58 The Goblin Meter Pt. 2

"Ha…" I breathe out as I push a blood-soaked hand through my hair. The blood mats down strands of my hair that had come loose during the fight. They press down along my forehead and on the back of my neck.

A few lines of sweat ran down my face, carving vicious lines through the thick blood coating my face.

I was completely covered in blood.

All around my body laid the battered bodies of the goblins that I'd massacred. My scissors were dripping in sticky blood, they'd returned to their sparkling inky black color. But all throughout the slaughtered, they'd been glowing red.

It'd taken far longer than I thought it would to kill them all. Some had even tried to run away, but I'd dragged them back and killed them all. I'd slaughter and slaughtered until there was none left alive.

It wasn't a hard-fought battled, these were weak goblins that didn't have much coordination at all. It was as easy as fighting children.

Although, I'd managed to upgrade my lethal strike, sprint, and critical hit as well. That in itself had made this a worthwhile battle.

Letting my scissor go they sink easily into the ground. Rolling my neck out, I stretch my arms a bit that had been a nice little warmup.

Soon all the blood that was covering my body began to roll off my body and form a ball of blood in front of me. After about twenty seconds all the blood on my body was hovering in front of my hand in a ball of blood about the size of a platter.

「Blood Controller」

It was a skill that I had it was useful; most vampires are able to use this skill. Reaching out, I grab my scissor and drop the ball of blood onto them. They greedily devour the blood.

Appraising my sword, I'm surprised to see that some new information had been added but not much.

「Fate Cutters.??? Soul Count: 33」

Soul Count? Had it consumed the souls of all the goblins that I'd killed? I wonder if I could feed these souls to my beast egg then?

If that was the case then, I'd found the solution to feeding the beast egg. I'd been struggling to figure out how to feed it the spirits of the dead, but that would make it easier if I had a vessel that would hold onto the soul for me.

Smiling, I look around at the massive bloodied mess of bodies that I'd created. Bending down, I reach out and poke one of the intact heads of the goblins in front of me.

The temple was far different than what I was expecting. I didn't think that it would be so real in here, but maybe that was to be expected if I was also able to die within here.

Nonetheless, it was all just so…real!

All the way down to the smell, taste, and feeling of everything. Moving my finger, I sink it into the squishy and fatty flesh of the goblin. Moving forward I drag it towards the eyeball of the goblin and poke the squishy eyeball.

"Ew," I mutter.

Standing, I kick the head of the goblin and send it flying. "That disgusting. Did they have to make it this real?" I grumble as I flick the gooey jelly of the eye off my finger.

Shaking my head in disgust, I notice in the far left-hand corner of my vision a sort of counter, or meter had appeared.

[Goblin: 33/10,000]

I felt my stomach turn.

"Ten thousand?"

"Did it really say ten thousand, are you kidding me?"

Did that mean that I had to kill ten thousand goblins… to clear the stage? That wasn't right! Right?

Glowering at the number, I could only wonder how long I'd be stuck in this damn area.

Sighing, I run a hand down my face and look towards the sky. The moon was still hanging in a crescent in the sky, it was still nighttime, I suppose that I should get to hunting more goblins.

They'd be bound to be more active at night, right?

"First thing first though," I mutter as I bend down and grab one of the severed arms of the goblin.

Shaking my head, I wrinkle my nose and began to munch on one of the goblin's arm. Eating the gamy flesh of the monster, I wanted to gag.

「Devour Activated」

「Eat More and Gain More」

Encouraging notifications pop up as my skill begins to activate. Stripping the flesh and meat completely off of the arm. I grab the other and repeat the process.

Not thinking about it, I continue to eat and eat.

I don't know how much I ate but by the time the notification began to ding. I had a small pile of bones in front of me.

Burp!

「Obtained Goblin Language」

「Obtained Forager 」

「Obtained Goblin Wisdom」

Frowning, I look at the three skills that I'd gotten. It seems that none of them pertained to combat at all.

The Goblin Language skill was pretty straight forward, I could understand what those grunting and gruff sounding clicks that they made to each other meant. That might come in handy, due to the fact that I had to exterminate ten thousand of these perverted bastards.

I didn't even bother looking at forager, instead, I wanted to know what this [Goblin Wisdom] skill meant!

Opening my life page, I quickly locate the skill and click on it.

「Goblin Wisdom obtained when a goblin reaches the ripe age of five years old. Outliving most of its companions and littermates. It's survived in this survival of the fittest world. Collecting a lot of information about its race, it knows the ins and outs of its people.

Activation gives the user's ability to obtain all the information of an aged goblin! 」

Goblins really are trash monsters!

Sighing, I rub my face and clean off the bits of goblin stuck to it. I didn't plan on eating any more of these trash monsters, maybe if I encountered a higher-class goblin, I'd consider eating it.

For now, I should continue my hunt.

Grabbing my scissors, I will them away. Glancing at the direction that I'd been spat out, I decided that I would head in the opposite direction of that.

I had nothing else to go off of, so for now, I'd just move forward. It was as simple as that.

Bending my knee, I jump upwards towards a hanging tree branch. I land lightly like a cat on the branch.

I'd travel up here rather than on the ground, taking the high ground would give me an advantage over my enemy. Plus, I'd also be able to see further.

Taking off, I head in a random direction forward.

My body easily glides through the night air. I jump from tree to tree, soundlessly and stealthy covering a great distance.

The night air was refreshing after I'd gotten away from the stench of the dead bodies. I felt more comfortable, now that I'd left the scene of carnage behind.

As I darted forward, I saw a few birds and other animals. None of them got near me, they all moved away from me once they sensed me. It seems they realized that I was a predator.

Landing on a tree, I catch my breath as all of a sudden a loud sound shatters the silence of the night!

"BOOM!"

The sound of an explosion boomed in my ears. I tilt my head to the right where the sound had originated from.

Gripping the tree that I was currently standing on; I wait a moment and keep listening.

"BOOM!" Another explosion sound and this time it's louder than the last one.

Without waiting, I head off in the direction where the sound had come from. I felt a tingling feeling in the pit of my stomach, it was a mixture of excitement and curiosity.

Just what in the world had caused that big of an explosion?

It didn't take long at all to find the area where the explosions had come from.

Landing on the tree, I glance down at the carangid that was unfolding below me.

A crude road lay before me and in the middle of it was a small band of wagons. There was a total of three wagons that are all close together. A band of people are gathered outside of the wagon defending it from the onslaught of goblins that were hounding them.

Looking at the people that are fighting the waves and waves of goblins. I find that they all have decent looking armor on them. Four archers are position behind the wagons using them as covering to protect themselves from the goblins.

They continuously lose arrows from behind there, trying their best to help thin the number of goblins that a line of tanks had to deal with.

The line of tanks was made up of four hulking people covered in heavy armor with large shields and heavy swords in their arms. Even with the support of the archers, the tanks were being constantly bombarded by goblins.

A few damage dealers are slipping in and out of the coverage of the tankers and attacking the goblins that threatened to overwhelm the tankers. Sweat was pouring down from a lot of the damage dealers as they had cuts and wounds along with their bodies.

Most of them weren't wearing the heavy plated armor like the tanks but light leather armor. A lot of them were worse for wear.

Two healers are trying their best to hold the line up with their magic. But both the man and woman are pale, their eyes a little sunken in. Sweat pours down both of their haggard faces as they provided healing.

They wouldn't last much longer.

A few merchants were in the carts a look of desperation on their faces.

It was a bloody battle; the fallen goblins weren't given a second thought by their comrades they trampled over them like a blind mass. The ground was covered in a red paste of blood and entrails.

Glancing towards the goblin meter, I couldn't help but let out a sigh. Should I try and help them?

[Task: Save the merchants!]

[Failure will affect your completion rate!]

Looking at the screen, I grin grimly at it. Looks like I had no choice but to help. The last thing I wanted to have was a bad completion rate.

"Fireball!" The crisp sound of a raspy voice enters my ears.

I spring off the branch that I'm standing on and jump down to the ground, the tree completely erupts into flames.

Looks like I got noticed!

Twisting my head, I find that behind the raging line of goblins that are rushing the tanks, a row of goblin mages and healers are standing. One of the mages was glaring at me with red eyes.

I'd been found out!