Obtaining mastery

"It's been six months, hasn't it?"

This gigantic cave was even bigger then I thought and although I didn't try to be really fast I still steadily walked towards one direction and while fighting the goblins, over and over again I got a lot stronger and managed to gradually take on more and more goblins. Now the goblins I encounter are no rookies and only trained warriors, well for goblin standards they are quite strong, but I can still manage maybe a dozen of them right now.

My senses got a lot sharper and the thing I waited for had finally begun to form a month ago. My senses were combining into one. Now I don't just hear something or smell something, it's more like I just know it's there, I notice it's presence and although they are only goblins I can now feel the mana they have. It's something that even in this world is probably hard to obtain, but all of my efforts would be worth it if I reached completion.

Over the time I killed more goblins than I could count, it's safe to say that I killed over a thousand goblins in the cave and maybe even tens of thousands, but I didn't even try to count them. Before entering I thought that it wouldn't take me more than a few weeks to clear out this cave, but I can't begin to imagine how many generations of goblins were in this cave, but I can feel that I am about to reach the other side of the cave. I can feel it slowly getting warmer and warmer the more I walk towards one direction, although it would be impossible if I were still at the level I was at before entering the cave.

While being in the cave I completely got used to the goblin meat, although it tastes really bad and although my sense of taste got a lot better I can also choose to taste almost nothing, which I didn't even think would've been possible. But thinking about it with my enhanced hearing I would surely get crazy the longer I stayed in the cave, so it's good that I can choose not to hear everything in my surroundings. My body got used to my enhanced senses and when there is a sudden change, for example a sudden sound that wasn't there before My body's senses would immediately all be on their maximum sensibility. It probably happened, because of the sheer amount of goblins I killed, because everytime I heard footsteps of goblins in my surroundings I would of course try to concentrate on where he is and get ready for battle.

I also got a lot better with the sword and knife. I am now able to react incredibly fast and my body would react automatically by drawing my knife and slicing only the weak points like neck chest head or I would slice off their arms of legs with the best possible angle and fastest speed, while simultaneously thinking of where to cut next.

The only problem I really encountered was a few wounds that made me a bit less agile, like a wound on my left arm, which caused me a lot of pain everytime I tried to move it quickly of punch something with it. And then there was something that somehow made me sad, which happened only a few days ago. I decided to switch my weapons and use my sword and knife each for a few days and then switch to the other weapon. Then after a long time of using it, I could only hear the sound of a breaking weapon and the sword in my hand suddenly got lighter, I was in the middle of fighting 6 goblins simultaneously and one of them had a shield, which he suddenly moved towards me. I didn't really expect that, but because my strength was normally way higher than the strength of a normal goblin I thought I would just block it with my sword and then easily behead him.

I was a bit confused for a few seconds and before I could really react one of the goblins almost rammed his sword into my head, but luckily my instincts saved me and my body evaded the blow and then when I realized what had happened I finished them off with my knife. I put the broken sword back into my bag and decided to at least take it outside of this cave.

"You stole everything from us, our families and our home. You are strong, but for what you did you will rot in hell! Karie re borbenten ikori pakisew!"

I already noticed them a few minutes ago, it was a huge group of goblins and they were all waiting and talking to each other, I could feel them waiting at the exit of this cave. Almost all the goblins, who were still in the cave were killed by me and they still wouldn't want to go outside of the cave to flee, they must fear the outside of the cave so much that they would rather stay knowing someone like me was killing them in this cave.

They were probably the last ones and it was by far the biggest amount of goblins I had ever faced in this cave, but still I had no doubt that I would win, because I noticed that these goblins didn't really have any strong monsters, even after months in this cave I didn't meet anyone really strong, so it was rare to meet someone, who could speak the human language, it was only once before that I met someone able to speak my language, so before killing him I asked him a few things, but of course he only cursed at me and didn't answer any questions and after insulting my family I just killed him. It must be one of the highest ranked goblins in the dungeon, but I still couldn't feel that he was much stronger than everyone else, probably just smarter.

"Let's get this over with."

I was honestly getting sick of goblins and I could feel myself being really close to achieving mastery of my senses, so I was hoping that this fight would allow me to reach completion.

"IKORI!"

I could sense them storming at me and I was preparing myself for the battle. When they almost reached I stepped forward and three goblin heads were falling onto the ground. From then on I proceeded to stay on one side of their group to not let them surround me. I was constantly moving and was way faster and stronger than them so as the seconds and eventually minutes passed their forces were getting less and less. I blocked one of their sword strikes and redirected it right into the head of a goblin that tried to sneak up behind me, then I quickly swung my knife and cut off the arm of the confused goblin in front of me. Before they were able to surround me I jumped back and when I left the ground I came to realization.

I could feel my senses reaching perfection and I could now fully sense everything simultaneously, now all of my senses were as sharp as when I only concentrated on them separately, but now... I reached a state in which I could hear, smell, taste and feel everything around me. I could exactly say how many goblins there were from their breathing, their warmth and from their smell. I could feel the vibrations of the ground and air ,when they moved and I was able to sense their unique mana.

Is it mana, ki or something else, I don't really know, but it feels like it's their very own unique life force that I wasn't able to feel before. And somehow I felt that while I reached that realization something in my body was also changing...

With my goal of coming into this cave finally reached I was more motivated than in the last few months combined and I massacred all of the goblins left. At the end only the goblin, who was able to speak the human language survived.

"You are a demon. You will rot in hell for eternity. VEZERNA-"

"Yeah, yeah don't ruin my mood."

I beheaded him and then the only thing I could hear was the sound of blood flowing onto the ground out of the dead bodies of the goblins.

"My goal here... I finally reached it."

I went towards the exit, where I could feel it being the most warm spot and after a few seconds I saw a bright light at the of the cave. I walked towards the exit, covering my eyes with my hands and I was very slowly getting used to it. Still being blinded by the light I stepped out of the cave into the light I hadn't seen for such a long time.

Stepping outside I had become a lot stronger physically and my real goal for coming here has been achieved... But not knowing it yet I also achieved something else, which would forever drastically change my life and very soon I would realize what exactly had happened in the cave...