There's a little over 150 000 E-Rank Dungeons in all of Niger.
"With my Rank where it is, I can only enter F-Ranks and E-Ranks so I might as well start binge clearing E-Rank Dungeons from now on."
I drove around for a while looking for any E-Rank Dungeon that either had no Warriors who had previously entered or a very small number of them. Finally, I came across one that only had what looked like a single party previously enter. Like in all Dungeons sites, there was a metal pole behind its fence that had a tablet like template that displayed the number of Warriors that have entered the Dungeon.
"Five people, huh? Must be a party, I'm sure there's at least a few out there that are completely empty but District-2 is a big place, chances are it'd take hours for me to actually find one. So I'll make do with this one."
I parked my car then went to the Gate to verify my ID. I gave it to one of the two guards guarding the Gate. As he took it, his previously dim expression changed entirely.
"F-Rank, it's you, isn't it? The F-Rank Warrior who recently cleared an E-Rank Dungeon on his own!" He said.
"Seriously? You're kidding right? I'd understand why the receptionist would know something like that so quickly but these guys!??... News can't travel that fast, can it?"
"Uh...yeah. That's me alright. How'd you know?"
"Well aside from the fact that the guards you met yesterday when you came out can't stop talking about you at HQ, you're in the top 50 of District-2's hottest Dungeon topics right now. Here, take a look-see." He showed me his phone, there were a number of headlines; 'Newbie Warrior solo clears Dungeon', 'They say the third time's a charm, F-Rank proves it's actually the first', 'Zeke Party tragically perishes in E-Rank Dungeon after weakening Boss, first F-Rank Warrior finishes the job', stuff like that. I knew it'd be quick for certain people to know but in terms of how long I expected it to become 'public' knowledge, I have to say, it was way faster than I thought it'd be.
"Word gets around, huh?"
"That is does. I'm surprised you didn't know." Said the guard.
I'm not particularly a news person, so I rarely check feeds like that.
"So, are you planning on solo clearing this Dungeon as well?" The other guard asked as the first gave me back my ID after verifying it.
"What does he mean by that? I thought I made it specifically clear that I only cleared the previous one by "luck". Seems some people don't care about how I solo cleared the Dungeon, just the fact that I did it. Which leads them to think that I can do it again, I mean, I can, but still...I don't want the public to think that just yet. Incurring more attention than needed this early won't do me any good. But it's not like I can really keep stuff like that a secret so I guess I might be asking too much."
I tried to answer the guard's question as humbly as I could, making sure to make it sound like nothing was certain.
"Well, I only cleared the previous one by luck, so I can't say for sure, but we'll see....I had hoped to find one with no other Warriors in it but..."
"Ah yes. A party of five entered the Dungeon not to long ago." He said.
"I see, well then. Guess I might as well join them." I said as I went to enter the Gate.
Both guards then uttered in unison:...
"Good luck!"
I was then met with an entirely different environment from the one I was met with yesterday.
"So it's nothing but forest this time around, huh? If that's the case then my guess would be Goblins-erk...!"
I felt a slight uncomfortable sensation for a second. It went away as fast as it came. My head felt a little heavy as I couldn't help but put my hand on it.
"What the hell was that feeling?" I couldn't make heads or tails of it.
"Felt like my brain was throbbing. For that split second, all my senses were heightened beyond anything that I'd ever experienced before. But it's gone now so...might as well forget about it."
Since it didn't last, I decided to ignore it. I started walking around the forest afterwards.
About 30 to 40 minutes later, I still hadn't came across any monsters.
"Hmm... Let's see about getting a bird's eye view."
I took a few steps back, then ran straight towards the first big tree I saw, I jumped before reaching it too close, landed on it, then started running upwards horizontally on it. After coming very close to the top of the tree, I jumped even higher to look down from above. I still didn't see anything. I landed safely on the ground after falling back down.
"Hmm, just where are those damn-!-hmp!"
~Swoop~
A sharp sound. I tilted my head to my left side instinctively. Afterwards, infront of me, was a tree with a short spear sticking out of it. The spear was very poorly made, even calling it rough around the edges was putting it lightly, but it was still enough to get the job done. I was sure it'd easily take down an alpha Werehyena in one swing.
One thing was certain, the monsters of this Dungeon...had a slightly higher intelligence than the Werehyenas I fought before, meaning that while they were indeed also E-Rank monsters, they were a lot stronger. Goblins.
"So I was right." I said as I looked behind me and was met with a group of what looked like over ten Goblins.
"Ikna ukus."
"Ikna ukus. G'nori."
"Nakiier! Nakiier!"
They all blabbered among themselves.
"Is that their language? 'ikna ukus', wonder what that means. No matter, they'll be more chances to learn monster language. Now, is the time for some action!"
I took the spear that they previously threw out of the tree it was stuck in.
"I don't feel any Mana from it. Looks like monster weapons aren't different from normal ones. They don't have Grades and what not. Which means that even I, an F-Rank, can use them just fine.
I took a fighting stance. Clenched my muscles, tightening my grip on the spear, so much that the wood it was made of started to crack as if it was about to break. I then threw the spear at the one Goblin who wasn't holding one, I gathered he was the one who threw it in the first place.
"Here, you dropped this!"
~Swing!~
The sound from when I threw it was way sharper than when he did. It took his head, leaving only a lifeless, headless body that then fell flat on the ground seconds after. The spear then went on to cut two trees down one after the other as it also fell apart.
"These guys are a lot smarter, after seeing what I just did, they'll probably be a lot more scared than the Werehyenas were when I took down their alpha."
How wrong I was.
"Nakiiera sai! Ikna ukus nakiiera sai! Nakiier a G'nori! Nakiier a G'nori!"
They all started attacking after one of them screamed whatever the hell that was.
"What the!?"
I quickly activated my Brawler Skill.
"Demolition Strike." I uttered.
Half of them lost their lives as a result.
~Throb~
"Erk! That feeling again."
My senses spiked up once again, it threw me off for a bit since it came out of nowhere but I quickly adjusted and used it to my advantage as I then finished off the rest of the Goblins that were left with consecutive normal punches.
"Dude! Copyrights!"
You know that's not how I meant it.
Anyway.
A message quickly popped up after I was done.
[Report. Hidden Quest: Goblin Demolition has been completed. Now calculating rewards...]
[Mana Capacity has increased by 40. Strength has increased by 50. Speed has increased by 20. Health has increased by 30 and Intelligence has increased by 10. Now redesigning overall Warrior info...]
Name: Raid
Surname: ???
Affiliation: Awakened Warrior
Class: Blacksmith
Skills:
• Craft C-Rank : Can craft expert level equipment, weapons and amour Grades Elementary to Hyper from scratch as long as the necessary products to do so are present.
• Repair C-Rank: Can fix expert level broken equipment, weapons and amour Grades Elementary to Hyper as long as the necessary products to do so are present.
•• Improve D-Rank: Can improve high level equipment, weapons and armour as long as the necessary products to do so are present.
• Weapon Fanatic C-Rank: Possesses an expert level of understanding of how various weapons operate, including how to use them in battle.
•• Bladework A-Rank: Possesses an apex level of mastery with blades.
••• Sunset Slash: A very powerful slash with the power to bend nature to its will.
• Treasure Hunt B-Rank: Can expertly locate mines with products and minerals for crafting within a 1200 kilometre radius. Tip: Mines found in dungeons have the best products.
•• Soul-Piercing Eyes C-Rank: Exponentially increases sensory perception, allows one to spot a large number of weak points in their opponents and see many various hidden secrets of nature.
• Mine D-Rank: Can masterfully mine products and minerals for crafting.
• Item Space B-Rank: Massive space to store equipment, weapons, armoury, products, minerals, etc...
• Brawler C-Rank: Possesses an expert level of mastery in hand-to-hand close-quarters combat.
•• Demolition Strike: A very powerful strike that releases shockwaves of incredible force that can demolish anything of weaker strength.
• Cultivator C-Rank: Possesses an expert level of mastery in Mana manipulation, through the use of a Dantian.
•• Astral Unification C-Rank: Allows one to unify many aspects of oneself through breathing for the purpose of increasing sensory perception, Mana manipulation efficiency and overall amount of Mana.
•• Fury of Dantian D-Rank: Sizeable Dantian that acts as the Mana Source of the Subject. Can temporarily increase Subject's Mana Capacity four-fold. Significantly increases Mana manipulation efficiency. Adds 140% extra Mana Capacity when absorbing Mana Crystals.
• Resilient Regeneration D-Rank: Can heal almost all damages to the body, regenerate any body part including organs except for the heart and brain, speed of regeneration is dependent on the scale of damage.
• Hypermove E-Rank: Can increase one's speed drastically through the use of electric Mana. Said Mana also acts as a shield against air resistance.
• Trigon Element King D-Rank: Can manipulate Fire, Wind and Water Elemental Magic.
•• Ifrit E-Rank: Possesses a moderate level of control over Fire Elemental Magic.
•• Tetrax F-Rank: Possesses a decent level of control over Wind Elemental Magic.
•• Marid F-Rank: Possesses a decent level of control over Water Elemental Magic.
Rank: F
Level: Locked
Mana Capacity: 20188
Strength: 3890
Speed: 4183
Health: 5684
Intelligence: 7000
[Final rewards are being allocated. Subject has received 16 E-Rank monster cores.]
I put the monster cores in my Item Space.
"My Intelligence Stat is the highest one aside from Mana Capacity right now. And Mana Capacity itself is very close to the F-Rank Max. Since the two compliment each other more than the others, the higher they both go, the better. I mustn't forget the Trigon Elemental King Skill, along with its Sub-Skills, as long as my Mana control and amount increase, I can use them better."
"How those Goblins reacted to me surprised the heck out of me though. Seems like unlike the Werehyenas, these guys don't let fear dictate their actions. That might be tough to deal with....wait...will it really? Now that I think about it, this might actually be a good thing. Heh. I know what I need to do now."
I activated my Treasure Hunt Skill.
"Oh? Hello."
What it showed me made me drool. Goblin settlements. There were numerous Goblin villages, each about the size of 3 to 5 schools grouped together. Excluding the Dungeon Boss' domain, each of them had between 600 and 900 Goblins in them and in each of them, there was one Goblin who looked a lot stronger than the rest.
"The equivalent of an alpha Werehyena?"
They looked twice the size of normal Goblins and were all incredibly buff.
"Until the System says otherwise, I'll refer to them as alpha Goblins."
"First Dawn is now Hyper-Grade, making it a weapon only A-Ranks and above should be able to use. Since Bladework is also A-Rank, the synergy between the two will be humongous. First Dawn will now be able to fully manifest Bladework's capabilities. But I won't be using the two for this Dungeon, I need to increase my Brawler Skill's Rank so I'll use it to it's fullest potential here."
I deactivated my Treasure Hunt Skill, and as soon as I did. That throbbing sensation came back.
~Throb~
"There it is again." I thought as I held my head.
"I'm getting a bit used to it now. There more it happens, the more I start to understand what it is. My senses spike up like crazy. As if they're warning me of something, telling me to keep a look out. I doubt those weak Goblins would have an effect like this on me so that leaves only one conclusion..."
"Someone's watching me" I uttered silently to myself.
"Since my Treasure Hunt Skill didn't pick up anything aside from those Goblins, that can only mean two things, and it's that who ever is watching me is an A-Rank Warrior and/or the Skill they're using to hide themselves is A-Rank. Soul-Piercing Eyes can see things normal eyes can't but it's still low in Rank so it can't do jack right now. One thing's for sure, if they're using an A-Rank Skill then they're definitely a high-Ranked Warrior. 'Atleast' B-Rank I would guess. But if my senses can pick up something, though slight, while Treasure Hunt can't then that means my senses are on a level higher than Treasure Hunt. Which means I have the innate senses of an A-Rank now. And if that's the case then the conclusion is that all the Skills that allow me to sharpen my sensory perception are, in a word, OP. OP as fuck. Then if I continue to use them, I'll be able to sharpen my senses, which are already, at most, at the level of an average A-Rank, even further."
I then sat down and took a meditation posture. The Goblins were a fair distance away so I didn't have much to worry in terms of ambushes and the like. And I doubted that whoever was watching me would attack me while I wasn't paying attention because if that really was their objective, they would've done it while I was fighting off the Goblins, the perfect time to catch me off guard. Seemed like they were mostly just surveiling me.
Feeling unparalleled comfortability, I activated my Item Space Skill, Bladework Skill, Treasure Hunt Skill, Soul-Piercing Eyes Skill, Cultivator Skill, Fury of Dantian Skill and finally Astral Unification Skill to synchronise all the other Skills. A pain in my chest echoed afterwards.
"Ark!" Shit hurt like a bitch.
"This is first time I've activated so many Skills at once, it takes a toll even with my Mana Capacity where it's currently at."
"A new method of Mana Crystal absorption, since I don't want whoever is watching me to see that I have a Skill that allows me to absorb Mana Crystals, I have to absorb them from the Item Space where they won't be able to see them. All the other Skills are for boosting my Intelligence Stat, Mana Capacity Stat, sensory perception and Mana manipulation efficiency exponentially."
I absorbed all the monster cores at once.
[Report. Success! The E-Rank Mana Crystals have been successfully absorbed.]
[Mana Capacity gained from all the E-Rank Mana Crystals: 80.]
[Extra Mana Capacity gained from each E-Rank Mana Crystal absorbed with the use of Fury of Dantian Skill: 7.]
[Total amount of extra Mana Capacity: 112]
[Total amount of Mana Capacity gained from Mana Crystal absorption: 192.]
[Report. Advancements in the Subject's overall Warrior info have been detected as a result of recent actions.]
[Now calculating advancements...]
[Cultivator's Sub-Skill Astral Unification has advanced from C-Rank to B-Rank. Cultivator's Sub-Skill Fury of Dantian Skill has advanced from D-Rank to C-Rank.]
[Weapon Fanatic's Sub-Skill Bladework's effects on the Subject's Stats have increased. Effect on Strength has increased by 1000. Effect on Speed has increased by 1000. Effect on Health has increased by 1500 and effect on Intelligence has increased by 2000. Now redesigning the effects of the A-Rank Bladework Sub-Skill on the Subject...]
A-Rank Bladework Sub-Skill: Effects When Active
• Strength +2300
• Speed +2570
• Health +3260
• Intelligence +5720
[Furthermore, Mana Capacity has increased by 4000+192. Strength has increased by 1500. Speed has increased by 1600. Health has increased by 1900 and Intelligence has increased by 2000.]
[Now redesigning overall Warrior info...]
Name: Raid
Surname: ???
Affiliation: Awakened Warrior
Class: Blacksmith
Skills:
• Craft C-Rank : Can craft expert level equipment, weapons and amour Grades Elementary to Hyper from scratch as long as the necessary products to do so are present.
• Repair C-Rank: Can fix expert level broken equipment, weapons and amour Grades Elementary to Hyper as long as the necessary products to do so are present.
•• Improve D-Rank: Can improve high level equipment, weapons and armour as long as the necessary products to do so are present.
• Weapon Fanatic C-Rank: Possesses an expert level of understanding of how various weapons operate, including how to use them in battle.
•• Bladework A-Rank: Possesses an apex level of mastery with blades.
••• Sunset Slash: A very powerful slash with the power to bend nature to its will.
• Treasure Hunt B-Rank: Can expertly locate mines with products and minerals for crafting within a 1200 kilometre radius. Tip: Mines found in dungeons have the best products.
•• Soul-Piercing Eyes C-Rank: Exponentially increases sensory perception, allows one to spot a large number of weak points in their opponents and see many various hidden secrets of nature.
• Mine D-Rank: Can masterfully mine products and minerals for crafting.
• Item Space B-Rank: Massive space to store equipment, weapons, armoury, products, minerals, etc...
• Brawler C-Rank: Possesses an expert level of mastery in hand-to-hand close-quarters combat.
•• Demolition Strike: A very powerful strike that releases shockwaves of incredible force that can demolish anything of weaker strength.
• Cultivator C-Rank: Possesses an expert level of mastery in Mana manipulation, through the use of a Dantian.
•• Astral Unification B-Rank: Allows one to unify multiple aspects of oneself through breathing for the purpose of increasing sensory perception, Mana manipulation efficiency and overall amount of Mana.
•• Fury of Dantian C-Rank: Matured Dantian that acts as the Mana Source of the Subject. Can temporarily increase Subject's Mana Capacity five-fold. Significantly increases Mana manipulation efficiency. Adds 150% extra Mana Capacity when absorbing Mana Crystals.
• Resilient Regeneration D-Rank: Can heal almost all damages to the body, regenerate any body part including organs except for the heart and brain, speed of regeneration is dependent on the scale of damage.
• Hypermove E-Rank: Can increase one's speed drastically through the use of electric Mana. Said Mana also acts as a shield against air resistance.
• Trigon Element King D-Rank: Can manipulate Fire, Wind and Water Elemental Magic.
•• Ifrit E-Rank: Possesses a moderate level of control over Fire Elemental Magic.
•• Tetrax F-Rank: Possesses a decent level of control over Wind Elemental Magic.
•• Marid F-Rank: Possesses a decent level of control over Water Elemental Magic.
Rank: F
Level: Locked
Mana Capacity: 24380
Strength: 4390
Speed: 5683
Health: 7584
Intelligence: 9000
"Well, this is, unexpected."
I then deactivated the Skills.
"I knew the payoff would be humongous but this is just downright groundbreaking!"
My senses had reached a point where I could clearly see and hear things from hundreds of miles away without the Treasure Hunt Skill. The sensation from before was still around, but it was calmer, more informative, and more under control.
"The sensation isn't necessarily warning me as if my life is in danger, it's just telling me to keep an eye out. The sensation comes and goes, my guess is it's because my senses pick up a slight fluctuation in the person's Mana, the flactuation may be caused by the person moving closer to me or maybe by them deactivating their Skill for a sec and reactivating it again but I doubt they'd do something like that on purpose so it's probably because they're constantly having to move to follow me close. So whoever's watching me, if they're an assassin sent by the Reinhardt Family, then they aren't out to kill me since they aren't exuding any bloodlust, which means..."
"They must want me alive." I thought it all over as I walked calmly towards one of the Goblin villages.
"The Head of the Reinhardt Family must really want to see the face of his son's murderer before ripping his head off. So whoever they sent, is to detain and kidnap me, not kill, and the reason they've been surveiling me like this is because they're still tryna figure out how to do that thoroughly, while gauging my capabilities. How very cautious of them. And as for the Head of the Reinhardt Family. One word to describe what kind of man I think he is, is 'thourough', annoyingly so even. Really, sending an A-Rank to deal with an F-Rank? He must not want any mistakes." A smirk made its home on my face.
"Then again, I killed his son, a C-Rank, along with his lackies, one E-Rank, and two D-Ranks singlehandedly. He must've gathered I'm not the average F-Rank. But joke's on him, I'm the only F-Rank, so I am in fact, the average F-Rank."
I arrived at the closest Goblin village.
"I doubt my secret admirer is gonna show him or herself anytime soon so I'll make sure to force them to come out. My plan is almost flawless. I say 'almost' because what I'm about to do is, partly, stupid...in a way. But it'll still allow me to kill two birds with one stone. Getting sweet rewards and catching my watcher red-handed. Oh yeah. Seriously, sometimes I feel like my genius is...i-it's almost frightening."
"Alrighty then. Let's get to it."
I reactivated Treasure Hunt, entered the Goblin village and yelled as loud as I could.
"YYYOOOO!!! WAZZUUUUP!!!!"
[Report. Subject has entered the Goblin Settlement: First Goblin Village. Subject will now recieve an Immediate Quest...]
[Immediate Quest contents.]
Immediate Quest: Subject must exterminate all the Goblins in the village, including the leader of the village, the High Goblin.
Duration: 5hours
Upon Success: Subject will live.
Upon Failure: Subject will die.
Rewards will be calculated after the Quest is completed based on the Subject's efficiency.
"High Goblin huh? So that's what they're called. Unlike the other Goblins with their spears, bows and arrows, he's the only one holding a longsword. Okay, let's do this."
I counted 690 Goblins. 691 including the High Goblin who simply just stood all the way at the back behind all the others. 260 of them each held a bow and some arrows while the rest, the vanguard, had spears.
"Seems like he'll probably only step in once he feels he has to."
I activated Bladework, to increase my Stats, Treasure Hunt was already on so I activated Soul-Piercing Eyes in addition to it. I wasn't going to use Brawler just yet, so I then activated Cultivator.
"Time to increase my Elemental Magic."
I then activated both the Tetrax and Marid Skill.
"If I carefully manipulate my Mana to turn it to wind and water respectively then...there we go." I conjured out water from my left hand and wind from my right as both elements were circling my fists continuosly.
"Now then, concentrate. Carefully regulate the density through the use of Cultivator. Fine-tune the Mana, increase the density...higher...higher...done." The water and wind on my hands had changed form entirely, they were blades, very sharp blades, both the size and shape of First Dawn.
"Never tried duel-wielding before, but surely these count as blades so Bladework should... work..."
I took a fighting stance, and got ready. The Goblins didn't waste any time and started attacking, I did the same in response. Some threw their spears straight at me while others sent arrows flying. I jumped then launched consecutive slashes taking down all the thrown spears and arrows. After landing back down, I ran straight to them.
"This looks familiar, running to an army of monsters. But this time, a lot's different..."
I said as I launched a vertical slash towards the first small group of Goblins I saw with the wind blade.
"For starters, I won't make the same mistake as I did before. And..."
The slash cut down over 50 Goblins in an instant.
"Right now, I'm a lot stronger than I was then." I declared as I kept slashing through the Goblin army. And then finally, I had successfully breached their forces. There, in the centre of their vanguard I kept slashing away from all sides, each slash massacred at least 20 of them to pieces.
"As long as I'm here, the archers will think twice about launching their arrows, they're smart enough to tell friend from foe so there's no way they'll commit friendly fire."
As I thought that, I noticed the High Goblin act strange. Raising his longsword upwards, he yelled:...
"Haisek'ruch! Haisek'ruch! Sig'nare suka a haisek'ruch! Nakiier a G'nori! Sacrifarr koko Ni-Asifa!"
In response, the archers then did something unthinkable. They launched arrows, much faster and more vigorously than ever before.
"You've gotta be kidding me, I really don't get Goblins at all!. They'd sacrifice their own allies just to kill me!? Worse of all, even the ones being sacrificed aren't batting a single eye. They're still attacking knowing they're gonna die."
I kept killing off as many vanguard Goblins as I could while making sure to defend from the arrows by cutting them each to pieces, other vanguard Goblins were dying on their own from the arrows so that was actually good for me since it meant free Mana Crystals.
10 to 20 minutes later. All the spear Goblins had died, while I remained, standing a fair distance from the archer group.
My clothes were still stainless since I made sure to avoid any and all blood splashes while fighting.
I pointed my water bladed hand to the High Goblin.
"Are you gonna keep hiding behind those little weak friends of yours, or are gonna man up and come face me?" I doubted he understood that though, since I couldn't make heads or tails of his language either. I just said it for the sake of courtesy. Besides, I was sure he gathered enough of what I meant to convey through my body language alone, since after I did that, he raised his sword upward again and uttered:...
"Kasu a sig'nare suka! Nakiier a G'nori!"
The archers then started prepping to launch more arrows.
"'Nakiier a G'nori', it's the second time he's said that, I think the Goblins I fought in the forest said something similar too. Everytime he says that, the archers start shooting their arrows, must be a command of sorts. Does it mean 'attack' maybe? Well whatever. While I do wanna study monster language, now's not the time for that."
The archers fired their arrows. All 260 of them came flying at incredibly speeds straight at me. I ran towards the archers, avoiding some arrows and slashing the rest...
"Wait..."
I stopped.
"Holy crud, why didn't I think of this before!?"
"If I can form blades with my Elemental Magic then can't I form something else entirely as well?"
The theory that suddenly crossed my mind, I knew I had to take it for a test drive. I concentrated, making sure to vividly imagine the next form I wanted my elements to take. The water blade on my left hand turned to a water bow, while the wind blade then turned to a water arrow. I pulled it along the water bow and was ready to shoot but felt it wasn't enough. So I conjured out four more arrows of water on the bow in order to shoot five simultaneously. But still felt it wasn't enough.
"Now that we're done with quantity, time to increase the quality." I gathered more Mana to the arrows and circulated it at high speeds causing the arrows to spin very aggressively like they were drills of some kind.
"Now then." I declared. "Lemme show you what a real archer looks like."
I shot the five water arrows, they moved at a speed faster than sound. Their drill-like properties caused them to exert a force that would tear multiple Goblins to pieces even if they were ten metres away from them, at least. Over 100 archer Goblins died in an instant, the over 200 arrows they had shot themselves once more, all got shattered by my 5, the High Goblin was still standing. I wanted to save the best for last so I made sure the attack didn't get to him.
"That's Marid, now let's see what Tetrax is capable of."
I then turned the water bow to one made of wind, the air it exuded blew a calm, refreshing breeze on my face, I breathed it in and felt an indescribably satisfying sensation run through my body. The purity of the Mana is exerted was no joke.
"It's weird, the air is almost delicious."
It was my first time experiencing air that felt as if it actually had a taste. It wasn't a scent, but pure air.
"Well I'll give you this much Tetrax, you certainly got my hopes up. I'll take down the rest of them with this one last shot."
This time, I conjured ten wind arrows, applied more Mana as they started spinning. Pulled back, aimed and simply...released. The High Goblin jumped high up to avoid the attack. The rest didn't have the luxury to make that choice and all perished, Tetrax didn't mess around. Clever bastard. That High Goblin. If he hadn't done that, he would've surely died. Which would've been bad for me since I wanted to use him to catch my watcher.
"I had completely forgotten about that. I got too excited, way too excited. Thank goodness that High Goblin is at least mildly competent. Now then, time for an Oscar winning performance."
"Ahem. Oh no!!! How oh how did he avoid that attack!?? That was my trump card! My last resort!"
"Damn I'm good."
I fell on my knees, gasping for air.
"My Mana has depleted drastically! I cannot even muster up the strength to retreat!" The High Goblin bought it and saw fit to take advantage. He then charged at me and attacked with a downward slash from his longsword.
"Kah!" I avoided it by jumping sideways.
"No! No please, stay back. Stay back! Stay back you beast! Don't come any closer!" I put out my hands while crawling backwards, Zeke-style.
"Should I quit Warrior-ing and just switch to acting. With these skills, there's no way I wouldn't make it big."
"Bollocks!" I cursed. "Is this truly the end for me!? Am I really going to die like this!? No!! I refuse to except this! If I am to fall here, then I shall take you with me. I will gather all my remaining Mana into my left hand, and finish you off with this one last attack!"
I did just that, well not all of my Mana, that'd be overkill, a small chunk was more than enough. The attack wasn't even that serious, it was more or less a normal punch, the reason I decided to use my left hand is because I wanted to give the High Goblin no choice but to respond with attacking my right side, away from my heart. And he did just that, so predictable. As we clashed, he thrusted his sword into my right lung and it pierced all the way through and out my back. My punch, however, shattered his whole head and he died instantly.
"No!"
I heard a faint scream afterward as I-"Kargh!"-coughed out blood.
I fell onto a tree, coincidentally as my body automatically and unintentionally sat and leaned on it.
Even though I did all of this on purpose and thus had physically and mentally prepared myself. I have to say:...
"This hurts like a biiitch!!!"
I had a huge sword through the right side of my chest, it's honestly a wonder what I expected.
My eyes were closed, I had made sure to deactivate all the Skills I had on at that last second, therefore no Mana flactuations could be picked up, I even regulated my breathing to imitate that of a dying man. The only thing that was still going strong was my senses. Aside from my sight, since my eyes were closed, my hearing, sense of smell, sense of touch along with my sixth sense which was for warning me of danger were all in full gear.
After that previous feint scream I heard, what followed were feint footsteps, they were fast, so the person must've been running. They approached me. A sensation ran across my cheeks, one of small, thin caressing fingers. A single thought crossed my mind as that happened.
"So soft."
"No, no, this can't be happening...I...I was too late. I failed. I'm sorry." They said.
"That voice....a woman? But...it sounds...somewhat..."
I hurriedly opened my eyes and quickly grabbed their hand. "Gotcha." I said confidently.
"...familiar."
"No way...Peyton?"