After the fifth goblin I killed with a few punches, I felt like I was starting to get the hang of it. I was surprised to learn my training with a rapier had still done something for the rest of my combat abilities.

Another couple of Goblins jumped down. I grabbed the spear when one got nearer and punched the goblin holding it.

It flew backward and I used its spear to impale the other one.

I went after the first one and punched it a few more times before getting off of it panting a little.

I looked over to see Mezu staring at me as if in awe. It felt like his eyes were sparkling.

Ah, damn this kid.

Also, damn Alcoroth; that stupid smug face has been sitting there since I fought the second goblin. There is no way I'm thanking that prick. Even though I clearly had gotten stronger, his ego didn't need the praise.

I tried to wipe my hands off in the grass. My blood was smooth and I had gotten used to the feeling, but the blood from goblins was a lot thicker than I was expecting. It was sticky too. I mean it didn’t help that I had gotten some goblin brains mixed in them as well.

Thinking about the fact that I had goblin brains between my fingers didn’t help, and I soon puked up my breakfast. And then instinctively wiping my puke off my mouth with my dirty fingers made it worse.

After some very annoying laughing from Alcoroth, and him pulling a dowel and bucket of water out of his storage space, I was cleaned up and on my way.

We walked further through the dense forest. It was a much different type of forest than I had ever seen outside of a dungeon. I wondered if there are places in our world with forests like these. The leaves on the plants on the ground were larger than my head. And the roots of the trees were so thick there was hardly any flat ground to walk along.

The trees got even denser before suddenly thinning out quite a bit. I slowed down and duck—walked through the foliage. I moved the pieces in front of me aside with my hands every few feet to check, and soon I moved them aside to see a goblin camp.

It was an interesting layout. They had cleared most of the trees and foliage in the area so it was like a completely barren area. The design of this dungeon was lazy, putting the camp in such an open space and not using the difficult terrain to make it harder.

Well, then again it was an E-ranked dungeon, I guess at a higher level it would be designed differently. But then again with it being so out in the open, I wouldn’t be able to sneak around and try to kill them one by one. If I just went in now, they would all surround me.

That being said, the layout of the camp was pretty simple. A small wooden spiked fence surrounded four small buildings and one large open pavilion-like building. In front of the pavilion-like building sat the goblin king on his throne. He was quite a bit fatter and taller than I had imagined a goblin king to look like.

"Are we still doing that rule where Mezu can't help me?"

Sure, I killed a few goblins but that was only when one or two were coming at me I wasn't ready to take on this many.

And the goblin king had a few boils on him that I really didn’t want to explode on me. I did already puke up everything in my stomach but it still wasn’t something I wanted.

"Yes, as I said before, Mezu only helps if you're really in danger, or we're fighting humans."

I clasped my hands together in a begging motion looking up at the bastard just lounging around cleaning his glasses.

How could those things even get dirty?

"But it'll take forever to do this alone. I just want to get back to Azmar. A few of my party members might still be alive"

He pushed me out into the open.

"Then work faster. Who knows what kind of rewards you'll get for a solo clear like this."

I flinched hearing the goblin king roar. I turned and punched a goblin that leaped at me annoyed. It slammed into a tree and I yelled back at Alcoroth as I vaulted over the bush at the oncoming goblins.

"That's what you said before I got these crappy rewards from the beginner's dungeon."

I grabbed a goblin's leg as he kicked at me and swung him around hitting the others.

"Maybe if you make friends with that blacksmith then you could get a sword."

I tossed the goblin in my hands away, (not that there really was much left of the ripped corpse I was swinging,) and into a group charging at me.

I grinned at Alcoroth holding a thumbs up.

"Thanks for an actual smart idea."

Luckily the king didn't get up until I defeated all the smaller Goblins.

When he did get up though, he was quicker than I expected and I just barely dodged his club.

As I rolled away from another strike, I grabbed one of the blades lying around.

I looked at the ground littered with more small blades like that, and worked hard dodging and collecting a few more.

The king halted his movements for a second, seeming as if he was charging up to swing.

Even though I had gotten used to his earlier speed, I was almost hit by his next attack.

I didn't spend time thinking and whipped around to see his large back. I threw the blades at it.

Even with my horrible aim, enough landed on his back in a lineup from his ass to his head.

I charged at him yelling to get his attention. He turned to me and lifted his arms up to swing downwards at me, but I slid through his legs missing it.

As I slid across the dirt, I flipped onto my stomach grabbing at the ground to stop. I scrambled to my feet and launched myself up at my first knife.

I managed to hold all my weight on the one knife without it moving. This damned skin sure was thick.

I started to climb up his back.

The king tried to turn his head to see where I was, but his neck was too fat.

I was almost at the top when he started to swing back and forth trying to throw me off. I did the final jump with all my might to get to his head, but I ended up higher than I was expecting.

I did my best to turn in the air and swung my fist at his head as I fell down, closing my eyes at this stupid idea.

I heard a crunch and then the force of me landing on his body.

I nervously opened my eyes to see myself almost at ground level.

Mezu sat in front of me beaming like an idiot.

I looked down only to vomit (not that much came up anyway). My hand was lodged in the goblin king's head.

After I tried to empty my already emptied guts, I got off of him, swinging my arm around trying to get the blood off.

Mezu charged at me beaming and leaped into the air, but was frozen for a second.

“Not when he’s so dirty” I heard Alcoroth say from somewhere.

Then I felt a large amount of water dumped on me. All the blood and brain matter were cleaned off of me and Mezu was unfrozen.

Mezu tackled me to the ground beaming, making unintelligible excited grunting noises.

"Did you see that Mezu?! I took him down in one punch."

I ruffled his hair happily as he nodded aggressively.

Sure, Alcoroth could have done that in a much nicer way, but I wasn’t going to complain after what had happened earlier. At least this time he did it without me having to ask.

I heard a ding and sat up, pushing him off my chest and into my lap.

I looked up at the notification.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quest complete: based on performance suitable rewards will be given

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then the image distorted and the words changed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Class upgrade completed.

Complete beginner's taming armor set will be rewarded.

The    monarch looks down favorably at you

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"What?! No sword yet again?!"

I threw myself back laying down annoyed.

"Well, you didn't clear your class upgrade during the training, and didn't you already decide to talk to the blacksmith anyway?"

"That's not the point."

I started to teleport, so I slipped my hood up and grabbed the bag of loot.