Goblin Castle

After Mirage exited the city gates, he was immediately greeted by the sight of maple trees surrounding the city on all four corners.

They stood tall and were a few hundred meters in height at the very least.

Mirage couldn't help but be amazed at such a sight even though he was still quite a distance away from the forest.

After all, as far as he knew, maple trees only grow as tall as fifty meters. However, what was in front of him were obviously not normal trees he had seen on Earth.

He didn't even realize that he was already about to enter the forest as he was busy gazing at the trees.

Mirage shook his head and took a deep breath, "Huu... I can't be careless here."

According to the people living in the city, this forest was said to house numerous unknown monsters that even veteran adventurers feared.

Mirage took his shabby-looking dagger out of his inventory. Then, he entered the forest with heightened senses.

A few hours later...

He was already deep inside the forest. His surroundings were also getting darker.

"Where in the world did those monsters go anyway..." he exhaled with a tight frown on his face.

He no longer wanted to continue this meaningless exploration. At this moment, he just wanted to return to the city to do some quests instead.

However, just as he was about to walk back to the city, he suddenly thought of something.

'I no longer remember the way back!' he inwardly exclaimed, blaming himself for his own carelessness.

Moreover, as far as he knew, it was said that they didn't implement a minimap system in this game.

"What a huge blunder... to think I forgot something as important as that before even starting my exploration." Mirage sighed with a depressed look on his face.

He recollected himself within minutes and made a decision to walk to where he believed was the south.

Mirage was already walking to the "South" for a few minutes when he suddenly heard a soft rustling of leaves not far from him.

His heart skipped a beat when he heard this unusual sound out of nowhere.

He immediately searched for an obscure place to hide and gripped the dagger in his hands tightly while staring in the direction where the sound came from with wide, vigilant eyes.

The rustling of leaves grew louder and louder until something finally came out of the bush.

It was a small, green-skinned creature holding a crude stone dagger in its hands.

Mirage already knew what the creature was at one glance, 'A goblin...'

The goblin let out an excited giggle. Its jagged, yellowed teeth looked horrible enough that even made the person hiding not far from it shiver.

'Haha... this game looks realistic enough. Alright...' Mirage thought with his lips pursed to a flat line.

However, his nerves suddenly grew taut when he saw the goblin survey its surroundings with its pair of vigilant, froglike yellow eyes.

'I thought I hid really well! Did it really just manage to detect my presence...?' he thought, not daring to breathe loudly.

Mirage remained silent for a few seconds as he took a close look at what the goblin would do next without blinking.

Fortunately, it seems that the goblin didn't actually see him as it just proceeded to crouch on the ground and started to dig the ground with its dagger.

This made him furrow his brows in confusion but still made him heave a sigh of relief.

Although he had no idea what the goblin was doing at the moment, this still didn't stop him from sneaking up on the creature's defenseless back.

In the next moment...

Mirage wrapped his forearm around the goblin's head and slit its throat with his dagger in one swift motion.

The creature couldn't even scream for help as it dropped to the ground with a thud. A pool of green blood gradually formed around its lifeless, unmoving body.

When he was certain that the creature was no longer getting up, Mirage finally relaxed as he flicked the blood off his dagger.

Mirage took a deep breath and took a look at the notifications he received when he killed the creature earlier.

[You have killed a < Goblin > for the first time!]

[You have received 13 EXP!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have been awarded 1 Attribute Point!]

Mirage was in high spirits when he saw the notifications.

He was not in a hurry to allocate the attribute point he received. So, he chose to save it for when he needed it in the meantime.

[Character Info]

[Nickname: Mirage]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 1 (17 EXP needed to level up)]

[Attributes]

[Strength: 1] [Dextrity: 1] [Wisdom: 1] (You have 1 Attribute Point to allocate.)

[Remarks: Congratulations! You can be considered a maggot in this world now! How wonderful!]

'None of my stats even increased after I leveled up. How stingy!' he complained in his heart.

He dismissed the character panel with a sigh then took a look at the goblin's carcass on the ground before taking a piece of its sharp nails and left.

***

For some reason, Mirage started to encounter more and more goblins as he headed south.

It didn't even take long for him to receive another level-up notification.

[You have leveled up!]

[You have been awarded 1 Attribute Point!]

A while later, Mirage finally felt the hunger kick in after doing vigorous "exercise" all day.

Thus, he found a place to take a break before taking out the loaf of bread he received from the system and started to eat it.

While he was eating, Mirage was already thinking about how to leave the forest as fast as he could.

The sun was going to set soon and he had to leave the forest before that happened as it was said that he would most likely meet much dangerous monsters at night.

After he ate his fill, Mirage got up from his seat and was about to continue down the south when he noticed something at the corner of his eye.