A HobGoblin. Unlike the smaller, weaker goblins, this one matched an average adult in size, standing around five feet eight, and radiating far greater strength. Unlike humans, whose combat power remained the same, monsters' combat power was almost always the same, depending on what tier they were at. This HobGoblin had a combat power of roughly twenty, a number that placed it far above the rest of the pack.
The creature roared at him, a guttural sound that shook the air as it raised its heavy blade and rushed to strike. But the attack never landed. In the span of a blink, the fight was over. Seth's figure blurred, and the HobGoblin's head fell cleanly from its shoulders, severed before its weapon had even begun its swing.
'Looks like the gap in strength is huge. My combat power is only five times that of the goblin, and I just one-shot the thing.' Seth's thoughts were light while looking at the Goblin on the ground. It was weak, far too weak, and it made him wonder how high one combat power must be for there to be a chance of the person with the lower combat power winning.
He bent down, prying the massive sword from the HobGoblin's limp hand. The weapon was heavy, far too large for an ordinary human to wield with ease, but in Seth's grip it felt balanced, almost natural. Without hesitation, he brought the blade down in a precise arc, cutting the creature apart with efficient strokes. His eyes scanned the remains, searching for what he now knew to look for.
Sure enough, nestled deep within its chest cavity near the heart, a glow shimmered faintly. He reached in, fingers brushing against the warmth of the crystal before pulling it free.
[1-Tier Monster Crystal] – A crystal that can be absorbed to increase experience by ten points. Grants 10 XP per crystal absorbed, with a maximum of 1,000 per day.
'So, it's a ten-times increase per tier,' Seth thought, recalling the information he had read earlier. Each time a crystal's tier went up, the XP it gave multiplied by ten, and the maximum amount one could absorb rose by the same margin.
'Oh, this one had two crystals,' he noted, spotting another faint glow within the HobGoblin's body. Reaching in, he pried the second core free, its dim light pulsing softly against his palm. With both crystals in hand, he leapt onto the roof of a nearby building, landing lightly.
There, crouched above the streets, Seth paused to collect himself. The city below still crawled with monsters, and as he held the two crystals, he silently weighed his next move.
'I should be about as strong as a tier two or four monster. Their combat power usually falls somewhere around one hundred.' Seth thought, his sharp gaze drifting toward the neighboring streets, now completely overrun with creatures.
Focusing harder, he let his Nexus Eyes sharpen, and faint movements in the air became visible to him. Behind the boarded windows and cracked curtains of several houses, he could see subtle shifts in the air that originated from those houses. His mind pieced it together instantly. There were people still hiding inside, clinging to safety while the world outside crumbled.
Some had been left behind, unable to escape in time. Those with speed or strength had already fled, abandoning the slower ones to cower in silence, hoping the monsters would pass them by.
'Well, I'm too lazy to farm crystals one by one. I'll skip all the tedious work and have them do it for me.' With that thought, Seth drew in a deep breath, filling his lungs before unleashing a roar across the monster-filled streets.
"I WILL BE SLAUGHTERING ALL OF THE MONSTERS! I WILL BE TAKING OVER THIS REGION, AND ANYONE WHO WISHES TO STAY WILL BE UNDER MY CAMP!"
His voice boomed with unnatural force, carrying far beyond what any ordinary shout could reach. Windows rattled, the air itself seemed to vibrate, and every pair of eyes—human and monster alike—turned toward the source.
With those words cast into the world, Seth bent his knees and leapt, dropping down from the rooftop. The moment his feet touched the ground, his slaughter began.
His yell had done its job—it drew attention from every direction. Neighbors hiding behind windows peered out nervously, while the monsters roaming the streets converged on his position like moths to a flame. None of it slowed him down. Seth met them head-on, carving through the horde without hesitation.
In one hand, he gripped the heavy sword, and in the other, a dagger that flashed with lethal precision. The weapons moved as if they had always belonged to him, each strike smooth and practiced. It wasn't experience that guided him, but the cold efficiency of his Nexus-enhanced mind. His supercomputer-like thoughts let him process and adapt instantly, turning unfamiliar blades into extensions of his body.
Yet the longer he fought, the stronger the monsters became. What had started as weak goblins and shambling undead soon escalated into opponents with a real threat. Seth darted aside, narrowly avoiding a blazing fireball that scorched the air where he had stood. A second fireball followed immediately after, and this time, he didn't dodge. His sword swung in a sharp arc, splitting the attack down the middle, cutting the fire cleanly into two harmless streams that hissed as they fizzled away.
'I shouldn't take risks like that next time,' Seth thought, though the smirk tugging at his lips betrayed his amusement. The moment he saw that fireball form, his Nexus Eyes had broken it down into pieces, letting him trace its structure as if it were nothing more than a puzzle. He had realized instantly that he didn't need to dodge. Testing the theory had been reckless, but the result spoke for itself—he had cut through the spell with ease.
The casters responsible were goblin mages, tier-one monsters with slightly more threat than their mindless kin. On their own, they weren't much of a challenge. Seth's blade and dagger tore through them without pause, each kill efficient and final. The only difficulty came from their range. Unlike the melee creatures charging headlong into his strikes, these goblins attacked from afar, hurling spells while hiding behind the safety of distance.
That meant Seth had to adapt. Sometimes he closed the gap directly, plowing through waves of weaker monsters to reach them. Other times, he simply hurled a dagger with unerring accuracy, dropping the caster before it could even finish its incantation. Either way, none of them lasted long.
The ground was steadily buried beneath the bodies of the fallen. Each monster Seth struck down added to the growing carpet of corpses, until the streets themselves became unstable terrain. The weight and unevenness slowed the rest of the horde, forcing them to stumble and trip as they pressed forward, their own dead turning against them.
As for Seth, it was different. His mind, a super-powerful computer, calculated every step with flawless precision. He moved across the shifting ground without hesitation, balancing on broken limbs and twisted torsos as if they were solid stone. More than that, he used the chaos to his advantage. At times, he deliberately stepped on just the right body, feigning a loss of balance, only to slip past a strike or angle himself perfectly into an attack. What hindered the monsters became another weapon in his hands.
The battlefield turned into a bloodbath. Spear-wielding goblins lunged from the front, only to be cut down in an instant. Lightning-casting goblin mages unleashed sparks of destruction, but their spells split uselessly against Seth's blade before their throats were opened. Dozens of varieties, each with their own tricks, fell to the same fate. Seth's sword and dagger never faltered, carving through the endless tide without pause.
But then he halted, his sharp eyes narrowing. Before him stood something different—tier two goblins, stronger, faster, and radiating a combat presence the lesser ones lacked.
Tier two goblins—better known as High Goblins—towered above their kin at nearly seven feet tall. Their bodies looked as though they had been carved entirely from muscle, built for raw power. One stepped forward, gripping a massive, heavy sword that seemed far too large for even its hulking frame. Its presence radiated danger, its combat power measuring at seventy-five, a staggering leap from the mere twenty of a tier one HobGoblin.