Change: New World

A Meticulous Hunt

“Now, let’s see… what to do, what to do…”

I inwardly mumbled to myself as I squatted down in an empty classroom. I ignored all the mangled furniture and corpses while I racked my mind for a sensible battle plan.

“....”

Like I half expected, I couldn’t come up with anything.

I wasn’t a genius who could think up an intricate battle strategy while screaming, “Just as Planned!” No, rather, I’d say tactics and the like are probably my biggest weakness.

Giving up, I sighed despondently. Since I didn’t really have anything decent after 10 minutes of thinking, and I can’t necessarily keep the girls waiting (I’ve already spent almost 2 hours farming), I decided to just wing it.

Of course, even if I didn’t have a battle plan, I wouldn’t just necessarily run up there willy nilly, with my sword in the air. I’ll take them out one at a time using a familiar strategy often used in mmorpgs.

Kiting.

I’d lure one goblin warrior away from its group, and I’d go solo against it. After I’ve defeated that one, I’ll repeat the process. Of course I can’t assume that this plan will allow me to finish of all 5 of the goblins. No, I’m sure after like the 2nd or 3rd goblin goes missing, the others will notice that something odd is going on.

At that point, I’d have no choice but to attack them head on, but at least by then, there’d be less goblins to fight. And I might be a bit too presumptuous, but I think I can at least handle 3 goblin warriors at once.

“Ok! Let’s do this!” With a restrained yelp, I psyched myself up.

I stood upright and made my way towards the hallway.

It was time to initiate battle strategy; Bad Idea.

****

I moved silently through out the hallway.

I noticed this beforehand, but I was getting really good at those ninja walks where you glide through the floor and avoid making noise. I’m sure one of my stats has something to do with that. It was probably agility or dexterity.

Anyways, I rounded the corner and crouched down besides the wall I had quickly grown familiar with.

Carefully, I popped my head into the hallway and observed the scene with a detail oriented eye.

In front of me were 4 goblin warriors. One of them was near the door to the restroom, while two stood guard besides the fallen corpses. I’m not sure why they bothered though, it’s not like those dead goblin scouts were any useful.

The 4th goblin was very close to me. A mere 10 meters in distance. It was so close that I could see the ugly scowl that masked its ugly face.

While I was observing, I frowned.

Earlier, I’m sure I had counted 5 goblins. But now there were only 4.

I quickly scanned the adjacent rooms besides the hallway. While nothing else seemed off at first, I quickly noted that one of the doors which led to a Chemistry classroom was ajar.

If it was like that, then it would be safe to assume that the other goblin was scouting out the area. It was probably going from classroom to classroom, investigating whatever killed its friends. And that was good news for me.

Since it meant I had found my first prey.

I quietly moved across the perpendicular hallway and quickly entered a nearby classroom.

Many of the rooms next to each other were usually connected by a doorway within the classroom. So it was possible to travel between two rooms without having to go through the open hall. Of course, I couldn’t keep out of the hallway entirely.

There were rooms which didn’t connect with any other room, and in those cases I’d have to enter through the hallway. But still, this system made traveling inconspicuously much easier.

Using the maze of interconnecting classrooms, I quickly made my way to my destination, and in a short time I had arrived in the room next to the Chemistry classroom.

I peered out from one of the windows and quietly looked into the decrepit room. Like I expected, there was a short green goblin warrior inside.

It was nonchalantly looking through various things, and from the expression it made, I’m sure it didn’t understand any of what it was looking at.

I smiled upon seeing the ugly creature.

Right now, it was isolated from the rest of its friends, and there was no better chance to thin their herd than now.

I moved quietly to kneel at the edge of the doorway that connected to the chemistry classroom, as I carefully placed an arrow within the nook of the bow and slowly cocked back the string.

I had tested this weapon earlier within the other classroom, and delightfully found that I was pretty accurate, although I attributed that accuracy with my increased dexterity. As long as my target was within 15 meters, its safe to say I could hit it.

Although the amount of damage I’d be able to do was still questionable, but I brushed that aside for now.

I aimed for the goblin warrior’s throat. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake as last time, I’d make sure the creature couldn’t scream out for help before anything else.

That’s why, instead of immediately shooting, I waited. Although I was accurate from up to 15 meters, the target needed to be closer for me to be able to successfully hit as small a target as a throat. At most, it needed to be at least 5 meters close to me.

I waited for a painfully long amount of time.

The creature was slow going. Although it didn’t understand half of what it was looking at, it still endeavored to inspect everything, which quickly started to annoy me. Eventually though, it got within agreeable distance.

Right now, it had its back turned to me, and its throat wasn’t visible. I wasn’t going to spare any more time waiting for the goblin to turned around so instead I made the first move.

I lightly kicked at the wall.

It caused a dull thud sound to reverberate within the room, which quickly brought the creature to look in my direction.

Having seen me, it’s eyes widened in initial surprise, but before it could utter anything out, the bow within my hands fired off the long awaited arrow.

It flew across the stale air and successfully lodged itself deep within the goblin’s throat.

At the same time, I could hear the ring that indicated a critical hit. The creature readily lost a third of its hp. Not one to ignore an opening, I rushed at the creature.

I quickly bolted through the doorway and dashed into the room, closing the distance between me and the gurgling beast.

Although it had an arrow lodged in its throat, it wasn’t a pushover. It still had the remnants of life within its eyes as it desperately slashed out against me. I was barely able to dodge by throwing my entire weight to the left.

I choose not to parry, since I feared that the initial impact between swords would produce loud enough sounds that could attract other goblins.

I dodged another slash by rolling across the floor. While I was crouched down, I shot out a ground kick aimed at the creature’s tiny chest.

The kick was successful as it gurgled upon impact and bent over in reflex. Capitalizing this opportunity, in one motion, I stood up, and slashed upwards, aiming directly at the goblin’s exposed neck.

In the next instant, a severed head flew across the room and harmlessly bounced off the wall. A little bit later, a fatal blow status appeared above the decapitated goblin’s body. While I had successfully defeated it, my sword strike managed to break the arrow that was still lodged in the creature’s throat. Now I was down to 5 arrows.

I stood there for a second, before I moved to pick up the weapon it was using.

I identified it, but was disappointed to find that it was the same goblin short sword that I was already using. I had assumed it would have been a different type of weapon, considering it had a different design and was also noticeably larger.

Although, I still chose to equip this weapon, since it was easier to handle, had a larger reach, and actually gave of better stat bonuses than my old sword.

Shortly after, I bent down to check for any monster drops. My earlier despondent expression quickly did a 180 as I saw an inconspicuous vial filled with red liquid nestled near the corpse.

With restrained excitement, I quickly picked it up and set about to identifying it.

[Identify!]

ding!