Chapter 18. Crazy "This is fucking crazy," I said watching a large pack of chief roaming in groups of threes. A warrior, an archer, and a tank. Same as the E-grade ones. The chief I fought was probably the evolved form of the warrior goblin and now there was an upgraded version for every one of them. I could kill the chief I previously fought in minutes, probably seconds due to my stat increase and weapon upgrade but the quest did say that they were stronger and I was worried because I knew the power spike you got after every class up. And every level up after a class upgrade a lot of stats. I used to get two points every level up to level fifteen, now it was five points and I got them for twenty levels having no idea when was the next class up and what was the bonus the next time I leveled up. When I fought the chief last time I was at my highest and it was probably recently evolved too because the ones I would be facing now were stronger according to the quest at least. The Record never put up impossible challenges from what I understood. If you give it your all, push yourself to your limit you will be able to finish the quest. During my time on the trail floor, killing the goblin was easy because it was physically weaker than me but I could've still died. I just got lucky even though I don't like to believe or rely on luck, I got lucky that time. Instead of cutting into my torso had the claw slightly, even slightly connected to my neck, or slashed against my arm enough to disable me, I would be dead by now, rotting somewhere in the tower. This should probably be something similar to my previous experience, starting with something near my level and slowly moving up the power scale as I moved towards the center of the forest. And once again I was wrong, so fucking wrong. "What the hell is up with this crazy, fucking shit of a forest!" A few minutes ago I was being 'sneaky' around a goblin squad, trying to observe them, thinking how I would be able to kill them as fast as possible and move on to another group to provide them with the same treatment. It did not even take a full minute for the archer to notice me and fire a bolt right in front of me. I saw it taking a glance while the other two started laughing their asses off. I ran at them with, my face full of rage but I had not lost it nor did I do it in fear. So what if my ambush had failed once, it had happened so many times previously that I was used to it. I acted like I was out for blood, mindlessly charging to my certain death. The tank or the shield goblin got up slowly, not caring to pick up its shield, and slowly walked towards me. He could only see one half of bloodthirster, the other hidden from his sight, my body blocking the vision to the axe behind my back. A little trick I learned on one of my quests, apparently not enough to grant me a skill but useful in certain situations. He was careless not preparing enough to fight me. The distance between us kept reducing, not for a kiss but for a surprise attack that would land as I come out victorious from a fight they thought I had no chance of winning. I took a forceful step to dash in as I was about to get in range for a surprise element. The axe that was visible came down slowly, the goblin shifted its attention to the one above as the hidden weapon came out to take its neck. But the blood never spilled as I expected it would. The goblin met my eyes with a grin on its and a silvery glow around its neck, the axe not penetrating even a millimeter into his skin. My perception kicked in last second as I bent back as my life depended on it, it actually did as I dodged a claw swipe. I could see the claws as they passed, my eyes focusing on every detail of those claws. Black, sharp, laced in a liquid probably poison. A drop landed on my cheek, it burned with a sizzle enough for my eyes to flinch for a second. I fucked up, got overconfident. I did not know when, but at some point in time, I started to consider this a game. The thought of fighting back flew out of my mind as I turned around and ran for my life. Chasing behind me was one goblin, one shield goblin. The skill that the goblin used was [Harden], probably or something similar. The skill was useful, it saved the goblin from certain death but it was probably used to such tactics. The goblin did not even flinch when that attack happened and everything was perfect up to that moment until the skill popped out. It was still chasing me even though we had left the other two behind far behind unless they too were chasing but it was hard to believe. If they thought I was worth killing I wouldn't be out here running, not without using sprint at least. I had a chance at killing the goblin now. It was unarmed, underestimating me a little thinking like I was some fun toy, and I had an active skill that I had not tried out yet. Cleave. If it worked in a similar fashion to how sprint worked, there might be a scenario where I was able to kill the goblin. I ran around in an uneven circle for a few minutes, to see if the other goblins were chasing me and was the tank goblin really hellbent on killing me. And by the looks of it, he is. So now what I had to do was to find a spot from which I could ambush it. A tree was my best shot because they were large enough to hide both of us while we were standing shoulder to shoulder and they were easier to climb. So I ran to a tree and made a sudden dash to my right hiding behind it, climbed up, hoping a tree or two, and dropped down. The goblin saw me and chased me once again. I did this a few more times to make it think that I was trying to lose it, not that he looked so intelligent but the goblins have proved me wrong so need to take unnecessary risks. To assure that the plan did not fail like last time, I brought out my final trump card. Bloodthirster. I noticed this in one of the trials, that the more bloody my axe became the sharper it got. Like its name, it wanted blood, and giving it that, the blade got sharper. I got up a tree for the last time and held my breath as bloodthirster sliced into my chest, not deep enough to harm me but enough to draw blood. It shook in delight and in disapproval as the red liquid coating it was absorbed gave the edge a red shine and haze. The goblin stood below the tree looking around trying to find me. It turned around and that was when I fell, landing right behind him. The goblin turned around as I thought of using cleave, trying to empower my axe making it strong enough to split the goblin apart in two. Blood rushed to one of my arms as the axe fell down. You could see the horror in its eyes and the smile on my face as the silver sheen around its head was cut apart by the red haze surrounding my axe. The axe did not stop at its head as it continued to split everything in its way, even the ground. Blood washed over me and Thirst as the goblin fell. "Hehe, got you." I pulled the axe out and continued forward, away from the body and towards the lake. My arm was completely numb and constantly pulsing, all I wanted was rest. [Killed a Guardian Goblin Chief. Experience gained] [Bonus experience for killing an entity one tier above you] [Bonus experience for being in a Trial Tower] [Level up] [Cleave gained a level] ----------- [Status] Name: Ray Species: ??? Bloodline: Demon of ??? General Skills: Identify lvl 10, Mantra of ??? lvl 14, Demon's martial arts lvl 13, Axe Mastery lvl 12, Dual wielding lvl 12, Mana Control lvl 1 Strength: 38 Agility: 38 Endurance: 38 Vitality: 38 Dexterity: 30 Intelligence: 15 Wisdom: 15 Perception: 43 Bonus point remaining: 5 ----------- [Primary Class: Demon Fighter] Level: 36 Skills : Active - Bloodlust lvl 1, Sprint lvl 15, Cleave lvl 2, Carnage lvl 1 Passive - Demon's Perception lvl 10, Demon's Control lvl 8, Demon's Sense lvl 1, Demon's Flexibility lvl 1 -----------