Chapter 4 First Blood
'... and everything changes. Or at least that is what i think should be happening right now. Instead I'm still sitting on my bed in my home with no changes whatsoever to my surroundings. Hmm maybe the skill didn't register and i have to say it?'
"Create Instance: Monster Dimension" I said which rewarded me with a notification.
Create Instance can not be used inside a created Instance. If you wish to create a new instance, leave the current instance and create a new one with "Leave Instance".
'Ok, so that means that the skill worked but why did nothing change? Hmm maybe the outside is different', I thought as i stood up to walk to my window. And what I saw surprised me more than it should have. Instead of the normal hubbub in the streets there was nothing, literally no one was there, as if the entire area was deserted.
Still shocked I continued to stay there, just watching the surroundings looking for something, any sign of life. But nothing changed. Remembering that I still had some issues to sort out, I left my home and started searching the village for something out of place, after all there are supposed to be monsters here.
After searching for a while without success I realized that I wouldn't get anywhere searching like this and started heading for the outskirts of the village, after all there were supposed to be more monsters where less people frequented.
Heading into the direction of training ground one I was quickly rewarded with something unusual.
Roughly 50 meters in front of me I saw an unusual creature which was maybe 1 meter high and wore only a loincloth. It's skin was of green color and it had thin arms and legs. It carried a weapon however, at least if you honor which was essentially a sturdy stick half the creatures size, with that description.
'So that's a monster huh? doesn't look very monstrous to me' I thought to myself, 'but than again it is supposed to be rather week considering how close it is to a village.' After a shortly observing it's behavior, which consisted of nothing other than making a few grunts here and there but standing in place otherwise, I decided to use my observe skill on it.
Goblin grunt
LVL: 5
Race: Goblin
HP: 200/200
STR: 6
AGI: 8
INT: 4
WIS: 3
'This thing is actually a lot tougher than it appears' I concluded after I finished reading the description my observe skill provided, 'but I should still be able to defeat it'.
'How am I going to fight it though? Unlike that goblin i don't have a weapon with me, even if it is just a stick. Maybe I can sneak up to it and overwhelm it before it can use that weapon, after all I am a ninja, well almost, and we are supposed to be doing things as stealthy as possible'.
With my planning done I moved on to the implementation and started to sneak closer to it. Possibly thanks to my high stealth skill It didn't notice me before it was to late. Any kind of hesitation for trying to kill something living, even if I was aware that it was just a semi-sentient construct and not a real living thing, was brutally suppressed through my gamer skill, allowing me to land blow after blow on the small creature. Through my Brawling skills I was able to keep up the pace for the duration of the short fight and before it could even bring it's stick to bear properly, it succumbed to my relentless assault and it's HP hit 0.
After which something completely surprising happened, it's body that I just defeated didn't stay there as I expected, instead it just disappeared into slowly vanishing sparks leaving behind just it's stick, I was also hit by several Notices from my gamer ability through pop up screens.
Defeated Goblin Grunt, gained 50 EXP
Brawling LVL up to 26
Stealth LVL up to 26
After the adrenalin vanished, what I just did caught up to me, 'so that was it huh? My first fight to the death. I guess I should be lucky that I had the calming support of my gamer ability and that my first enemy wasn't a human or really alive for that matter. Anyway, get a grip Naruto there might still be others nearby'
As I was coming to grips with what just happened I picked up the stick and used observe on it.
Wooden stick
ATK 1-2
Rarity: trash
Description: a wooden stick that has already seen some use.
'Doesn't look very useful but I should still take it with me, who knows when this thing might come in handy, and it's not like my hands are full anyway'.
After I picked up the wooden stick I moved on to the first training ground, on the way I happened upon several more individual goblins which I dispatched almost as easily as the other ones. The last one however gave me some trouble.
It was a level higher than it's peers at level 6 and had an actual club as a weapon instead of a stick.
"Hmm another one, but this one looks a bit different" I thought to myself after seeing it for the first time. "The same method should still work however, what use is that weapon if I can defeat it before it can use it".
Decision made, I used the same approach as the last few times and had the same success, at least until it managed to take some distance and readied it's club. The goblin only had 68 HP left at that point but it still took my a while to defeat it. Considering that the goblin had the longer Reach I decided that I would continue the fight using my stick and against my expectations it went rather well. Apparently the Brawling skill also works with weapons, even thought it doesn't appear to be as effective.
Since the goblin was ready this time the fight didn't go as one sided as the last few. After it managed to steady itself and shake of the surprise, the goblin quickly closed in and swung the club at my knee, probably trying to inhibit my immovability. Considering that the goblins attack succeeded it would have achieved it's goal if I didn't have the gamer ability. Apparently the strike wasn't strong enough to inflict a status effect and I got away with taking 76 Points of damage to my HP.
Surprised by my lacking reaction to it's attack, the goblins movement dulled and I managed to land a strike of my own to it's torso dropping the goblins HP to 3. This strike was not without consequence however and the goblin lunged at me with a shriek and apparently no regard for it's own life. The goblin managed to land a devastating strike, fueled by some sort of frenzy, against my arm, dropping my HP below 700. Thankfully, I managed to recover from the shock of a strike, this strong, quickly enough and evaded the follow up attack, giving me the opportunity to defeat my enemy through a last attack with my stick hitting the goblin squarely on it's head.
Defeated Goblin Grunt, gained 60 EXP
'Phew that was a lot more difficult than I expected' I thought to myself after the fight was over, 'i need to be more careful here, this is no longer my home village but essentially enemy territory where everything is out to kill me. especially that last strike was dangerous, might be something like an enrage that activated when their HP falls below a certain value.'
After I calmed down I realized that all the agitation over my family and being the jinchuriki that I carried around was gone. 'Well at least I'm a lot calmer now, if nothing else these goblins were a good stress relief. Since I feel better now I could go back. I also have at least some idea about what this skill does now, meaning I can return when I at least got rid of my malnourished state and continue exploring and fighting then. Alternatively I could go on now since I still have more than enough HP left' Both choices had it's advantages but since I was already there and still good to go I decided to continue and see how far I would be able to get'.
As I finished my decision I exchanged my weapon with the club the other goblin dropped, after I looked over it with observe.
Observe LVL up to 2
Wooden club
ATK 3-5
Rarity: ordinary
Description: An ordinary wooden club. Sturdy enough to create some headaches if properly applied.
'Nice, Observe finally leveled up, I wonder what changed now. That reminds me I never looked at the description of the skill'.
Observe LVL 2 Progress to next level 4%
Description:
This skill allows the user to obtain Information about anything he can see. How much Information can be obtained depends on the level of the Skill and the target of the skill.
'That's about what I thought it would be, anyway I should continue on'.
Continuing on towards training ground one I noticed that the average level of the goblins increased, as I closed in on the first training ground. On the way I run into more goblins even some at level 7, they were not much more of a thread than the level 6 goblin however.
When I reached the outskirts of the training ground my Stealth Skill was at level 29, Brawling at 31 and Observe at 3. I also gained a new skill called blunt weapon mastery which went up to level 7 as well as a level up putting me at level 10 when I reached the outskirts. My Hp However dropped below 400 through the continuous exchanges with the higher leveled goblins.
After I reached the outskirts I had to stop and reconsider my situation.'Oh that looks like a new Goblin type' I thought as I saw a familiar figure in the distance crouching besides a tree. It looked almost like all the other goblins I saw so far but the difference in equipment would make it stick out like a sore thumb in a large crowd of normal goblins. This Goblin wore short green trousers with a green shirt and hat, it also had two knifes instead of a club. As with all the other goblins I saw so far I immediately used Observe on it.
Goblin scout
LVL: 9
Race: Goblin
HP: 280/280
STR: 13
AGI: 15
INT: 9
WIS: 6
Passive skills: Observant LVL 15, Knife Mastery LVL 7
' Oh dear, that won't be easy. If I were to leave away HP and CP This goblins stats are better than mine, not to mention the knives and I might not be able to sneak up to him thanks to that Observant skill'.
'What I would give for a kunai right now, stupid regulations, you don't prevent ninjas from obtaining their tools, even if they are just ninja students. Running into this blind would be a bad idea, I would like to avoid unnecessary risks, so let's see how we compare'.
'As mentioned his stats are slightly better than mine with the exception being HP where I have a lot more but it would still be risky if he does a lot more damage to me, so it comes down to my close combat skills'
Brawling LVL 31 Progress to next level 46%
Description: Use anything you have available to inflict the most possible damage against the opponent. Primarily an empty hands combat skill, can be used with weapons at half the effectiveness and together with other empty hands combat skills at a fourth of the effectiveness.
Increase damage through kicks and punches by 46%.
Increase critical strike rate by 4,6%
Blunt Weapon Mastery LVL 7 Progress to next level 73%
Description: Describes your skill at wielding any kind of blunt object as a weapon.
Increases damage through blunt objects by 3.5%
Increase critical strike rate by 0.35%
Chance to stun the enemy for 2 seconds upon hitting the head 1.75%
'Hmm that will do I guess, but I'm going to spend the stat points I gained so far just to be save'
Naruto Uzumaki
LVL: 10 430 EXP for next LVL
Race: Human
Title: Academy Student
HP: 423/1100
CP: 2070/2070
STR: 19 -3 (-20%)
AGI: 8 -3 (-20%)
INT: 11 -2 (-20%)
WIS: 8 -2 (-20%)
Points 10
Active Effects:
Malnourished: Body is suffering from lacking nourishments. - 20% for all stats
'Now where to put my stats? Hmm... I know, I should probably distribute equally until I know where I want to specialize but this time I will focus on my physical stats more considering what's ahead, so 2 in mental and 3 in physical should do it.
Naruto Uzumaki
LVL: 10 430 EXP for next LVL
Race: Human
Title: Academy Student
HP: 453/1130
CP: 2070/2070
STR: 22 -3 (-20%)
AGI: 11 -3 (-20%)
INT: 13 -2 (-20%)
WIS: 10 -2 (-20%)
Points 10
Active Effects:
Malnourished: Body is suffering from lacking nourishments. - 20% for all stats
'Good that's better. So, battle plan, since he will probably notice my stealth this time I'm gonna use the Transformation skill to turn into a goblin and run up to him, that should get me close enough to strike him on the head with my club and get the initiative'.
Decision made I transformed into a goblin and ran up to the scout trying to look urgent but nonthreatening, which apparently succeeded since the scout didn't attack me, even after I got close.
I returned his questioning noises by swinging my club at his head which caught him by surprise thanks to which I could hit his head again this time stunning him. The rest of the fight went surprisingly easy and the scout only managed to get a few shallow hit's in at the end, which dropped my health to 283. For my trouble I got a knife, a bottle with red liquid and 130 EXP.
Goblin Iron Knife
ATK: 7-10
Description: An Iron Knife that is usually used by goblins.
Rarity: ordinary
'Well at least I have a good weapon now… I think, now what's that liquid for'.
Small Health Potion
Recovery: 250 HP
'If the recovery is instant these will be very useful, I hope I will find more when I get back here but for now I should return, it's getting late and my HP is getting dangerously low. Now how to get out? Maybe with Leave Instance?' Following that thought I felt a shift in the air.