Aron walked into the forest, staring at the quest paper in his hand. ^Today, its purple haze flower gathering.^ He smiled at the simple quest.
Purple haze flowers are an antidote for several common poisons. That made them widely needed, especially when dealing with monsters like goblins and orcs.
As Aron went deeper into the forest, he could hear something rustling behind the bushes, so he pulled his sword. "Who's there?"
If he got an answer, it was a human. If not, he's preparing for a fight. A simple concept, but it protects adventurers from mistakenly attacking each other.
Silence filled the air, and Aron pointed his sword forward. ^Monsters.^
GWA! A goblin jumped out of the bushes, swinging a long branch at Aron. "Green demons," He smiled, swinging the rusty sword sideways and deflecting the attack.
The goblin recoiled back, grunting at Aron.
Thud! Aron rushed forward, swinging his sword at the goblin. ^They are small. So a good hit can kill them,^
Thud! The goblin jumped back, avoiding the attack, and screamed. CRACKLE! Another three goblins emerged from the bushes, growling at Aron.
"You multiplied," Aron smiled, "I'm used to dealing with wolves. A bunch of you aren't going to scare me away," He rushed forward, kicking the first goblin in the face, breaking its long nose.
The other two goblins rushed behind Aron, swinging their sticks at his back. CLACK! CLACK! They got him with two direct hits.
"AW!" Aron growled. It felt like two children whacked him with wooden sticks.
The goblins stared at their sticks, confused.
"You usually gang on people, drop them to the ground and bite them to death. Or kill with weapons you stole from adventurers. Sadly for you, twigs aren't going to help." Aron swung his sword, dropping one of the goblins.
[Level 1] [Exp: 2/10]
GWAGWA! The other one growled, swinging at Aron's face. "Thud!" Aron caught the stick in his palm.
"Weak," He pulled the goblin toward him and swung him around like a ragdoll.
The goblin cried as Aron threw him at a tree, and the last one tried to run. "Where are you going?" Aron rushed forward, grabbing the goblin by the ear and stabbing him through the back.
[Level 1] [Exp: 3/10]
The last goblin stared at Aron in terror, screaming to call his friends, but he got stabbed immediately.
[Level 1] [Exp: 4/10]
Aron sighed, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "They are weak, but swinging a sword is exhausting." He smiled, taking the goblins' ears and putting them in his pocket.
^Not worth much, but anything is good for me now,^ He then kept looking for the purple haze flowers.
After just a few minutes, he found them growing around a small pond in the middle of the forest, basking under the rays of light falling from the trees.
Aron gasped, "It's beautiful," he walked toward the water and scooped some. Cold and refreshing is the only word he could describe it with.
He then went to pick up the flowers, but soon his stomach started rumbling and twisting inside his torso.
Aron fell to his knees, his vision blurring as he rolled on the ground, feeling something pushing up his throat. He crawled toward the bushes and puked all the water he drank, "Damn it," He cried, "I shouldn't have drank from there," He rolled on the ground, taking a deep breath.
He didn't want to vomit anymore, but the pain wasn't going anywhere. ^I better get the flowers and bolt back to the city. I need healing.^ He crawled toward the flowers and picked as much as he could fit in his pocket, and started stumbling away.
GWA! GWA! GWA!
A bunch of goblins pulled up, and Aron couldn't even count them with how bad his vision got. He could only tell that one of them was the size of an adult human carrying a sword.
"A hobgoblin," Aron smiled, "Looking for three fools?" He giggled, pulling his sword out and barely standing straight.
The hobgoblin approached Aron as the rest surrounded them to make sure he won't run away.
GRWAA! The hobgoblin growled, rushing at Aron and swinging his sword down with rage.
Aron lunged to the side, barely dodging the attack. ^He's as fast as a human. There is no difference facing him than a man. Except, this monster is dumb.^
Aron scooped a bunch of dirt from the ground and threw it at the hobgoblin's face, blinding him for a second as he rushed forward, stabbing him in the stomach.
Without wasting a second, Aron took the hobgoblin's sword and kicked him in the chest, stabbing him again in the neck. "An ape would be more dangerous than you," He bent down and took his ear.
[Level 1] [Exp: 7/10]
The other goblins stared at Aron in fear, but they won't run away.
Aron looked at them with a smile, "Come at me," He smiled, jumped forward, and stabbed one in the neck.
[Level 1] [Exp: 8/10]
One tried to climb Aron's back, but he got thrown on the ground, stomped on the chest several times.
As more goblins charged, Aron killed some of them, but soon the pain in his stomach started getting worse, and something was about to rush out of the other end.
"You lucky bastards, see you next time," He ran away. With his long human legs, they won't catch him.
*****
Aron returned to the guild, putting the goblin's ears and flowers on the desk, "I finished the quest. And faced some monsters."
The man facing him pinched his nose, "You reek! How long did you spend with those goblins?"
"I need to go, so give me the money as fast as you can," Aron growled.
"You got a total of 31 copper coins. Twenty for the ten purple haze flowers, six for the three goblin ears. And five for the hobgoblin." He smiled, putting the money on the desk.
Aron snatched the money and ran away, bolting toward the church.
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[Level 2] [Exp: 4/20]
[Chose one skill]
[Swordmanship] [Herbalist] [Runner]