My Roleplay System-Chapter 219: Goatman

The room was dark, except for a soft blue hue from a holographic screen. The light from the screen shone unto the vague silhouette of a man sitting on an ornate chair.

One of his hands rested on top of a sphere embedded into the armrest of the chair, while the other supported his tilted head.

"Achoo!"

A soft sneeze echoed through the chamber as the man looked around in confusion.

"What the...?"

He had never gotten sick in his whole life, so for him to sneeze was truly unheard of.

Unable to figure out the cause for it, he continued to watch the shifting holographic interface above the table.

"Hmm, they seem to be making good progress."

The man nodded with a satisfied hum.

On the screen was Kate, effortlessly cutting down an early-stage rank two creature that had stumbled into her path.

"Tsk, still too easy for them, huh?"

The man stroked his chin, a thoughtful expression crossing his face.

"With her there, it’ll be too easy if I continued to send low level monsters. Maybe I should up the difficulty?"

As the thought crossed his mind, he saw that the group of students were quickly approaching the two-thirds benchmark. At this rate, they might finish the test in a few minutes without any real difficulty.

Just then, the light from the screen flickered, briefly revealing a glimpse of the figure’s facial features.

Despite his verbal complaints, there wasn’t any malice or even annoyance in his features. Instead, what was observable was a wide, cold, and calculating smirk.

"This won’t do," He hummed softly as he spoke, "It’s a bit earlier than originally planned, but let’s release the goats."

His steel blue eyes radiated with mischief as he poured mana into the glowing orb.

"Let’s see how you handle this, Kate."

****

Kate sighed after having cut down another Rank-Two beast. She sheathed her sword before turning to observe the other students. After having crossed the halfway point, the levels of the enemies had increased significantly.

Now, every battle had turned into a struggle, with the weakest enemy being a peak Rank-One.

Glancing over everyone, she noted that most of them were fine, except for a few minor injuries. Sylph was already flying from student to student, using her unique healing art to get them back in top condition. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

At this rate, they can resume their march in less than a minute.

In the meanwhile, the other squads had already switched out with theirs, creating a protective circle around the injured students.

"Hm?" Kate frowned, having sensed something off.

They were currently in the middle of a dense forest, with tall, dark trees looming over them. Their thick foliage cast shadows onto the earth beneath them with only the faintest trace of the red sky shining through.

Due to this, their surroundings were blanketed in a murky darkness, one that made it difficult to see past a few trees without moving closer.

Kate even tried using her mana to enhance her vision, but the effects were minimal, barely helping her see a few meters into the darkness.

"?"

Kate stared into the abyss-like darkness only to notice a strange peculiarity.

’Did it just...’

Kate strained her eyes to see if she was seeing correctly.

Just then, as her eyes landed on the void black abyss, she saw something that instantly sent her on high alert.

The ’darkness’, it had moved.

"STEP BACK!"

She bellowed a command almost instantly, but it was already too late.

Something shot out of the darkness in a blur of motion, slamming into one of the students guarding the perimeter.

BANG!

The student’s body flew through the air at an astonishing speed, the sound of something breaking echoing through the eerie forest.

Kate could barely register the student’s protective armor’s emergency shield breaking before his figure vanished in a flash of light.

The other students were too slow to register what had happened, barely noticing the notification that played from their wristwatches.

[Number of Students Eliminated: 1.]

[Number of Students Remaining: 109.]

After the message played, the remaining students snapped out of their daze as they almost immediately jumped back, raising their weapons in a guarded stance.

With all of them out of the way, Kate was finally able to lay eyes on the creature that had jumped out of the darkness.

Despite its seemingly nimble speed, it was quite large, standing at an intimidating 3 meters tall. Its fur was pitch black and swayed without wind, giving it an almost illusionary presence. It had the body of a man and the head of a goat, its slit-like vertical eyes moving independently from one another as they scanned the surroundings.

Kate felt her body tense the moment she saw the creature.

’At least peak rank-two.’

She calmly assessed the creature’s level despite her unease.

Just then, the creature’s rotating eyes finally snapped into place, locking onto Kate.

"...?"

The creature continued to stare at her, its massive form not moving an inch. Even its swaying fur had come to a still, transforming its shadowy figure into that of a statue.

"!"

Kate barely had time to react.

The first thing she felt was an overwhelming sense of danger as she raised her sword to her side.

BOOM!

A sound like an explosion echoed out.

The goatman’s figure practically materialized next to her, its elongated arms swinging through the air as its claw clashed with her blade.

Despite pouring most of her astral mana to enhance her defense, she was still forcefully knocked back more than ten meters, her feet leaving a long skid mark across the ground.

"Bahh!"

The goatman released a battle bleat as its figure vanished again, leaving behind an afterimage as it traversed the terrain with blinding speed.

"EVERYONE RUN!"

Kate didn’t hesitate to give the order, even as her blade clashed against the goatman’s claw in another exchange of blows.

Just from the first strike, she could already tell that she was inferior to it in terms of both speed and strength. Her chances of defeating it were slim, even with the help of the other students, so she decided to prioritize the mission first.

That’s right, even during the intense fight, she had still not forgotten that this was an exam, and their objective wasn’t to hunt any of the creatures in the forest, but to ’reach’ the castle.

Although the announcer’s introduction may have led some to believe they had to clear the way to the demon king’s castle, the actual objective they received was completely different.

[First Year’s Objective: Advance through the Great Demon Forest and arrive at the outer perimeter of The Demon King’s Castle.]

Not to fight, not to hunt, or even survive, but to simply arrive.

It was also then that Kate finally understood the true intentions of the demonic instructors after facing the creature.

If her guess wasn’t wrong, the creature before her wouldn’t be the only threatening existence they would encounter in this final stretch.

’Those damn demons!’

She cursed in her mind as she dodged another swing of the goatman’s claw before switching to parrying its kick that came almost immediately after. Even as she slid back from the impact, she didn’t stop moving as she stabbed her sword into the ground, using the momentum to shift places, barely dodging the sharp claws already waiting to intercept her.

The other students, seeing the level of the fight before them and also hearing the order, didn’t hesitate to change directions and sprint off towards the castle.

Despite their skills and experience, they were still only Martial Apprentices, and a battle of that caliber was not something they could interfere with. It was simply wiser to focus on the mission than try to help Kate.

This kind of rationality might seem incredibly cruel to some, but for the students, this was their everyday nature. After all, if they didn’t make a few sacrifices, how else could they survive Lake’s training?

Even Sylph and the other fairies followed Kate’s command, leaving her behind to defend for herself against the powerful goatman with almost no hesitation.

This wasn’t to say that they didn’t care about her life, but after they saw the first student get eliminated, everyone had already understood the mechanics of the exam.

Getting eliminated wasn’t equal to death. They had more or less figured this out after seeing the student’s body vanish into light.

They guessed that if they received a ’fatal injury’, they would be teleported out of the exam venue.

Knowing that Kate’s life wasn’t in any actual danger was all they needed to willingly leave.

Seeing the students making their escape, one of the goatman’s eyes rotated around, following their movements while its other remained fixed on Kate.

Kate saw this and immediately guessed the goatman’s intention and, almost as if to prove it, she saw the goatman try to leave their exchange to go after the others.

"No you don’t!"

Whoosh!

Kate’s astral-infused blade swung through the air, intercepting the goatman in its path as a loud explosion rang out.

BOOM!

A clean line was cut through the ground, as the goatman’s two vertical pupils focused back on her.

"Heh, where do you think you’re going? Your opponent is me."

Despite being left behind, Kate showed no remorse or fear. Standing before the goatman, she didn’t cower or run, but chose to face it, the astral mana flaring up around her, creating the illusion of a sea of stars manifesting in the deep darkness of the forest.

Her eyes turned violet under the influx of mana, as she lowered her body to the ground and raised her sword, the tip of the blade pointing at the goatman’s head.

"BAAAH!"

The goatman released another mighty bleat, its figure vanishing from its spot.

Almost at the same time, Kate’s figure blurred as the sounds of fighting and explosions began to echo through the forest.