Day Three

I quickly realised that I would always have this strange occurrence each time I sleep in this world. I stood in front of the Sphere again. This time, it gave the same weak pulses - five pulses this time.

[500 points]

I realised that killing a goblin rewards me with 100 points. The last 3 goblin's last time gave me 300 points. Today the 5 goblins gave me 500 points. 

Even in this dream-like state, I still felt hungry. So what happened next surprised me.

[Basic Nourishment]

[Essential Nourishment]

[Good Nourishment]

[Complete Nourishment]

The Sphere helped me make sense of these. Basic Nourishment is like eating bread and drinking water. Essential Nourishment is like adding a bit of protein with the bread and water. Good Nourishments includes a balanced meal full of veggies and salads. A complete nourishment gives everything my body needs to function, as well as fully stacking its reserves. 

[100 points]

[200 points]

[500 points]

[1000 points]

'So expensive' I thought.

Thinking about my leg, I decided to take Essential Nourishment without second guessing. I immediately felt better and full. I still miss the taste of food though…

I spent 5 upgrades on Stamina, for a total of 150 points. Then I dumped the last 150 points for 5 upgrades in Strength. The reason was simple. During the first fight yesterday, I was able to anticipate and react to the second goblin closing in, but I lacked the power to bring the club with a backhanded hit in time.

I thought about waking up, and immediately did. The dirt felt so much better than the stone in the cave. I was very angry with myself, for allowing me to sleep in the open without preparation for sneaky night goblins. I also realised that I did not sleep cold, as if the temperature was always perfect. The sun always shone the right amount of heat on me, and there was no night breeze to make it colder. 

Which led me to my second observation. There is no wind.

My stomach did not feel full. It felt like nothing was in it, but I was not hungry anymore. My mouth was also starting to become wet again, seemingly as if I just drank a lot of water.

I headed east, towards where the sun came up. I encountered more goblins along the way, and I hit them all with the club. One group of three and two groups of two. I also found a lone goblin walking around. He did not notice me at first, but I charged and killed it anyway for the points. 

It took me longer to get tired, but I was still limping as I walked with the club as a cane. I just felt better overall, but I became hungry by midday.

As I was thinking about taking a nap to get nourishment at the Sphere, I noticed the first appearance of saplings. The trees also became smaller, and then I saw it.

A bird.

I heard it chirping, before flying away. I cried, seeing something so normal for once. It cleared my ever growing paranoia and fear of silence. I started limping faster, as I tried to run ahead. The trees changed, as if the forest was changing. Whatever silent forest I was roaming, was now replaced with a forest full of grass, fauna, diverse bushes, etc. 

The air felt different, like I could breathe again. 

More goblins, a group of 5. They saw me first from my right, but one had a bow, while the other two had a club, and one had a shortsword and shield. The fifth one at the front had nothing in his hands.

They charged me from a distance of about 60 meters, but I immediately went behind a tree in fear of the bow. I peaked around the tree, watching them close in. An arrow struck the tree, which is when an empty handed goblin reached me. I instantly killed him with a wide swing of the club. The other three goblins were still 10 meters away, but I hid behind the tree again. I peeked and saw the bow-goblin repositioning for a better angle of me. 

Two club-goblins closed in, split, coming from both sides of the tree. I jumped out next to the tree, and used the tree to isolate a fight with just one goblin. It blocked my heavy strike with his club, but it pushed him off his balance on the ground. I moved in to deliver an overhead strike at its head, killing it.

This made an opening for the second club-goblin that already closed in to deliver a hit on me. It was a wide swing with both his arms, and my right arm paid the price of this blow. Before he could ready his club for another strike, I took my club with my left hand to deliver a blow over his head.

An arrow flew past me, it missed me by a meter or so. I moved behind another tree close by, peeking to see where the goblins are. I saw the sword and shield goblin over the body of the dead goblin, and the archer was somewhere I could not see before another arrow hit the tree truck. 

My right arm hurt, but it was nowhere as bad as my leg. It was not because of the upgrades, but because of the angle and tha club being way lighter than my own. It was still sore enough for me to avoid using it with the club.

I jumped out from the tree when I heard footsteps close to me, from my right. I stood before the shielded goblin, and then I spotted the archer about 20 meters away. I lined him up with the shielded one in between, and I could see his frustration.

The shielded goblin opened his shield to deliver a thrust with his sword. I parried it just in time with my club. I was surprised, since it must be the upgrades to my dexterity and stamina helping me. 

The parry made an opening, which I used to hit the goblin. He was fast enough to block with his shield. I decided to use my height advantage by jumping and hitting his head from above. 

He raised his shield and blocked, and then tried to slash me with the sword. His reach was too short, so I just bent my abs backwards out of the way. An arrow flew over my head, as the archer missed. I was moving side to side to keep the shield goblin in the middle.

If my leg was not swollen and sore, I would kick the shield goblin. I decided to do a jump again with my club. The goblin raised his shield, and was pulling his arm for a wide swing of the sword. I went to one knee and pushed forward beneath the shield, and took him to the ground. I knew the archer would shoot me if I'm on top, so I took the shield in his hands and pressed it down on his neck, which blocked most of my body from any arrows.

An arrow did strike the shield, but I pressed it down with my bodyweight a few times, which almost severed the head off.

I stood up with the shield in my right hand. I took the sword off the ground and made my way to the archer with a limping jog. He actually pulled out a dagger instead of running away, which made it easy to just trust my sword into his neck. 

I sat down on the ground, with five goblin bodies sprayed out between the trees. I couldn't understand why this group was bigger and more equipped than the previous from the silent forest. It was already becoming a bit dark, so I went back to the silent forest, hoping for it to be safer since the first night out seemed fine.

I found one of the generic trees, and laid down next to it. The temperature was immediately hotter than where the normal forest started. Now I could sleep without getting cold. 

I tried to prepare for incase by placing the shield on top of me, and my sword beneath it in my hand.

The day ended with 13 goblin kills.