Evren was tired. It was the fifth day since he tempered the sword and his arms and back ached. Evren had assembled the sword the day before, but he kept polishing the blade, never quite satisfied with it until now. The sword had been sheathed by Evren because he was satisfied and wanted to go to bed. Instead, he went for a run around the town to clear his head. After two laps, he stopped at the northern gate and climbed up to the wall.
There were goblins in the northern forest that he had been messing with for the last few days. He would find them, focus in on them and make them nervous. For the last couple of days, they would get agitated and run around throwing rocks in random directions. He sat on the edge of the wall and stretched out with his senses towards the forest. He found the goblins, they had moved south towards the edge of the woods and seemed to be eating something.
He swept past them and went deeper into the woods. There he found some more goblins, a few orcs and plenty of animals. Nothing else of interest appeared, so he tipped off the goblins and watched them run around.
He was intentionally antagonizing the goblins because he wanted them to be agitated when he went to test the sword. After being confined to the town for as long as he has, he wanted to get out and stretch his muscles. That would have to be for tomorrow though. For today he would get some rest. He headed back to his base and climbed the stairs to the apartment. He lit up the lantern he had been using as a lamp and set it on a table by the bed. Usually, he would spend time reading before sleeping, but he was tired, and satisfied that he had finally finished his sword.
When Evren awoke the next morning, he did his morning exercises and went for his morning run. For the last few days, he had tried running with his eyes closed, relying only on his sensory field. It brought him a bit of anxiety at first, but now it just felt weird. It was like his visual perspective was above and behind his head. He had been wondering if it would improve his perception, but he hadn’t felt that it had.
When he finished running, he took a walk along the wall to look out over the field while cooling off. Today he would go out hunting for monsters. He would use his bow, but only the hunting arrows. He didn’t want to lose anymore of the special ones. He had a separate quiver for his hunting arrows that he would be able to wear in addition to the one that held his special arrows. He thought the one he lost with the ogre may have gone into the ground, which is why he couldn’t find it. The corpse of the ogre was still where he had left it. Scavengers had come by to pick it clean, so he may go digging for it someday soon.
When he reached the east gate, he climbed down and headed for his apartment. Mentally he went over the things he would need to bring with him. He would bring some food with him in case he stayed a bit late. He would have the quivers cinched together and just slung over his shoulder so he could drop both and the bow when he got into a melee fight. He decided to bring some bandages and extra cloth along with him in case of injuries he couldn’t heal.
When he arrived at the apartment, he stripped his clothes off and wiped himself down. He dressed himself back up and put his armor on, then headed down to the shop. He grabbed some of the bandages he had made previously and a few cloths and put it in a bag, then headed to the workshop. He tied his two quivers together and set them aside, strapping his dagger on his waist first, then his sword. It felt a little lighter than the one he had been using up until now, and he was excited to test it out. He strung his bow and threw the quivers over his shoulder.
He headed for the cold storage area where he kept most of the meat, and loaded up the bag with some jerky, which he then tied to his belt. He then went out to the gate where he unbolted it and stepped through. He bolted the gate from the outside, which is something he installed during the winter to keep the door from flying open and slamming shut with the wind.
The ground was soggy and muddy, Evren followed the wall to the north gate, at which point he followed the road heading north. He could see the bones of the ogre to the west of the road, and he thought of checking again for that arrow, but decided against it. As he followed the road north of town, he stretched out his sensory field to find the group of goblins. They had moved south again and were almost to the wood line, but they appeared to be sleeping at the moment.
Smiling, he focused on them intently causing them to be roused, and immediately started yelling. Evren could hear them from where he was on the road. He wanted to see what they would do if they saw him, so between him and the goblins, he casted ‘light’ and quickly dispelled it. Two of the eight goblins saw the light and looked in his direction. When they saw Evren, they started shouting while jumping and pointing at him. Evren continued to walk towards them with an outwardly calm appearance.
He wasn’t going to try to hit them with the bow, they were too small and agile to consider hitting, so as the two groups got closer to each other, he unslung his quivers and held them along with the bow in his left hand, and he drew his sword with his right. He hadn’t really had a chance to swing his new sword much, he was still practicing with the heavier practice swords he had made previously. He adjusted his grip and swung the sword in front of him twice.
Nodding and now getting serious, he dropped his bow and quivers to the ground while continuing to move forward a few paces. Goblins usually started by throwing rocks to buy time for them to swing around behind their prey. Evren dashed to the right, where the lead goblin was moving through the grasses and swung at it. The goblin saw Evren and leapt back in time to be missed by the sword. The grasses were cut through by the sword, offering little to no resistance to Evren’s swing.
Evren kicked off the ground and stabbed forward with his sword, piercing the goblin through the chest. Evren swung his sword to dislodge the goblin and cast ‘shield’ at the same time, lifting his left arm up behind him, stopping two rocks that were thrown at his head. The goblin that was about to attack him from behind backed off, disappearing into the grasses again. He still had five others in front of him and another swinging around wide to the left to be concerned with.
Two more rocks came from the front, which Evren blocked with the shield, the goblins falling back immediately after throwing. They were baiting Evren to follow so they could surround him easier. Evren followed them in, wanting to draw the goblins in around him so he could reach them with his sword. One of the goblins leapt out of the grasses to attack his legs, but Evren had leapt forward, the small club missing him.
Evren stopped as if to attack the goblin, but instead lifted his shield to block an incoming rock. The shield wouldn’t last much longer, so he wanted to get a feel for how long it would last in a fight, so he would know in the future when it would drop. He swung his sword to his right, dropping to his right knee and pivoted on it, stepping to the right with his left leg. Where he stood back up and continued to pivot, shifting his weight to his left leg in the process. He felt that it was a little too fancy a maneuver, but he needed to keep moving to keep the rocks away. Spinning while swinging a sword was something he had wanted to do anyway.
A rock was flying at him from behind, he was going to use the shield, but he felt the mana being sent to the shield fade, so instead he twisted his upper body and let the rock fly past him. Another rock was coming from his front, and a goblin was approaching to attack him from behind on his right. He cast ‘wall’ behind him and dodged the rock from the front. The goblin hit the invisible wall and fell back stunned. Evren’s dodge turned into a leap as he dispelled the wall and swung at the goblin from right to left.
The goblin’s head came off and Evren ran past the goblin to where there was another goblin approaching in the grasses. When the goblin saw Evren approaching, it turned on its heels and fled in the opposite direction. Evren didn’t chase the goblin; he had another rock coming from his right. He ducked down under the rock and followed its path with his eyes back to where the goblin that threw it was. He cast ‘skewer’ at the goblin and a conical rock, one meter in length and three cm in diameter at its base was launched towards the goblin. The goblin got pierced by the rock, causing it to fall backwards.
Evren raised his eyebrows with a surprised approval for the results of the spell. A rock came flying at him from his right, Evren caught it with telekinesis and let it fall to the ground. He watched the goblin that threw it run off and felt another approaching from his left. When he turned to the left, the goblin was swinging its club down at him. Evren caught the club with is left and sliced the goblin in half at the waist with his sword.
He dropped the club and looked at the palm of his left hand, “Damn, that hurt.” He said and shook his hand. Two rocks came at him, one from the front, the other behind and to the right. Evren caught the one in front with his eyes, and cast ‘fire arrow’ at it, striking it in the back. The goblin fell forward and started to scream wildly. Evren turned to the goblin that had leapt at him from behind, and swung his sword up from below, catching the goblin just below the ribs, and slicing it through to its shoulder.
The remaining three goblins started to run back to the forest. Evren threw one of his darts at a fleeing goblin, and augmented the throw with telekinesis, striking the goblin in the back of the skull, killing it instantly. The remaining two made it to the forest, running frantically away from Evren. Evren cleaned his sword off and sheathed it, feeling slightly satisfied, but not fully yet. He used his dagger to remove the small red magic cores from the goblins and pocketed them in a pouch at his waist.
When Evren finished with the last goblin, he stood and faced the forest, drawing his sword once again. Coming from the forest were three orcs, running on all fours towards him. The first orc stopped, baring its teeth at Evren, then it reached down and picked up one of the goblins he had killed, put it into his mouth, then ran off back to the forest. The other two orcs followed suit, each with their own goblin back to the forest.
Evren watched the situation with his mouth slightly open, one eyebrow arched and a look on his face between surprise and confusion. He shrugged and put the sword away, “I guess it was stupid of me to think those things don’t eat.” He went over to his bow and quivers and picked them up, preparing to enter the forest.
