018 Advancement to Level One (Requesting Recommendations)

After subduing the Green Goblin, Karen did not immediately kill him. After all, he still needed to extract information about the Goblin Forest from the Green Goblin’s mouth. To be honest, before he began, Karen wasn’t very confident about whether he could get anything useful. The main reason was that the Green Goblin gave him an impression of ferocity and mystery. A serial murderer, someone who possessed strange and powerful abilities—this kind of existence must have an extremely tenacious and violent character, Karen thought. He had already prepared himself to gain nothing but “Goblin language.”

However, when he actually began interrogating the Green Goblin, he discovered that the reality was quite different from his expectations. The Green Goblin was far more cowardly than he had anticipated. As soon as Karen used the “Language Mastery Scroll” to learn the Goblin language and started communicating, the image of a brutal, bloodthirsty killer he had constructed in his mind instantly collapsed. At first, the Green Goblin was stunned, but quickly recovered and began to plead for mercy, tears streaming down his face. The persona shattered completely, leaving Karen bewildered, but in truth this made his task much easier.

Over the next half hour, with the Green Goblin's cooperation, Karen extracted all the information he wanted. He learned several things: one about the environment of the Goblin Forest, another about the mysterious power possessed by the Green Goblin.

Regarding the environment, Karen gained basic knowledge through the Green Goblin. The Green Goblin couldn’t provide an exact figure for the size of the forest, but from his descriptions, Karen estimated it to span several hundred square kilometers. Within this expanse lived a dozen or so Goblin tribes of varying sizes. The one nearest to Karen’s burial ground was the tribe to which the Green Goblin belonged, numbering about a thousand—a relatively small tribe within the forest.

Most of the tribes in the Goblin Forest were of similar size, with the largest known to the Green Goblin having five to six thousand members. According to him, there were tens of thousands of Goblins living in the forest. This piqued Karen’s curiosity: how did so many Goblins live? What were their living conditions and sources of sustenance? This was more than simple curiosity; for Karen, understanding these details allowed him to gain a deeper insight into the forest.

According to the Green Goblin, their tribe’s livelihood relied on two main sources: gathering and hunting, and most importantly, mining and trade. The Goblin Forest was rich in metal ore, and the tribes settled near the mines. The Green Goblin’s tribe was adjacent to an iron mine, and their primary means of survival was mining iron and trading it with merchants from the south for essential goods. As long as their mine continued to yield ore, their lives were secure, and under normal circumstances, Goblin tribes would not leave their territories.

This was excellent news for Karen. It meant that despite the tens of thousands of Goblins, the forest remained relatively peaceful. He didn’t have to worry about Goblins suddenly wandering over and discovering his burial ground. Beyond these basics, what most intrigued Karen was the Green Goblin’s mysterious ability.

On this topic, the previously cooperative Green Goblin became reluctant, but his cowardly nature made him easy to intimidate. Under Karen’s threats, he confessed everything. It turned out that the ability was acquired half a month ago while mining, when he accidentally unearthed a piece of black iron. This power allowed him to gain strength through sacrificial offerings of his heart. According to the Green Goblin, he had originally been an ordinary Goblin; after obtaining this ability and consecutively killing sixteen Goblins, his strength shot up from Tier 0 to Tier 1 “Elite,” and he was only one step away from advancing to Tier 2.

Hearing this, Karen’s interest in the Green Goblin’s power diminished considerably. After all, killing more than a dozen Tier 1 Goblins without advancing to Tier 2 meant the ability, however potent, had its limits. Moreover, the Green Goblin explained that the iron piece had fused with him, so Karen couldn’t acquire it anyway. Besides, the object gave Karen a strange, dangerous feeling, so he did not insist on obtaining it.

After extracting all the information he needed, Karen swung his hatchet and slew the terrified Green Goblin. “Ding! You have successfully slain a Tier 1 ‘Elite’ Goblin (Green Goblin). You have gained 20 personal energy, and 20 territory energy!” With a single stroke, Karen acquired 20 points of personal energy. Adding this to his total, Karen now had 50 personal energy, enough to advance to the next tier.

Naturally, Karen didn’t delay. He opened his status screen and immediately upgraded his level. This time, the advancement was more intense than the previous two. The energy within his heart flowed like a stream throughout his body, and with each passage, he could feel that part of himself being strengthened.

After a dozen minutes, when the advancement was complete, Karen clearly felt that he had grown slimmer. Though his physique was leaner, his strength had increased significantly. He could sense that, just in terms of raw power, he was at least twice as strong as before—if his strength as a Tier 0 “Elite” had been around 150 pounds, now it was at least 300. Yet the most important change wasn’t just the increase in strength and physical prowess; Karen could now faintly sense the previously elusive seed of battle energy within him. He was certain that, with this newfound connection, he would be able to activate the seed of battle energy soon, pushing his power even further...