Overchaos Chapter 3: First Fight (Patreon)

~Ludo~

I looked at my first ticket with pride. Finally, I'd have my own ability to use and experiment with. Samson was nice but I couldn't depend on him forever. So with a quick prayer to RNGesus, I rolled my first ticket in the new world.

Rolling Gold Ability Gacha...

A Rare Ability!

[Prophetic Compass]

|Rarity: Rare|

Allows you to conjure a phantasmal compass in your hands that points towards your target, as long as you are aware of the target you are looking for and have something related to it on your body, you can use the compass to track it down.

Oh, this sounds like it will work excellently as an adventurer, but its biggest advantage works in my hands specifically, other than being an incredibly powerful scrying spell.

It will allow me to use my Meta Knowledge to its utmost.

You see, even if I know when and how things happen, I don't know where they happen. At least not precisely. But with this, I can put so many things in motion.

Sure, it's not a combat ability but I already Samson who can carry me until I'd say... level 25? Maybe more, I don't think he can kill those angels Gazef killed, but he can definitely slice up the average knight without problem. Which puts me at a pretty decent tier by New World standards.

Anyhow, I should be grinding quests. Preferably fetch quests with lots of money or ones where I have to fight things.

I walked over to the quest board and started scanning for copper rank quests. They were pretty mundane tasks. Hunt rabbits, clear out the large rats in my basement, hunt goblins, bring back herbs...

Hmm, I can do hunting goblins, it seems like the hardest one, and thus would allow me to rank up the fastest. I also decided to pick up an herb collecting quest near the goblin camp, which they wanted me to wipe out.

Grabbing the two quests off the board I walked over and handed them to the guild receptionist who looked conflicted.

"While I cannot force you to, I strongly urge you to reconsider. Wiping out a goblin camp is simply too much for a new Copper rank. Please join a party at the very least."

Rather than being irritated, I was actually kinda touched by her consideration. It was nice to know the guild employees did not want me to die. Still, I had to insist.

"Thank you for your consideration, but I'm confident I can handle it. Please mark it."

The guild receptionist frowned, and I could feel some gazes on me, seeing that I wasn't going to reconsider my decision, she sighed and marked the papers.

"...Alright, if you do not return the quest in a week we will assume you are dead and make a quest to fetch your dead body."

I nodded.

"Sounds good to me. Thanks lady."

The lady sighed and returned the quest papers while I heard snickers coming from around me.

"The ol' newbie trap. Dumbass is going to get himself killed." "Look at the little man, doesn't look like he swung a sword in his life." "Should I take the mission to recover his corpse?" "Just another overconfident newbie."

Of course, I ignored the barely disguised sneers and laughs directed at me. They weren't wrong per se. If it were almost any other newbie they would get absolutely slaughtered by goblins for going in with such blind confidence. So I did not blame them for thinking such, though I did blame them for being assholes and choosing to talk behind my back instead of approaching me.

But unlike other newbies, I have a parasite in my skull that can turn my hair into weapons.

With the quest papers in my hands, I read their locations, both of which were around Carne Village, which was good? I don't know what benefit I would get from there specifically, but it was better than going to a random village. It would at least let me get a sample from the village to be able to use the Prophecy Compass with to be able to find it later.

Speaking of prophecy compass, once I received the quest, I went home to retrieve a bag before catching a carriage to Carne Village, only costing 10 copper for an overnight trip.

I had wanted to test running with Samson helping me, but I decided otherwise. I didn't want to reveal any cards to anyone who could potentially see me until I had a better backbone. But I did have Samson manifest while I was in the carriage and watch out for any sign of mischief or ambush.

The way I hid Samson? Simple, I wore a hat that Samson occasionally peeked out of. Simple solutions. I could do the same inside the city, but did not want anyone who could sense presences noticing him.

Sleeping in the carriage was annoying, but I was used to sleeping uncomfortably by now, so it was not a dealbreaker.

When the morning of tomorrow came about around 9 AM-ish, I got out of the carriage and walked over to the village close by.

Carne Village was a small village, roughly 30-ish as far as I could see, with a majority of the land being farms. I thought about just using Compass on the quest paper, but then I got the idea of using the action of asking around to get acquainted with the locals.

And I immediately found the person I was looking for, a blonde girl with orangish brown eyes and with a pleasing figure as she bent over to tend to her crops.

"Hey Samson, what are the chances I don't mess up when talking to her?"

My hat rumbled in barely restrained laughter.

"Whelp kid! Seems like talking to women's gonna be a bigger hurdle for you than fighting demons!"

I hissed, but Samson's taunt also allowed me to lose my nerves. I did not know if that was his goal or not, but it helped.

Adjusting my hat, I approached the farm girl, clearing my throat to gain her attention. She got up and turned to me with an honest but tired smile.

"Oh, hello! You're new here. What brings you to Carne Village sir?"

"Hello miss. I'm an adventurer who took a request by the lord of the land to clear some goblins around these parts. Any idea where they could be?"

Enri brightened up as I flashed her my copper plate.

"Oh, thank the gods for that, the local wild goblins have been stealing from our farms lately. They have been such a nuisance. I'm glad someone is finally taking care of them. They are in the shallow woods west of the village, not north; that's the great forest."

"I see, thank you for telling me, miss. Though it feels rude to refer to a pretty lady as only Miss. Mind telling me your name?"

'Smooth moves kid, you tryna compete with sandpaper?'

Shut up Samson.

At least someone seemed to appreciate my attempt as Enri blushed and played with her hair.

"R-really? Thanks, my name is Enri Emott. What is yours Mr. Adventurer?"

"The names' Ludo. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Enri. Now, let me quickly go and handle that goblin problem for you all. Can't ignore a maiden in need."

Enri put a hand on her hips but smiled.

"Alright, thanks for your efforts, Ludo."

I left Enri behind with a wave as I moved over to the sparse woods she pointed to. Once I was far away enough, I pulled off the hat as Samon unfurlled fully and gave me sharp hair like Filia's while in preparation while I pulled out the goblin quest in my hands.

'Prophetic Compass'

An ethereal compass manifested above my hand and started spinning wildly until it settled to point at a specific location. The location of the goblins.

So I can use Quest papers with Compass to create essentially objective markers, good to know.

I walked in the direction the compass pointed me to for around 7 minutes before finding what I was looking for. Smoke, I slowed down my pace and peered through the trees to see several goblins around a campfire, wearing rudimentary patched leather armour or loincloths. There were several tents. If I had to guess, there were at least a dozen goblins, if not more. Some of them with weapons that could seriously hurt me.

"Don't worry kid, with me here those little chumps can't do anything. So take the opportunity to get a 'hang of the controls'. Live experience is best. I'm here if anything goes wrong."

Samson was right, this was an opportunity to learn how to fight against opponents Samson could thrash in his sleep. I used my own 'inputs' to make my hair curl into a fist next to me as I smiled.

Getting into a fight sounded fun, and so did getting the hang of my abilities.

"Alright then, let's go Samson!"

"Hell yeah!"

My shouting drew the goblins' attention as I charged out of the bushes.

"Intruder! Intruder!" "Kiek!" "Kill him!"

Two goblins clad in leather armour charged me, but my legs were longer, so I reached them first. Hair curling into a drill around my hand that I jabbed forward, ripping through the armour and chest of the first goblin as the drill extended and spun under my command, killing them effortlessly.

I changed my footing to stabilise myself before another length of hair formed into a razor under my command and swept towards the other goblin, bisecting it.

"M-monsterrr!"

Not minding the voices, I bounded forwards, two tendrils of hair stretched and grabbed two goblins by the ankles, dragging them towards me before another two bunches of hair transformed into blades and cut off their heads.

Throwing the bodies aside, I felt Samson swat an arrow away from the corner of my eyes, irritating me. If Samson were not providing assistance, that could have hit me. But that was what he was here for anyway. In anger, I sent a spike of hair that ripped through the air and pierced the goblin's forehead. I then dragged and threw that body toward his compatriots.

As they were stunned by the thrown body, I got to approach them and got more creative as the hair formed a spiked club, smashed down the first goblin and slammed the other two against a tree before the spikes of the club jutted out and pierced their bodies.

"Gyaaah!"

The last goblin remaining in camp just ran towards me, knife raised, but it did not last long before my hair swept and ripped the head off of his shoulders.

Seeing all of the enemies dead, I relaxed and took laboured breaths from the intensity of the adrenaline I had felt. While I took the time to recuperate, Samson took a moment to speak.

"You did good for your first time. Only had to save your butt once. You're a natural."

"Don't know what to think about being a natural murderer, but considering my circumstances, I'll take it."

For my first expedition, this was quite good.

Feat Achieved! Clear a Goblin by yourself without taking damage

+1x Silver Ability Gacha Ticket

A/N: And Ludo sets off on his first adventure! Quest is a really reliable way of getting tickets and building up his powers before Nazarick arrives. And this mostly shows his power level for now. He is decisively stronger than anyone below 29, but can't match anyone at level 29 and above, such as Gazef.

Ludo is properly adventuring and gaining abilities, and we meet our first heroine, Enri. Is it obvious Ludo is not experienced with women? Because he isn't. Still, I hope you guys liked that little introduction scene with her. Next chapter will have some more interactions between them so look forward to that tomorrow!