Chapter 4. Armed* I woke up early, not that I could sleep in this situation. Instead, what I did throughout the night was use [Meditation] and the skill had gained many levels. [Meditation gained a level x4] [Level up] The skill had gained 4 levels, while I could not see any changes in the skill nor notice any increase in the recovery speed, there had to be some benefit in the long run. That's how skills worked, in games at the least. It was a surprise seeing that I could gain class level-ups by leveling up skills, but the skills had to stop at one point, and killing stronger enemies would become the main source. I looked around the lake and cleared up the surroundings monster and marked trees so that I could find my way back without getting lost. Some discoveries were made during this small 'expedition' of mine. First, I was trapped in a dome. I could see what was beyond the dome but couldn't pass through it. Second, [Observe] was becoming a very useful skill. Using it on fruits, mushrooms or leaves would tell me if they were edible or not. It did not work every time, some times there would be nothing. Third, I gained a few levels and now my stats were like this. Strength : 11 Agility : 11 Endurance : 15 Vitality : 15 Dexterity : 10 Intelligence : 10 Wisdom : 10 Perception : 15 From what I understood up till this moment vitality had an effect on how fast I could recover, that included how fast I healed and how fast I could recover my stamina. Vitality, I think also made my body tougher and endurance affected my stamina, for how long I could run, and fight without getting tired. Even running around for an hour non-stop only made my breathing a little heavier. The stats were all interconnected in some way. Endurance helped me fight longer and vitality healed my wounds and recovered my stamina which was lost while fighting at a faster speed. I had slowly started to move inwards, towards the center of the dome. Killed a few goblins but did not venture in too deep as it was getting dark and I had no source of light except the moon above me. I reached the pond and saw three goblins. I rushed towards the goblin nearest to me and cut his head off. I kicked the now headless goblin towards the one behind it and ran past it reaching the third monster and plunging the sword into its chest. After fighting them for so long I knew they were almost similar to humans. A sword down its heart will always kill it. The remaining goblin left wasn't any trouble either. I didn't get stronger than yesterday but got used to fighting, my strength had not increased by a single digit. The need to stay calm and not let your fears get to you might be the most important. Getting scared of the goblin's claw and not hitting them in fear of being hit in return is not good. But not being scared and being stupid enough outright ignore them is also not good. The next day I made some actual progress. I found goblin, armed goblins. Not just one but three of them. One with a big wooden plank mostly used as a shield, one with a bow, and, the last one with an axe. It was too small to call it an axe, a hatchet would be more fitting. I checked the notifications and was surprised to see that I had reached level 10. Just farm normal goblins and reach fifteen might be the most logical decision but honestly, the regular goblins were starting to get boring. I could probably fight five to six of them and come out without a scratch. I had added two points to agility last night, but my speed did not increase. What increased was my reaction time, I was more 'reactive' to my surroundings. Responsive might be the right word. Dodging claws was easy as the goblins had to come really close to inflict an injury but adding a weapon to the equation changed a lot of things. That was one of the main reasons why I was winning and killing all those unarmed goblins. Two went to agility bring it to fifteen and three went to dexterity because from what I understood from game terminology dexterity is usually referred to as handling things. Meaning how fluid your hands are in working or completing complicated tasks. Here I thought it would increase my ability to handle a weapon and I was glad to find out that was what dexterity. The weapons fit a little more comfortably in my hands and I felt at ease handling them. The remaining five points were left alone to use immediately as per my requirements in between a fight. The armed goblins didn't look much different from regular ones leaving out the fact that they were armed. Adding to strength might not be useful I had enough to slice through the necks of goblins and intelligence and wisdom were mostly related to mana. Perception was something that eluded me, I thought it was related to how I perceived things and how my body reacted to things but the reacting thing was covered by agility. I took a deep breath and readied myself. Flanking them was the safest option for the first fight with an archer goblin present, I did not want to deal with an arrow right in my face or behind my back as I was about to cut a goblin down. There was not much cover from where they were stationed but I tried to reduce as much distance as could before rushing toward them. Their reaction was immediate as the shield-wielding goblin moved forward and the archer moved back. I threw the swords toward the archer realizing I won't be able to hit if this continues. Fortunately, the sword cut its leg leaving a big deep gash, and fell down, the goblin screeched but did not stop moving back and receded into the forest. I drew the other sword and dodged the shield that did not stop in front of me ready to knock my skull out. It was too late to find the archer and the shield goblin would be the hardest to kill if it kept bringing its shield up. So I turned my eyes towards the hatchet-wielding goblin. It started to run towards me as I ran towards me, our weapons clashed at it stopped at a stalemate. The goblin was stronger than others I had fought, its strength nearly equaling mine. I put two of the remaining five points in the strength and this time the effect was immediate. My sword went forward and the goblin bent its leg that's when I felt something coming. I slid the sword down bringing both of the weapons to the ground and ducked hard. Hearing a screech I look up only to see an arrow right in the goblin's neck. It released the axe and fell back holding the arrow. I picked up the sword and plunged it down in the goblin's heart after which I picked up the hatchet and ran. One of my swords was down near a tree from the archer goblin ran and one was inside the axe goblin, The only other weapon nearby was the hatchet. I might have been lucky 'feeling' that I felt just before the arrow hit me but it might not happen a second time. I ran and ran and ran until I reached the pond. If I raced back directly to the tree and the archer goblin followed me it would expose my hideout which I doubted. The goblin had a deep gash on its leg but being a little cautious never ended badly. I panted after collapsing near the pond and I laughed. "It was fun," was the only thing that left my mouth. The arrow that almost killed me and if the axe that I brought down with my sword messed up even a little bit, the one that was dead might not be the goblin but me. Nothing of the above was in my mind, I only kept thinking about how I could win the next time I fought them. I finally figured out how perception worked, Perception showed my spatial awareness and my other five senses. I checked the notification about the kill and laughed once more. [Killed a Warrior Goblin. Experience gained] [Bonus experience for killing an entity above your tier] [Bonus experience for being in a Trial Tower] [Level up]