Chapter 35: Life Stone Hunt
[ Day 8 ]
As expected, everything is extra sore today.
The day before couldnt be said to have been especially busy, but thanks to trying so many things in different directions, Damian felt what it was like to hurt from everywhere.
After getting appropriate rest from his first Goblin group battle, Damian kept going on his quest, only collapsing to sleep after he exterminated three more groups!
The learning process was still harsh, but Damian kept seeing results in real-time. Since he could barely handle the shortsword not too long ago, progress was still very apparent.
Its a bit unfortunate, but this will have to do for now.
Once again, if it was up to him, Damian wouldnt have picked the shortsword to be his first weapon to learn. It wasnt newbie-friendly at all. However, in his current plan, nothing could truly go to waste.
Even if Damian wasnt planning to wield the shortsword forever, learning how to handle it would gradually increase his dexterity in general.
Its not a bad harvest either.
Among a total of 12 Goblins, Damian chanced upon 4 jackpots. Coupled with the one that he earned from the first battle, it made the total earnings of Day 7 a grand total of 5 Life Stones!
It will still be a while before I can attempt the third ring, but the satisfying sense of grinding is still there.
With no points or levels to be gained, Life Stones were Damians only remaining source of happiness.
Of course, considering that he barely scratched the surface of the Hobgoblins farming limit, leveling up wasnt exactly a lost cause. Nonetheless
Lets forget about that for now.
The current encounter chance of a Hobgoblin was so incredibly low that Damian ironically felt lucky about the traumatizing first Den.
Rather than having any unrealistic expectations of leveling up sometime soon, Damian preferred to pour all of his attention on the target that he was more likely to attain. Ascending as a Knight!
Cant laze around forever. Right, Iris?
{Y-yeah?}
Despite the amplified soreness, Damian rose up. The fact that the ground was uncomfortable compared to a proper bed made it easier to beat the urge to keep lying down, but it still required a proper resolve to start the day knowing what awaited him
Lets go light on the training today.
With practical experience in the bag, Damian had already realized that an intense workout was no longer needed to build up his endurance, the prolonged group battles were more than enough to play that role.
All that Damian needed to do was a quick warm-up to prepare him for the real thing!
Green!
The goal was simple, run until you collected enough Goblins then wrestle to the death. Since only 4 Goblins were starting to get less challenging, Damian alternated between groups of 4 and 5.
The level of challenge had to increase just as Damian got better. Otherwise, he would be going back to the starting line!
[ You have defeated a Goblin. ]
[ You have defeated ]
[ You have ]
By the end of the day, Damian defeated a total of 5 Goblin groups, attaining 5 more Life Stones!
`~~~`~~~`~~~`
[ Day 9 ]
Having started settling into his new routine, Damian slowly got more comfortable with the group battles. The difficulty remained the same as he added more opponents, but the stress and anxiety started cooling down.
In order to make use of Combat Instincts without incurring a heavy mental tool, Damian had to fight a battle to the death without feeling like he was having one. Although adapting to that mentality wasnt easy, he was getting used to it.
They are definitely increasing again.
In that sense, Damian was able to go back to contemplative analysis. He had only been focused on battle, but now that he had given it more thought, he realized that the Goblin population was starting to become dense once again.
It wasnt that his running made him cover more space, nor were his Aura-less battles more efficient. If anything, the increased Goblin encounters made him move slower!
This is more like it.
The strange fluctuating gap in between had Damian confused, but now things were once again following the games common sense. The deeper one went into a Dungeon or a Labyrinth, the higher the increase in difficulty.
While more Goblins might decrease the pace of exploration, Damian wasnt the least bit fazed.
Not to mention that he now had more opportunities to hone his skills, more lootboxes naturally meant more Life Stones.
An increase of Aura might not make much of a difference now that Damian had put it aside, but if the trend of the increasing difficulty remained unchanged, more Goblins were merely the start.
The opponents themselves were bound to grow stronger, and at the moment, even a single extra point of Aura would make a great difference!
Gree!
Having already accumulated 15 Life Stones, Damian believed that the Third Ring wouldnt be too far away, but once again
[ You have ]
Its another bust.
He underestimated the decreasing drop rate!
Just because he had two good days that netted him 10 Life Stones, Damian had almost forgotten how dry things were just a day before.
This wont do
As much as Damian wanted to train his skills, using all the Goblins in the Labyrinth as training tools wasnt really the most efficient way that he would go about it.
If he wanted to collect enough Life Stones, he had to increase his pace while still maintaining a decent amount of daily training.
I will have to mix things up.
Once again, the solution was very simple. Collecting Goblin groups was still a valid form of efficiency, so Damian decided to keep that aspect. However, he wasnt going to fight every group in desperation mode.
Starting tomorrow, Damian decided to alternate between using Aura and purely relying on his shortsword!
This way, I can also get used to utilizing Aura more frequently.
Everything in the world could become a form of training with a few tweaks, and Damian was gunning for that. However
There is no mistake about it.
Damian was soon to realize another discrepancy in the Goblins behavior!
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel