008 Progress: One Hundred Percent

In the early morning, on the outskirts of the Goblin Forest, Karen gripped the hatchet in his hand, earnestly practicing the basic combat technique Old Jack had taught him.

To be honest, when Old Jack first said he wanted to teach Karen a combat technique, Karen’s initial reaction wasn’t excitement, but suspicion—perhaps even anxiety. He couldn’t help but question Old Jack’s motives.

His proper acquaintance with Old Jack had only begun in the past two days. After just two meetings and one and a half rabbits, Old Jack was already offering to teach him a combat skill. No matter how Karen thought about it, something felt off—Old Jack seemed a little too good to him. Was a rabbit a day really worth all this generosity?

Yet, after Old Jack demonstrated the so-called technique and patiently guided Karen through his practice, Karen realized he’d been overthinking it.

What Old Jack had called a “combat technique” was, in fact, simply a method of striking—likely something that anyone on the outside would know. This technique was called “Heavy Strike.” Once grasped at a basic level, it could increase the force of a blow by thirty percent; with proficiency, even up to fifty percent.

According to Old Jack, although “Heavy Strike” was simple, its strength lay in its foundation. With diligent practice, one could master it within a month, and their strength would improve as well.

Though it was basic, Karen didn’t disdain it. In fact, he felt a subtle sense of relief. If Old Jack had handed him a skill that was even the slightest bit valuable or powerful, Karen would have been on edge.

It wasn’t that he was timid or paranoid. Karen clearly understood that in this world, nothing came without a price. Sometimes, receiving a reward a hundred times greater than what you’d given was not a blessing, but a curse.

Lacking power, Karen preferred fair trade—equal effort for equal return. He was even willing to come up short if necessary.

Still, this incident was a wake-up call, making Karen even more eager to become strong.

So, early that morning, he entered the Goblin Forest, collected the prey from ten traps, buried eight of them to boost the graveyard’s progression to 71%, gained another 2.5 points of energy, and then threw himself into learning “Heavy Strike.”

Before crossing over, Karen had never been a prodigy—especially not in physical pursuits. As someone nearly two hundred pounds, even a short jog left him gasping.

But after coming to this world, Karen found his progress with “Heavy Strike” to be astonishing. By the end of the afternoon, he had grasped the basics of this combat skill.

As soon as he gained a preliminary mastery, Karen noticed a new skill had appeared on his status panel: “Heavy Strike” (Lv1, 01/5) [A basic warrior skill that increases slashing power by 10%!]

The boost was only ten percent—still a ways from the thirty percent Old Jack had mentioned. In other words, Karen hadn’t truly mastered “Heavy Strike” yet.

But that wasn’t the point. The key was that, now that “Heavy Strike” had become a skill, Karen could monitor his progress much more intuitively.

Although it seemed that “Heavy Strike” couldn’t be upgraded with energy, just being able to track his skill development was a significant advantage.

Sure enough, with the skill system in place, Karen’s proficiency soared. By noon, he’d reached level one; by evening, as he was heading home, “Heavy Strike” had reached level three, with a thirty percent increase in power.

Yet the biggest progress that day was not in “Heavy Strike,” but in the graveyard’s activation percentage.

Now, with ten traps, Karen could acquire twenty or more animals a day. He kept two or three for himself and buried the rest in the graveyard.

Each small animal provided a one percent increase, meaning Karen could raise the graveyard’s progress by over ten percent daily.

By the time he returned home that evening, the progress had reached eighty-one percent, and his energy had climbed to five points. If all went well, he would be able to activate the graveyard as early as tomorrow, or at the latest, the day after.

The thought of his golden finger finally coming online made Karen genuinely excited.

However, what Karen didn’t expect was that the activation of the graveyard would proceed much faster than he had anticipated.

Around midnight, he heard the system prompt:

“Ding! Two Goblin corpses have been buried in your graveyard. Activation progress has reached 101%. Would you like to activate the graveyard?”

This sudden system message jolted Karen from his rest, just as he’d returned from Old Jack’s place.

Seeing this notification, Karen didn’t feel joy, but puzzlement and suspicion. “Two Goblin corpses? What’s going on here?”

It wasn’t the bodies themselves that troubled Karen, but the implications behind them.

“Could there be a Goblin tribe near my graveyard?” Karen grew tense. If the Goblin Forest was nearby, his entire life would be thrown into chaos—a prospect he absolutely did not want to face.

Fortunately, Karen was good at calming himself. Quickly, he regained his composure. “No, it can’t be that simple. I’ve checked the area these past days. There’s been no sign of Goblin activity within two or three miles of the graveyard.”

Once calm, his thoughts cleared. “Besides, from what Old Jack told me, I’ve learned a bit about Goblins. They’re not stupid. While they have no written language, they do have their own spoken tongue and certain customs.

Ordinarily, Goblins dispose of corpses in one of two ways: under normal circumstances, they bury them in their communal graveyard; in extreme situations, such as famine, they eat the bodies. They would never bury a corpse outside the settlement.

If Old Jack’s information is accurate, then this is worth investigating.”

At this, Karen couldn’t help but look regretful. “Alas, I was too careless last time. I should have dug up the Goblin corpses in the graveyard to investigate. If I’d gathered intelligence in time, I wouldn’t be so at a loss now.”

Well, no one can be perfect from the start. Over a long life, mistakes are inevitable.

What’s truly frightening isn’t making mistakes—it’s failing to reflect on them afterwards. And Karen was not that kind of person.

“I’ll go check first thing in the morning. I must get to the bottom of this. If I don’t, never mind activating the graveyard—even my basic safety could be at risk.”