Bloodfallen: Curse of The All Knowing

Now I had two options on how I could go about killing the goblin leader. I could do what I did last time and just run up and swing my sword at him until he stops moving, or I could take out his subordinates first and then kill him. Both options had their merits, going straight for killing the leader would be the fastest way of killing it and would demoralize his subordinates who would still be alive and since I am more skilled than I was the last time I tried it it would also carry far less risk. But taking out his subordinates first would be useful in cutting him off and leaving him without options while also demoralizing it as well.

‘Given that I am easily twice as tall as any of them and I have actual training in how to fight I should be able to easily take those three remaining goblins down without much issue. The only real problem would be the goblin leader who has a bow, but I am wearing plate armor so as long as I protect my face I won’t have much issue.’ With my decision finalized I quietly made my way around the scattered furniture and towards where the other three goblins were standing just out of view of their leader.

I hid behind a few broken and piled up tables and chairs as I watched them from around the edge, they were basically just moping around without any care for what they were doing. ‘They lack even the most basic of discipline. I suppose it is no surprise that I managed to sneak in here with very little skill in that department.’

I watched for a few more minutes until I was certain that they would be doing anything on their own for a while. Slowly drawing my sword to minimize the amount of noise it made I slowly began to stand up and walk towards them. As I did this I kept to the side and kept my sword down until I was around three meters from the nearest goblin.

I must have made some sort of noise because that goblin turned and saw me. “Hugk.” It made a weird noise as I swung my sword from above and split its head like a piece of wood. The goblin closest to its now dead ally turned and saw what happened before letting out a shriek of terror and turning to run. I used my sword to make a wide and sweeping swing as I stepped forward leaving a deep cut in its chest that quickly started to bleed and it fell to the ground.

Unfortunately I made a mistake with the wide swing as I accidentally hit some of the nearby piled up furniture and it took me a moment to remove my sword from it, a moment that the fourth goblin subordinate used to run and hide in the kitchen area.

The goblin leader saw his one subordinate running away into the kitchen and shouted something at him which was disregarded. I then heard the sound of a sword being unsheathed and footsteps coming towards my position.

I waited until the footsteps were close to jump out with my sword raised for an overhead strike, and I was successful in surprising it as it let out a surprised yelp and was partly grazed by my sword when I swung down. A small cut I left on its chest started to bleed slightly as it took several steps back.

While holding its wound with its left hand it kept its short sword raised with its right hand and looked me up and down. Clearly it wasn’t expecting such a tall opponent, it had likely never even seen a human before given the isolation it had from the rest of the world. The goblin said something that resembled a series of growls and snarls that were most likely its language, unfortunately I did not speak it and instead of answering I stepped forward.

Surprised and scared by my sudden decision the goblin yelled something else at me before actually yelling and running forwards with both its hands on the short sword disregarding its own injuries.

Instead of using a slash of some kind I instead decided to go for a stab so I positioned my longsword correctly and when the goblin was within range I quickly thrusted forwards and stabbed it in the chest right through the rib cage. The goblin let out a gasp when the blade first pierced its body for around a second before it got deeper, then it went silent and dropped its own weapon and fell to its knees and then onto the ground. Blood slowly started to pool onto the cold stone floor as I stepped closer and picked up its short sword.

/- - - - - -\

+ 50 Exp

+ 50 Exp

+ 50 Exp

+ 100 Exp

Level 2, 600 Exp

+ 10 Points

Next at 900 Exp

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Like I recalled it was an old partly rusted iron sword that had seen a lot of use as shown by the edge being dulled on both sides. While I could definitely conjure up something far better I would need more mana to do that consistently considering I only have access to two units of mana at the moment. ‘But I do have twenty points to use that could immediately bring my intelligence up to thirty, that would give me three whole units for every level I earn. That would equal to a whole their one spell for every level.’

I had started to weigh my options when I could suddenly hear something from the small kitchen off in the next room. I cursed myself for stopping so suddenly when there were still more goblins within the room. ‘If my memory serves me correctly, which it should, then there are two more goblins hiding behind the door that are probably hoping that I am gone.’

Slowly in an attempt to make as little noise as possible I walked up to the door with my longsword drawn and held with the blade pointed forwards for a stab. I reached towards the handle and slowly turned it and pulled the door back, the door slowly opened without a sound and I looked into the room. From where I was standing I could see the dead goblin with several limbs cut off with sloppy work, the goblins outside of my sight, most likely behind the wall around the corner.

‘A futile effort.’ I thought to myself as I smiled and stepped forward with my sword now held before me in a defensive position for when the goblins tried to ambush me. Walking close to the corner I tapped my sword lightly against the stone floor just right next to the corner and a goblin jumped out swinging its dagger wildly and screaming as it did so. It quickly realized that it was fooled and tried to run away, but instead it received my sword through its back.

The second goblin instead tried to run away past me while I was busy killing its friend, a smart but cruel thing to do but admittedly the only thing it could realistically do. It didn’t get very far as I simply pulled my sword out from the one dead goblin and brought it down in a chopping motion that took off the second goblin's arm.

With both its balance and its arm gone the goblin lost its footing and fell to the ground and tried to crawl away which I quickly ended with another stab to the back of the head.

/- - - - - -\

+ 50 Exp

+ 50 Exp

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With all the goblins within this room dead I now had a bit of breathing space to think about my next move. But before I did that I wanted to have a look around and see what was going on in this goblin lair as the last time I was here I didn’t take much time to look around as I wanted to get out as quickly as possible.

The first thing I decided to look at was the goblins themselves who turned out to be not just weak and a little stupid but also thin and frail aside from the leader of the group who had actual mussel on his body, the rest looked like they were not getting enough to eat which partly explained the cannibalism they were resorting to in the other room.

Other than that I didn’t find much else of note, there was nothing else that I found of value aside from the strange animal hides that were being used to sleep on by the goblin subordinates. They were a pale pinkish color like a mouse without its fur. The animal skins of course were disgusting so I didn't touch them and instead left the room along with the daggers and other rusting weapons behind as I had nowhere to keep them.

Now outside the mess hall I had a choice, I could follow the stairs back up towards the surface like the last time and possibly meet Lyra and her mercenaries again, or I could go do my own thing and kill as many goblins as I can before they get a chance to. ‘If I go up and meet with them with such a low level they will definitely have suspicions as to how someone who is only level two has such skill and knowledge in magic assuming they are even up there. That leaves staying down here for the time being, and since I recall everything that was announced to the whole group or found with my own group I should be fine.’

I made my decision, I was going to stay down here for a while and become more powerful by killing as many goblins as I could, hopefully when I meet Lyra’s flock again they won't be suspicious of me and should accept my word regarding the demon warlock. I just need to become powerful enough to justify escaping with my life or remaining unnoticed.

For the most part the higher that were the fewer goblins there were, the only real exception to that was the fifteenth floor which was the one that I was on, a good portion of the rooms and hallways had collapsed leaving only a small handful of what was built accessible. For the most part the goblins that are hiding out above this floor should be easy to deal with.

So I followed the hall until I reached the stairs leading both up and down, with a deep breath to calm myself I stepped forward and up towards the fourteenth floor. Like the fifteenth it looked almost empty and barren from just the hallway, but I knew for a fact that there were goblins hiding out here. Every floor had some goblins in it and there was also something else that was discovered here that I would find useful, at least until I was strong enough to enter the cavern lush with plant and possibly animal life.

The hallway extended for a few meters before it split into three separate pathways, the pathway directly ahead had a collapsed tunnel and resulted in only a single room of each side being accessible. Looking down both the other paths I only saw a wall and a corner that hid whatever could be on the other side. ‘Probably best if I check out these first and then look down the other paths.’ I thought to myself and started walking towards the left most room that I could see.

The door was old like all the others that I saw, but unlike all those on the fifteenth floor this was primarily made from wood and had its outside plated with the yellow metal along with the doorknob which I took hold of and turned to open the door.

Slowly the door opened and I stepped back to prevent myself from any possible ambush that might be waiting. Inside I saw a room illuminated by those same dim blue crystals containing several tables and chairs scattered throughout, it also looked like there were people in this room at the time whatever terrible event rocked this dwarven city as several of said chairs were toppled over like several people were quickly leaving without any regard for their surroundings. This room also had a door on the opposite side of the room that I assumed led towards the left most hallway.

Slowly like before I walked over and turned the doorknob to open it, on the other side I found an empty hallway with several other doors lining it in a way similar to how it was on the fifteenth floor except they were more spaced out. I backed away from this door and exited through the same door I entered the room so I could enter the other room opposite to see what was inside it before I would look at the other rooms.

Like before I carefully opened the door and looked inside, and to my disgust a terrible smell assaulted my nose. The room was filled with piles upon piles of shit, specifically goblin shit. I quickly shut the door and nearly threw up whatever was apparently in my stomach from the collective smell. ‘Yup, there are definitely goblins living on this floor, and for some reason they decided they wanted to make this room their waste disposal room.’

I was moving in the opposite direction of the shit room as fast as I could even think of doing it and was going towards the left side of the hall so I could investigate whatever was there.

Doing my best to avoid thinking about the shit room I walked right up and slowly opened the very first door to the left side of the left most hallway. Inside I found what appeared to once was a temple of some sort. In the middle of the room was a statue with small shrines surrounding it. But I couldn’t make out anything in detail regarding who the statue was of, as it was long broken apart like fragile glass.

The only other interesting details of this were that the walls were smoothed and there was a second door at the other end of the old temple that I immediately went to investigate.