Chapter 15: Level 10
After distancing himself from the red goblin, Lucas proceeded to stare at it with an intensive gaze.
To his surprise, the red goblin didn't attack him, and it also stared back at him as intensively in silence.
Seeing a glint of intelligence within the red goblin's eyes, Lucas pondered what he should do at this point.
This red goblin was clearly very strong— probably even stronger than him, but the thought of running away from a goblin that is known to be the weakest monster made Lucas feel conflicted.
Should he continue to fight it or just run away for now until he is stronger?
'What are the chances this monster is below level 10?' Lucas wondered to himself.
The monsters in this dungeon ranged from level 1 to level 20, but he was still within the outer areas of the dungeon, where the monsters are usually of lower levels.
After thinking for a few moments, Lucas decided to stay around and see just how strong this red goblin is. If he deems that it was too strong to his current prowess, he will immediately run away.
Once he was prepared, Lucas used Vanishing Steps again to run at the red goblin, but he didn't immediately attack the red goblin.
Instead, he circled around the red goblin hoping to confuse it.
After circling around it a few times, Lucas rushed at the red goblin with a tightened grip on his sword.
[Empowered Strike!]
Ding!
The red goblin managed to react and block his attack again, but because Lucas had used Empowered Strike, the red goblin didn't block his attack perfectly and staggered backward.
Lucas took this chance and decided to try out Devastate on it.
And to his surprise, the moment he touched the red goblin, its red skin began turning black.
A moment later, the red goblin disintegrated into nothingness.
'This goblin was below level 10 all along?! How was it so powerful?!' Lucas was shocked despite killing it.
However, the surprises didn't end there.
[You have leveled up]
[You have acquired 5 Stat Points]
[You have leveled up]
[You have acquired 5 Stat Points]
Lucas became even more surprised when he'd gained two levels with a single kill, and he wasn't close to leveling before killing the red goblin either, as he'd leveled up only recently.
He would've probably needed to kill around 200 green goblins if not more to level up twice, but this single kill had managed to achieve the same result.
Lucas really wanted to know what kind of monster he'd just killed now, but unfortunately, there was no way to find out for now.
Finally, his Plunder ability activated.
[You have Plundered the ability 'Advanced Growth' from your victim]
{Advanced Growth(Lv. 1): Permanently increases the experience you gain from killing monsters by 50 percent}
Lucas' eyes widened after seeing the new skill he'd acquired.
"Increases the experience I get from killing monsters? This is a very useful skill... probably the best skill I've gotten thus far," he mumbled to himself.
Since he will be killing monsters— a lot of monsters, this ability will benefit him greatly no matter the situation as long as there are monsters to kill, and he will basically level up 1.5x faster than other people.
"This will also help me catch up with other Players..."
After his initial excitement, Lucas noticed the Mana Crystal on the ground.
However, it was unlike any Mana Crystal he had seen before. Unlike the usual green crystal, it was a yellow crystal.
He quickly went to pick up this yellow Mana Crystal and looked at it closely.
Of course, he wasn't an expert with Mana Crystals, so he has no idea why this Mana Crystal looked so different from the rest.
'I wonder how much this will sell for...' Lucas thought to himself.
Sometime later, Lucas returned to farming monsters. After all, the more time passes the fewer monsters there will be to hunt, as monsters don't respawn, and other Players are also farming them.
'Hmm? Is that a hobgoblin?' Lucas came to a halt when he noticed a green figure standing around not far away.
Compared to the ordinary green goblins, this one was much taller, almost adult-sized, and its body was also more muscular.
[Vanishing Steps!]
Lucas used his normal approach and went for the surprise attack.
Sha!
The hobgoblin died before it could even react.
'Even the hobgoblin cannot react to my sneak attack, much less block it. That red goblin truly was something special.' Lucas thought to himself afterward.
[You have Plundered the ability 'Minor Vitality Boost' from your victim]
{Minor Vitality Boost(Lv. 1): Permanently increases Vitality by 5}
'So green goblins increase my strength and hobgoblins increase my vitality, huh? No wonder why its body felt so durable.'
Compared to cutting green goblins that felt like he was chopping tree branches, when he struck the hobgoblin, it felt like he was chopping wood instead. If it were not for his boosted strength and the fact that he'd gone for its neck, Lucas probably wouldn't have killed the hobgoblin in a single hit just now.
The hobgoblin dropped a green Mana Crystal that was slightly larger than the ones dropped by green goblins with its size closer to the Mana Crystal dropped by the wolf he killed before.
After killing his first hobgoblin, Lucas continued to look for hobgoblins to kill, as he wanted to level up his newly acquired skill until it maxed out.
About three hours later, Lucas leveled up again, reaching level 10.
[You have leveled up]
[You have reached a new milestone]
[You have acquired 10 Stat Points]
[You have unlocked Quests]
[You have received a Quest.]
"A quest?" Lucas raised his eyebrows.
This was his first time hearing about quests being a thing.
[Quest: Devastate 50 enemies]
[Progress: 0/50]
[Reward: Devastate(Lv. 2)]