A blaring headache was the only thing that greeted me as I awoke from my slumber. Not knowing how long I had been asleep I quickly struggled to sit up and look around.

I seemed to be in the attic of one of the nearby houses. At least that was my first assumption because of the slanted ceiling above me and the collapsed side of the roof. It seems to have collapsed where the ladder originally was to get inside of the attic. Thankfully the part of the roof I was under seemed sturdy enough. At least for now anyways. My body still aches in pain but the bleeding from the stab wounds seemed to have stopped for now. Though the wounds did look like they would open quite easily.

I decided to check my status to see if any great change had occurred from the fight.

"Status"

The blue window appeared before me once more.

Name: Lykos Nyx

Race: Shadow Elf

Class: Beginner Shadow Manipulator Lv 2

STATS: (3 To Distribute)

Strength: 10

Intelligence: 10

Mana Control: 10

Dexterity: 12

Wisdom: 10

Constitution: 8

Agility: 12

Charisma: 14

Vitality: 10

I decide to place 1 into intelligence, 1 into wisdom and one in agility. I do this just by thinking. No words are required to control it, which is rather disconcerting.

My reasoning for choosing where to put the stat points is rather simple. Running faster would help me in my escape and I'm curious about the strange shadow magic I used previously. I mean it did save my life after all.

Thinking back to it, that magic I accidentally used was something akin to a warp right? If so it obviously didn't take me very far.

The house I'm located in has a window in the attic that looks into the alley of where I almost lost my life. The alley is completely empty and the sun seems to be setting, showing that a decent amount of time had passed. The setting sun casts a large number of shadows around the town, perfect for my magic.

The goblins seem to be searching the area in an attempt to find me, but since the house I was in had no way to get inside of the attic anymore, I was safe for now.

My thirst from earlier had only grown. I was left with a completely parched throat, two stab wounds and a manageable level of hunger. This was not a very fruitful venture.

I search the attic to try and find something to assist in my escape. All that I can find are a dresser, a person sized mirror, an old looking clock on the wall that somehow still works, and a small box containing some unidentifiable dried meat. I decide to not eat it for now as that would only increase my thirst.

Oh I almost forgot about my new body! Time to check it out.

I look at the mirror closely observing my new features. Like I earlier observed I have messy black hair that goes to the back of my neck. The tips of my hair have a slightly red tint. My bangs are almost to my eyes, but not quite. I have pale skin and pointed ears. My face is slightly effeminate giving off a “pretty boy” feel to it. My eyes are the most startling feature of my new body, they’re rather large and are a vivid red color. My body is rather small but not abnormally so. My apparent age seems to be somewhere around my early teens.

What the hell happened to me? I mean I don’t particularly mind the pretty face... but seriously… I don’t wanna be short….. Maybe my body is just younger than my previous one or something… I’ll just tell myself that I’m not fully grown yet…. Yah it’s gotta be that! I mean elves do age slowly, right? RIGHT?!

Coming to terms with my new appearance, I realize I need to get out of this situation somehow.

Should I try and escape now or wait to find out if they have a pattern or patrol path or something… I think I’ll wait one day to see if they have any apparent patrol routes.

Living up to my statement, I did my best to observe their patrol routes from the one window I had available. They seemed to have a patrol come by this area hourly, likely to either search for me or to protect themselves. Which one it was, I wasn’t quite sure. Besides that they seem to have some goblins set up in certain house’s second floor to act as spotters. They were equipped with some sort of horn thing carved from wood and sometimes a weapon. They shifted positions of the spotters around every four hours.

The time of the shift of the spotters was around the same time when the patrol came by so there was little room for me to attempt my escape.

I thought about attempting the strange “warp” thing with shadows again but decided against it as I may accidentally warp somewhere I didn’t mean to. I also might pass out again which contrary to how often it happens, I do not enjoy. Conveniently though the mana I used for the warp was completely recovered.

After a day of making observations and a quick nap, I was ready for my escape attempt.

I waited for the spotters to switch and for the patrol to pass by. I quickly opened the window, and slipped out, I hang onto the edge of the windowsill, and drop down as quietly as I can. I land on the ground crouching and rolling to absorb the impact. It seems I wasn’t noticed yet.

Suddenly from where the town square was I hear a loud clamor and the sound of horns going off, they all seemed to be originating from that area. The goblins all start congregating towards the town square. Curious, I follow. I do my best to be careful as to not give myself away. Because it’s sunset I stick to the shadows and darken the around me if a goblin gets too close. I currently can’t hold it for longer than a minute before I start to grow tired. I could probably control the shadows for two minutes but I might pass out again if I do that, so I avoid overusing it. I arrive at the edge of the town square once more.

The sight I see this time is actually kind of hopeful. What seems to be a “party” of adventurers has appeared and are currently engaged with the goblins. They’re striking the goblins down left and right, though not without sustaining injuries of their own. When one of them are injured the rest of them defend the injured while someone who appears to be the healer uses magic to close any wounds and assist them.

The largest issue though seems to be how fast the healer is tiring. The more they heal the more tired they seem. Their mana doesn’t seem to be in a good state and the amount of injuries sustained isn’t dropping.

The party consists of a noble looking women with blonde hair, wielding a large sword in one hand and a fairly large shield in the other, a quick, fishy looking man wielding a dagger and throwing what seems to be some kind of acid in a bottle, a hooded man in a robe casting some kind of fire attack magic and the healer who was kind looking girl with what seems to be bunny ears.

Should I help them? I mean... I don’t know how much of a help I could be… The goblin numbers don’t seem to be dwindling by much either.. I want to help this time though, I still feel kind of guilty about the other dude…

Deciding to do my best to help even if I couldn’t do much, I snuck behind the goblins. Without a weapon I’m basically completely useless so I decide to acquire one first. I search around for any sort of weapon lying around. I spot my sword lying next to something akin to a throne. I assume the throne was built for the goblin boss. It seems the goblin boss wasn’t here yet for whatever reason as his sword wasn’t there and there was nobody around the throne. I quickly swipe my sword before returning to the shadows.

Shortly after, I arrive back to where the party was. I join the fray by slipping through the shadows to arrive to where the conflict was taking place. I step into the adventurer’s lines unnoticed. To prevent myself from getting labeled an enemy I quickly explain myself.

“I’m here, have no idea what’s going on, and was assaulted by the goblins. So I’m on your side.”

The noble woman who seems to be the leader just nods slightly, focusing almost completely on the combat. I stand besides the women and the shifty man slashing towards a goblin charging towards me. My sword slices into its shoulder causing it to let out a shriek of pain. It slashes its rusted shortsword towards me in retaliation. I jerk my sword free and stumble back in attempt to dodge. The slash however still opens a shallow cut on my chest.

I grit my teeth and withstand the pain. I slash my sword out once more, this time decapitating the goblin I previously attacked. Another goblin just takes its place. The battle continues this way for a while as I slowly sustain more and more minor injuries and kill more goblins. Although i kill the least goblins unless you include the healer.

“Why don’t we retreat for our safety?” I suggest hoping that they’ll agree.

The noble-looking women answers.

“We’re here for our friends. They were captured by the goblins.”

“Are they by chance a woman with bark skin and a human man?”

I feel slightly nauseous as I realize what likely happened.

“Exactly… How do you know that?”

A feeling of guilt flows through me before quickly disappearing.

I could have done something… I don’t regret my actions though. I shouldn’t put someone else's life who I never met before my own.

“They were forced to fight each other, the man’s dead and I assume the woman is too, though I’m not sure about her.” I answer as levelly as I can manage.

She grits her teeth tears slightly forming at the corners of her eyes.

“Fine… We retreat for now…”

She glances at her comrades before continuing

“My party and I will avenge them later, and we’ll also see if our other party member is still alive…”

We slowly retreat while fending off the following goblins. Eventually we arrive at the exit of the town but standing there blocking our way is the goblin boss. Standing at my height wielding his claymore. He raises his weapon standing ominously before us.

“Shorty, you take care of it, we’ll fend off the goblins so we don’t get overrun.” the shifty man instructs me.

“Eh? I don’t think I can fight that thing alone…”

“Well if you don’t, we’ll get overrun by all these green bastards… We all have our hands full here and you’re the only one we can let and still maintain our defenses.”

I glare at him slightly but have to admit I’m doing significantly less than the rest of the party.

“Fine, I’ll do my best.”

I ready my sword and charge towards my enemy.

My first slash is easily deflected by his sword. He kicks me backwards with his foot before slashing towards my head in an attempt to decapitate me. I swiftly duck under the slash before charging forward with a stab towards his stomach. He dodges to the right of my stab, so I only graze him slightly. He slashes downwards towards my open back to end me.

Let’s see how well this works.

I direct almost all of my remaining mana towards the shadow at my feet using all of my willpower to appear behind the goblin boss. It succeeds as I sink into the shadow.

It’s a rather strange experience if you’re conscious during the process. It feels as if I sink into a world of nothingness before rising back up from it. It’s almost like going into a dark pool of nothingness before breaching the surface.

I rise from the goblin’s own shadow slashing quickly with my sword to decapitate him. My sword slides through his neck with difficulty but it manages to succeed. I drop to one knee from the strain on my mana. I drop my own sword and grab the goblin boss’ claymore as it seems higher quality.

A feeling of exhaustion overtakes me as I find myself falling over. The ground rushes towards me as my legs collapse.

My head hurts, my body hurts, everything hurts…. Shit if I die this way that would be really embarrassing…

Unable to move my body I feel myself getting picked up. I’m flung over someone’s shoulder as we retreat. It seems to be the noble woman’s shoulder as she was the only one with metal armor and I can feel her metal shoulder pad digging uncomfortably into my wounds. It’s better than being dead though.

After a while of this rough carrying I’m set down.

“Thanks for carrying me…”

“It was repayment for your help. Think nothing of it.” I hear her coldly answer.

Seems like I made it out alive, that’s a relief. I’m not going into another goblin camp ever again, unless I somehow get strong enough to beat one hundred of them easily…

The healer girl approaches me while I contemplated and heals me. I swiftly thank her for the help. After she was done she quietly left, tears in the corner of her eyes.

I guess she’s grieving… I hope stuff like this isn’t an everyday occurance in this world but I can’t deny the possibility.

I glance over to the rest of the party, and they seem to be silently making camp. None of them dare to break the silence. The shifty man throws me a bedroll as it’s already getting quite late and tells me

“Don’t worry about watch or anything, we got that covered, you rest… You did well for a beginner, night.”

“Thanks, and goodnight.”

I unroll the bedroll i just obtained and curl up inside. Shortly after I fall asleep while watching the flickering fire that was made.