Along the dirt road, Davin passed a few warriors and merchants. The passersby avoided him, disgusted by his appearance, and didn't even try to interact with him. The feeling was mutual. Trying to converse with strangers in his current state, with nothing to offer them, would be a complete waste of time.
He reached the edge of the forest. Before entering, he noticed a group of young armed warriors emerging from it. They looked to be under sixteen.
Kids? Probably for small bounties, but they face death at that age? Davin thought.
The fact that children could freely go out and hunt monsters clashed with his Earthly perception. But he quickly remembered that Earth's rules no longer applied here. He had seen the sketches of goblins on the guild's board; those kinds of predators didn't exist in his old biology textbooks.
All I can hope is that they don't have magical powers. He ventured deeper beneath the trees. The forest was anything but normal. The ground wasn't carpeted in green, but in a deep, dark purple grass. Small azure blue flowers sparkled here and there, clashing with the black trunks of the massive trees that blocked out the sunlight. It was an alien biome. Beautiful, sure, but Davin wasn't there for sightseeing.
In the ambient silence, the distant sound of waterfalls could be heard. Then, sounds of struggle and screams split the air.
He approached cautiously and crouched behind a thicket. About thirty yards away, three humans were fighting eight small, lavender-colored creatures with pointy ears. Goblins.
While keeping his distance, Davin focused on the combatants.
"AI, analyze them. I want to learn more about their combat patterns."[BEEP. System Message / Analysis in progress...]
> RESPONSE: [Alert: Combat pattern analysis underway. Insufficient data for a complete model. Recommendation: Maintain a safe distance.]
"You bastards! I'll gut you all!" yelled one of the warriors, clad in leather armor.
He had just planted his foot on the chest of a fallen goblin and was slitting its throat with a brutal sword stroke.
"Calm down, you idiot!" shouted another man, a nearly six-and-a-half-foot giant armed with a heavy blade. "We can kill them all easily as long as their chief isn't here, so don't do anything stupid!"
"They have my sister, goddammit! If they take her to their nest, they'll use her to breed! Sylvia, I'm coming!"
Davin quickly analyzed the scene. There were two warriors on the front line, and a third, wounded, further back. But more importantly, behind the monster lines, two goblins were dragging a crying young woman into the depths of the woods, taking advantage of the rest of the group acting as a diversion.
The warrior fought like a madman to break through their ranks, but there were too many monsters for him to get past. The two kidnappers moved away with the girl, disappearing into the vegetation.
If I manage to rescue this kid, those warriors will owe me. I'll be able to extract money or crucial information about this world from them, Davin coldly calculated.
He began tailing the kidnappers from a distance. It was the perfect opportunity: there were only two of them, isolated from their group.
The pursuit was rough on his atrophied body. After ten minutes of a forced march, the goblins stopped. The young girl was screaming and struggling, which slowed their escape. One of the monsters raised its fist and struck her violently in the face to shut her up.
It was now or never. If they killed her or left her for dead, his plan would fall apart. Davin took deep breaths to calm the erratic beating of his heart. He picked up a large, rough rock from the ground, almost the size of his hand.
He tried to approach stealthily, but his exhausted muscles betrayed him. A twig snapped. The nearest goblin whipped around. Their eyes met.
CRACK!
Davin didn't think. He brought the rock down with all his might onto the creature's skull. Blood splattered onto the stone.
CRACK! He struck a second time, shattering the cranium. The goblin collapsed, dead.
I'll be facing scenes like this often. Might as well see the worst right now and get used to it, he forced himself to think, clenching his teeth to swallow down his nausea.
The second goblin let out a piercing shriek and lunged at him. The creature was barely four-and-a-half feet tall, the size of a twelve-year-old kid, but its ferocity was very real. Its filthy claws slashed Davin's chest through his tunic.
The pain acted like a trigger. Tapping into his rage and survival instinct, Davin grabbed the monster by the throat with his free hand, threw it off balance, and rained blows down with his rock.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The monster crashed to the ground, its skull turned to mush. Davin kept hitting, frantically, until his arms burned from exhaustion.
He dropped the stone. His hands were shaking uncontrollably. These were his first direct kills. He took a deep breath, swallowed his disgust, and turned to the girl. She was terrified, her forehead and right cheek covered in blood from the monster's strike.
"AI, analyze her."
[BEEP. System Message / Analysis in progress...]
> TARGET STATUS : [External analysis: Left ankle fractured at 92%. Facial contusions. Vital prognosis: Stable.]
Good, she'll live. "Thank you... thank you so much..." the young woman cried, trembling.
"It's nothing. I was just passing by," Davin lied with chilling calm.
We're going to go find your friends, and you're going to act as my entry ticket.
"What were you doing alone with them?" he asked.
"I was... I was with my brother and our friend. But I was attacked from behind," she hiccupped. "I just remember being dragged here. I was woken up by the pain..."
"I understand. It's going to be hard to find them in this forest. The most logical thing is to return to the village. I'll help you walk. If they're at all competent, they'll head back to the guild out of desperation."
"You... you're right," the girl admitted.
Davin glanced at the two corpses at his feet. He wasn't about to leave his loot to rot here.
"By the way, for the guild... Do we need to bring the whole bodies back to collect the bounty?"
"No, just cut off the right ear of each goblin. Take my dagger."
Davin rejoiced internally. He grabbed the offered blade and methodically sliced off the ears, stuffing them into the pocket of his canvas pants. Then he approached the girl to lift her up and support her by the shoulder.
Feeling him so close, the young woman's eyes widened. Her savior reeked of death, filth, and excrement. She immediately pressed the sleeve of her clothing against her nose and turned her head slightly so she wouldn't vomit.
Davin noticed the instinctive gesture of rejection. He couldn't care less.
He set off. To avoid crossing paths with the overexcited brother and his group, he took a detour of a good ten minutes through the woods before rejoining the main dirt road.
The journey was an ordeal. With his low stats and the weight of the injured girl, Davin was reaching his physical limits. On the road, they passed other adventurers. No one stopped to help them. Seeing wounded people or corpses was so common that folks simply didn't care.
Even with a bleeding girl, they couldn't give a shit, Davin ground out. Charming world. They took several breaks for Davin to catch his breath, and so the girl could breathe air not tainted by his body odor. After nearly an hour of arduous walking, they reached the village. The guards let them pass without a word, and they made their way to the guild building.
They pushed through the heavy doors. The noisy atmosphere of the great hall was the same as before, though a few curious glances lingered on the mismatched duo.
"I've got a wounded girl who..." Davin started, approaching the counter.
"It's alright, leave her be," a deep voice interrupted him.
A man dressed in a long black robe, impeccably clean, had just appeared.
"She's a member of the guild. Set her down on the floor, I'll take care of her."
Davin obeyed, carefully laying the girl down on the wooden slats. Out of an analyst's reflex, he immediately ordered the AI to record and dissect the upcoming scene.
The guild's hubbub suddenly died down. The heavy, masculine atmosphere faded, giving way to an almost religious silence. All eyes converged on the robed man.
The stranger held out his hand over the girl's body and began to chant a litany in a language Davin didn't understand.
A bright, warm yellow light burst from his palm to envelop the young woman. Before Davin's astounded eyes, the bruised flesh of the girl's face smoothed out. The cut closed on its own, without leaving the slightest scar. Down at her leg, the deformed ankle shrank back down and the bones snapped back into place with a dull crack.
In less than twenty seconds, she was perfectly healed.
"That's just fucking incredible..." Davin breathed.
His pupils dilated. For the first time since his arrival in this cesspool, the cold and cynical analyst gave way to a consuming passion. He had just received absolute visual confirmation of this world's potential. He had to learn this. At all costs.