Prologue (7)

My outstretched left hand was shrouded in a green mist as I used my magic, the connection between me and the surrounding nature deepening and reaching a more intimate relation as I ordered the roots beneath the soil to burst up and skewer the thigh of the Feral Goblin snarling at me.

The collection of wooden, prickly roots erupted from the ground and stabbed into the red skinned, muscular - yet still thin - monsters leg, each of the twisted pieces of vegetation hooking back from the exit wound and stabbing into the leg again, anchoring themselves into the Feral Goblin and allowing me to focus on the two normal Goblins instead.

My Falchion was proving to be an excellent choice, the heavier, curved blade perfect for me as I relied on swift, twirling movements to make effective use of the three feet of sharp steel, leaving cuts and gashes across those red bastards flesh.

Despite them having more stats than I did, the Goblins were whittled down and left dead on the ground as I slit their throats, the gap between stats being easily bridged by technique, range, and quality of equipment.

These little beasties were relying entirely on their prowess and ugliness than technique, and when paired with their singleminded horniness and stupidity, well... they died easy.

[Goblin (Level 10) : 8 Xp awarded]

[Goblin (Level 11 : 9 Xp awarded]

[Level 1 : 25 / 10 XP]

My lips were pulled into a thin line as I observed the level bar for a moment, before I rolled my eyes at the reimplementation of the previous feature that Battle of Eden utilized; leveling up at Temples, Shrines, or through a NPC at least double your level that trusted you.

It made the game harder and made the cities more prominent, since finding a Temple was super easy; finding a Shrine in the wild was possible, and still common enough, but people were already inside cities anyways, so Temples were the preferred methods.

As for the NPC route, few people were able to consistently have an NPC double their level nearby, especially after you play for a little while; average NPC's are around Level 25 - 35, while the average adventurer NPC was around Level 50, but they trusted few people.

The higher the level, the more important they were the less likely you were going to be able to get them to trust you, so very few people managed to do so.

I knew one person though who did it; Lulu, my friend, got into a rather 'intimate' relationship with a General in the Holy Legions, and she used to enjoy regaling me with her tales of 'leveling up'.

That brought a small smile to my lips for just a second, before I sighed again as I looked towards the remaining monster and approached it.

[Root Spiral] was a great spell it seemed, and it took little to will the roots to do what I wanted, and unless the monster was strong enough to tear condensed clusters of roots tightly wound together apart, then they would be stuck with it holding them in place.

As such, I stared at the snarling, growling Feral Goblin for a moment, my eyes dropping down towards its thigh as I inspected the damage done, nodding to myself.

"Not too bad. What about this..."

Cleaning my Falchion of blood, I stabbed it into the earth beside me and held out both my hands, taking a deep breath and searching for the organ that every living being in this world had; a Core.

Connected to your heart, a Core was a reservoir of mana that enhanced your body by pumping mana into your blood, which was then diffused into your body through your heart.

Everyone had a Core, and everyone could 'use' mana, but you needed to train your Core like any other kind of muscle to get more mana and empower yourself.

Finding it was easy, and I tapped into it and willed out some mana for myself as I cast [Vine Whip], creating a solid green whip from twisted vines.

Adding some more mana grew thorns on those vines, and I nodded again as I tested the durability of the whip, stretching it and yanking at it, before looking towards the Feral Goblin.

It was still snarling, so I pulled back my hand and swung forwards, lashing the stationary monster across the chest and observing the damage done by the thorns.

Some had gotten stuck inside its skin, slicing through its flesh and tearing at its body, while others snapped off of the vine and were embedded into its skin.

A set of red gashes welled along its chest, and I nodded as I lashed the Feral Goblin again, making it squeal as this time I whipped its throat, opening up some cuts along its neck.

Moving to the side, I finished the Feral Goblin off by cracking the whip against its neck again, this time having it coil around like a snake as I yanked, the thorns serrating the flesh and cutting through the muscles in its neck, killing it a few moments later from blood loss.

[Feral Goblin (Level 14) : 18 Xp awarded]

[Level 1 : 43 / 10]

Crouching down, I ruffled through the Feral Goblin's torn pants for a moment before retrieving a few small pieces of copper, which had now become my first pieces of coinage in this world.

Besides that, nothing of value was around, so I grabbed my Falchion and began to move again, leaving the corpses behind to rot in the middle of Yngrave Forest and eventually sustain the forest with more nutrients as they were either decomposed or eaten.

I had already been in the game for a half hour and I had killed four things, with my total experience likely getting me to almost Level 4 if this followed the same leveling system as the previous game.

These early levels were incredibly easy, but it only got harder once you breached the Level 5 threshold as everything grew larger and larger with each level; it was 10, 15, 20, and 25 in the old game for Levels 1 - 5, but then it doubled to 50 to reach Level 6, and increased by 25 afterwords.

The system was grind oriented, with Level 10 turning it to 200 increased by 50 each time, then 500 at Level 15...

Really, it was a grind, but the monsters grew alongside the levels, giving you more due to their stronger nature.

If I had chosen one of the true beginning areas, I'd be earning .5 Xp per kill of a Level 1, maybe 1 Xp if it was something 'hard'.

Here though... things would be easy... maybe... so maybe getting past Level 10 and close to Level 15 would be a more realistic goal for me tonight?

It'd be even better if I got a quest over at the town...