The crash landing dealt fall damage to Reed and his HP was down by two. Even though the fall hurt Reed, he endured the pain without showing it on his face.
"Yael! I am not your guardian or a babysitter. If you want to live, grab a weapon and defend yourself! If you die, it's not my fault! People only die if they are weak and weak people don't deserve to live! That's why, get strong!"
After saying that, Reed launched himself at the goblins and began slaying them down.
The goblins seemed to be higher level than the ones he had fought on the previous floor. These ones had weapons and seemed more fierce. However, that wasn't an issue for Reed.
He moved his hand to his waist to grab the dagger, but he recalled he didn't have the dagger with him.
'Oh, come on! Why do I always forget things like this?!'
The goblin attacked Reed with a spear, but Reed caught the spear with his hands and cleaved the goblin's hands. Then, he held the spear from the far end and smacked it on the ground, echoing the rattling round in the chamber.
The goblin's severed hands that were still gripping the spear fell to the ground.
Reed continued his assault on the goblins, using a spear in his left hand and the sword in his right. He was using both weapons at the same time and using different fighting styles for each weapon.
Reed was impaling the goblins with the spears and his attacks were so brute and powerful that the spears were breaking after each strike, prompting Reed to grab another spear from the goblins.
Reed leveled up in the middle of the fight but he had no time to check his system.
Yael, who watched the fight with wide eyes couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. Neither could he figure out who the true monster was.
The goblins were helpless against Reed and it seemed a one sided massacre. Yael almost felt pity for them.
"What is a monster?" Reed muttered. "Non-human characteristics, such as different skin color, horns, fangs, claws, tails, scales… or is it the action of violence? If so, what can justify violence? Act of self-defense or the absolute resolution to protect something?
What are you, Reed? A living being that can slay anything on his path? Would evil be considered evil if it can't win against something… greater…. Dangerous… deadly evil…"
Suddenly, Yael closed his eyes and held his head in his hands. He then glanced around with a confused look on his face and muttered, "What was I… doing…?"
Reed had killed all the goblins except one, who was running away.
"Running from a fight? That's cowardly, even for a monster." Reed threw the spear at the running goblin as it impaled its body and got stuck in the wall.
After that, he turned to Yael and asked him if he was okay, and Yael nodded in response.
While Reed was picking up the yellow stones from the ground, Yael asked him, "Why… did you come to save me…?"
"I got a system quest and I would have been penalized if I hadn't completed it," Reed answered nonchalantly.
"Would you have come if… there was no quest?" Yael asked with a curious look on his face.
"I would have come here even if you had died. The only reason I got here on time is because of the time limit of the quest. Without the quest timer, I would have taken a long time to get here, and if I was 2 minutes late, you would have been in the goblin king's stomach right now."
"Umm… thank you for saving me."
"Don't worry about it." Reed shrugged it off. "I didn't do it for you. Now, pick up the stones. The last floor didn't drop any."
Reed had 10 yellow stones in total, which were equal to 10 coins. However, he had received an item upon defeating the goblin king.
A common grade, tier 5 spear.
It wasn't something extraordinary, but it was worth at least a few dozen coins.
Reed picked up the spear and tested it before putting it in his inventory.
'I could sell it and make some bucks, but let's keep it. It will be useful in the future. I need to hold onto it until I get a better weapon.'
Reed then looked at his sword and muttered, "I kind of don't want to return this sword. It's great. It can easily be sold for more than 5000 coins. Well, I can make 5000 coins somehow and buy this sword from her."
Reed opened his system to see the reward of the quest he had completed.
[+1 Unallocated Points.]
"Well… better than nothing. I guess. I leveled up too… twice actually. And that gave me two more points. I should assign them."
Name- Reed Ross
Hero Name- Reed (Changeable)
Level- 3
HP- 28/30 (+10 increase with every level up.)
STRENGTH- 12
AGILITY- 11
MP- No mana detected.
Skills- No Skills.
Reed added two points on strength and one on agility.
"I wonder if more stats categories will be added once I reach a high level. There should be a category for stamina. But it's actually better that it doesn't. People would have limited themselves based on their stamina."
Reed glanced around to find his dagger that was stuck somewhere in the valley.
"Look for my dagger," He told Yael.
While they both continued searching for the dagger, Reed couldn't forget the feeling he felt while throwing the dagger.
'What was that? The dagger is a rare grade tier 2, and they don't have special skills. Only the weapons above epic grade can have that, or a weapon that is named.'
Yael spotted the dagger and told Reed about it.
"How did it get there?" Reed wondered.
"You threw it."
Reed pointed his finger at the cliff and said, "But I threw it from there so how did it get here,"
Yael, dumbfounded, pointed his finger in the opposite direction and said, "You threw it from there."
"Oh… is that so? Everything looks the same to me."
Reed used his sword and spear to climb the mountain and pulled out his dagger. Just to confirm, he checked the dagger's stats and they were as they should be.
"Is something wrong?" Yael asked curiously. "Don't tell me the dagger is damaged!"
"It's not." Reed placed his weapons back in the inventory and walked to Yael.
'Well, unless the same thing happens with the dagger again, I won't waste my time thinking about something I have no control and knowledge over.
"Let's go," said Reed.
"Yes. We shouldn't stay here for long or the monsters might respawn. Let's go back to the town."
"Oh, no. We are going to the next area."
"What?!"
"You heard me. Now, guide the way to the next area. It's a troll floor, so it might even be the easiest floor to clear so far."
"I don't want to go," Yael muttered.
"Well, you have to. Come on, don't make me repeat myself."
"I am tired… and scared…"
Reed looked at Yael and gently smiled at him. He understood that as a seven year old, Yael must be scared to no end, especially when he was nearly killed by the goblins earlier.
"You survived so far, you can survive a few more floors."
Yael looked into Reed's eyes and asked, "Why are you so eager to level up? You can do that tomorrow too. Aren't you tired of fighting so much?"
"Obviously. I am tired as fuck. I spent the entire day doing my daily training and then traveled to another city to participate in the tower opening event. I basically committed treason within my family and entered the tower anyway. I didn't get skills or magic, so now I have to do whatever it takes to unlock magic. I fought the golem and walked and walked. I am thirsty and I want to sleep."
"Then why…? Shouldn't you return to the town?" Yael was puzzled. He couldn't understand why Reed would push himself so far.
"I can't let such things stop me. I have to level up. I have to get stronger. I have to be the strongest. I.. am going to be the strongest hero the world has ever seen."
The resolute expression on Reed's face matched his goal and determination.
"Are you not afraid to die?"
"I don't know. I haven't died yet so I wouldn't know. I don't think I can attest to something which I am not sure of. If I die, that would mean I wasn't strong enough and I deserved to die. If I want to live, if I want to survive, then I have to stay strong."
After a brief pause, Reed looked up at the sky from the open area of the cave, and asserted, "If death comes to me, I will gladly accept it."
After hearing Reed, Yael felt a new sense of energy within him. He felt confident and agreed to guide Reed to the next area.