Caelus Online

9. Bubbling Rage

[Goblin Lv 3 defeated. 40% xp gained. 120% skill point xp gained]

[+1 skill point]

Breathing heavily from annoyance at the incessant screaming, Astaria let go of her sword and rested the bottom of her staff on the ground. Tilting her head up towards the canopy of the trees, she let out a long sigh.

“God, why do I have to put myself through this torture again? It was bad enough back then with the kids screaming about all their sexual fantasies with my mother, now it's green kid-sized barbarians just screaming to give us all PTSD.”

Astaria spent a short time standing still mentally composing herself from the uncharacteristic outburst of her emotions. After 5 minutes of deep breathing while clearing her head, she looked back down at the goblin corpses that were strewn on the floor around her.

Moving to the closest one and touching it, a system prompt appeared.

[Loot Goblin Lv 3?]

[Yes] [No]

After selecting yes, another system notification appeared.

[Looted: Goblin’s Ear x1]

Astaria continues on to loot the other corpses.

[Looted: Goblin’s Ear x1]

[Looted: Goblin’s Ear x1, Common Longsword]

[Looted: Goblin’s Ear x1]

[Looted: Goblin’s Ear x1, Enhancement stone x1]

Sitting down next to the goblin's fire Astaria started to look through the loot and received quite the surprise. Every enemy drops a ‘proof of subjugation’, otherwise known as trash loot that individually sold for a low price, however after grinding and obtaining a larger number, they will sell for a decent amount. The drop rate for items was quite different, especially against low level enemies like goblins where a weapon drop is around 3% and an Enhancement Stone is around 1%, so to receive both a weapon and an Enhancement Stone was very lucky.

Now that Astaria reached lv 4, she now had a decent amount of skill and attribute points to apply to her status. Opening up her status page, she swiftly spent her free points and reviewed the changes.

——————————

[Astaria]

Class: Mage - Lv: 4 - 10%     [+4]

Race: ???

Gender: Female

Age: 20

——————————

HP: 150/150

MP: 226/270

Fatigue: 44%

Hunger: 24%

——————————

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Skill Points: 1/16 - 0%     [+6/-5]

Attribute Points: 0     [+20/-20]

——————————

[Attributes]

VIT: 15

STA: 10

DEF: 10 (+1)

STR: 10

AGI: 20

DEX: 10

INT: 25 (+2)

WIS: 45     [+20]

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[Equipment]

Wooden Staff [Common]

(5 ATK)

Iron Short sword [Common]

(7 ATK)

Common Shirt

(N/A)

Common Trousers

(N/A)

Worn Leather Boots

(N/A)

Black Robe [Uncommon]

(INT +2) (DEF +1)

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[Resistances]

(+ To Expand)

——————————

Charisma: 10

Luck: 550

——————————

Karma: 100,000

——————————

[Skills]

Staff Lv 1

Short-sword Lv 1

Magic Arrow Lv 1

Fireball Lv 1

Lightning Lv 1

Earth spike Lv 1     [+]

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[Titles]

-The First Immortal Warrior-

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Giving her WIS a boost by 20 more points she could now kill a goblin with a single hit from any of her spells, while with the increase in INT she will be able to increase the number of spells she can cast before needing to take a break.

Mana replenished naturally by 5 points per minute, and by equipping items as well as using support skills the recovery rate can be boosted. Mana could also be replenished by using potions which is part of the reason they would become items of such high demand, since with a large quantity you could effectively grind enemies without needing to stop for breaks.

Astaria also acquired the spell [Earth Spike]. [Earth Spike] is a spell that at level 1 creates a single spike of earth from the point where the staff impacts the ground.

[Earth Spike Lv1]

[Thrusts a spike made from earth from the point of impact of the user’s staff upon the ground towards the targeted location.

MP cost: 25

Cast time: 1s

Cooldown: 10s

Damage: (WIS x 250%) + ((Main hand weapon attack + Sub weapon attack) x 150%)

Additional effects: User DEF + 5% for 2s

Chance to inflict: {Trip} {Bleed}]

[Mana Arrow Lv1]

[Launches an arrow of pure mana towards the targeted location.

MP cost: 5

Cast time: 0.5s

Cooldown: 0.25s

Damage: (WIS x 60%) + ((Main hand weapon attack + Sub weapon attack) x 20%)

Additional effects: User DEF + 5% for 2s

Chance to inflict: N/A]

As the cool-down of each spell was fairly long at the lower skill levels, having a variety to use would shorten the period where Astaria was not dealing damage and allow her to become more efficient at killing groups of enemies.

At the early stage of Caelus Online, since there were so many tasks that Astaria needed to complete towards her plans, especially things that other players might reach before she could, so the need to make sure that every action she took was the most efficient it could be was imperative.

Thanks to levelling up 4 times Astaria regained 80 MP, meaning the only thing that she needed was to recover some of her fatigue. Wrapping her arms around her knees, she blankly stared at the fire, trying to focus her attention on the dancing of the flames.

The whole gender-swapping issue was seriously burdening her mind, and moments like this where there was nothing to do but wait took a toll on her as the thoughts swirling around her mind always started to go back to what she had just lost.

After 15 minutes of rest and her fatigue dropping to 31%, Astaria stood back up. Checking which direction was north on the map, she made her way toward the next goblin camp in the grinding rotation.

In MMO’s, grinding rotations were set routes players developed to efficiently kill groups of enemy mobs so that by the time they return to the first group, the enemies had respawned. These routes focused on the fastest way to get to the next group, maximising the time spent grinding.

Hearing the chartering of the next group of goblins, Astaria grit her teeth as she moved closer. The same as before, it was a group of 5 Lv 3 goblins. Swiftly repeating the previous strategy, Astaria cast lightning at the first goblin, instantly killing it as the blue bolt of lightning smashed into its head.

[Goblin Lv 3 defeated. 10% xp gained. 120% skill point xp gained]

[+1 skill point]

With the goblins now panicking while angrily screaming, Astaria cast a fireball at the next goblin, the ball of flames smashing square into its back as its dead body hit the floor half a meter away from the impact.

[Goblin Lv 3 defeated. 10% xp gained. 120% skill point xp gained]

[+1 skill point]

Spotting Astaria, the 3 remaining goblins ran towards her, 2 brandishing spears while the last one wielded a club.

Waiting for them as they get closer, Astaria prepared for the right moment to cast her [Earth Spike] at the first goblin, calculating for the half a second delay between the staff hitting the ground and the spike thrusting out.

[Goblin Lv 3 defeated. 10% xp gained. 120% skill point xp gained]

[+1 skill point]

Impaling the goblin right through its stomach before it could thrust its spear at her, Astaria quickly moved out of reach of the thrust from the second goblin, raising her foot and stomping down on the end of the crude wooden spear. With its spear trapped, it screeched in panic.

“FUCKING SHUT UP!”

Swinging her staff with full force, she knocked the goblin back into its companion, silencing the screaming with a thrust from her sword through its throat.

[Goblin Lv 3 defeated. 10% xp gained. 120% skill point xp gained]

[+1 skill point]

Leaving her sword still impaled in the second goblin's neck, she wielded her staff with both hands as she moved to attack the last enemy. The third goblin, now free to attack with his companion now lying dead on the floor, raised his club to strike, only to have his wrist broken by a full swing from Astaria’s staff. With his club now out of his hand and on the floor, he screeched in fear and anger now he was defenseless.

Seeing the goblin trying to reach out towards her with its left hand, she swang her staff down onto its left shoulder causing the goblin's bones to break with a resounding crack.

With a swift kick to the chest, Astaria sent the goblin to the ground while raising her staff again, bringing it down on the goblin's knee. Hearing the pained screams of the goblin she once again raised her staff, bringing it down on its other knee, causing the goblin to writhe in pain.

Dropping her staff to the floor with a hint of tiredness, Astaria returned to pull her sword back out of the dead goblin, menacingly walking back towards her target who was now shaking in fear as it lay in silence, watching in trepidation as Astaria walked towards it with a blade dripping with blood.

Standing above it with a face filled with sheer disgust, she spat at the goblin.

“Filthy little rapists, you all deserve to die.”

Swinging her sword, Astaria decapitated the goblin. Stepping back with heavy breathing, Astaria slumped to the ground.

[Warning: The System has detected that the user’s emotional state is unstable. It is recommended that the user logs out of the game]

Seeing the comment, Astaria angrily retorted.

“Yeah, no fucking shit. Which genius did it take to figure out?”

After laying on her back for a while, Astaria began to regain some of her composure from the fight, feeling relieved that she managed to release some of her pent-up frustration, but also horrified that the way she went about it was to kill a goblin so brutally. She eventually consoled herself, saying that the goblins torture people, especially women, in a manner much worse than she had done so it was the least they deserved.

Standing back up in a slightly calmer state, she looted the corpses of the dead goblins before making her way towards the next group as she began her slightly frenzied grind.