Handing in the quest the following morning had been an, educational, experience. As it turned out, he got nothing for killing the extra goblins, other than the experience of course. His quest was to kill 15, so he was paid 75 coppers. It was when the receptionist had tried to cheer him up that Tyler’s bad mood had really settled however.

“I’m sorry can you say that again?’

The receptionist; the same young lady who had brought his ID to the meeting the day before smiled.“If you take the corpses to one of the dissector merchants you can make some more coin. Goblin blood is a common alchemy ingredient, used in a number of low tier poisons.”

Tyler knew this wasn’t her fault, but still“Is there a reason nobody mentioned dissectors before? If I had known that I would have collected up the bodies.”

For the first time the receptionists smile slipped “sorry sir, it should have been mentioned but when we have a new intake there’s so many of those meetings back to back, it can be hard to keep track. I can only apologise.”

Tyler sighed and shook his head, forgiving the going lady before heading back to the merchant section. After his lacklustre cooking attempts the night before he had decided to see if there were any prepared meals he could bring out with him. He knew his mother could be rolling in her grave if she saw his pathetic attempt the night before, she had tried to teach him cooking so often he had probably had as many lessons as some professional chefs. If just didn’t take, much to her annoyance. After multiple stores, he finally found someone that did ration packs. Not great but at least he could eat. He brought 20 coppers worth, shoving them all in his storage ring, thinking that would at least keep him from starving if he got stuck out somewhere for longer than a few days. He also brought a water flask for another 10 copper that was apparently magic, so that it would never run dry. That all left him with 45 coppers, and he headed straight to the same spell crafter as before, and dropped another 30 coppers on a second attack spell.

[Spell: Fire Arrow F-1 learned]

The reason he had opted for this spell was simple. Yes it was offensive, and every video game he had ever played told him that fire spells would come in handy at some point, there were bound to be plant based monsters somewhere, but more than that. It would allow him to heat water. He had tried out the bath the night before. Sure enough the water arrow spell had let him fill the tub, although it took dozens of arrows to do so, but when he got in the water was so cold he had almost jumped right back out again. This way he could heat up the water. Both spells apparently consumed 10 mana, but he had not had the slightest problem the previous night. It was clear that whatever big had caused his mana pool to be so large, it was going to be a serious advantage. The problem was the slow casting speed. He had asked the spell crafter, and apparently it was possible to learn an ability called instant cast, but it only came to those who practised their spells religiously. Like his sword mastery ability, it was something only the system could award, and it would only do so when it felt you deserved it. There was no tricking the system. Once he knew that however, Tyler was motivated. After checking there was no time limit to quests, he took the highest ranked monster quest they had, for 1000 monster kills, and headed back to the forest. He only had 6 more days, and he resolved to spend all of them hunting with his magic. He wanted that ability.

It wasn’t until the 3rd day, the 4th overall, that Tyler began to regret his ambitious target. In 3 days of solid hunting, he had killed 143 goblins. Truthfully at this point, taking him to level 6. Unsure on a better strategy, he had continued to throw his points into each category 1 at a time. At this point he was so overpowered compared to the poor level 1 goblins that he thought it should probably be considered bullying. The problem was he didn’t know what he could do about it. As long as the only monsters he found were level 1, then they would be the only monsters he killed. Spotting another group ahead, he pulled up his water and fire arrows. He had worked out he could fire both at the same time if he used each hand on a specific spell. It looked even crazier than before, and the first few dozen times he had made mistakes and ended up without either spell, but after 3 days he basically had it down for these 2 spells. He didn’t think it would be as easy to do once he had more than the 2 to choose from. When the arrows made contact with their targets, the 2 front goblins instantly died. Tyler didn’t hesitate, drawing his sword and readying himself. Once the initial confusion died out, the surviving 6 goblins shrieked with anger and charged at him. He might actually have been able to get another spell off, but he didn’t ponder it for too long. He might have gotten 2 more magic kills that way, but it would have left him more vulnerable to their charging attack. With his new enhanced abilities, Tyler found it laughably easy to dance around the goblins attacks, slicing with his sword as he went. With little to no effort, he was soon standing in a circle of goblin corpses.

[Battle Complete]

[8 x Goblin Lvl. 1 defeated]

[80xp gained]

[1370xp remaining to reach Level 7]

Wiping down his sword again before he put it away, Tyler walked around scooping up the various corpses, until he suddenly found he couldn’t take any more. 149 corpses was apparently the limit of his storage ring, leaving 2 on the ground. Tyler frowned. He didn’t like to waste them. But he wasn’t going to hand carry them either. After debating for 5 minutes, he decided to leave them. He would go back to the guild and sell what he had, restock on rations, and then ask the guild receptionist for advice on good hunting areas. 151 monsters in 3 days just wasn’t good enough, and he was going to need a serious boost in productivity if he wanted to hit his target.

As it turned out, he was paid 2 coppers a piece for the goblins. That left him feeling pretty proud until he realised he actually had no idea what a copper was actually worth. He had been given 2 silver and 98 copper for his level 1 goblin kills. Which meant he probably should expect for it to be on the low end of the financial scale. If he got that for level 1 monsters what would the payment be for something level 5, or even higher. Still he spent another 13 coppers on another 4 days rations, bland as they were, and headed to the receptionist who immediately advised him to go out the north gate towards the mountains. Apparently because the monsters there were higher ranked, starting at level 5, most people had given up on that area after the first day. That meant it had the highest number of monsters, plus being at a higher level meant he would gain more experience. He wanted to see how his strength compared against something other than goblins. With that decided, he went straight for the gate. He could see the mountains in the distance, and sure enough the area around the gate was empty. Tyler broke into a run, wanting to get to his destination quickly. He had noticed his speed was significantly increased, although he hadn’t been able to quantify it. If he had to guess the mountain range started about 2-3 miles from the town gate, and he made that in around 15 minutes, which certainly felt too fast, but didn’t stand out as absurd in his head. Now that he could punch down trees, his expectations for possible were somewhat skewed. Enjoying the fact there were no other people around, Tyler looked about the area. There were several clearly defined tracks up into the mountains, all of which looked equally worn. Eventually he took the left hand track, figuring he could always come back and try another if there was a lack of monsters. Thankfully that wasn’t the case. He was barely 5 minutes into his hike when he spotted something. For a brief moment he was disappointed, thinking he would be fighting goblins again. As soon as the monster turned its head however that worry faded and changed to concern. Whatever these things were, they looked like humanoid dragons. The one he had seen was green, hence why he had initially thought goblins, but now he looked they were a mix of green, red and blue. Standing at around 4 foot, so slightly taller than the tiny goblins, they all carried short spears, and their exposed bodies were covered in tough looking scales. The bigger worry however, was their numbers. There were easily 50 of them loitering around the path ahead. Tyler reasoned that at least the path was narrow, meaning they couldn’t surround him, but he knew this would be a tough fight. He also knew he probably wouldn’t be using his magic here. That many enemies in close quarters and he would be lucky to get off a single spell. He drew his sword, making enough noise that the monsters instantly spotted him. Unlike the goblins, they didn’t mindlessly charge. Instead they all readied their weapons and approached him cautiously, growling as they did so. When they were within 5 feet, Tyler shifted his weight forward and went on the attack. He wasn’t stupid. Even with his longer sword, the monsters spears gave them much longer reach. That meant his best advantage was to get in close and keep them on the back foot. Unlike the goblins, he struggled to easily slash through their scales, but stabbing attacks seemed to be no issue. This was good and bad, good in that he could kill them, bad because stabbing needed more space than simple swipes. Despite what TV had made him believe, swords were actually quite complicated to use. More than once he had gotten his angles wrong and rendered the weapon into nothing more than a pointy club. He didn’t know how long he danced around the monsters, but he did know he could feel the various areas were he had been hit by a spear. Strangely he knew it wasn’t a problem, almost on an instinctive level. His health regeneration meant these small wounds were healing as fast as they came, meanwhile his own attacks were at the very least crippling the monsters he hit. Despite it all, Tyler found himself laughing, and was glad there were no people around to see. If there had been, well he didn’t know if mental hospitals would be a thing in the new world but he suspected someone would be pointing them his way if there were. After what could have been hours, he honestly didn’t know, the small army of monsters was finally dead.

[Battle Complete]

[63 x Kobolds Lvl.5 defeated]

[3150xp gained]

[Level Up!][

You have reached Level. 7]

[3 Stat points awarded]

[1420xp remaining to reach Level 8]

Tyler looked around him at what could only be described as carnage. For the first time he could see damage to his armour, but the skin underneath was unblemished.

“Holy fuck”

Tyler let himself fall back to sitting, leaning back and supporting himself on the mountain wall. He still didn’t feel tired, he assumed due to his high stamina regeneration, but his mind was riding high on adrenaline and he knew he needed to take his time to come down. Quietly, he pulled out his flask has took a large drink, before opening up his stat screen and assigning the new points in his usual pattern.

Character Sheet - Tyler Allen Gender Male Race Unique* Level 7 Class Warrior Karma 0.00 Ranking F Titles Health 3250 Health Regeneration 130/s Stamina 3250 Stamina Regeneration 130/s Mana ++++ Mana Regeneration 650/s Constitution 4 Vitality 4 Strength 4 Endurance 4 Intelligence 4 Wisdom 4 Spells & Abilities Sword Mastery: F-1 ¦ Basic Water Arrow: F-1 ¦ Fire Arrow F-1 ¦