"Get ready, we're leaving."
"Wha—where? Wait. Milly?" I followed her downstairs. "What do you mean we're leaving?"
"It's a test." Karla stood in front of me, handing me my daggers.
"Three weeks of training almost every day." Khyle handed me a hood and a utility belt.
"Ye can likely clear a simple dungeon on yer own." Barret handed me three packs full of throwing knives.
"But both Karla and Milly'll watch over you as you conquer it." Magnus handed me some potions to refill my mana. I'll definitely need that. Wai—
"A simple goblin dungeon." Milly dropped me at the entrance.
"You've become stronger." Karla gave me a thumbs up. "You still can't even touch me though." She laughed and patted my head.
---
"Wait. Why are we doing this!?!" Even after three weeks of training, I don't feel like I've improved.
"You can do it." Milly was clearly expecting a lot from me. "We know you can do it." The way she looked at me made me feel a bit more confident.
---
Wait.
Why am I so easily accepting this? "Yeah, I've been training, and maybe I've gotten stronger. But I've never killed anyone before."
"Hahaha, there's a first for everything, kid." Karla looked like she was having the best time of her life.
"And you won't die—we'll be there for you." Milly opened the door to the goblin dungeon.
I could only sigh and accept what I had to do.
The door closed behind me.
"We'll be behind you."
I adjusted my hood and tightened the grip on my daggers.
Experiencing a dungeon in real life made me realize how dark these places truly are. The thief class passive is better than I thought—I have amazing vision, regardless of how dark it is.
I started advancing.
Maybe it's because this is my first dungeon, but I feel like I'm advancing really slowly, even though I'm running...
There—
A goblin. Alone.
Keep running? Stop? Jump? He noticed me—no, he didn't. Or did he?
I started moving faster… faster… faster… my daggers ready to attack… he's moving slowly, really slow.
JUMP.
I leapt forward and attacked with my right dagger. It ended up stuck in the goblin's throat, and before he could react, I stabbed his skull with my left dagger.
There's so much blood coming out of its wounds.
I finally took the life of a living being, and it was… a weird feeling.
Watching the goblin thrash around and slowly lose its life made me question why I had almost no reaction.
Before I transmigrated here, I had never even been in a fight. Yet this death in front of me didn't affect me as much as I thought it would.
Rather than feeling disgusted with myself for killing something, I felt... the presence of another goblin.
I got into a defensive stance. I saw an overhead attack with his club.
Out of all my options, I decided to dodge. And even though I successfully avoided the attack, it felt like I could've done something better.
A right swing follow-up after landing... his hand... no, I wasn't in the right position to stop his hand before the swing launched.
A quick duck was all I needed to avoid that swing.
NOW!
I thrust both of my daggers forward, successfully piercing his throat with one of them.
The goblin grabbed my arm and tried to remove the dagger, but I quickly used my other blade to stab him in the right side of his abdomen.
In a desperate attempt, he used his sharp nails to cut my arm. It hurt, but it was nothing I couldn't handle.
I dropped the second goblin to the ground. Breathing heavily, I checked to see if there were any others nearby. While I could probably handle two more individually, I'd rather avoid a fight right now.
"But my luck isn't that good, is it?" Three more goblins stood there. Two held wooden clubs, and the leader of the group held a machete.
They all started running at me.
It'd take them about eight seconds to reach me at that speed.
I grabbed two throwing knives.
Seven.
I focused and saw the one with the blade in the middle, with the two club goblins flanking him on either side.
Six.
I remembered Milly's lesson on long-range combat.
---
"When aiming at a moving target, don't aim where they are—aim where they're going to be."
---
Four.
NOW.
I threw one knife at each of the club-wielding goblins, successfully piercing the head of the one on the left and the right shoulder of the one on the right.
Three.
The one on the left died instantly, while the other two kept charging. The right one, despite—or maybe because of—his injury, looked angrier than ever.
Two.
I lunged forward, slashing the right goblin's belly in a wide arc with my dagger. Without stopping, I moved toward the last goblin—the one in the middle.
He jumped, aiming for a big overhead slice.
"Those weak points... I see them." That machete is a bit too big for a goblin's body, so he has to two-hand it.
With both of my daggers raised, I jumped at the goblin while he still had his weapon over his head. I stabbed him in the stomach.
Thanks to the pain and the impact of someone larger crashing into him, the goblin dropped his machete.
He fell on his back, and I landed on top of him. The impact drove my dagger even deeper.
He started screaming in pain. I decided to slice open his stomach and get off him. With all that blood, screaming, and thrashing… it was a horrible death.
But after a few seconds, he stopped moving.
I wanted to sit down or run away, but doing either wouldn't help me in the future.
I recalled Khyle's teachings on looting monsters.
---
"Monsters have a magic stone inside them. Always make sure to take them—they can be sold for good money."
---
"Goblins keep their magic stone in their heart, so let's start with these ones."
...
Opening a goblin's chest to take out the stone made me want to throw up.
But in the end, I guess I just have to get used to it.
Five goblins. Five stones. I stored them in the bag I was given.
I handed the small bag to Karla, and she took it.
"We knew you could do it." Milly praised me with her usual calm expression.
"You could've done better, but I guess you did well." Karla's own version of praise also felt good. "Anyway. Let's continue—this is only the entrance to the first floor. There are three floors."
sigh
I wanna cry.