Goblin x3

Another session of the monster elimination class had begun, and just like before, I was currently bored out of my mind listening to Mr. Ainsworth explaining how to fight goblins.

"As you might or might not know, although goblins are most often merely [F]-rank monsters, they often have a hierarchical structure where the ones at the top can reach upwards even [A]-rank. Because they also live in packs, it can be quite dangerous to..."

On and on he spoke, and for every word he uttered I felt myself getting more and more sleepy. Or so it should have been.

In reality, I hadn't even slept this night, as my body had for some reason not been in need of any rest after consuming... after having a meal.

Even with Lucifer explaining that sleep was only needed for a demon that had starved itself or overused its powers, it still felt incredibly strange. That being said, the benefits were obviously overshadowing that feeling of weirdness by a mile.

Because that meant that I got access to a lot more time to do other stuff. Like... studying...

Yes, having noticed that I wasn't quite keeping up with her lessons, Dona had forced me to study all night, telling me that it was just as important as growing stronger.

Did I believe her? No.

Was I able to refuse? Also, no.

"... and that's what you need to keep in mind while fighting goblins. Please go ahead and pick a capsule and you may start the simulation."

"Yes, sir!"

A very energetic, yellow-haired student practically flew forward, eager to get to fight with the small green monsters that Mr. Ainsworth had talked about. With Astor taking the lead, it didn't take long until the rest of the class started moving, with me included.

"Hey, Aarick! Let's compete and see who can defeat the goblins the quickest!"

Still fiddling with the capsule, my ears had heard the words coming from the very energetic youth, but my mind was having a lot of trouble trying to understand what he was saying.

Turning my head, Astor was now standing in front of me, his face absolutely too motivated for just another lesson, seemingly not understanding that he should try his best and stay away from me.

Pointing my finger towards myself, I wasn't sure if he knew who he was talking to.

"Me? Why?"

"Because I want to! Ah, don't tell me you're scared of losing!"

'What's happening...?'

'-I have no idea.'

It was ridiculous, to say the least. Not only was he very much acting like the opposite of what a student of Augustus should act, but he was also completely ignoring the fact that I was the rumored asshole that deserved to die because of what I did to Levi.

"I'm not scared, I'm just wond..."

"Then it's settled! See you later!"

Running off to his own capsule, he didn't even give me a chance to ask him whatever the fuck he was doing, just leaving me standing there confused and, honestly, a bit scared.

As his capsule was next to mine, and the one after that was Sophie's, I couldn't but overhear the very developed pink-hair girl talk to him. Not that it was hard hearing what Astor was saying as he spoke with a lot more volume than necessary.

"-Hey, didn't you hear about what he did? You should stay away from him."

"Aarick? But we aren't even sure what happened. Also, he was faster than me last time, so I want to beat him this time! Anyway, I'll talk to you later Sophie!"

Entering the capsule, he created a moment where both me and Sophie who had looked at him from opposite directions suddenly had a very awkward interaction consisting of us staring at each other. As time froze, we both just stared at each other, for way longer than what one could even call uncomfortable.

For me, it was awkward because I had been caught staring, and for her, it had been awkward because she realized that I had heard everything she said.

Using our eyes as the medium for conversation, I think we managed to agree on what course of action we would take to make sure we could both move on from this.

Though it's hard to accept for certain, I want to say our non-verbal conversation went something like this.

*Forget about it?*

*Yep, it never happened.*

With that, we also entered our capsules, completely forgetting every single detail about what had just happened.

Laying myself down in the pod, it didn't take long for me to enter the sleep-like state of connecting to the digital world.

This time, I did not land on grassy plains, instead, I was in a forest of sorts. Actually, it was really just a plain forest.

In front of me, a group of three goblins was eyeing me up, scanning their prey from top to bottom.

I as well, who was eager to learn from my mistakes and listen to the critique I got, carefully inspected them.

Green, small, equipped with clubs. Dirty. Pointy noses...

'What was I supposed to look for again?'

'-Bah! Just beat them down!'

Nodding as a response to Lucifer, I dashed forward, somewhat excited to see how I would fare against the goblins.

Catching them off guard with my sudden dash, I managed to land a clean punch on the cheek of the closest to me.

Which sadly resulted in absolutely nothing more than it having to take a step back and rubbing its cheek.

*Gwabba!*

Seeing their comrade get punched, the other two monsters raised their clubs and swung at me.

"Guh!"

Despite my best attempts at retreating, I still fell to the ground as one of the clubs hit me in the shoulder and the other across the arm I was attempting to defend myself with.

Sadly, as I was looking up from the ground, I could only see the figure of three green monsters intent on completely destroying me. Which they sadly did.

*Bam! Bam! Bam!*

With pain surging through my digital body, I had no way of defending myself or getting away from the small creatures as they kept piling up attacks on me. And in the end...

'-Aarick?! How can you be defeated by goblins?!'

'I don't know!'

[You have been defeated by: Goblins, rank [F]]

[Duration of instance: 5:10.]

[Do you want to try again? Y/N]

After getting whacked by their clubs over and over, a blue screen appeared in front of my eyes, telling me about my defeat as well as giving me a chance to redeem myself.

Pressing the yes button, everything instantly reset, putting me back on my feet in front of the group of goblins yet again.

*Gwabba!*

This time, I wasn't going to act as hastily as I did last time. No, instead I allowed the goblins to charge at me instead, making them split up a bit as their speed differed a bit.

Thus, when the first goblin came into my range and raised his club, I was fully intent on making sure I brought it down as soon as possible, not wanting to get caught in a three versus one later on. And I already had an idea of how to make that possible.

As the goblin was not just slower than me, but his technique with his club was awful, it wasn't hard to throw a punch at his face. However, unlike last time, I activated my ability and increased the gravity on my hand, trying to activate it as late as possible to retain as much speed as possible.

*BAM!*

And although I was cognizant of the fact that it was sloppy, and that I didn't increase the gravity as much as I could nor did I time it especially well, it was still efficient enough to send the goblin flying, now lying unconscious on the ground.

*Gwaba?!*

Seeing their friend lying on the ground, the remaining goblins got furious and rushed at me like two small bulls. This time, sadly, they were quite synced up, meaning they arrived at pretty much the same time.

Therefore, when they launched their clubs downwards, I dodged to the side, successfully putting my current target in between me and the last goblin.

"Hupp!"

Once again, I sent my fist forward, making sure to rotate my whole body like Mr. Faer had taught me, and then repeated the action of trying to activate my blessing at the last second.

*BAM!*

Another goblin was sent flying, leaving just me and the last green monster standing.

It was quite impressive, that even though he saw his friends get beaten down mercilessly, he still ran forward, but just like his friends, he used what seemed to be the only attack they knew.

An overhead attack that was so very easily dodged. So once again, my fist went flying forward, and I could only smile as I could practically smell my victory.

*Bok*

Rubbing his cheek in confusion, the goblin was just as puzzled as I was about why he didn't go flying like the other monsters.

Then, as I noticed that my vision was already blurry, I understood the reason.

I was out of mana.