Chapter 3: To Crimonia We Go
Before this chapter kicks off, just wanted to make a note about this first world. This world is tame in all the senses, such as that there aren't too many extremely powerful entities unless I make them up myself. It is also tame in the psychological sense, though that can change depending on what I decide to add myself. Some of you will probably be able to figure it out, though to clear things up, it's not Goblin Slayer. It's a more abnormal world if I say so myself.
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Nixon was running through the forest as fast as he could, and he could hear that he was quickly approaching where the girl he was supposed to help was. At least he assumed the person was a girl since the name Lurina would be pretty weird for a male to be given.
He was damn thankful that his Gamer's Body prevented him from feeling any fatigue as he could run at his top speed without slowing down due to exhaustion. He wasn't exactly sure how strong these goblins were going to be, but hopefully he'll be able to deal with them.
Since this was also his reality now, he had to get there as fast as he could. This wasn't a virtual game anymore, if he took too long, then he would fail to save this person as well as the quest itself. He wasn't given a time limit either, so he had to make a quick run for it.
Fortunately, it seemed that he arrived just in time as he skidded to a stop when he ran into an open area within the forest. Looking around quickly, his eyes soon caught sight of a large group of goblins, all who appeared to range from being at least half or three-quarters his own height.
His eyes easily caught sight of another individual, no doubt the person he was supposed to save. It was pretty difficult to miss her as she was wearing quite a lot of purple and white, which stood out greatly amongst all the greenery and dirt in the area.
The girl had long flowing pale purple hair along with a pair of rounded blue eyes, and her outfit was rather unique as she wore mainly white along with purple underclothing, along with separated sleeves. She also held what looked to be a wooden staff of sots with a red gem at the center.
...
『Status』
Name: Lurina
Age: 16
Title: NONE
Race: Human
Level: 15
Health Points: 100/120
Mana Points: 32/1200
● Strength: 14 <+0>
● Agility: 10 <+0>
● Endurance: 12 <+0>
● Intellect: 60 <+0>
● Luck: 10 <+0>
...
'Okay, I guess level truly doesn't determine true strength...' Nixon couldn't help but notice the rather poor stats despite her level. The only real high stat was her Intellect, which he also wasn't certain about whether or not that really determined how intellectual they were.
If anything, in his opinion, it more just determined their amount of mana points. He did remember the description saying that he just needed to read to gain more mana, but it didn't specify that he needed to learn new things for it to increase. So, someone could have an incredible magic capacity, but be incredibly stupid.
To branch on from that, taking the wolfe for example, the wolf had intelligence but was incapable of utilizing magic. That meant that even if an individual had points in the Intellect parameter, that didn't necessarily mean they would be able to use any magic.
Anyway, moving on from that, the girl appeared to be in some deep shit as the number of magic points was incredibly low right now. From her stats alone, he could easily see why the quest specified she was a magic caster. Her Intellect was high, yet her physical capabilities were pretty poor.
True, she was stronger in the Strength parameter compared to that wolfe from before, though Nixon could see that the wolfe was probably a newborn. Only a few years old at the most. Compared to the goblins he was seeing right now, the wolfe was really nothing. The only thing the goblins didn't really excel at compared to the wolfe was speed.
They all ranged in different parameters though...
...
『Status』
Name: Goblin
Race: Goblin
Level: 28
Health Points: 720/720
Mana Points: NULL
● Strength: 65
● Agility: 4
● Endurance: 72
● Intellect: 15
● Luck: 5
...
That was the status of the goblin that Nixon determined to be the strongest out of the entire group, and it was pretty evident also by the fact that the goblin, despite having the same appearance as the others, was much buffer and twice as tall as the rest of them. It was incredibly strong, though pathetically slow.
At the moment, all of them appeared to be distracted by the intent of wanting to kill the female, so none other of them seemed to have noticed Nixon just yet. Taking the chance, he charged up a decently powerful attack of electricity before firing it off towards the group.
The electricity seemed to chain with all of the goblins as their bodies all danced a bit due to the shock they just received, though only the weaker ones were majorly affected while the stronger ones were either somewhat injured or were just plain out annoyed.
『You have levelled up!』
『Received Common Mana Gem x6』
His attack, despite not using too much mana, though it was a somewhat decent chunk, had managed to eliminate the weakest ones of the group. He had managed to gain a level as well, so his physical stats rose and he decided to allocate the two status points to his Strength.
The reason for this was simple.
'Okay, if I focus on the weaker guys first, then I should be able to build up by chances of defeating the boss guy.' Nixon had quickly assessed his situation. At the current moment, the only advantage he truly had against the boss was his speed, he outclassed in most, if not all, the other parameters aside from Intellect and Luck.
If he killed the other goblins first, then he should hopefully be able to level up, thus increasing his chances against the big guy. Along with the fact that the huge guy was pathetically slow, that made it that much easier to focus on the other goblins.
It also helped that they were all now fully focused on him, they all seemed to immediately acknowledge that he was the biggest threat to them. They were all staring at him due to his attack, the girl being no different as she was surprised as well by the sudden assistance.
'Better get started!' Nixon quickly rushed in as his agility was far higher compared to the goblins, so he was pretty confident that he could avoid any of their attacks as long as he remained in motion. Reeling back his fist, he approached one of the smaller goblins before smashing his fist forwards.
Due to the amount of power he put into it, the goblin was immediately eliminated as he sent it flying crashing into a tree. His punch no doubt having caused all of its facial features to break as the goblin slowly began to disappear afterward.
He was fully focused as he continued battling the goblins in close quarters, making sure to check on the boss guy every now and then just in case. He had to save up his mana as he knew that his electricity was potentially his strongest thing right now if he put enough power into it.
Dealing with the smaller guys with his fists were more than enough for now,
『You have levelled up!』
『You have levelled up!』
『You have levelled up!』
『You have levelled up!』
『Received Common Mana Gem x16』
At this point, Nixon had managed to destroy all of the weaker goblins. From the looks of it, the three remaining were none other than the boss guy himself as well as two others that were probably the strongest of the weaker goblins. From a quick look at their stats, they were no doubt stronger than the other goblins he killed, though shouldn't be too much of an issue.
Quickly allocating all of his status points into his Strength Parameter, Nixon got into stance as he saw the two 'generals' rushing towards him. They both attacked him at the same time, a smart move. However, it wouldn't help them too much as their attacks were quite predictable.
Nixon ducked underneath their swings as he then flipped backward, intentionally landing two kicks under the chins of both the goblins as he did so. He then quickly took hold of both of their legs as they were sent a meter or so in the air due to his kicks.
He then slammed the one in his left hand into the ground with full force before stomping on its head a few times, swiftly killing it. It may seem a bit brutal, but you would have to be if you want to survive. Moving on, he spun the other goblin around a few times before slamming it into the ground as well.
However, the goblin's body bounced up due to the impact, which Nixon delivered a spin kick, sending it flying into a tree with incredible force. The attack effectively dealt with the goblin as both of them began to vanish after being killed.
『You have levelled up!』
『You have levelled up!』
『You have levelled up!』
『Received Common Mana Gem x2』
"Watch out!" While Nixon was quickly allocating all of the points into his strength, Lurina's shout caught his attention as he immediately rolled to the side. He felt something fly past him as he skidded to a stop to see that the arm of the boss now occupied the space he was just standing.
Stepping back, Nixon got into stance as he narrowed his eyes at the boss. The boss was the final goblin remaining, and it roared at him threateningly. Nixon was, of course, completely calm as he focused on the monster. He was confident that he could dodge any of its attacks, though he made sure to stay on guard just in case.
...
Health Points: 380/380
Mana Points: 723/800
● Strength: 60 <+0>
● Agility: 42 <+0>
● Endurance: 38 <+0>
● Intellect: 40 <+0>
● Luck: 15 <+0>
...
Despite the number of times he had managed to level up during this battle, his Strength was still not on par with the boss. However, it wasn't too far behind. The boss shouldn't be incredibly difficult to take on now, especially due to his advantage in speed.
"Let's go." Nixon gave a simple statement while flicking his wrist as he then rushed forwards, his increased speed caused a small gust of wind to stir as he shot forwards. The boss appeared panicked due to how fast Nixon was running, and the fact that he was running in an unpredictable pattern added to that.
Nixon quickly ran back and forth through the goblin's legs, trying to get him to trip. As he did this, he also generated small amounts of electricity in his hands that he used to deliver shocks to the goblin's legs as he ran. Each hit caused a small shockwave to occur as the goblin stumbled with each hit.
It didn't take long before the goblin's legs soon became numb due to the constant shocks, to which it stumbled on its feet before tripping forwards. The goblin managed to catch itself using its arms before it collided with the ground, though Nixon quickly took the chance and ran up the goblin's back towards its head.
Utilising a good amount of his mana, his arms crackled intensely with crimson electricity as he smashed both hands down. This resulted in the electricity transferring right into the goblin, starting from the head. The boss screamed in pain due to the power the attack held and began thrashing around randomly.
"W-Woah!" Nixon stumbled on the goblin's back due to its flailing, he didn't manage to get a grip in time as the goblin spun around before slamming him with one of its arms. The goblin did, however, fall to the ground after doing so as it seems that it couldn't compose its footing.
As for Nixon, due to the goblin's incredible strength and the significant weight difference, he was sent flying towards the nearby cliff. When he made impact, the place he crashed into now had a hole in it that his body had formed as a small dust cloud formed around him.
"A-Are you okay?!" Lurina cried out in concern as she saw her helper get sent flying away. She saw how he easily dealt with the other goblins, but this one was far bigger and stronger, so maybe it was too much for him... However, that may not be the case. "What the... how?"
Lurina couldn't help but be surprised, the goblin included, as the dust cleared out as they could see Nixon getting up from the ground without too much damage. He had a few scratches and a few cuts due to his impact against the cliff rocks, though it was as if he didn't feel the damage as he got up without any difficulty.
It also seemed that the goblin managed to force himself onto his feet as he roared at Nixon, to which the male narrowed his eyes and quickly checked the guy's stats. From the looks of it, his previous attack did quite the impact, he shaved off quite the chunk of health. Though, it took quite a lot of his remaining mana.
...
『Status』
Name: Goblin
Race: Goblin
Level: 28
Health Points: 390/720
Mana Points: NULL
● Strength: 65
● Agility: 4
● Endurance: 72
● Intellect: 15
● Luck: 5
...
'You know what, let's give this a try. I can't really risk getting too close...' Nixon knew that maybe it was a bit dumb for him to climb up the guy, but at least it did a lot of damage. He could try that run and hit tactic again, though he doubted he could finish him off at all with that.
Deciding to try something new, and probably a bit risky as he wasn't sure if this was even going to work. Utilizing the rest of his mana, along with attempting to gather some lightning spirits, which weren't many as he wasn't able to concentrate on gathering them as much as before since he needed to focus on the goblin as well.
With the gathered power, his entire body was releasing crimson electricity as he dashed forwards. The goblin widened its eyes as he saw Nixon running at him, so he attempted to swing down at him, though widened its eyes even further when Nixon changed directions abruptly as the blonde started circling around the goblin at high speeds.
Nixon was running as fast as he could, and the electricity that was surrounding him was leaving trails behind him as it began to appear as if a thin wall of lightning was now surrounding the goblin. Nixon smirked as it seems that he'd managed to trap the goblin, though he doubted it would last more than ten seconds as he knew that he didn't have the necessary amount of mana or speed when he had created it for it to last any longer.
So, quickly jumping up, he sent the rest of the lightning he did have surrounding his body straight into the centre where the goblin was trapped. The attack caused the goblin to cry in agony as the attack seemed to set off the wall surrounding him, causing the surrounding electricity to explode into a field of sparks that the goblin was violently shocked by.
After this attack, Nixon had absolutely zero mana points to his name as he would have to definitely gather some lightning spirits to help replenish it. He didn't want to use any of the mana potions if not completely necessary, and since his mana didn't replenish naturally, he'd have to rely on gathering spirits.
After the electricity all dispersed, the goblin stumbled before falling to its knees as it struggled to get up. Nixon widened his eyes as his mouth curled up into a small grin as he saw something, the goblin was surrounded by a pale blue aura. 'Here we go, my chance! Glory Kill!'
After activating the skill, Nixon felt his body suddenly move on its own as he found himself dashing forwards with no hesitation at all in his step. When reached the goblin, the goblin could only look at him in fear as it saw an empty void in his blue eyes, probably due to the skill.
Nixon then found his body performing a backflip that also caused him to kick the goblin square in the face, sending it tumbling back before it fell to the ground on its back. Nixon then had jumped and landed on the goblin's stomach with a powerful stomp, causing it to cough violently.
The next thing kind of disgusted Nixon, though it was kind of too late to turn back now as he had already activated the skill. He found himself reeling back both arms before plunging his hands deep into the goblin's eyes, gripping onto them before pulling them out as the goblin screamed in terrifying agony before its body soon went limp after a few seconds.
Nixon jumped off the goblin as his arms were dripping blood due to his final attack, though it started disappearing along with the body of the goblin as he could also see that his health points had regenerated a bit due to performing his Glory Kill.
『You have levelled up!』
『You have levelled up!』
『You have levelled up!』
『You have levelled up!』
『You have levelled up!』
『Received Rare Mana Gem x1』
...
Task: Save the young magic caster from the group of goblins
● Kill 25 goblins [🟢]
● Save Lurina from the goblins [🟢]
● Escort Lurina back to the city of Crimonia [Optional] [⚫]
Rewards:
● 400 System Coins
● Companion Token [Amount: 1] [Optional Objective Reward]
...
『Primary objectives have been completed, would the user like to complete the mission now?』
『Yes』『No』
Nixon selected no when he saw this prompt as he still wanted to get that token for the optional objective, so hopefully, this girl will know where this Crimonia place is so that he can get that reward as well as find himself an actual human settlement.
"That was kinda disgusting... but, kinda awesome at the same time. Am I weird?? Nixon couldn't help but wonder aloud as he held his chin in thought. Lurina heard this and couldn't help but sweatdrop at the statement, speaking of her... "Oh, are you alright? They didn't hurt you too much, right?"
"No... I'm fine." Lurina replied in a slightly cautious manner. Nixon noticed this, though it wasn't like he could blame her, he did kind of just gouge out the eyes of a goblin with his bare hands. Kind of hard to not be concerned. "Thanks for the help."
"No worries. I was just passing by, glad I noticed this happening." Nixon completely pulled that out of his ass, but it's fine, we move. His health was also slowly recovering thanks to the slow natural regeneration, which the girl noticed due to his scratches slowly fading away, though didn't say anything about it. "Also, do you happen to know where Crimonia is? I'm new to these parts."
"Oh, Crimonia? I'm headed there right now to meet up with my teammates, and as you can see, I kind of got attacked by a bunch of goblins." Lurina explained as Nixon nodded his head in understanding. "Are you headed there? Why don't you come along with me then, think of it as a small thanks."
"Oh, sure. Thanks a lot." Nixon gave a small smile as he nodded his head. "Probably be safe to have both of us watching each other's backs, you look pretty tired. I guess you dealt with a good deal of the goblins before I arrived?"
"Yeah, probably around twenty or so. I ran of magic, so there wasn't much I could do against those other ones. You're really strong too, those goblins were no joke." Lurina complimented as Nixon just waved it off with a smile. "Speaking of which, where did those goblins go? I don't remember them just disappearing like that..."
"Uhhh, I have an ability that lets me collect the items from monsters that I kill. Anyway, moving on. Let's get going before it becomes nighttime." Nixon moved the conversation along as Lurina rose an eyebrow at him in surprise due to his explanation since that sounded really useful. Others needed to extract things from the corpses of monsters, Nixon didn't appear to need to do so from his explanation. "My name is Nixon by the way, Nixon Colress. A pleasure to meet you."
"Oh, right! I apologise, I forgot to introduce myself." Lurina smiled sheepishly as she gave him a small bow. "I'm Lurina, and you have probably guessed from my previous words, I'm a magic caster. It's nice to meet you as well, Nixon."
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After the whole ordeal, the two of them quickly began making their way to Crimonia, with Lurina being the person giving the directions of course. Thankfully, the walk there was only going to be around twenty minutes or so, and they were luckily not attacked by more groups of goblins or anything worse as of yet.
"So, you're a part of this adventurer's guild?" Nixon asked as they were walking down a path within the forest leading towards the city, they were getting pretty close according to Lurina. "You said you're a part of the team, you the leader of it?"
"Me? N-No, that would be Mr Deborane!" Lurina quickly corrected as Nixon blinked at her. "While I have been told I'm the most responsible in the group, Mr Deborane is the leader of our party. He's also the strongest out of us, in the physical sense at least..."
"Really? I wonder if he'll accept a challenge from me..."
"Well, I don't think you'd want to... I feel like he wouldn't last long."
"Oh, I see..." Nixon frowned slightly as he heard this. While he may not show it too much, he was someone who loved the adrenaline of fighting, it was a pleasant feeling to him. It just felt good to be in a fight, the adrenaline felt good.
Anyway, as they were walking, the two of them decided to talk about a few things. From what he had learnt, Lurina was part of a party that was registered in the adventurer's guild. Pretty much those guilds that you'd find in your generic RPG game back in his world. Do missions, get rewards. That's the most simple explanation.
He had also learnt about how Lurina was quite the talented magic caster. Well, he assumed that she was talented due to the wide range of different spells she was capable of using. She could use a few healing spells and a few elemental attacks.
She had also questioned him a bit about how he was able to cast his lightning attacks without a chant. So apparently, the people of this world needed to chant to cast their spells. He just pulled another excuse out, so he was luckily able to avoid being questioned too much about it.
Also, about this world's magic, apparently, the people who have the ability to use magic have their magic points naturally generate. Which was kind of unfair since he wasn't able to do that, but he couldn't really complain since he was The Gamer. That in itself was a cheat.
"I'm honestly surprised, you're not a part of the guild yet you're this strong. That's really impressive." Lurina couldn't help but compliment. People join the guild to earn money so they can buy things to get stronger, so it was surprising for her to learn this. "You said that you're a merchant, right? What do you sell?"
"Hm? Oh, well, mostly just general items so far. Though, I do have a few healing and mana restoring potions for sale, along with a few other interesting things." Nixon explained simply as Lurina listened with interest. "Not sure if you can put a few certain items I sell to use, but you can check them out later."
"Yeah, definitely. I'll get the others from my party as well, I do want to see those potions of yours." Lurina responded with interest. The potions could definitely help her and her party, and for her specifically, those mana potions sound useful since she's a magic caster. Even if her magic replenished naturally, that didn't mean it was incredibly fast.
Potions were also something that wasn't too common as they were apparently pretty difficult and decently expensive to brew, so being able to buy them usually required going to the royal capital as they were more common there compared to the smaller cities like Crimonia.
"Oh, it's just up ahead!"
"Hm?" Nixon turned his attention forward to see that there was an opening at the end of the path. The trees seemed to become less dense, it seemed that they have finally reached the end of the path. From Lurina's explanation prior, Crimonia should be just up ahead. "Is it through the clearing?"
"Yep, Crimonia is just outside the forest!" Lurina smiled as she began jogging ahead. Nixon quickly followed after her as they approached the forest entrance, and when they arrived, everything came into view as the sun blinded them a bit, though they quickly adjusted and looked around. "There it is, the City of Crimonia."
"Woah..." Nixon muttered with a bit of awe as he looked down from the small hill that the forest rested upon. A massive city was in front of him, one that you would usually find in a fantasy novel. It was honestly quite a beautiful sight to behold.
...
『Quest Completed』
Task: Save the young magic caster from the group of goblins
● Kill 25 goblins [🟢]
● Save Lurina from the goblins [🟢]
● Escort Lurina back to the City of Crimonia [Optional] [🟢]
Rewards:
● 400 System Coins
● Companion Token [Amount: 1] [Optional Objective Reward]
...
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone