Old man Mukari.
An evil man who picked on the weak endlessly just to gain an advantage.
He sat by the gate and, thanks to him being high level, bullied the newbies that entered the Realm of the Fallen Gods game. Taking their Karma points if they had any, and threatening those who didn't to bring some back from their hunts outside the town.
With the Karma points, he was able to increase whatever his job class was and had an easy time climbing up the ranks.
He was nothing short of mischievous.
Oliver Mori had been a victim in his first life, getting beat up by this old man and robbed of his hard-earned Karma points.
This small factor had been one of the reasons he took so long to start growing in strength.
Seeing the man right before him now, Oliver felt like slitting his throat, killing him slowly and forcing him to swallow down on his own guts.
But that was not the solution.
'Karma points are used to buy Extra Lives, and someone like Mukari who has a lot of enemies… If I kill him now with the element of surprise, he will simply respawn. Then I would be creating a powerful enemy far earlier than I should,' Oliver sighed internally, knowing the best solution right now was to play along until he grew in level.
"Hey, are you deaf or something lad? Payment or fuck off!" Mukari pressed on, his crooked yellow teeth showing as he sneered.
Oliver shoved his hand away.
"I'll give you your damned tribute when I come back."
With that he walked past Mukari without a second glance.
But the old man was not satisfied.
He hurried over to Oliver who had already walked past him.
"You brat, who said you could—"
Before he could complete his sentence, Oliver's appearance disappeared into thin air.
To this, the old man froze for a moment, his eyes widening as he searched frantically for Oliver, but he did not see him anywhere.
This was strange even for Mukari who had a high level.
'Can it be speed? No… that bastard must be using some sort of skill. He thinks he can scam me.'
"Fucking bastard."
Meanwhile;
[Stealth skill has reached maximum 10 seconds limit]
Oliver's appearance flickered back into reality as his skill expired. Luckily he had already made it outside the town's gate and was now a few paces into the forest path.
[Cool down: 00:28 seconds]
"I became totally invisible… that's quite some relief," Oliver muttered to himself as he glanced back briefly.
"Especially if stealth does not only work for sight, but also smell and hearing… then it would be the ultimate skill for my grind."
Oliver hurried down the familiar paths of the dense forest, his footsteps quiet against the damp earth.
The towering trees of the forest stretched high above him, their thick leaves forming a canopy that dimmed the sunlight into scattered green rays.
"The Alkarya Forest is not even considered a real part of the game," Oliver murmured.
"It's just a place for beginners to get accustomed to combat. I don't wish to spend more time than I have to here."
After moving for a while, he finally reached his destination.
Oliver crouched down behind a large bush that hid his appearance well and slowly peeked through the leaves.
In the distance was a clearing.
And there was a large cave.
Before the cave were a few green, short creatures.
Goblins.
About four of them.
Two sat as they tore flesh off an animal carcass, ripping meat apart with filthy claws and stuffing the chunks into crude wooden bowls.
The other two simply sat with their hands wrapped around crude stone weapons, lazily guarding the entrance.
'If I want to level up safely with the new class, I need to go against the lowest of the low first,' Oliver thought as he turned his face toward his crow.
"I'll need you to take on one of them. I'm still no better than a normal human being, and I'm against monsters."
"I can take one by surprise with the stealth skill, but the rest is up to you, Crow."
Oliver whispered to the crow.
The bird didn't complain.
Surprisingly, it nodded to his command, its dark eyes gleaming with eerie intelligence.
With that Oliver opened his system once again and began investing his stat points.
He added one point to his Strength stat and the rest to Agility.
Most newbies would make the mistake of putting their points into strength or anything else.
But in this game, with all of Oliver Mori's experience, the Alkarya Forest was about who could avoid attacks the best.
[Attributes]
[Strength: 2]
[Agility: 5]
[Senses: 1]
[Mana: 1]
[Stat Points: 0]
With this done, he activated the Stealth skill once again.
Without a second thought he charged out of the bush and rushed toward the goblins.
The sound of rustling leaves as the bush gave way alerted all four goblins.
Still, they were unaware of Oliver's location since he was in stealth mode.
Thanks to his increased agility he was able to reach the first armed goblin within seconds.
[Blood Drinking Daggers Equipped]
In his hands waved sparks of red light, forming into two jagged crimson daggers that pulsed faintly like beating hearts.
Oliver wasted no time.
He drove the daggers straight into the eye sockets of the first goblin.
The blades pierced deep.
The creature didn't even get the chance to scream.
The body dropped to the ground instantly.
The thud alerted the rest.
And at that moment Oliver's stealth skill reached its limit, exposing his location.
KIEECK!
The second armed goblin shrieked, raising its crude stone axe up to attack Oliver.
The Dark Crow summon was faster.
It swooped down from the air like a streak of shadow, using its talons to attack the goblin's face.
Its attack power was nothing special and did nothing more than injure the goblin.
But it was useful in keeping the goblin busy while Oliver faced the other two.
One of the goblins armed itself with the bone of the carcass.
A large femur almost its size.
With a savage scream it dove forward, swinging the bone toward Oliver with monstrous strength.
Oliver sidestepped, letting the attack miss him by a mere inch.
The wind from the swing brushed his cheek.
Then he attacked the opening the goblin left.
His dagger impaled the back of its neck.
SPLOOOSH!
Blood splattered across the ground beneath the goblin and Oliver's feet.
In the next moment the goblin's body collapsed lifelessly onto the dirt.
At this the last goblin froze.
Fear was written all over its face as it watched Oliver kill two of its companions and the third fall to the fatal continuous blows of the heinous crow.
"What?" Oliver asked, his gaze exuding cold disgust.
"Scared are we?"
"To me this is just the one-thousandth time I'm killing your kind."
With that final provocation the goblin turned tail and ran desperately toward the cave.
It had to warn the other goblins.
Get reinforcements to fight this so-called devil.
But it was too slow.
In a quick moment Oliver's dagger came in contact with the goblin's back, piercing deeply into it.
The tip of the blade burst out through the goblin's chest.
Still it was not enough to kill it instantly as the goblin staggered forward, desperately trying to reach the cave.
[Blood Effect Has Taken Place… One HP Will Be Lost Every Second]
The moment the notification flashed was the moment the goblin's fate was sealed.
Only a second later, the goblin's body swayed.
Then it collapsed limply onto the cold hard ground.
It was dead.
[You have killed Goblin x4]
[Karma Points +8]
[Experience +32]
[You have leveled up]
[Level 2 Reached]
[+2 Stat Points Awarded]
[Passive Skill Unlocked: Predator's Instinct (Lv.1)]
Predator's Instinct: When fighting weaker creatures, reaction speed increases by 5%.
Oliver smiled at the notification. 'A new skill, how intruiging.'
"Compared to my first goblin hunt… I would have never believed I could single-handedly kill four goblins so easily."
"But now…"
Oliver stepped toward the cave entrance eyes pairing into the darkness that stretched inside it like the throat of some enormous beast.
From deep within the cave came faint noises.
Growls.
Scratching claws...
Dozens of them.
At this Oliver smiled.
"Good."
His daggers pulsed with crimson light.
"Let's see how I do solo raiding the entire cave."