The unlucky goblin was running inside the forest, trying to escape from someone. Goblin looked on his back and saw one of his comrades running right behind him.

Goblin screamed to warn his comrade about danger coming from behind. His comrade looked back because of his screams.

The goblin turned towards its back to see what was going to kill it. A spear tore the air into two with a whistle and pierced the goblin's chest.

The unlucky goblin who witnessed the death of his comrade seconds ago began screaming even louder and increased his speed, only to stumble on a tree rot when he tried to look at his back.

He began rolling on the ground. He stopped as he hit a tree trunk. With fear, the goblin directed his dagger towards the shadow coming from his back. He tried to fend off the shadow by swinging his blade around.

The last thing the unlucky goblin sawed was a blade piercing through the dark and piercing his throat.

*****

It has been a week since I fought with the draugrs, and these annoying fuckers, the goblins, began scouting around my cave. They are not much of a threat alone, but their number is slowly increasing, so I started hunting them.

First, I was searching for the lone goblins in the daytime. Later I learned they had worse eyesight than me in the dark, and they wander with smaller groups at night. So, I changed my hunting time.

I am ambushing them on their scouting routes, killing them one by one. I feel like a billionaire furry with a bat suit. Without expensive gadgets, of course, I have what I loot, which is not good.

So, I began crafting things, mainly spears. I am using the daggers carried by goblins for the spear tip and long branches for the handle.

Sadly, I can't say my makeshift spears have good quality. Still, with some balancing, they are deadly against goblins at four to six meters.

Not only that, but I also began building some primitive booby traps. I designed a spring-powered spear trap that works when goblins stumble on the string I placed on the path. It releases the spears connected on a bentwood piece, and with the energy coming from the release, it manages to kill or badly injures the goblins.

The forest is slowly turning into my playground, but I must be careful. From the mouth of the Voice:

"Alert! Stronger creatures began to consider you as a threat because of your actions, be prepared for attacks." That means something more powerful is probably on the way to kill me.

Lets, pass the things that wanted to kill me and come back to cooking. I am slowly increasing my cooking skills as I managed to get my hands on new materials.

Four days ago, I saw a band of goblins carrying something with them. I ambushed and killed them to found that they were transporting a sack of flour. I don't know where they stole it from but, now I can make bread. It isn't fluffy or has good flavors, but now I am not stuck on wild vegetables and meat.

With that, I made myself a primitive sandwich by slowly cooking game meat with garlic, herbs, and onions, then adding ingredients into bread.

It tastes almost the same as I added nothing extra except the bread but still has a weird feeling that I am happy to enjoy from time to time.

Back to my current situation, I am currently hunting a small pack of goblins. I killed one of them at the start of the ambush. One of them died to my booby trap. I killed one with my makeshift spear and the other with my short sword. Now, only three of them are remaining, and I am directing them into another trap, just like a dog herding a sheep herd.

"One more turn and two of you are dead." I threw another spear after them to scare goblins. One of them screamed and jumped to the side, changing his path to the right causing the other two to follow him.

After seconds more of running, one of them triggered the trap, and the line of wooden spears stabbed the goblins with a blink of an eye.

I killed the goblins with my sword, so they don't suffer more before death, but I must collect the loot, reset the traps and move to my cave before more goblins come for an inspection.

******

Back at my cave, I dropped the weapons I looted today to their corner and money I got to another corner. I am getting richer with every hunt. I currently have ten silver and one hundred and fifty copper coins. I don't know if it's good for weeks of hunting, but I am glad I have money.

I lit the campfire, began heating some food, and threw myself into a softish spot on the cave for sleep. I am using my wolf pelt pack as a pillow. It isn't good as a regular pillow, but it is the softest thing I got.

After my food is ready, I finished it and prepared for sleeping. A new day is waiting for me.

******

Good morning. It's time for the morning routine. For breakfast, let's eat some bread, nuts, berries, and herbal tea.

After the meal, it is time for part two of my morning routine. Taking a walk around my cave, checking the traps, and returning to my cave.

"The trap is triggered, but I didn't found any dead bodies." I suppose goblins began learning.

The snow is covering the footsteps, so there are no signs of where the thing disarmed my traps. I should be more careful. I must remember the Voice's warning. "Stronger monsters will see you as a threat." Or it was something like that.

I checked two more traps before making my way back to my cave. Someone disarmed both of the traps as well. If a creature is smart enough to disarm a booby trap, can I assume it is also clever enough to ambush me?

******

"So, you thought you were smart enough to ambush me." I looked at the footprint left I found near my cave. It was the footsteps of a goblin, but bigger.

"I will build new traps near my territory, so you can keep your game of messing with me until you fall right into my hands." I began moving towards the cave.

Giving some information about the position of my shelter might be helpful. The cave's entrance is on the ground level. Cave itself is inside a hill, and trees cover the surrounding area.

It is both hidden well and placed in a location where I can easily defend. That makes this cave the perfect shelter for me until I find an actual home.

But this new threat is scaring me. I cannot protect myself all day. My body needs to rest from time to time. Something lurking in the shadows, and waiting for the perfect opportunity to kill me, makes everything more complicated.