In a psychiatrist's office, two figures waited sitting on two chairs, in front of a desk with various tools and a nameplat that said about the name of the psychiatrist, behind which laid an empty chair.
These were Jun's Uncle and Aunt. Both people didn't look at eachother for a long time, nervously fidgeting their hands as small beads of sweat trickles down both of their foreheads.
Suddenly, the door to the office slowly swung open, where a man emerged wearing a blue shirt and gray pants, his face being serious.
As he slowly came forward to the empty chair, he smiled warmly at the two figures.
"It's good to see you both well, Mister and Misses Lee."
The Uncle returned the greetings with a nervous nod.
"Um… So, H-how did it went with Jun?"
The psychiatrist's face suddenly turned serious as the man uttured those words.
"…I might be stretching things a bit too far, but your nephew, Jun…
"He may truly not be normal."
Jun's Uncle's face turned grim.
The psychiatrist continued to explain bit by bit.
"When I consulted on why he killed that cat, he told me it has 'hurt his bird.'
"When I asked him what was 'that bird', he told me he had encountered it injured, fallen from its nest. But he didn't say what was that bird.
"After further discussion, I deduced it was fledgling of an unknown species of a bird that Jun brought back home without your knowledge.
"And when I asked him whether he felt anything about killing a living being…
"He said that he felt nothing at all. In fact, he felt even more furious that the cat had eaten 'his bird."
Jun's Uncle looked nervously at his wife seated next to him. She was starting to look a little pale.
The psychiatrist didn't notice it, and continued his confirmation.
"I must say… your nephew possesses characteristics of a typical psychopath, but he strangely possesses emotional attachment to 'connections', which was why he may have killed the cat out of remorse for 'his bird'.
"I could've just labelled it as sociopathic behaviour, but I felt it wasn't suited for such a unique case."
The psychiatrist pulled out a notebook, scribbling something down and quickly ripped it, handing it over to Jun's Uncle as his Uncle grabbed it.
"I suggest you buy these medications and… actively deter Jun from his killing tendencies, as the last conversation revealed that he had killed many more animals out of spite."
Jun's Uncle looked paler than ever as he looked at the paper in his hands.
The psychiatrist gave a big sigh as he glanced over at Jun's Aunt.
"Misses Lee… do not feel disheartened that your nephew has such a condition. Such a mentality could've been a birth defect, or it could've been developed as a coping mechanism when he witnessed the sudden death of his parents at just one year old of age."
Jun's Aunt looked at the psychiatrist as her pale face returned with colour a little.
The psychiatrist looked away from the pair in front of him, looking over the window in his office, at the blue sky outside.
"This… might've been the most serious and unique case I ever got in these five years."
***
In a damp, small cavern, a bloody human figure slumped over to the walls as the figure dropped to the ground, blood being smeared as he slid down.
This was Jun. His left arm wad missing. All of his clothes were completely bloody, claw marks, bruises and bites covered many parts of his nearly torn clothes— and in some parts the bones were visible.
He was blinded in his right eye, a long bloody claw mark running down half his face. His right hand was even missing two fingers.
Blood gushed out his right arm as he gripped the seven-inch long white blade in his hand.
Jun's entire mind was reeling with pain as he looked around slowly with his left eye.
The entire cave was a bloody mess. Dozens of corpses of mangled Goblins laid around everywhere.
'To think… I was able to do it nonetheless…'
Jun gasped with pain as blood filled his lungs. He didn't know that his chest had been bruised so much his ribs had fractured. Somehow the bones pierced his lungs, resulting in a slow suffocating feeling as blood filled them.
Jun smiled bitterly. He glanced at his right… at the corpse of the young girl.
The girl was bare nake, bite marks present in every inch of her bare skin. But Jun noticed one thing that made him sigh a little with relief.
It seems the young girl was used more as a food toy than… whatever equally horrific thing was being imagined to happen.
Jun rested his head on the walls of the cave. His vision was slowly dimming as the sensation of pain dulled, replaced by a solemn feeling with each passing second.
And at long last, Jun had died once more.
[You've died.]
[Resuming Cycle 6…]
***
In a state between the waking of lif and the slumber of death, Jun felt he was in a land between them.
Endlessly stretching valleys, filled with an immeasurable amount of red coloured flowers.
Jun felt himself resting on top of such flowers, feelings relief as he looked at the vast skies.
In the distance, rose a figure. Tall and imposing, wearing a menacing golden armour as it slowly walked, approaching the direction Jun was in.
***
Jun opened his eyes in a flash, looking around him.
He was back inside the storeroom, between the flesh filled boxes, hidden.
But now… Jun felt no repulsion being between these boxes. It seems the previous encounter he had changed his mind by a bit.
Suddenly, a white screen popped out in front of Jun as he sat patiently on the ground.
[Milestone achieved: Total 50 Goblins killed]
[A boost has been given to Power and Mastery]
And then… a small white window appeared in front of the screen.
[Rank up!
Power: Negligible
Rank 2 → Rank 3]
A sudden sense of surging power rushed over Jun's body. His muscles, bones, tendons, morphed as he felt each and every cell rise in strength.
His eyes dimmed and regained vision as he felt… faster!
At this point Jun had expected the change one way or another, and as such it wasn't as shocking as before, and somehow there was no spitting blood like some chinese novel.
Yet, the feeling was surprising no matter what.
A deep growl could be heard beyond the boxes Jun was hiding behind. It was that Pinnacle rank Hobgoblin again.
A few minutes passed before the creature moved away. Jun was going to crawl out… when he realised he was already out. He had failed to control his powers once more, and the results was him lightly landing at some stacked boxes in front of him.
Jun recovered quickly, looking around and made sure there was no Goblin or Hobgoblin around that heard him.
He then looked at one direction… the direction he had went to exit the storeroom, and reached that horrible place.
***
It didn't take long for him before he had once more reached the damned Goblin gathering.
The corpse of the young girl was there in the distance, being bitten and thrown around like some meat ragdoll by the goblins.
Jun gritted his teeth in disgust. Then a sudden realisation shone in his mind.
He had never activated the Focus ability!
'…My own stupidity may have caused one more death. But nonetheless I progressed a little.'
Jun was slowly getting used to pain, so he deduced he won't be hindered by it too much.
'Focus.'
Suddenly, as he uttered those words in his mind, Jun felt the world… slightly slow down!
No, it wasn't the world getting slow, it was his cognition becoming faster!
Jun's eyes widened in surprise.
'…So abilities affecting stats feel like this!'
Jun felt a little exhilarated. He definitely was now confident he could fight off all those Goblins now without as much injury he incurred before.
'…Do total kills still account for the same creatures killed?'
Jun contemplated for a bit, hiding right near the entrance of the goblin gathering.
'Right, it worked when I repeatedly killed those three goblins in the beginning.'
Jun gave a big sigh, as he strided forward, lunging at the nearest Goblin he saw.
It happened so fast in real-time, the other goblins didn't even realise for a second before Jun had already killed five of them!
Jun himself was shocked at the massive difference in performance. He snorted at his own stupidity, realising the job might've been easier if he had used the ability as soon as possible.
Obviously, he was stronger than before, but at least it would've led to a better outcome.
In the next second, dozens of the closest goblins screamed out of shock.
A minute passed, and Jun… had already killed a dozen of the goblins!
It required no more elaboration that he could now easily kill these goblins in the single minute duration of the ability.
***
Jun stood in the middle of dozens of goblin corpses. In his right hand was now a much thicker, eight-inch white blade.
Jun looked at his bloody clothes, but now there were no wounds. Only the dark blood of the goblins.
The smell of iron filled the air as Jun approached the corpse of the young girl.
'…She's young. Poor girl. May your soul rest in peace.'
Jun spent some time, collecting various rocks spread around and laid them neatly in a certain corner of the cavern.
Jun lifted the corpse, and laid it in the area where he had arranged the rocks. Jun thought of giving it at least a cover by using the lioncloths of the goblins, but he felt it might've been a bigger insult to the soul of the girl, so he felt it would've been better to just bury her as is.
A few minutes passed as he made a rock mound, finally creating a crude burial place.
He prayed for a few seconds before he strided to exit the cavern.
Suddenly, a white screen appeared in front of Jun.
[Milestone achieved: Total 100 goblins killed]