FYI, I’m already dead.

With nothing else to do, Mikael decided to check his newly acquired skills.

'I can't touch it so, is the system voice-activated?' he cocked his head in wonder.

Deciding that he should just go ahead and try it out, Mikael cleared his throat and asked,

"Ehem… Let's see…uhmm… Skill page?"

The system immediately brought up the list of skills with their accompanying description.

<Skill Page 1>

< Psychokinesis Lvl.1>

Description: (Active skill) Control small object/s simultaneously within a 5-meter radius sphere.

Current Limit: 1 object

Skill cost: 5MP per minute.

<Teleportation Lvl. 1>

Description: (Active skill) Instantly travel between two locations without crossing the intervening space.

Current Limit: 3 meters

Skill Cost: 10 MP per jump.

<Reverse Clairvoyance Lvl. 1>

Description: (Passive skill) Communicate with the living.

Current Limit: 1 living being.

Skill Cost: none.

<Blessing of the Mist Lvl. -1>

Description: (Passive skill) See through the nature of things.

Current Limit: none

Skill Cost: none.

Mikael scanned the contents and murmured, "Oh, I see… that's interesting…"

Deep in thought with his arms crossed and his ghost body levitating above ground, Mikael unknowingly drifted off.

"KYAAAA! Help! Help me!!"

The screams of a young girl broke Mikael's reverie. He sped through the forest and headed in the voice's direction.

In the forest's outskirt, a little girl ran for dear life as she desperately cried for help.

Thud!

Her eyes blurry with tears, the girl stumbled on a rock and fell back.

She sat facing her pursuer and her eyes trembled at the terrifying look on the monster.

"No… No! Please! Spare me…Hic!" she raised her arm to brace herself from the incoming attack.

"Kekekekeke!"

The creature with green skin, pointed ears, elongated nose, and the size of a child, maniacally laughed as the young girl flailed her legs to crawl backward.

In its hand was a primitive axe made of sharpened rock attached to a piece of wood.

As if enjoying the sight of cowering prey, the goblin powerfully swung its axe only to stop midway after seeing the girl flinch.

"KEKEKE!" it held its stomach in a bout of uncontrollable laughter.

Its grimy, yellowing teeth and green lips caked with dried blood terrified the wits out of the girl who passed out on the hard ground.

After having its fill of pleasure, the goblin slowly strutted toward the unconscious child.

It held the axe handle with both hands and raised it far back.

Although surprised by the sudden appearance of a creature from fantasy, Mikael decided to put his questions on hold and prioritize saving the child.

'I won't reach her in time!' Mikael drifted as fast as he could, even directly passing through trees but he was still too far away.

'No, I can!'

Estimating that the creature entered the 5-meter radius, Mikael shouted, "Psychokinesis! Activate!"

Mikael focused his concentration on the primitive axe, willing it to fly out of the goblin's reach.

Sure enough, the axe jerked out of the creature's hand and flew toward Mikael.

The confused monster looked around it and saw its missing weapon floating in the air.

"Kugh! Why… axe there?" Scratching its bald head, it headed to the axe's location.

The Goblin jumped to reach his weapon, seemingly unbothered by Mikael who was right beside it.

"Huh? Can't you see me?" Mikael asked.

Suddenly, a blue notification appeared.

<Passive skill: Reverse Clairvoyance Lvl. 1 is activated.>

The monster flinched in surprise as a disembodied voice suddenly talked to it. It looked around for the voice's source but found no one in its vicinity.

When it decided to just ignore the sound as a figment of its imagination, Mikael told it, "Leave the girl alone and I'll return this to you."

He slowly lowered the axe until it was almost within the Goblin's reach but when the monster tried to grab it, he sent it higher up into the canopy of trees.

"Tsk! Annoying! K-…you!"

"What?"

"I KILL YOU! CHILD TOO!" the goblin finally reached the end of its patience and wildly swung its hands around, hoping to strangle the owner of the voice.

'And here I was, trying to solve things peacefully. Ugh! I really don't want to kill anyone! Not even a monster! Who was it again? The one who said every life is precious? What if I kill this guy and my karma points become more negative?'

As he was deliberating whether to kill the monster or not, the Goblin ran toward the unconscious girl and propped her on its shoulders.

"Oh no! you can't just run away after saying you'll kill us!"

Mikael drifted alongside the running goblin with the floating axe in tow.

"You leave me no choice," Mikael said in a low voice that sent a chill down the Goblin's spine.

Mikael hurled the axe toward the creature's legs to stop it from running.

Thwak!

As the axe had a blunt, chipped edge, the cut it left on the monster's leg was far from clean.

"Ack!"

Mikael honestly commended the Goblin's tenacity for it continued to run, limping on its wounded leg, as it carried a child not much different from it in height.

'Where is it running to, anyway?' Mikael wondered.

"Are you perhaps trying to call for reinforcements?" he asked the huffing Goblin.

"They! KILL YOU!"

"That's it. I give up. You're a hopeless case. And for your information, I'm already dead."

Mikael decided to stop trying to reason with the monster. Whether he gets more bad karma or not, he thought the child's life was more important.

Furthermore, it has been 15 minutes since he started using Psychokinesis so if the creature manages to call for even one ally, Mikael would have no more MP to use.

Mikael repeatedly sent the blunt axe to the creature, targeting its legs.

Tak! Tak! Tak!

Black blood spurted from its legs and bits of white bones peeked through the green leathery skin.

Finally, the Goblin stopped and unceremoniously threw the child aside. It knelt on the grass and stared with seething contempt at its traitorous axe.

Mikael watched as the goblin opened its mouth wide and immediately understood that it was preparing for an outcry for help.

"Oh no, you don't!" In Mikael's rising panic, he subconsciously sent the axe toward the monster's mouth to gag it, but the axe's momentum sliced its head horizontally in half.

Thud…

The severed head landed on the grass with a soft thud.

Brain matter spilled from the head while the body convulsed, squirting arcs of blood, before slowly falling forward.

Mikael stared at the bloody axe embedded on the ground. He could not believe that his first kill would be so gruesome.

"B-Bleargh!"

He stuck out his ghost tongue and held his stomach as it threatened to spill its nonexistent contents.

"Disgusting! Ugh!"

Ping!

<System notification: 10 Karma points have been added as a reward for saving the child.>

<Total Karma points: - 1240 KP>

Mikael's expression instantly brightened at the notification.

"Truly, a good deed deserves a good reward."

--Chapter end--

*it's math time!~

Recall: Mikael's current total MP = 100

Psychokinesis skill cost = 5MP/min

therefore, Mikael can only use the skill for 100MP/(5MP/min) =20 mins. (after which he has to wait for his MP to replenish)