Chapter 17: Chapter 14, Killing cowards

Chapter 14, Killing cowards

 

 

Before deciding on how to proceed from the 50th floor and upwards I first have to make it there. I study the walls for any obvious way up or down but it seems that the goblins don't come down here. It’s understandable seeing what the chasm’s bottom is like.

The chasm walls have large holes spaced at differing heights all the way up from the collapsed floors between the top and bottom. I can see rats on a few ledges above me which must mean that there is a way to get up there even for them. I don’t really feel like searching for it though. I’ve been here long enough and I’m sorely tempted to try scaling the left side wall to speed up my ascent.

It’s a risk since falling even once might as well spell my death. Both from the impact on landing and the subsequent tearing. The problem of how I will make it to the next ledge above me remains. It’s situated about 15 meters overhead and I briefly entertained the idea of jumping the distance to test out my muscles' increased resistance to tearing during high stress. I don’t want to risk miscalculating and falling though.

“Any ideas how to make it up, Ari?”

“I’d say jumping between ledges to get up there is out until we’re proficient enough that we won't make any mistakes with that high of an enhancement. It might also attract the goblins’ attention and we don’t need to be fired at while trying to get up there. We may be able to scale the walls if we figure out a way to do it.”

“Alright let’s try making some sort of climbing gear but first we’ll check our notifications and distribute whatever attribute points we’ve gotten from the last two months. We’ll need every bit of power for this.”

 

 

Ding! You have slain [Razormouth Scavenger Rat - Level 46]. Less experience awarded.
…
Ding! You have slain [Razormouth Scavenger Rat - Level 53]. Less experience awarded.

Ding! [Mana Machine] has leveled from [61] to [67]. +[30 AP].

Ding! General skill [Identify] has leveled from [13] to [15].

Ding! General skill [Small Blades] has leveled from [47] to [56].

Ding! General skill [Dual Wielding] has leveled from [52] to [61].

Ding! General skill [Unarmed] has leveled from [5] to [13].

Ding! General skill [Throwing] has leveled from [6] to [8].

Ding! General skill [Arcane Daggers] has leveled from [31] to [34].

Ding! General skill [Arcane Missile] has leveled from [19] to [22].

Ding! General skill [Running] has leveled from [32] to [34].

Ding! General skill [Sprinting] has leveled from [24] to [28].

Ding! General skill [Jumping] has leveled from [36] to [43].

Ding! General skill [Dodging] has leveled from [46] to [55].

Ding! Skill [Passive Power] has leveled from [221] to [252].

Ding! Skill [Arcane Manipulation] has leveled from [336] to [341].

 

 

The monotony of the battles has severely hampered my skill growth during these two months of slaughter and I’ve only gotten 6 more levels. Not really thinking too hard about it I put the newly acquired AP into [Wisdom] to raise my mana regeneration once more.

 

 

Ding! Attribute [Wisdom] has been increased from [135] to [165].

Attribute Points: [0]
Strength: [24] -50%
Constitution: [24] -50%
Vitality: [24] -50%
Agility: [24] -50%
Dexterity: [24] -50%
Intelligence: [163] +100%
Wisdom: [165] +195%
Mana: [3242/3260]
Mana regen: [486] / Minute

 

 

I move away from the chasm to the chamber I came through last and take my time going over my options. I’ll need to create some sort of climbing gear that will allow me to scale solid rock. Taking my time to work out the best solution in my head I start expelling a bit of mana and shaping it into a 0.5 centimeters thin, 10 centimeters long, needle with a grip not unlike my daggers.

My idea is that I will be able to pierce the solid rock using enhanced strength if the object is thin enough and use these needles to scale the wall. I might need a new mana structure for this since it needs to take considerable strain to not break against the rock or my weight.

“What about the daggers? Do we disperse them or create the sheaths we’ve been holding off on? Our newly increased [Wisdom] should support the expense.”

“We’ll have to keep our mana regeneration as high as possible during the climb. I don’t like doing this unarmed but keeping both daggers, sheaths and these climbing needles manifested will leave us with almost nothing for enhancement. The climb will take forever if we need to pause every other step.”

 

Dispersing [Arcane Daggers] we start working on the mana structure. We don’t conserve any mana in its creation since our top priority is keeping it whole to prevent our deaths. The mana structure we come up with has its roots in the crystalline one we use for our [Soulcore] but with some modifications.

It’s much denser since our power and manipulation abilities have increased and we manage to incorporate an overlaying secondary structure that's sole function is keeping the base structure intact while acting as a spring. Allowing for slight compression and expansion between the mana particles to make it less brittle.

The handles I create from the same mana structure before coating them in the rubbery arcane material protecting our [Soulcore]. It gives me good grip and will slightly help dampen any vibrations. The finished construct looks like a black and mostly opaque crystal needle with a black rubber handle.

 

I grip the climbing needle in a reverse grip before enhancing my right arm and slamming it into the stone wall in front of me. It goes in about 7 centimeters and taking that into account I shorten the needle to match that length. No need for the extra mana upkeep if the last 3 centimeters will be useless.

Pulling the needle out I jam it once again into the wall at knee height before jumping on top of it. It holds my weight as planned but I need to make sure it’s sturdier than that. I crouch on one leg before I jump 3 meters straight up, coming down hard on the climbing needle and promptly sprain my ankle. Taking the pain as confirmation of success instead of dwelling on it I let Ari restore the sprain before doing my next test.

This chamber only has a height of 6 meters but it’ll do well enough as a testing ground. Pulling out my climbing needle and manifesting a second one I jam the left one into the wall, pulling myself up with that arm before jamming the right one into the wall a meter higher up. Pulling out the left hand climbing needle I pull myself up before jamming it back in with enhanced strength a meter above the right one.

Repeating the movement once more I pull both of them out before falling back down, satisfied with my testing. I think this will work just fine and my mana regeneration should be able to keep up if I keep a reasonable pace.

 

Walking back out to the chasm my anticipation is growing in the face of my next challenge of free climbing the almost half kilometer towards the 50th floor.

I first have to make my way to the left side of the chasm since that’s where I’ll be able to reach the uppermost ledge the goblins are at. My vantage point is about two thirds of the way towards the right side chasm wall and I need to climb about 80 meters horizontally to make it to the left side.

Not looking down at my possible future resting place I lean out to the left from the corridor hole I’m in and jam my left hand climbing needle into the wall. Using the now stuck climbing needle I swing out using it as a pivot before jamming my other climbing needle into the wall to its right.

Alternating between the two climbing needles I make a diagonal climb towards the left side, now on my right, while simultaneously making my way upwards. I’ve climbed about 30 meters upwards when I reach the wall and I’ve passed several holes with rats in them. It’s luckily easy enough to avoid getting too close by taking a slightly roundabout way when coming across them.

I keep climbing on the left side chasm wall straight up taking care not to move faster or use more enhancements than my mana regeneration can support. I have to avoid hundreds of openings on my way up and getting lax in avoiding them I almost get bitten by a rat when getting a little too close. My needles work as an excellent stabbing tool though and the rat was the first one to find it out.

 

It must be several hours later that I made it high enough to make out what the goblins above me are saying. I’ve never tried speaking goblin even if it’s included in my [Humanoid Linguistics] general skill since it’s so foul but it sure comes in handy knowing it now.

“Gurhtak want me clean his job. I no clean I dispose, I say.”

“Gurhtak fool. He no want live? Lagtok kill if talk like that.”

The first goblin to speak makes a strange gurgle that I know to be a shushing sound.

“Keep down voice! If Lagtok hear we dead. He like goblin meat.”

“Sorry Koptgog. Me now quiet. You know when big thing is? Is soon yes?”

“No, stupid Bughak, big thing not anymore. Big thing long time back. Big boss no invite Bughak or Koptgog but Koptgog knows.”

“Is why we work much now? I want know were all hob orc come from. Is big thing?”

The first goblin makes an exasperated sound that to my ears is nothing more than a low and high pitched wheeze.

“Bughak stupid I say. Always many big bodies behind big thing time.”

 

The goblins nearest the ledge move away and I once again can’t make anything concrete out. It sounds to me though as if some sort of event had taken place a while ago and that these dead hobgoblins and orcs falling down behind me are a result of said event.

It doesn’t tell me the size of their population though as I have no way of knowing what an event might be to goblins and their ilk. Maybe a big feast had been held and these corpses are only a result of small grudges being repaid and going overboard.

I have to make a choice before I climb the rest of the way up. Once I’m there I will probably not be able to get back down here in search of shelter if they’re overwhelming me with numbers. I won’t take a lower opening into the floor beneath the topmost one either as that will increase the time spent down here by an unknowable amount.

I know I can’t hang here forever and decide to take the gamble of exposing myself on the goblin-filled ledge. I’ll just have to run for it while cutting them down to make myself scarce as quickly as possible. If I let them get ahead of me they’ll probably gather in an endless wave of bodies trying to overwhelm me. Goblins are cowardly creatures and only attack in superior numbers if their prey is not weaker than a single one of them.

I climb the last 20 meters keeping close to the wall praying that no goblin will look down and see me coming for them. When I reach the ledge I immediately pull myself up and start running straight towards the first passage I see in front of me a few hundred meters away.

Dispersing my climbing needles I start manifesting my arcane daggers but I don’t even have the 5 seconds it takes for the manifestation to complete before a goblin notices me.

 

 

[Worker - Level 29]

 

 

Not giving it the chance to notify the others I enhance my legs with power and launch myself diagonally left towards it. Its eyes go wide as it opens its mouth but my left foot cracks its skull before the goblin and I land on the floor. I launch myself once again, using enhancement to increase my speed as I smear brains and scatter pieces of cranium behind me.

 

 

Ding! You have slain [Worker - Level 29]. Less experience awarded.

 

 

With two seconds left until my daggers are manifested, I knee the next goblin in front of me in the stomach hard enough to crack its spine without stopping my mad dash for the corridor ahead. [Arcane Daggers] manages to complete its activation just as the first cry of alarm is heard. It’s not surprising it barely took 5 seconds for me to get noticed as there must be hundreds of goblins between me and the entry and exit points up ahead, not even to mention the goblins further down the chasm’s ledge.

They’re all coordinating with each other to haul big green corpses towards the ledge for disposal. 6 goblins per hobgoblin corpse and 10 goblins per orc corpse, and there are several dozen such corpses in my view with more being dumped here all the time.

 

I don’t acknowledge the ever rising panic among the goblins as I carve a path through anyone that gets close enough to feel my daggers’ bite while [Sprinting] is working overtime. The goblins are weak enough that a single slice to their neck or dagger piercing any part of their skull is enough to instantly finish them but I don’t even bother trying to kill them and simply slice anything in reach. Limbs, fingers, feet and heads keep flying in arcs all around me as I let my daggers sing.

The rush I get from this is intoxicating. It’s no real challenge but the carnage, the bloodbath, it sings to me. It gets a little darker in some spots where the torch light and burning oil can’t properly reach and seeing no more point in stealth I raise the glow of my golden eyes. It causes an even higher volume of panicked shouts from the goblins.

I laugh in glee as my glowing golden eyes fall upon prey after prey, slicing and dicing before continuing on. I almost lose myself in the thrill of it all but when the first shaking goblins carrying rusty steel sticks of what might have been swords once start appearing I focus on my task once more.

 

I start to rush after the largest stream of bolting goblins since that seems like the most likely path connected to a wider network of corridors and chambers. Coming up from behind I slice them apart while the terrified eyes of their kin up ahead dart backwards in hope that they won’t be next. I carve a wide channel through their tightly packed stream going into the corridor and once in the corridor myself my killing speed increases.

The tight space coupled with their numbers gives me a target no matter where I point my daggers. I take this chance to work on increasing my efficiency. I have been using pretty liberal amounts of mana dashing to the corridor but I want to keep killing them at the same speed with less enhancements.

Working on my [Dual Wielding] skill should help in this endeavor. I try slicing more throats in the same movement and ending each slice with piercing a goblin’s skull. It’s difficult to time both daggers correctly and not simply miss my intended targets.

Both my killing speed and movement speed slows down significantly but I’m not too bothered by it as I’m still moving faster than any goblin in front of me. It won’t be too long until I’m at the front of the line and have to navigate this floor on my own and find a path towards the upper floors without their panicked help.

Refining my unrelenting slaughter I finally make my way to the front of the group. The goblins at the front of the stream have faces showing clear incredulity and their wide-eyed looks cast my way seem to beg me to explain how I caught up to them. I don’t answer and simply cut them down like the rest before rushing ahead.

I have no idea where to go and simply make my way in different directions through different intersections, chambers and corridors. They are all filled with goblins doing various goblin things, I won’t even try to understand what exactly, and I simply cut down everything I see. I know I’m practically leaving a trail leading straight to me by doing this but I’m counting on being able to cut them down and move on faster than the goblins can catch up if they wish to do so.

 

After a whole day filled with just killing and running I start to get bored. It’s no fun if they’re not packed tightly together since I can barely work on my [Dual Wielding] skill if I kill them one by one. After another day of the same I finally stop my killing spree and push the last goblin in my current chamber against a wall before putting a dagger to his throat.

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Speaking Goblin feels as disgusting as I had imagined it to do. It takes a few garbled words to get it right but once I do it doesn’t sound any better to my ears. The noises leaving my mouth are a mixture of gurgling, whimpering, screeching and harsh consonants.

“Where way up?”

The goblins eyes grow even wider but it keeps wriggling and whimpering in a non-speech manner.

“WHERE. WAY. UP?!”

Shouting in its face while increasing the glow of my irises seems to crack whatever resistance his weak courage had against helping the slayer of its kin.

“There up.”

It points to a corridor leading out of the chamber I haven’t traveled through. There are still a few goblins in there not having made their escape yet.

“AND?”

I shout.

“Right, left, left, right. Don’t remember rest. Tokpyb always remember. Tokpyb dead.”

 

I slit its throat and following the directions I continue forward. It might have lied to me but I’ll check once more when I reach the last of his directions. Keeping my monster grinding going I make my way right, left and the left again before doing the same in the crossroads ahead. Killing everything except one and having it give me the next steps of directions.

It seemed the first goblin hadn’t lied to me and I got the rest of what the goblin knew before ending it and moving on. It takes 24 more interrogations before I make my way to the stairwell and I swear I had been going in circles for a little while. One of them must have been a sneaky fucker misdirecting me.

 

When I come upon the stairwell it seems I’m anticipated. How could I not be though? I’ve probably killed a thousand of them and some of the goblins knowing the way up must have warned of my approach. They have arranged a brittle looking shield wall in front of me and a hobgoblin is towering behind his defensive line looking down upon me from a height of 1.9 meters. Compared to the 1.3 meter tall goblins with their flimsy rusted shields and almost cracked wooden pikes for spears the hobgoblin looks positively majestic.

He’s clad in nothing more than a loin cloth and a rough looking leather vest and shin guards, holding a sword that would be of two handed make for a human in his right hand. I plan to simply charge the shield wall of 50 goblins and their pikes before weaving through and breaking their flimsy barricade but first I need to know more about my real opponent in this fight.

 

 

[Warrior - Level 55]

 

 

Is that green goblin blood splattered on its vest and sword? This is the murder rat all over again. It might be quite dangerous getting caught on that rusty but sharp looking sword but I don’t let it deter me. Waiting for my last points of mana to regenerate I drop into a half crouch stance with my daggers in front of me, the left one in a reverse grip. On the other side of the barricade the hobgoblin is posturing, flexing his muscles and swinging his sword lazily as if to impress me or something.

 

I use [Arcane Missile] to manifest a single one behind my back, keeping it hidden, before rushing towards the blockade. The goblins draw together even closer making their attempt at a shield wall slightly less embarrassing but I don’t pay it any real attention. As I’m about to reach the blockade I raise the missile behind me overhead and shoot it straight over the blockade, right at the hobgoblin.

He manages a slight dodge, showcasing impressive reflexes, but still taking it in his left shoulder. The construct pierces straight to the bone before stopping and detonating, tearing a huge chunk of flesh and leaving his left arm dangling uselessly. My attack and subsequent detonation, coupled with a pained roar, manages to draw a few of the goblins’ attention away from me as I’d hoped.

As I reach the shield wall I duck under a pike and swerve out of the way of another coming for my chest before slicing the head of a distracted goblin cleanly off. Using its falling body as a springboard I leap over their defensive line with grace. I land behind the last goblins and immediately turn back around towards them, cutting down their line from behind with devastating efficiency.

The goblins scramble to rearrange their defensive line but I’m only focusing on thinning them out before the towering monster behind me reaches us. I could have gone for the hobgoblin directly but I want to take it down while being under the assault of these goblins. It would be too easy otherwise and I need the practice of focusing on a stronger enemy while evading its minions.

 

There’s about 20 goblins left when the hobgoblin shakes off its stupor from losing a shoulder and reaches me with its right arm held high, giant sword in hand, and swinging downwards. Having kept an eye on it out of the corner of my vision I see the strike coming and deftly break away from my previous foe, a goblin with a shield, and spin on my heel to let it fall down in front of me.

The sword hits the stone floor with a reverberating clang and I take my change at retaliation. Switching my right hand dagger into a reverse grip I crouch lower before pushing off with enhanced legs towards the left of the hobgoblin. Passing it by and tearing its right side to hanging tatters of leather and green skin with small amounts of flesh.

The hobgoblin follows with its sword just behind me and I have to do a forwards roll to avoid it splitting me horizontally in half. The goblins, seemingly emboldened by their larger counterpart’s mighty slashes, lash out at my rolling form, getting a few nicks in with their pikes as I keep my attention on the hobgoblin.

 

The hobgoblin has to rebalance itself after that huge overreaching slash and I take the opportunity to get into a half crouch before killing a few more goblins. I continue this strategy a few times, waiting for the hobgoblin to attack, scoring a small hit, dodging its followup and killing a few goblins. It seems the hob has lost its battle lust though. As I once again dodge its follow up and start killing the last 3 goblins he turns tail and runs towards the staircase. I can’t let him get away but I don’t want to leave these goblins alive either.

Hurriedly finishing the three I rush after the hobgoblin disappearing out of view up the spiraling steps. I catch up to him with my slightly enhanced [Sprinting] and with an enhanced leap up the staircase I pierce the hobgoblin’s neck close to the brainstem with both daggers, tearing them out in the same motion that carries me in a flip over its head. I land on the steps in front of it and turn around to watch the hobgoblin with a now almost severed spine, gushing a spray of green blood, fall backwards down the stairs.

 

 

Ding! You have slain [Warrior - Level 55]. Less experience received.

 

 

“Damn that was so cool, Zel.”

“I know right? That flip felt amazing.”

I take a few minutes to rest and recover from the mental strain of continuous battle. Dispersing my clothes I let Ari clean my nude body and enjoy the sensation of her teasingly reaching a little deeper or scrubbing a little harder than necessary in certain places. After manifesting a clean set of clothes and tying up my hair in my prefered style I start climbing the staircase.

I can hear both goblins and hobgoblins up ahead and prepare myself for another round of slaughter and interrogation. I just want out of here now. I miss the feeling of sitting under a starry sky, a campfire blazing and warming the chilly air while puffing at my pipe and enjoying the high of the pipeweed.

“Don’t worry. We’ll get out of here soon enough.”

Ari, probably sensing my dropping mood gives me an encouraging prod and I forcefully pull myself back together. This isn’t the time to get all moody and Ari is right. We’ll get out of here soon enough.

 

---

One year later.

 

 

“Is this the 6th floor since we started killing these cowards?”

“Yeah I think so. The last two floors have been the absolute worst though. Sure, killing the same thing for over a year is boring but the slime on the last two floors? I mean do they like the feeling of having flooring that’s all slick and wiggly? They were at least twice as numerous on those floors as those before.”

“Yeah, the last two floors were weird and annoying. At least it was a welcome surprise when reaching them since we know only floor 39 and 40 have those slick floors. We’ve only got 38 more floors to go now.”

 

We sit in the staircase, resting and recovering our power from our last large battle to reach this place.

“Do you think they have established a good defense of the staircase on this floor too? We’ve seen mounting resistance the higher we climb in concert with less goblins and more hobgoblins.”

“Don’t know honestly. I just hope they send down an orc to guard the staircase to the next floor. Only increasing the numbers of hobgoblins is getting them nowhere. It only slows us down and I’m looking forward to fighting an orc.”

“We might want to check our notifications and spend our attribute points if we're going to face an orc. They’re quite a lot stronger than mere hobgoblins.”

“Alright.”

 

 

Ding! You have slain [Shaman - Level 31]. Less experience awarded.
…
Ding! You have slain [Warrior - Level 62]. Less experience awarded.

Ding! [Mana Machine] has leveled from [67] to [78]. +[55 AP].

Ding! General skill [Identify] has leveled from [15] to [21].

Ding! General skill [Small Blades] has leveled from [56] to [70].

Ding! General skill [Dual Wielding] has leveled from [61] to [75].

Ding! General skill [Unarmed] has leveled from [13] to [17].

Ding! General skill [Throwing] has leveled from [8] to [11].

Ding! General skill [Arcane Daggers] has leveled from [34] to [41].

Ding! General skill [Arcane Missile] has leveled from [22] to [33].

Ding! General skill [Running] has leveled from [34] to [46].

Ding! General skill [Sprinting] has leveled from [28] to [39].

Ding! General skill [Jumping] has leveled from [43] to [55].

Ding! General skill [Dodging] has leveled from [55] to [72].

Ding! Skill [Mana Sight] has leveled from [61] to [66].

Ding! Skill [Mana Sense] has leveled from [242] to [249].

Ding! Skill [Passive Power] has leveled from [252] to [287].

Ding! Skill [Arcane Manipulation] has leveled from [341] to [375].

Ding! Resistance [Disease resistance] has increased from [3] to [4]

Ding! Resistance [Poison resistance] has increased from [5] to [8]

Ding! Resistance [Fire Magic Resistance] has increased from [2] to [4]

Ding! Resistance [Lightning Magic Resistance] has increased from [1] to [2]

 

 

My biggest growth is not in levels or skills but in my combat ability. Using my up until now stagnating power to defeat stronger and more numerous foes has led me to making huge improvements in both coordination, enhancements and my skill with daggers. I’ve even started incorporating more uses of [Arcane Missile] in the middle of close quarters battle to distract or injure enemies.

“More wisdom?”

“Yes, Ari. More wisdom.”

 

 

Ding! Attribute [Wisdom] has been increased from [165] to [220].

Attribute Points: [0]
Strength: [24] -50%
Constitution: [24] -50%
Vitality: [24] -50%
Agility: [24] -50%
Dexterity: [24] -50%
Intelligence: [163] +100%
Wisdom: [220] +195%

Mana: [3260/3260]
Mana regen: [649] / Minute

 

 

Having more mana regeneration is still my most pressing concern as I haven't reached an enemy yet that took more than my mana capacity to defeat in a single strike. Not having to overload my body with enhancement has also made further physical attributes less useful. At least for now.

Placing my daggers in their clear crystalline sheaths I grab the sheathes before dispersing my clothes, waiting for Ari to clean me up, manifesting my clothes back and hanging the sheaths onto a leathery belt made of black arcane material now threading it’s way through the upper part of our worker pants.

I created the crystalline sheaths and belt half a year ago when I was bored and recuperating. They’re nothing special and I want to remake them some time in the future. For now I’m just happy to be able to place my daggers somewhere and not keep them in hand all the time when I’m not fighting.

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