A Cold-Blooded POV

[Mana Manipulation has reached level 3]

Ethoss stuffed his whole snout in the water and chugged down voraciously. It had been about two hours since he began farm-leveling his skill, Mana Manipulation, and now that it reached level 3 he noticed a large weight off of his mind.

He had felt it when Mana Manipulation reached level 2 however, it was much more obvious now. At this point, he could cast the ice spell without straining his mind so much, and the spell would take less time to cast than before.

Nevertheless, he still wasn't confident in using magic in combat yet, his casting time was way too long compared to the tiger's speed he had fought.

Not to mention, the strain on his mind was still evidently present when he used magic, he wasn't going to bet his life on a magic spell that could completely distract him from the fight itself.

Noticing that his MP had reached its peak again, he flicked his tongue. He also gained another issue regarding his MP, it was beginning to become a pain to refill his MP after only casting 3-4 spells each time.

If he wanted to be more efficient in his level-grinding he would need to find more cores to absorb, this would increase his maximum amount of MP and allow him to grind more efficiently. Not only that, he had gotten hungry after all the mental training he had done.

Ethoss lifted his head, his vertical slit eye coldly staring at the other monsters present at the lake. He had been here for almost three hours and he realized that there were always monsters here, like a never-ending amusement park ride.

When four monsters finished and left another four would just come right after them, the lake was a really popular place.

He would use this as an advantage. Though he could not and would not attack any monsters here at the lake, he would wait till they leave and ambush them. Ethoss glanced around looking for the easiest prey.

There were, large insects with lots of legs, wolves with stingers on their tails, and he even saw an orange salamander that was sitting alone by itself. Underneath the salamander, the leaves and grass were burning slightly, black smoke hung over it like a rain cloud.

Other monsters also didn't get close to the salamander, they kept their distance, and perhaps it was much more dangerous than it appeared to be. It rested in the burning grass, frozen like a statue, periodically flicking its long spiked tongue into the water leisurely drinking from the lake.

Ethoss noted this in his mind and looked elsewhere for prey. What happen to catch his eye was three familiar-looking monsters that were drinking the water alongside each other.

They were on their knees scooping up handfuls of water and then drinking from their hands. Tattered cloth hung off their chests and legs, revealing hidden private areas each time a breeze blew by.

They were the dark goblins that he had seen during his second hunt. Nostalgia hit him in waves as he remembered his previous self, now he had evolved once and gained a core.

Looking at them and the wooden clubs that rested next to them on the ground, they honestly didn't look so tough anymore. They had weak physical strength and from what he had seen before, they possessed no magic.

Ethoss swam out of the lake and sat a few meters away from them, from what he had read about them in the monster profiles they were social monsters.

This meant that they probably all lived together with other goblins just like themselves, if he could follow and find their base he could gain lots of biomass and possibly some cores, though he doubted he find any.

He continued to watch the trio as they drank their fill for approximately 15 minutes, then they showed signs of leaving. Just like before the goblins spouted weird noises that sounded like nothing but grunts to Ethoss but the more he watched them it seemed a lot like they were communicating with each other.

Their monster profile did say they had some intelligence unlike most of the other monsters that were here, though the intelligence they displayed was obviously low.

The goblins stood up off of their knees and started to March off. Ethoss activated his camouflage and began to follow behind the trio.

[Camouflage has reached level 5, upgrade available]

[Would you like to improve Camouflage to Discoloration Camouflage? This will cost 1sp]

The words ran through Ethoss's mind however, he didn't have any skill points at the moment, and he would need to level up again to earn another.

'Another reason to hunt' he thought.

Ethoss's eyes widened and he twitched for a second causing himself to stop in his movements. For the first time ever, he had just had a thought of his own.

One that wasn't due to his instinct, this thought came from himself, he was subconsciously developing individuality. He blinked blankly and looked around at his surroundings, the goblins were gone.

Ethoss flicked his tongue to pinpoint their location and found them, they were a few more meters ahead of him. He narrowed his eyes, he would worry about what he had just experienced later after he hunted his prey, biomass came first.

Catching back up to the goblins, he found them walking into a cave that had a blockage made out of sticks blocking the way. They entered the cave and pulled the wall of sticks close behind them, like a door. Ethoss licked the air, allowing the mana molecules to land on his tongue, he could sense a bunch of goblins inside this one cave.

He flicked his tongue viciously, then walked closer to the wall made out of sticks.

Tail Whip!

Hitting the wall with his green scaled tail, the large wall of sticks dented, however, it didn't get completely destroyed. Ethoss was quite surprised with the durability of the blockage, he had expected to knock it down first try.

He had never thought about making something weird like this for his cave however, it seemed the goblins were decently protected with this. Regardless the wall would only protect their cave for so long…

Tail Whip!

Tail Whip!

*Crash*

The wall of sticks tumbled down making loud crashing sounds. He entered the cave, his Camouflage still active. He could hear the echo of weird screams, Ethoss theorized it to be a signal call, there was no way no one heard him break down the blockage.

After a few minutes of walking the cave split into two different paths, he flicked his tongue, sensing even smaller and mostly likely weaker monsters in the right path. His muscles in his legs tightened and with a burst of speed he sped off down the tunnel.

His new skill, Rapid Dash, seemed to not only be fast but it also had a small boost of speed, like nitro that lasted a couple of seconds each time he activated the skill.

Not to mention, the skill also consumed less of his stamina when he used it, granting him the ability to use the skill much more loosely.

Entering his line of sight there was dirty cloth just like what the goblins wore hanging from a line that connected from one wall to another. Underneath that he could see another wall of sticks.

"Grauh gah goo!"

"Enu gen goo!"

The sounds of the weird talking could be heard behind the wall. Ethoss smashed it with his tail a couple of times, each time the voices that were coming from behind the wall were sounding more and more anxious.

Until finally it was knocked down, what came into sight were 4 goblins however, these goblins seemed different, instead of the flat-chested goblins that he had seemed before, these goblins had small plumps of fat on their chest area, and their voices were much more high pitched.

Behind them were over 15 smaller monsters that looked similar to the goblins, they were laid down on a bed of soft grass and leaves. Perhaps it was their offspring? Nevertheless, food was food, it didn't matter what size or gender.

The four goblins looked around in confusion as they couldn't see him because of his camouflage. Suddenly he charged at the one closest, biting it on its neck and slamming it down on the ground.

His strength was far higher than the goblin and his teeth pierced its neck. The goblin that was getting its neck bit into struggled pulling at its neck and yanking his snout, however, Ethoss was unmoving.

At this point, his Camouflage had deactivated and he was visible, the other three goblins rush at him from his back, one had a sharp broken shard, and the other two were carrying large sticks.

It seems there were trying to protect the offspring, he bit into the neck of the struggling goblin once more, and blood surged out of the small opening between his sharp teeth and the goblin's neck, forming a puddle underneath its head.

As the other three reached him he swung his heavy hard tail, slapping one in the face and the other in the stomach, however, he missed the last one. It ran and stabbed right in between his large scales, poking through his back.

[Venomous Bite has reached level 4]

[Tail Whip has reached level 4]

Hiss!

He hissed in pain but he never let go of the goblin's neck, instead, he bit into it again and again, until it was finally snapped in half, and the head got separated from the body.

[You have defeated level 5 Tenebrae Cobolorum]

[You have gained XP]

[You have achieved level 3, One skill point awarded]