A bunch of small, green, humanoid looking creatures were shouting at each other. One of them was holding a large piece of meat that used to be a leg of some kind of boar. They gritted their teeth at each other until a larger goblin that had a darker tint of green appeared. The smaller ones covered as the meaner looking goblin swiped away the large piece of meat for himself. It shouted something out and opened its large mouth, the teeth looked yellow and quite sharp.

Before the monster could have its feast something odd happened. A strange sound of something whizzing was heard by some of the goblins but at that point, it was too late. A glowing blue arrow shot out of the trees and embedded itself into the larger goblin's neck. It had enough penetrating power to pierce right through, the tip was even poking out on the other side.

The arrow made from blue energy fizzled out into nothingness soon after. The monster gurgled while not knowing what had happened, it could only flail its arms around before suffering from hemorrhage. Soon enough it passed out and died, the larger goblins comrades started shouting and panicking not knowing why their leader had died just like that.

About a hundred meters away up in a large tree was Roland. He was already chanting another spell while pointing with his finger at the next victim.

"Mana Arrow!"

Another blue arrow shot through the air towards the small goblin encampment. Roland had scouted it out after spending quite a bit of time hunting the goblins in this forest. The second mana arrow landed on the next enemy and he heard the female voice announcing that he had gained experience.

'I managed to get the leader on the first try, the rest are just small fries. Time to finish this up.'

He took his time finishing up the goblins from a safe spot. He descended only when the enemy numbers dwindled enough for him to engage them in melee range. The normal goblins didn't pose much of a threat to him at this point and he knew their attacking patterns by heart. Now he just needed to pick up the loot and head back, the only problem was that he had to go to the adventurers guild again.

The adventurer's guild was bustling with people. There were various people of various races coming in and out of the building. Dwarfs, elves you name it, there were even people with animal ears. Quite a bit of those people were focused on a small robed youth, this youth had garnered some fame for the past three months he had arrived in this town.

"Hey, it's the little Goblin Slayer!"

"Did he wipe out a nest, I think he even managed to get a shaman last time."

The people from the side gossiped while looking at Roland. He was one of the rising rookies here, mostly due to having a knack for killing goblins. Most of the adventurers didn't bother with those, they were busy with dungeon exploration that had more to offer than pesky goblins.

Roland grumbled while trying to cover his face with the new robe that he bought. He didn't like the attention and didn't like to stick out.

'I've earned a strange title, it's even in my status now...'

Goblin Hunter

Title

A person with this title is feared by goblins alike. Goblins might suffer a fear debuff while fighting with a person with this title, works only on Goblins below the title holder's level.

'Might suffer... so it's just a random effect...'

Titles like this could be earned by hunting monsters. There were various levels of titles and some even gave bonuses to attack or defense.

Roland took his money and left the adventurer's guild while the other guild members laughed and cheered. For some reason, he had become some kind of mascot to these adventures. They would shout out 'Little Goblin Slayer' the moment they saw him, which started to annoy him. Whenever he shouted back they would just laugh at him and egg him on even more.

'Treating me like a kid...'

He entered the inn he was staying at, this was the same one that he ate his first meal at. After going through the whole city, this one was the one most in his price range. He had rented one of the rooms upstairs for himself and was staying here for the time being. He was already high up with his levels thanks to the constant monster hunting.

Roland glanced at his stats while eating some beef jerky.

Name :

Roland Arden Mage L20

HP

289/289

MP

1304/ 1304

SP

368/368

Strength

21

Agility

25

Dexterity

36

Vitality

22

Endurance

23

Intelligence

72

Willpower

50

Charisma

11

Luck

6

He also looked at the spells that he knew how to cast, he had made some progress there too.

Mana Bolt L7

Spell

A focused bolt of mana energy that deals mana damage to one target. The damage done depends on the user's intelligence.

Mana Arrow L5

Spell

An arrow made purely from mana, has increased speed and penetrative power compared to the Mana Bolt Spell

Mana Shield L3

Spell

A mana shield that shields the caster or their allies from harm

Ember L 6

Spell

By causing friction with mana the caster can create a small fire

Mana Hands L 5

Spell

The caster can create hands made from mana, the weight, and distance this spell can be used for is dependent on the intelligence stat.

He had gained access to these spells mostly by leveling up. It was a strange thing after he attained a certain level the game like system would give him a prompt that he had learned a spell. The knowledge of how to cast it would somehow be inserted into his brain. He would instantly know the incantation and how to construct the spell with his mana.

This wasn't the only way you got spells. You could learn some yourself, some people could even create them. The classes offered a limited array of spells that they could use. If he wanted more he would have to experiment himself or buy some magic books that would explain the spell process to him.

His mage class came equipped with three basic spells. Mana Bolt, Mana Arrow, and Mana shield. He had learned the ember and mana hands spell thanks to a book he had previously obtained at the Arden estate. Spellbooks were extremely costly, so he was only able to get some rudimentary knowledge.

The whole process of spell casting was hard to explain. The mage had to guide the mana outwards in a certain sequence while focusing on the spell formula. This spell formula was also called a spell circle. The mage had to perfectly imagine the spell circle while at the same time shaping the mana and chanting in sequence. This was quite the hard process that didn't allow for any of the steps to fail, otherwise, the spell would sizzle out. Luckily the tier 1 spells were quite easy to master, the spell circles were just basic symbols and didn't take much brainpower to produce.

This is why it was important to have a high intelligence stat that helped the caster with visualizing and recalling the spell circles. The tier 2 classes and above were apparently, even harder to work with. Higher tier spells required larger circles and even longer incantations but this was were skills came into play as they lowered the strain on the caster's mind if he trained them.

'I gain experience by leveling up my spells too, the more I use them the stronger they become, and the faster I can do the chants.'

In this world, you garnered experience not only from killing monsters. You also gained it by leveling up your skills and abilities. When he managed to push his mana bolt spell to the next level he received a popup window with the experience. It was a lot more than what he was getting from killing monsters. You could even level up by creating items if you were a crafting class.

'I'm almost through with my first class... which of the two should I pick first, the Blacksmith or the Scribe one?'

The closer he got to L 25 the more he deliberated. He was leaning towards picking the Scribe first as it was closer to the mage class. He would be ditching his magic skill tree soon, so he wanted to be done with it. If he switched to something like a blacksmith that had nothing to do witch magic he felt like it would be harder to get past this scroll making class.

'Yeah, think that would be the better one to start out with. Probably easier too.'

Roland nodded while thinking back to a certain scene.

'That man was sitting there again...'

He had been here for three months already. By slaying the goblins and getting some mana stones from their bodies he was able to get by on his own. This was probably something the Baron didn't take into account. At some point, he noticed that there was a certain man constantly watching him whenever he was in town.

'He is probably a guard sent by daddy dearest, I'm not sure if I should be happy that he cares, or afraid that they might drag me back home, and I'd just gotten used to this place... I might have to change locations...'

This was another thing on his agenda, leaving this city and setting out on his own. He was feeling good with himself, fighting so many goblins every day had given him a slight confidence boost in his abilities. He feared that he would be dragged back, he was still a noble child and the adults could easily overpower him if they wanted to.

'Well, not like that guy is even doing his job right, even I managed to spot him with no problem...'

The man tailing him was quite bad at it. He only kept an eye on him during the day and while he was in the city. He never followed him into the goblin-infested forest. Roland theor