Chapter 14 - Blood on Hands

As Kaito watches the goblin's corpse lying on the ground and listens to his own gasping for breath, a whirlwind of thoughts and worries swirl in his mind.

'Is it, dead?' He thought, with his eyes focused on the blood on his hands and the corpse at his feet. The goblin's vivid and strong, fierce gaze was gone, giving way to a blank expression.

"I really killed that thing." He said aloud, barely believing it.

But all these sudden thoughts are also suddenly interrupted by an agonizing pain Kaito feels in his right shoulder. This pain is different from when he lost his arm. His skin was not rearing, it was like his shoulder was being pulled and twisted. So when Kaito looks at his right arm while feeling this pain that almost makes him howl again, he sees his limb regenerate quickly after a short and quick burst of blood splashing across the floor and ceiling, Kaito sees his right arm complete again, with fingers, fingernails, and even the same wrinkles in the joints.

Looking to the blood, his mind was stunned by the pain and his regeneration, without understanding what was happening, he raised his eyebrows and automatically tried to move his arm succeeding with normality. Moving each of his fingers and closing his right hand without any problems.

Unconsciously, Kaito almost laughs and pauses with a smile on his face, still confused.

"Life Restoration really works". Kaito says and opens his status window with just that thought, as is usual for any web link.

When the status window opens in front of him, Kaito sees that his life points have returned to 100.

"So the points that appear here actually represent my physical condition..." He mumbles and puts a hand to his chin.

His eyes land on the bottom of the status window, which shows his remaining skill points, the points he has left to distribute among his attributes. He has three skill points to use, the reward for his daily mission to feed himself. So, his hands shaking with excitement, Kaito clicks on the + symbol next to the Intelligence attribute and increases it from 10 to 13, spending his only three points.

He knows that he cannot physically defeat a shaman goblin yet, but he has to try. Even if he had 13 Speed, 13 Strength, or 13 Endurance, none of those would be enough, so increasing his standard Intelligence might be the only plausible option, because then he might notice something he wouldn't normally notice, or come up with some great idea.

So with a spark of hope, Kaito begins to follow the trail of blood down the corridor where the patrolling goblin came from.

Every step he takes echoes softly, and the dungeon seems to grow darker and darker, with a thin layer of fog filling the odd gaps.

The silence is occasionally broken by the distant whisper of the wind and the goblins on patrol, following the various corridors and tunnels of the dungeon.

During one of these chance encounters, Kaito decides to test the potential of the Southern Dagger and slowly approaches a goblin from behind.

However, Kaito has little or no experience in sneak attacks, so when he is only a few centimeters away from the goblin, the small creature's pointed ears move, picking up a new sound, and it suddenly turns around. Immediately, the goblin prepares to let out a scream of territorial rage, both to alert all the other goblins in the area and to intimidate his enemy, but Kaito acts quickly and without a second thought, slashes with the dagger, hitting the monster right in the throat.

Thus, instead of the goblin's agonizing scream, only the sound of it choking on blood is heard.

Kaito doesn't hear the goblin's death warning in his ears, so he jumps at it, dagger in hand. After several blows to the goblin's chest, causing the creature to spit blood, Kaito finally hears the long-awaited message.

[You have killed a normal goblin, you have gained +200 XP].

Kaito slowly stands up and looks at the monster's corpse.

'This thing doesn't die easily either.' He thinks.

[You have gained 1 Evil for lack of mercy.]

Kaito looks in surprise at the strange new window that has appeared before him. "This must be a warning from my main skill, but... what is this, Lack of Mercy?"

Wondering, Kaito realizes in a few moments that instead of hitting the goblin with more than one of a dozen blows to the chest, he could have just hit the head or waited for it to die after the throat cut.

In any case, the mistake was gone, or rather, maybe it wasn't a mistake at all, after all, he earned a point for evil.

- A few minutes ago -

After getting the items he needed from selling the bag full of items, Kaito took some time to learn a bit about his skills.

Sitting on the rocky floor of the dungeon, he opened the small book he had in his hand, and immediately a loud voice rang out.

"As you saw in the manual..."

Kaito immediately closed the book, for the sound of the voice it produced echoed throughout the chamber he was in. He looked to the sides and stood in silence for some time to make sure that nothing and no one heard him. Finally, after a few seconds, he decided to open the book again, but this time he opened it quietly and left it open just a little, which was enough to hear the narrator's low voice, almost like a whisper.

"... for Beginners. Each Awakened has unique abilities. By the way, Kaito, your main skill is called Evil Point Manipulation."

"Evil Point Manipulation? That's... strange. I've never heard of such an ability before..."

"Shut up and listen to me." The book said and then continued normally. "The Evil Point Manipulation skill is the main skill of your class, Villain, and it cannot be developed by training, constancy of use, or any other means. As such, this skill will only serve as a support and stepping stone for your evolution. When you commit evil deeds, you will receive evil points, which are obviously different from the attribute points you receive for completing quests, leveling up, and so on. Evil points are points you use to copy and create abilities. For a villain, becoming powerful is not a matter of fate or an option, but an obligation.