Forest of Trials

Zeke Elwood found himself deep inside a forest. There is nothing around as far as the eye can see. He’s the only one there and, this wouldn’t be as weird if not for the fact that he was in school a couple of seconds ago. Specifically, he was about to fall from the top of the school’s building.

He then pinched himself and tried hitting his head on a nearby tree. Zeke moved his body and felt everything. It’s real. All of this is real. But that just makes it all the more inexplainable.

“What’s going on here.”

[Congratulations!}

This suddenly appeared in front of Zeke, making him tumble to the ground. A game like window that popped up in front of him.

[Mission: Kill the Goblins]

[Class Specification]

As soon as the quest windows popped up, there is another thing that suddenly appeared. A dagger. Tw of them as well as a broadsword and a full set of a bow and arrows. These all lay on the ground waiting for Zeke to pick them up.

“Okay. Let’s calm down for now.” Zeke said as he breathed a deep sigh and closed his eyes.

He’s a person who always sticks with facts. This is what he uses. Pure hard logic in order to understand things. For that moment, there are a couple of things that are real. It’s real that he is not in school anymore. It’s real that he’s just been given a test that involves killing goblins. It’s also real that he has weapons here that seem to be for that purpose.

That being said, Zeke has no other choice but to follow what’s reasonable. That is, to do what is being asked of him. Until he gets more information, he has no other choice but to use the seeming game like window as his guide. And for him to progress, he needs to do what he’s asked.

“Okay Zeke. Let’s see what we can do here.”

[Congratulations! Your quick acceptance of reality earned you a new skill!]

“What? Skill?”

[Skill Name: Veteran’s Composure]

[Skill Type: Passive]

[Information: Grants one the ability to reduce negative status effects to the mind by thirty percent. This includes fear, worry, anxiety, hypnotism and other effects of the like.]

Though this is showing up in front of Zeke, he doesn’t really feel anything new. Rather, he feels the same as before. But then again, he surmised that the effect of this “skill” that he got will show itself once he actually engages in combat. And for this to actually happen, he grabbed on to one of the three weapons – the daggers.

There are a total of ten of these. Two can be held on Zeke’s hands while the others are left strapped on to his body using what seems to be its holder. He chose this weapon because of how simple the mechanics are. He only needs to throw the daggers at the opponent. This creates room for him to dodge and move around. This also keeps him safe from any attacks as well.

[Congratulations! You have chosen your weapon.]

[You are the first to choose his weapon to fight.]

[You are the first to take up the daggers.]

[Skill Reward: Dagger Proficiency]

[Skill Type: Passive]

[Information: Increases dagger usage proficiency by ten percent.]

[Skill Reward: Sure Hit]

[Skill Type: Passive]

[Information: Allows a strike to land every one minute.]

As much as Zeke wanted to test this skill right away, he just can’t. Or rather, there is something that’s stopping him. Fiver things to be exact which crawled out of the nearby bush. The same ones that he’s tasked to defeat – goblins.

All five of these creatures have a nasty look on their faces. They don’t have anything worn except for a piece of rag clothing that covered their waist up to the upper part of their legs. They have bloated bellies and green skin. Their eyes are widely separated and has the same look as the eyes of frogs.

Each of these goblins are only three feet in height. No more than that. Yet, even with the height advantage being given to Zeke, he doesn’t feel that he’s gonna win easily at all. Not with these goblins seemingly prepared to go all out in this fight against him and kill him with their clubs.

“Okay. This is definitely not good.”

These are the last words that escaped Zeke’s lips before he’s ambushed by all five goblins. The all attacked from the front and, because of this, he’s able to do something completely random. He took the two daggers that he’s holding and threw it at the goblins. Both being aimed for the heads of the monsters.

One of these hit its mark. Landing on the sweet spot at the forehead of the goblin and taking it down while the other one only pierced the body of another goblin.

This left him with three more vicious goblins to take care of which he began right away by drawing two more blades from his holster while running away. There are two options that he can take. The first is to fight the remaining three goblins and try his luck at hitting them while, the second is for him to wait for a minute before attacking in order to fire another sure hit dagger.

He already knows that the skills he has are real. Otherwise, there’s no way for him to explain how he handled the dagger throwing like someone who’s done it before. This is also the only explanation he can think of as to why his non-dominant hand is able to land a perfect hit at the head of a goblin just as he intended.

Zeke isn’t panicking though. In fact, he’s perfectly fine even though he just killed one goblin and potentially left another one at death’s doors. And though I want to indulge you on the reason why this is so, it’s better for now to get back on the action because between his choices, Zeke chose the former. To fight the goblins head on.

He drew two daggers form his holster and quickly turned around. The distance between him and the goblins remained as wide as before but he doesn’t want to leave his back exposed to the monsters any longer than he should. Hence, he threw the new daggers on his hands which seemed to be the better choice because of of the goblins suddenly drew out a dagger as weld. Throwing it at Zeke all the same.

The teen got grazed on the cheek and felt something hot come from where the contact is made. It isn’t just because of the blood from the open wound. There’s something on the dagger though he does not have the luxury of time to figure out what that is.

Zeke continued on to drawing two more daggers. The first ones that he threw is able to hit one of the three goblins. This reached the leg of that goblin which made it impossible for the creature to run towards him anymore. This left Zeke with only two more to deal with.

“Damn, this isn’t as bad as I thought it’d be.” Zeke said to himself as the goblins quickly approached him.

This time again, he threw two more daggers at the fast-approaching monsters. With the distance between them being closed, the chances of him hitting also increased and, true enough, he hit both his targets at certain body parts. It isn’t a sure kill but he doesn’t need that – he can finish things by himself.

“Right then.” Zeke took out two more daggers. Using up a total of eight now. “Let’s get to the killing.’

He dashed towards the goblins. A move that left his enemies completely by surprise. None of the monsters expected that the human would run towards them. Not after everything that happened. But Zeke did. And this element of surprise that’s created by the human left the goblins at more disadvantage. A lethal one as Zeke didn’t hesitate to stab two goblins on their necks. Making blood gush out as he went for the other one he paralyzed halfway through.

The monster tried fighting back by throwing a dagger. And this actually made contact, hitting the upper chest of Zeke. But this didn’t stop the human. The adrenaline pumping him is just too strong to be stopped by such a weak attack. Zeke proceeded to digging through the flesh of the third goblin. Stabbing right through the neck of the poor monster. That makes four.

The human did all of these things without much of a guilt running through his head. Sure he’s killing creatures that have more intelligence than animals. But he is still able to kill them without any hesitation nonetheless. Not because of the appearance of the beasts but, because of Zeke’s nature itself. One that we will bring to light, my dear spectators, as the course of time naturally flows. For now, let’s witness how he finishes this first quest.

Zeke Elwood went back to the initial place where the fight started. There he saw that the last goblin is still alive. The one that he stabbed on the chest beforehand. Mortally wounded, the creature can hardly raise its weapon against Zeke. Its fingers trembled and, for a moment, on its eyes, Zeke can see the look of fear being painted.

The goblin didn’t stay alive for long. A minute has passed and, with this happening. Zeke gained his [Sure Hit] again. And with this, he threw his ninth dagger. Hitting the goblin on the head and instantly killing it.

With this, Zeke finished his mission. He killed all five goblins just as he’s been told to do. But even though he’s accomplished this, he’s still left clueless about a lot of things. On why he’s in a forest. Why he has skills that shouldn’t even exist and, why he’s fighting creatures that should’ve only existed in books and games.