Kill them? Him? With a little magic push that barely knocked bark off a tree? Seemed like a massive leap. Running still felt like the smarter option. The only sane option.
But the image of the girl… the torn clothes, the vacant eyes… He thought of the little girl at the bus stop too, her tear-streaked face, her small hand clutching his cheek. 'You're a good man…'
He wasn't.
He was a coward who ran. Always ran.
But maybe… maybe this time was different? He had the coin. He had the… sassy text box guide. He had a chance, however small, to not run. To actually do something.
He looked at the coin, felt its faint warmth. Ten stat points. Five gold. Sounded nice. But the real reason… the real reason was the knot tightening in his stomach at the thought of those creatures getting away with it. At the thought of them finding someone else.
He took a deep, shaky breath. His hand closed tightly around the coin.
He pressed the [Accept] button.
'Okay,' he thought, grim determination hardening his face. 'Okay. Let's do this.'
The word [Accepted] flashed briefly, then the quest objective updated: Kill all Goblins in the vicinity (0/3).
[Finally,] Sys's text appeared. [Took you long enough. Now, strategy time, because charging in like an idiot is plan Z. And judging by your performance so far, you'd probably trip on the way.]
---
[Alright, listen up, low-INT wonder. Rule number one: Don't fight fair. You're level one. Your stats are garbage – seriously, STR 6? VIT 7? You'll lose a fistfight with a grumpy badger. Those goblins are small, yeah, but there are three, they're vicious, and they probably have pointy things.]
Sunny swallowed hard, glancing nervously around the trees. 'Grumpy badger? Pointy things? Great pep talk, Sys.' He didn't exactly feel brimming with confidence. More like simmering with barely contained panic.
[So, we use the brain I apparently have and you conspicuously lack. Strategy: Ambush. Separation. Hit and run. Got it?]
"Ambush?" he muttered, tracing patterns in the moss with a nervous finger. "Separate them? How?"
[Use the terrain, obviously! Look around. Trees. Bushes. Uneven ground. You lured them into that chase earlier by ducking into bushes, right? Same principle, but this time you're the predator. Sort of. A very squishy, easily startled predator.]
He looked around more deliberately this time. Yeah, lots of trees. Thick undergrowth in patches. A slight incline leading up to a rocky outcrop nearby. 'Predator… right.' Sounded way cooler than 'terrified kid hiding behind a tree'.
[Plan A: Get to higher ground. That rocky bit over there.] Sys seemed to highlight the outcrop faintly in his vision. [Good vantage point. Limits their approach angles. Then, make some noise. Lure one of them over. Just one.]
"Make noise? Like… yell 'Hey, ugly!'?"
[Could work, I guess? Though subtlety might be better. Throw a rock. Snap a branch. Anything to draw attention. When one comes to investigate, then you use the 'Force' thing. Aim for the head or chest. Knock it off balance, maybe down the slope. Create chaos.]
Chaos. Yeah, he was good at stumbling into chaos. Creating it deliberately felt… different.
[While it's down or confused, you either finish it quick – find a heavy rock, maybe? – or you run again, reposition, and repeat. Key is: never fight all three at once. You'll die. Horribly. Got it?]
He nodded slowly, the plan forming uneasily in his mind. Lure one. Push it. Maybe hit it with a rock? Repeat twice more? It sounded… risky. Insanely risky. But what was the alternative? Wait here to be sniffed out and torn apart? Let them wander off and find someone else?
No. He'd accepted the quest. He had the coin. He had… Sys. Might as well try not to be completely useless.
"Okay," he breathed, pushing himself up on shaky legs. "Higher ground. Lure one. Push. Rock." He glanced down at his bare feet. 'A rock. Right. Let's hope there are good smashing rocks up there.'
[Good. Now move. Quietly. Before they circle back and find you cowering like a wet kitten.]
He started towards the rocky outcrop, trying to move like he did in the city alleys – silent, using shadows, stepping lightly. Old habits. Surprisingly useful, even without pavement underfoot. Every rustle of leaves made him jump. Every distant bird call sounded like a goblin chitter.
He reached the base of the rocks. It wasn't a cliff, more like a jumble of large boulders and cracked stone leading up about fifteen feet. Handholds looked decent enough.
He started climbing, the rough stone scraping against his palms and bare feet. It wasn't easy, but the desperation added strength. He pulled himself onto the flattish top of the largest boulder, breathing heavily.
From here, he could see the small clearing where he'd first encountered the goblins. It was empty now. Eerily quiet. He scanned the surrounding trees. Where were they?
[Good spot. Decent cover. Now, find your weapon.]
He scanned the rocky surface. Lots of loose pebbles. Some larger stones. He picked up one that felt heavy, fist-sized, with a decently sharp edge. Felt clumsy in his hand. Better than nothing, maybe?
He crouched behind a jagged piece of rock, peering down towards the trees. Waiting. Listening. The silence stretched, thick with tension.
'Okay, Sys. Phase one complete. Now for the scary part.' He gripped the rock in one hand, the warm coin in the other. His heart pounded a frantic rhythm.
Then, he saw movement. A flicker of green through the leaves, maybe fifty yards away. Then another. They were moving slowly, sniffing the air, searching. Circling back, just like Sys predicted.
Showtime.
'Right. Make noise.'
He picked up a small, loose pebble, maybe thumb-sized. Took a shaky breath. This felt monumentally stupid. He tossed it underhand, aiming for a patch of dry leaves a few yards to the left of the target goblin.
Crinkle-snap.
The sound was small, barely noticeable over the forest hum. But the goblin's head snapped up instantly. Its beady black eyes swiveled towards the noise, its oversized head tilting. It let out a low, guttural grunt.
'Did it work? Please work.'
The goblin hesitated for a moment, then detached itself from the fern patch and started shambling cautiously towards where the pebble landed. Its movements were jerky, unnatural, its long, spindly arms dangling almost to its knees. Its skin was a sickly, mottled green, stretched taut over sharp bones.
It carried a crude, jagged-edged knife fashioned from what looked like sharpened stone.
Definitely pointy things.
It was working. It was actually working. The goblin was maybe twenty feet away now, approaching the base of the rocks where Sunny was perched. Separated. Vulnerable.
He shifted his weight, gripping the coin tighter in his left hand, the heavy rock ready in his right. His gaze locked onto the creature. Now that it was closer, he could see the dried blood crusting around its wide mouth, the sharp, needle-like teeth.
Bile rose in his throat again.
As he focused, really stared at the approaching threat, trying to gauge the best moment to strike, new text flared into his vision, overlaying the goblin's form.
[Instinctive Appraisal Activated]
Target: Feral Goblin Ambusher
Level: 6
Threat Assessment: Moderate (High for user's level)
Notes: Unusually aggressive. Displays atypical feeding behavior.
'Level… Six?!' His blood ran cold. Moderate threat? High for him? Sys didn't say anything about this.
[Whoa, hang on. Level six? That's… not right. Standard goblins are Level 3 cannon fodder. Weak sauce. And they don't usually eat their kills like that. They hoard shiny things, take trophies maybe, but full-on consumption? Weird.]
The goblin below looked up, its black eyes seeming to fix directly on Sunny's hiding spot. Had he made a noise? Did it just sense him?
[Uh…] Sys's text continued, the usual snark replaced with something that sounded suspiciously like hesitation. [Okay, slight recalculation. Given the level discrepancy and the… questionable dietary habits… you might actually be dying here today. My bad.]
His eyes snapped from the approaching goblin to the nonchalant text box. Panic, cold and sharp, pierced through the adrenaline.
"What!" he hissed, forgetting to whisper, his voice cracking.