Chapter 11: Old Face

Adam sighed, wiping the remaining blood from his hands onto the grass.

“Still… I need something else for the second slot.”

Currently, both of his Soul Slots were filled with the same thing; Rapid (E).

While doubling it up might have sounded powerful, he’d learned quickly that identical talents didn’t stack.

Two Rapids didn’t make him twice as fast it was just redundant.

“It’s the same as having one, so I’ll need another talent to complement it.” Adam finally decided.

His eyes soon drifted towards the countless soul flames he could see with his [connect] talent, they were clearly signs of more goblins nearby.

“Poison G isn’t it, but something out there might be.” he whispered, sliding the Common Knife back into its strap.

Then, with a quiet purpose, Adam turned toward the wind and began walking deeper into Gob Valley, where more monsters waited.

****

About a dozen goblins stood idly scattered across the flat, grassy plain.

Their small, wiry bodies twitched every now and then, but for the most part, they were motionless, waiting and almost lifeless.

That wasn’t strange.

Monsters were inherently carnivorous, and since every rift hosted only a single species, their food supply depended solely on intruders.

When there were none to hunt, the monsters mostly stood still, letting the essence of the rift sustain them.

But that stillness shattered in an instant.

As a flicker of awareness burned in their dim yellow eyes as they saw him.

Adam walked calmly through the tall grass, his black hair swaying gently in the breeze. His white shirt and jacket soaked and stained with the green blood of one of their own.

As his hand rested on the handle of his Common Knife, it was relaxed but ready.

The goblins’ dull minds registered that scent immediately it was the scent of their kin.

Rage quickly replaced hunger and any trace of hesitation was erased.

They snarled and hissed, sharp claws digging into the dirt and teeth gnashing as instinct screamed for revenge.

And yet adam didn’t break stride. His expression remained unreadable, with his eyes fixed forward.

Then his foot touched down lightly and the world exploded into motion.

The dozen goblins lunged all at once, a frenzy of limbs and teeth closing in on him.

Adam’s expression didn’t change.

Only moving the moment the first goblin entered his range and their was no hesitation or wasted effort.

As his right hand shifted and his knife flashed horizontally in a rough but clean arc.

Slice!

The nearest goblin’s head flew skyward, its body stumbling forward on momentum before collapsing behind Adam, splattering the grass with green blood.

The remaining eleven froze mid-charge, their simple minds struggling to process what had happened.

A heartbeat ago, their kin had been alive. Now his severed head hit the ground with a dull thud.

And that sound, that single thud was Adam’s cue.

He moved.

His body blurred into motion with his speed amplified by his Rapid (E) talent.

The goblins’ eyes barely tracked him as he appeared before the next one, his knife thrusting into its chest before slashing across its throat.

The creature’s scream died and before it could even hit the ground, Adam was already gone, darting toward the next.

At first, he hadn’t truly felt the effects of Rapid E, his first kill had been a haze of rage and liberation, not precision.

But now that the storm inside him had calmed, he could feel it clearly.

Every muscle responded instantly.

His reflexes were sharp, his body lighter, his thoughts faster.

Two goblins lunged together, desperately, hoping that numbers would give them a chance.

Adam sidestepped their claws effortlessly, his motion fluidly instinctive.

One of the goblins roared and lunged with its fangs bared, trying to bite into his arm, but the Common Knife was faster.

It pierced between its eyes, killing it instantly.

The second goblin barely had time to blink before Adam’s foot connected with its chest.

Crack!

The creature was launched into the air.

As Adam ripped his knife free from the first goblin’s skull, he spun on his heel, changing his stance and driving the blade straight into the chest of the airborne goblin.

Schlk!

The motion was brutal, efficient, and final.

When he stopped, his arm was still raised, with the lifeless goblin impaled on the blade.

The remaining eight goblins stared, trembling.

The bloodlust in their eyes vanished, replaced by something far rarer for their kind.

Fear.

Adam’s emerald gaze met theirs, still cold and steady.

Then he swung his arm, flinging the corpse aside.

The rest was a blur of steel and shrieks and in less than half a minute, every goblin in the field was dead.

When silence returned, Adam stood among the corpses, the grass soaked dark with their blood.

Yet his breathing wasn’t even ragged.

He glanced around, scanning the carnage, and exhaled softly.

“That was quicker than I expected.”

Kneeling, he began his work. One by one, he split open their chests and pried free the granulites, slipping each transparent crystal into his bag.

Then he harvested several useful organs, sealing them neatly in small ziplock pouches.

When he was done, he stood once more, blood dripping from his knife and his eyes still sharp with focus.

Without another word, Adam turned and began walking again, deeper into Gob Valley, where more monsters waited.

****

Adam was on a rampage.

Everywhere he went, goblins died.

Their shrieks echoed across the grassy plain, cut short by the sound of steel tearing through flesh.

He didn’t just kill them he made them suffer. Every stab and slice, was deliberate, precise and drawn out.

He wanted them to feel fear. He wanted them to remember him even in death.

Each kill left him more composed, more focused, and more twistedly satisfied.

Yet despite all that carnage, the rift’s saturation still hadn’t dropped by even 0.5%. But Adam didn’t mind.

He wasn’t in a rush to leave.

He was enjoying himself and indulging in the cruel catharsis killing the monsters provided, carving his fury into every monster he met.

But now, something different caught his attention.

Across the field stood a goblin, far larger than the rest.

Its frame was lean but powerful, standing nearly a head taller than its kin.

Its eye burned with sharper intelligence, and the way the grass parted around its feet spoke of a creature that ruled the others.

Yet what truly drew Adam’s gaze wasn’t its size.

It was the dark dried stain soaking the goblin’s loincloth, spreading out from its groin.

Adam’s smile twisted slowly into something darker.

“Well, we meet again.” he murmured, his voice low and venomous.

His eyes gleaming with a cold, dangerous light.

He remembered that blood. He remembered why it was there.

The goblin froze for half a second, its single yellow eye focusing on Adam and recognition flashed instantly followed by a fury that made the creature’s body tremble and its muscles tighten as it bared its fangs.

A guttural, deep and feral growl rumbled from its throat.

As its eye burned red with rage and its claws digged into the dirt.

The goblin remembered Adam too.

The air between them thickened, with Adam’s calm and steady killing intent clashing against the goblin’s violent bloodlust.

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