Chapter 113 - Goblin Hunting - VI

Once he felt he had enough blood stored up, Merlin used his strength to pull the creature closer to him, where he promptly sprayed its face with a fine mist of his blood and saliva, he made sure to periodically stop and then spray again, just in case they counted as separate attacks by the system.

「Passive skill ⟪Rose Blight⟫ has triggered, target's stats have been reduced.」

And it appeared that they did, as the third spray triggered the notification.

Merlin watched as the hobgoblin's face slowly became a shade of greenish-purple, and he could feel the monster's strength drop as it wasn't quite as difficult to fight against it in the tug-of-war.

Merlin chanted to activate his heavy strike ability, causing a notification to briefly appear, telling him that his ability had been activated.

「Skill ⟪Heavy Strike⟫ Activated, your next attack will do an extra 35% damage, and has a 15% chance to trigger the stagger effect.」

Merlin pulled the monster towards him once more causing it to stumble forward, unlike last time. His vines quickly detached from the hobgoblin's arms, giving Merlin the freedom to move his arms once more.

Merlin thrust his daggers into the hobgoblin's neck, causing the monster to roar in pain. Merlin unfortunately had his face splattered with the hobgoblin's saliva as it roared. He kicked off the monster's chest and ripped his blades out of its neck.

The hobgoblin threw one of its axes at Merlin, the blade spun quickly through the air. Merlin barely dodged it, but both of his vines had been sliced apart.

While he was off balance, the hobgoblin rushed him with the remaining axe. Merlin tried blocking the blade but the force sent him falling backwards. Instead of falling onto his back where he'd be in a vulnerable position, Merlin kicked the ground, sending himself tumbling backwards to increase the distance between him and the monster.

As he rolled, Merlin kicked up dirt at the hobgoblin, distracting it long enough to give himself enough time to stand back up.

Merlin charged at the monster once more, but unlike the last time where he was in a stalemate, the hobgoblin was slower and had one less weapon to worry about, so Merlin got plenty of cuts in while he was able to defend from all its attacks.

While the two were fighting, Merlin waited for the right moment before he parried the hobgoblin's axe into the air, throwing its balance off. He followed that attack by stomping on the monster's pivot leg, forcing the creature to kneel, where he easily plunged his daggers into the monster's neck once more, finally killing it.

After doing so, he received a couple notifications.

「You have completed the quest, "Destroy the Goblin Camp", visit the mercenary guild to receive your rewards.」

「Congratulations, your soul "Class Soul: Thief (Level 1)" has levelled up.」

Pleasantly surprised by the second notification he checked his thief soul's stats.

┌───────────────────

Class Soul: Thief • Level 2

Bonus Stats: +4 Dexterity, +7% Stealth

Abilities: ⟪Sneak⟫, ⟪Backstab⟫

Origin Soul Bonuses: +3 Agility, +6% Stealth, ⟪Ambush⟫

└───────────────────

It appeared to be the same as he remembered. He received a slight increase in stats, alongside buffs to his abilities, and even a new passive ability.

The improvement sneak received was that the duration increased by ten seconds, the percentage bonus remained at thirty.

Merlin checked his new passive ability, causing another window to open up.

┌───────────────────

⟪Backstab⟫

You specialise in attacking your opponents from behind.

• Striking an enemy from behind with a melee weapon will deal 1.4 times the damage.

└───────────────────

"Perfect. This will come in handy." Merlin mumbled to himself as he began tearing the hobgoblin's breastplate off of the corpse.

Merlin plunged his dagger into the hobgoblin's chest and began a gruesome sawing motion as he sliced through the monster's body. Its blood began pouring out like motor oil and began slicking up Merlin's hands and blade until he was having a hard time holding onto it.

"I really should spend some time and get a harvesting skill." Merlin complained to himself.

He quickly cast cleanse on himself and his weapons, giving him his grip and sharp edge back, but it was quickly becoming covered in filth once more.

Merlin reached into the hobgoblin's chest and started snapping ribs as he made his way to its heart. The squishy sensation made him feel sick, but he slid his knife in and began cutting away at all the parts keeping the heart attached. Once the heart was free, it began glowing to show that it was now considered an item by the system, and Merlin received another notification.

「You have completed the quest, "A Hobgoblin's Heart", visit the mercenary guild to receive your rewards.」

Merlin threw the heart into his inventory and waited the brief cooldown before he could cleanse himself once more. But he knew he was only going to be filthy again once he ran around picking up ears.

He quickly ran around checking for loot while picking up goblin ears, and surprisingly enough there was actually loot this time around. But before he put his hands on it, he threw the goblin ears into his inventory and cast cleanse on himself.

「Goblin Ears Collected: 128/140」

"Six more to go." Merlin mumbled as he stared at the notification. As expected, he would have to pick off a couple more stragglers on his way to the southern side of the road.

Merlin picked up the glowing staff that was resting next to the goblin hexer he had killed not too long ago, and then he checked its stats.

┌───────────────────

[Goblin Hexer's Staff. (Uncommon)]

A knobbly wooden staff that appears to be rotting at the tip.

• Attuned spell: ⟪Corrosive Bolt⟫

• 10 second cooldown.

• Mana cost: 12

• Required level: 7

└───────────────────

"Level seven." Merlin sighed when he read the stats. "Oh well, at least I have a staff for the wizards college."

Merlin threw the staff into his inventory, stood up and stretched his back. He looked around for a few moments before walking back into the forest, travelling in the direction of where he believed the road was.

"I need to really work on my agility. A hobgoblin shouldn't have given me that much trouble." Merlin complained as he walked past a group of goblin corpses, his eyes were fixated on a dead archer that was pinned against a tree with a spear in its chest.

"Alright, once I've finished these quests, I'll pay a visit to the rangers guild." Merlin continued mumbling to himself. "But I'm going to need a bow."

Merlin traversed the forest for a few minutes, and fortunately he found six more goblins who all suffered a tragic fate. But in return he was able to finish his last goblin quest.

「Goblin Ears Collected: 140/140」

「You have completed the quest, "Goblin Exterminator", visit the mercenary guild to receive your rewards.」

"There we go. And now I need to deal with the other two." Merlin said as he inspected the other two quests. "Well at least I don't need to wipe out an entire camp, I suppose."

Merlin finally breached the treeline and was now back on the road, although it didn't last long as he walked across the road and into the opposite treeline. 

"Lets get this over with." Merlin said as he began sprinting deeper into the forest.

A few minutes passed, but he eventually found a small group of kobolds roaming the area. Kobolds were small lizard-like creatures. They were roughly the size of a goblin and had reptilian features, such as scales, a tail and a long snout that held a row of pointed teeth.

There were four kobolds in this group, and they were all armed with at least a dagger, although one also had a sling.

Kobolds weren't known for being strong fighters, rather they were famously known for being weak cowards, especially when fighting alone. It was very likely that a kobold would even lose a fight against a goblin if it were a one versus one duel.

But what they lacked in physical strength they made up for in their ability to build defensive structures and set traps.

So while killing off kobolds was an easy feat, much easier than killing a camp of goblins, stepping into a kobold's lair was an expedition fraught with danger.

Merlin snuck up on one of the kobolds with his blades drawn, and when he felt the time was right, he pounced on the kobold, wedging both his daggers into the creature's neck from behind.

The kobold immediately dropped dead and the other three kobolds leapt into the treeline in surprise.

「Kobolds Killed: 1/50」

Merlin chased after one of the kobolds that dashed away. He quickly caught up with the creature and thrust his blades into its back, killing it in one shot once again.

「Kobolds Killed: 2/50」

And Merlin's favourite thing about Kobolds, besides them being weaker than goblins, was that their blood wasn't a pain to remove. He didn't have to cast cleanse every time it came off cooldown.

Merlin dodged a rock that was flung at him and then dashed towards the remaining two kobolds, killing them in quick succession. 

「Kobolds Killed: 4/50」

Unfortunately nothing dropped, but Merlin didn't mind. He was too busy enjoying the easy fights, it seemed fighting an army of goblins had put quite the strain on his body. 

"But I'm also going to have to deal with gnolls, aren't I..." Merlin sighed as he ran further into the forest.

As he ran around, he found a somewhat open area in the forest.. Within this open area was an elevated area of land, a small rocky hill, where there seemed to be a cave with a fairly wide opening leading inside.