The guest cottage of Tanner Farm was at

  the center of a black hole, within the Spirit Realm, at least. In the

  physical world it looked like any other cottage. Inside, Sebastian sat

  on a small mat on the floor, absorbing the incoming essence from all

  around him.

  For the past week he had continued his work patrolling

  the farm. The fourth night since his arrival saw the return of the

  kobolds. A lone kobold, similar to his first encounter. It ended just as

  before, with the kobold dodging Sebastian’s every attack before

  scurrying off, unscathed.

  His third encounter, however, was slightly more eventful.

  Two kobolds had attempted a raid together. One went for the chickens

  while the other targeted some vegetables growing on the other side of

  the farm. Sebastian had managed to save the poor chicken who was plucked

  from its coop, but the second kobold managed to secure a handful of

  carrot-like vegetables.

  Sebastian shamefully updated Declan that morning, but his

  response was a simple chuckle and words of gratitude that the kobolds

  didn’t manage to take off with more. As comforting and sincere as

  Declan’s words were, it didn’t make Sebastian feel much better. These

  people had taken him in, given him a job and place to stay when he felt,

  and indeed was, completely alone.

  The kobolds had to go.

  His mind was made up, there would be no waiting them out or hoping that they simply got bored and left. He would kill them all.

  He knew that he was stronger than the kobolds, but they

  were just too fast. He spent his days cultivating to improve his

  strength ever so slightly, in preparation for the night. He also used

  the time to ruminate on a plan of action as he meditated.

  Everything about the encounters up to this point played

  out in his mind, How they moved, how they reacted, and how he might be

  able to predict their actions.

  There had been no clear pattern to their movements thus

  far, unlike the goblins from before. Sometimes they would dodge to the

  sides and other times they would pounce with their little knives.

  It was clear that he would have to somehow force their

  hand, make them react in a certain way. In a way he could control. A way

  that would lead to their deaths.

  He wasn’t sure exactly how yet, but during his meditation sessions he began to visualize the kobolds.

  During every encounter, he had observed them as best he

  could while he tried to fend them off. Remembering every detail, he

  could bring them to life in his mind, and he would play out various

  scenarios. He would try to force them to move a certain direction, to

  control them like a shepherd controls his herd.

  When the sun set, he moved with a sense of confidence.

  This would be the night he caught them. It might have just been in his head, but his simulation was successful.

  His patrol was uneventful for the first few hours, but

  then he recognized the shift in the atmosphere. By now he could tell

  that they were there just by how the farm itself reacted to the kobolds’

  presence. The smaller creatures that called the farm home settled down,

  desperate to avoid the kobolds’ attention.

  When the silence struck, so did he.

  Sebastian launched himself toward the slight ruffle he

  heard in the tall grass on the other side of the farm. Within seconds, a

  kobold revealed itself. It was like the monster expected him. It stared

  at him with a sneer on its face.

  Sebastian welcomed the challenge and struck at the

  overgrown rat. As always, it dodged. He then put his plan into motion

  and swung again. This time he didn’t aim for the beast itself but to its

  left side.

  It was the only method that worked during his

  simulations. By not aiming directly at them but rather by throwing a

  first attack ahead of them, or to their sides, he could limit their

  options and then strike when they acted according to his design.

  Just as predicted, his intentional missed attack made it

  flinch and jump to the right. While it was still in the air, Sebastian

  put all his strength into a horizontal swing, strong enough to fell a

  tree like a hot knife through butter.

  Just when he expected to feel the flesh of the kobold be

  torn asunder by his sword, his eyes opened wide in complete and utter

  shock.

  The kobold dodged his attack, in midair.

  Not by contorting its body to avoid the blade but by simply jumping to the side as usual, only while still up in the air.

  Sebastian didn’t let his shock stop him for long, though.

  He quickly attacked again, trying to force the kobold

  into a position from where it couldn’t escape, but every time he came

  close it simply double-jumped away.

  It was all he could do to prevent it from stealing

  anything from the farm, but he failed utterly to leave so much as a

  scratch on the little monster.

  The next day he sat on his mat inside

  his cozy cottage and meditated, as he did every day. He tried to come up

  with a way to deal with this new revelation about what the kobolds

  could do.

  Double-jumping must be some sort of

  innate Skill or Talent that kobolds have. I suppose I should have

  expected monsters to have some magical powers but that still took me off

  guard. That damn hunter went on a whole rant about how annoying kobolds

  are and not once did he mention actual double-jumps! That feels like a

  pretty important thing to mention.

  There’s no way that they can do it

  endlessly, that would basically mean they could fly, after all. The big

  question is, how many times can they jump? So far I’ve only really seen

  one extra jump, hopefully that’s the limit. If it is, then I might stand

  a chance. If not, then this might take longer than I’d like.

  Sebastian continued his routine of cultivating and

  planning during the day, as well as help out around the farm when

  needed. When nighttime came around again, he began his patrol as usual,

  and it didn’t take long for the kobolds to make their return.

  With every passing night, however, it was as though the

  kobolds were less and less interested in raiding the farm and instead

  they seemed to simply enjoy annoying him. Like he was something new, a

  fresh toy to play with.

  He gladly accepted the challenge.

  The first few minutes of the fight—if it

  could be called that—played out the same as before, but Sebastian

  gradually implemented his new ideas.

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  With each swing, his grasp of their movements increased.

  Forcing them to double-jump was getting easier and easier, and he knew

  it was time.

  After a few setup swings, he found his window. Sebastian

  swung to the left of the kobold, forcing it to jump to his right. He

  followed up with a horizontal swing. This time he aimed for the very tip

  of his sword to swipe the kobold’s top layer of skin on its torso.

  He had learned that if he swung with full force at the

  kobold it might go in any which way. Sometimes it would jump upward,

  other times it would jump farther to the side, and other times still it

  would simply duck down on the ground. By striking with the tip of his

  sword he made the monster double-jump straight back.

  A grin formed on Sebastian face at the sight of the object of his fury acting according to his plan.

  He quickly took a step forward, stomping the ground with

  his left leg before pushing with his right foot with all the

  supernatural strength he had. He launched a thrust aimed at the kobold’s

  face.

  Its mocking smile—which had been ever-present on each and

  every one of them since he arrived at the farm—vanished as it realized

  it had been caught. It tried to flail its arms in a futile effort to

  move through the air, but Sebastian’s guess proved true, it could only

  double-jump once.

  Squelch

  The sword pierced its head clean through and it hung

  there for a moment as Sebastian stood still with his sword extended in

  shock. A part of him expected the limp kobold to be some sort of

  afterimage and in reality it actually escaped, just like it had every

  time before this.

  He blinked a few times but the kobold was still there,

  hanging lifelessly from his sword. He used his foot to pull out his

  sword and felt a sense of accomplishment that surpassed any he had felt

  with the goblins.

  Level 8 kobold killed

  Essence drops gained: 0.3

  Sebastian felt a small surge of energy along with the alert.

  Oh, the [System] gives me Essence drops directly now? That’s helpful!

  Kobolds may not be much different from goblins in terms

  of strength, but they were far more difficult to deal with due to their

  speed and innate Skill. Fortunately, there were no other attempts made

  by the other kobolds that night.

  He finished his patrol and once the sun was up he found Declan.

  Sebastian walked up and threw the dead kobold on the ground.

  “I finally got one!”

  “Well, I’ll be damned. You actually did it! Let’s hope that teaches the rest of ‘em not to show up ‘round here.”

  “Yeah…” Sebastian’s face froze and his excitement melted

  away. “That reminds me—I talked to a hunter in town. He mentioned that

  kobolds tend not to take the killing of their kind all too well. They’ll

  probably try to avenge him tonight.” He tried to project an air of

  confidence, so as to not worry Declan—and to hide his own concern. “But

  don’t worry, I got a good feel for how to catch them now, so I’ll be

  ready.”

  Declan placed his hand on Sebastian’s shoulder. “I hope

  so. At this point, you’re all that stands in the way of us losing this

  farm. You’ve done a good job so far, so if you say you have a plan, I’ll

  trust you.”

  Sebastian had been plagued with a lack of care for most

  of his life. Nothing ever really mattered to him so long as he was

  comfortable. Declan’s eyes, staring into his own with a sincere plea and

  genuine trust, caused something new to well up in Sebastian. For the

  first time, in a very long time, he found himself truly caring for

  something.

  He returned to his cottage and reenacted his experience

  of finally catching a kobold in his mind. He looked over every detail of

  the fight in his memories. With his current cultivation, it was like he

  was replaying a movie in his head. Every action and reaction was

  studied and he tried to analyze what he could have done differently, how

  he could have done better.

  When the time grew near, he grabbed a few hours of sleep in preparation for the night.

  If the hunter was right, there would be more kobolds

  coming, and he had to be ready. Declan told him that he trusted

  Sebastian with the survival of the farm, but Sebastian could see the

  worry in his eyes and hear it in his voice. There was no way he was

  going to let these kobolds get the better of him and ruin this farm.

  As soon as the sun touched the horizon, Sebastian kept watch.

  Hopefully the hunter had been exaggerating, but he

  couldn’t take that chance. The quiet of night hadn’t quite set in yet,

  there were still various sounds that had yet to settle. Sebastian

  filtered them all out, his attention was entirely focused on noticing

  any sign of kobolds.

  He was right to be prepared earlier than usual.

  Hours earlier than any raid in the past week, his senses

  picked up the signs Sebastian had come to associate with the vile

  creatures.

  Two kobolds walked toward the farm.

  Usually they would scurry.

  They would run directly for their target, get what they want, and then run off.

  To see them march with purpose was a first.

  They had seemed more interested in playing with him

  before but now it was less play, more challenge. It wasn’t always easy

  to interpret the facial expressions of the bipedal rodents, but

  Sebastian could see it in their eyes that they weren’t there to raid the

  farm, they were there to challenge the predator who killed their

  friend.

  A smile made its way onto Sebastian’s face.

  If they wanted to challenge him, avenge their fallen

  comrade, they should have sent more than two. He wasn’t about complain.

  Killing two kobolds would be a great deal easier than killing a horde of

  them, after all.

  Sebastian didn’t give them a chance to try anything, he jumped in swinging.

  As always, the kobolds dodged, but this time they were

  far more aggressive. Every dodge was followed up with an attack. And

  with two of them—especially given their speed—they launched a flurry of

  attacks with their knives.

  Most of them failed to properly pierce Sebastian’s skin, however.

  While a few cuts drew blood, most of them left nothing

  but scratches. They didn’t hurt too much or cause any real damage, but

  they did serve as excellent distractions. Whenever he tried to catch one

  of them, the other would give the equivalent of a paper cut, making him

  fail at his attempts to herd them into a trap.

  The kobolds did accomplish one other thing with their continued attacks, they made Sebastian increasingly angry.

  At first it was just annoying, but he still had a plan, so he tried not to let it bother him too much.

  Gradually, his frustration made him miss more and more attacks. Each swing was wider and sloppier than the last.

  Finally, as the small paper cuts accumulated, that frustration grew into a rage.

  He stopped caring.

  Nothing mattered more than killing these rodents. The

  anger suppressed the pain, it was no longer something he had to actively

  try to ignore. The pestering of one of them dulled in the background as

  he went after the other with all he had. His attacks became more

  focused, more accurate, without feeling the distraction of the small

  cuts that were accumulating on his back.

  It took a few rounds but finally he took control of his

  target. His senses honed in on the kobold, and he gained an newfound

  grasp of their movements. Everything he had tried before and everything

  he had revised in his head came to fruition.

  A stab made it dodge to the left, a vertical slash forced

  to double-jump back to the left. He followed with his blade and cut it

  clean in half.

  As the two halves of the first kobold flopped to the

  ground, the other one immediately turned to run away. Its attempt to

  flee failed as it met with the flat of a sword, and in its shock it was

  forced to double jump up and back. Sebastian spun around and cut the

  second one in half before it even had a chance to begin its descent

  toward the ground.

  Level 9 kobold killed x2

  Essence drops gained: 0.7

  Sebastian stood there and focused on circulating his

  essence to aid in healing the cuts all over him. They wouldn’t fully

  heal before the night was over but he could alleviate the itch at least.

  He didn’t want the distraction, more kobolds were sure to come.