Why a Goblin?

Right after the Fox finished speaking, he immediately vanished just as fast as he showed up in front of Rick. At that point, Rick immediately began running towards the west side of the lake, filled with… a variety of thoughts.

Velora! That was a fucking threat, wasn’t it?! What the hell did he mean by Goblin tribes don’t last long?! Is he planning to make sure that's the same case for my tribe?!

I’m never going back to see that damn fox! I told him one little Goblin lie and he got all upset! Talking about how he’s no fool and what not! He even started throwing threats my way!

I promise if I wasn’t so much weaker than him he’d already been a damn nice coat! Dammit, I hate being weak!

[I understand what you're going through. Hopefully, you can evolve again soon. I have a feeling your next evolution will be extremely special, though I’m positive it’s extremely far down the road.

And although he did leave with you some threats that don’t appear to just be casual, he did give you the information you were looking for. That should count as a win. Now just go find those Goblins and get strong enough so that his threats will mean nothing.]

Now, why can’t you be this comforting all the time?

[I’m always operating in line with your best interests. This is why you should begin training wholeheartedly now. Especially with the threat of the fox hovering so close to the tribe.]

You know usually, I’d fight you on that, but this time I’m all for it, especially since I’m back out deep into forests now. There’s no better training than actual fighting with my life on the line!

[Good, now get a move on it because it is now 0800 and Jaba should’ve left for his own training by this time, so if you don’t want to run into him again I suggest you make haste.]

Oh damn yeah you're right, let's get it going then!

Lead me to every damn monster you find. I'm going on a Goblin killing spree!

[You're going to be killing the Goblins you find? I was under the assumption that you wanted to bring them back to the tribe.]

What? No! Just lead me to the monsters Velora!

[Understood.]

[Found one. It’s close by. Keep heading straight and you’ll come across it. Bringing its status up right now.]

{Name - None}

{Age - 3}

{Race - Horned Deer}

{Tier 1}

{Health - 60/60}

{Mana - 10/10}

{Strength - 60}

{Agility - 30}

{Intelligence - 18}

{Endurance - 45}

[You’ve fought these before, just remember to be wary of the giant horn in the middle of its antlers.]

Understood!

The horned deer, which is completely unrelated to the horned rabbit, immediately charged at Rick once it noticed him with its head lowered and both antlers along with its horn pointed squarely at Rick.

Again, this creature is completely unrelated to the horned rabbit.

Upon seeing the charging deer, Rick gripped his spear firmly and charged right back at the deer. It only took a few seconds before they were both just a mere five feet from each other.

At this point, it would just take a couple of seconds for them to run into each other.

It was then that Rick performed a sharp jump to the left of the deer, to which the deer tried to respond by stopping and turning towards him.

But it simply didn’t have the type of reaction speed, and necessary agility to do so in time.

As soon as Rick jumped to the left and the deer began passing him by, he viciously stabbed his dagger straight into the side of the deer before his own feet even touched the ground.

The amount of pure power behind that strike made the deer easily topple to the ground, creating a loud thud as the three hundred and fifty-pound deer who was four feet tall at the shoulders came crashing down.

It struggled to breathe as the strike from the fang went directly through its lungs. Its suffering didn’t last too long as the last thing it saw was a large, green Goblin bringing a fang down on its head.

The deer was dead.

Rick quickly and efficiently harvested just the right amount of meat he wanted and the horn of the deer. Leaving the remaining carcass there for the taking.

This horn would do well as a spearhead.

Mind you, the only thing Rick brought on this particular adventure was his trusty fang daggers and the clothes on his back, and a small pouch with nothing in it. But he didn’t plan on staying in one place too long, so he just took a few strips of meat and the horn and placed them in the pouch.

So it didn’t take too long for him to quickly fashion a sturdy enough spear from branch nearby other things he found, even making use of the sinew found on the now dead deer to tie everything together. Of course the spear probably wouldn’t last long but it’ll do for now.

It was still early in the day; he wasn’t going to stop killing like this for quite some time while simultaneously moving further west with each kill.

In fact, he went on that way for a couple of hours, killing everything he could find and taking only what he needed from each kill.

Of course he made sure to take breaks to allow both him and Velora to absorb all the essence gained.

It was around 1100 when he finally decided to take a rest. Although it was mostly because he was hungry and needed to dry the meat out as best as possible while the sun was still up.

He found a nice little spot in the middle of the forest where Velora couldn’t sense any monsters and laid out the strips of meat he cut to dry on a nearby rock.

How many monsters did I kill Velora?

[In three hours you killed exactly fifteen monsters, with 11 of them being Tier 1, three Tier 0s, and one Tier 2 .]

Yeah, it was another giant saber ostrich thing, what was its actual race called again?

[It was called a Fanged Flightless Bird.]

What a long-ass name for no reason, calling it a saber ostrich is definitely better. Don’t you agree Velora?

[Saber ostrich is definitely a shorter name.]

Ah, you're no fun. Anyway, I'm going to take a little snooze here while we wait for the meat to dry. Of course, wake me up if anything comes too close.

[Understood.]