Above him was a dense forest, while below was hard earth with greenery stretching over small bushes—an ideal place for goblins to hide.
If he were human, he would have avoided such a path, as the chances of a goblin ambush would be high, including the risk of getting caught in goblin traps, which could be lethal if laced with poison.
However, given his past as a silver-grade assassin and his current life as a goblin, this place was heaven—a home ground that gave him an advantage over other creatures.
"I've come too far, but I couldn't find anything. This won't do..." he shook his head, questioning his own method. "Wait! The skills I got from sacrificing bugs and spotted rabbit meat—this is the perfect time to use those skills."
Looking around, he first picked up a few small pebbles. Then, using his jump skill, the tiny two-foot goblin leaped over ten feet in one go, landing on a tree branch. Looking down, he muttered, "I don't think rabbits can jump this far. That means the can skills adapt according to my nature."
Scanning the area, he still found nothing, but he realized that from this height, his field of vision was much greater than from the ground, where he was even smaller than the bushes around him.
"Let's move forward." Ronin jumped to another tree, deciding not to descend and using the height to his advantage.
After moving forward, for the first time, he heard rustling from a bush. Ronin stopped just a few inches away and waited as something came out. "A spotted rabbit?"
Earlier, he had picked up a few pebbles, which he wanted to use as weapons, using the skills he had learned during his training as an assassin. He aimed for the rabbit bust as he was about to go for the kill, he saw a shadow looming over the spotted rabbit, which was running from something.
"That's—" He saw an eight-foot serpent snap at the running rabbit, and from its fangs, Ronin knew it was poisonous serpent. However, this didn't stop him; instead, he thanked his luck, took aim, and hurled a stone.
Whack!
In the blink of an eye, the pebble made contact with the head of the serpent, piercing through and killing it in one shot. The rabbit, already bitten, wiggled and took its last breath while Ronin, jumping down from the tree, saw his first kill since becoming a goblin and knew it wouldn't be the last.
"Should I just eat...? No, no... let's peel it first, but I don't have anything that can help." Realizing he needed a weapon—at least a knife but for now he decided to make something temporary.
His eyes landed on a piece of rock with little edges, which he could sharpen. Picking it up, he sharpened it until it was good enough to peel the serpent's skin.
Looking at the rabbit, he felt his stomach rumble but still chose to ignore, knowing it must be poisonous. So, he focused on the serpent, peeling its skin, avoiding the face that contained the poison sacs, and finally getting to the remaining body that could be eaten.
Just after he took the first bite of serpent meat.
SACRIFICE REGISTERED: SILVER-BELLY SERPENT
SKILL ACQUIRED: POISON RESISTANCE | VENOM | CAMOUFLAGE
EVOLUTION PROGRESS: 9% [100%]
A wide grin broke out on his face as he munched the raw meat of the serpent. "I was hoping for one, but I got three at once. Indeed, my luck hasn't left me yet."
The serpent meat was enough to last him a full day, including the spotted rabbit, which he then began skinning before taking a bite.
"Fresh tastes better," he enjoyed it, knowing that back in the cave, they were fed stale meat. Not that it affected monsters like him, but there was a big difference in taste between the two.
After finishing the whole rabbit, he saw that much of the serpent meat was still left, which he decided to take back with him. Before returning, he marked the place, planning to start his next adventure from there.
While returning, he kept leaving marks, which gave him a nostalgic feeling of his time as an assassin.
From an orphan to a silver-grade assassin wasn't an easy journey, but he enjoyed every challenge and even the pain. He remembered how he used to pick food from trash on the streets until he was taken in by the orphanage called Legacy School.
He had endured pain and abuse from a very young age, but saw the torture of the Legacy School as challenges to overcome. Seeing him, a different from others, once, when an elder asked why he didn't try to run away or cry like the other orphans?
Which little Ronin only smiled. "Elder, as long as I can eat my fill, I'll do anything you want me to do."
That moved the elders, who were using those orphans as weapons, to take lives but soon, that child climbed from no-name assassin to the bronze-level assassin, with 50+ kills, to 100 kills and entering the league of silver assassins.
However, the journey was short-lived when he died in a well-planned trap.
Ronin slammed his hand on a tree trunk, smashing a huge chunk of wood and injuring his hand, but the pain in his hand was nothing compared to the pain in his heart.
"Grimspire Kingdom..." he muttered, his eyes filled with resentment. "Legacy School... you better pray we don't encounter each-other again in this life."
He had no attachment toward Legacy School, knowing they were using him as he used them, but their betrayal was something he never expected. He had enjoyed his life as an assassin, even aiming to be a gold-grade Phantom assassin, but that night ended everything.
His hatred was directed at those who had taken his life, and at this moment, he only knew two names: Grimspire Empire and Legacy School. However, he wasn't sure what timeline he was in or even if he was still in the same world, but the lesson he'd learned from his death was something he'd never forget.
Taking a deep breath and pushing aside his feelings, he moved forward. He chose to live this new life differently from his last.
In his past life, he was a loner, aiming only for small things like ascending his assassin grade, never considering betrayal or even his own death. In this life, though, he'd make sure that those coming for his life wouldn't live to see another day.
Ronin scoffed, "I do have big ambitions, but with this much strength, I can't even compete with the Chief, let alone the army of an empire like Grimspire."
"Look!"
"That's a meat?"
His thoughts were interrupted by the goblins eating bugs near the cave. Seeing the meat with Ronin, they couldn't help but salivate.
One of the male goblin even stepped closer, but Ronin glared at him. "Fuck off!" he said, moving past him toward the cave entrance. Meanwhile, the goblin shuddered, feeling he wasn't match for match.