Nathan woke up to Nott sleeping comfortably on his chest. He casually called her towards his soul space. He didn't have time to deal with waking her up and hearing her whine about food. He had a quest to prep for. He rushed out of the small inn and headed to some of the stalls that he had seen the day prior. He headed to the blacksmith and decided to buy another dagger so he could still practice with using two for when he couldn't pull out his mythical ones. He also headed to an armourer and bought a light set of armor made of hide and fur.
'Man, I almost killed the rest of my money! I only have enough for food, and I have to pay the inn today, so it's either go hungry or go homeless if this quest fails. Well, unless I die, but it's just goblins, it should be easy.' Nathan, now equipped with some decent gear and a new reason to be eager to finish the quest he started, was walking on the path to the forest. Guards block the direct path to the forest, and only adventurers are allowed to use it.
"Why are you going to the forest? You aren't taking on anything above your pay grade, are you? Too many new adventures wander off in the forest and die before they even know it. Make sure you know what you are getting into." The guard gave Nathan a stern stare that reminded him too much of his dad.
"Don't worry, sir, I know more than that card shows." Nathan returned the guard's stare with a playful smile and bounded off to the forest in the distance.
As Nathan ran away, the guard couldn't help but chuckle and remember the time he dreamed of becoming a famous adventurer.
Nathan approached the forest's edge and couldn't help but recall the dreadful forest he was in.
The air is cool and heavy with mist curling around the ancient trunks of towering pine and ash. Moss-covered stones dotted the ground, their surfaces etched with faint, runic-like grooves that might have been carved by some forgotten hand. The canopy above was thick, letting through only narrow shafts of light that painted the undergrowth in shifting patches of green and gray.
The further Nathan went into the forest, the more nervous he felt about actually being in it. Nott found this to be the perfect time to pop out of his soul space. "Mr.Badass can't even handle a forest?"
Nathan felt embarrassed inside, but couldn't show that to Nott. "How could I be scared of a forest? I once led the Forest King in battle and invaded the Forest of a 100-voices!"
Nott could only be confused by what Nathan said. 'Who is the forest king, the king of what forest?! I've also never known a forest called 'Forest of a 100-voices', did Loki get bored again?' She decided to shrug it off as the delusions of the weak.
Nathan continued exploring the forest they were in.
The forest felt old—older than any town he had seen. Broken branches, trampled ferns, and the scattered remains of small creatures hinted at recent activity, but it wasn't immediately clear what had passed this way. He caught glimpses of crude markings etched into tree bark: loops and lines that suggested goblin territory, though no goblins themselves were visible. Tufts of fur and scraps of ragged cloth hung on brambles like tiny warnings.
Nathan's senses instinctively heightened, noticing they are already in enemy territory. He decided to use Shadow Movement to get up high and scout the local area. After finding a tall enough tree, he realized that, with how dense the trees are, no amount of scouting is helpful. He used shadow movement to get back down to the ground and decided to start walking and looking for more goblin clues.
After finding and following some tracks, he notices other prints in the ground other than goblin feet. He sees deep-set hooves, indicating that a large, heavy-hooved animal also lingers in the forest. It didn't take long for Nathan to figure out what it was. He heard a twig snap to his right, and Nathan's head snapped toward the disturbance. As soon as he could look, he saw something huge and brown charging straight at him. Without enough time to use shadow movement, he was hit hard by the animal. Nathan was sent flying into a tree. Nott just laughed, rolling around in the air, holding her belly.
"How'd you get hit by a boar, the slowest and dumbest animals on the planet?!" Little did Nott know that, while she was imprisoned, Threyash's ecosystem changed. Some animals stayed the same, like the bunnies in the forest who welcomed Nathan to this world. Still, some monsters evolved, unlocking new abilities, gaining keener senses, becoming more intelligent, or even changing physical traits to develop harder skin. Nathan stood up, still recovering from the blow, and finally got to see in detail what attacked him. Unlike before, with the dear where they had normal horns and the horns protruding in the middle of their head, this boar had no horns in the middle of its head. It grew tusks to act as horns. This boar had 4 ivory-white horns and thick reddish-brown hair. Its eyes glowed with a burning fury, as if Nathan owed it money.
The boar charged at Nathan again. "Not again, you fat bastard!" Nathan used Dash to escape the charge. He was careless, though, and wasn't expecting another enemy. As soon as Dash ended, another boar charged straight toward him. "Don't worry, status screen, you don't have to hide my luck no more, I know it's shit." After telling the status screen what Nathan thought about it, he used shadow movement to escape the second board and appear behind the first one, making a shallow cut across its hindquarters.
'Not deep enough, their hide is too thick! I really wish I had a sword, then these boars would've been no problem!' Nathan continued to cry about having daggers while still focusing on the fight, repeating the same strategy. When one boar charges he'll dash, once the second boar charges he'll use Shadow movement to get behind one of the boars to wittle them down till they can't fight anymore. It didn't take him long before the two finally fell. Nathan felt the hum inside his head as the last one fell and decided to check his status menu.
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Name: Nathan Relix
Title(s) - N/A
Talent: ???
Trait(s) -
???:
Endurance
Runner
Crafty
Bunny Slayer
Spearman's arm
Knowledge of Mana
Element(s) -
Darkness
Skills-
Dash
Shadow Movement
Stats -
Strength: 14 -> 16
Constitution: 12 -> 14
Agility: 32 -> 34
Wisdom: 15
Charisma: 5
Luck: ???
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'I need to find a way to get my strength stronger.' As Nathan was diving into his stats and figuring out the best way forward. Another group of monsters was planning an ambush: this time, not animals like boars and bunnies, but something far more clever. Goblins.
They watched Nathan fight the boars; they were the ones who released them after him. They watched how he faults, already planning to counter his fighting style. They weren't expecting him to disappear and reappear at will. Still, they saw that he was weak and could easily be killed, so they waited till he was distracted. They saw him stare into space, completely distracted. This is it! The three of them raised weapons, about to hit their next meal, until someone else screamed out.
"Watch out, Nathan! Behind you!" Nott yelled out at the nick of time. Nathan quickly pulled out his daggers from his soulspace and used shadow movement to get behind the new threat. He analyzed who his attackers were and recognized them immediately. They were goblins, and they looked exactly how they were in his dad's game! It kinda stunned Nathan to see something so familiar in this world, and that gave the three goblins time to attack again. Nathan used Dash through them, hitting all but one two to three times.
'One of them seems to be smarter than the rest, still, though none of them have the markings or the earrings of a goblin warrior, so they should be easy.' Nathan entered shadow movement again, quickly decapitated the two goblins he had previously injured, and faced the remaining one. 'Goblins are scary in large numbers, but in one versus one, they are extremely weak.' The goblin tried running, but Nathan caught up instantly, decapitating the final one.
"Well Nott that makes three, but where am I gonna keep all this stuff?" Nott just sighed and summoned a portal seemingly made of the void.
"You can throw anything you kill into here; this is my personal subspace that I use as storage." Nott reluctantly let Nathan throw the three goblin heads and the two boar corpses into the subspace. 'None of that better not dirty up my relics in there. I shouldn't bring them up to Nathan yet. He will get greedy and try to enter the subspace and steal everything. Nott nodded to herself, agreeing with her decision. "Where to now?"
"We head in the direction that the goblin was running. He must've been running to get help. So if we go that way, we will find more goblins." So they went and headed towards more goblins, a lot more goblins.