[The Lewd Traveler] 3 – Goblin

Cluelessly wandering the forest, I eyed my new...companion that had wrapped itself around my waist and kept poking at a particular area of my body below my waist, likely wanting to...rest within it.

Vocally chiding the slime, it let out a pitiful 'coo.'

"Alright...fine," I told the slime before seeing its head rise with a hopeful 'Coo.'

"But not now, later," I told the hopeful slime, who seemed only to get more excited as its grasp upon my waist tightened.

Moan-I mean...humming in delight, I sent a small glare down to the slime before focusing back on my surroundings.

The forest I found myself in could, frankly, only be described as a place of pure fantasy.

It was breathtaking with how beautiful it was.

Vibrant and beautiful plant life everywhere the eye could see, a beautiful blue sky, plants of so many different colors and shades.

It was beautiful.

It was...perfect.

And it was suddenly ruined as I heard a disgusting giggle from nearby.

Focusing on the source of the noise revealed a small green bald humanoid creature with pointed ears and, frankly, quite the lecherous gaze and smile.

A Goblin.

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Goblin - Level: ?  - Hostile

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[Identify has leveled up! Idenitfy is now Level 3!]

Using [Identify] again revealed the creature to be level 6, a full four levels higher than me.

Letting out a smile, the Goblin's smile quickly turned upside down as it looked upon me with confusion.

Raising my hand, I instinctively used yet another one of my skills.

[Summon Lesser Demon]

Suddenly, a pink pentagram appeared on the ground before me, small in size but clear in its power.

I couldn't help but stagger from sudden exhaustion. Opening my status screen, I found that the skill immediately consumed 100 mana upon use. Not wanting to find out what would happen if I were to run out of mana completely, I used another skill, [Demonic Claws].

Without realizing it, [Emptahy] also took hold, letting me know the Goblin's excitement quickly drowned to fear.

As my nails suddenly blacked and extended, becoming small yet sharp blades, the pentagram, with a flash of light, completed its summoning not even five seconds after use.

As the pentagram rose from the ground, a figure seemed to materialize as the pentagram rose, revealing a small red creature with bat-like wings, small horns, and a somewhat strange appearance to that of the Goblin.

[Newborn Demonic Imp - Level 1]

[Empathy] informed me that the Imp was feeling overwhelming happiness as it let out an insane cackle, raised its clawed hands, and summoned a small fireball the size of a baseball.

Other than the emotions I felt from [Empathy], I felt a sort of...link with the Imp, and with it, a slow drain of my...mana?

Checking my Status revealed the drain to be 10 mana a minute, meaning I had only four minutes until I was out of mana, and I did not want to find out what would happen if I ran out of mana after feeling so exhausted already.

Through the tether that connected me to the Imp, I ordered it to attack, and when it charged, I charged too, armed with nothing but my sharp and long claws.

Throwing the small baseball-sized fireball, the Imp let out a cackle as it flew into the air above the Goblin, distracting it.

Feeling adrenaline course through my body as I charged forward, I watched as the stunned Goblin with its chest burnt focused on me, its eyes filled with only confusion and fear, as my claws dug straight into its chest and into its heart.

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[Demonic Claws has leveled up! Demonic Claws is now Level 2!]

[Summon Lesser Demon has leveled up! Summon Lesser Demon is now Level 2!]

Baffled, I stared at the corpse now at my feet and the blood dripping from my claws, and yet, I felt nothing.

No remorse, nothing but satisfaction as my eyes gazed over the corpse.

Was that...normal?

Leaving the moral debate for later, I cut the whether that connected me to my summon and watched as it became dust before my eyes.

I felt the displeasure from the Imp, but as I found myself growing tired by the minute, I found myself uncaring for the Imp.

Checking my status revealed that I was left with 40 mana.

What would have happened if I ran out? Would I have passed out or gotten a bad headache?

Not wanting to find out, I glanced at the corpse below me and looked away, deciding to ignore it.

That's when I felt the Slime tug at my waist.

Looking down, I watched as it gestured to the corpse as if asking something.

Not knowing what it wanted, I gave a slow nod.

With curiosity, I watched as it slid down my waist to my thigh, where I could swear it gave me a pinch, before crawling down my leg to the ground and to the Goblin.

Before my eyes, the slime seemed to crawl over the Goblin's body and eat it, and not in the normal way, in a far more disgusting and visceral way. I watched the Goblin melt in the Slime's body, its skin the first to go, revealing the muscle and sinew, then its organs, until eventually, only clean bones were left.

Curious, I reached down and grabbed one of the smaller bones left, finding it to be surprisingly clean. If I hadn't seen what happened only moments ago, I would have thought this skeleton belonged to something deceased from days, if not weeks ago, though the bones are far too clean for that to have been the case.

Sadly, I didn't exactly have any pockets, so I ended up dropping the bone and letting the slime wrap itself back around my waist.

Without further due, I left the scene, finding myself walking through the forest, my eyes wandering over every little thing that caught my attention.

I didn't know how long I had been walking, but hours must have passed before I realized the sun would soon set.

Assembling a campfire proved to be somewhat easy, with the abundance of twigs, wood, stones, and leaves around, though starting the fire proved harder, taking well over an hour before the fire was ignited, which was lucky as it was only getting darker and colder by the hour.

Now comforted by the warm fire, I couldn't help but shiver somewhat, as the warmth only warmed one side of my body, leaving the other side to face the cold.

Opening my status, I threw five attribute points into Intelligence and Wisdom, giving me 30 more mana to my capacity and another 6.25 to my mana regeneration.

[Mana (MP) - 82.5/210 (31.25 hr)]

Feeling happy about the increased regeneration, I still felt I needed to continue adding as much mana as possible since almost all of my skills seemed reliant on it, but I also didn't want to be overly reliant on my mana, as that would leave me too weak in everything else.

As I sat before the fire, I couldn't help but look up, past the trees, to see an absolutely stunning night sky.

Beautiful stars of varying color and brightness covered the night sky, like a box of beautiful jewels, and hanging in the middle of it were two beautiful white moons.

One was clearly larger than the other, and it seemed as if the smaller moon orbited it.

It was beautiful. This whole world was beautiful, and I couldn't wait to see what else this new life of mine had in store for me.

In my past life, I was average, with an average job and an average life, but now? I had the chance to be something...no, someone more.