Chapter 19

Hmm… they all seem good especially perfect memory because with that I won’t have to worry about mental attacks but I think the adoptive muscle memory will be the best especially since my physical coordination should increase all of my combat skills. I’ll go with that.

Name: Spartan

Level: 11

Class: Nano technician

Physique: 7

Mental Ability: 8

Physical coordination: 10

Reaction Speed: 6

Speed: 5

AP: 0

Abilities

A.I. Companion Tier III

Ki Manipulation Tier II

Beast Taming Tier II

SP: 0

Skills

Nanite manipulation Tier IV

Alex's eyes began to flutter as his skin began to shiver.

I can feel them all! I feel every joint, bone, and muscle in my body.

He began moving his fingers and toes individually.

I could move all of them in different directions in different ways. This is crazy! I feel like I could do anything.

Every single one responded just Alex commanded. As he began moving a screen appeared.

For reaching the peak of human physical coordination you have been given the skill, Enhanced Agilty

Enhanced Agility

The user of this skill is able to go from one movement to the next effortlessly helping them to avoid attacks easier and attack from angles and positions that normal people would not think possible. Gymnastic, acrobatic movements are able to be performed with little effort.

So I guess 10 points in a specific category is the human limit. Well that is good to know. I wonder if I will get some skill for every single stat that increases to 10. No need to try and figure out right now. I want to test out what my body is capable of now.

Alex rushed out of his room into the training room. He couldn’t wait to start training. This time Alex began with body movements. He started with a back handspring. As soon as he thought about it his body was reacting. Alex completed the movement perfectly. He began throwing repeated roundhouse kicks beginning with low then middle followed by high kicks. The last kick he left in place and then raised it up straight over his head and then he reached up and grabbed it.

This is insane. It’s like every single thing I think of my body does. Every flip, jump, and kick was effortless. My flexibility and balance were higher than I ever thought possible. I am built like the most ripped fitness model ever but I’m as flexible and agile as the most gifted ballet dancer. This body I have now is amazing!

Alex kept doing the most demanding movements he could think of from one-armed push-ups to one-armed pull-ups, then he did a handstand pushup with one arm. He was completely in control of his body. Alex pulled out his sword and shield so that he could begin practicing with them.

“Alice, show me the hologram of the entire pankration book from beginning to end. Since I have this new adoptive muscle memory, I might as well put it to good use.”

“Yes Spartan.”

In front of him, there was a warrior with a sword and shield wearing a red cape, a golden helmet with red hair coming out the top, and a golden round shield. The holographic warrior began moving through the pankration skills one by one. Each block and strike were absorbed by his mind instantly. Alex could literally feel his body soaking in each movement. The hologram jumped and stabbed its sword into its imaginary opponent. The hologram slashed and bashed, ducked and dodged, evaded and countered all over the training room and Alex watched. His mind used its newfound ability to memorize every movement. Once the hologram stopped Alex felt his eyes shutter for a moment then he was ready. He went through the same movements like an identical copy of the hologram. Every slash, thrust, shield block, and counter maneuver he performed perfectly.

This was really a good choice of skill. I should by some more fighting methods so that I can absorb them into my fighting style. I can get rid of the movements that don’t work for me and incorporate the ones that do. With this I can also learn various weapons that will be better suited for different situations. With this skill I can learn any weapons from axes to polearms. This skill is like a cheat code for fighting.

After his enlightening experience with his new adoptive muscle memory, Alex sat down and began his meditation. During the meditation, he worked on moving ki into his center and then pushing it around his body. Alex found that his progress was still slow but he was seeing some improvements. Sensing the energy allowed him to see the size of the energy and a general idea of the body in which it resided in. He could not distinguish between the wolves or the girls other than the fact that the girls had much more energy than the wolves.

Once he finished with the sensing portion, Alex focused on harnessing his ki into his body. He was able to take in enough to make himself three times stronger than normal without much difficulty. Controlling my ki was also much easier now that his mental ability has been upgraded. His ki now seemed to follow his every whim.

Was controlling my ki difficult because I simply lacked mental ability or am I just improving very quickly? Or is it a combination of practice and increased mental ability? Either way I will continue to practice. I think it is time for the girls, my wolves and I to finish what we started with those goblins. I also would like to know what I will get for completing my quest. No need to dwell on it. It’s time to get everyone ready.

Alex walked out of the training room and changed his clothes for battle. His chest armor piece along with my leather pants. He placed his shield and sword on his back and purchased 50 arrows from the store for 10 gold coins. Alex also purchased 4 small healing potions from the store. Once he purchased them, Alex opened his inventory and pulled out one to so that I could see what information Alice had on it.

Small Healing Potion

Heals light injuries immediately. Serious bleeding injuries or life threatening injuries will only be partially healed by this type of person.

After looking at the potion’s information he dropped his head because it was really of no use to him or his wolves. It would be useful to Eve and Bella because they didn’t have any nanites in them so he decided to give them the potions.

I only have 4 open spaces to hold things but I knew that killing those goblins, I will get a lot of loot.

What can I do to get some more spaces in my inventory? Is there something in the store that I can use to increase my inventory?

“Alice, is there anything I can use to increase my inventory?”

“Yes, you can buy bags that store things like your inventory. Then you can put things in the bags and then put the bags in your inventory.”

“That sound great! How much are the bags”

Small Bag

Can store items in 3 slots. Each slot can hold up to 10 items.

Cost: 100 coins

Medium Bag

Can store items in 6 slots. Each slot can hold up to 15 items

Cost: 1000 coins

Large Bag

Can store items in 10 slots. Each slot can hold up to 25 items

Cost 3000 coins

Well that is great but currently I think I can only afford 2 small bags so I guess that do me some just for right now. I’ll get some more later.

I purchased the bag and then it appeared in my inventory.

Wooden Bow

70 iron tipped wood arrows

Skinning knife

8 water skins [filled]

Small bag [3 empty slots]

Small bag [3 empty slots]

Coins: 70

Well I have 6 empty slots that can fit 10 items each. Hopefully, those goblins that we kill only have a few types of items that I can stack into my inventory. Now time to go get the girls and the wolves.

“Boris and Accalia, we are going to finish what we started the other day with the goblins. I plan to kill them all and free the humans that are being held prisoner there.”

“Spartan, the goblins are weak. We can kill them easily. I do worry about the larger one that let out the roar that made me slow last time we fought”, said Boris.

“Yes, I am a bit worried about that as well. We should be ok as long as we deal with the small ones first. If we do Eve and Alice will back us up by giving us time to get over the slowing effect.”

“We are with you Spartan!”, said Accalia as she began howling loudly.

Alex walked into the main room where the two girls were already finished eating. There was a plate of food that had sliced cucumbers, rabbit meat, and tomatoes.

“Is that for me?”, I asked.

“Of course it is. We ate already”, said Bella.

“Ok thank you.”

“Are you feeling ok? I mean since I have known you, you have always been up very early in the morning and now you are sleeping in every day”, said Eve.

“I’m fine. My training takes a lot out of me and requires me to get more rest so my body can heal itself.”

“That makes sense. So what’s the plan for today?”, asked Bella.

“I plan on returning to the goblin cave to finish what we started. I want you two to come with me.”

“I am ready. With Capone’s new strength and size he will be a bigger factor. In the last fight I leveled up to level 10 and also gained a class called, Beast Master, which allows me to gain a percentage of the stats possessed by one of my pets.”

“That seems great! What about you Eve?”

“Yes I got to level 10 as well and I gained the class mage. It gave me a boost to my mental ability and an increase to my mana manipulation ability. Those two things together also nearly doubled my amount of mana so now I can use my spells for a longer time. Also during my training I was able to create two more spells. One is a light-based healing spell and a water-based spell I call I shards.”

“Well we managed to kill 65 goblins last time. Now we are stronger than before and there should be less of them. We should have no problem taking on the rest of them except for the leader. Our first goal is to take care of all of the small ones. Then we take the big one down as a group. NO ONCE FACES IT ALONE!”

“We understand. Geez, you don’t have to get some upset about it”, said Bella as she flipped her blonde hair back.

Alex began eating his food and between mouthfuls of the delicious food he said, “Meet me outside when you are ready.”

Both ladies left the room as he continued scarfing down his food. When he finished Alex picked up a couple pieces of meat and carried it out to the wolves. Once they saw him with the large pieces of meat they jumped up and began wagging their tails. Alex tossed the large pieces of meat out to them and they tore the meat apart and devoured it. Alex sat down against the brick wall of his home. When the wolves finished their meal they came over and laid their heads on his lap. He began petting both of them and scratching behind their ears causing them to wag their tails incessantly. Their moment of bliss was interrupted when the 2 women and the large black snake came out of the house.

“We are ready!”, said Eve.

Alex noticed Bella now carried two shortswords instead of the ax and spear.

“That’s new”, he said.

“Yeah well while you were sleep, Capone and I did some hunting and earned some coins”, Bella answered.

“That’s good I can’t wait to see what you do with it”, he said.

She smiled and said, “There are plenty of things I bet you can’t wait to see me do.”

Alex laughed and waved the two of them to follow behind me. They made great time through the forest past the waterfall and finally to the goblin cave. Once we found our destination we set out to finish the job we started.

This time Alex started firing arrows at the guards out front of the cave. Both arrows hit their mark right in between the guards’ eyes. They both fell dead. His wolves, Bella, Capone, and Alex rushed towards the cave entrance. Once the group reached the entrance, he began pounding on his shield to get the attention of the goblins inside the cave. He wanted to draw them out so he didn’t lose his advantage of fighting at the mouth of the cave.

“Come on out your little green freaks!”, I yelled in the goblin language.

A few moments later he heard the yelling and screaming from their pint-sized foes. The plan began just as it did before. The wolves and Alex held the goblins in place at the mouth of the cave creating a a choke point. Meanwhile Bella and Capone attacked from the sides as Eve backed the group up by periodically using her spells to decimate their enemies. This time around it was barely a fight. It was more like a mass slaughter as the strengthened group terminated wave after wave of goblins with relative ease. When Alex saw that the goblins no longer had multiple waves coming, he heard that guttural roar that caused his body to slow down last time.

“Spartan, my body is slowing down”, said Accalia.

“Mine too”, added Boris.

“Something is wrong. I feel slow and heavy”, said Bella.

“Eve, use your earth spike and stop them so that we can recover from that roar”, Alex screamed!

Alex felt the ground in front of him rumble and then multiple spikes began erupting at random from the ground. The sharpened earth spears skewered the incoming goblins. They hollered and screamed in pain as the spikes made of earth pierced them threw their legs, torsos, and in a couple of cases straight through their skulls. The goblin's advance was blunted for a moment. Alex breathed a sigh of relief as their enemies stopped moving closer. Gradually, Alex felt his body return to normal and he prepared to fend off the last of the remaining goblins. When his body fully recovered Alex caught the eye of the leader.

The uninjured goblins rushed to their deaths by metal, poison, or teeth. Once there were no more cannon fodder goblins Alex and his group retreated slightly and allowed the leader to exit from the cave. Since it was only one goblin, the plan was to flank it allowing them to use their greater numbers as an advantage. The goblin leader walked out with his chest heaving showing off his large muscles. The leader was about the same height as Alex but its musculature made the man-sized goblin appear much larger. The leader's greenish-blue skin had veins pulsating on his right forearm as he squeezed his hammer. His chainmail armor looked strong enough to resist the group's weapons.

This bastard is going to be tough. We are only really going to be able to hurt him in his limbs or in the head.

Alex waved to everyone to circle up. They did as instructed and Eve remained in rear.

“Eve, continue attacking with your spells. Make sure if anyone gets injured you heal them. Everyone else, I’ll take the lead and you guys back me up.”

“Got it.”

“Puny humans kill my group?! I will grind you bones into dust and then I will use your women to rebuild my colony!”, said the goblin leader in the goblin language.

“Do I even want to know what he said”, asked Bella?

“Basically he said he’s going to kill me and then fuck you and Eve until you are pregnant”, Alex said.

Both Eve and Bella acted like they were throwing up in the back of their mouths. Alex looked closely as the larger goblin began walking out of the cave into the sunlight in hopes that he could learn something about it.

Race: Hobgoblin Tier II

Level: 15

Class: Warrior

Physique: 15

Mental Ability: 5

Physical coordination: 6

Reaction Speed: 7

Speed: 5

He's a hobgoblin. That makes sense why he is so much taller. He’s big and strong but he’s pretty slow and not very bright. I can’t stand in front of him and take his attacks he is way too strong. I guess the best method will be a battle of attrition. I need to allow my team to attack him on his flanks and in his blind spots while I occupy his attention. Alright, time to put my training to use.

“Here I come! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH”, Alex screamed as he started running towards the hobgoblin.

Alex raised his sword ready to strike as his body was hidden behind his shield. It began swinging its massive hammer over its head. It threw the first blow, swinging its hammer horizontally towards the position Alex was about to be in. His enhanced agility came into play right away as he was able to jump over it using a front flip and land behind the hobgolin. When Alex landed behind it, he slashed his sword into its leg causing it to squirt out blood then smashed into it with his shield. As soon as the hobgoblin turned around to face Alex, the wolves were already attacking its legs. Their massive jaws bit into the hobgoblin's muscular calves causing blood to flow. Alex smiled a bit until he saw the left hand of the hobgoblin grab Boris by his neck and smash him down into Accalia.

“NOOOOO!”, Alex screamed.

The wolves fell to the ground whimpering and whining.

“Are you two ok?”

“I am hurt badly but I may still be able to fight”, said Boris weakly.

“I will fight on too”, said Accalia.

Alex saw the hobgoblin stumble before it yelled out in an angry rage. The it began swinging its hammer down toward the wolves. As Alex saw what was about to happen, he immediately infused his ki into his body and rushed to his companions. As the hammer came down Alex raised his shield to block it. The hammer came down and destroyed his shield and the hammer continued down hitting his arm. Alex felt the hammer make contact with his forearm. Instantly, the bones in my forearm broke into a compound fracture where both bones protruded through his skin. The hobgoblin looked confused for a moment as it must not have seen anything take one of its attacks before.

In its moment of confusion, Alex noticed a white hue surrounding Bella as she began striking the hobgoblin with her swords one after the other. Her body was moving faster than he had ever seen her move. In the midst of her assault, the hobgoblin was helpless and Alex saw a dark line move towards the hobgoblin's leg. Like a dark lightning bolt, Capone struck the hobgoblin once in each leg. The hobgoblin's eyes bulged out of his head as it screamed in pain. It started to swing its hammer again but as it moved a frigid wind blew into the cave opening and numerous shards of iced pierced into its body. Even more blood began to pour out from all over its arms and legs but the chainmail prevented any life-threatening injuries.

The hobgoblin was in bad shape but so were the wolves and Alex. They had to end this fight quickly or they will all die. In a fit of rage, the hobgoblin began swinging his hammer around. Each time Alex dodged it, he felt like his life was flashing before my eyes. Bella stepped in and dodged one attack and then she countered with two slashes of her swords. Both attacks landed on the hobgoblin's arms but they barely penetrated into its tough skin.

It must have reinforced skin like mine!

After her attack, Bella tried to jump back but the hobgoblin struck her with a backhand to the chest knocking her into the wall of the cave. When she hit the wall of the cave her body broke the rock making her sink into the wall. She screamed wildly in pain as blood flew out of her mouth. It looked like several of her bones had been broken.

She’s finished and the wolves are not going to be much help. I have to distract and hopefully, Capone’s poison begins to work on his body.

“Weak humans, all of your puny attacks barely did any damage to me! Your pets and your woman can’t fight anymore and the one using magic will be next as soon as I finish with you. And human I’m going to have fun making children with both of them”, the hobgoblin said as he licked the blood from his lips.

“No! No! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I’m going to kill you where you stand”, Alex screamed.

Alex began infusing more of his ki into his body. He could feel the power moving throughout his body. Alex grimaced as he pushed the bones back into his skin so that the nanites could heal the wound. Alex saw a blue aura beginning to form around his body as he tightened his grip on his sword.

“Alice, it’s time! HYPERCOGNITION!”

Immediately, time slowed down. Alex looked at the Hobgoblin and small circles and data points began filling his vision. Poison saturation increasing 2% every 5 seconds. Enemy's weak points are neck, armpit, and groin. Attack pattern horizontal from left to right then horizontal from right to left followed by a downward smashing attack. The time between each of the attacks is 0.5 seconds. Alex took all of the information in a fraction of a second as he moved toward the monster. As soon as he stepped forward, Alex could see the change in his muscles denoting the horizontal attack. He continued rushing in as the hobgoblin began swinging its hammer. When it was less than 10cm from Alex, he ducked so that he was only 2 cm from getting hit. The hobgoblin's swing was so heavy that it was thrown off balance. Alex sliced down on its right shoulder. His blade infused with the nanites powered by his ki boosted strength cut through its arm with some resistance. The arm fell to the ground as blood sprayed toward Alex's face. The hobgobin screamed and fell to the ground as the weapon was too heavy for it wield with one arm.

“This is where you die!”, Alex screamed in the goblin language.

“No, please don’t kill me!”

“You said you were going to grind my bones to dust and rape the women with me! You think I will let you off that easy?!”

“No, I didn’t…..AHHHHHHHH”, the hobgoblin said as Alex sliced its other arm off.

The arm leaked blood out as it continued to hold on to the hammer. Alex stopped using his ki and hypercognition. He took a deep breath before the world returned to normal speed and his strength returned to normal.

“Eve, can you heal Bella? She is hurt pretty bad.”

“I got it”, Eve replied.

“I’m not going to kill you with my sword. That would be too easy. I’m not even going to let my wolves eat you alive. That would be too nice. First I’m going to let these two women remove something that you really cherish”, Alex said as he placed his sword on his loincloth.

“NO!”, it said as it began shaking and writhing.

“Yes it is happening”, Alex said with a bit of a sadistic smile on my face. "You said you were going to fuck them and impregnate them with your goblin babies. Right! DIdn't you say that monster?"

Alex looked over and saw a white light leaving Eve and moving towards Bella. The white light hit Bella's body and then enveloped her entire body. Bella fell from the wall and Eve caught her. Alex walked over to check on Bella but she had already managed to open her eyes. She was no longer in danger of dying. Alex took Eve’s place in holding Bella and gave Eve his skinning knife.

“Eve, he said he was going to rape you and force you to have his children to increase the numbers of his colony again. I say you remove that possibility. What do you think?”

“I think that was the worst thing he could say. Can you hold him still?”

“No, but the fact that Capone’s poison has already destroyed his legs he probably can’t even move them. And he can't hurt you because I removed his arms.”

With a crazy look in her eyes, Eve walked towards the downed Hobgoblin. She opened the palm of her hand and a small fireball began forming.

“You tell him what I’m about to say.”

I nodded.

“Your people raped me and my friend. You raped other humans in this cave. Now, your raping, enslavement, and killing will end. Right here and right now.”

Alex repeated her words to the hobgoblin whose eyes got as big as saucers. She moved towards his loincloth and ripped it off. Its large member was there and she looked at it then the fireball and stopped when Bella called her name.

“I’ve got a better idea”, Bella said as Eve nodded.

Bella gingerly walked over to the hobgoblin with her swords in her hands. The hobgoblin was screaming in terror as she walked over. She kneeled down in front of its member and grabbed it with one hand and began using a slow sawing motion with the other. It howled in pain as she slowly and methodically turned the monster into a eunuch. Blood poured from the wound but she was not done yet. Bella took it and shoved it in its mouth forcing it down its throat and making it choke. It moved from side to side trying to move but Capone came over and coiled around its neck cutting off its air supply. To Alex the next moment felt like a lifetime as he saw this woman take out a mountain of pain on the thing that she felt had caused it. Finally, the hobgoblin's body stopped moving to show that it died. With its death, Alex knew they were safe at least for the moment so he checked his notifications.

Congratulations you are now level 12. You have 1 point to allocate to your mental or physical stats

Congratulations you are now level 13. You have 1 point to allocate to your mental or physical stats

Your wolf pet Boris has increased to level 11

Your wolf pet Accalia has increased to level 11

Hmmm… I didn’t get a notification about finishing my quest so there must be more goblins in this place. I guess I’ll have to go through and kill the rest. I need to loot all the corpses and make sure I find a new shield. I also want that chainmail the leader was using. I’ll probably take that hammer as well. After seeing him fight with it I know I have mastered the movements for the fighting style. I also need to get two shortswords since I should be able to emulate Bella’s dual wielding sword style. I also need to collect the coins from the goblins.

“You two ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine and my magic is slowly healing Bella’s wounds. I can’t heal her completely but she should be able to walk on her own.”

“Alright, I’ll do the looting this time.”

“Ok”, the two girls said.

Alex walked through all the goblins grabbing swords, shields, axes, clubs, and spears adding each to his inventory. He had enough equipment to arm a small group of humans and make some money off of what was left. It was time to finish his quest and go into the cave. Alex closed his eyes and began trying to sense what was left within the cave. First, he sensed the two wolves, Bella, Eve, and Capone. Eve had considerably less mana than before. She must have used a lot of mana healing Bella and fighting. Bella’s was almost completely empty. I extended my sensing farther into the cave. I found about 3 dozen smaller energy signatures. Judging by the size of them only about a dozen were human and the rest were goblins.

“Alice, are the wolves in fighting condition?”

“They are at 70% currently it will take about 3 hours 38 minutes before they are at full strength.”

“What about me? How long could I keep my stealth ability up?”

“You are at 82% and your stealth ability will last for 12 minutes 45 seconds.”

“Perfect that is plenty for what I have planned.”

“Boris and Accalia, protect the women while I go inside and finish off the rest of the goblins.”

“Yes Spartan”, the wolves answered.

I fed each wolf one of the potions and then handed the other two to Eve to give to Bella. Then I turned and walked farther down into the cave.

“What are you doing”, asked Bella?

“Why are you going alone”, asked Eve?

“Don’t worry. You two just rest here. My wolves will make sure you stay safe. I’ll be back in 10 minutes or less”, Alex said as he waved goodbye. His camouflage ability engaged and the light blurred around his body making him virtually invisible.