A one on one fight.
I figured the orc would have the advantage, but no.
The orc pushed through with its raw power, but the human used the geography around him well. He used nearby trees as shields, and dodged orc attacks.
Rather than try for instant kills, he sapped away his opponents’ strength with small attacks.
The guy that used his head wouldn’t go down easily.
I kept watching, and decided to kill the human first.
I observed his movements quietly until the time came. When the human was about to finish off the orc, I’d kill the human, and then the orc that was on the brink of death.
Thinking about that made me chuckle. But then I noticed that, and steeled myself.
I couldn’t get careless. Both the human and the orc were strong for me as I was then.
I waited quietly, and the time finally came.
The human swung his sword widely at the orc that was on its knees. That was the first time he took such a big action.
If he finished the orc with a smaller but sharp move, his future might have been a lot different.
But I knew that wouldn’t happen.
I just knew. I didn’t know why.
And I was correct.
I was ready, so I attacked the human before he could swing down.
I plunged the sword with a short blade into his body, piercing the flesh with my weight behind it.
The human went down without making a sound.
I let go of the sword, drew another blade from my waist, and attacked the surprised orc.
It tried to defend itself, but it was too slow. No, I was too fast.
The sword cut the orc’s neck, and it fell after letting out its final scream.
I could feel strength welling up from deep inside my body again.
With two bodies in front of me, I decided to collect the equipment they used and get away.
Humans and orcs were still fighting, but this was more important. I had to check what I got when I killed them.
When I focused, that was what was on my head.
It was also at this point that I learned they were called skills.
【Air】
This made it so my body melted into the world, and others couldn’t detect me.
【Super Strength】
This boosted my physical strength. I tested it by grasping the metal breastplate the adventurer wore, and I crushed it.
When I punched a tree, it broke and slowly fell.
After seeing that, I rushed to where the humans and orcs I needed to take down were fighting.
When I got there, I saw things were very different. They were reduced to two humans and three orcs.
I thought that was a shame, but I realized one of the humans on the ground was still breathing.
I activated Air to get closer. My heart was pounding, but the human didn’t notice me. I slowly got closer, and pierced the heart with a sword.
I learned by killing that human that humans die when their hearts are damaged.
It’s like a goblin’s magic stone. Or orcs’.
After finishing off the human quietly, I waited for opportunities to kill the rest.
I killed the humans first with sneak attacks, and then the orcs up front.
It was one against three, but the orcs went down easily enough to be called disappointing.
And I got a new skill.
【Future Sight】
Apparently this let me see the future, but I didn’t really get it, or its activation conditions.
I just thought I would eventually.
With the fighting over, I started thinking about what came next, but it was the same. Get stronger.
For that, I needed to hunt a lot. And since there was a limit to what I could do on my own, I needed partners. But I didn’t think I could trust partners.
Human knowledge told me they betrayed you if you showed an opening.
Rather than partners, I should get underlings or slaves that would obey me.
This would be easy in our world, monsters’.
Monsters had a tendency to follow the strong.
For goblins, I just needed to take down the bosses of their settlements. But if I attracted too much attention… Humans would put out hunting quests.
On the other hand, I could use that as a smokescreen.
Apparently goblins used human women to increase their numbers, so while they weren’t a threat to adventurers, they were a big problem for villages and stuff like that.
“I should take control of goblins, and find where humans live. Then I should kill humans and monsters to get strong, but I’ll focus on monsters first. If I hunt humans too much, they’ll mark me.”
If I found them away from their bases, I could hunt them, but I didn’t have to go after them.
With that settled, I walked towards a goblin settlement.
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Thanks for the treat.