It was so hard to wake up in the morning, but I managed to do it somehow. My joints were in pain, maybe I got some arthritis, who knew… Anyway, after getting up and forcing myself to start moving, I went outside with the best club I had. Sneaked my way around to the device.

People were already departing armed with junk, sticks, and stones. Aisha was nowhere to be found, so I just went alone. Alongside a couple of groups made of losers like me, cause we were the only ones not already in the forest. Others went as soon as the sun showed up.

Outside the gates, I went a different way than the others. Making sure to not get followed. I walked around for a couple of hours on high alert, trying to find my prey, and at the same time to stay hidden from others.

[0)ᴠᴇʟ It was hard to walk. My feet hurt from all the stones, and sharp, broken twigs. It made me very slow, and soon I found out that people ahead of me killed all the creatures. I found traces of fighting in a couple of places. Some blood, but zero bodies. By the end of the day, I was thirsty, hungry, and exhausted. Annoyed, I started to make my way back to the city, and after another hour or two I heard something.

Something or somebody was moving through the bushes. I’ve hidden behind the closest tree and listened. At first, I heard only rustle, but then I caught some growls and other strange noises. It sounded kinda like a strange language.

I took a peek and what I saw was this: three short, ugly, green creatures with pointy ears and big hooked noses were walking holding wooden clubs. I couldn’t think about anything other than goblins. One of them was fat and bigger, but the others were pretty skinny. A bit higher than toddlers, while looking as mean as thugs.

They didn’t notice me, but it was just a matter of time since I could see them while being half-blind without glasses. I was at the point where I still could make a decision to run, but I had to be fast, and since I hesitated it passed, and I ended up getting noticed. To put it simply – I was fucked.

Yeah, you might argue that they were shorter and physically weaker, but still, there were three of them, and I was alone. On top of that, they didn’t give a fuck, and charged the moment they saw me while screaming.

The first one got hit by me straight in the head. I had the advantage of a longer reach. Unfortunately for me, others managed to get close enough to strike. I got hit in the side, below the ribs. The strike was strong enough to knock all of the air out of my lungs. Then the third one smacked me in the thigh. It was painful. I stumbled backward trying to hold my balance, but I couldn’t put weight on my left leg at all. I panicked and swung, fortunately hitting one of them.

Actually, it wasn’t luck, since they were charging with no fear, never stepping back. I fell down losing balance, which actually saved me from a third hit. Club plowed the air in front of my face as I was landing on my ass.

The creature jumped on me, trying to bite my face off, but I managed to hold it with the stick. We brawled on the ground for a couple of seconds, but the ending was inevitable. I was physically stronger, so I pushed it to the side, then got on top of it while crushing its throat with my club. It turned to smoke leaving a small cristal behind.

I also noticed something interesting. Weapons disappeared alongside the creatures.

From now on I’m gonna call them goblins, cause that’s how they looked to me. Were they? That’s a topic for a discussion later in the story since you don’t know much, as I did at that point.

My discovery, while being interesting, was nothing more. I had no idea why that happened, so I just accepted it as it was, and did not think about it much more. I got up and picked up my earnings while crying with pain. I knew I’m out for at least a week.

Then I limped back to the city. It took me a lot of time and effort to walk all that distance. The leg hurt like hell. I couldn’t touch it and thought it was broken. After finally getting back to the city, and exchanging crystals for points. I tried to fix myself with the help of the device but resigned pretty quickly because prices were just ridiculous. 2,5k points only to heal my injuries, and on top of that 2k for fixing eyes. I bought some food and limped back to my hideout.

Day ended with 340 points.