As the battle was ongoing, some of the Awakeners were having an easy time: particularly those who went in with weapons already equipped.

“Hah,” laughed one of the group leaders. “They only look scary.”

One of the swordsmen had just finished taking out a group of scouts.

“After this I should look over my group and see who is having trouble.”

He turned to hear a yell of consternation.

“Ah!”

“Go away! Monster!”

“A goblin broke through the line and is after our magic users!” the swordsman yelled. “Cover me here!”

For those who weren’t experienced with games of this sort and/or those who were made Awakeners, it wasn’t as easy a fight as their group leaders expected – sometimes the skills or stats they got weren’t that great, and it only served to make their first battle with this many goblins harder.

Due to this, even Awakeners who had some experience with games had to draw upon that experience so they could make good use of the sub-optimal skills or stats they had.

Another Awakener took his place as the swordsman dashed towards his group, and as he did, he could hear another group leader shout.

“Third goblin down – I leveled up!” a young man said as he swung a flaming sword towards a goblin that was about to break through another line of defense.

Those who knew what that meant immediately redoubled their efforts, gaining the same effect in a bit – most of these were the experienced gamers and group leaders, who then explained to their newer comrades about how it worked.

“Level up?” a newbie asked.

“What is a level up?” another newbie asked.

“Yes,” the young man with the cane sword replied. “Killing goblins gives you experience. Enough experience and you gain a level.”

With the group leaders spreading this information to the newer Awakeners, it was only inevitable that as soon as the goblins started to falter, the Awakeners began to rally as they grew stronger.

“What happens when you level up?” another newbie asked as they gravitated towards their leaders almost by instinct.

“You gain get stat points. Three of them, in particular,” the group leader with the cane sword explained, “I think you can use this to raise your stats.”

While he used his skill to slice and dice the goblins continuing to push towards Brino, he continued assisting the others about how to level up and gain power, and as more and more of them heard the details, a change of atmosphere among the Awakeners began to take place.

“You can raise your stats? Strength or agility or something? So, if you level up enough can be like a super hero now or something? That's how Awakeners get stronger!”

The new players immediately noticed the effect.

Some thought that it’s pretty ridiculous for this to happen, and to them, even more.

One person, however, is too busy smashing goblin faces and breaking goblin necks to care.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

“I don’t know what you want from me...” the man gritted out as he continued to fight, focusing on the task at hand, holding a goblin under one arm in a headlock and punching another with a rock.

“It’s like the more money we come across…”

Twenty hits later, the first goblin went down.

Jay roared his satisfaction to the heavens, making the goblins around him wary as he looked to the shop at the corner of his eye.

“All right! Three hundred points? Let’s keep it going, Jay! 1,600 more and then I can finally grab that sweet event package! “

He turned to the goblins who now had the beginnings of fear in their eyes.

“Time to punch my meal ticket,” he said, after finally getting a decent rock and tossing it up and down in his hand to test for its heft.

“Get ready.”

If he cared about it a bit, Jay could have heard one of the goblins whimpering.

But he didn’t, and he set upon them, rock in hand.

***

As the battle reached a fever pitch, some of the Awakeners were beginning to feel a little strange. Someone in the corner of their eye was currently smashing a goblin’s head in with a rock.

“What in the name…”

“Why’s he fighting like that?”

“Did he check his inventory or level up or something?” a group leader asked.

“I was sure he heard everything when we were talking it over – he has to know about it.”

“Wait, wasn’t he the first guy to go to the main gate to fight the goblins? “

As the fight against the goblins turned from a battle to a rout, the Awakeners finally found a bit of space to breathe, and while doing so, looked at Jay, who was now introducing goblin faces to his trusty rock.

Despite most Awakeners using skills against goblins – albeit in a very amateurish fashion – Jay was the opposite. He had no equipment, and was currently a one-man goblin wrecking crew, using any and every means he’d find in his aim to take out as many goblins as he can.

“A rock. He’s using a rock.”

“They don’t let you use rocks in games like this.”

“This isn’t a game, though.”

“He has a weapon, right?”

The spectacle before them was an extraordinary level of absurd.

Others were wielding weapons of all kinds: swords, spears, maces, et cetera; the man they were looking at was grabbing rocks and cracking goblin skulls with them if he wasn’t grabbing them and punching them out.

That wasn’t the strangest thing other Awakeners noticed about him.

“He’s hitting the goblins with rocks. But even with no weapon … he is actually doing pretty well.”

No skills, no equipment, but he was going after the goblins like they owed him his lunch money.

“Check out his eyes. I think he’s gotten way too much into goblin hunting.”

“I know, right?” the thirty-year-old wizard added. “He’s gone a bit mad. You have to be if you want to smash a goblin’s head with a rock…”

Not wanting to be a part of his madness, his fellow Awakeners edged away from him – and some of the goblins also gave him a wide birth.

Though they thought the madness was why Jay could kill goblins with a rock, the reason for his demeanor was something they fell completely off the mark on.

It wasn’t because Jay hated the goblins (though they sounded like his old boss, but that wasn’t relevant to him). Or, for that matter, it wasn’t because he liked to hunt or kill goblins.

Those reasons were close… but no cigar.

“Okay, four goblins left until the package is MINE!”

He roared in fury as he rounded up on another goblin, rock in hand.

The goblin rounded up and fled... only to drop dead as the rock thrown by Jay sailed straight and true, right into the back of the neck.

An Awakener close by heard the crack and winced.

The goblins weren’t an end into themselves, as the Awakeners thought.

It was only a means to an end for Jay.