Using the woods as cover, drake made his way back towards the village. He wanted to see for himself the destruction caused by the eruption of beasts, as well as look for other survivors.

Once he could see the border wall he began to make his way towards the nearest entrance, the same one that he had leapt over in his hasty evacuation.

After few minutes of watching and seeing no activity from the tight viewing angle he had from the side within the woods he decided to take a small risk and move closer.

Darting into the shadow of the wall he moved to the opening smashed through what was once the heavy wooden gate and peered around the corner.

Small fires danced within his vision and the destruction was a sight to behold, but what truly caught the eye was the creatures still scattered around rooting through fallen debris.

Hundreds of small, green creatures danced among the flames, flipping over small stones, raiding pantries and rushing around with glittering finds to some unknown location.

In addition, there were a umber of larger green beasts aiding the small ones, like a parent helping a child- only this involved tossing huge boulders like they weighed nothing. These beasts slower, not dancing around like the smaller ones, but were clearly many times more physically powerful.

After a moment of being simultaneously stunned and angered, Drake got ahold of himself and identified each of the different beings.

Goblin Lv. 4

A small, weak monster that bands together to form large tribes. Individually they are weaker than a child, but with numbers they can grown strong enough to overwhelm nations. Intelligence is their main attribute, allowing them to gradually learn to use crude weapons and tactics.

Troll Lv. 19

A large, burly monster powerful enough to pull trees from the ground. They are slow and dumb, but sheer strength makes them a dangerous threat. They often join under the banner of goblins who will use them to much more destructive effect than they would have alone.

The two seemed to be common monsters but their potential threat worried Drake. He was certain that their combined strength could beat the leopard that had nearly killed him, leaving him uneasy at the though of venturing into the city.

With a rumble, his stomach reminded him of his current quest and refocused his gaze on the activities of the monsters. The goblins continued to raid houses for all forms of foodstuffs, leaving Drake with little chance to fins food within the village.

As dangerous as it was, Drake realized he would need to find both food and shelter in the woods. He hoped he would be able to find some wildlife that had not been scared away or killed by the stampede of monsters that had burst through the village.

With one last glance he plunged back into the forest.

…

A few hours had gone by before he managed to secure shelter, and he was deep into the night by the time he finished. Food had been his priority, and after roughly an hour the traps he made secure him two decent sized rabbits. He had made sure to keep his fire small and far from the village to avoid alerting monster to his presence.

After he had finished off the entirety of both cooked rabbits, something he was not aware he could eat alone, he had begun making his shelter. Mainly using sticks, leaves and dirt it took him nearly two hours to finish a shelter that would just barely cover his sleeping form. He had focused on making it indiscreet, again to avoid attention from potential passing monsters. The insulating dirt would keep him warm, at least until the colder seasons came – he hoped to be in an actual house again by that time though.

Finally, as the moon was nearly directly overhead, he laid down to rest. Despite the discomfort he felt at sleeping on dirt, it was not enough to keep sleep at bay for long as he fell into a deep sleep.

…

The remainder of the week Drake split his focus between a number of tasks. The first was securing a source of food – the nearby rivers and ponds were his go-to, but he made several traps that he set up each morning to ensure he caught enough. His second task was continuing to visit the village, both to monitor the monster presence as well as check for resources, survivors, or potential rescue by the army.

His final task was preparation for the future, namely training his newly acquired lightning manipulation skill. He had high hopes for it at first as a potential means of defending himself should he eventually be found by monsters.

However, despite multiple days of repeated use it was unable to create more than a few sparks from any part of his body.

The only saving grace was his increased understanding of the way mana worked – ‘mana’ was essentially a basic resource of reality or existence or some such thing, and manipulation of it could influence and empower natural phenomenon. Essentially, he created sparks by using mana to forcibly create the circumstances that would create lightning in the first place. He guessed he would be able to control actual lightning should he ever get the chance, and if he were to gain enough mastery – lest he be burnt to a crisp.

The possibilities of mana intrigued him, and he continued to practice his manipulation daily especially after noticing his mastery rising.

…

After nearly two weeks in the woods, Drake had become much more used to his life. His diet had expanded to include certain plants and spices after realizing he could identify them much the same way he could a monster. His clothes had begun to rip despite his careful maintenance of them and his appearance had begun to take on a more grizzled look. He still could not even grow stubble, but his hair began to grow out and small marks and cuts began to find their way onto his skin.

Drake was forced to admit that he would need to find a way to get some resources in the village if he was to even maintain the status quo. He had originally hoped that help would arrive within few weeks, but with the number of monsters that must have continued to push beyond the village he was certain that even the army had its hands full.

His next hope was to find a way to travel to some of the nearby villages, but the same problem applied – they had most likely been crushed as well. His only sure bet was to travel to the capital, but by foot that was multiple months of walking.

Resigning himself to his fate, he began moving towards the village along the same path he always followed.

But noise stopped as he was only partway there, a guttural screaming and panting which he had never heard before.

Drake immediately assumed defensive posture and found a hiding spot in a nearby bush.

As he listened, he realized that the sound was not moving. Steeling himself he emerged from his hiding spot and began to slowly move towards the source.

When he reached the source of the noise he nearly burst out laughing. A goblin had gotten itself stuck in one of his rabbit traps, unable to move it had begun yelling until its voice went hoarse and was now panting and trying to recover.

An opportunity, Drake thought.

Cautiously he approached the goblin that was limply swinging from a nearby tree (using sticks and braided river grass he had fashioned a simple t-bar trap) taking care to avoid its attention as much as possible.

When he was close enough he used a stick, he had picked from the ground to roughly poke the swinging monster. This caused an uproar from the creature which immediately spun to face its attacker as it howled with anger. Unfortunately, the spin caused it to continue in a circle uncontrollably as Drake mercilessly poked with his makeshift torture weapon.

When Drake finally had his fill of poking, the monster was hanging limply – it had passed out from a combination of blood rushing to its head, dizziness, and excessive movement.

Realizing the opportunity, Drake ran back to his camp and grabbed all the ‘rope’ he had made from vegetation. Rushing back he began to tie up the monster, making sure to bind its hands, legs, and mouth.

Finally done, he woke it with a spark from his fingertip. Its struggle was not long lived this time. Drake continuously used his lightning manipulation on the poor beast, constantly pushing for stronger output or range, really any sort of improvement.

Within an hour his wish was granted as he began to notice small black marks wherever he zapped, as well stronger muscle spasms from his captive. Finally deciding to take a break, he glanced at his lightning manipulation mastery and involuntarily sucked in a sharp breath. The percentage which had remained under 1% despite his constant training, had now risen to nearly 2.5%!

Is it because I’m using it on a monster? Drake thought.

Feeling invigorated he continued to use his manipulation to harass the monster until it finally burst into motes of light and earned his a few percent towards level 6 Adventurer. By that time, he had already surpassed 4% mastery despite spending less than two hours doing so.

This made Drake realize the only way to get strong enough to defend himself before the goblins found him was to fight and defeat them, levelling himself and his abilities. If he could reach combat efficiency with his manipulation skill, he would feel far safer. He began to imagine the possibilities -calling lightning from the skies to smite enemies from afar. The thought empowered him and despite the waning light he again began moving towards the village.

…

Peering in at the village he was once again uncertain about his chances. The goblins moved almost exclusively in groups and he doubted his ability to defeat more than two or three at once – despite hearing they had the strength of children.

So he waited.

And waited…

…

Finally, as night began to fall the Goblins started moving en mass towards the same far off place where they would carry their stolen goods. However, a few - likely guards - remained stationed around the village. The groups were anywhere from 2 to 5 stationed roughly 100-150 feet apart.

Looking at the smallest group, only 2 goblins, Drake made plans on how to silently kill both. It would be best if he could bind one to continue his harassment of shocks, but he didn’t have the proper materials with him nor the confidence to be able to subdue one without noise.

Making sure to stay in the shadows cast by the ever-present fires, he stealthily made his way to within twenty feet of the small group.

His weapons were makeshift, the remains of his axe held in place by more grass rope as well as sap from the trees. He hoped it would survive a single cut. The second was several differently sized branches which he had sharpened with the blade of his axe as best he could.

As he observed the goblins continued to merely sit around the fire, occasionally glancing around but not seeing Drake in the deep shadow he was in.

He waited another half hour or so, unmoving before one goblin got up and made his way over to one of the piles of rocks at the edge of the firelight. Determined not to waste this chance, Drake made his way towards the lone goblin as quick as he could while maintaining stealth.

Finally, he was close enough to hear the goblins sighing, as it picked through the rocks aimlessly.

Drake stopped to calm himself, breathing deeply before grabbing one of his fashioned spears. His whole body tensed up and he shot straight for the goblin - aiming at its neck. Despite the dim lighting his aim remained true, and the goblin dissolved into lights before the light of recognition entered its eyes.

Without pause Drake spun and leapt towards the goblin still sitting by the fire. It had been warming its hands and looking at the flames as Drake made his move, thus it was still unaware of the danger just a few feet away.

Again, his spear struck like lightning, swiftly and accurately piercing the side of the monster’s throat. It too dissolved before realizing what had happened.

Drake for his part did well to make it back to the shadows before collapsing into a ball of nerves and adrenaline. It took him almost twenty minutes to calm down and decide to make his way back for the night.