Chapter 17: Infiltration

I sat on the floor of the tunnel, thinking of the mistakes I made while battling those goblins.

First of all, I later realized that I was physically stronger than all the goblin warriors combined and I could've just defeated them by using a dagger or something since I was also much, much faster than them. Secondly, I had 5 elemental techniques with me and I could've dispatched those goblins easier if I just used the walls to crush them all. Third, the goblin mage had to time its attacks because it only had a little amount of mana to use, that's why it couldn't spam all its spells like I did and that was a huge advantage I had. If I fought an opponent that had more mana than me, then I would've been toast.

Fourth, those goblins were far more experienced than me but I defeated them through the use of pure brute force. Again, I couldn't have done that if my opponents were as strong as me and were also experienced in the art of combat. I need to train soon to overcome my lack of combat experience.

IF my calculations are correct, an average adult human has a power level of 100 or so., and those goblins had 5,000 to 10,000 power levels. Why do I know this? Because if I killed an average human, I would get 1 KP and I received 100 KP when I killed a single goblin warrior, I also received 50 KP when I killed a goblin miner.

But 3 years ago, tutorial bot said that Alexander, or Damon, would only give me 10 KP if I killed him but he's a lot stronger than that.

"Tutorial bot, be honest with me, how strong is Alexander?" I said out loud since no one was here anyway.

[My senses had just activated back then, so I couldn't calculate his power level right but now I know. Are you sure you want to hear this, Auguste? Because you might lose trust in Alexander if I told you the truth about him]

"Just tell me, don't get all dramatic all of a sudden," I said.

[Fine. Alexander has a power level of eight-million, and I suspect that he is not human. He is a vampire, and eight-million is only his base strength. If he were to turn into his vampire form, he would become 20 times stronger. In that form, he will be far stronger than Terra, capable of splitting an entire continent if he wanted to! Alexander is strong, he could match the weakest Imprisonment Cultivator in strength and skills]

"Wow, why is my father-figure such a badass?"

[I'm not done yet. While his vampire form would give him the power to become a living deity, it also has a side-effect; bit by bit, he will lose his sentience and become nothing but a mindless monster. That is only if he uses his vampire form frequently, which he never does]

"But why is that the case for him? Why should he become a mindless monster if he uses his vampire form?"

[Because he is not a pure-blood vampire; a sub-class so to say. Pure-blooded vampires are already stronger than the average adult human the moment they are born; they usually have around 10,000 to 100,000 power levels. But adult pure-blooded vampires are even stronger; they have 10,000,000 power levels and the only reason Alexander is close to their power level when he is in his base form is that he is a mana cultivator, if not, he would've been weaker. Pure-blooded vampires are arrogant since they are strong, so they never use other methods to grow stronger other than letting their powers grow naturally]

"Hmm, welp, it's time to scout the location of the goblin village!"

I stood up, dusting off my pajamas as I blended into my surroundings because of the necklace I was wearing. This necklace lets me become invisible to my enemies but only in the dark, if some kind of light shone on me then my body would be revealed. It's useful in the dark but useless in the light.

The walls I erected turned to dust as I canceled my spells. The water I created? Vanished into thin air. At the end of the day, all of them were created by my mana and I am the only one who could make them disappear.

I saw the corpses of the goblins and decided to loot their bodies for weapons and armors. After a bit of searching, I found 10 pickaxes and 10 daggers from the goblin miners, magical equipment from the goblin mage, and swords, shields, and armors all made of silver from the goblin warriors. I could probably sell these to some shop in a town or a city, but for now, I'll store them in my storage ring.

I also found another storage ring from the goblin mage, and I found lots of talismans; around 20 or so. These types of talismans are used to store magic spells like [Lightning bolt] or [Fireball]. It's extremely useful if a mage has no more mana to spare. But I wonder why this goblin mage never used it against me, did it forget about it? Meh, no matter, the winner takes all.

Then, as disgusting as it was, I gutted them the goblin mage to find a monster core. Monster cores are developed inside monsters that can use mana so that they could store their excess mana, and this goblin mage has a high chance of having one. A monster core would fetch a high price in the market, even in the auctions! I could receive 20 GN for a monster core.

Soon, my hands were covered in blood along with the dagger I was using to gut the goblin mage but I found not a single sign of a monster core. I was extremely disappointed but just sighed, and walked away.

"Goddamnit!" I said as I kicked the head of a goblin miner, destroying it.]

Weirdly enough, I did not have any hesitations when I killed them. It was as if it was natural to just slaughter them mercilessly.

[That is because you were created to be perfect in combat. Hesitations to kill would only block your way in the path of strength. Remorse for killing your enemy is not in your nature. Just don't worry about it]

'Huh, that explains it.' I said in my thoughts.

I then marched towards the direction where the safe house was to find the hole those goblins came out of. After a few minutes or so, I found the hole in the wall and entered it.

The space inside the tunnel they made was small but still bigger than me. This small tunnel that those goblins made must have another entrance at the other end, and I need to be careful because I might bump into another group of goblins.

*Step* *Step* *Step*

I heard my steps reverberating around the small tunnel because I was walking faster than normal, so I walked a little slower so that I could prevent any sound coming from my steps.

After a few minutes of walking, and I could still not find any exit of some sort. This tunnel is quite long; it might take me half-an-hour to reach the other end of it.

As I continued, I saw other tunnel paths leading to somewhere. There were three paths right in front of me, one goes to the left, the other is in the middle, and the third goes to the right. I didn't know which way I should go, so I had to consult tutorial bot.

'Which way should I go?' I asked in my thoughts.

[The middle should lead you directly to the goblin village but be careful, there are 3-thousand goblins in their village. Most I sensed are weaker than the ones you fought earlier but there is one creature there that stands out in terms of power level; it should be around five-hundred-thousand. I fear that it might be an Ogre, or worst, a demonic monster]

Demonic monster, huh? I also read stories about these demonic monsters. They are said to have been poisoned by the evil mana of another demonic creature, and they would rapidly grow in power while slowly growing wilder and wilder. But a Demonic Ogre cannot be in that village because it's not that smart to coexist with goblins, the only possibility is if it's just a normal ogre.

But a normal ogre would still pose quite a challenge for me, so I should just scout for the night when I arrive there.

In 30 Minutes or so, I arrived in front of a ladder made of wood. I saw that it leads up to the surface, and hearing no sounds, I climbed up.

When I reached the surface, I looked around, only to find the insides of a wooden shed. 2 goblin warriors were sleeping on their duties. They had spears, instead of a sword and shield. I climbed up to the surface, landing on the ground as quietly as possible.

There were tools for mining in here, and some hay bales scattered around the corners. There's a second floor above me, which I suspect contains more goblins. As silently as possible, I made the earth below the two goblin warriors move, and then two stone spikes rose below them, impaling them through the middle, instantly killing them.

It was bloody but it was silent, it made no sound.

I looked at my dagger, it was covered by their blood.

Purple blood, huh. Looks fitting for this kind of creature