Universe Tales: Virtual Log of the Fallen One

Chapter 23: Grinding the Goblins

Maria quickly dismissed the window and continued attacking the goblin warrior who was now embedded in the ground below her.

She flew straight down just above the monster and smashed it again in the head with her axe.

[25,600 exp gained (x4 multiplier)]

Maria quickly turned around and saw that the others were having an easy time with their monsters as well.

"Maria! Go help Zack end that Goblin Mage quickly!" Amanda immediately shouted when she saw that Maria had finished off her goblin.

Maria turned to look at Zack and she could see that he was jumping around in circles around the goblin, evading and jumping away from the balls of fire it was shooting at him.

The goblin's HP bar showed that it only had 30% of it left. Maria flew into the air and dived down straight on top of its head with her axe already swinging down on it.

SQUEEELLLCCHHHH

-2,080! (Fatal Strike x8 DMG)

A sickening sound rang through the air as the goblin mage immediately crumpled into ground with its head no longer intact. Maria's attack had crushed its skull like a watermelonno, it literally exploded.

It was odd however that the blood never splattered onto Maria's clothes or body. Instead it was all attracted onto her demonic axe. Once the axe absorbed the blood it began to pulsate evilly and a green and blue number popped up on top of Maria's head.

+500

+150

This always happened whenever she personally dealt the killing blow to a monster. Maria looked at Zack with a grin and said, "Let's go help everyone else~"

[28,000 exp gained (x4 multiplier)]

*DING* [Level up! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points]

"Ohh! I leveled up! Yay!"

Seeing the golden flash surrounding her body, Zack immediately spoke up.

"C-congratz...phew...how was she not fazed by the goblin's head exploding?"

He mumbled the latter half and couldn't help, but look at this happy-go-lucky crush of his. It was frightening enough to hear her laugh in the midst of swinging her giant demonic axe at a screaming monster, but now she wasn't even fazed when she saw all the blood flying everywhere and the exploding goblin head.

The two rushed back to Lizzy and Milly's aid and quickly ended the battle.

[76,800 exp gained (x4 multiplier)]

[26,400 exp gained (x4 multiplier)]

Lizzy took a look at the battle field and couldn't help but say, "Hey...weren't these goblins...somehow weaker than during the beta?"

"You noticed that too, Liz? They were much stronger during the beta, that's for sure! The one's we faced kept stumbling about and screeching from time to time..." Milly agreed.

Despite being girls, but none of them were freaking out at the gory scene in front of them. Well, Milly and Lizzy had experience with this since they were BTs, but not Amanda and Zack nor Maria for that matter.

Amanda was okay with it since she liked to watch a lot of horror and thriller movies. Scenes depicting of gore and blood was easily brushed off by her.

Zack was the only feeling a little queasy, but who could blame him. He was still a middle school student.

"Okay, pick up the loot and let's head on deeper into the forest!" Maria said happily.

"Wait a minute Mary... Earlier, did you cause those black flames?" Amanda asked.

"Well, yeah! It's an epic racial skill that I got as compensation from the GMs!"

"Huh? I thought the compensation was your axe?" Lizzy immediately spoke up when she heard this.

"No it wasn't~ it was a reward from my class change quest~"

"W-wow..."

"Can I see the skill's description?" Amanda cut in.

"Sure~"

Maria quickly brought up her [Skill] window and showed the [Gehenna's Eye]'s description to everyone in the party. Milly and Lizzy immediately expressed their shock and awe at the skill.

"W-what the heck?!"

"Cheat! It's a cheat I tell you!"

"Ahhh...so this burning effect explains it." Amanda said.

"What does Amanda?"

The elf girl quickly shared her analysis of their earlier battle against the monsters.

"So you're saying...that the goblins didn't get weaker, but because of Maria's skill, the burning effect affected their performance?"

"Most likely, you do remember that they'd begin shrieking at us every once in a while during the battle, right?"

"Y-yeah...so status ailments now have this kind of effect in the official release huh? I wonder what would happen if a monster or player was inflicted with [Poison], [Paralyze], or [Confuse]...that'd be pretty interesting to see!" Milly expressed her intrigue. It's too bad that the team didn't have anyone that could cause any other status ailments other than Maria's [Burn].

"Well, once my little brother gets to level 20, he'll be able to learn the [Apply Poison] skill."

When Maria heard the word 'skill' she immediately remembered something.

"Ah! I almost forgot! I actually acquired a skill earlier!"

"Huh?"

"Eh?"

Maria quickly brought out the description of the new skill she had gained earlier.

[Arc Swing Lv. 1 (0/100)

Rank: D

Strike the enemy into the air with an underhand swing dealing 100+(0.5 x STR).

Cooldown: 15 seconds]

"Oh, it's a normal skill! Isn't this what you used earlier?" Milly said in surprise. She thought that her friend was going to be showing them another absurd skill.

"Hm? No? It was after I sent the goblin flying that I got it!"

"Hmmm...I did see you frequently sending monsters flying since earlier, Mary. I honestly thought that it was a skill!"

"Nope, I just thought it was funny to send the monsters flying helplessly through the air!"

"Ugh..."

"It's also pretty cool to fly up and slam them back down into the ground! It even triggers a stun sometimes!"

"Ohh, this is good info!"

"Don't forget, we also now know that through repetitive actions, the system will grant us a skill that without the need to use a skill book!" Amanda joined in.

"Okay guys, Zack and I just finished collecting the loot! Let's continue!" Lizzy walked over with a pale looking Zack in tow.

The party continued their exploration of the forest for another 3 in-game hours. They encountered many groups of goblins on their way. The party had agreed to let Maria open up the battle with her [Gehenna's Eye] before they charged in.

There was one time when the party decided to attack the goblins before Maria used her skill and they were in for a tough fight. Without the burn effect of the skill, the goblins' movements weren't impaired and they were able to move agilely and cause a whole bunch of problems for Maria and the others.

The goblins were small target and they moved around so fast that it was hard for even Maria to strike a goblin with her large axe. They managed to take down the monsters whenever Maria successfully hit them with her skill.

From then on, it was agreed that Maria would first use her skill before they jumped into battle. During this time, they also figured out the limits of her [Gehenna's Eye].

First of all, the skill would target anything in Maria's field of vision, but it was limited to up to 10 targets. Anymore and the skill would just activate at random on any of the targets in her vision.

Second, the insta-kill effect was abysmally low for higher leveled monsters. Not once had it triggered in their 3 hour grind session.

Since they were fighting against high leveled monsters everyone in the group gained 3-5 levels, except for Maria, she only gained one level.

[Party

1. Lisbet Lv. 19 Warrior (Party Leader)

2. Maria Lv. 9 Dark Priestess (Party Member)

3. Ama Lv. 18 Druid (Party Member

4. Z Lv. 19 Thief (Party Member)

5. Milya Lv. 20 Knight (Party Member)

Loot Distribution: Party Leader]