I quickly realised that I would always have this strange occurrence each time I sleep in this world. I stood in front of the Sphere again. This time, it gave the same weak pulses - five pulses this time.
[500 points]
I realised that killing a goblin rewards me with 100 points. Last time, the 3 goblin's gave me 300 points. Today the 5 goblins gave me 500 points.
Even in this dream-like state, I still felt hungry. So what happened next surprised me.
[Basic Nourishment]
[Essential Nourishment]
[Good Nourishment]
[Complete Nourishment]
The Sphere helped me make sense of these. Basic Nourishment is like eating bread and drinking water. Essential Nourishment is like adding a bit of protein with the bread and water. Good Nourishments includes a balanced meal full of veggies and salads. A complete nourishment gives everything my body needs to function, as well as fully stacking its reserves.
[100 points]
[200 points]
[500 points]
[1000 points]
'So expensive' I thought.
Thinking about my leg, I decided to take Essential Nourishment without second guessing. I immediately felt better and full, much to my disappointment. I was really expecting this strange reality to conjure me some real food to eat.
I spent 5 upgrades on Stamina, for a total of 150 points. Then I dumped the last 150 points for 5 upgrades in Strength. The reason was simple. During the first fight on day 2, I was able to anticipate and react to the second goblin closing in, but I lacked the power to bring the club with a backhanded hit in time.
[Improve Strength - 5]
[Improve Dexterity - 5]
[Improve Constitution -0
[Improve Stamina - 10]
[Improve Mind - 0]
I thought about waking up, and immediately did.
________________________________________
The dirt felt so much better than the stone in the cave. I was very angry with myself, for allowing me to sleep in the open without preparation for sneaky night goblins. I also realised that I did not sleep cold, as if the temperature was always perfect. The sun always shone the right amount of heat on me, and there was no night breeze to make it colder.
Which led me to my second observation. There is no wind.
My stomach did not feel full. It felt like nothing was in it, but I was not hungry anymore. My mouth was also starting to become wet again, seemingly as if I just drank a lot of water.
I continued east like before, towards where the sun came up. I encountered more goblins along the way, and I hit them all with the club. One group of three and two groups of two. I also found a lone goblin walking around. He did not notice me at first, but I taunted it and killed it anyway for the points.
It took me longer to feel exhausted while I still felt tired from the daily walking and adrenaline. I was still limping as I walked with the club as a cane. I just felt better overall, but I became hungry by midday.
As I was thinking about taking a nap to get nourishment at the Sphere, I noticed the first appearance of saplings. The trees also became smaller, and then I saw it.
A bird.
I heard it chirping, before flying away. I cried, seeing something so normal for once. It cleared my ever growing paranoia and fear of silence. I started limping faster, as I tried to run ahead. The trees changed, as if the forest was changing. Whatever silent forest I was roaming, was now replaced with a forest full of grass, fauna, diverse bushes, etc.
The air felt different, like I could breathe again. Then it felt really cold.
More goblins, a group of 5. They saw me first from my right, but one had a bow, while the other two had a club, and one had a shortsword and shield. The fifth one at the front had nothing in his hands. Their eyes were different. They were not black completely, but had yellow irises. They had red body paintings and looked like more civilised creatures. Their skin were also more greenish.
They saw me but hesitated and looked around. It was as if they were confirming if I am alone. I felt awkward, since this was totally different than the other goblins.
Suddenly, they charged me from a distance of about 60 meters, but I immediately went behind a tree in fear of the bow. I peaked around the tree, watching them close in. An arrow struck the tree, which is when an empty handed goblin reached me. I instantly killed him with a wide swing of the club as he was pulling a dagger from behind. They had some form of unfinished leather straps around their waists. The other three goblins were still 10 meters away, but I hid behind the tree again. I peeked and saw the bow-goblin repositioning for a better angle of me.
Two club-goblins closed in, split, coming from both sides of the tree. Their clubs looked more finished from a wood that had a completely different texture and colour to mine. I jumped out next to the tree, and used the tree to isolate a fight with just one goblin. It blocked my heavy strike with his club, but it pushed him off his balance on the ground. I moved in to deliver an overhead strike at its head, killing it.
This made an opening for the second club-goblin that already closed in to deliver a hit on me while I killed its companion. It was a wide swing with both his arms, and my right arm paid the price of this blow as I couldn't lift the club in time. Before he could ready his club for another strike, I took my club with my left hand to deliver an upper cut blow with my club.
An arrow flew past my shoulder, it missed me by a small margin or so. I moved behind the same tree close by, peeking to see where the goblins are. I saw the sword goblin and shielded goblin touching the body of my kill, and the archer was somewhere I could not see before another arrow hit the tree trunk.
My right arm hurt, but it was nowhere as bad as my leg. It was not because of the upgrades, but because of the angle and their club being way lighter than my own. My arm was still sore enough for me to struggle in power swings.
I jumped out to the right from the tree when I heard footsteps closing in. I stood before the shielded goblin, and then I spotted the archer about 20 meters away. I lined him up with the shielded one in between, and I could see his frustration.
The shielded goblin opened his shield to deliver a thrust with his sword. I parried it just in time with my club. I was surprised, since it must be the upgrades to my dexterity and stamina helping me to react in time.
The parry made an opening, which I used to kick the goblin with my fucked up leg. He was fast enough to block with his shield and I groaned in pain and stumbled. I heard and glanced to see the sword goblin coming up behind me from the tree. Now I felt truly fucked and desperate to do something stupid.
I decided to use my height advantage by jumping over the shield, screaming in pain as my leg couldn't do what I wanted. Luckily I was taller and somewhat came on top of him.
He raised his shield to block my bigger body, and then tried to slash me with the sword. I was just too heavy for him and he fell on his back. I locked his sword arm down with my club and ripped it from his hand. I rolled away as the sword goblin from behind thrusted down against his companion's shield.
It really felt like luck was on my side.
If my leg was not swollen and sore, I would jump up and kick the goblin away. I tried to stand up but was still on one knee as the sworded goblen swung to decapitate my head. I ducked down in the nick of time and thrusted my sword upwards, impaling him through the chest. The shielded goblin was on his feat by this time and shouted as he shield bashed me.
I guessed he was mad I killed his friend.
We were both on the ground, as he pulled a dagger and jumped on me. I grabbed his hands as he tried to push the dagger down on my face.
I moved my head to the side as I redirected the blade into the ground. I reached to pick up my sword at arm's length and quickly thrusted it through his neck. He was holding the dagger in the air, looks like I was faster.
I stood up with the shield in my left hand and sword in my right. I made my way to the archer with a limping jog. He actually pulled out a dagger instead of running away, which made it easy to just trust my sword into his neck as I bashed his dagger out to the side.
I sat down on the ground, with five goblin bodies sprayed out between the trees. I couldn't understand why this group was bigger, smarter and more equipped than the previous from the silent forest. These one even showed emotions, like they were real living beings compared to the previous encounters. It was already becoming a bit dark, so I went back to the silent forest, hoping for it to be safer since the first night out seemed fine.
I found one of the generic trees, and laid down next to it. The temperature was immediately hotter than where the normal forest started. Now I could sleep without getting cold.
I tried to prepare for incase by placing the shield on top of me, and my sword beneath it in my hand.
The day ended with 13 goblin kills where 5 were way different.