“Looks like I got here just in the nick of time.” A deep and friendly voice said.

  Wait, I know that voice. I thought just as he landed in front of me and unequipped his armour.

  Standing tall in a familiar, embroidered suit, was Director Lucas. I just stood there, staring at him with an open mouth. I probably looked less intelligent than the goblins.

  “Kaleb, are you ok?” He asked, cocking his head slightly as I stared at him.

  “Th-thank you.” I stammered, struggling to say even that.

  “No worries. Sally is an old friend of mine and I sensed that she was in danger. You did well to defend her for so long. I’m honestly quite impressed.”

  He looked around at the carnage I’d caused. A huge sizzling mass of flesh blocked the doorway. It was so revolting. The bodies were so badly damaged by my acid attacks that you couldn’t tell where one started and another ended.

  A similar, but more sporadic pile, was near the unconscious Sally.

  “Your powers are no joke. This is definitely… something.” He said, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and using it to cover his nose.

  I barely noticed the smell anymore. My clothes, skin and hair were covered in goblin blood and gore. I’d become numb to it. Though it would be nice to have a quick shower.

  “I bet you’ve advanced through quite a few levels from this battle. From the sense of your aura you’ve advanced to phase two.

  “That’s good progress, I wouldn’t have been able to allow you to take the exam at phase one. It was part of the reason why I asked Sally to take you with her on this quest.

  “Though from the looks of things, in doing so, you might have just saved her life.” He chuckled and glanced sympathetically at Sally.

  “Will she be ok?” I asked.

  “I think so, she might be unconscious for a few days though. We should leave as soon as possible and put her to bed on her boat so she can heal.”

  “She’ll get upset if she hears you calling it a boat.”

  “Oh, I know.” He grinned. “Why do you think I call it that.”

  Director Lucas moved towards Sally and gave her a quick check over with his powerful mana sense ability. He explained that it was a common but extremely useful skill that allowed him to sense life force and power in others.

  Whilst he did that, I walked past the goblins, looting their corpses as I went. The notifications were a lot simpler when the goblins were piled up. Though the notification for the biggest pile, near the door, made me do a double take.

 

Do you want to loot goblin [various] x213

 

Y/N

 

213 goblins, just in that single pile. I knew I’d killed a lot of them but I was more than just a little impressed with that number.

  I asserted yes and received 2130 gold coins. So each goblin was worth 10 gold. That was useful to know. The weird blessing I’d received from the god was pretty damn useful if I did say so myself.

  I looted the rest and received another 1620 gold from the 162 goblins I’d killed with my dagger whilst in a trance, along with a plethora of low quality, rusted weapons Overall I’d killed 375 goblins.

  As incredible as it was that I’d taken out that many solo, it was still a far cry from the 1000 that had chased me. I wouldn’t have had a chance of survival if it wasn’t for Lucas. I quite literally owed the man my life.

  Around about the time I finished up the looting, which thanks to the grouping feature didn’t take long, Panda came out of the woodwork.

  “Is it over?” He said, stepping gingerly among the dissipating corpses towards us.

  The bodies didn’t evaporate into silver dust or confetti this time. They simply began to evaporate as if they were liquid. They decomposed slowly and just disappeared.

  “Yeah, the director saved us.” I replied.

  “Well that’s good, though judging by all these melting corpses it looks like you did your fair share as well.”

  Lucas walked towards us, holding Sally in a princess carry. He walked as if she was as light as feather as her long silver hair dangled down.

  “Are we ready to go?”

  “Fuck yes!” me and Panda both replied in unison. I looked towards him as it happened and we laughed.

  “Well alrighty then. Grab onto my leg please.” He said as his body lifted off the ground.

  I shared a look with Panda, but I was too exhausted to question it. I grabbed onto his ankle and he began flying towards the ship.

  Holding my own bodyweight with my arms was super easy with the stats I had, despite my drained stamina. I was fatigued after the battle but I still had just enough energy to do something as simple as that. The affect stats had on my body was truly incredible.

  We flew over the tops of the trees, the warm, tropical air blowing in my face as we went. It was actually kind of pleasant.

  It only took a few minutes to reach the ship where Lucas lowered himself down and I stepped off with Panda clinging to my back.

  “I’m going to put Sally to bed. You two should get some rest too.” He said as he disappeared into the interior of the ship.

  “Well?” Panda said after a long moment.

  We literally stood staring after Lucas and my mind was blank. I was so exhausted I didn’t know what to do with myself.

  “Well what?” I asked.

  “Well, are you going to check your notifications? That was a major battle for you. You’ll probably have levels and new skills to choose from and all sorts.”

  Honestly, I was so tired from the fight that the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. I found myself getting a second wind once he mentioned levels though and I eagerly dived in.

  I had gained levels, achievements and hopefully a new skill. In fact, I had so many notifications that they appeared in organised tabs under that section of the HUD.

  I opened the tab for levels and kills first.

 

You have defeated a unique monster:

Geralt the Great (lvl 97)

 

Bonus experience awarded due to level disparity.

 

Bonus experience negated due to low health of monster.

 

Experience decreased due to lack of damage inflicted.

 

  I’d never seen anything like that before. It must have been because he was practically dead already when I shot him.

  Still, it felt a little rude. Though I was glad Sally would get most of the experience for the kill. She deserved it.

 

Congratulations! You have advanced to lvl 28

 

You have defeated Goblin Washer Maid (lvl 24)

 

You have defeated Goblin Fuck Boy (lvl 19)

 

…

 

  It went on like that for quite a while. It took more than ten minutes to click through the literal hundreds of goblins I’d killed.

  They were all lower level than me but the sheer amount of them must have added up.

 

Congratulations! You have advanced to lvl 29

 

…

 

Congratulations! You have advanced to lvl 32

 

New skills are available.

 

Choose a new skill?

 

Y/N

 

  I grinned like a child as I read the notification. I’d hit level 32. I was officially stronger than the average child!

  I’d had to kill a serious number of goblins to get so few levels though. I guessed Sally was right about levels taking more work in phase two. No more random experience bumps for me, probably.

  I mentally exerted yes on the skills list and, like last time, I read through them all.

 

Soul Shot (ancient)

 

Due to a complete lack of mana, you’ve realised the potential of the soul earlier than most. You have gained a deeper understanding of the soul through meditation.

As demonstrated already, you have unlocked the potential to infuse the power of your soul into certain attacks.

Who’d have ever thought meditation would be so useful. Next you’ll be unlocking a skill for virtue signalling monsters to death.

 

The amount of power used is directly proportional to the amount of stamina you’ve chosen to assign to the shot.

 

  Soul Shot, that sounded epic! Or, well… ancient. I thought back to when I shot Geralt in the back of the head.

  That arrow had flown from the bow with immense power behind it. It had also drained my stamina. I must have worked out how to do it accidentally.

  It was an emotionally charged situation. I guess it was like those stories of mothers lifting cars off their children. I’d activated it because of the situation and my deep-seated need to save Sally.

  I did wonder if that meant I’d be able to do it again without the skill though. I probably would but I bet it would be much harder.

 

Battle Trance of the Apex Predator (rare)

 

Due to your experience in hard battles you now have the ability to become one with the very life essence of the battlefield.

Enter a trance as you carve your way through monsters, you battle junkie you.

This skill consumes stamina.

 

When this skill is in use, pain nullification activates.

 

  Battle Trance of the Apex Predator could be a really useful skill. It was pretty much what I’d already done during the fight with the goblin horde.

  I’d lost all sense of self and a euphoric feeling enveloped me as I danced around the cliff, killing monsters.

  The only issue was that it cut off my senses. I would have kept going until I died, without even realising it, if it wasn’t for that goblin tripping me up.

  It was a good skill, but I was a little scared of it.

Those two were the only skills I had to choose from this time. For me it was a no brainer.

  “Do you even need to ask?” Panda said as I looked towards him.

  I didn’t. It was glaringly obvious to me that I needed a good power attack and the system was offering me a brilliant one on a silver platter.

  I quickly accepted Soul Shot as my new skill and I felt my brain fuzz as knowledge seemed to download directly into it.

  It was like I knew exactly how to activate and use the new skill, but not necessarily anything more concrete than that.

  After I’d accepted the skill the notifications continued.

 

Bow has advanced to lvl 11

 

Bow has advanced to lvl 12

 

…

 

Bow has advanced to lvl 25

 

You have reached the maximum level for the Bow skill. Bow has infused with the skill; Apprentice Bowman, causing it to evolve.

 

Apprentice Bowman has evolved into:

 

Newly Qualified Bowman (0%)

 

The Newly Qualified Bowman has learnt the basics and is ready to begin the long road to mastery. He has grown into his weapon through constant fighting and shooting things to death.

From now on, the bowman will need to complete greater feats to further refine his craft.

Upon reaching 100% proficiency with the bow as the Newly Qualified Bowman level, this skill will advance.

 

Proficiency improved.

 

A minor bonus to the effect of agility will be added when a bow is equipped.

 

This time I didn’t feel new knowledge enter my brain; it was more like the skill I’d built up by shooting the goblins had solidified inside me.

  It felt like a boost to my muscle memory when using a bow and was sure to be useful. It was odd that my new skill was governed by a percentage though.

  I needed to ask Panda about that, but before I could, another notification appeared on my HUD.