Chapter 22 - The Calm Pain
Several hours have passed.
As it was a straight path I didn´t found any difficulty such as losing myself or anything the like. Since it was a pure straight-up path it was quite boring, to say the least.
But that didn´t matter.
At first, I had some doubts about picking the wrong path and that I should return back to choose another path.
But choosing to continue this plain path wasn´t a wrong choice after all.
Since I finally found their cave!
A cave that had a totem in front of it with two normal-looking goblins.
"You guys sure are careless for leaving traces for me to find..." After quietly saying that. I boldly revealed myself to the two goblin guards.
Seeing me the goblins showed quite an abnormal reaction.
They jumped the moment they saw me and fallen backward while trebling.
"K-Kghh!!!"
Seeing those two screamings and heading back inside the cave I scoffed internally.
"I don´t even need to hide to kill such trashes..." Even though my health wasn´t fully restored and my weapons were at best useless, that wouldn´t stop me from killing those mere goblins!
I have long surpassed the strength level of those goblins. To the point that I can basically stomp at them without getting any resistance!
The only thing that can truly endanger me is those that possess skills such as [Sprint].
And by how things looked back then it seemed like they had only the caster and those two helmet goblins that were using skills. Other than those three guys the rest are just cannon fodder!
Walking towards inside the cave I noticed how clean it was compared to the hobgoblins cave. Seeing that I couldn´t help myself but say...
"They even cleaned the house for me? How nice!" Since there were no goblins to be seen I started walking even deeper to the cave while looking behind me every so often.
"Noone to be seen..." Although I was quite confident about being able to kill those goblins, I still remember how that hobgoblin had ambushed me before and almost succeed in killing me.
After confirming that there isn´t anyone hiding for an ambush I continued walking until I reach a room that was cover by some cloth.
Getting closer to the cloth I noticed some low voices coming right behind the cloth.
Moreover, low screeches.
Hearing those screech I put on a vicious smile and hastily dragged the cloth that was in front of me. Making it rip into two pieces.
"I finally found...you?" The current sight in front of me confused me quite a bit.
It wasn´t the fact that they were about 17 goblins in front of me instead of 11.
No, what confused me was the whole room.
Observing the room, in the middle of the goblin group I could see a stone table while on the corners of the room were wooden tables with all kinds of different stuff.
In one pile of the table were dry up meat with a bunch of dried up meat, while on the other side were some crystal which emitted barely enough light to make them glow.
Other than that stuff there was a bunch of paper on those tables.
Seeing all those awakened my curiosity.
But as I thought to inspect all that stuff with the use of status my thoughts got interrupted.
"Kghh!"
"Kwhaaa!"
"Kwaaah"
Tch, those guys sure are load.
"Thanks for reminding me about your guy's existence...Now that you got my attention it would be rude if I were to ignore you guys!"
I threw the staff to the ground and used [Sprint] towards the nearest goblin.
The goblins panicked seeing me rushing at them with incredible speed thanks to [Sprint].
It didn´t even take 2 seconds to reach the first goblin. With my sword raised high, I slashed the goblin towards the neck and shoulder area.
*thread!
"KGHHHH!"
Sadly my sword broke halfway through the goblin's neck. Although my sword broke, the broken part of the blade was still stuck at the goblin's throat. Which made the dying goblin suffer even more, while the more it tried to remove the broken part of the sword, the deeper it went while making it even more painful.
Naturally, it died after some moments of agony.
[You Received 300 Experience Points]
I bent down and picked the dagger of the now-dead goblin.
And I just stared at all surrounding the goblins which were trembling with fear.
"Tch...such losers" Even though it was the perfect timing for them to attack me. But instead of using this chance they just stood there trembling.
This somehow irritated me.
Why don´t you guys try to use this chance?
Why wouldn´t you guys just stand there and not fight?
Aren´t you afraid?
Why...
"Why would you guys give up...?" And as I said that.
A short yet intense pain hit my mind and my chest started boiling up.
The pain felt like some thousand needles pierced my mind as fast as they disappeared, while the heat that was coming through my chest was even more intense than when I was hit with that fireball.
But weirdly enough, I felt calm.
Even though the pain in my mind dissipated. The burning feeling did not.
But compared to the pain I was feeling I was calm.
Too calm to be exact.
"Again..." I knew instantly what this pain was.
Hatred.
And this very feeling came every time I met something that is "alive".
In other words...
Hatred towards the living.
"Now is the best time to practice that..." I slowly let the hatred flow through me. The more hatred I let lose the more I lose my previews, composer. The more I let the hatred take over me the less pain I felt through my chest.
"I see...this is how it works" My smile turned even more viciously than before.
[Sin of Wrath]: Activate
The goblins almost choked by the amount of bloodlust I was emitting.
I guided the mana from my body directly to my legs and used [Sprint].
With the incredible speed that [Sprint] bought and the terrified goblins. They didn´t even notice that their comrade had died before they heard this scream.
"Kghh!"
All the goblins made a step back out of fright, but some screech came from behind them which commanded them to fight.
Those screeches came out from the two helmet goblins.
After some hesitation, all goblins decided to attack this skeleton with their full might!
But it was hopeless.
Every goblin that came near this skeleton got either this skull crushed or cut open by the dagger.
One lucky goblin managed to hit the skeleton with a club which was known for the skeleton crusher.
But the skeleton just looked at the lucky goblin for a few seconds before breaking this neck.
The end result was horrifying.
All 14 goblins had died only for the two helmet goblins to remain.
"You guys sure like to hide between others don´t you."
Even though the two goblins didn´t even fight they sweated an awful lot.
And as I made the first step towards them. Both their legs glowed and the next moment they rushed towards me!
Well...not exactly.
The first helmet to reach me tried to pierce through my neck with this spear. But the spear was caught with just one of my hands, which made the helmet goblin flustered.
Well of course. If someone were to come at you at such speed you would expect that it wouldn´t be caught. At most you would expect that the enemy will dodge.
"But now I!" I raised the newly acquired sword that I had picked out from a pile of [Rusted Swords] near the bones.
And with a slash to this neck, the job was done.
Well almost...
I turned around and saw the other helmet goblin running away with all this might.
"Abounding you comrade to survive..." I summoned the status screen and with my bony handy I pressed towards the screen.
[You acquired Wind Blade]
A huge amount of information was transferred through my mind which made me stagger for a few seconds.
"Let's see..." With the help of information that I got I guided the mana towards my sword.
The technique wasn´t like the skill [Sprint] where you just keep the pure mana into your legs without letting any mana got out.
No, the [Wind Blade] required you to push the pure mana towards the whole blade while moving it back and forth like a wave. And after the "wave" is strong enough you push all the stored mana at once. The end result was creating a sharp blade made out of the wind and pure mana towards the location you slashed towards.
I started creating the mana waves in my sword while looking at the running goblin. Although it was difficult. I successfully finished the wind blade and shot it directly at the helmet goblin.
*Fsheeen!
But sadly, instead of hitting the head like I aimed it only hit this leg.
"Kghaaaaa!"
Maybe because of the distance it didn´t fully cut the leg of the goblin, but instead, it dug around 90% of this leg which made it fall.
"Not bad for the first time"
[Sin of Wrath]: De-activated
Damm that was exhausting...
I did try to manually activate wrath by following the burning feeling which I found out is some kind of anger?
Anyway, using wrath puts too much pressure on my mind which makes it difficult to think clearly. I even got hit by a level 2 goblin...
"K-Kgh..." Seeing the goblin trying to crawl away I scoffed out loudly.
"You try to run away in your current state? What a funny guy" I picked the spear of the fallen helmet goblin and I slowly walked towards the now crippled goblin.
Seeing me slowly approaching him he freaked out and he started to crawl even faster.
But before he could go far away I gripped this not injured leg and dragged him back towards the stone table.
"This who betray shall meet their deserving end..."
The goblin's eyes trebled even more and started to cry right off the bat the moment I was dragging him towards the stone table.
Originally I thought that there were cries of pain.
But I didn´t know what this stone table meant to those goblins.
To the goblins of this cave.
Sitting on that table meant a fate worse than death.
The moment a goblin sits on that table...
They become the elder's toy!
And he, one of the elder's guards. Knew best what fate awaited to those to become the elder toy!