Monster Slayer
I woke up before sunrise. The sky was still dark, but I knew the day was near as it was turning bluer. I grabbed my sword and the healing potions I got the day before and went downstairs.
The innkeeper was checking the logs and cleaning the tables in the hall. Most of the candles were out, but the few that were still lit provided enough light to navigate the tavern without much trouble. I walked past the innkeeper with a simple nod, which he returned.
I washed my face with water from the well near the building, then headed towards the Adventurers Guild.
People were starting to wake up for their work, and the stars in the sky vanished as we approached daytime. I walked eagerly, filled with hope.
I entered the Guild building to accept my first mission. The building was busier than the day before. I looked at the mission board on the walls. These missions were emergency missions with high rewards for completion. I didn't choose any mission on the board, as I wasn't looking for a difficult mission since I was just level 2, and those missions were high-level.
"Hello Jan, I need your help."
"Hi. You're the new guy from yesterday. How do you know my name? I don't think I ever mentioned it."
"I asked around."
"Okay. How can I help you?"
"I'm looking for a mission as my first mission."
"Very well. You're an F-grade adventurer, so you can do a herb collecting missi—"
"If possible, I want to do a monster subjugation mission."
"Are you sure? Monster subjugation is a little difficult for you since you're a newbie."
"I'm okay with that."
"If you say so."
Handling monsters as an F-grade adventurer might seem foolish, but I was a veteran player and had dealt with many higher-level bosses that weren't meant to be defeated in my past life, so I didn't have any problem.
"You can only accept a mission one grade above or below you, and this is the easiest E-grade monster hunting mission I could find. Do you want to accept it?" she said while handing me a paper.
The paper contained information about the mission: I was required to hunt down three goblins and collect their cores. The reward wasn't very eye-catching, but I wasn't expecting much.
"I'll do it."
"Give me your Guild Card."
[ Adventurer Quest: Goblin Subjugation
Difficulty: E+
———————
> Slaying Goblins 0/3
———————
Time Limit: 1 Day
Reward: 5 Silver Coins ]
I left the guild as soon as I accepted the mission and headed toward Adelo. Adelo was a small forest near Iterium. It didn't have any dangerous monsters and was mostly populated with low-level monsters such as slimes and goblins.
The road to Adelo was pretty calm. I didn't have any problem finding the forest, as Adelo, too, had the title of "Beginner's Exp Farm."
It had been a long time since I was in a green area. I kept my focus on leveling up as fast as I could in Adelo since I needed to reach level 5 quickly.
Hunting down monsters wasn't difficult for someone like me since I knew how to do it. To locate prey, one needs to listen to the sounds of nature and follow the animal tracks by observing the environment. Most animals prefer to live in comfortable places with easy access to food and water. With these thoughts in mind, I quickly found what I was looking for.
Slimes were a famous monster in this world. Many think of slimes as weak creatures in fantasy, but in this world, slimes weren't as weak as one might have thought. Through the research of many players, they found that there are more than 87 different type of slime in [Doomed Fantasy], which was quite surprising for me.
The slimes in front of me were normal, so I didn't have any problem hunting them. Of course, just swinging around my sword wasn't enough to hunt down slimes, as they were hard to hit due to their high agility, and even if one could reach them, they would mostly run away. But I knew an easy way to kill them, and that was with healing potions.
Slimes were cannibalistic monsters and consumed their own species to grow and evolve. They were also a main ingredient in healing potions, which was great for me. Due to the high mana content of healing potions, slimes went toward them, thinking they were powerful slimes they could eat.
I reached into my pocket and grabbed an E-grade healing potion. I climbed up a tree and spilled the potion on the ground, and when the slimes got closer to it, I ambushed them and killed all three of them with ease.
[ Level Up ]
I repeated this a bit more until I emptied my E-grade Healing Potion, killing around 12 slimes.
[ Level Up ]
[ Level Up ]
[ Congratulations on reaching Level 5 ]
[ You can now use the "Inventory" Function ]
[ Inventory Slots can be increased by Leveling Up ]
I was waiting for this moment, so I quickly said the simple word, "[Inventory]"
[ Inventory 0/5
Empty ]
It was like a dream to me. Inventory was a player-exclusive function that no one else could use. I quickly stored my items inside the [Inventory] to free my pockets.
[ Inventory 4/5
> Bottle of D-grade Healing Potion
> Normal Dagger
> Wound Closing Leaf x 12
> Gold Coin ]
I also distributed my extra points into the stats I thought might be needed.
[ Mana increased by 2
Strength increased by 1
Sense increased by 1 ]
I was doing great, and everything was going smoothly, so I decided to "[Save]" this moment to avoid having to repeat it.
[ Skill "Save & Reset: Save" Activated ]
[ 987/1/2 8:03, has been saved as the new Checkpoint ]
I began to look for goblins. Finding goblins wasn't as easy as finding slimes since goblins were more intelligent, and it took me a little more time even with using some tricks.
Goblins were small, green creatures that travel in packs of 3 to 5 individuals, and those pack consisted of 4 goblins, making it a lot harder for me to kill them, since I was an F-grade adventurer. Of course, I knew that. Like most animals, goblins had a good sense of smell, making them good hunters. I planned to use that against them.
I put my sword in my [Inventory] and took out my dagger. I then cut my hand to attract the goblins' attention with the smell of my blood.
Grea—? Two goblins caught my scent and walked in my direction. I stopped the bleeding by pushing herbs into my wound and climbed the tree beside me. The goblins reached the spot of the bleeding. I waited to make sure that the other goblins were standing far away, and then,
[ Level Up ]
My rusty sword shattered due to the excessive force, which I kind of expected.
The other two goblins heard the noise and came toward the corpse. I quickly ran to another location to avoid any conflict. The two goblins became cautious because of the corpse, so I couldn't use the same trick anymore.
I decided to attack the goblins head-on with my dagger to train a little. I was confident since I could [Reset] anytime I felt in danger. I walked out of my hiding spot and got ready to fight with my dagger.
The two goblins noticed me pretty quickly.
Every creature in this world has its own set of weak points, such as the head, eyes, neck, etc., and goblins were no different. I knew those weak points, too, but the challenge was how to exploit them. I added a point to my agility since the terrain was easy to navigate, and with high agility, I could confuse them even further.
[ Agility increased by 1 ]
I dashed toward the goblins and killed them effortlessly.
"…too easy," I muttered in disbelief.
[ Quest: Goblin Subjugation Completed ]
[ Visit the Guild before the Time Limit to receive the Rewards ]