Chapter 19 – Blood flows like a stream
Walking through the entrance Adam felt butterflies in the pit of his stomach as though he was falling from a tremendous height. His legs lost contact with the ground for a brief moment.
The next moment his feet were back on the ground as if they never left it and a dimly lit cavernous corridor came into his view. Luminous crystals jutted out from the rock walls and ground, lighting the place up.
Looking behind him he could only see a dark passage which was similar to the entrance. "So that is the exit. Guess I can only move forward."
He walked forward along the corridor. The corridor started to get damp and the dripping sounds of water falling in drops on the rocky floor would occasionally echo through the corridor.
Very soon the corridor opened up into a hemispherical cave with stalactites hanging from the ceiling with drops of water dripping from them intermittently. Stalagmites had formed on the edges of the room and they were almost as tall as Adam himself.
It was an empty room.
At the far end of this room directly opposite to where he stood was another corridor leading further into this floor of the dungeon.
Standing in front of this corridor was a small green and wrinkled skin little creature with a long nose. It had long and pointed ears and crooked and jagged teeth could be seen when it opened its mouth.
Right now dressed in a scrappy piece of cloth that was tied around its waist, it was inspecting a stick in its hand. Tapping it and letting out an admiring screech every now and then.
The stick was a little wider than ordinary sticks and was most probably used as a club by the monster.
"A goblin! It's my lucky day. There's only one and it's most definitely a level 1. I never thought id be lucky enough to encounter a 1 monster spawn point. Plus this floor seems to be a sequential form of a cavern where you would have to cross every room on the floor to advance."
"It would have been bad if the monster in the first room was a level 2 or higher." He mumbled joyfully to himself. The goblin had still not noticed him yet and continued the admiration of its club.
"No point waiting around here. Let's get started. Hey!" saying so he yelled to get the attention of the goblin. He was here to train. There was no point in sneak attacks. He needed to fight.
The goblin instantly turned its head and noticed him. An ugly expression of anger appeared on its face and it let out a shrill screech.
Adam walked forward and arrived at the centre of the room that was mostly flat. A few puddles of clear water were scattered across the floor.
In response to the shrill screech of the goblin, two more similar screeches rang out from behind the stalagmites at the edges of the cave. Two more goblins walked out and came beside the first.
The first goblin was 2 inches shorter than Adam with a club as its weapon.
The second goblin was an inch or so taller than Adam and was the tallest of the three. It similarly held a club as its weapon.
The last goblin was similar in height with the first but was extremely skinny to the point that all its ribs could be distinctly pointed out with the naked eye. It held no weapon but a crafty glint could be seen its murky eyes.
These three ugly goblins were staring down Adam.
'I had to go and boast about my luck…great.'
"Whatever! It doesn't matter if there's 1 or 3 of you. Bring it on!" A fighting spirit welled up from within him.
Woosh!
It was like a wind blew through him.
His eyes seemed to connect with his sentient mind. His mind that was a little scattered immediately focused up. The colours of everything he saw around him became extremely defined and he could even see the tiniest dust particles that were floating in the air.
Above the heads of the three goblins lines of text that only he could see formed. It read the same for all three.
'Species: Lesser Goblin.
Level: 1'
"Enhanced sensory! So this is what the fourth ability that I couldn't identify before does. It helps me focus on a battle and lets me see the level's and basic information of the opponent I fight." He connected the dots and recognized that his fourth ability enhanced sensory had activated.
It seemed kind of lacking but how could one say with complete certainty that they wouldn't have distracting thoughts at the back of their mind. In battle, even the slightest hesitation could lead to a disadvantage that would ultimately lead to defeat or death.
The value of this skill was definitely much higher than it displayed.
By this time the biggest of the three goblins had already arrived in front of him. The other goblin with a club was right behind him while the skinny goblin kept its distance but started picking up stones from the floor.
Adam stood straight where he was. He began to imitate the fighting stance of the monk. Bending his knees a bit his hands that were covered by the gloves curled into fists. His arms were like vertical rods that stayed beside his body completely straight.
Whenever the monk fought he never got into any fancy stances and started from whatever position he was in but within pauses of a spar, he would get into this stance.
Whap! Whap!
The big goblin had raised his club and brought it down towards Adam's head.
The other goblin with a club was no slower and swung in a horizontal arc towards his left midriff.
With his right fist, Adam punched the first club with an uppercut while his left forearm blocked the other club.
A searing pain came forth from his fist and forearm. His forearm was less protected and he felt it burn the most there.
His right foot moved at the same time that he successfully blocked and delivered a full force kick with the tip of his boots to the left flank of the big goblin facing him.
He was wearing casual boots with no special attributes to them.
Thud thud thud.
The goblin took three steps back but did not seem to suffer any serious injuries.
Screeeeeechhh! It howled angrily then pounced on him again.
The same attack pattern repeated itself with the big goblin attacking from the front but the other goblin attacked his right this time. Adam also used the same blocking method and only switched his hands.
When he successfully blocked and was preparing to let out another kick…
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Two small and jagged rocks whizzed through the air. One hit him straight in the chest and the other hit his left foot that was being lifted.
He was forced to take a step back.
The third goblin had acted this time and Adam was put into a disadvantageous position.
The other two goblins seeing him take a step back did not wait for him and sent another two club attacks in the same pattern.
This time Adam barely blocked them in time but yet again 2 more stones came hurtling towards him. One aimed at his head and the other at his right foot.
He was already aware this time and barely dodged the first stone but the other stone still hit his foot and sent him stumbling a foot back.
Whap! Whap! Swoosh! Swoosh!
10 minutes went by and he was still on the backfoot.
20 minutes went by.
30 minutes later his body had almost been hit at every spot and there were even scratches and bruises on his face.
Every part of his body ached and he could not take it any longer. He had not planned on taking out his weapons because he would be very slow with them and if he did land a strike it would be fatal and would end his training.
At the end of his rope, he now decided that there was no point in holding back.
Pulling out two curved daggers from the holsters on his upper arms he brandished the blades. The goblins were not smart creatures but even they had taken a step back and become wary when he did so.
Their wariness did not last long as they had the upper hand all this time and started their attacks again.
This time he tried to block the clubs with his two daggers but before they could collide the clubs had already hit him, sending him two feet back.
He spat out a mouthful of blood this time. This was the first time he had directly taken the hits of the clubs and it was a massive force.
'I'm not used to the weight of these daggers yet. I'll have to predict their movements in advance and act. That's the only way left.'
The weight of the swords was too much for his untrained body so he came up with a plan to counter it.
15 more minutes passed. He had been beaten up to the point that his whole body burned with the fresh pain.
Whap! Whap!
Two more Club attacks came at him with slight variations in their attack but this time the two clubs sunk into the sharp blades almost being cut straight through by the residual force.
'Success! I can't waste too much time. The stones are coming.'
Twisting his wrists with a sudden jerk the daggers that had embedded themselves into the clubs yanked the clubs out of the goblins hands.
All three goblins were shocked for a moment. He used this moment to slam both daggers toward the floor and cleanly chop the two clubs in half.
Screech! Screech!
The two goblins were furious. They had truly treasured their sticks.
In a rage, the two goblins once again pounced at Adam and this time struck with fists and feet.
They were agile compared to Adams slow blades and dodged all his lethal slow moving attacks. Rocks continuously came flying in. some missing and some hitting.
In the confusion of the two goblins getting into close quarters combat, sometimes the rocks would even hit them giving him some breathing time. If not he would have been battered within minutes.
30 minutes later.
He could barely lift his blood-soaked arms. Green and red blood was mixed and covered his whole body.
The clear puddles of water around his feet had long since turned murky from the blood.
In the last few seconds he had caught the big goblin off guard by throwing his dagger at its forehead just as it was coming in for a headbutt to his chest and before the other goblin could react he sent a quick fist with his now empty hand to its head. Though the punch didn't do much damage, it dazed it for a moment which was enough to stick a dagger in its undefended throat.
Two lifeless corpses lay at his feet while the third goblin stared at him in fear. The goblins had thought they would get an easy meal at the start. Now two of its mates had died and only it remained. It could not even flee anywhere so it threw down its rocks and jumped towards Adam.
He could barely move at this instant and he feared that the goblin would have continued to throw rocks at him from a distance. That would have been the worst case scenario.
Seeing the goblin charge at him, he mustered all his remaining strength and sent out a punch to the right of the goblin.
The goblin easily dodged his slow and blatant punch, feeling joyful at its imminent victory when a dagger stabbed its left flank and went all the way through its skinny chest and came out the other side.
Adam had sent such a flashy punch as a fake to distract the goblin. When the goblin dodged, it would come very close to him and have plenty of blind spots. It would also take a second to switch from dodging to sending out an attack.
He used this time to send a dagger that he held behind his back into the left flank of the goblin. Killing it instantly.
Exhaustion!
He had come so close to death with just three level 1 goblins.
There was however no time to rest in here. Dungeons would respawn monsters in 2-4 hours.
Adam would collapse the second he let himself go. The only thing keeping him going now was pure adrenaline.
Pulling out his two daggers from the goblins he cleaned them on his sleeves then holstered them. He then picked up the two bigger goblins and put them over his shoulder and dragged the last skinny one by the leg and dragged it into the corridor leading toward the exit.
A lone, solitary silhouette walked that corridor with two corpses on its shoulders and one dragged behind him. Leaving behind nothing but a trail of flowing blood.