Chapter 16: That’s a big one

  It had now been a few days since he first saw the stone boar. He had run into a few others in the interim. As for the goblins, there was no longer any doubt about the ones he encountered getting stronger, not to mention bigger. It was like fighting yoked 3rd graders. Fortunately the kind of goblin that could cast magic seemed to be a rarer variety as he only sometimes ran into them and never did a group of goblins have more than one at a time. He hoped that would continue for the future encounters but he wouldn’t be surprised if that pattern changed eventually.

  Sam happened to have quite a few things going for him when it came to self healing and durability. Two of his traits specifically made it harder to injure him and made him heal faster, plus there was also his passive class skill that was yet another instance of health regeneration. All in all he wasn’t too worried about the goblins, but he did wonder if fighting them would’ve been easier if he had a skill that actually dealt damage instead of just making him harder to kill. Sure right now it was no problem but eventually he would run into something that could hurt him more than his advantages could protect him. In that situation his only chance would be to somehow neutralize the adversary before it got to him or running away– in his case probably walking away since his walking speed was higher than his running speed. The thing was, running away might not always be an option. The affinity skills he got from his class might be a good avenue for him to look into for finding ways to magically hurt things instead of just the classic stab and smack that he had been employing so far. From the things he’s read, normally gaining those kinds of elemental affinities either allowed you to cast spells of that element or if you already could, improve your proficiency with them. Except, he only had the affinities and no clues on how to make use of them.

  A little ways down the road, a new sight greeted Sam. There stood a lone goblin, but it was far taller and well built compared to the others. In fact this one was only a head shorter than Sam was. To be fair he wasn’t the tallest guy in the world but still this goblin was by far the largest he had ever come across. At the moment it was turned sideways looking off into one side of the forest past the road but because of the relatively silent surroundings it seemed to already notice his approach. The sickly green pigmented thing stirred as it heard him coming, turning to face him in the process. As it turned, it revealed the weapon that had previously been obfuscated by its body by virtue of its position. In its hand, gripped in preparation, the goblin had a saber. Unlike the armaments other goblins tended to carry, this one looked well made and clean. It did not look like it was cobbled together scrap metal and wood as most goblins he ran into seemed to have. In fact the weapon even seemed too big for the creature. Sam had a feeling that if this encounter went in his favor, that he would have a new weapon to play with. One that he actually far preferred using. His dad was a sabreur and basically brainwashed him from childhood to be one too, so it was probably the weapon that felt most right in his hand. If it had been an option in the very beginning he might have chosen the saber instead of the spear regardless of the utility and safety offered by the polearm. He hoped his intuition was right and that it would be something he would come to use.

  Wasting no more time, Sam took the initiative hoping to end the encounter before it began. He started by activating his skill to bring him right up to the goblin as he was thrusting his spear. Unfortunately it seemed things wouldn’t be that easy as the large goblin was able to step diagonally backwards and slip past his thrust. Not letting go of the momentum, Sam swept his spear in a wide arc following the way the goblin went as he continued to give chase. The upper haft of his spear connected with the goblin’s right shoulder but because the goblin never stopped moving, there wasn’t much force in the impact behind the strike. As Sam readied another thrust, trying not to waste any movements, the goblin was able to regain a more balanced stance. This time when the tip of his spear chased down the goblin’s neck, it was able to parry the strike while stepping forward. Clearly the thing was trying to close the distance and remove the reach advantage of his weapon. Sam maintained the distance between them, matching each step the goblin took forward with a backward movement of his own. Once again he swept his spear aiming to throw the creature off balance and impede its advance. The spear may not have been Sam’s primary weapon of choice when he practiced martial arts, but footwork was something he was very used to plus learning the basics of pole arm combat was always good, at least that’s what his father said and so that’s what ended up happening growing up. He made sure to control the point of his spear to keep steady pressure on the goblin, making it hesitate on anything it might try. At the momentary stalemate, Sam advanced and released a series of repeating thrusts at the goblin. He was still wielding his spear with the standard two handed grip. His goal with the repeated thrusts was to get the goblin used to the range of his weapon. The creature was pretty good at evading his attempts to skewer it. It was a good combatant, good enough to only evade the thrusts backwards by just a bit so that it could quickly press forward at any opening Sam might have shown. He used this to his advantage when on his third attempt at repeating thrusts, he switched to a one handed grip for the very last one, extending the reach of his spear and throwing the goblin off. The thing was incredibly observant and managed not to take a lethal hit but it did not make it out of the exchange unscathed. There was now a fairly deep wound on its side as a consequence of misjudging his reach. The large goblin was able to twist away enough not to get stabbed in the heart or lungs, but if the current pace of combat remained as it did, then Sam would come out victorious. As it staggered from the injury, Sam followed up with some quick footwork to close the distance while swinging his spear down in a wide arc onto the goblin, similar to how one might use a bo staff as a blunt weapon. However this maneuver in an attempt to end the fight did not go as planned for Sam. In the process of swinging his weapon down, with too much momentum behind it for him to stop, his soulsight saw movement from the goblin. Perhaps the thing sensed the stakes behind this one attack and it responded in kind. As something within the goblin’s soul went into action, a wave of darkness engulfed the saber that the goblin raised above its head to block the downward strike from the spear. This time, when the haft met with the saber, the saber cut cleanly through the spear. The half with the spear head continued onward, flung by the momentum of the initial strike. Now he only had the lower half of his spear, technically he still had the reach advantage but obviously the goblin had the ability to change that if their weapons ever touched again. Another issue was that he no longer had a method to dispatch the goblin cleanly. His only option to hurt it now was with blunt force meanwhile the goblin still had its saber. He needed to be careful because he didn’t know what other effects that darkness covering the blade had, also even if he could regenerate through it, it’s not like he enjoyed getting stabbed.

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  The goblin saw its chance, having mostly disarmed Sam. It now charged forward much like Sam had earlier in an attempt to end things quickly. Sam may no longer have his spear, but the goblin was still bleeding profusely. It swung the saber in a clean diagonal slice toward Sam, an attack that Sam parried with the remainder of the haft in his hand. Unfortunately the cutting power of the darkness was unchanged as it cut straight through his parry and nicked him on the shoulder. It was right after that exchange that Sam became grateful he already had his buffing spells active and that he had passive abilities that boosted his healing. This was because after he got cut, he immediately tried to use his heal skill on himself but his mana felt sluggish. It seems like the darkness didn’t just improve cutting power, it also had some kind of debuff it applied if the hit connected. Sam retreated quickly, maintaining a greater distance than earlier as he tried to give his passive regeneration the time it needed to close the wound. The goblin did not let up however and continued to chase him down, trying to cut him. With no options left to block with and not having the time to turn his scramble into a walk that would let him activate his walking skill to make distance, Sam did the only thing that came to mind. He called upon the qi in his core and shoved as much of it as he could around his non-dominant hand while he reached out to intercept the blade. This did not have the exact effect Sam had in mind when he did this. It slowed the blade down, as though his hand was now covered in a layer of foam. However this did not fully stop the saber. As it continued its path, it was able to make a deep cut into the fleshy part of his hand between his thumb and index finger. For a moment he almost thought his thumb would come off, but luckily his sloppy improvisation with qi gave him the opportunity to move the path of the blade away from anything immediately life threatening. Instead of taking this chance to make distance, Sam took the goblin by surprise as he went in even closer and landed a middle kick hard into the creature’s sternum. His enhanced stats and physique launched the goblin backwards a few meters, tumbling across the ground. He didn’t give it the time to get up and recover, he closed the space between them and stomped his boot down as hard as he could– finally ending the encounter.

  Sam’s face was flushed, he was sweating profusely and his heart was racing. He needed to calm himself down and focus on getting his healing skill to work. This was the most danger he had ever been in since the tutorial began. The problem was he couldn’t calm down because he was enjoying himself. As the thought consciously entered his mind, he immediately snapped out of it. He chided himself for his reaction, he couldn’t afford to turn into an adrenaline junkie and risk dying before he got to see more of the multiverse and he still wanted to find his older sister. Disgust with himself began to overwhelm Sam, replacing the earlier ecstasy from fighting. Before he could spiral out of control though, he did his breathing exercises just as he always practiced and was finally able to ground himself.

  His mana was sluggish but he found that with enough effort he could still get it to do what he wanted. Relief evident on his face, Sam began using his healing skill over and over until everything felt okay again. Interestingly there was a scar on his left hand where the saber cut him, unlike any of the other injuries he had healed with his skill before. Finally satisfied with his immediate security, picked up the saber from the spot where the goblin had died. The body was gone, as the goblins seemed to vanish into nothing when they died, but the sword did stay.