Chapter 8 : First Killing

"MISS LAVINIA!"

When Allen woke up that morning, there was no one else there. He remembered that he just fell asleep on Lavinia's lap yesterday, and now he didn't see her anywhere.

He looked in every corner of that room for Lavinia, but it was futile. No one was there.

"Miss Lavinia... so she finally managed to escape," Allen muttered sadly.

His mother asked him to watch after her, but he ended up sleeping near that human and without knowing when she ran away. He realized he was too naive and believed Lavinia would not run away.

Allen had mixed feelings. He was happy because Lavinia was finally free, and he was sad because if Lavinia ran away, it meant she really didn't want to remain inside this house with him.

"Even though I already knew that she might not like this place, but still…"

Still, he wanted her to always be inside this house with him.

After being alone in this room for so long, he just wanted someone to talk.

Allen stopped walking around and looked at the exit door. He approached the door and just looked at it.

"Mother said I can't go out because it's dangerous. But…"

Allen had tried to go outside before when he was four years old. Outside that room—or Allen called that a house—was too dark. Just a single time, a wolf-like monster with three horns suddenly attacked him. Thankfully, the Queen Orc came and slew the monster. Before the Queen Orc could punish Allen for denying her, Allen was sobbing into her knees, apologizing, and hugging her.

After that time, Allen never left his house anymore. He realized his mother's rules had to be for a reason, and it was for the sake of him.

And then, this time, it had been several years since he had stepped out of his house. He was afraid but felt he had to go out this time. The reason wasn't only to search for Lavinia, he felt he couldn't stay inside this place all the time, and if he wanted to go out of this place, it must be now.

"It should be fine now, I have been training my strength a lot since then, and I have Reig here to help me this time," Immediately after Allen said that, Reig materialized on his right shoulder and touched Allen's cheek.

"I see... you also thought this is a right choice for me to get out, right?"

Reig nodded.

Allen held the circular doorknob on the door, rotated it, and then pulled it. The wind came out from within the room, and even before he emerged, Allen could feel the icy dungeon's chill seeping into his bones. Even though it was very cold outside, his body was sweating because of fear. After a few seconds, Allen took a small step outside.

-TAP

"I'm finally out," said Allen with a bit of panting.

Reig touched Allen's cheek gently as if to say everything was fine. Allen felt Reig was trying to encourage him, so he smiled and said thank you.

At first, Allen couldn't see anything. His eyes could not adjust to the dungeon's darkness; gradually, he could see well. Upon regaining his vision, he was amazed by the dungeon, which was very different with his house. A room outside the room. This room was dark, cold, and frigid. The only lighting in the room was a few blue flame torches stuck to the walls.

Allen turned to the left. He chose to go to the left because, on the right side, there was only an altar and a circular pattern—a path leading to the lower floor—in front of it. Allen didn't see how Lavinia could go that way since Lavinia intended to run away. Besides, Lavinia can't go down with that leg.

"Right! Her leg! She probably wouldn't go far from the room with legs like that."

After walking along the dark passage a few steps, Allen finally saw something.

"MONSTER!"

Allen spontaneously let out a loud voice. Now, the monster has turned its attention to him. Allen then finally got a good look at the monster. Dark green body, a long nose, and long ears. Despite their small features, their eyes are rather large. Its clothing was a single ragged fabric covering it only below the waist. They hold a small dagger in their right hand.

"Is that a goblin?!" Allen has learned a bit about other monsters from Lavinia.

Allen took a defensive posture. He had a feeling that the goblin would attack him first. Moreover, Allen for unknown reasons, couldn't move well. Perhaps because it was the first time he'd ever felt the fight-to-the-death sensation. Allen felt the goblin's desire to kill him, making him a bit scared and nervous.

The gobline grinned to him, stretched their long neck and then dashed off at high speed toward Allen. The goblin wielded the knife with both of their hands and swung the knife at Allen's head, but…

-KLANG!!!

Allen blocked the goblin's blows with his sword. Allen immediately swung his sword in a slashing diagonal motion. As a result, the goblin's body was thrown backward and rolled to the floor.

"Their movements are so sluggish, and they had weak strength. That goblin was nothing compared to mother's speed and strength," Allen mumbled.

Due to that first attack, Allen's nervousness has diminished. To make himself calm, Allen took a big breath.

The goblin got up and tried to reach for the weapon they had thrown, but Allen didn't let them. Before the goblin could grabbed it, Allen quickly jumped at the goblin and sliced the goblin's right arm.

"I did it!" Allen realized the goblin was much weaker than him.

Dark purple blood dripped from the Goblin's hand. The goblin was in pain, holding his severed hand, and started to scream

"Hwaaaaaaa¡¡¡ AAaaaaaAAaaa¡¡¡… HwaaAAAAaaaa¡¡¡"

"Wha- what?! What are they doing?!"

The goblin screamed groaningly, almost like a cry of anguish, as it took Allen's blow. Looked and listening to the Goblins cry made Allen more agitated. His heart grieved. Just a little; he felt sorry for the goblin.

"WHa-What THE HELL ARE YOU CRYING FOR?! YOU ARE THE ONE WHO ATTACKED ME FIRST!!! SO THAT IS NOT MY FAULT!!!" Allen yelled with a trembling voice.

"Qurts… quman… qate… xeatq," the goblin tremblingly said. The goblins didn't pick up their blade; instead, they ran as quickly as possible.

"H-hey! Don't run, you cowards!"

Reig punched Allen's cheek and pointed his hand at the goblin, telling Allen to chase it.

"Y-yeeah… he could call their other friends… but…"

Allen gulped. He was so nervous that his hands were trembling and sweating profusely. He knew that now he had to kill the goblin, but...

The goblin's cry was repeated in his head,

Reig once again punched Allen's cheek, this time with more strength. Due to Reig's punch, Allen immediately chased after the running goblin. It only took Allen two seconds to approach that goblin. And then,

-SLAAASH

Allen's sword slashed the goblin's head. Thick purple blood gushed from their neck as their head slid to the floor. The goblin's body continued to walk even though its head was off.

One step, two steps, and the no-head goblin's body fell at the third step.

"Haa…ha…haa….*pant"

Allen examined his hand inquiringly. There was a purple blood splat on his hand. He didn't grip his sword properly, rather, he couldn't. His hands were trembling excessively, and he could not breathe properly. He looked down at his bloody sword and saw his reflected face splattered with blood. Quickly, he sheathed his blade and cleaned the blood with his hand.

"Reig, what should I do? The texture of their neck still feels rough in my hand."

Allen clasped his hands tightly, wiped the few tears that had come out around his eyes and stood up again

"First time I killed a living thing, I might need some time to get used to this…"

Reig got off Allen's shoulders and bounced onto the goblin's corpse.

In front of the goblin's dead body, Reig suddenly widened to encompass the goblin's full frame. Now the goblin's body was submerged in the black liquid, slowly drowning into Reig's body. Reig returned to normal once the goblin's body vanished, but then his body size rose, and he took on the goblin's look. Reig was transformed into the goblins he ate.

"You can do that?! Cool!!!"

"Lets...go" said Reig with the goblin's body. The body of the goblin was not identical to the original. The skin was not green but rather black in hue. His hair and his clothing are also black.

"You could speak as well!!!"

Reig's action made Allen's nervousness better. Now he truly felt not alone because Reig literally would always be beside him. Reig turned back into the mud and bounced to Allen's shoulder.

Allen starts to ran, searching for Lavinia. Fortunately, the route he took was not complicated. Allen could still recall the exact direction in which he had turned. However, every corridor in the dungeon has the same wall on both sides and the same blue torches hanging on the wall. That is probably one of the reasons why everyone could get lost here.

Allen reencountered monsters and their goblins again. There were three goblins in front of him. One of them wields a crossbow, and the rest wields a small blade. Seeing them, Allen remembers his uncomfortable sensation because of his first kill. He disliked the feeling of putting an end to a living being's life very much, and he could not forget the sensation in his hand when he split the goblin's head apart.

The goblin archer saw Allen first; they muttered something and then fired an arrow toward Allen. Instantly, Allen wards the arrow with his sword. As soon as Allen got closer to the goblin, Reig's goblin form suddenly sprung out from his shadow. Reig immediately used his sword and sliced two goblin's heads apart.

Allen was actually unable to kill these goblins; he intended to target the goblin's feet and hands. But because of Reig's first attack, Allen gained a little courage to thrust his sword into these goblin's throats.

Suddenly…

Allen heard a scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! AAAAAAHHH!!!"

Allen definitely knew whose voice it was.

"MISS LAVINIA!!!"

Allen hurried as quickly as he could toward the direction of the scream. Then he reached a room that had a wooden door. When he was standing in front of the door, he squeezed his chest tightly; he felt an overwhelming panic that caused him to begin panting and trembling…

Inside the room, he heard Lavinia's scream severely.

Maybe because Allen never left his house…

or had never dealt with many monsters before…

or because his isolation inside his house caused him to be overprepared for the unexpected situation…

Somehow, instead of breaking the door, he just

Gently open the door…