Chapter 7: The Tale of The Very Angry Goblin

I tore my eyes from the ghastly image and the silhouette of hammer flying towards me at an alarming rate was the first thing I saw.

"Shit!"

I dashed out of the way before the hammer smashed into the ground. A deafening bang played, and it left massive cracks which amalgamated into a crater. An explosion of blood also came from the location of the poor woman, which propagated a vermillion mist into the area.

A cobalt blue goblin lifted the hammer triple its size from the ground with its bulging muscles and rested it on its tiny shoulders. The creature had a rabid frown, it could break into a maniacal frenzy at any moment. Shrouding this wild animal were billows of dark smoke seeming to follow and converge him no matter where he went.

The image of a corrupted Artorias flashed through my mind but was swept away by the waves of combat.

"Graaah!"

It roared once more, sending streaks of glistening saliva into my face and then following with another swipe of its weapon.

I ducked below the hammer, and a chunk of the wall was obliterated.

The goblin had no technical form or logic in the way it fought; all it did was assault me with a flurry of haphazard swings, which did more damage to the environment and didn't graze me once. Even its normal counterparts had a pathetic thought process, but this... thing functioned entirely on whatever screwed up instinct it had.

My stamina waned with each dodge. Blocking wasn't an option unless I wanted to be flattened like the unfortunate party from before.

"Over here, big guy." I taunted by waving my blade at it.

The creature took this as an invitation to hammer downwards with all its might. I sidestepped.

This time, the goblin failed to lift it up; it looked like it was running low on juice.

I used this as an opportunity to hop on the hammer and rushed along the top of the handle. I got close enough and thrust my blade into its right eye, but couldn't pierce any further into the skull. I was too weak.

In response, the creature let out an ear-piercing shriek so loud; I bet you'd be able to hear it from the first floor. I covered my ears in a bid to protect them, and the creature saw this as an opening to kick me.

My lack of strength had screwed me over.

Air burst outside of my lungs like a compressed storm the instant I collided with the rugged wall. My chest plate suffered the brunt of the blow and shattered, leaving my upper body without protection. I gasped for air.

"Nice... blow." I coughed, standing back up.

If attacking from the outside wasn't the option, then the inside would have to do. And I had a plan to make this work.

I summoned my pyromancy flame and went on the offensive. The creature zoomed towards me and tanked the fireballs sailing towards it, unperturbed by its skin charring. When it was in range, the creature charged its fist up predictably and then it threw itself.

My right arm deflected his obvious attack and followed with a kick of my own. My foot pounded against its head and sent slamming it into the ground.

I didn't waste time.

The goblin shrieked once again, though this time I muffled him by shoving my fiery fist down its throat.

"Farewell."

I cast combustion, and his body seized for a just moment before it broke out in an uncontrollable spasm. My flame liquefied its internal organs and embers erupted from its orifices. To make sure it died, I activated it once more.

It struggled for a disturbing amount of time before finally going limp and exploding into ashes.

Suddenly, for a split second, I felt it. The sickening feeling of the abyss flooded my senses and threatened to corrupt my weak self. In the past, resisting such an attempt would have been like swatting a bug, but this was the present. If the sensation had persisted for half a second longer, things would have gone terribly wrong.

The ashes soon dispersed. All that remained was a terrible odour of scorched flesh mixed with evaporated bodily fluids. To top it off, the magic stone it dropped was smaller than normal and resembled a shrivelled hollow.

"Well, isn't that great?" I said, depositing it into my pouch.

I guess it was time to leave; that monster had sapped out all my energy for the day. I quickly collected the adventurer cards off of the corpses in the hall and made my way back up to the fourth floor.

On the way, the warmth in my chest grew into a raging inferno. It wasn't painful, though. Calming and soothing would be a way to describe it. My darksign itched as well. Like it was telling me to do something, no, urging me to do something.

"This isn't possible..."

I had to confirm my suspicions.

I got into a kneeling position and raised my right arm. The darksign flared and felt like thousands of needles were pricking it. Then a foreign flame erupted in the palm of my right hand, a flame which exuded a divine aura and was akin to the embers of the first flame.

I don't know this was even possible. It appeared as if I had somehow managed to subdue a fragment of the first flame and made it my very own bonfire. I couldn't stop my jaw from dropping to the floor.

"I'm not even going to question this."

Sometimes it's better to leave good things unexplained, as is with this situation. In fact, I actually welcomed this change with open arms. For one, it saved me the trouble of having to join a 'familia' and serve a God of this world just so I could venture deeper into the dungeon. Which was the last thing I wanted to do. And I also could access my bottomless box, and with a bit of luck, my items would still be in there.

Bearing that in mind, I checked how many souls I had and they were adequate enough to enhance some of my abilities. My eyelids shut and my status appeared.

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Soul Level: 12

Vitality: 11

Attunement: 12

Endurance: 11

Strength: 11

Dexterity: 14

Resistance: 11

Intelligence: 11

Faith: 13

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They were dogshit.