First Meal (3)
Several hours had passed since we left the plains and entered the forest.
“Found them,” I muttered quietly as I discovered a cave guarded by two goblins.
The fact that goblins were standing watch meant their group had some level of organization. And that implied there was a leader directing the pack.
“There might be a higher variant.”
The possibility of not just ordinary goblins, but an evolved superior species. It was entirely plausible.
I examined the two daggers I held in my hands. The blades I’d taken after wiping out a group of six goblins were crude. After just one battle, the edges had already dulled, and I hadn’t been able to properly maintain them.
It was questionable whether I could face a superior goblin variant in this state, but…
“...I should have sharpened them at least.”
The bigger issue was that I’d had neither the time nor the tools. Still, I wasn’t about to charge in without any preparation or plan.
I hurled a dagger at the goblin standing guard at the entrance.
Kiruk!?
The blade struck precisely in the goblin’s nape. It collapsed, choking on its own breath. The goblin beside it froze in shock at its comrade’s sudden fall, but only for a moment. The second thrown dagger delivered the same fate.
I approached the corpses sprawled on the ground, retrieved the daggers embedded in their necks, and stepped into the cave.
With each step forward, the darkness grew thicker. I walked slowly into the blackness that swallowed all light.
“......”
I couldn’t see a thing. Goblins had excellent night vision. In this darkness, their sight would be perfectly clear, making this place no different from their home. Willingly stepping into it was like throwing yourself into a monster’s maw.
‘Some people would probably laugh at me for making such a fuss over mere goblins.’
But this world was one where such carelessness could easily cost you your life. I had witnessed that kind of absurd, hollow death countless times.
I quietly closed my eyes. A familiar voice echoed in my mind, like a habit.
"Trying to see everything with your eyes alone is the mark of an amateur."
"Smell it. Listen to it. Feel it with your skin. If even that is impossible, then taste it."
⟨ The Way of True Perception ⟩
The last part had sounded like nonsense at the time, but it wasn’t completely incomprehensible. The world couldn’t be fully understood through sight alone. There were things you could only know by smelling them, things you could only know by hearing them, and countless others that required tasting or touching.
Only by synthesizing all those senses could one truly perceive this world.
"If you cannot see, then smell. Listen. Feel. Taste. Perceive your world that way. That is your world."
“......”
I circulated the mana within my body. I pushed my physical abilities to their limit and heightened my five senses to the extreme.
I could see. Or rather, I could feel.
In the pitch-black darkness, my other senses compensated for my limited vision, filling in the missing information. Terrain features that had been invisible now appeared clearly in my mind. Using that data, I moved forward without hesitation.
‘...It’s actually easier than relying on sight alone.’
Thanks to the sensory expansion, the area behind me felt just as clear as what was in front. It was like walking with a lantern in hand. After moving like that for about ten minutes...
I detected the first presence.
In response, I minimized my own presence and moved with extreme stealth.
‘Twelve of them.’
Twelve ordinary goblins. Not a small number, but if I could cut their numbers in half with a surprise attack, it was definitely manageable.
I charged toward the goblins.
Abandoning stealth, I sprinted through the cave with loud footsteps that echoed off the floor.
Kiruk?
The moment they sensed the faint vibration in the dark cave and felt confusion, the situation unfolded.
Shuk!
I drove my dagger precisely into the nearest goblin’s throat. I kicked away the limp corpse and immediately thrust at another goblin.
The surprise attack only let me cleanly dispatch four.
Kirrruk!
The goblins recovered from their initial panic and rushed toward me. Even in this complete darkness, they perceived my presence as naturally as breathing.
‘Makes sense. This is practically their home.’
I systematically cut down the charging goblins one by one. I kicked away those that lunged at me, struck them down, and buried the crude dagger blades into their necks, killing the small monsters.
With their ridiculously small bodies and strength compared to humans, the goblin pack posed no real threat to me. The surprise attack carried out in this sunless darkness worked just as well. To my senses pushed to their maximum, everything was even clearer than before.
Should I say it was clearer? It was more accurate to say I could feel it.
‘I can use this outside too.’
I could accurately grasp the situation even when my vision was restricted. The number of enemies, their size, what they were doing. Even what lay beyond walls blocking my path.
Kii, eeeek!
The screams of goblins dying one after another filled the dark cave.
“...Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue in irritation. In the narrow cave, the goblins’ screams echoed like a chorus, slamming into my heightened ears. The pain ringing through my skull made me frown involuntarily.
Since this was my first time using it, I hadn’t anticipated this side effect. It seemed more stable to adjust the senses according to the situation rather than pushing all five senses to one hundred percent.
With that thought in mind, I continued dispatching the goblins while focusing on what lay deeper inside. I was certain of the massive presence I sensed from there.
‘It should be coming soon.’
With this much screaming constantly echoing through the cave, there was no way it would stay still.
BOOM!
“It’s here.”
The cave shook. Sensing something massive drawing closer, I turned my head toward it. The moment I killed the last remaining goblin, I prepared to face the final enemy.
Kirrrrrr!
A thin, ear-grating, grotesque cry. Finally, it revealed itself from the depths.
“Hobgoblin.”
A physique incomparable to ordinary goblins. Its long arms and legs were packed with bulging muscles that surpassed the average human male. What stood out most was that it wore a sword, shield, and armor in a manner similar to humans. It was clearly imitating people, mimicking their methods and habits.
‘So this thing must be...’
The superior variant that commanded the goblins settled in this cave. To be precise, it was closer to a subspecies or mutation.
Kirrrruk!
In the cave filled with darkness, the hobgoblin accurately pinpointed my location. Without hesitation, it charged straight at me.
Though it fell into the same racial category, this was a special entity whose nature and traits had mutated from the norm. It had evolved to survive, to adapt to its environment.
‘Or perhaps evolved like this.’
The possibility of evolving into a superior entity that leads a pack. In any case, that superior being was now swinging its sword at me.
I moved immediately. In my mind, I quickly weighed defense against evasion. The conclusion came in an instant. Blocking that attack with the crude daggers in my hands was impossible.
I twisted my body, slipping out of the diagonal arc of the descending blade. The moment I was certain I had successfully evaded the sword that had grazed the tip of my nose, I reflexively swung my dagger.
This shoddy dagger, its edge already completely dull, couldn’t pierce the hobgoblin’s crude armor. So what I targeted was the gap between the armor plates. The joint where its green skin was exposed.
Shuk!
Even if it was a superior variant, goblin skin could still be torn apart easily. The sensation of the blade digging in, slicing through flesh, muscle, and bone, traveled up the dagger’s hilt to my fingertips.
I gripped the handle with all my strength. I twisted with everything I had, driving the blade deeper into the joint.
Kyaaaak!
The hobgoblin’s scream, filled with shock and agony, reverberated throughout the cave. It thrashed wildly in a frenzy.
“Ugh…!”
For a moment I nearly got caught up in its rampage, but I barely held on. The dagger in my hand, however, was not so lucky.
Crack!
The blade lodged in the hobgoblin’s arm joint snapped. Since it had been taken from a dead goblin to begin with, I hadn’t expected much durability. Even so, losing a weapon meant the hobgoblin had also lost its means of attack.
With one arm incapacitated, it dropped the sword it had been holding.
Kirrr!
With a growling cry, the monster’s gaze locked onto me. I met its killing intent head-on, thick with hatred and rage.
The hobgoblin and I simultaneously unleashed our murderous intent and attacked each other.
Kaang!
The hobgoblin’s shield collided with my fist. A violent crash echoed through the cave like thunder.
Our raw physical abilities were roughly equal.
‘But if it’s the current me...’
The number of goblins I had hunted so far exceeded twenty, nearing thirty.
I channeled a portion of the Heavenly Fate I had absorbed from that many deaths, circulating it through my body like mana.
The life energy absorbed by devouring the deaths of demonic beasts. The more I circulated it, the more vitality and exhilaration overflowed within me. I concentrated all that power into a single fist.
‘It’s easy.’
It felt as if I had known how to use it from the very beginning. This was probably the consideration of whoever had forcibly implanted this mysterious power and knowledge into my mind.
My fist struck the hobgoblin’s shield once more.
Kwa-jik!
Unable to withstand the heavy impact, the shield shattered, and the hobgoblin was pushed backward. It reacted with clear bewilderment at the sudden second attack.
Kirik!?
It must have thought it had blocked the blow with its shield. But the crude wooden shield had broken, and its arm hung limply, unable to rise. Only then did it realize that its arm had been broken along with the shield by my fist, and panic set in.
In effect, both of its arms had been rendered useless by me. And realizing just how powerful that strike had been, it trembled anew.
“One more.”
I drove a second punch into the hobgoblin, whose body had frozen from shock. Using footwork to close the distance in an instant, I slipped into the embrace of its armor. Having confirmed the power of the previous strike, this time I aimed directly for its face.
Kwa-jik!
The crude iron helmet crumpled entirely, and the hobgoblin’s face caved in. What I felt at my fingertips wasn’t just metal, but the sensation of bone and flesh being crushed and torn. The hobgoblin, struck squarely in the face, was sent flying.
Kwaaang!
The inside of the cave shook. The hobgoblin’s body twitched where it had fallen to the floor. I had succeeded in landing a critical hit by striking its head directly, but it seemed it wasn’t enough to end its life.
I immediately picked up the sword it had dropped and slit the fallen hobgoblin’s throat.
“Ah.”
The hobgoblin’s head was severed. At the same time, Heavenly Fate flowed out like rising smoke and poured into my body. An enormous amount, incomparable to what I had gained from hunting ordinary goblins.
My first meal was incredibly satisfying.