Chapter Eight: Clues

Cooked goblin meat is good.

So good in fact, I have decided to take Pawl with me to follow the ice trail and try to find more goblins.

I did end up finding another goblin… but there is a small problem.

The goblin is dead.

I creep through the woods toward the scene of the kill. I had only noticed the body due to the excess ice and obvious scuffle that was left over from the fight. Weirdly enough, the body itself is partially buried under some dead branches. From the looks of the corpse, the goblin has been dead for days. The blood is dry and the body looks to be partially infested by bugs.

Getting closer, I attempt to identify the wounds that cover the creature. Poking the goblin with a stick I found nearby, I begin counting anything I can find.

Two large bruises; One on its chest and the other on its jaw.

Four… no five cuts along its arms. Each cut varies in size and is rough, likely caused by some sort of rock or maybe a shard of wood.

The kill blow is fairly obvious: A small piece of ice still remains in the goblins left eye.

There are some other minor scrapes and bruises which I assume to be caused by an unlucky tumble to the ground, but as I roll the body over, I find a very thin but clean cut along the goblin’s Achilles tendon. To an untrained eye, the cuts could be explained away by the similar lines that were carved into the monster’s arms. But due to my ample experience with medical tools, I can see that the cuts were likely caused by a scalpel or something similar.

So, the question is, who killed the goblin?

I search the area for more clues, but I find none. If the goblin had anything on it like the previous one did, it is also gone. Even the loincloth they usually wear is absent.

I don’t think I will find anything else here and Pawl doesn’t seem to be interested in the rotting meat, so I abandon the body and continue following the trail of ice.

After only a half hour of walking, I finally run into what I had been looking for.

< Goblin – Level 2 >

< Goblin – Level 4 >

It might be a little more than I bargained for, but beggars can’t be choosers. I duck behind a tree and watch as the goblins grunt at each other and gesture toward a tree near them. As I get a better angle, I can see them inspecting a small patch of frost coating the trunk. It looks like the ugly buggers have been following the same trail I have.

I clench my knife and begin wrapping the chain around my closed fist to make sure I don’t lose my only weapon in the upcoming fight. <Emit> starts to heat up the metal as I passively guide the skill toward my limb like I did before. It’s getting easier the more I practice, but the skill hasn’t leveled up again. The skill itself probably has some sort of better use that I just don’t know about, but for right now, I don’t care and do my best to funnel as much heat as I can toward the blade in my hand.

The goblins turn in my direction and head toward where they think the next iced tree is. I already melted that ice and drank the remains, but I don’t want them finding the mark I left on the tree either. The level 4 goblin looks to be carrying a mace while the level 2 carries a knife similar to my own. I don’t see any other differences between the two outside of their weapons, but for the sake of caution, I add to the level 4 goblin’s overall speed and strength by a fair margin.

I still don’t know how much each point in a stat increases your abilities, but based on my previous encounter with the goblins, I would say that either one of these monsters is still probably stronger than me in any given stat other than MND. It really annoys me that I don’t know how much each monster’s stats are, as if I knew, I would be significantly less anxious about this fight.

[Status of Sebastian Bet]

Pillar Difficulty: Death is Certain

Floor 1: The Last Tribe

Time Used: 02:16:10:14

Time Left: 2187:07:49:46

Level: 4

Body (BDY): 7

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Mind (MND): 7

Agility (AGI) : 5

Power (PWR): 4

[Unallocated Points: 0]

Class: Undecided