death by deflecting it with my dagger and amplified strength. The strength of the goblin, though, was a bit higher than mine, pushing me back.
It attacked with its spear again. This time, I evaded it.
I attacked it, but it was easily avoided as the spear was much longer than a dagger. We were put in a struggle.
*bang*
As we exchanged clashes, a gunshot was fired and hit the goblin by the shoulder. I went for a slash as fast as possible at the confused and injured goblin and hit its chest, making the goblin make an ugly groan. Purple blood flowed from the wound.
The goblin quickly regained its composure and thrust the spear to me as I backed away. The spear hit my side, and blood fell. It felt hot, as if the injury was burning.
With a loud groan, I looked at the pain and saw that it really was burnt.
'Ow! what the hell?!'
I looked at the goblin and saw that the head of the spear was surrounded by fire.
'Elemental magic? goblins can use magic?!'
I went back to reality as the goblin charged on me once more.
I focused and amplified my agility to avoid the damn spear.
*bang* *bang*
Two gunshots rang in my ears as I backed away from the goblin. One hit its hand, and the other hit an ear, slightly missing the head. The goblin staggered and yelled with an unknown language.
The goblin turned its head to the sound and found the one who had been injuring it since earlier.
The goblin aimed its spear to Lulu and made a thrust at seemingly nothing. But soon, a fireball came out of spear head and shot toward Lulu. Even though it was not as fast as a bullet, it was as fast as an arrow.
Lulu did not expect the speed and was hit on the stomach, making her yelp and fall to the ground.
I stabbed at the goblin while it was distracted, but my attack was deflected with a swing of the spear. The goblin's attention was already back on me.
It thrust it spear, as it moved forward, a fireball also shot from it. I evaded the attack as my agility is currently amplified.
'Getting further from it was a mistake.'
I thought with regret. I needed to get close again to deliver a dangerous blow to the goblin.
Luckily, I'm currently much faster than the monster.
As I sidestepped each of its attacks, I got closer to it. I stabbed at the monster, aiming at where the heart is supposed to be. My dagger dug through its skin, but soon, flames appeared. I took my dagger back, afraid of the danger.
The flame first emerged at where I stabbed and soon covered the entirety of the goblin. The stab injury as well as the bullet holes strangely closed up by burning it.
The goblin looked more angry. It seemed as though it lost its meaning and just wanted to eliminate whoever stood in its way.
It was in a state of berserk.
*bang* *bang* *bang*
Three bullets shot and pierced its green skin, but it did not care. It thrust its spear toward me and released multiple fireballs. By this time, my amplify had already run out of time.
I narrowedly dodged one fireball and was hit by the other three.
I made at what could possibly be the loudest groan in my whole life... yet.
'This is infinitely stronger than that of a slime. God damn it!'
I cursed, but the monster did not stop, not yet. I rolled on the ground to evade its attacks narrowly, some hitting me.
*bang* *bang* *bang*
Three more gunshots and the monster finally staggered, making me finally regain my composure and breathing.
The monster looked at Lulu and ran toward her, almost like it forgot about me.
It launched its spear, and five fireballs came out at once, aimed at multiple directions. Lulu dodged three of them but not the rest. She was hit on her left shoulder and leg.
Just like I did, she also groaned loud.
However, she was able to regain her senses faster and fired three more shots at the running goblin.
As the goblin was fast, it was able to avoid one bullet, but the other two connected to one of each leg. Making the monster slow down.
After a second of a breather, I chased after the monster, hoping to stop it before it reached Lulu. Luckily, it slowed down, so I caught up to it and attacked its defenseless back.
With a slash of my dagger, a huge wound formed around the monsters back, and blood gushed out. The feeling of stabbing and slashing a humanoid creature felt wrong. It felt inhumane even, especially when I had first done it. Nevertheless, I continued barraging it with attacks as it weakened.
Finally, it fell to the ground with heavy gasps. Lulu walked closer and delivered the final shot to its head.
*bang*
***
When she fired the final shot, with a slight convulsing, soon the goblin stopped breathing. But unlike the slime, the goblin did not disintegrate. Its body just laid on the ground, lifeless.
I felt like I had something taken away from me as I looked at the corpse.
'We really took a life.'
I felt guilt rise, but I knew for a fact that this was just the beginning. I knew that we would be killing more than just a single goblin.
...Assuming we have a long future ahead.
Soon, Trin appeared by our side and placed her hands on me. A feeling of warmth was flowing in my body. I was healing. After a few minutes, I was fully healed, I thanked her, and Trin went to Lulu to do the same.
A few more minutes later, Trin was done.
"Good job, you two. Although it was unfair because it was a two versus one, your coordination was great."
We nodded. It was true. The fight would've been much, much harder if not for the fact that there were two of us. Maybe it could've even killed Lulu or I if we were to face it alone.
"The goblin... really was much harder to fight than a slime."
I said as I remembered the pain it inflicted on me.
"That's right. Never underestimate your opponent. Even if they're just slimes," She replied.
"The magic attack was much faster too," Lulu said, adding,"I didn't expect it at all."
"Yes, a goblin has higher mana and control over it than a slime. This also applies to other monsters, so be careful of that as well."
We nodded at her words, fully acknowledging it. She then handed us a bottle of water that appeared out of midair. She handed it to us but noticed the strange look in our faces.
"Oh, I guess it wasn't explained to you guys. But remember how a permanent creation can be summoned and unsummoned?"
"Yes," the two of us nodded in unison.
"Well, you can also store things inside a creation, and it can preserve it. An example of it is this bottle, I stored water in it."
"I see, that's really useful. It can act as a storage if one has enough mana to make a large one," Lulu said as she pondered over the new information.
"Indeed. With that said, drink the water and rest for a few more minutes. We will continue the goblin training."
We shivered as we heard that we would have to continue, but it was understandable because the sky was still blue, and the night was far from expanding.
As we had no choice, we just gave a hesitant nod and drank the water we were given. After a few more minutes of rest, the training begins.
But first we have to find goblins.
***
After a whole tiring day of goblin training, which sounds kind of weird to say, because we were more or less goblin hunting. But Trin was the one to say it was goblin training, so it wasn't something I could change.
Anyway, after the first training, we had to find more goblin, so it took time. We would be able to find groups of them, but that was too much for the current two of us, so we had to search more.
Because of that, we only got to train three more times, but each fight was as painful as the first one, if not more deadly.
We also had to adapt, as goblins have different elements, as well as different weapons.
One goblin had a dagger and wind element. it used the wind to make itself faster. The other two used earth element, making them slow, but each attack was heavy. They also had toughened bodies, making bullets not as effective, so Lulu had to shoot twice or thrice as much as the first one. Their weapon was as troublesome as it was also a spear.
I grimaced as I thought back to how many times I was cut. One time, I even had at what looked like a hole in my body. Just thinking about made me shiver.
Even though Lulu was much safer than me, she wasn't able to dodge all attacks. A wind cutter would shoot at her, or an earth spike would grow underneath her.
As we walked back home and saw the outline of the house, I had never felt happier and safer.
We did the usual stuff such as talking about the events today, what we could improve on, and ate dinner while at it.
After saying goodnight to each other, we went back to our rooms.
I was especially excited to check my profile, but as tradition, I had to wait to settle down on my futon.
I looked at Lulu as we relaxed ourselves.
I nodded at her, and she nodded back.
I expect a lot from today's training as it was much harder and life endangering than the slimes
"View Profile!"
-----
[Sim Kliff]
Race: Human
Health: 60 -> 80
STR: 1.2 -> 1.8 (3)
AGI: 1.2 -> 1.7 (4)
INT: 0.9 -> 1.3 (2)
Mana: 0.8 -> 1
Skill: Basic Amplification
-----
***
-----
[Lulu Berg]
Race: Human
Health: 45 - 60
STR: 0.8 -> 1.1 (2)
AGI: 1-> 1.2 (3)
INT: 1.8 -> 2.3 (4)
Mana: 0.8 -> 1.3
Skill: Basic Creation
------
...