Day Two

While I was asleep, the strangest thing happened. 

I could feel it, that this dream is not a dream, but a reality. I stood in complete darkness, with a lone star in front of me. It was blinding with golden light. It was rather small, but enough to blind my vision.

It pulsed three times, and then I felt a weird sensation wash over my mind.

[300 points]

The information was presented as mere thoughts implanted to my mind. The ball of light reacted to my thoughts. The first thing I thought was: 'what are you?'

In front of me, a tome of some sort presented itself. I could neither reach out for it or see it completely. I only knew that it held the answer to my question. 

[1 000 000 points]

An absurd number when compared with my meager 300 points. Which led to my next question.

'How do I get points, and how did I get 300 points?'

The tome presented itself again. 

[1 000 000 points]

I grew frustrated since it was giving me no answers. Instead, I thought about what I could do with these 300 points.

[Improve Strength]

[Improve Dexterity]

[Improve Constitution]

[Improve Stamina]

[Improve Mind]

I was intrigued, but I also thought about what I could do more with my points. Immediately, I could feel that I could invest my points into this star-like ball of light. I'm just going to reference it as 'the Sphere' from now on. 

[10 000 points] 

'That's also a lot of points, but not as much as the tome.'

I can also recover my injuries. I did not mention this before, but my leg that was not striked by the goblin, has metal screws at the Tibia. A few years back I severely broke my leg in a motorcycle accident. A full recovery of my leg with screws, including my other leg hit with the club, as well as taking away my exhaustion, was possible with the Sphere.

[6 740 points]

If this is going to work and help me to survive, then I would need all the Dexterity and Stamina I could get. Because, if I am able to get tired slower, while dodging things more easily, then I would be safe from more injuries. I gave up on the idea to heal my injuries. I simply don't have enough points.

I invested one upgrade in [Improve Dexterity]. It cost 30 points. I did the same with [Improve Stamina] which also cost 30 points. In the end I did 5 upgrades for Dexterity and Stamina with a total price of 300 points. Now I'm broke. I felt no change in particular, but I'll see if this is true for when I wake up.

Thinking of waking up, I just woke up, like nothing happened. 

Cold stone floor greeted my ass. I was still sitting against the cave wall. My legs were unbelievably sore, and my wrist felt like it was swollen. 

'Should have taken some boxing classes' I thought to myself. The light from the entrance was bright, which meant it was morning already. I took the club next to me, and pushed myself up against the wall with great effort. 

I slowly walked out of the cave, using the club as a crutch. I could see that my knee was swollen. That damn goblin did some serious damage to my ability to survive. 

"I need to find people. I can't seriously be alone out here." I mumbled to myself, my throat felt a bit dry. That gave me the idea to search for water.

'So damn quiet' was all that I thought about as I tread through the forest once more. I moved east, where the sun came up, to keep a semblance of direction. 

The place felt fake. There were no bugs anywhere. No animals like birds or squirrels. The trees sometimes looked the same as ones I passed previously. The ground felt real, but it was like there was nothing in the dirt. No worms or anything. There were also no tree saplings. All the small bushes were the same height.

The sun shone rays through the trees, which did give a majestic feeling. 

After what felt like an hour of walking with the club/cane, I stopped to dig some dirt in the ground. The dirt was clean, like no organism was living inside it. I moved further and dug again. I did this dozens of times as I moved a great distance. 

Everywhere, the dirt was exactly the same. Exactly the same colour, texture, moisture, consistency… lifeless…

I did notice that I feel less tired from all the walking than expected. I have been walking with the club for seemingly hours. The sun was almost above me. I was really tired either way. I was by no means some athlete or someone that exercises daily at that time. 

My inner thoughts and paranoia were interrupted when I saw two greenskins walking through the forest. They saw me at the same time as I saw them, so there was no opportunity for me to hide. They ran full sprint at me, shrinking the 50 meters or so between us.

I turned and ran, but stumbled and almost fell because of my swollen leg.

"Why the fuck am I running?" I clenched my teeth and suppressed my fear and cowardice. I will kill these two. I have a club, so I can do it.

I tried to take a stance next to a tree, but my leg wouldn't bend. In the end, I could not take a stance at all when the first goblin reached me, with his friend right behind him. I lined up a wide swing with the club and hit him hard over the head. His running speed made him fall hard on the ground next to my feet. I had no time to look at him as I had to swing backhand with the club to hit the second goblin. 

Unfortunately, I was too slow even when I could react in time. He rammed into me and toppled me on the ground.

Something about being tackled by them was starting to annoy me. I dodged my head sideways as he tried to hit me. He did score about 2 hits on my jaw, but the rest I avoided. I saw an opening as he was winding up a heavy hit from over his head.

I let go of the club and reached up to grab his face, pushing my fingers hard into his eyes. He screamed so loud, my ears hurt. I held his neck with one hand, and began hitting him with my fist. He tried to hit me back, but I kept him at arm's length by the neck. He became slow and soon gave little resistance.

I pushed him off onto the ground, took my club, and destroyed his face. I panted heavily, and then I remembered there were two goblins. Fortunately, the first one died with that one swing over the head. 

I took a moment to catch my breath. My stomach was turning, I felt sick. At the same time, I was incredibly hungry and thirsty. Very, very weird combination of feelings. I noticed that these greenskins smelled disgusting. A combination of blood and urine. Some of that urine was on me too. Gross I know.

I continued to walk around the forest. I came across one other goblin soon after. I killed him with one swing over the head as he charged at me. I continued to limp around, trying to stay towards the east. The forest seemingly went on forever, and it was lifeless and silent as always.

Another group of two goblins came my way, which I killed. I swung and killed the first one like last time, but this time I immediately shuffled to my right behind a tree. As the goblin slowed down to come around the tree, I popped out with a strong overhead strike. He blocked it with his arms, which made a loud snap sound. Another overhead hit to the head killed it.

The sun was setting, and I was spent. I felt tired from all the walking and fighting. The paranoia of the silent forest was also draining my focus. I sat down next to a tree, some distance away from the last two goblins I killed.

I kept thinking about food and water. The taste of a piece of steak, with hot mash. Some cheese… If my mouth wasn't as dry, I would probably drool. Soon it was pitch black dark. I was too tired to even stand up and go back to the cave. I am a day's walk away from it anyway. 

I just felt miserable at that moment, which made me care less about my safety in the dark quiet forest. Just like that, I passed out again.

The second day ended with five goblin kills.