Chapter 9: Level Up
The system message was so sudden and so unexpected that Arthur could only blink as he took the words in.
Then, before he could even open his mouth, a surge of warmth exploded through his chest and into his limbs.
The pain in his thigh vanished almost instantly, as if it was never even there. His pulse was rapidly steadying too, and even the spinning in his head seemed to have cleared out in an instant!
He could breathe again!
A few more status notifications entered his vision, but Arthur quickly dismissed them and looked ahead.
There was still one last imp to take care of first.
The last goblin didn’t move right away. It was just staring at him, its snarling lips twitching as if it was confused.
Arthur met its eyes, then smiled.
"You’re screwed now, buddy."
The little imp snarled at the taunt and stomped one foot forward. It seemed to have sensed the provocation in the human’s words and raised its makeshift spear, as if looking for an opening.
But Arthur didn’t give it one.
He lunged forward first.
The spear goblin flinched, clearly not expecting the human it had nearly killed seconds ago to charge back at it with such vigor. But to its credit, it still thrust its weapon forward.
Arthur twisted his body to the side. The vine-bound spear scraped against his shoulder, just enough for him to feel a sting.
...But that was it.
He stepped inside the goblin’s range and brought the fang down like a knife, straight through the imp’s collarbone.
The goblin shrieked.
Its knees buckled, but Arthur didn’t stop. He pushed the tooth deeper, forcing it down until the monstrous imp finally collapsed, the spear in its hands landing on the ground with a thud.
[Goblin defeated. +5 EXP.]
Arthur exhaled, steadying his breath.
He’d done it. He didn’t expect to kill the three little bastards with only 20 health points left, but he’d done it.
For a moment, he simply took in the scene around him in complete silence.
He replayed the goblin’s final thrust over and over again in his mind.
Weirdly enough, at that last moment, he hadn’t been worried about the little imp’s movements in the slightest. No, in fact, he had been certain that he was going to dodge and successfully strike the imp down.
He took a last breath and examined his body.
Even though he still had the bandage on, he could tell; there was no more blood dripping from his thigh. The pain had vanished, too. It was almost as if his body had been magically restored to perfect condition.
Well... almost perfect.
There was still that small scratch he’d suffered on his shoulder from the last goblin, but Arthur suspected his HP had only dropped by a couple of points at most.
He straightened his back and watched as the goblin’s corpse dissolved into motes of light just like the others before it.
But this time, Arthur noticed that something was left behind.
An item!
It sat in the dirt where the goblin’s body had vanished, folded neatly, oddly enough, as if the creature had taken it off before dying.
[Item: Threadbare Jerkin
Rarity: Common
A lightly-padded cloth vest. Offers minimal protection against slashing and piercing damage. Better than nothing.]
Arthur crouched and picked it up as he read through the system’s description.
The fabric was rough to the touch, coarse like burlap but reinforced along the chest and shoulders with thin overlapping layers of what looked like cured leather. It was clearly handmade.
It had been stitched unevenly, with a few dangling threads here and there, but it was still better than the blood-soaked T-shirt he’d torn apart earlier.
He slipped it on over his undershirt and adjusted the fit. It was a little tight, but it would do.
"Better than nothing, huh?" he muttered in a low voice.
He flexed his arms once and rotated his shoulders, as if to make sure he could still move them freely. Luckily, he didn’t feel any resistance.
Then, he glanced down at the now-empty forest floor.
Eleven goblins.
That’s how many he needed to kill to get to level 2. Well, he didn’t really need the last one, but it’s not like he could avoid it even if he wanted to.
He took a deep breath and let everything settle in.
The thrill of the fight, the relief of healing, everything.
Then, Arthur turned his gaze towards the floating status window and the notifications he’d ignored earlier.
[Name: Arthur Shaw]
[Age: 19]
[Species: Human]
[Class: Mage]
[Title: Goblin Slayer]
[Level: 2]
[HP: 56/60]
[Mana: 130]
[Strength: 4+]
[Intelligence: 7+]
[Wisdom: 6+]
[Agility: 3+]
[Vitality: 3+]
[Elemental Affinity: None]
[Skills: None]
[Unassigned stat points: 2]
The first thing that caught his eye was the new title right under his name.
Goblin Slayer.
He pressed a finger lightly to the translucent screen, and the description window expanded.
[Title: Goblin Slayer (Minor)]
[A title held only by the most dedicated goblin hunters.]
[Effect: +2% damage to all goblin creatures.]
He read the description and his eyes widened in surprise. He wondered if he’d gotten it because he’d only hunted goblins this entire time.
He supposed it made sense. After all, he’d spent the last hour doing nothing but hunting the little bastards.
The +2% damage wasn’t anything to write home about either.
Especially when most goblins died from a single stab. But it was alright, he supposed. Maybe it’d come in handy at some point in the future?
Arthur closed the title description and moved on to the rest of his stats.
His HP had gone up by 10 and his mana by 20.
That made sense, probably... After all, he was still a mage.
The only problem was he still didn’t have anything to use mana on, so the extra pool didn’t really do him any good just yet.
The rest of his stats weren’t much different.
Strength, agility, and vitality had each gone up by a single point, while intelligence and wisdom had both gained two.
It seemed the class bonuses were real, even if he didn’t feel any different. He certainly didn’t feel any smarter or wiser.
Stronger? Maybe? He couldn’t really tell even if he was.
Arthur kept reading and was somewhat disappointed when he realized he hadn’t learnt any skills even after leveling up.
He frowned as he looked at the still-empty line.
Were mages supposed to just ’stab with a fang and hope for the best?’
What was he supposed to do without any skills?
He was starting to wonder if there was something he’d missed. Maybe he was supposed to visit a certain place in the city? Or interact with an NPC?
Whatever the reason, it just left a bad taste in his mouth.
After all, he was certain that anyone who got the berserker class, or warrior, or whatever the game called it, would be able to obliterate these goblins without struggling as much as he had.
At the very least, they probably wouldn’t come so close to dying like he had just now.
Finally, his eyes dropped to the last line of the interface.
[Unassigned Stat Points: 2]
