A quick look at my status revealed my laughable MP, 40/100. My HP was 30/35. I rubbed my stubble whilst formulating my plan of action. Alright, that’s not bad. I won’t use skills for now. No matter how much I thought of different stratagems, they always fell into a surprise run-and-gun tactic. There was no other way. The light was facing me, so they’d see me if I tried to sneak up. They weren’t gambling, so their minds weren’t preoccupied enough to distract them from me. Furthermore, I was injured.

My eyes sniffed around for any loose pebbles, but there was no such thing I could throw to serve as a distraction. Niran, you fucking skeleton cunt! I cursed the bastard for taking away my powers. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be in that shitty predicament, sneaking around goblin caves and hoping I could escape with my dear life. I sat down, breathed, and looked back at the boredom-stricken goblins. Come on Deidre, you can do this! Remember what Dan taught you! They have simple movements and make dumb mistakes. Focus, but not too much. Easy-peasy. You got this.

After I hyped myself up silently, I threw the dagger at one of them, and of course it was nowhere as smooth as the movies because the handle hit one of them instead of the blade. But whatever, I couldn’t afford to waste how startled they were, so I bit down on the pain and sprinted forth to them, slashing down on one and decollating him. My eyes popped open, because I wasn’t expecting my intentions to actually take form, and neither was I expecting how gruesome it would feel to see a head falling to the ground because of my actions.

The next goblin fell back on his ass and begged for his life which made things rather easy for me. I chose not to be naïve and dealt him a fast death. Who knew what he’d do when I turned my back? If they could devour their own buddies, then who the hell was I?

I smiled and had a big sigh of relief at the sight of a clear exit just waiting for me. But first, the bruised and battered pot they had at the campfire tempted me greatly. After all, I had no clue where the kind-hearted bitch called Niran sent me, and if it wasn’t close to any village then I would be forced to camp and source my own food and water. The thought sent shivers down my spine. Fuck! I was much too reliant on Synthesis. Eh, how bad could goblin meat be? They sure looked like they enjoyed it.

I left the cave and journeyed forth into a jungle like a lost child. No, I was a lost child, or man, perhaps. The sweet chatter of birds and the smell of the forest calmed me as much as it worried me. An office girl on her lonesome in the woods? It was the perfect horror movie plot. I guess I’m the closest thing to a murderer in these parts though. I wobbled the green, hairy goblin leg I cut off earlier and thought about how to prepare the meat. Hmm, delicious, scrumptious goblin meat. I inhaled, pretending to bless my olfactory senses with some luscious meat, but I could only lie to myself so much; I almost hurled. God that’s disgusting!

I did a bit of scouting, remembering bits and pieces of what Adam did. But there were so many distracting thoughts ripping my attention away from survival. I mean, yeah, I massacred a lot of demons, but I was literally about to remove the pact for them. Things were going great! I grunted as I wrapped one of the loincloths of the goblins – don’t worry, I used Clean on it – to cover my wound, after I also used Clean on the wound. Now I had an amazing 0/100 MP. Then, this fucking Bloodmoon cunt upped and ruined everything. Tina kept bombarding my mind. What did Abdiel do? If he kidnapped Tina, where would he have taken her? How do I rescue her? How do I even get there? Where in blazes was I anyway? So many questions sacked my attention from what really mattered.

Ugh, one thing at a time. First, let’s just live to see tomorrow. I stood up, smacked my cheeks with my hands to get myself in the game, then restructured my brain’s departments into one big department that focused on survival and finding a village or something.

Alright, Maslow, what do I need? Food, I glimpsed at the goblin leg and grimaced with all my mind, body, and soul, c-check, I guess. Water, I found a small stream not too far away when scouting, check. And, shelteeeeer, well… I scratched my cheek about that one. Technically, the best place I had for shelter was right back in the goblin cave. There was another cave, but by the smell of it, either a bear or wolves or something I really didn’t want to tussle with, lived there. My last option was in a somewhat opened area in the forest, which was also very close to the stream. It was perfect for camping. But I was alone and vulnerable to ambush by predators, or worse, people; I couldn’t sleep and be the watchman at the same time. I had no tent, nothing to sleep on, and basically nothing that warranted sleeping outdoors. Ugh, goblin cave it is. They already had a wooden cooking spit prepared, so that was nice, I guess.

After spending the day scouting for places I could find food, I decided to turn in because it was getting dark. And, what do you know? The goblin leg already began decaying by the smell of it. I kicked a bit of dust up and frowned my life away. My ferocious stomach was dining on itself as hunger really began to show its true colors. I made use of the dimming sunlight and picked a shitload of mangoes and some berries that I found nearby and made my peace with that for the night.

I gathered some leaves and dried branches as well to add to the firewood that the goblins had in the cave. Conflagrate, a convenient lifestyle spell that concentrated a weak and small flame, would get my fire going. It didn’t take too long for me to feel bored and eventually sleepy when all I had to keep me company were the crickets. But my wariness and paranoia fought against my natural inclination to sleep at night, so a relentless war kept me barely awake. Until of course, another natural inclination grabbed hold of me.

I, my hand rubbed my stomach, gotta poop.