The four adventurers gathered around the corpse, looking at it with pity. The warrior knelt on the ground, gasping for breath. The cleric stepped closer and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Now you understand why they sent us here? We've only two three goblins and we're already exhausted."
A bright light glowed in her hand and wrapped around the warrior. His expression softened and he managed a small smile.
"Well, at least I managed to level up with this one."
"Incredible… I'm still only level two," the wizard said, her voice dripping with envy.
"That's because your contribution to the fight was… how should I put it… brief," the cleric said with a soft laugh.
The wizard shot her a sharp glare.
The ranger helped the warrior back to his feet. "I leveled up too. That makes both of us level three now."
"Seriously? You too? So, I'm the only one who's not level three yet?" the wizard complained.
"So it seems. Though honestly, these goblins are only level one, it's getting another level here would be a miracle," the warrior said.
My heart sank with the new information. Did they really already kill two goblins? Meaning that ten minutes since our depart, our force had been reduced to three goblins. My mind spun with the second part. They were talking about levels. That meant I knew exactly what kind of world I had ended up in, at least a little. There were a lot of novels like with a system like that in my old world. If I landed in a world where you could level up and grow stronger, I had a change. It meant I didn't have to remain a weak goblin forever. I took a long breath in my hideout to calm my mind. I needed to focus. This system didn't appear when I landed in this body so there must be something I must do.
Just like they did in the novels, I thought about my Status, and a small interface appeared before my eyes.
Name: Unknown
Race: Goblin
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Constitution: 1
Intelligence: 1
Wisdom: 1
Charisma: 1
"Wow, I don't have to know much to realize that this status is absolutely trash" I thought to myself.
All my stats had only 1 point. Also, there weren't many lines and I was missing my class, skills, titles and everything that you could expect to see in any of these novels.
Thinking about these topics individually didn't bring up anything either, no titles, no skills, nothing. With a simple mind command, I close my status page and focus again on the adventurer team. In the end, it didn't matter how this system really worked if I couldn't survive the day.
I watched the group as the rest for a couple of minutes. Just when they were ready to continue their hunt, I heard a low growl in the distance. Something was charging like a bull towards the group, making no attempt to hide his presence. It was the brute goblin.
That stupid brute was out of his mind, just like the goblin I saw fighting earlier. With a clearly practice motion, the group change their relax behavior into a fight formation with the tank warrior in front of the rest. The warrior had the shield raised by the moment the brute goblin slammed on him.
At first, I thought that with the warrior being level three, the goblin would bounce back but the result shocked me. The warrior was the one who needed to take a step back. There were just two possibilities, or the brute goblin had a higher level than me or the difference between stats was not significance.
Thinking it through carefully, that made sense. In these novels, in the early levels, the differences between levels were remarkable, since a difference of just one level could mean the other player had twice as much in a stat as you. For example, it wasn't very difficult for the warrior to have twice or even three times my strength. But the early level had also a problem, because in the beginning not all stats were balanced, meaning might be weaker in strength comparting to them but still have the same stamina as them to make the fight one-sided.
This seemed to be the case with the brute goblin and the warrior. It also crossed my mind that the strange potion the shaman had given him might have something to do with it, but I couldn't confirm it since I hadn't taken it myself.
The brute goblin pounced on the warrior without any strategy or skill. Never in my life I did a martial arts sport or even got into a real fight but even I could discern that the goblin had no idea how to fight.
His only advantage was his blindly fury. He was not stopping for anything, not even when one arrow hit him in the should he stopping pouncing on him. The warrior didn't have the change to retaliate while blocking every strike with his shield. From time to time, he made the attempt to strike him back with his sword but the goblin was upon him again before he couldn't even finish the swing.
His only moment of respite came when the wizard threw the goblin a small red ball that exploded on impact. It was the first time I saw real magic and not a trick. The small ball was not the fireball someone could expect from a mighty wizard but it was effective. It made the goblin take a step back and stop his mad barrage on the warrior. A small burn mark could be seen on his chest.
The warrior was breathing heavily but he was preparing for the next round. Instead of charging back towards the warrior, the goblin glared angrily at the wizard and ran towards her.
The panic was obvious in her face as he took a step back. The warrior run to intercept him while the ranger and the cleric separated from her avoiding being in the goblin path.
Just before the goblin could reach her, the warrior tackled the goblin with his shoulder and another arrow struck him on his side. The goblin was not discouraged and continued to pursue the wizard.
The fight was moving out of my sight from my hideout so I moved silently close to them behind the rocks and the buildings. I wasn't sure of my next action, even if I help this brute, it was impossible for us to win these 4. Their level was higher, their equipment was… well I didn't have any equipment apart from my hammer so yeah, their equipment was better.
But at the same time my brain was thinking about my future. Would it be always like this. Me being the weak side while waiting for another adventurer party to find me. I gave a sad look to my green hands. Would I die being this small monster. I looked around, searching for the other goblin, but I couldn't see him.
My desperate thoughts oppressed me, and the thought of never seeing my daughter again was devastating. But what could I do. Kill them to gain some levels? Aside from it being something I didn't believe was within my capabilities right now, there was the question of whether I could actually kill someone. I was no longer human but the idea was still frightening.
Meanwhile the fight continued, I could see another arrow sticking out from the goblin that I didn't even think he'd notice. All the group was very tired trying to save the wizard from the fury of the goblin. Every attempt the warrior made to change his focus end up in failure. The goblin only pushed aside the warrior every time and charged the wizard making the team move further from me and the warrior to run again to intercept him.
A couple of minutes more and the goblin was drained. He fury state was fading and he stopped charging, panting heavily. The wounds had piled up and the fight was close to be over.
Before they could deliver the finishing blow, a small figure emerged from between the rocks, the last goblin. In its hands, it held a rusty knife and a stone, which it swung menacingly as it charged at the adventurers. Its rush was aimed straight at the two girls in the back of the group.
For a brief second, a flicker of fear appeared on their faces. They were exhausted, and the warrior no longer had the strength to intercept it.
The ranger was the one who stepped in its path, throwing a front kick at the goblin while pulling a knife from his back. The goblin staggered and fell to the ground, but instantly sprang back to its feet and charged at the ranger again.
The wizard fully turned toward the new threat and began charging another fireball.
Seeing that the situation was contained, at least for the moment, the warrior decided to finally finish off the brute goblin so he could join his companion.
That was my moment to act.
I wasn't about to join the fight directly, of course not, I wasn't that stupid. But sometimes a small intervention at just the right moment is enough to tip the scales. Since there was no chance we could completely defeat them, I decided the best course of action was to injure them badly enough to force a retreat. If they won this fight easily, they would continue exploring the ruins, and it would only be a matter of time before they found me.
I grabbed a stone from the ground and hurled it at the ranger's head as he exchanged blows with the new goblin. Hidden as I was, and with no one paying attention to their surroundings, the stone seemed to come out of nowhere.
By sheer luck, it struck the ranger in the head. My strength was pitiful, but my goal wasn't to kill him or knock him unconscious, just to distract him for a second.
The ranger, not expecting an attack from behind, staggered and glanced backward. That was his mistake. In battle, you can never allow yourself to be distracted.
The goblin seized the opening, stabbing its knife into the ranger's stomach and falling to the ground with him.
The ranger let out a deafening scream of pain as he struggled to push the goblin off. The goblin abandoned the knife and raised the stone, slamming it down toward his head. Before it could strike, the ranger drove his blade into the goblin's neck. At the same time, a small fireball struck the goblin in the side, blasting it away and tearing it from its victim.
Panic swept through the group. The priest stood frozen, her eyes searching desperately for the source of the stone that had caused everything.
"What are you doing just standing there?! Heal him!" the wizard screamed.
The warrior, who had his sword raised to deliver the final blow, turned his head at the sound of his companion's cry. In that moment, the brute goblin seized the opportunity to rise and tackle him.
The knife slipped from their hands and clattered to the ground as the two of them began rolling across the dirt, trading wild punches. I was genuinely surprised by how much energy the brute goblin still had left after everything he had taken.
The priest's hands began to glow as she tried to contain the ranger's wound, but then she heard the sounds of the warrior's struggle. Pure panic spread across her face as she watched everything spiral out of control.
The light around her hands flickered… then faded. She broke down crying. In the end, they were still just teenagers. This was all too much for her.
"What are you doing?! Close the wound or he's going to bleed out!" the wizard screamed again.
"I–I'm sorry…" the priest said in a weak voice. She closed her eyes and forced herself to focus on the healing spell.
For a second, I wondered if maybe… just maybe, we could actually win this fight.
Then I hesitated.
I wasn't doubting the battle, I was doubting myself. Not whether I could fight them, even though I'd never been in a real fight before… but whether I could kill them. And if I didn't kill them, then what? Beat them and politely tell them to go home?
I wasn't that naïve.
So I stayed hidden, watching.
From my position, the second goblin looked like it was bleeding out. Its body lay on the ground, twitching weakly.
The fight was nearing its end. The priest managed to close the ranger's wound a bit as he writhed on the ground. Luckily, the knife hadn't been very sharp, so the injury wasn't deep, though the rust could still cause an infection.
Meanwhile, the wizard watched the warrior with growing concern as he continued wrestling with the brute goblin. They were too close together for her to intervene safely. Besides, she'd already thrown who knew how many fireballs. At low levels, wizards never had much mana.
She might be completely dry.
Finally, the warrior managed to get on top of the goblin and pin it down with his weight. Grabbing the goblin by the throat with his left hand, he began raining heavy punches into its face, one after another, until the creature stopped moving.
When its life finally seemed to leave its body, the warrior collapsed to the side, gulping in huge breaths of air.
He was completely exhausted.
With great effort, the warrior forced himself to his feet and made his way over to his companions.
"How is he?" he asked, worry heavy in his voice.
The priest wiped her tears away with her sleeve and stood up. "Stable… I think. But I'm out of mana. We need to go back so someone else can heal him properly."
The wizard paced restlessly beside them, her eyes constantly scanning the darkness for any sign of movement.
The warrior noticed her unease and followed her gaze. "What is it?"
She tightened her grip on her staff. Anxiety was eating away at her. "Something threw a stone earlier." Her mouth twisted. "We're not alone."
"That doesn't matter right now. We need to leave," the priest insisted.
"They could attack us while we're leaving the cave," the warrior said solemnly. He never lowered his guard, continuing to scan the surroundings for danger.
As for me, I had completely hidden myself. I wasn't even watching them anymore. I wasn't about to take even the slightest risk.
"So what are you suggesting? That we leave him behind?" the priest snapped.
I heard the hesitation in the warrior's voice. "No. We're not doing that. Gather your things and move toward the exit, slowly and carefully."
From my position, I listened as they slowly collected their weapons from the ground and dragged themselves toward an exit I didn't even know existed.
I didn't dare take a look. The risk of being discovered wasn't worth it.
I waited at least ten minutes, until the sound of their footsteps finally faded away. Only then did I leave my hiding place.
My plan had worked.
Now I had to think about what I was going to do next.