Victor left MaxiMart behind, the tactical backpack heavy with supplies, the sounds of dire rats feasting on goblin corpses fading into the background noise of the dying city.

  Three blocks northeast to Jennifer’s apartment building. The route he’d planned in his head before leaving his own apartment felt like it had happened days ago instead of hours.

  He kept to the shadows, Stealth engaged, every sense alert.

  The residential streets were quieter than the commercial district. Houses dark and silent, some with doors hanging open, others barricaded from the inside. Abandoned cars. Scattered belongings. Evidence of people fleeing or dying or hiding.

  And goblins. Always goblins.

  Victor checked his status while he moved, pulling it up with a thought.

  NAME: Victor Hale

  SPECIES: Noxborne (Evolved Human)EVOLUTION PROGRESS: 12%

  CLASS: Rogue (Basic)

  LEVEL: 2

  XP: 15/200

  ATTRIBUTES:

  Strength: 8

  Agility: 10

  Endurance: 9

  Intelligence: 8

  Wisdom: 8

  Perception: 10

  He needed 185 more XP to reach Level 3. At 15 XP per goblin scout, that meant killing at least twelve more. Maybe thirteen depending on what he encountered.

  A lot of killing to do in three blocks.

  But he was learning something about Fear Metabolism and his evolution. Every time he fed on fear, every time he hunted successfully, something inside him solidified. The Noxborne transformation was progressing. Making him better at being a hunter.

  Victor’s enhanced Perception caught movement two houses ahead. Three goblins, small group, moving between abandoned cars, looting what they could find. They hadn’t noticed him yet.

  He could avoid them. Circle around.

  But he needed the XP.

  Studying the three goblins from behind a parked sedan, Victor considering his approach. The rock-throwing trick had worked multiple times, but relying on the same tactic would make him predictable. He needed variety.

  The goblins were arguing about something, their guttural language incomprehensible but the tone universal. Division of spoils, probably.

  Drawing the hunting knife slowly, to minimizing sound. The blade whispered against the leather sheath, but the goblins were too focused on their argument to notice.

  He scraped the knife deliberately against the sedan’s metal frame. Once. Twice. The metallic screech cut through the night.

  All three goblins spun toward the sound, weapons raised.

  Victor was already moving, using Stealth to slip between cars while they were focused on the wrong location. He positioned himself behind them, close enough to strike.

  One of the goblins moved toward the sedan to investigate, leaving its companions behind. Separated from the group.

  Perfect.

  Waiting until it was ten feet from the others, Victor then scraped his knife against a different car’s bumper. The sound came from the goblin’s left.

  It turned toward the new sound, and there it was. The first flicker of nervousness. Unknown noises from multiple directions.

  Victor stepped partially into view at the edge of its peripheral vision, positioning himself so the distant streetlight caught his eyes. They reflected back, glowing silver in the darkness.

  Then he ducked back into shadow before it could focus on him.

  The goblin saw the movement and those glowing eyes. It made a sound that was half-alarm, half-question, calling to its companions.

  Fear was starting to build. Victor could feel it through Fear Sense, taste it almost, and his stamina surged.

  He decided to test his Stealth.

  Moving with absolute silence, Victor closed the distance while the goblin was still calling to its companions. The skill guided his steps, showed him where to place his feet, how to use the shadows. It felt more intuitive than it had before, like the ability was growing stronger with use.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He was three feet from the goblin now, completely undetected despite being in relatively open ground.

  The creature was still looking toward where it had seen the glowing eyes, weapon ready but confused.

  Victor struck.

  The hunting knife drove into the base of the goblin’s skull, angled upward into the brain. The creature died instantly, without sound.

  GOBLIN SCOUT DEFEATED

  +15 XP

  STEALTH SKILL INCREASED TO RANK 2

  Enhanced concealment in shadows and reduced sound generation. Movement penalties decreased.

  Victor felt the skill solidify in his awareness. Rank 2. Better concealment. Moving even more quietly. The shadows welcomed him now, seemed to bend around him naturally.

  Lowering the body carefully to the ground, to avoid sound, he immediately re-engaged Stealth.

  The remaining two goblins were still focused on the sedan, calling out to their companion.

  When no response came, they started moving toward where it had gone, cautious now, weapons ready.

  They walked right past Victor without seeing him.

  He was standing five feet away, perfectly still, and his Rank 2 Stealth made him easier to ignore even though they were actively looking for threats.

  The goblins found their dead companion lying behind a car.

  One of them made a strangled sound. The other started looking around frantically, weapon raised, searching for the killer.

  Circling behind them while they were focused on the body. Victor moved into position. Close enough to touch them.

  They had no idea he was there.

  He picked up a piece of broken glass and tossed it toward a house on the other side of the street. It shattered against the front steps with a sharp crack.

  Both goblins turned toward the sound, backs completely exposed.

  Victor struck.

  The knife went into the first goblin’s kidney. The creature made a wet gasp and folded. Victor caught it as it fell, controlled the descent, laid it down silently.

  GOBLIN SCOUT DEFEATED

  +15 XP

  The second goblin heard something a rustle of movement, a change in the air and started to turn.

  “Too late.” Victor told it in a low voice

  His blade opened its throat in one smooth motion. Blood sprayed, and the goblin collapsed, choking silently.

  GOBLIN SCOUT DEFEATED

  +15 XP

  Stepping back into shadow immediately, Stealth fully engaged, he moved twenty feet away before stopping.

  Smiling he watched from darkness as more goblins approached, drawn by the initial sounds.

  Four of them, weapons ready, calling out in their language.

  They found the three bodies.

  Victor watched their fear build. Saw them look around frantically, searching for threats they couldn’t see. Saw their confidence crack.

  One of them crouched beside the bodies, checking for signs of life. Found none. All three dead, killed within minutes of each other, and no sign of the killer.

  The goblins were scared now. Truly scared. They clustered together, backs to each other, weapons raised, searching the darkness.

  But they couldn’t see him. His Rank 2 Stealth kept him from being noticed even though he was only thirty feet away, standing in plain sight.

  He moved closer. Twenty-five feet. Twenty. Fifteen.

  The goblins were looking right at him and seeing nothing.

  Victor smiled and felt his sharpened canines press against his lower lip.

  Then he scraped his knife against a car door directly behind them.

  All four goblins whirled toward the sound.

  Already moving, Victor pivoted around their position, using their distraction.

  One of the goblins separated from the group, moving to investigate the sound. Its companions called out warnings, but it ignored them.

  Victor watched it happen with amusement. That was a mistake.

  Materializing from shadow behind the lone goblin. The knife punched into its kidney, twisted, withdrew. The creature collapsed without making more than a wet gasp.

  GOBLIN SCOUT DEFEATED

  +15 XP

  Victor disappeared back into shadow before the body hit the ground.

  The three remaining goblins heard their companion fall. Turned. Saw another body on the ground.

  Four dead now. And they still hadn’t seen the killer.

  Their fear exploded into something approaching panic.

  One of them screamed something in their language. The other two responded, voices high and frightened.

  They started backing away, weapons raised, moving toward the street, trying to get away from this cursed block where goblins died without warning.

  Victor let them go. He had 75 XP now. Five kills. His mana was full, his stamina enhanced by the constant fear radiating from the fleeing goblins.

  Victor had learned something crucial about his Rank 2 Stealth: he was virtually invisible when he chose to be. He could slip through combat zones unnoticed, eliminate threats, and vanish before anyone realized he was there. A small, satisfied smile touched his lips as he cleaned his blades. Just hours earlier, he’d been watching horror films and studying fear from a safe distance. Now, he was the thing that hunted in the shadows, and surprisingly, the transformation felt exhilarating. Not just effective, but genuinely enjoyable.

  “This is so much better,” he whispered to the empty hallway. "Way more satisfying than fighting head-on.”

  The stealth approach resonated with something deep inside him that direct confrontation never could. Facing an enemy in open combat demanded brute strength, accepting damage, and a messy exchange of blows, inefficient and loud. But stalking prey through darkness, reading their fear with his Sense, and timing his strike perfectly? That was artistry. That was mastery. Every ambush became a puzzle, each one a precise act of planning and control.

  He’d enjoyed hunting goblins more than he liked to admit. The thrill of their sudden panic, how their fear sharpened in his senses right before he struck, their inevitable fall. The feeling of being an unseen predator, unstoppable until the moment he revealed himself, was intoxicating. No struggle, no drawn-out fight, just efficient, silent predation.

  This is what I’m good at, he thought, inspecting the razor-sharp edge of his knife. *Hunting. Planning. Striking from the shadows.*

  The System was turning him into a ghost, a nightmare that killed from the darkness and left no trace. And Victor realized he didn’t mind as much as he maybe should.

  Moving northeast, he was heading toward the next concentration of goblin signatures his Perception had detected.

  One block later, Victor encountered a different situation.

  A house with its front door smashed in. Firelight visible through the windows. Goblin voices from inside, celebrating something. And underneath that, barely audible, human whimpering.

  Someone was still alive in there. And terrified.

  Approaching cautiously, Victor’s Fear Sense painted the situation in emotional gradients.

  Four goblins inside. Confident, aggressive, reveling in the moment.

  Two humans trembled with terror.

  The humans' fear was palpable, fueling Victor’s Fear Metabolism with constant enhancement. His vision cleared, his stamina fully restored.

  Four goblins equaled 60 XP if he dispatched them all, totalizing 135.

  Victor’s smile widened in the darkness. Let’s see how much you enjoy yourselves when you’re the prey.

  The goblins remained unaware of the impending threat. They had no notion that something far deadlier was already within their perception, tracking their positions, strategizing their downfall. They believed themselves the hunters. The things to fear.

  You have no idea what real fear is, Victor mused, fingers gripping his knives. But you’re about to find out.

  The reversal ignited a deep, primal satisfaction within him. For hours, the goblins had terrorized humans, feeding on their helplessness. Now, the tables turned. Something unseen, moving through shadows, lethal without warning, was hunting them.

  He studied the house. Two-story. Front door broken open. Back door probably accessible.

  Victor moved to the back. Found the door unlocked and slipped inside with Stealth engaged.