Matthew stood behind the goblin, and with all his might, brought the rock down on its head.
The rock collided with the goblin and its head shot forward as it started screaming in pain. It spun its head and stared at Matthew, anger in its eyes.
It reached for a dagger that had been sitting in front of it and jumped to its feet, one hand still on its head.
[You have attacked 'Goblin: Rank 0'. You have dealt 1 Damage. Current remaining Health Points of 'Goblin' is 9/10.]
The Goblin pulled it's hand away from its head, green blood soaked its hand and it screeched at Matthew. It jumped towards him, swinging its dagger wildly as Matthew dodged to the side with a roll.
Matthew had never been a fight before. The only violence he had been subjected to were one sided beatings, so he had no idea how he should fight back.
The Goblin made more attempts to strike Matthew, many of the them almost hitting him as he narrowly dodged left and right. He was unable to get close to the creature, which was swinging its dagger so wildly that there was no pattern to it.
Once again, the Goblin dove at Matthew, but this time the dagger became lodged in a tree behind him. The Goblin began to pull on the dagger, trying to yank it out but was stopped by a tackle from Matthew.
Matthew sat on the creatures chest and began to wail his fists into its face.
[You have attacked 'Goblin: Rank 0'. You have dealt 1 Damage. Current remaining Health Points of 'Goblin' is 8/10.]
[You have attacked 'Goblin: Rank 0'. You have dealt 1 Damage. Current remaining Health Points of 'Goblin' is 7/10.]
[You have attacked 'Goblin: Rank 0'. You have dealt 1 Damage. Current remaining Health Points of 'Goblin' is 6/10.]
[You have attacked 'Goblin: Rank 0'. Critical Hit. You have dealt 2 Damage. Current remaining Health Points of 'Goblin' is 4/10.]
The Goblin's eyes looked onto Matthew's. Despite it's position, it had a ferocity that only appeared in an animal you had cornered. But like all animals that are cornered, that's when they strike back harder.
The Goblin regathered its self and managed to push Matthew of itself. It threw a punch which knocked him against a tree.
[You have been attacked by 'Goblin: Rank 0'. Critical Hit. You have taken 4 Damage. Current remaining health of 'Matthew' is 6/10.]
Matthew coughed blood, the wind being knocked out of him by the force of him hitting the tree. Tyson and his entourage had never hit him that hard before and his head began spinning.
The Goblin began to walk towards him, grinning widely. It knew that its prey was finished. As it bent down to look Matthew in his eyes, its own eyes widened as it slumped to the ground in a heap... dead.
.
[You have attacked 'Goblin: Rank 0'. Critical Hit. You have dealt 4 Damage. Current remaining Health Points of 'Goblin' is 0/10. You have defeated 'Goblin: Rank 0']
Matthew dropped his hand, the dagger still in the Goblins throat. Green blood coated it as more seeped out of the wound.
-Quest: The Basics Of Survival
Defeat Goblin 1/1
Rewards: 100 Copper Pieces, Plain Shirt -
-Complete-
Your Rewards have been added to your Inventory.
.
Matthew dismissed the notification with a thought and began to let his mind drift. He had just killed something, with his own hands. He was never a violent person and would never wish violence on someone else, no matter how poorly others might treat him, even Tyson and Gary, who beat him almost every week, were not deserving of any sort of violence. Ore at least that's what Matthew believed.
He looked down at his hands, the ones that he had used to kill something. Despite himself knowing that he should be lamenting on what he had just done, he felt... nothing. He felt no guilt, no shame, no sadness, no grief, he felt... nothing.
"I would have died if I hadn't done this, it would have killed me," Matthew said as he stood. He did not think about how He was the one that attacked first.
Matthew began thinking of the Shirt that was inside his inventory and it appeared in his hands. It was a plain black that matched the black pants he currently had on.
"So," He thought aloud, once again asking no one, "How does this 'Looting Ability' work? I guess it must be the same as the 'Scan Ability?"
He placed a hand on the Goblin and was met with a notification box.
[Would you like to loot 'Goblin: Rank 0'? Y/N]
"Yes," Matthew said.
The Goblins corpse suddenly turned into dust that seemed to evaporate.
[100 Copper Coins] have been added to your Inventory. [Basic Dagger 'Rank 0'] has been added to your inventory. [Monster Core 'Rank 0' ] has been added to your inventory.
Matthew looked down and noticed that the dagger had also disappeared. He willed his inventory open and saw that it had been moved into it, pulling it out with a thought.
He looked the dagger over and scanned it with his ability.
[Basic Dagger 'Rank 0'. Deals 2 physical slashing damage]
'I guess 2 is better than 1," Matthew said to himself as he looked at it. "I wonder how I put things back into the inventory though."
He willed his inventory open again and looked at it. He pushed his hand out into the screen with the dagger, but it went right through it. He then tried to tap one of the slots with a finger, but his finger went right past it as well. He thought of the dagger being inside the inventory and it suddenly disappeared from his hand and back into his inventory.
"Nice!" Matthew said. "Wouldn't want to carry a bloody dagger everywhere I went."
He looked over to the next slot, his eyes locking on the Monster Core. He remembered the text when he saw his status.
"Status," He said, and a screen appeared in front of him.
-Status-
Name: Matthew Kaido
Race: Human
Class: None (Increase current rank '0' to 'Rank 1' in order to obtain class)
Magical Abilities: 0/5 (Use a Monster Core to unlock abilities)
Health: 10/10
Mana: Locked (Use a Monster Core to unlock)
Strength: Rank 0
Speed: Rank 0
Stamina: Rank 0
Intelligence: Rank 0
Wisdom: Rank 0
.
"Use a Monster Core to unlock Mana and Abilities?" Matthew asked himself.
Matthew knew what Mana was from the games he had seen others play. Mana was the power source that made using magic possible.
'So, If I use this," Matthew said as he pulled the Monster Core out of his inventory, "I'll be able to use... magic?"