With new skills (hell, even an active one), I watched as the Goblins stopped in a small clearing. Since the sea of trees made it such as I would be discovered only if I did something really stupid, I slowly closed in on them, trying to find an opportunity. From the looks of it, those baskets are filled to the brim with different types of fruits, plants and other vegetables, while one of them also has a rabbit and a couple of pigeon-like birds. It looks like these little bees have been busy last night.

Now that they rested for a couple of minutes, one of the Gatherers picks up the two small birds and the rabbit and proceeds to prepare them for being cooked. Feathers are being plucked and the fur is being skinned, while the other six of them watch while drooling.

Then, one of the Guard Goblins started yelling something, the other four Gatherers got up and left the clearing in a hurry. Following yesterday's events, the probability of them going to get firewood in order to cook the meat was above 80%. The other two stood comfortably in the clearing doing almost nothing, probably due to their jobs being - quite literally - to guard the foragers.

Suddenly the two guards started growling at one another, one holding the rabbit fur and threw it to the other, after which leaving in my direction while grinning. From the not-so-pleased expression on his ugly green mug, I reached the conclusion that he just dumped all the work on his colleague there, meaning that they can actually process the fur. Is not that hard to believe since even caveman back on Earth were able to use it as clothes, carpets or bed cover.

But more important...

"Here's my chance. I can take care of this one first, then move onto the other four Gatherers. As long as it's within five minutes of each other, I'll get the experience bonus as well. But I'd rather not risk my life for it..."

I draw the sword slowly and a sharp pain comes from my right arm. It seems that leveling up doesn't heal me like it does in games, does it. I try to lightly swing the sword, but it's no good. I wince each time the movement becomes a little complex.

That settles it! A fight is a stupidly bad idea, therefore, I must kill...no! assassinate them!

While walking from tree to tree, I ended up behind the Guard Goblin that left the clearing. He seemed to want to take a piss and was heading to a tree only a couple of meters from where I was. I switched the sword to my left hand, praying to the Reaper that I was ambidextrous and didn't know it so far, while also quickly using Identify on my target to make sure again what I was facing against.

Name

-

Name

Value

Name

Value

Job Name

Level

Progress

Race

Goblin

STR

22

Magic

0

Goblin Guard

3

90%

Sex

Male

DEX

16

Charm

0

Age

1 month

AGI

11

Luck

15

World

Anhur

END

21

HP

425/425(+1.3/sec)

INT

6

MP

10/10(+0.001/sec)

WIS

3

Skill List Name Level Proficiency Alarm ??? ???

Rally Cry ??? ??? Blessings bestowed by the world: Blessing of Experience

"...!!!"

FUCK! I almost cursed out loud. What's with that stupidly high HP!? Wasn't this supposed to be how I one shot my first monster using the new skill I gained? Why is his HP so much higher, even if his stats aren't when compared to the first Guard I killed. Not by that much at least...

Think! Think! There must be something that I can use! There must!

It had the same skills as the previous one, which meant I needed to deal with him in one go. Getting the attention of all other Goblins in the area if he uses that 'crying to mommy' skill of his would spell certain death to me. So what can I use? Since his anatomy is probably the same as a human's, targeting the diaphragm would incapacitate his ability to talk and if moved slightly upwards, I should be able to hit the lungs, if lucky maybe even his heart. Also his build is small and I doubt he has thick skin, therefore if I try to loop of his head I might end it in one go. But I doubt I can manage to do that and this rusty piece of metal is not nearly sharp enough for the job.

Well then, if hitting with a blunt object the head gives the 'Contusion' affliction, stabbing through the heart gives 'Stunned', maybe slitting the throat gives 'Silence' or something. Guess I can only try... is not like I'd die if I fail...

"Playing hooky and dropping your workload on your junior over there is bad for your health you know? Allow me to instruct you on why."

I felt like a second rate villain while thinking that to be honest, but it felt like a safety mechanism to protect my mind, even if I had a skill to do that. I was about to kill not only this creature, but all other as well if possible. So I needed to make it somewhat alright in my head, even if this green beings haven't done anything to me directly, that maybe massacring them in cold blood is in order to prevent others from dying, like the guy from yesterday. I wanted to be able to think that it was all just a game and I was just grinding experience...but in reality, they felt so alive that when killing them you could see the pain on their faces and hear the cries they were shouting. Even so, this is for my own survival. I'd rather have them feel the pain and not myself.

When the Goblin moved aside his dirty rag and put down his wooden spear, I started moving behind him. Carefully stepping on the ground while avoiding the leaves and tree branches I got closer and closer. When the sound of his piss hitting the tree bark resounded in the strangely quiet area, I gripped the sword tighter and aimed for its his back. Since anatomy dictated it, I turned the blade horizontally and moved in.

Critical hit! -380HP!

Target bleeds! -60HP/sec!

Target is stunned due to massive damage for 4 seconds!

My targeted area was near the spine, somewhere near the middle of his body on the left side. If the blade went in, it will stab through and cut a couple of important arteries as well as push out of the diaphragm and smash the sternum. Moving in, with a swift and precise motion I stabbed the slightly slanted point of the blade and felt it pierce through the flesh with a disgusting sound, then his insides, only to stop when it reached something hard on the other side. Since the blade is not very sharp, it couldn't pierce through the sternum, so I had to improvise.

I pulled out the weapon from his body in a hurry, while kicking the back of his knees, forcing it to kneel and prepared to strike him again. Upon drawing the sword out, blood sprayed on my face, the smell and the feeling of it making me retch. But I forced myself to remain strong and finish it, however he just fell on the ground gasping for air and unable to cry, contrary to my expectations. Even if there isn't a 'Silenced' status, you can't bypass anatomy just because of this 'adventurer system'.

To confirm his death, I quickly checked my own status window and saw that my experience points increased while my mana decreased by a total of 20. This meant that I successfully activated the Ambush skill, or to be more precise since it seems to automatically activate in special circumstances, I must've met the requirement of attacking the target from stealth. A boost in my experience made the situation mentally better and since it was doubled by my Job, it must've counted as the first battle ending and meant that I didn't drew any attention on myself from the others. Now, I had 5 minutes to get my next target.

"I should focus next on the gatherers and try to get them down before they return in the clearing. Otherwise, it will become impossible to kill from stealth given that I can only properly use my left hand."

In my head I drew a map of the area I was in. A circle represented the clearing, with the one guard left in the middle and one Gatherer preparing the food. The one I just killed would've went towards my direction being west of the center, while the other four went towards different locations east. To find them I was required to go around the clearing, south to be more precise, through the path they just came from and start the search from there.

Since time was running out and they might return any second now, I started lightly running in that direction after hiding the body of the guard behind the tree and taking his wooden spear.

After reaching a safe distance from the initial spot, I broke the wooden spear and reduced its length to about 40-50 centimeters, since being to long inside of a forest densely packed with trees might inconvenience me.

It took me a couple of minutes after the detour to finally pick up the sound of branches snapping close to me. I headed in that direction and saw one of the Goblins sitting down and breaking down a thick piece of wood in smaller bits.

I circled around his back and got closer while readying the spear I took. When in range I quickly thought of killing him fast using the same certain kill method, while meeting the requirements of the Ambush skill I used previously. The problem was that before I managed to reach the right area of the Goblin's back with the short sword, but the sitting position and his small stature didn't help me much in this case, making it impossible to attempt. So, while putting the spear on the ground silently, I thought I should grab his neck from behind with my right hand and cut his throat, execution style like in the movies. To do that I needed to put enough force in strangling him with my right, while also moving his chin slightly upwards, so I can have more area to target instead of cutting my own hand.

I took only couple of seconds to plan the movements in my head, after which I followed through them. I coiled my right hand like a snake from behind his back and pressed the forearm violently right under his chin, forcibly pushing it upwards, while using the blade in my left hand I made the cut starting with the left side of his neck, where the most important artery in the human body was.

Fatal damage inflicted! -480HP!

Bleeding status inflicted! -100HP/sec

The target has been stunned for 2 seconds!

The problem was that the force I put into both hands was too much, so the cut was deep and the force I applied upwards snapped the neck apart. I lost my balance surprised by the sudden event and crawled fast to get the spear as well. When I turned around, I saw the sitting Goblin the same position as before, however his head literally fell on his back with just a small piece of skin holding it glued to the body. I dropped both weapons and puked for about 30 seconds straight, until I realized that I literally had nothing in my stomach to throw up.

"Fucking stupid movies! What was I even thinking!? That was highly dangerous for my fingers. What if he bit me? And again, I'm fucking covered in fucking green blood! Fuck it stinks! Ugh... that blue light on the blade of the sword must mean that the skill was successful and the mana was used to deal fatal damage. "

I complained angrily and left the body of the now dead Goblin with his head hanging on his back and walked towards the next target while checking my status window. I realized that I forgot to check the Gatherer's status, but that fatal damage meant that he had less HP than myself. Also, since I wasn't discovered by other targets and I killed the second one within 5 minutes, it means that the multiplier must be at x4 right now.

Onto the next target!

My current experience was at 83%, upped by the 'combo-kills', as well as the blessing of experience.

" 83%...if this keeps up I will level up again. I guess is harder to level up one your level increases. Last night with just two of them I reached level 7, but now after two kills I barely got 40% increase of the current level."

Not even a minute later, I found the second gatherer trying to grab a branch barely out of his reach, standing on his toes for the extra centimeters in height. I steeled my resolve and attacked.

Fatal damage inflicted! -430HP!

Bleeding status inflicted! -80HP/sec

The target has been stunned for 4 seconds!

Taking advantage of the same method I used to kill the previous Guard, I stabbed him on his back and through his heart, cutting his diaphragm and silencing him.

Instant death and another amount of experience points followed putting me at 89%.

"Tsk! Only 6% ? This low level green bastard... On to the next one I guess. "

Alright! Maybe clicking my tounge for the small amount of experience, wasn't something a sane human being would do. However, I kept reminding myself over and over again, that I was no longer on Earth where you could talk your way ouf of things just by threatening someone with a lawyer. Here, the strong eat the weak. Quite literally I'm afraid... So if it's that type of world, why should I feel bad about ending the life of these pitiful creatures and take their experience points in order to make myself stronger? The answer was: I didn't had to! I chose to. However, that ended now!

Fatal damage inflicted! -415HP!

Bleeding status inflicted! -85HP/sec

The target has been stunned for 3 seconds!

It became surprisingly easy after that. Killing these Goblins got easier with each one I put down. In fact, knowing that even one extra other human might be left alive if I kill one hundred of these bastards was enough to make me feel better.

Plus the fact that their experience made my own go up crazy fast once I thought about them being level 3 at max. I took a quick look at my status before moving on to the fourth gatherer.

Name

Michael Corbett

Name

Value

Name

Value

Job Name

Level

Progress

Race

Human

STR

15

Magic

5

Scout

7

95%

Sex

Male

DEX

16

Charm

10

Age

25

AGI

20

Luck

10

World

Anhur

END

15

HP

403/419 (+1.3/sec)

INT

18

MP

184/215(+1.8/sec)

WIS

12

Skill List Name Level Proficiency Identify MAX 100% Fear Resistance MAX 100% Stealth 3 24% Ambush 2 91%

"Damn!"

I certainly didn't expect so many changes. First off, my HP decreased probably because of the pain in my right hand, but it's slowly going up. Is slower than usual, but it might mean that I can heal this type of wound by myself, which is great. Secondly, the MP dropped as well, by the looks of it with a total of 40 initially, but went up due to the recovery rate. What I was really happy about were the two skills that went up in both levels and proficiency. Not only that, but the descriptions changes as well.

Stealth

A passive skill that allows one to stay out of the opponent's range of perception through the minimization of one's own presence.

The movement becomes silent and swift allowing unhindered information gathering, or unholy assassinations.

Benefits: Silent steps and 50% increase in movement speed while in stealth.

During night time your presence is erased and can't be seen unless you stand closer than 5 meters in front of your target.

Each level increase will unlock new perks and boost existing ones. Ambush

When attacking from behind, the damage dealt is increased by 550% by imbuing mana in your weapon. If attacking from stealth, there is an 85% chance to deal fatal damage if the enemy's total HP is lower than yours. The chance is increased to 100% when hitting a vital spot and if the attack fails the target is inflicted with a random affliction status for a total of 3 seconds with a chance of 50%.

Cost: 25MP

I wondered what were the levels and proficiency for, but this is better than expected. Especially the Ambush skill! Not only did the damage increase by 50%, but even if I fail I will inflict a random status on the target. Well, there's a 50/50 shot of that happening, but is likely that if I target vital areas that chance will increase. I need to experiment a bit, so I know what it can do.

And I had just the target. The fourth one was picking his nose with one hand and scratching his ass with the other, while laying on the roots of a tree lazily. It reminded me that in every group project in school, there's always one of these...

I circled around the back of the tree who's roots he was leaning on and grabbed the sword in my right hand, while the left held the spear. Scouring the ground with my eyes, I found a couple of twigs and branches I should avoid stepping on, while I moved in closer on the unsuspecting target. I swung the sword as hard as I could towards the back of his head and hit the spine just like a professional baseball player, while simultaneously stabbing the spear in his right temple.

Critical damage inflicted! -128HP!

Paralized status inflicted! Target is stunned for 10 seconds!

Fatal damage inflicted! -415HP!

Bleeding status inflicted! -85HP/sec

The target has been stunned for 3 seconds!

Level Up!

Congratulations, your Scout Job reached level 8!

Figured as much. By targeting the nervous system I was able to induce a status even if the damage inflicted wasn't high or fatal. This means that the 'adventurer system' the useless game God taked about, isn't random and absurd. It follows...no! It works together with the anatomy of the said monster, following the rules of nature. I mean yeah, if you behead a dragon, it will obviously die according to the laws of nature. However, that's where the system intervenes and makes the scales on it crazily impenetrable, therefore only someone with a good weapon or stronger stats will be able to wound it. Is more normal and natural than I originally thought.

"That was the last Gatherer and I also leveled up! Now I need a plan to deal with the remaining two in the clearing. The problem is the fact that they were here to GATHER food. That can mean only one thing: they have a village nearby!"