18 Goblins on the Offensive
*Tip*
*Tap*
An eerie quiet was present, the only sound being the steps taken on the wet cave floor. The group of goblins were hunched together, walking in the dark cave. This silence being atypical, as usually the goblins guarding the mouth are quite loud, talking to distract themselves from the boredom.
As they approached the entrance though, a different sound rang in their ears.
*Squelch*
"What?" Asked one of them as they looked down at their feet. An emerald liquid covering the ground.
"Go to Nabik and tell him the entrance is covered in blood!" Screamed the leader of this small group.
One of the goblins turned and ran back into the depths of the cave to make his report.
...
"I see... gather half the goblins here and search the area. I want a headcount before you head out and one when you get back, as well as a report of what you find." Nabik stated to the panting goblin.
Hearing his demand, the goblin went to the others loafing around in the cave waiting for their butchering shift and gathered them up for the search. Soon after, fifteen goblins went to the entrance of the cave.
"Twenty of us total, split up into groups of four and each group head in one direction!" Yelled out the leader of the original group of five.
The leader, taking the north direction, selected three of the toughest looking goblins to follow him. As he confidently walked forward, the goblins behind him gave a dirty look, internally complaining over his luck of getting the temporary leader position.
One of the goblins following behind him, known as Ilk, had a vicious snarl plastered on his face. He was the second strongest in the expedition team, right under the leader Nabik.
'One more level until I evolve, I can't wait to beat the face of that stupid fuck in when I do...' Ilk thought, staring at the back of Tilok.
'Disgusting bastard, feeble in front of the strong, yet shows off when given the chance.' Ilk continued his inner monologue, as the group approached a clearing.
"Seems to be nothing here, let's return to the entrance now." Tilok stated, after barely walking a couple hundred feet.
"...Sir... Are you sure about that? We've barely left the cave-" One of the other goblins in the group began, before being cut off by Tilok.
"Positive! There was nothing here and we covered almost three hundred goblins of distance." Tilok said, winking at his group before continuing back towards the cave to wait for the others.
'Lazy, disgraceful coward!' Ilk internally screamed. Yet he couldn't voice his anger, knowing that Nabik would kill him without hesitation for insubordination.
After arriving near the cave mouth, the group sat and waited for the others to come back.
Around thirty minutes later, all but one group had returned. Tilok began to get cold sweat, knowing that he might get killed for losing four goblins. So he gathered up the remaining groups and went into the direction that the missing group traveled.
"What the hell?!" Tilok screamed, finding the bodies of multiple goblins inside of a bush.
"Seems whoever killed them hid the bodies here. We should be on alert." Ilk stated calmly, looking Tilok in the eyes.
"Y-yeah, everyone be alert! There are enemies nearby!" Tilok said mimicking Ilk's advice.
The sixteen goblins grouped up, watching all directions for possible attacks, as they went deeper into the woods. Tilok was standing in the very center, laying claim to the safest spot among them.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
*Haah Haah*
Panting heavily, Solus was sitting on a pile of four goblins. Roy had asked her to protect him during his evolution and she had been successful. She thought back to the situation as she watched Roy mess with his arms...
She had ambushed them when she smelled them coming towards her.
As she hid in the tree nearby, she pounced down on the back most goblin. Instantly, she dug her razor sharp nails deep into its neck, incapacitating it while it slowly bled to death. She then leapt forward, scratching the eye of another goblin which caused it to scream in pain before falling to the ground grasping its eye socket.
The last two goblins had noticed the attack now and were preparing a counter. They attacked her together, swinging their sticks towards her head and stomach at the same time. Solus tried dodging both attacks, but her stomach was struck! She nearly collapsed on the ground in pain, but quickly remembered that Roy, the only family she had, would be in danger if she fell here.
Finding the strength within her, Solus steadied herself. Staring daggers into the eyes of these revolting creatures, she sprinted at the goblin to her left, using her scratch skill, she managed to rip its chest open after dodging its swing. Successfully incapacitating it, Solus went to reap the life of the final one. She jumped as high as she could, her trajectory aimed at the head of the final goblin.
Unable to react, as it didn't expect a jump attack, the goblin failed to counter and fell to her claws.
Seeing her victory, Solus howled quietly in delight before finishing off the other goblins.
Soon after she finished she heard a cracking sound behind her. Surprised, she looked back alert. She then noticed that it was the strange cocoon covering Roy's body. It was indeed cracking, it began to fall apart soon after.
Out of the cocoon, Roy emerged! He had a completely different look to before his evolution. Losing his pink fur, Roy was now mostly dark brown. His snout now sleeker, taking on a black color. His arms past the elbows, and legs past the knees were now the same black shade as his snout. His ears now shorter and sharp, no longer flopping as they had before. Finally, his stubby tail had grown out to forearm length with the black color to match his other extremities.
Inspecting the parts of his body that he could, Roy was now bombarded with notifications from the short five minutes he was evolving.
[Successfully Evolved]
[Keratin Growth has reached the necessary requirements and has been acquired]
[Received Keratin Growth Lv. 1]
[Goblin killed]
[36 EXP Received]
[Goblin killed]
[33 EXP Received]
[Goblin killed]
[30 EXP Received]
[Goblin killed]
[39 EXP Received]
[Enough Experience has been accrued]
[Level up 1->3]
[Enough Experience has been accrued]
[Apprentice Tamer Level up 8->9]
[Enough Experience has been accrued]
[Inbellis Level up 8->9]
Status
Name(s): Roy Palmer
Species: Infant (Lesser) Babirusa Orc Lv. 3/10
EXP: (16/30)
Job(s): [Apprentice Tamer Lv. 09/100]
EXP: (24/90)
{Available Jobs}
[Apprentice Craftsman] [Apprentice Assassin] [Apprentice Dissector]
Stats:
HP: 19.0
Str: 19
Agi: 6
Int: 12
MP: 6.0
Achievement(s):
[Lesser Victories] [Lesser Strength]
Skill(s):
[Mental Fortitude Lv. 4] [Apprentice Crafting Lv. 6] [Taming Lv. 1] [Hatchet Arts Lv. 4]
[Apprentice Assassination Lv. 3] [Apprentice Dissection Lv. 1]
Trait Skill(s):
[Keratin Growth Lv.1]
Unique Abilities:
[Other World Reincarnation Tutorial] [Aptitude]
Pet(s): [Inbellis]
"One more level until you evolve Inbellis!" Roy said happily, after taking a look at his stats.
'Now I need to prepare for the fight ahead.' Roy thought, as he prepared to practice his new ability.
Adjusting to his new body, Roy attempted to use his new trait skill [Keratin Growth] on his forearms. As he activated the skill, he could feel his mana draining. 'I think this is the first time I have actually used mana?' Roy wondered as he could watch in real time as his forearm began to have a hard layer covering the skin.
"Woah!" Roy exclaimed, attracting the attention of the curious Solus. When she arrived by his side, she tapped his arm with her nails.
*Tap tap tap tap*
A tapping noise could lightly be heard as her nails clicked against the keratin coat on Roy's arm.
'That. Is. Awesome.' Roy thought, as his dream of having an exoskeleton seemed a lot closer that he originally thought.
Looking to his stat panel Roy could see that he had used three mana to give his one forearm the coating of keratin. "So I can only cover my two forearms right now... I wonder if there is a way to cultivate in this world. Only getting half a point of mana per Intelligence point is absurdly low..." At this, Roy decided to make a mental note to try later on.
After covering both of his arms in keratin, Roy felt a little light headed. "Whew seems it's a bad idea to bottom out on mana! Solus I messed up a bit, I'll need you to cover for me again until I'm better." Roy requested.
Though Solus didn't understand most of what he said, she understood to cover for him. Doing just that, she hid in the bushes again and focused her sense of smell to detect any approaching enemies.
'Alright, I can't just sit here while I wait for my mana to regen. I guess I'll get accustomed to moving around, since my body grew a bit more.' Roy looked down at his body that had grown around 6 inches. He could also see that his big belly was now completely gone. In fact, there was no baby fat anywhere on his body. All that he could see was lean muscle.
'Not exactly to my taste, but I'm sure I can bulk up later on. I am an... orclet? Sure lets go with that.' Roy thought to himself as he began to walk around and swing his hatchet.
With his left hand free, Roy began to feel his face. He wanted to get a good feel for how he looked, as he didn't have a reflective surface nearby. 'Would have been pretty convenient if the hatchet wasn't rusted eh?' Roy remarked as he could feel that his snout had definitely changed shape.
His originally stubbed snout was now slightly longer and sleeker. His nostrils hadn't changed much aside from the color, and he had yet to grow any noticeable tusks.
'Slightly disappointed by the lack of tusks, but I am still an orclet so I guess I understand. Speaking of which, System, how long is the growth period of an orc?' Roy wondered as he queried the tutorial skill.
{Info}
An orc's growth period is around 3~4 months.
*Whistle*
"Wow that's short!" Roy exclaimed at the shockingly fast growth period. He quickly moved on and finalized his adaptation to his new body.
...
Twenty minutes later, Roy heard the sound of footsteps coming from the direction of the cave. He soon could see Solus coming over to warn him.
"Thank you Solus." Roy said as he pat her head.
Roy grabbed Inbellis and set it in his backpack. He then went to hide in the bushes nearby. He was preparing to launch an attack on the enemies that came for him.
