The Evolution of a Goblin to the Peak

Souta checked the exp that he received from killing the skeleton soldier.

Level: 1(52/100)

He only need to kill one skeleton soldier before he level up. It's easy to increase his level at his current level but it will only get harder in the future.

He stood up and armed himself with a short rusty sword that he got from the skeleton soldier. Turning his head in front of him, he saw that there were two dark paths.

He pondered what path he should choose. Both looks the same and these two paths probably had monsters waiting for him. In the end, he decided to go to the left path. He couldn't describe it but this dungeon was somewhat familiar to him. It felt like he came here before so he decided  to trust his guts.

"I'll choose it."

He walked carefully as he stepped forward and entered the left path. The path was dark, the floor was filled with dried black soil, and the torches on the walls could barely illuminate the area.

Cold wind came from the path ahead and he couldn't help but shiver when it caressed his thin body. He was weak and he understood it because of his in game knowledge. That's why he had to be cautious of his every steps as it could lead him to his doom.

He already guessed that this was the dungeon of an undead monster. The boss of this dungeon must be a powerful skeleton knight or mage. If it's a lich then there's no way that he could conquer this dungeon within five days. Lich was a powerful undead and its level was hovering between thirty and forty. It was a boss-type monster that can be found in a mid-level dungeon or high-level dungeon.

He wasn't sure if this was a high-level dungeon just from seeing one skeleton soldier. But... the system wouldn't give him such a low reward if this was really a high-level dungeon. It must be a low-level dungeon if he would receive such low reward. One must know that the higher the reward the more dangerous the quest.

Moving forward, Souta saw a corpse of a goblin laying down in the pool of blood. He had an idea that the group of goblin tried to invade this dungeon but were killed in the process. That's must be the reason why his body(goblin) was inside this dungeon when he woke up.

"This smell is making me puke." Souta pinched his nose. The goblin smells like a rotten fish. It's not his first time smelling this kind of thing but it still feels disgusting.

Virtual reality could make people feel like they were really in another world. The game could copy a person's five senses and Souta would set it to the maximum so that he could really feel that he was in another world. He could smell the blood, feel the wind, and saw the bloody scene inside the game like they were real. The other people would at least turn off their sense of pain or red blood but he hadn't. When someone cut him in the game he would feel extreme pain, and when he cut someone in the game he would see the bloody scene. He didn't know why he did that but he felt someone told him to do so.

His memories were foggy so he didn't have an idea who the one told him to set that function to maximum.

He ignored the corpse as he walked ahead of it. Then, he saw a wooden door five meters away from him. He slowly approached it while carefully looking if there were any traps.

He placed his palm on the door and slowly pushed it. He took a peek inside and saw that there were three skeleton soldiers inside the room.

"Three at the same time? I could handle it as I have a sword now and could use the skill [Stab]." Souta muttered while looking at the sword in his hand. He tightened his grip around the handle before he took a deep breath.

If he stabbed his sword forward doesn't mean that he used his skill [Stab]. If he slashed his sword doesn't mean that he used [Slash] skill. Skills will consume either of his mana when activate to add attributes to his action just like the [Stab] skill. Activating [Stab] will add a piercing effect to his normal "stabbing" action. That's just how skill works.

He went inside the room without making any sound. He doesn't want to alert the skeleton soldiers yet.

He needed to swiftly take out one of the skeleton soldiers to decrease the burden of fighting them alone. If he could take out one of them before they could react then he only needed to fight two enemies. It was easier than fighting three of them at the same time.

This was the basics in launching a surprise attack. To swiftly decrease the number of the enemies before they could react.

He observed the three skeleton soldiers and he clenched his fingers around the handle of the sword.

"One... Two... Three... Go!"

Souta pounced at one of the skeleton soldiers. He quickly raised his sword above his head and swiftly swung it down at the skeleton soldier.

Bang!!

The blade of the sword landed on the skull of one of the skeleton soldiers. The sharpness of his sword wasn't enough to sliced through the bones of the skeleton soldiers but it was enough to cause some cracks on the bones. He didn't care if his sword loses its sharpness.

"Die!" Souta then pulled back his sword and used [Stab].

Swoosh!!

Bang!!

The tip of the sword hit the forehead of the skeleton causing various cracks to appear.

The skeleton soldier fall on the ground but Souta knew that it was still alive. He still hasn't heard the system prompt inside his head yet.

He raised his feet and heavily stomped the skeleton soldier on the ground. Then, he slashed the sword in his hand on the skeleton soldier once again.

The bones in the neck of the skeleton weren't sturdy enough to stay till when a metal like a piece of sword crashed into it. The bones cracked and the skull was separated from the body as it rolled on the ground. The cracks on the forehead of the skeleton spread out before it crumbled down into tiny fragments.

All of this happened in just a few seconds.

[You've received 51 exp from killing Skeleton soldier!]

[You've level up!]

[All attributes increased by 1!]

[You've received 2 attribute points!]

[You've received 1 skill point!]

Souta was sure that he eliminated the first skeleton soldier. He then saw the other two skeleton soldiers charging at him from the corner of his eyes. He turned his head and found the two in different direction.

One on his left while the other one was on his right.

Two on one, huh?

The skeleton on his left side slashed its sword horizontally.

Swooosh!!

"Ha!" Souta raised his sword and parried the sword of the skeleton soldier. Then, he threw a punch on the rib cage of the skeleton.

Bang!

He then quickly crouched down as a sword passed above him.

"That's close!" He tripped the skeleton soldier with his foot before he smashed his elbow on its skull.

Bang!

He doesn't have time to finish the skeleton soldier as the other skeleton already made its way in front of him.

"Ha!" Souta shouted as he forcefully swung his sword.

Clang!

Both his and the skeleton soldier's sword collided causing a metallic sound to echoed in the whole area.

Souta was forced back by the skeleton soldier's strength. His level was lower than the skeleton soldier so it was natural that the stats of the skeleton was higher than him. He knew that his strength was weak that's why he needed to rely on his sword. The added damage of the sword was enough to cause a crack on the skeleton even if it wasn't a blunt weapon.

He gritted his teeth and bent his knees.

Swoosh!!

He used the skill [Dash] as he charged straight towards the skeleton while pointing his sword at it. His level had increased so he recovered his stamina and the added attributes caused by leveling up increased his overall stamina. It means that he could use his two skills albeit of for a limited time.

Clang!

His sword crashed the few ribs of the skeleton soldier. He then grabbed its spine as he kicked the feet of the skeleton.

Bang!

The skeleton was smashed on the ground and when he was about to finish it, he sensed someone behind him.

"Hmm?"

He immediately rolled his body sideways.

Clang!

He lifted up his head and saw the other skeleton soldier. He squinted his eyes clearly annoyed by the fact that he couldn't finish the skeleton on the floor.

Swooosh!

He dashed and slid on the ground while slashing his sword on the knee of the skeleton soldier. He then kicked the ground as he flew in the mid-air. Along with the force of gravity, he elbowed the skull of the skeleton soldier causing a crack to appear on its surface.

[You've received 54 exp from killing Skeleton soldier!]

He ignored the system prompt as he quickly moved his body and dashed to the other skeleton soldier.

"This is the end!" He jumped and smashed his elbow on the skull of the remaining skeleton soldier with all of his might.

Bang!

[You've received 51 exp from killing Skeleton soldier!]

The skeleton soldiers slowly turned into ashes fading in the air as it leaves its weapons.

"Ha~" Souta breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the system. He slumped down on the ground as his tense muscles relaxed.

He looked at the system interface and saw that he level up to 2. He still need to kill two skeleton soldiers before he leveled up to 3.

Level: 2(105/200)

"I'm extremely tired!" Souta muttered as he stared at the rough ceiling.

"Let's rest for an hour."

Souta moved his body at the corner of the room. He leaned his back on the walls while pondering his next move.

He lifted his head and observed the whole room. The whole room was wide and dark. There's only one lantern at the center of the ceiling that could barely illuminate the entire room. He looked around and found that there were other four lanterns at the corner of the room but there's no light coming out of it.

"This is...? A secret room!!" His gamer sense was tingling right now. He had an idea that this was a secret room. There's no doubt about it. He just needed to solve this puzzle.

He immediately got up and observed the whole room. He felt a sense of nostalgia. It feels that he was familiar with this room but he couldn't remember if he went here before in the game.

After a dozen minutes, he found something.

He was standing in front of the walls while tracing his palm at the cold wall.

"This is the secret door but I couldn't open it..." He rubbed his chin while looking at the wall in front of him. He then looked back at the four lanterns at the corner of the room. An idea came into his mind as this was familiar to him but he couldn't remember where he completed this dungeon.

He lit up the four lanterns of the room and it illuminated the whole room but nothing happens.

"Hmm...? There's still one thing that I need to do."

He looked up and extinguished the fire on the lantern on the ceiling, the first lantern that was lighting up the room.

Boom!!

Suddenly, the ground shook.

Souta looked back and saw that the secret door was opening.

"As I thought..."

He walked forward and saw a dark narrow path. He didn't think twice as he directly stepped forward. He felt the mana here in this room was too dense, making his chest heavy.

He tapped the walls and found that this was no ordinary rock. The mana here made the walls harder than the rest making it a precious stone called Mana Stone. From the looks of it, it looks like a high-grade mana stone, no, he thinks that these walls shouldn't be called stone.

After walking for five minutes, Souta arrived in front of a metal door. He opened it and looked inside the room.

There's nothing inside the room except for a golden treasure chest on the center of the room. The treasure chest was emitting golden light.

Souta's eyes lit up when he saw the golden treasure chest.

He approached it and slowly opened the golden chest. There's a lone silver earring with black orb as its design inside the chest.

"This...?" He finally remembered this artifact. This earring was one of his piece of equipment in the game. One of his powerful set in the game, the [Soul Blood Earring].

He's lucky that he found this in the early version.

He picked it up and directly wear it on his ear.

"Ah!" He felt an overwhelming power went inside his body.

[Soul Blood Earring]: A powerful Universal Treasure. It could harvest the soul of every creature to increase the wearers' power.

Skill 1: [Harvester of the Soul]: It could collect the soul of every dead creature. Soul collected: 0/100.

Skill 2: (locked)

Effect: +10 strength, +10 vitality, +10 intelligence

Souta looked at the detailed information of the [Soul Blood Earring]. He still couldn't use skill 2 as it needs the other pair of earrings. The [Harvester of the Soul] was a skill to collect the soul of every dead creature. He couldn't directly collect the soul of a living creature. He needed the soul of a newly killed creature that hasn't left its body. If he collected 100 souls he could use it to increase one of his attributes by 10 but every time he uses it the soul requirement gets higher.

"This earring feels nostalgic..." Souta said with a smirk on his face.

It's time to harvest the soul inside this dungeon.