The beautiful scent of old wood.
'Ah' Voro laid on the castle stone floor under its rustic gothic roof design 'Feels good'
[Welcome back Challenger Voro Vane]
[Defeat the boss at the end of the stronghold to clear the floor]
[The Tower of ??????? wishes you luck]
The blue system window also brought him peace and joy, but after a while it flickered and popped out of existence, leaving him back in the dark castle.
"He he ..."
A slight chuckle started to come out of his chest.
And it grew, through his neck, jaw and teeth, it became bigger and bigger. Voro wasn`t happy anymore, it was a loud, frantic unhinged laughter of a maniac.
"HAHAHAHA!!HA HAHAH HA !!!... HAA!!! "
It rolled him over the side, making him grip the floor and bend his torso in weird ways.
The absurdity of the situation was all he needed.
For years, he was pretending to like his life, his job and the normalness of it all. The peace and quiet. But now, he just lied to the government, slaughtered monsters and broke into the "secured" site of a unknown monolith. He got stabbed, clawed and shot at.
And he never felt more alive.
His laughter echoed through the hall, between stone columns and into the wooden doors at the end. It was pure relief and pure joy. Ecstasy. Now, this small confined space filled with enemies, dying to kill him, was not the dungeon nor prison. It was his own, personal playground.
-----------
Snarl twitched his small green nose, scent of smoke from the camp was getting weak now as it got replaced by the damp stone walls. He grabbed his primitive hatchet and started to look for some wood to re-ignite the fire. There was a flimsy door, perfect for fire wood.
Hee heeee
Snarl twitched, as a mysterious sound echoed through the hallway, loud and high pitched. Something no goblin, nor the chieftain could have done. He stopped chopping up the door and listened
ahahahahaHAHAHAHAH!!!
The sound grew louder and louder. Snarl hurried back to the extinguished campfire and woke up the others. It didn`t take long to explain , since the sound kept on going.
But then.
It stopped.
Snarl and his camp companions armed themselves with whatever sharp or blunt garbage "weapons" they had around them and went forward into the hall. A slight metallic scent hit their noses, with a bigger hint of blood.
Step step
A dark figure emerged from the dark, tall and with reddish eyes. The scent came from two long metal pieces covered in green blood. Snarl instantly recognized the smell - it was a blade with his friends blood.
One of the blades was pointed towards him and some unrecognizable sounds came from the figure`s mouth.,
Snarl angered shouted out "G`NAKH-KRAAA " and charged forward with his pack of friends.
The figure smiled.
-------------
Voro got to the large door at what seemed to be the end of the castle. He cleared a dozen of goblins on his way here, without major issues. The dash skill proved again incredibly useful, but now in proper combat it`s even better. Dodging spears is trivial, getting behind the enemies is like jumping over a puddle and running away from him is no longer an option.
It would be nice if his ankles didn`t get so tired in the process, but its no surprise that moving at that speed would be devastating. Thankfully the solution came - Level Up
[Level Up! 2 --> 3]
[Unallocated stat points : 3]
[Strength 7] +
[Agility 8] +
[Stamina 4] +
[Wisdom 8] +
[Intelligence 8] +
'Agility and strength again please' Voro didn`t think much 'If i kill them faster, I won`t need to outlast them'. Flawless logic. After a short rest and checking out if the stats changed that much, Voro ate his jerky and checked his stash of knives. 4 of the little ones got lost somewhere, but the 2 main ones still sit on his belt.
Voro opened the large doors and stepped into the chamber
[Floor boss : Defeat the Pack-Chieftain Krog]
And Krog was a goblin maybe, but he was almost his height and bulkier than him. With a pair of mismatched plates on his shoulders and a massive bone with spikes attached with crude rope works.
Krog stood up from the broken wooden throne with loud creak of wood, stepped on the bodies at his feet crushing a few of them and swung his mallet in the air.
"KROG M`AK THRAAAAG" the goblin boss shouted out in intimidation
This was going to be quick, Voro decided as he lunged forward at him.
The mallet crashed into the stone floor where Voro would be in that moment, but a swift [Dash] skill got him past that point and onto the goblin`s side. The chef`s knife was ready to strike, and stabbed right where the liver in humans would be.
With the size Krog possessed, he was able to smack his shoulder into Voro and sending him away. The metal plates were jagged and rough, hurting his face twice as much.
The knife did manage to strike the boss`s torso but got stuck in the process.
Now he had to rely on the big and beefy butchering one and the little ones. The problem was, he didn`t have time to use butcher knife. Too much swinging, too much meat on the boss. Unless he ended it fast. Very fast.
Voro through all the remaining lil knives at the goblin, basically stalling for time as the wound on his stomach was clearly still leaking, a few lesser ones would help.
Krog smiled. The knives hit him, but they couldn`t penetrate the skin.
"KROG DA, NINIMI KRAAA" A happy voice came from his mouth as he pulled out the knives out of his arm.
Voro was calm, as he still had to try one thing.
He lowered his body and gripped the knife with both hands, legs prepared to run and feet on the verge of just leaping forward.
Krog started to swing even faster and wilder, but also with bigger openings. Voro had a moment to watch his movement. And when its weapon just went down, he went off
[Dash lvl1 has been activated]
This time, not to dodge or jump, but to strike. His knife lagged behind him, but when the dash ended it struck with full force of Voro`s body and speed, absolutely crushing Krog`s neck and just in the meantime his weapon went down on Voro..
But.
[Floor 2 has been cleared]
A delicate drop of a mammoth size bone fell both of them to the floor together, pinning Voro under the weight of the goblin body.
After a while of cramming out of there, Voro finally breathed. It wasn`t as nice and clean as before, but still - a victory.
And the rewards for that were clear
[CONGRATULATIONS CHALLENGER]
[Voro Vane lvl 3]
[Please choose your reward]
[Random Skill]
[Random Item]
[Random Stat + 3]
Now was a tougher decision. He had a skill that clearly worked well, and Voro didn`t understand everything about it yet, his stats are ... good for the lack of comparison and he has so many different knives to choose from.
'Hmmmmm' Voro scratched his now slightly visibly and itchy beard.' Oh well'
[Random Stat +3] -- > Stamina 7
'Pretty good roll'
It felt as if he just took a nice short rest, and then everything he did was less. Simply less.
[Teleporting in 5] a system reminded him about going back to Earth.
Inhale
Voro pulled on his mask and grabbed the knife tightly
"Let`s go"
And the flashing white covered him whole