The First King of Beasts

Dustin headed straight to the town's gate after that, as he was a bit eager to see what the quest held in store for him. While on his way, recalled the number that appeared beside the quests in a bracket. If he was right, this number indicated the number of times the particular quest could be carried out. The quest Dustin picked now was an E rank quest, and the number beside it was five, meaning the quest was could be carried out only five times. What Dustin didn't know was if the number was for each individual, or if it was for everybody. It most likely would be for everyone, meaning that one person might be able to retry the same quest over and over again, and the number beside quests also indicated just how hard the quest was.

"Since its an E rank quest, I should be able to complete it with no problems." Dustin said.

If the monsters for the quest were E rank monster, he was sure he would be able to do just fine, but that would be different if the monsters became E+ rank. The number displayed beside the quest's name was low for an E rank quest, so it was very much possible that the monsters for the quest would also be unusual. For now though, there wasn't much Dustin could do.

After leaving the town through the town's gate, the destination of the quest indicated on the map was to the right side, and as of what Dustin could see, it didn't take him outside the safe area around the town either. "This is so that we don't face any misfortune so soon I suppose."

Dustin finally reached the area where the map showed the quest to be, and before him was a cave. It was clear that the cave was the quest, so Dustin simply walked in without wasting much time. First the cave entrance had no lighting for a while, and Dustin had to walk while using his senses to direct himself forward, but luckily the path led forward in a straight line, and there was no stone to trip on. Dustin was sure the space in front of him was pitch black, but the moment he took the next step, he entered a lit environment.

[You have entered the Goblin Den]

[Quest has started]

[You cannot leave the quest area until the quest is completed or unless with the aid of a return stone]

As Dustin would walk around the place a bit, he would run into some goblins similar to the ones in the forest, and just like those ones, these goblins were also F rank. The group before him was a group of five goblins, and before they could even do much, Dustin attacked them without sparing them a chance to retaliate. The fight was easy, in fact it was basically a murder scene and not a fight as the goblins had put up no fight against their attacker.

"This is just like I thought. I should check-"

..

Level: 16 (2,710/7,430)

Name: Dustin

Title: Progenitor, Slaughterer

Class:

Nature: Cold-Blooded

Hp: 1,080

Mp: 1000

[Stat]

Strength: 26

Agility: 32

Sense: 26

Vitality: 26

Intelligence: 21

Unallocated stat point: 51

[Skill tab]

Passive: Bloodlust (A)

Active: Taming Master (A), Reality Manipulation (A)

..

[Tamed Monsters]

-Jaguar

-Horned Boar

-Wild Wolves (980)+

- Sea Serpent

..

Dustin would have gained absolutely nothing killing these low rank goblins, so Dustin planned to just let his tamed monsters benefit from it. Amongst his tamed beasts the ones most suited for this were the wolves, so Dustin brought out a few of them that were still F rank and put them against the goblins. He allowed them to run ahead and kill the goblins as much as they wanted, and though the goblins proved to be tough sometimes, the wolves and their near perfect coordination always came out on top. Dustin had summoned twelve wild wolves just in case, so that they would always overpower the goblins with numbers at the least. Apart from the act that some of the goblins in the cave walked around with rusty knives instead of using their hands to attack, nothing much had changed from the ones in the forest.

Some time passed while Dustin left the wolves to the hunt, then they reached what seemed to be the end of the floor. There still hadn't been a boss monster, and Dustin sure hadn't received any notification that he had completed the quest, so he went around to find some clues. It didn't take long however before Dustin found a passage way that led downwards, possibly to a second floor.

Dustin followed the passage route and arrived at the second floor of the cave. There, the first monsters to greet him were F+ rank goblins that wielded better looking knives, and just as before, Dustin did away with them easily, and still the experience points were not appearing. 'These guys are still weak.' Dustin said in his mind as he proceeded.

Against these F+ rank goblins, Dustin brought out peak F+ rank wild wolves to fight against them and grow. Just like he did before, he made sure the wolves dominated in numbers so as to prevent the deaths of any. Like the previous floor, Dustin's wolves killed all the goblins they encountered, and Dustin had to do nothing in return while following behind them. The wolves had good sense of direction, so he needed not to deal with a case where one of them went missing. Before long however, Dustin and the wolves reached the end of the floor, and once again Dustin found a path that led to another floor.

This time after reaching the third floor, Dustin was starting to wonder if it was a dungeon he had entered instead of a normal cave as he had thought. 'I've gone three floors below now. I wonder if they'll be a fourth and fifth floor later.'

Dustin walked around for a bit, and just as he had thought, he ran into stronger goblins. This time, the goblins were E rank, and stood almost as tall as an adult human. Dustin wasn't sure if these guys were hob goblins, but it didn't matter in the end, an goblin was a goblin, and it had to be killed to complete his quest. Dustin, just like he had been doing summoned a pack of wild wolves that were E rank, seven of them. As they were the only ones in the E rank, he couldn't bring out more, but he completed their number to make them a hundred with F+ rank wild wolves.

The wolves suffered a bit because of their weaker pack members, but they still killed the goblins that were armed with rusty swords and didn't suffer any deaths. Somewhere along the line, a blue crystalline stone dropped from the corpse of a goblin that had been killed, and without being told, Dustin knew just what it was.

..'This is a return stone. When squashed, it will take you outside the quest premises even though the quest is yet to be completed. It only works within the cave in which it appears, so holding on to it after exiting the cave is useless.'

The system said in a cool calm voice.

"So basically it's a decorative stone after exiting the quest area. I won't be needing it then, but just in case-"

Dustin carried the stone with him as he advanced deeper into the cave. After a while had passed, Dustin no longer noticed the goblins around, and immediately knew something was off. It wasn't long after that he and his wolves came to a spacious area where a single Goblin stood with a staff in its hand.

'A goblin shaman? Is this the final boss?' Dustin questioned in his mind.

If one thing was clear, it was that the wolves would not be able to handle the goblin before them, and though they had jumped before him the minute they noticed the goblin, Dustin called them back as he unsummoned them. As the wolves disappeared back into a cloud of mist, Dustin brought out the weapon he bought from the town which was an axe from his inventory and held it in his right hand. Using any type of slicing weapon or similar was out of the question, since Dustin didn't want to expose what could become his trump card in the future.

There was no one in this cave, but that still meant using another weapon in here might cause him to naturally bring it out later in a place where he isn't supposed to.

The goblin didn't seem to be moving much as it observed Dustin, but neither was he. He simply held his axe and waited for the goblin to make its move. As far as he was concerned, the first to move in this kind of situation would be the first to die, probably.

'Come on goblin? Let's see what you've got.' Dustin said in his mind, while keeping his eyes fixated on the goblin before him.