The Gods are Always Wtaching

The First Head-on Fight

Adam walked up to the wooden throne that the Goblin Chief was sitting on hours ago.

He sat on it and crossed his legs.

'What to do? Mmm... Mika would say that I should just take the biggest gate. Mina would say I should slowly open up each one of them before choosing the gate to enter. Meanwhile mom would say I should get out of the dungeon.' Adam wondered, looking at the ceiling.

[ "The Hero Who Survived By Sleeping For a Century " likes the look in your eyes.]

["The One Who Sits On The Golden Throne" says you should look forward to obtaining a better throne.]

["The One Who Spreads The Myth" is suprised by your progress.]

[ The majority of beings that watch you are curious about the challenge that was issued.]

[A Certain Evil feigns ignorance.]

[The absolute majority of Gods believe that a random Evil doesn't have the authority to issue a challenge this early in the First Phase.]

[The absolute majority of Gods are curious about who issued the challenge.]

'Is that.. what drama between Gods look like?' Adam shook his head.

'Let's ignore them for now.' He brought his hand to his chin.

"It's mostly just Goblins outside, probably.Goblins are weak, so t he military knife will be just as useful as the Old Assassin's Dagger. The greatsword could be used too I guess. But horizontal swings are harder to perfrom and vertical swings. Plus the sword is too heavy, so running away would be hard. With my Dark Cloak and my Old Assassin's Boots, wielding two daggers would probably be the optimal course of action." Adam muttered in a low voice while rubbing his chin.

'The door I came from, the one with the treasure chest, is behind me. In front is the biggest gate out of the four. Probably the one you would come from if you missed the secret passages. Leading to a real fight in the darkness with the Goblin Chief. The ones on the side are smaller. Let's start with those.'

Adam got up, took his miltary knife out of his storage and into his left hand. The Old Assassin's dagger was in his right hand.

'Alright, let's enter the gate on the right.'

Once he was in front of the gates, he felt a presence on the other side of it.He pushed the gates slowly and carefully.

Just as there was some space between the two gates, he saw a green wide back in front of him. The creature looked like a Goblin but there were many differences. The creature was a bit taller than Adam while Goblins were much shorter than him. It was also much more muscular and it's limbs did not look weak or skinny at all. The skin looked tougher than that of a normal Goblin. It had long pointy ears. Two axes were hanging on it's back.

It was a Hobgoblin. An it exuded much more strength than a Goblin.

But Adam wasn't scared, as it did not look stronger than the Goblin Chief he had already defeated.

As long as he saw his enemy's back, he would be victorious. Adam thought.

After he noticed that the monster's skin looked similar to that of the Goblin Chief, Adam put his military knife inside it's sheath.

He, once again, grabbed the enemy's left shoulder with his left hand and stabbed it in the back with his dagger.

[You have backstabbed an enemy using the Old Assassin's Dagger. Damage dealt goes up by 200%.]

The dagger went deeply inside the Hobgoblin's body. Adam took the dagger out of the wound and lots of blood flowed out of it.

He was ready to stab it again when

[1 Hobgoblin has been defeated. Congratulations! You have gained 40Gold and 80Experience Points.]

'What? How come? It did look weaker than the Goblin Chief but I didn't expect it to die in one stab. Oh...'

"System, how are Damage Points calculated?"

[Damage Points depend on many things. Defense points, did the blade graze the enemy or stab the enemy's body perfectly, your Strength stat , whether you hit a weak point like the neck or a protected one like a monster's shell, the weapon's Attack Power, the weapon's special effect...]

"All right all right. Euumm, well how much Damage Points did this stab inflict?"

[Attack Power of the weapon: 50.

Strength Stat: 40.

Weapon's special effect: +200% Damage Points.

Enemy's Armor: None.

Armor Defense Points: None.

Deep wound inflicted.

Total Damage Points inflicted: 90+2*90.

Damage Points: 270. ]

"All right. So my calculations from before were wrong. That's a lot of damage. So the Strength stat is more important than I thought."

Just as Adam said that, he turned to his right.

The tip of a spear was 10centimeters away from his nose, and approaching rapidly.

He quickly bent his body backwards while looking at the attacker.Without meaning to, he let go of his dagger.

A normal Goblin armed with a spear attacked him. He felt the presence of three other Goblins further inside the room.

The tip of the spear grazed Adam's left cheek.He formed a fist with his left hand .

Just as Adam was about the punch the Goblin, he noticed that it's other hand was armed with a small knife. The knife was directed towards his stomach.

His heart started beating much faster. He was in real danger because he got careless.

Adam quickly turned his body sideways. The knife missed him by a bit. He was unarmed, but he grabbed the Goblin's forearm.

The Goblin's arm started rapidly turning into dust. It didn't understand what was happening but it stepped back. The Goblin had lost it's whole right arm.

'That was close. Way too close.'

Just as Adam was looking at his dagger on the ground, about to pick it up, his Sense stat once again made him understand that something was coming.

He lifted his eyes and immediately bent down. Three arrows passed above Adam's head. Right where he had been standing a moment ago.

'Damn, their aim is good. Let's finish this quickly. Those archers are trouble.'

He picked up the dagger that was next to him and started sprinting towards the Goblin.

The distance between Adam and the Goblin spearman was closed in an instance.

Once the suprise element faded, Adam realized that the Goblin's movements were extremely slow.

The Goblin struggled to extend it's spear towards Adam. But the attack was easily dodged.

Before the Goblin knew it, it's head was flying in the air.

Green blood flowed everywhere. Some of the blood fell on Adam's face.

[1 Goblin has been slain. Congratulations! You have gained 5Gold and 10Experience Points.]

'Filthy.' He thought. But Adam didn't stop for a second.

On the contrary, he only got faster.

The archers were hiding in the dark.

Adam hadn't taken the time to asses the room he was in before.

The room fairly small. 10meters large and 10meters long. The ceiling was 2meters high.

On the wall where the gate was, torches were hanging. The other walls and a big portion of the room was in total darkness.

That was where the archers were hiding.

But Adam could still feel their presence and hear the sounds they were making.

When he was 5meters away from one of the Goblins, he felt an arrow coming from his left. He gave it no mind and slashed the throat of the Goblin in front of him.

[1 Goblin has been slain. Congratulations! You have gained 5Gold and 10Experience Points.]

The arrow hit his side. But it didn't penetrate the military jacket he still had on.

'I guess that's Game Over for you then.' He thought, as he sprinted towards the second Goblin. Just as he slashed it's throat, he felt an another arrow coming.

[1 Goblin has been slain. Congratulations! You have gained 5Gold and 10Experience Points.]

'Can't you see those don't hurt me?' Adam thought while slashing the air with his dagger, in order to rid it of the green blood that was dripping from it.

The arrow hit, and Adam felt a sharp pain from his upper leg.

He looked down, gritting his teeth. The arrow was deeply imbedded in his right thigh. He ran in the direction the arrow came from.

'How could I be so stupid?' Adam thought, as he slashed the last goblin's neck.

[1 Goblin has been slain. Congratulations! You have gained 5Gold and 10 Experience Points.]

"This is so annoying. Let's try that at least." He said, shaking his head.

"Health Points."

[ Health Points: 420/450.]

'So I took about 30 Damage Points from that.'

"Can I open the storage by thinking about it?" Adam asked.

[You only need to think about what item you want out of it .]

"Alright." Adam extended his left hand hand.

'Light healing potion.' and just as he thought that, it appeared in his left hand.

"Conveniant. Does that work with weapons too?"

[This only works with items.]

"Aren't weapons items?Can I get more detail on that?" Adam asked as he began drinking the potion. He felt this was an important distinction he had missed before.

[Weapons are Artefacts. They can be stored automatically if taken from a Treasure Chest or defeating a Boss Monster. Artefacts found in dungeons like weapons that enemy uses have to be manually inserted inside the storage. ]

[The main difference between Items and Artefacts is that Items can only be used a certain amount of time. A healing potion can only be used once. While a sword can be used and stored multiple times. Most Items are single use. However, exceptions do exist.]

'Mmm I guess I kind of get it.' He thought as he finished drinking the green potion. It tasted sweet but it's green color reminded him of Goblin blood.

[You have consumed 1 Light Healing Potion. You have recovered 15 Health Points.]

'15HP for 10 Gold coins isn't too bad. I guess. Maybe?' He had no idea how good or bad that deal    was.

'Anyways. What's up with this room.' He looked around.

There was no gate other than the one he got in from.

After walking a bit in the dark, his eyes finally adjusted.

He noticed a hole in one of the walls. It was big enough for him to get in without bending his back.

'This is probably the other side of the tunnel I had been in earlier.' He said earlier as he had no sense of time since he entered the cave. It had been about 16hours since he had entered the Goblin Chief's Domain.

He went in without any worries.

His confidence wasn't baseless.

One, the tunnel was extremely dark which favored him and his Black Cloak.

Two, his Sense stat was his highest stat other than Strength.

Three, all Goblins died in one s***h from his dagger.

Four, he had many Healing potions and enough Gold coins if he needed more.

Five, his military vest was at least resistant enough to protect him from arrows, probably knife attacks too. As long as they were aimed at his upper body.

Adam's eyes were already adjusted to the darkness, so he just walked while being focused on his surroundings.

He felt a presence about 15meters away. It was a lone Goblin.

He kept getting closer and closer. He wanted to know how useful the Dark Cloak was against Goblins in the dark.

He kept taking steps forward until he was right next to the Goblin. It had no idea there was someone or something next to it. The Goblin only saw the darkness and didn't feel anything.

Adam was one meter away from the Goblin. He smiled at how amazing his Dark Cloak was. He slashed the Goblin's head off and kept walking.

[1 Goblin has been slain. Congratulations! You have gained 5Gold and 10 Experience Points.]

He soon found a horde of Goblins. Some were asleep, some were awake.

He counted how many presences he could feel.

'..27..28..29...29 Goblins. That's a lot. Good thing I tested the Dark Cloak's effectiveness.'

Adam decided to start off by getting rid of the standing Goblins before finishing off the ones sleeping after that.

He walked in the midst of the horde. Stealthily cutting the standing Goblins while making sure that their corpse didn't fall on the bodies of the sleeping ones.

[1 Goblin has been slain. Congratulations! You have gained 5Gold and 10 Experience Points.]

....

For the ones that noticed him, which was usually only one at a time, he used his "Crumbling Touch" skill to get rid of it quickly.

[1 Goblin has been slain. Congratulations! You have gained 5Gold and 10 Experience Points.]

....

He was being mindfull so as to not run out of Endurance.

Once he killed all the standing ones, he stepped out of the horde of Goblins to recover his Endurance.

Although it wasn't a hard task, it still left him a bit tired, as he tried to do it as fast as possible while balancing many things. Did another Goblin notice me? Are arrows coming towards me? Should I s***h with my dagger or use "Crumbling Touch"? How's my endurance looking? Let's s***h this one from this angle so that it falls backwards as there's a sleeping Goblin in front of it. Did the sound of the corpse hitting the ground wake up the Goblin? These were all the things Adam had to think of at the same time.

He had killed 17 Goblins in only about 40 seconds. He gained 85 Gold coins 170 Experience Points.

He put his back against the wall of the tunnel, about 20 meters away from the sleeping Goblins.

"Let's check the stats." Adam said with a calm voice, trying to catch his breath.

[      Stats: Strength: 40

                  Agility: 24

                  Sense: 35

                  Vigor & Endurance: 25

                  Magic Affinity: 7(+2)

                  Stealth: 8(+3)

                  Unused stat points: 0

]

'Mm Stealth and Magic Affinity increased. Probably from getting rid of monsters before they noticed my presence and repeated use of Crumbling Touch. But are stats are under 10, so they should increase pretty easily.' He thought

"Status." Adam said.

[        Name: Adam

        Age: 12years old

        Species & level : Human  Lv6(300/500xp)

        Gold: 950

        HP: 445/450

        Endurance: 60/150

        Stats: Strength: 40

                  Agility: 24

                  Sense: 35

                  Vigor & Endurance: 25

                  Magic Affinity: 7(+2)

                  Stealth: 8(+3)

                  Unused stat points: 0

          Skill(s): Sleeping Beauty

                      Crumbling Touch

          Title(s): The First Pioneer

        Ri#hteous to E#il Points: 640 to 0

        S####o#: (None)  ]

'Oh. The Points thing went up a lot again. There are more readable letters too. Ri..hteous to E...il Points?Mm is it...'

"Righteous to Evil Points?" Adam asked with a quiet voice.

[ Congratulations! You have unlocked the Righteous to Evil Points option. Depending on your actions, you shall earn Righteous Points or Evil Points. Once a certain amount of Points is achieved in either category, you will be able to use part of the authority of that side. Only your actions count, not your words, as they speak much louder.]

"What do you mean part of the authority?"

[This information is locked.]

Other messages appeared

[Many angels encourage you to amass many more Good Points.]

[Evil Creatures want you to selfishly follow your deepest wicked desires by drawing blood wherever you go.]

[A Certain Evil is watching your actions.]

["The Laziest of God's Archangels" wants you to earn Righteous Points, although he doesn't really care either way.]

"System, do I have to do anything special?"Adam asked, a bit confused.

[No, the Righteous and Evil Points are but a simplified record of your actions. Do not pay it any mind.]

'Alright. Anyways...'He thought, looking in the Goblin horde's way. '..the tunnels won't clean themselves up.'

Adam proceeded to slaughter the rest of the Goblins. Not one of them could fight back or do anything. As soon as their eyes were open, they were closed again, this time for good.

He got rid of the rest of the 12 Goblins, before going deeper into the tunnel.

"Experience Points and Gold." Adam said out loud.

[ Gold: 1010

  Experience Points: 420/500.]

After walking for five minutes, the tunnel was divided into two smaller tunnels.

'Each way will probably lead to one of the two remaining gates that were in the hall right?'

He took the way on the right, for no real reason at all.

He kept going and going. There were no Goblins or ennemies at all.

Eventually he arrived at the enterance of a room.

He stayed at the exit of the tunnel and looked inside the room.

In front of him was a wall with many torches hanging on it. The rest of the room was plonged in darkness.

On the lit wall in front of him, there was a big gate. But before that gate, there was an imposing figure standing there, guarding it.

It was another Hobgoblin. Adam noticed that this one had two longswords hanging on it's back.

He looked around the room. There were no other enemies.

'Is this going to be... a frontal fight?' Adam shivered at this thought.

All his enemies except a small number of weak Goblins had all been killed using Sneak Attacks. Either by hiding in the darkness or by coming at them from behind.

Adam looked at the monster in front of him. It stood at about 170centimeters tall, and had a muscular build.

'It's probably a bit stronger than me, even with my 40 Strength Points.' Adam thought.

'Am going to need a distraction if I want to beat it.' After thinking for a bit, he had an idea.

He ran back into the tunnel and came back 5 minutes later. When he came back, he had a Goblin corpse in his left hand.

'Hahahha. This is too weird a plan.Mika would fall to the ground falling if he saw this.' Adam couldn't help but chuckle.

He entered the room and stayed hidden in the darkness. He put his dagger in his storage and grabbed the Goblin corpse with both his hands.

Then, with all his strength, he threw the Goblin corpse towards the Hobgoblin that was standing about 10 meters away.

Right after the corpse left his hands, Adam started sprinting towards the Hobgoblin and whispered "Storage". He took out his Old Assassin's Dagger.

The monster was suprised to see a Goblin flying towards it, coming straight from the darkness. But that suprise only lasted a second, as the Hobgoblin drew both it's swords from behind it's back and slashed the Goblin corpse vertically using both swords.The Goblin was easily cut in two.

Just as the Goblin was cut in two,the Hobgoblin finally saw the approaching Adam.He was about a meter and a half away from the Hobgoblin.

Adam extended his right arm in order to stab the Hobgoblin in the neck. He wanted to finish this in one hit by hitting the creature's weakpoint.

The Hobgoblin couldn't defend against the incoming attack as it had just used both arms to s***h the Goblin. But it still managed to move it's head, dodging what would've been a fatal hit.

The dagger slashed the Hobgoblin's trapezius. Green blood flowed from the wound.

's**t, he dodged it.But I won't back down now.' Adam swung his dagger towards the Hobgoblin.

But the Hobgoblin was used fighting with it's swords. It easily deflected all of Adam's attacks.

Adam aimed at the monster's neck, stomach, sides, knees and chest. But not one hit connected.

Many exchanges took place between the two opponents. Adam attacked, while the Hobgoblin defended.

'I knew it's swordmanship would be way better than mine, but this is too much! If I wasn't more agile than it, I wouldn't be the one attacking, and I probably would have hit the ground by now.'Adam gritted his teeth, trying to find an openning.

The Hobgoblin on the other hand, was annoyed by the weak opponent in front of it. To the green monster, Adam was a weak but quick enemy. It could easily stop Adam's attacks, but because of the difference in speed, it couldn't find a moment to attack.

'Am making no progress at all!' Adam was getting frustrated and annoyed. His breathing was less  and less controled.

The Hobgoblin was waiting for exactly that. Although not a smart creature, Hobgoblins showed great intelligence when fighting.

'If I can't hit a weakpoint, then at least let's make slow progress by hitting somewhere else.' Adam thought.

He aimed his next attack at the creature's left shoulder. Adam extended his right arm, holding the dagger.

Just as the Hobgoblin noticed Adam's intentions, it let go of the sword in it's left hand.

Adam paid it no mind, as he stabbed the monster's shoulder with all his strength. Right after that, he tried pulling his right arm back. But it didn't budge. He couldn't step back at all.

The Hobgoblin had used it's left hand to grab hold of Adam's elbow, blocking his right arm, even though the dagger was deep inside it's shoulder.

It grabbed Adam's elbow tightly and let out an evil smile of victory.

Once the weak opponent cannot jump around anymore, it was as good as dead. This was what the Hobgoblin thought.

Adam was struggling to pull his arm back, but he couldn't move it at all.

This was the difference in strength, between a Hobgoblin and a kid who swung his sword of a day.

The Hobgoblin raised it's other arm up while tightenning it's grip on Adam's head.

The tip of the monster's sword was aimed at the ceiling. Then, in one smooth motion, it slashed the enemy in front of it.

The next instant, the enemy wasn't there anymore. Only a purple dagger dyed with green blood remained on the ground. The Hobgoblin was confused.

It looked at it's sword. It was bloody. Red blood was dripping from it. But the Hobgoblin didn't feel any resistance once it swung the longsword. Surely, the opponent wasn't so weak that it could be split in two like air? The Hobgoblin stayed on guard as it was sure the enemy was hiding in the darkness.

It raised it's left arm, but the Hobgoblin's confusion only grew. It had lost it's hand, wrist and forearm.

It wasn't bleeding, but part of it's arm had disappeared.

The Hobgoblin looked at it's left arm for a second, before taking a fighting stance as the enemy could attack at any moment.

Meanwhile, Adam was running inside the tunnel. His upper body was bleeding.

'What the hell was that?? That monster...That was crazy! Aren't those supposed to be stupid?' He thought while greeting his teeth.

" System! How smart is a Hobgoblin??" Adam asked angrily.

[It is commonly said that Goblins are as smart as five year old Human Children. By that standard, Hobgoblins would be as smart as a 10year olds. Although during battle, they can show higher intellect.]

'Well tell me that sooner!!' Adam was pissed off by his blunder.

["The Old Wolf" is gladdened by the sight of your blood.]

["The Hero Who Wears Lion Skin" denounces your cowardice, while understanding your actions.]

'If you understand then shut up!' Adam thought as he continued running.

[A Certain Evil chuckles at your misfortune.]

["The Hero Who Survived By Sleeping For a Century " says that you should probably sleep.]

'How is it so strong? My 40 Strength Points felt like nothing compared to that monster's strength. Just it's grip strength was enough to stop my whole body from moving. And that swordmanship, it managed to stop every single one of my attacks. It also came up with a strategy to deal with my speed. What the hell? What the hell? That was kind of....That was...too cool!' Adam was trembling. He felt a mix of fear and excitement.

Adam ran for about 10minutes, thinking about the events that just happenned.

Once the Hobgoblin started raising it's right arm, Adam desperatly used his left hand to undo the monster's grip, but he couldn't. Only when the monster's blade was aimed at the ceiling, did Adam think of using "Crumbling Touch". He got rid of the hand that grabbed his right arm and stepped back rapidly, but he still got cut deeply.

The Hobgoblin's s***h had cut Adam from his left shoulder all the way to his right hip. The military vest must have dampened the damage as it was completely cut from top to bottom. The cut was deep, but not life threatening.

's**t, I've never bled this much in my life. That was way too dangerous. I shouldn't have been so impatient. If I had stepped into the darkness, it might have followed me. I should've lead the battle towards where I was stronger.' He arrived back at the hall where he had fought the Goblin Chief.

He felt a new found respect for the strong monsters he had previously easily slain .'I got really lucky. I've already killed a Hobgoblin, but who would have thought that facing one head-on would be this hard? What about the Goblin Chief that's supposed to be even stronger?? There's a reason why this is an E rank Hidden Location! How can I fight them?'

Adam went into the room where he had found the Wooden Chest and closed the gates behind him. He took out two Medium Healing Potions and drank them on the spot.

He lied down of the floor. Only when he pressed his right hand down, did he notice that it was broken. The whole part of his arm that was held down by the Hobgoblin was broken.

'What kind of grip strength is this? Without the System, this kind of damage would take months and months to heal! No wonder I left my dagger there.'

"Health Points... ? Endurance...?" Adam said weakly.

[ HP: 130/450.

  Endurance 2/150.]

'So I lost all my HP because of his sword slash.Wonder how much HP the Healing Potions gave back. He did break my elbow too.And for the endurance, yeah no wonder. After all this running, using "Crumbling Touch" and desperately fighting for my life of course it would be this low.' Without noticing, Adam started referring to the Hobgoblin as a "He" instead of an "It".

Adam closed his eyes.

'I should've done this this way, and done that that way...' He thought about what he did wrong and how he should have dealt with the situation until he fell asleep.

Adam woke up 8 hours later. It was the first time he slept for so long since he entered the dungeon. He was used to sleeping anywhere from 30minutes to two hours.

He felt refreshed and full of energy.

He rubbed his eyes and sat up.

"Time left in the dungeon, Health Points and Endurance." He said out loud.

[ 3hours and 4minutes before forced expulsion.

  HP: 400/450.

  Endurance 150/150]

Adam got up and stretched.'Oh. My arm is already healed.' He could move his right arm perfectly now.

He noticed the front side of his military vest was ruined.He took it off for a moment.

Adam raised his clothes up to look at his upper body.

The wound had become a scar. It looked old even though he had just gotten it hours earlier. It was a long scar that stretched from his left shoulder all the way  to his right hip bone.

"Will the scar go away once my Health Points have regenerated?" Adam asked while looking at the scar.

[Not all scars disappear. It depends on the wound inflicted. But, your Sleeping Beauty Skill can count a scar as an imperfection. If you want it to, the Skill will make scars fade over time until they disappear.]

"That's perfect." Adam said with a smile.

'Mom always hated scars...' He thought.

["The Hero Who Survived By Sleeping For a Century " is proudly puffing his chest out.]

'Right, haha. I have you to thank for this I guess.' Adam chuckled.

He started speaking out loud.

"Mmm. Wonder what I should do now? Fight the Hobgoblin head on? Backstabbing it by coming from the gate? Or just leave the dungeon?"

["The Laziest of God's Archangels" says you should never take more steps than necessary.]

"True... Taking unnecessary risks wouldn't be good." Adam acted like he had a big decision to take.

["The Hero Who Wears Lion Skin" says you should have a head on fight, for that is the way of the warrior.]

"Yes! Yes! That's also true! Although it hurt alot , looking back, fighting head on was fun!!" Adam said excitedly while looking at the ceiling. He imagined that was probably where he was being watched from.

["The Hero Who Wears Lion Skin" is excited by your words.]

["The Hero Who Wears Lion Skin" is happy that you understand the way of the warrior!]

"But I could really die though? Should I really risk it just for that?" Adam rubbed his chin.

["The Hero Who Wears Lion Skin" says that the fighting is the reward!]

'Oh. He understood that I was fishing for extra rewards...' Adam looked down, disapointed.

[A Certain Evil laughs out loud at your shameless begging.]

[A Certain Evil has offered you a Reward.]

[The condition to obtain the Reward is: Beat the Hobgoblin head on.]

"Yes! Alright! Now I'm motivated!".

["The Hero Who Wears Lion Skin" is sneering at A Certain Evil.]

["The Hero Who Wears Lion Skin" says that a duel should not be motivated by ulterior means!]

Adam thought for a bit. 'I don't have my Old Assassin's Dagger. And the military knife will obviously be useless against it. That only leaves the greatsword. Since there's an extra reward, I'm gonna have to beat it for sure.'

Adam chuckled. He had already made his plans before sleeping. He had already thought of a way to win.

'If everything goes well, it will be an easy vitory for me'