CHAPTER 15: HOBGOBLINS

The goblin lunged at him, arms wide, its dark claws ready to dig into flesh. Silva didn’t budge; he waited, watching for the right moment.

It leaped at him. He stepped to the side, allowing it to pass. It slammed into the ground and rolled, quickly getting up on its feet again to charge, but was met with five purple claw arcs. They dug into its face and body, slashing through the skull and instantly killing it.

[You have gained 10 EXP, 5 Demonic energy]

The notification came in, and his eyes were drawn toward the demonic energy that he had gained.

When he killed the Minotaur, he didn’t get any, but now he did.

’Does it have something to do with the fact that the Minotaur was from a gate the system gave and not a normal gate?’ he wondered.

But he couldn’t get answers now, so the best thing to do was to continue moving ahead, and maybe he would understand the logic.

He stared at the body of the goblin. He felt a sense of joy flood his body as he moved toward it. The head was already split open, so he picked out the core and placed it in the inventory.

He left the body behind and headed deeper inside the gate. Another goblin soon found him. This one looked far more disgusting than the last, with a nose that was twice that of the last, and it was slightly bigger.

It had a sword, rusted and on its last leg, but a cut from it would be devastating. The goblin launched.

Kyaaaaaaaaas

It let out a scream and then leaped into the air with an attack. Silva smirked. He watched the sword come down and then stepped to the side with ease, grabbed the arm of the goblin, and threw it into a tree.

Its back bent in an unnatural way. Pain filled its body, but it was too broken to cry or scream. Silva walked up and stomped the head without hesitation, shattering the skull and showing the core.

[You have gained 10 EXP, 5 Demonic energy]

He picked it up and placed it away before looking up and spotting five more goblins that had seen what had happened.

"Five on one, that’s hardly fair," he stated, and then suddenly one turned around and ran.

’It’s running, what for? It can’t be that scared of me. Wait, it might be going to call reinforcements, shit." Silva cursed, his eyes turned sharp, determined to kill off these ones before the reinforcements arrived.

He dashed forward and so did the four goblins. Thinking they would clash with him, Silva hit the brakes, almost stumbling as he did. He attacked, claw strike.

It ripped through the chest of the first goblin, killing it instantly. Blood sprayed like a fountain. The goblins were stunned when they saw the blood. That small fraction of time allowed Silva to get close. He yanked the body of the dead goblin and used it to swing and slam another goblin.

It flew through the air and smashed into a tree, but it wasn’t dead yet. Silva let go of the goblin in his hand, and before the last two could attack, he used claw strike again. The attack cut through both of them, killing one and ripping through the arm of the second.

It screamed in pain and rolled on the ground. He grabbed the goblin by its head and looked at the one that he had thrown to the tree, and without a moment of hesitation, he threw the injured one so hard at it that it smashed into the first, shattering skulls, bones, and more, killing them both.

[You have gained 10 EXP, 5 Demonic energy]

[You have gained 10 EXP, 5 Demonic energy]

[You have gained 10 EXP, 5 Demonic energy]

He took his time to dig out the cores, and when he was done, he was ready to move. But the first goblin had returned, and it didn’t come alone. Behind it were two massive goblins. They were as tall as humans, bulky and muscular.

Their under-canines came out of their mouths, curving upward. Their faces looked like stretched-out human faces. One had a bald head and the other had flowing brown hair.

They had on some rags and some broken armor pieces. One had a mace and the other a massive sword.

"Shit," Silva cursed.

He didn’t have a good weapon. All he had was his claw strike, and using it drained his demonic energy quickly.

He thought about backing down for now. There was no need for him to put himself at such a risk.

[Mission Update: Defeat the Hobgoblins in five minutes]

[Reward: Fragment ability from the Sin of Gluttony, Absorb]

[Penalty: Permanent halving of stats]

’What the hell? Why would you do that?’ he asked the system, but there was no reply. It gave the mission, then vanished.

The reward looked pretty decent from the name alone, but the penalty for failing was also terrible.

He took a deep breath and then went low into a battle stance. Both goblins took that as a provocation to fight, and they let out a resounding roar.

"Yeah, yeah, come at me already," Silva said.

The first goblin charged straight at him, swinging the mace at full speed. He leaped into the air with a backflip, dodging the mace.

Booom

It struck the ground and debris was sent flying in all directions. Silva landed. He looked up, and the goblin was already attacking while the second was rushing forward.

’I can’t rely on my strength alone," Silva muttered and turned on his sensing. He noticed that his ability had increased several folds, he could sense more.

The mace came swinging again and he dodged. As soon as the blade went past, he used claw strike, expecting it to hit the first goblin.

But all of a sudden, the second goblin used his sword to block the attack for the first. His blade was knocked back and left with deep marks, but it managed to stop it.

"Shit."