Chapter 2. Race Against Time

Time was running out, and there wasn’t a goblin tribe in sight. Since Victor had to turn off his Annihilating Aura while following the goblin, his stats were in free fall as he couldn’t top them up by conducting mass extinction on the insects in the near vicinity and harvesting easy stat points.

As a result, he ran on borrowed time and constantly checked his status with a nervous twitch, ready to toggle his Annihilating Aura the second he got too close to death—which was an odd thought since he was supposed to be undead.

[Name: Victor]

[Race: Netherborne]

[Level: 5]

[STR: 399, DEX: 399, CON: 399, INT: 399, WIS: 399]

With every passing second, he got weaker and weaker as he rapidly consumed his stored lifeforce to remain on the mortal plane—his stats ticked down like a final countdown to his demise. However, the goblin didn’t know this and ran as fast as his little legs could take him back to his tribe. A place it thought was safe.

Victor was seriously about to have an anxiety attack as he looked around the forest. What was the point of being an all-powerful being if he only had a lifespan of four minutes? Maybe I should have picked the dragon, he wondered but then remembered he would have been reincarnated as a baby of any race he picked.

Although his life span was short, he could always toggle on his Annihilating Aura at the last second and survive off killing the insects as he moved. Even though each one only gives me around a single stat point, there’s so many crawling around the foliage that I should be able to somewhat survive off their lifeforce alone…

The problem was Victor didn’t want to just maintain his current strength. He had been reincarnated into a creature with infinite potential that grew stronger the more it killed—that much was obvious with the Consume skill letting him grow from slaughter.

***

Shrill screams echoed through the forest, causing a slumbering lookout to straighten up and rub the sleep from his eyes. With his peaceful dream ruined, the goblin lookout frowned at the culprit. It was supposed to be another relaxed day on the job. The goblins had made their new home this far south for the very reason of avoiding their predators.

But the lookout was left speechless as he witnessed one of the strongest hunters from the tribe scampering toward the wooden fence with tears flying from his face.

What scary predator this far south could make such a dignified and seasoned veteran goblin run in fear like a newborn child? Did the humans come back to invade the forest again? Or perhaps a wraith spooked him?

But then it all went silent—much to the lookout’s confusion. The goblin hunter ceased screaming, and his head slumped down. He seemed to have just suddenly stopped mid-step and was floating in the air, a meter off the ground. A second later, a vast black being materialized behind the goblin, with one of its claws going straight through the goblin’s ribs as if it was a kebab on a skewer.

The colossal monster—which was over three times the height of the wall the lookout current trembled upon—was disinterested in its kill. Instead, it silently let the body slide down its claw onto the ground with a thump. Then the monster vanished again as if it had never existed. The lookout rubbed his eyes, questioning his sanity. But no matter how much he slapped himself, the dead body of the goblin hunter remained face down on the ground in a pool of blood.

With his sleepiness gone and his hands shaking in fear, the goblin lookout turned to scream a warning to the rest of his tribe, but no sound came out except gargles. Finally, intense pain overwhelmed his mind—his vision blurred as his head fell to the ground. Then, in his last moment of consciousness, the goblin saw his decapitated body slump over and six glowing blue eyes staring at him before the creature vanished again.

***

After floating over a small hill, the goblin’s tribe built inside a depression in the land came into view—it was similar to a little human village. There were some primitive wooden walls, and Victor could see a single goblin yawning on top of the wall. “That must be the lookout…”

Well, no time to waste. I only have a minute left of lifeforce. Not even bothering to use a skill, Victor stabbed one of his claws through the goblin’s body. He wasn’t sure about the amount of force needed, but he definitely went overboard as his claw went through the goblin’s body with ease. The lookout seemed to notice his presence and turned to shout something.

Using shadow magic that came instinctively to him, Victor sank into the ground and reappeared from the goblin’s shadow. With a precise swipe from his claw that was bigger than his target, the windpipe was cut clean so no sound could be released. Victor knew he was far more powerful than a goblin, but he had yet to test what having such low stat points entailed. With these two kills, he had recovered to around one hundred in each stat point, but could a stray goblin arrow kill him? He didn’t plan to find out and approached this like a covert operation until he worked out his opponent’s strength.

Now that Victor was hovering on the wooden wall, he quickly recast his Stealth skill and observed the surroundings. The goblin village was bustling with activity, with around a hundred small wooden huts. Most of the people weren’t armed. Only a few goblin warriors dressed in crude leather armor and wielding stolen human blades far too large for them strutted around the mud streets and showed off to the hideous female goblins.

It seemed Victor’s caution was unnecessary. They were not prepared for an attack, and he couldn’t see a ranged weapon in sight. Feeling confident, he floated down and made his way through the streets. However, due to being over six times the goblin’s height, it felt somewhat awkward to make his way to the village center.

Once in the center and surrounded by goblins, Victor activated his Annihilating Aura, and an instantaneous wave of death mana rippled out from his location. Every goblin it touched just died where they stood. Those that were mid-step tumbled face-first into the mud. Others died with their eyes wide open as they sat in their huts.

Due to the village being rather spread out, he didn’t catch every goblin in that attack. However, those outside his range seemed to notice something was wrong, and shrill screams filled the air. Victor hated the noise, so he activated Consume, and hundreds of whisps gravitated toward him, topping up his lifeforce. He then used Spirit Movement to float through the houses standing in his way to kill off those still alive.

The goblins screamed as they died to an unknown enemy. Then some more intelligent ones started randomly thrusting their spears into the air, hoping to kill the invisible foe. Some even threw their spears like javelins and hit Victor, but they passed right through. To Victor’s surprise, this wasn’t even due to Spirit Movement.

Deciding to turn off his Annihilating Aura and Spirit Movement, Victor let the goblins thrust their spears at his body. When they hit his claws, the spears sometimes broke or got deflected, but when they hit his body, which was a shadowy-like mist, they passed right through as if he was a ghost. “So I am immune to physical attacks.” He laughed to himself, and all the goblins fell to their knees in terror.

Deciding to get serious, he activated his skills and made sure no goblin escaped. After ten minutes of slaughter, the screaming finally stopped. He floated alone in the middle of a silent village that was once home to a few hundred little green people but was now a ghost village with hundreds of cold bodies spread around.

Feeling a little evil from the sight, Victor decided to see the rewards of this endeavor to cheer himself up.

[Name: Victor]

[Race: Netherborne]

[Level: 27]

[STR: 15,342, DEX: 15,342, CON: 15,342, INT: 15,342, WIS: 15,342]

The goblins, on average, had around fifty stat points in total, most of them being in strength, all of which he absorbed through his Consume skill.

Victor ran the math and discovered a harsh truth about his existence. “All of that for only four hours of lifeforce? Around three hundred lives reaped for only four hours of life… What kind of insane war crimes do I need to commit for some peace of mind?”

While looking at one of the goblin bodies at his feet, a simple prompt was shown in his vision:

[Rise]

A slight smirk appeared on his face. If he has to commit war crimes, might as well do so with an army.