Chapter 8: Hunt(Part-1)
A man and a Wolf made their way through the forest, Leo was wearing a bow across his chest, a spear in his right hand, and a short sword in his left with arrows on his back, his current look made him look like some kind of medieval hunter.
His newly acquired pet Wolf would stagger from time to time due to its injuries, there was nothing he could do about it so he could only let the wolf heal naturally.
As Leo traveled through the forest he remembered the last battle.
'They were too weak....', Leo concluded.
Maybe it was because the first time he killed the goblins none of them tried to fight back so he wasn't able to clearly gauge their strength but after yesterday's battle Leo couldn't help but think that he might have been a bit too cautious.
Remembering how slow the movement of the goblins was Leo couldn't help but tighten the grip on his spear.
'If it is like this then maybe....', Leo's eyes turned sharp as he increased his pace a little.
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A hobgoblin could be seen leading a group of 10 normal goblins following behind it, they were all carrying various weapons with them.
It's been a half-an-hour since the group exited their village to hunt for food by the orders of their chief.
The Hobgoblin had an annoyed look on his face if not for his father the current chief of the Goblin's orders he would have never come out to do this kind of tiring job.
Although the Hobgoblin didn't want to do this job he still nonetheless made sure to keep up his vigilance, Just last night his brother returned back to the village with news of his entire group being killed by an unknown enemy.
His brother said that it might be the work of a troll hah! what a joke! as if a troll will ever appear in this area.
It must have been those detestable wolves! those four-legged have grown in number these past few days, it looks like father will need to personally move to cut down their growing numbers this time.
It was a good thing that he decided to hunt in the area opposite the one his brother went to yesterday.
*Ggireuk*
The Hobgoblin turned his head and looked at the archer who suddenly called out to him, He saw the archer pointing to the side, turning his head the Hobgoblin found a lone wolf covered in wounds staring at them with a fearless gaze.
Hobgoblin tilted his head in confusion it couldn't comprehend why an injured prey will suddenly appear before them, thinking that it might be a trap the Hobgoblin used his nose to sniff and check if there were more enemies around, but to his surprise, there was no smell of those repulsive wolves instead his nose picked up another more appetizing smell.
'Human?', Hobgoblin instinctively followed the smell and looked up.
Unfortunately, the last thing he saw was a black figure descending from the sky.
Suddenly seeing their leader's head fly through the air stunned the entire group, then their attention shifted to the black shadow which appeared in their leader's place, the goblin nearest to the black shadow holding a short sword tried to take a step back but a spear suddenly came out and pierced through the goblin's throat.
The entire group was frozen in fear as they managed to get a closer look at the figure.
It was a human....a very dangerous human...
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[Congratulations on killing 10 goblins you have been awarded 100 points.]
[Congratulations on killing a Rare monster 'Hobgoblin' you have been awarded 100 points.]
[You are the first person to have killed a Hobgoblin, you are awarded 1 attribute point.]
After receiving another attribute point Leo was finally able to confirm his theory.
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Level: 0(Locked, cannot level up during tutorial)
Title: None.
Name: Leo Brown.
Job: None
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Age: 17
Elemental Affinity: None
Attribute Points: 4
Strength: Level 3(+)
Vitality: Level 4
Magic Power: Level 1(+)
Dexterity: Level 3(+)
Shop Points: 430
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'I see it is indeed like this.....', Leo thought as he wiped the goblin blood off of his hands using mud.
Last time Leo was able to upgrade his [Magic Power] to level 1 after spending 1 attribute point, and when he acquired 2 attribute points the same plus sign once again appeared beside the [Magic Power] stat meaning that to upgrade a stat to level 2 he needs to skill points and so on.
Now since his attribute points reached 4 the same '+' sign appeared behind [Attack] and [Dexterity] which are both at level 3.
Leo contemplated for some time and then decided to upgrade his dexterity as his attack power seemed sufficient for now.
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Dexterity: Level 4
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After upgrading his stat Leo tried to wait for some change to happen, but just like last time nothing happened, unlike last time where he had no method to check whether his [Magic Power] has increased or not this time he could directly check its effects.
Putting force in his legs, Leo burst out into a sprint.
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"What am I suppose to do now....", The guardian with a goat's head sighed in resignation when he saw Leo upgrade his stat.
"The system has yet to activate, I was able to do its job of sending quests and rewards through parchment but....just how am I supposed to increase his physical capabilities all of a sudden? Only the system is able to accomplish such a feat.....", The floor guardian sighed once again.
"Maybe I am too old for this job after all....."
"Should I try contacting the senior guardians? No no no most of them are crazy bastards anyway god knows what they might do to my floor if I let them come here..."
"Well, it is almost time for the other players to arrive anyway, after the system is connected these small problems will automatically be taken care of, guess I can just wait it out for this one...."
"It should be about time he started noticing the problem", The floor guardian muttered as it once again stared at the screen.
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With a frown on his face, Leo stopped running.
"There is no change.....", Leo muttered in a small voice.
The last time could be blamed on the fact that he had no idea how to use magic but this time there was no valid reason he could come up with to explain the situation.
"Perhaps it's a slow process?..."
"Don't tell me that this is all just a big scam or something?"
The chances of this entire incident being a prank were close to none, after all the sensation of cutting through flesh seemed way too real to be false.
And he is more than sure that no monster like a goblin exists in Equilibrium either.
So the probability of the first case being true was higher.
'Now that I think about it I think my speed did increase a little....', Leo touched his chin as he started coming up with various reasons to prove his hypothesis.
Of course, they were all utter nonsense.
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"This is the place", Leo said in a small voice as he observed the small village with several huts made out of dry grass and mud, normal goblins could be seen moving around everywhere he was also able to occasionally spot one or two Hobgoblins.
As Leo was hiding in the grass while spying on the goblin village, he suddenly noticed two unique-looking goblins walking together.
The goblin at the front had a huge size, almost two heads taller than Leo, this goblin has a fat belly with arms as wide as logs, it carried a greatsword on its back, following behind the giant goblin who looked like the chieftain of the village was an old-looking goblin with a wrinkled face and a hunched back holding a wooden staff on his old hands.
'Chieftain and a Shaman?', Leo remembered the best terms to describe the two monsters using his memories.
"They should be the bosses...", Leo said in a small voice as he saw Chieftain enter a relatively larger and better-looking hut.
*Crack*
"Don't make a sound", Leo quickly said as he turned his head towards the wolf sitting right beside him.
The wolf tilted her head but didn't make another sound after listening to Leo's order.
Seeing that his pet has decided to shut up, Leo returned his gaze back towards the village.
After getting a general idea about the geography of the small village, Leo was left with two choices.
First, slowly decrease the number of the goblins by killing the groups that go out, it will take a long time and he didn't know whether the goblins will catch up on it and suddenly send a large scale attack
Second, launch a sneak attack on the Chieftain and the Shaman at night.
There was also the third option of not doing anything and just running away, surviving till the end of the round.
He could do that but what if after surviving for 5 days he was put against monsters that he couldn't deal with?
And looking at the title of the mission which says 'Test of qualification', Leo can conclude that this definitely does not seem like the last one.
That is why he must try to make use of every opportunity being given to him.
He even feels that his speed has increased a lot after upgrading his stats!!
Of course that was just his fantasy....
Looking up at the sky, the sun seems to be working hard as always, it didn't seem like the sun will go down anytime soon.
Leo was wondering if he should hunt for some food before the night arrives.
Just then without any warning.....
A sudden change happened.
*Rumble*
The ground under him started shaking, the unexpected earthquake took him by surprise making him lose his balance and almost fall down.
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"It's here! it's finally here!! hahaha, now I don't have to use this crap anymore!", The guardian with a goat's head shouted in joy as he ripped apart the parchment in his hands in two.
"Finally the small mishaps can now be resolved"
The floor guardian waved his hand as the screen showing Leo minimized and got shifted to a corner with thousands of more small screen which suddenly appeared.
"Although the boy was pretty good but compared to these four....", A glint passed through the guardian's eyes as four different screens came in his vision, the faces of the four figure's in the screen was hidden but with their body shape, it could be concluded that one of them was a female while the other three were males.
While the guardian was too busy staring at the four people, The screen showing Leo blurred for an instance but then it became normal right after. The small scene manages to escape the guardian's eyes.
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Instead of being scared the goblins in the village, all started shouting in joy, they ignored the fact that most of their huts were now broken in pieces as they all came out with their weapons smiling wickedly.
*Ggireuk*
Even the Chieftain pulled out his greatsword and roared in an unknown language.
With exited movements, the chieftain quickly started selecting his best soldiers to go out on a hunt.
Only the old and weak goblins were left behind, the Shaman also decided to stay back maybe to watch the base or maybe because he was too old.
Meanwhile Leo on the other hand....
[ERROR] [ERROR]
Was suffering from his own problems...
[The power within the user is interfearing with the merging.]