"Kiji, this damn goblin just will not go down!" Rūkasu had been trying to beat this stupid little orange goblin for two days now.
No matter what he did the thing seemed to take very little damage. "Rū, I am analyzing the fights and looking through the database. It seems as though the more training with weapons you have the more damage they will do. Besides that, your skills do more damage than just swinging your sword wildly. This goes back to channeling your magick into your attacks and using skills."
Looking down at his sword, Rūkasu clenched his hand around the handle and started to infuse magick into the blade. The ashes that formed the blade slowly started to light up in a luminescent grey light. “Let's see if this works then!” With his glowing blade Rūkasu charged at the unsuspecting goblin.
It turned in time to see the glowing blade but had no time to block or parry the blow. “Gradient Rupture!” The sword fell on the goblin with a diagonal cut. The digital goblin howled in pain as its sword wielding arm fell to the ground. Rūkasu spun around and charged again. “Gradient Rupture- Reverse!” This time his sword swung on a diagonal from the goblin's lower left side to its right shoulder, cleaving the arm off cleanly. Again the goblin screamed in pain before it had fallen to the ground. It fizzled out of existence.
Ba-da-dum! System message: Congratulations! You have defeated Goblin Farmer Level:1. You have taken your first steps into the Combatant Operating System! You have got to be joking. “Kiji, that goblin was level 1 and a farmer? You cannot be serious.” Kiji scoffed at Rūkasu.
“Well yeah Rū. I did say it was the weakest enemy in the system. It isn’t my fault you walked in overconfident and got your butt kicked for two days straight.”
She started to laugh uncontrollably as she began showing clips of the little orange goblin beating the absolute pants off of Rūkasu for the past couple of days.
“My favorite one was when it tried to keep biting your toes! Look at your face!” Unimpressed, Rūkasu went back to his system messages.
System message: New skill learned!
Gradient Rupture- A basic right to left diagonal slash. Deals moderate damage to low level enemies. Consume 5 MP to activate. Grows new branches in your skill tree. We all have to start with the basics. Did you think you could just blast enemies away in one fell swoop? Keep at it and fine tune your skills ~B
System message: New skill learned!
Gradient Rupture- Reverse- A combo move that flows in the opposite direction of the previous attack skill. Consumes 5 MP to activate. Oh wow. You took one skill and just flipped it around. You must be soooo proud. Keep at it and maybe one day you will be a fine swordsman ~B
This “B” character was starting to get a little sarcastic in these messages. There always seemed to be a message from whoever it was whenever Rūkasu had an achievement.
System message: Tutorial Challenge Quest! Goblin’s Gauntlet! Your tutorial is now completed. However, The C.O.S. has granted the new combatant Rūkasu Kazesuji a chance to compete for higher rewards! Complete the Goblins Gauntlet to unlock a reward to take with you outside of the tutorial! Continue? Y/N. “Kiji, are you seeing this in my HUD?”. Wait a second. The hell is a HUD? Why do I keep learning these weird things? Maybe the C.O.S. is playing with my head? Who knows.
“Yes boss. I can see it. I recommend doing it. The system doesn’t give these gauntlet quests out often. The rewards could give you a great boost.” Seeing no reason to not to do it, Rūkasu mentally “clicked” the Y. The environment shifted and once it stabilized Kiji noted that they were on a battlefield.
System message: Defeat a minimum of 50 goblin warriors. Do note that the more you defeat the better your reward will be at your final score and may also unlock a hidden objective. Good luck Combatant!
Remaining time 6 days 23 hours 59 minutes
Goblin warriors defeated 0/50
Stretching, Rūkasu looked across the battlefield. It was a giant plain that had no cover. Just a flat grassy field. Not a tree or hill in sight. “Well I definitely can’t sneak up on these things, that's for sure. Kiji, I know you cannot help in combat but can you analyze their attack patterns?”
Kiji nodded energetically. “Sure thing boss! I also took the liberty of setting up my recording devices to playback for you later!” Rūkasu shook his head and lifted his sword. “Yeah. That must be what it is for. Alright, time to go to work.”
Walking forward Rūkasu made a last second choice to swap from his katana to his 1H sword. It may be a bit shorter but if I want to cut them down quickly then this is the better option. His mind was racing. The farmer goblin took two days to defeat. How long would these take to defeat?
Skill activate: Distinguish Multiple Targets- Goblin Warriors level 2
Looking at the brightside Rūkasu noted that almost all of the warrior's stats were close to the same as his. Their levels were one higher than his but their stats were lower than his own. I can do this. I want that reward and I want to level up!
Taking a slightly crouched battle stance that felt right to him, Rūkasu rested his sword on his shoulder and charged a skill as he leapt towards his first opponent. “Ashen Thrust- Pierce!” The sword had glowed in a red sheen as he drove it into the first goblin, killing it on the spot.
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Goblin Warriors Defeated: 1/50
Pulling his sword out of the goblin and swinging it to get the guts off of the blade, the rest of the colorful goblins turned to face him.
They all started to growl and screech at him in horror. “YOU KILLED PHILIP!”, they screeched. “HE WAS ON OUR HOA BOARD!” This went on for another five minutes. Everyone had a different reason why they loved “Philip” oh so much. “HE HAD A FAMILY! HOW WILL HIS KIDS GET INTO GOBLIN UNIVERSITY NOW?” It started to get a little too weird for Rūkasu.
“These are all made by the system right? They aren’t actually real?” “Not in the slightest. The system just has a little too much fun with its NPC’s. Wreck their shit boss!”
He and Kiji exchanged glances with one another and started smiling and laughing as the goblins had rallied to their cause. “FOR PHILIP! WE SHALL CARRY ON HIS LEGACY!” The goblins had all started charging towards Rūkasu as he prepped for his first big fight.
6 days later…
“Kiji, I am so tired of them screaming about Philip! It is beyond overused now.”
Floating to his side, Kiji let out an exaggerated sigh. “To be honest boss, I started tuning them out after day two.” Rūkasu had gone on an absolute Murder Hobo killing spree on these goblins, leveling up twice.
They would not shut up about Philip. Even in their dying breaths they still screamed out “FOR PHILIP!”
The goblins could barely touch Rūkasu but this constant yelling about Philip had actually caused Rūkasu to take damage. “I think the annoyance is considered a mental attack, Boss. How many kills are you at now? You have to be close.”
Looking at the counter, Rūkasu noted the time and kills remaining.
Time remaining: 18 hours 24 minutes
Goblin Warriors Defeated: 352/50
With a grimace Rūkasu told Kiji his total kills. As soon as he said it out loud a system message popped in.
System Message! You have defeated enough Goblin Warriors to unlock the Bonus Objective!
Bonus Objective: Defeat the Widowed Hob-Goblin!
“Oh god! Please no!” The goblins had all cleared a path for a goblin that had stepped forward through the crowd. It was clearly female and stood a head taller than the rest.
As she stepped forward Rūkasu noticed the tear-streaked face.
Distinguish- Hob-Goblin level 4
Name: Phileisha- Widow of Philip
“Philip was a father and an outstanding member of our community. You took him away from us for no reason at all.” Phileisha proceeded to list all the good things Philip had done in his life and how he had changed hers for the better. “To hell with this! I can’t take it anymore!” Rūkasu got back into his battle stance and began charging his thrust skill.
The blade glowed red and yet Phileisha kept talking on and on about Philip. Pushing off his backfoot, Rūkasu shot forward in a blur “I’ll take you down like I did Philip!” “Ashen Thrust- Pierce!”
The thrust reverberated in his hands. Looking up he saw that the widow was still talking about that damned Philip. Looking back down at his sword he saw that it had been stopped. By a leather purse. Phileisha grabbed the sword blade and held it to the side as Rūkasu tried to wrench it free from her grip. “... and the worst part is that you don’t even care.”
The widow took a swipe at Rūkasu. Seeing her draw back her arm, Rūkasu ducked out of the way and let go of his sword. Phileisha started to swing wildly with her nails, scratching and cutting Rūkasu all over his body.
“FOR PHILIP, MY BELOVED!”. Summoning his trusty katana from his inventory, Rūkasu began to block as he was put on the back foot. Analyzing her battle patterns was challenging but he slowly began dodging more and more and started to get some attacks of his own in. Phileisha dug into her purse and pulled out a small bottle and threw it at Rūkasu who cut it in two. The water splashed on his face and he began to scream in pain.
The water had gotten into his one good eye. “Pepper water! Compliments from Philip’s Apothecary shop!”
“Boss, serious question. Do you think Philip actually did all the things they have said?”
Rubbing his eye, Rūkasu tried to focus his vision but couldn’t manage to see out his eye. “Kiji not now! I can’t see out of my eye. I’m a sitting duck.”
Huffing, Kiji got in his face. “Is that other eye even working or is it just for show? I have no data on it but something as powerful as that eye seems to be, it should give you some kind of vision.”
Thinking back to when he woke up in the tent he had remembered the gritty vision he had. Could that have been the eye? Focusing on the eye itself his environment around him slowly came into focus.
He could see everything but it was still gritty and seemed to be a lower resolution compared to his normal vision. He saw Phileisha rushing towards him with her nails out.
Sidestepping, she rushed past him and missed him completely. “I can see. I can see! I can fight!” Rūkasu rushed after the widow with his katana in hand.
He had been practicing something the past few days and was ready to give it a try. “Elemental Link-Wind!” His sword glowed green and wind swirled around the blade kicking up dust around him.
His speed increased as he pressed towards the Hob-Goblin. “Ashen Thrust! Piercing Tornado!”. Rūkasu’s sword stabbed into Phileisha and pressed through her leather purse, piercing her chest. Twisting the sword handle to the right, the wind surrounding the blade turned into a tornado and proceeded to rip Phileisha apart from the inside out. “Bye Phileisha! Tell Philip I said he can go to hell!”
What was left of Phileisha crumbled and scattered in the wind. Ba-Da-Dum! System message: Congratulations! You have cleared the Bonus Objective and completed the Goblin Gauntlet! Rewards: 1x tutorial shirt, 1x tutorial pants, 1x tutorial boots, 1x tutorial gloves, 1x eye patch. -This is a set. Equipping all of them grants plus 5 to all Point Pools.
Opening up his equipment menu he equipped all of his gear.
Bonus reward! For defeating the Hob-Goblin Widow you have earned: 1x Training dummy box. -can be used outside of the tutorial to train new skills and level up. Must defeat the Training Dummy to unlock Grand Quest.
Grand Quest. The hell is that?
Ba-Da-Dum! System Message: Level up!
Looking at his new gear and stats they read:
Name- Rūkasu Kazesuji
Level-4-5
Class- Newcomer
Heart Points (HP)- 140/140- 155/155
Magick Points (MP)- 140/140 to 155/155
Stamina Points (SP)- 140/140 to 155/55
Strength(STR)- 25 to 30
Agility(AGI)- 20 to 25
Hidden Traits (HT)- 37 to 40
Battle power(BP)- 77 to 90
His stats had jumped a lot. His gear made his Point Pools higher than average as well, so that was a nice surprise. What really caught Rūkasu‘s attention was his Hidden Traits (HT) had finally gone up. This was the first time they had been raised.
Is it because I learned and made new skills? Thinking about it, Rūkasu knew he would discover what caused this in due time. “Kiji, let's get out of here. I don’t ever want to see a Goblin ever again.”
Turning from the battlefield, Rūkasu opened his menu and clicked “Exit tutorial” “Fucking Philip.”
Did Philip Deserve to die so fast?
