Though he was unable to expand his Domain to pinpoint the location of the Goblins, Vahn had no trouble tracking them to the side of a large rock formation with a nearly four-meter-tall cave opening that had been carved out by rudimentary tools.
"And to think I was contemplating allowing some of them escape..." Vahn sighed, his eyes sweeping the area preceding the cave, which was littered with the fly-ridden skeletal remains of many humans and many more wild animals. The remains were scattered about the outside of the cave, and to deter attackers, there were bone-formed totems formed from ribs, spines, and dozens of human skulls—many of which were too small to have been sourced from adults.
As Vahn considered smoking out the cave's inhabitants, the shadows obscuring its interior gave way to a nearly three-meter-tall, very muscular creature resembling a shaved gorilla with leathery, brown, wart-covered hide. Similar to a Goblin, it had the face of an elderly, perverted man, but its jaw and brows were more prominent, its ears were larger, and it had a thick layer of fur along its burly shoulders, framing its head.
'Is this also a Goblin...?' Vahn wondered, stepping forward without fear, drawing the monstrous behemoth's attention.
Noticing Vahn's approach, the muscular monstrosity briefly stared at him in confusion before lurching forward and releasing a loud, throaty, spittle-strewing battle cry. Then, with lumbering steps that shook the ground as it ran, it made a beeline toward him with all the conviction of a truck about to send a young Hero to a new world.
'Let's see how effective my newly acquired Skills are...' decided Vahn, his brows narrowing slightly as he produced the six-bladed, blue-hued Mithril Mace he had purchased on his way over from his Inventory. As he did, the giant Goblin reached out with its nearly torso-sized hands to try and seize him, but he casually sidestepped with the grace of water flowing around a stone and waited for it to arrest its forward momentum.
TH-THNK
As the oversized Goblin turned to face him, Vahn swung his bladed mace in a wide, inward-swinging arc from right to left with his right hand. As he did, he activated the Binatio Skill, causing an illusory, light-formed golden mace to appear, trailing behind his attack. Then, as his mace sank into the center of the Goblin's face, the mace of light sped up, fusing with the first and creating a second, marginally stronger impact.
'So this is what it meant...' Vahn mused, referring to the description of the Binatio Skill.
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[Binatio]
Rank: F
Description: Infuses a mace with Holy Light to grant physical attacks an additional 105% Holy-Elemental Damage.
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When he originally read the Skill description, Vahn assumed the additional damage would stem from his weapon being empowered. He didn't expect it to produce an echo, causing his attacks to land a second time.
With Vahn's attack striking the bridge between his brows and nose, the oversized Goblin stumbled back, its large, flattened nose gushing blood as it tried to stymy the flow with its hands.
'How about this...?' Vahn wondered, extending his left hand to the Goblin and using his next Skill, Sacellum. Its description said that it was a Divine Curse that weakened evil and the undead, causing them to take increased damage from Fire, Lightning, Holy, and Divine Magic. To his surprise, what materialized on the Goblin's body when he extended his hand was a fiery, flesh-searing brand denoting his personal, seven-winged seal.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAH—!!!"
Feeling as though its entire body had been set aflame, the Goblin cried out in pain and began flailing its massive hands and muscular arms in a desperate attempt to sweep Vahn away. Instead, the latter effortlessly weaved between its attacks, spun around a particularly daring lunge, and smacked it in the side of the head, using a second Binatio strike to land an echoing blow to its temple.
'Mmmn...these Skills are surprisingly draining...' Vahn noted, his body and brain feeling as though they were suddenly suffused with lead. A fleeting review of his Status showed that his MP, Magic Power, had dropped from 12 points to 5, suggesting he had exhausted more than half his reserves in just two attacks and a curse.
'So my priority should be increasing my MP...' Vahn noted, a curious smile adorning his face as he back-stepped to avoid the injured but regenerating Goblin's retaliatory backhand. With his Status window open, he could see that his MP regenerated by 1 point every 4.6 seconds. He wasn't sure how that compared to the world's natives, but since he had always been quick to recover, he assumed it was above average.
"It's the monster...!" shouted a raspy, panicked voice, emanating from the cave's entrance. As Vahn dodged another of the giant Goblin's attacks, he looked back to see a solid ten to twenty smaller Goblins with two more of their larger variants gathering with makeshift spears and clubs. They were noticeably worse equipped than the group he had nearly eliminated, so he deduced that the latter was their raiding party.
'Alright, time to get serious...' decided Vahn, his gaze sharpening as pale golden light emitted from his body like wispy flames. Even with his Skills sealed, he knew how to convert his physical energy and vital essence into energies like Touki and Reiatsu, and though it didn't show in his Status, his strength, speed, and durability multiplied by five to ten times.
Smacking the Goblin closest to him in the stomach, Vahn sent its insides scattering for meters across the terrain. He had intended to send it flying backward, but the result was its death, all the same.
[You have been awarded 49 Experience for defeating a Lesser Mountain Ogre(Lv 7).]
Turning his attention to the remaining Goblins, Vahn moved toward them with a second mace in his free hand. He had already resolved to wipe out the entire colony, so with an expression of stone, he began systematically tearing through them while evading their attacks. One managed to hit him in his right flank with its spear, but the sharpened wooden stick splintered against him, failing to so much as tarnish his clothing before he retaliated with a blow that separated its head from its shoulders...
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Following the massacre at the entrance, which raised his Level from 5 to 6, Vahn entered the cave with a solemn expression tinged by weariness. He wasn't fond of killing, particularly when it resulted in blood, gore, and a foul, lingering stench that seemed to get caught in his nose, but by wiping out the Goblin and Ogre colony, he was ensuring they wouldn't be able to victimize any other humans or children.
FWOOSH
As Vahn reached a section of the cave that began to open up, a fireball as large as his torso came snaking toward him rather than flying in a straight line. When he smacked it with his mace, a large explosion filled the cavern and encircled him in a plume of flames. But with his golden Touki serving as a barrier that shielded him from harm, he just felt a bit of heat before the explosion dispersed to reveal a distinctly female Goblin dressed as a mage, its beady, notably tear-stained grey eyes boring hate-fueled holes into him.
Exhaling from his nose, Vahn remarked, "I can't blame you for resenting me, but actions have consequences. Your raiding party attacked me and has killed many humans prior. Whether it be by my hand or another's, this outcome was inevitable..."
"Despicable human! Take this! Boost Magic...Fire—" shouted the Goblin Mage, its body briefly becoming veiled in a blue hue before its chant was summarily cut off by Vahn appearing before it and smacking it in the side of the head with his mace. He would have preferred to question it, but as his stamina was reaching its limit from his use of Touki, he needed to wrap things up sooner rather than later.
"Haaaaa..."
Exhaling a tired sigh, Vahn allowed his Touki to disperse as he made his way deeper into the cave. He was surprised to find a small flock of sheep and several young wolf pups kept in fenced-off side tunnels, but instead of letting them go there and then, he ventured into the deepest section of the cave, where hollows filled with stray and hide-stitched bedding could be found alongside a mushroom garden.
'It's empty...' Vahn noted, sweeping the area with his gaze and expanding his Domain. The existence of the female Goblin Mage suggested that the Goblins of his current world didn't need human females to reproduce, but he couldn't be certain without encountering more.
'The remaining females and children must have escaped through a secret tunnel or a section of the cave inaccessible to humans...' Vahn concluded, closing his eyes and exhaling in relief. He had resolved himself to do what was necessary, but he hadn't been looking forward to having to massacre a bunch of defenseless Goblin children. Their escape all but assured they would resettle somewhere and continue hunting humans, but he had done his part by reducing their numbers.
With such thoughts in mind, Vahn departed the living area and released the wolves and sheep from their respective pens. He was fully aware that most of them would perish when he released them to scatter in the forest, but such was nature...
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After his excursion to the Goblin den turned up no leads, Vahn used The Path's Map Function to return to his original position. The forest floor in the area was compacted and mostly devoid of grass, and while it couldn't be called a proper route, there was evidence to suggest that small groups of people carrying heavy packs or armor regularly passed through.
"This explains why the Goblins were here...they must have been lying in wait to ambush the Adventurers or travelers that regularly pass through this area..." Vahn muttered, knelt down as he traced the fingers of his right hand along the imprint of an unevenly treaded boot with indentations for metal or hardened leather protrusions. This indicated the treads had been made by hand rather than by a machine, and since the opposing print had a different pattern, he could infer the production methods available to the general public were rudimentary, at best.
(Such treads were common from the fifth through the fifteenth centuries back on Earth, so we're likely dealing with a civilization transitioning from their middle to the modern age~) Sis chimed, confirming the conclusions Vahn had reached on his own.
"In other words, we're in a classical fantasy setting with the elements of an RPG..." Vahn appended, rising to his feet and glancing in the direction the footprints were headed. In many settings, Adventurers traveled light when they set out to account for any loot they might acquire during their travels. Deeper prints meant heavier loads, so after changing into a set of equipment he believed would better match the aesthetic of an Adventurer in a medieval fantasy setting, he set out in search of civilization, human or otherwise...
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After traveling for nearly two hours, Vahn felt vindicated when the forest opened to a grassy plain, fenced-off pastures, and farms that cultivated a crop that was unmistakably wheat. There were rocky cliffs and a range of snow-capped mountains less than a hundred kilometers away, but he was far more concerned with the charming little village he could see from the forest's edge. The lack of a defensive wall suggested the world was fairly peaceful, and the simple structure of their primarily single-unit brick-and-tile, almost barn-like buildings all but confirmed his suspicions about their level of technological innovation.
'Could this be a setting where the Hero is born in a remote village on the frontier...?' Vahn wondered, stepping out of the forest and making his way down the gradual, grassy slope that led to the village. The key he used to access the world was supposed to deposit him near someone of narrative significance, so unless he had overlooked something in the Goblin cave or journeyed in the wrong direction, he was expecting a fateful encounter to be awaiting him in the village...
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