1.26 Santa’s Little Slaughter

Chapter 26

[You Have Slain Goblin Scout – Lvl 5]

[You Have Slain Goblin Scout – Lvl 3]

[You Have Slain Goblin Warrior – Lvl 6]

“Do we just let him?” Francis asked.

“Well, seems like he’s got it, really,” Norton shrugged.

Barry shifted next to them, putting his sword back into his inventory. Huwett had already stashed her bow and was leaning against the wall a few feet away, enjoying the show. While Vasquez was standing in the tower’s large doorway, his hands raised, but no mana formed at his fingertips.

My blade sank into the skull of another goblin, breaking bone and sending a splatter of brain matter against the far wall. Its body collapsed shortly after, adding to the already mounting collection of flesh that was decorating the room at that point.

I dashed off before the kill notification even buzzed in the back of my mind, my next target already chosen as one of the casters clad in brown burlap robes and wielding a gnarled boney staff.

My aura spiked as I approached, focused forward at them and containing all of my heightened bloodlust. The caster froze long enough from fear that my sword cleaved into its neck before the mana gathering in its hands could be fired off, the energy dying away in the same moment its master died.

[You Have Slain Goblin Shaman – Lvl 7]

“Dirty little fucks,” I muttered, even as I continued on to its brethren.

The bloodbath went on.

As it turned out, the first floor of the tower was a large area dotted with tents and hovels, and wooden racks containing shoddy, lashed together weapons, and the occasional large stone pillar appearing throughout.

The room was twice the size the tower’s outer dimensions seemed to suggest it should be. It was still circular, maybe three hundred feet in diameter, with a massive spiraling staircase positioned opposite the doors Francis had opened for us.

An assumption of magical fuckery being involved in the spatial discrepancy was easy to make. Earth videogames always played fast and loose with ideas of allowable space and buildings, and it looked as though the System was no different.

It just meant there was more for me to kill.

The entire first floor was filled with goblins. The atrocious, putrid green, wrinkled skinned bastards practically treated the floor as a small squalor city. The number of tents, although large, lied about the true number of goblins that inhabited the space.

There were so many of them.

Loincloth clad scouts, sword wielding warriors, the potato sack robed casters, some even wielding slings with which to lob stones at high speed. And mixed within were various elites, chieftain bodyguards with dirtied leather armor and rusted metal weapons clutched in clawed hands.

It was disgusting to look at. And even more disgusting to smell, as the community standard of pissing where one happened to stand, or shitting upon the very floor, that I had learned to expect from the depraved species in the forest camp of the Tutorial, also extended to the tower’s first floor.

I didn’t know which assault on my senses, eyes or nose, was more reprehensible. All I did know for certain, was that they needed to be eradicated, if even for the good of the universe as a whole.

Which was the task I had taken upon myself immediately after entering the tower. I had rushed the swarm of three foot, stubby legged fuckers with abandon the moment I set eyes on them. My sword tasted a sea of endless blood, and my mind was barraged with a cascade of kill notifications.

I barely had time to reset my [Marked to Die] skill as I went about my work. Sometimes forgetting entirely as I was caught up in the flow. I moved in and out of my [Shade Stealth] as I passed from group to group or behind pillars, boosting my body on occasion with [Blood Manipulation], but for the most part, I went about the task with merely good will and hard effort.

The Goblin Chieftain was the target I left for last, letting it flail helplessly in his attempt to stop me from slaughtering his people. When I had taken them all down to the last, the chieftain was left alone, standing within a puddle of blood.

Its eyes bore into my own, hatred filling his gaze. I returned the stare with the equal measure.

“Ghufga et bablu!”

It rushed me with the large axe in its hands.

I simply moved aside as it slashed down, axe hitting the stone floor beside my feet. I sent a fist into its pudgy gut, causing it to double over and leak spittle onto the ground. My next punch connected just behind its floppy ear, sending it crashing forward onto its stomach.

I didn’t even say a word as I brought my sword tip down in the center of its back, piercing through the leather armor, before I gave my blade a twist and pulled it free.

[You Have Slain Goblin Chieftain – Lvl 9]

[Ability Activated: Soul Usher (F)

Harvesting Soul Essence…

Essence to next ability rank: 660/1000

Essence Available: 335]

I went through the notification of my ability, and was taken aback at the realization that the System gave me soul essence numbers which indicated that it considered the Goblins as sentient monsters, just like the orks.

It was appalling.

How could it deem these things in such high regard? I almost wanted to reject the points and give them back to the System, or even pass them on to my sponsor somehow. But I simply scowled and closed the screen.

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“Something you want to tell us?” Barry asked as he approached, tip-toeing carefully around the gore beneath his feet.

“No, why do you ask?”

“No reason,” he smiled. “Let’s move up to the next floor. We should have another monster encounter to deal with.” He passed me, heading towards the staircase.

Francis patted me on the shoulder as he passed, giving me an appreciative nod to boot. I could assume he felt a similar way about wolves and thought that my Tutorial experience was the reason for my own feelings. But he was wrong.

I just really hated goblins.

***

“Okay, what’s this next one then?” Huwett turned to Barry as she extended an arm to block Francis from rushing the door at the top of the staircase.

The rage warrior flashed her an annoyed look but eventually backed down, stepping off to the side. Barry moved forward next to the ranger instead, pulling out his communication amulet once more. A short exchange followed then he tucked it away again.

“Looks like it’s an ogre,” he said with a shrug. “Single monster fight. High strength, low speed, basic stuff really.”

“So you and Francis hold aggro while the rest of us lay on the damage?”

“Seems like the safest play. I don’t think we can just let Adam solo everything. We will fall behind,” Barry chuckled.