Right as Ashton stared at them, the monsters stared back at him in turn.

  Though goblins were quite common in the initial tutorial phases, there were of course many more 'tutorial' grade creatures that were going to appear over the course of the next 12 hours. In here was a mixture of three different monsters. Three Goblins, seven kobolds, and two ratmen.

  Kobolds were tiny, bipedal lizard-folk that came in various forms and subspecies. These ones were a red hue and had rough, spiky scales, though they were barely more than a foot tall. That didn't mean they could be underestimated though. Kobolds excelled in cooperation and trickery, so the more of them were together, the more powerful they were. The seven kobolds could most definitely kill the three goblins with quite some ease if it came down to it.

  As for the ratmen, they were pretty tough bipedal rats, in size being just slightly taller than a goblin. They had thick hunched backs and dangerous claws and fangs that couldn't be underestimated, tending to act a lot more feral and animalistic than even goblins, who were already famous for how wild they were.

  That being the case, this wasn't anything Ashton couldn't handle. A straightforward fight where he could get surrounded was pretty tough, but that was not what he was dealing with here.

  He started spinning around the broomstick, building up some momentum as the first of the goblins ran at him. The kobolds, cowardly as they were, started scuttering around, climbing on top of the rows of shelves, while the ratmen seemed more concerned with eating the food being kept warm at the edge of the counter.

  As the trio of goblins approached, Ashton swung the tip of the broomstick at the frontmost goblin's chin. The space was tight enough that they couldn't walk right next to each other. Though, since the broomstick was so much lighter than the metal bar, his attacks didn't do nearly as much damage, but with the right level of precision, Ashton could make up for that.

  He hit the goblin’s chin perfectly and its head twisted to the side. You could practically hear its brain rattling inside its head as it momentarily fell to the ground, losing consciousness. It would get up soon, but for now, it would be easier to take care of the other two goblins.

  To not lose his momentum, Ashton twisted the broomstick around to hit the side of the second goblin’s head, knocking them both together. By then, one of the ratmen already came running at him. The other was still staying behind, feeding on some of the food on the counter. It jumped over the three collapsed goblins and stretched out its claws. Ashton had stopped spinning the broomstick and held forward one end - it was the end that he broke the broom head off at, so the wood was sharp and splintered. While it wasn’t sharp enough to cut something, it was enough to dig into the weakened tutorial monster’s hide right at its neck.

  The monster’s breath stank and nearly made Ashton’s nose hairs fall out. Though it dug its claws into Ashton’s arms, scratching them up, ratmen mostly attacked with their fangs. But this one’s face was pushed away through the broomstick, so he could hold out for at least a moment.

  It snarled, showing its teeth and growled loudly. So loud that Ashton almost couldn’t hear the kobolds giving signals to each other. Using the cover of the ratman that blocked his sight, they were gathering together on the nearby shelves or on the ground.

  “Haah… You think I was born yesterday?” Ashton ducked down and leaned forward. His shirt and backpack slipped off his back toward his head, and as he pushed the broomstick forward, he forced the ratman away. Basically, he stripped himself in the process, but was able to jump forward together with the ratman and pull his own shirt over its face, blocking its sight. A moment later, Ashton hooked his backpack with the stick and threw it at the two kobolds standing in front of him with some kind of chain - it seemed to be a bike lock - planning on tripping Ashton up. The bag caught the chain and pulled the tiny monsters away. By now, the goblins he had knocked together were up and at it again, though the other one was still trying to regain consciousness.

  However, the blinded ratman was between him and them, and it also just got up. Ashton kicked it into the back while it was trying to free itself. It was thrown into the two goblins, and not knowing what was going on, just attacked these two creatures.

  This was a good chance for Ashton to rid itself of the other ratman already. The kobolds were too cowardly to try anything straightforward, so as long as he roughly knew where they were, they were at a low priority. The monster, with its mouth full of food, was sitting on top of the counter. It screamed loudly, throwing chunks of said food around all over the place. While it screamed, Ashton stabbed the staff forward into its mouth, or rather, into the mixed mush of food.

  The ratman bit down on the stick, and Ashton immediately pushed the other end down and rushed toward the counter. Using the edge of the counter to create leverage, he pulled the ratman over his head and onto the ground, moving the staff along so that he could add onto the natural momentum of the ratman’s fall and slam its head harder into the ground. But he didn’t just slam the head down, but basically stabbed through the back of the ratman’s throat.

  [You have killed a [Ratman]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 12 Coins]

  With its death confirmed, Ashton focused on the other monsters. The two kobolds with the chain were tangled up, and one of them was trapped under the backpack. Ashton grabbed the chain with the end of the staff and pulled it up, with one of the kobolds still holding onto it.

  “Sorry,” Ashton said, as he slammed the kobold onto the ground, and it was quickly crushed under the weight of the falling chain.

  [You have killed a [Kobold]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 3 Coins]

  As Ashton looked over at the message, he almost fell victim to another attempted sneak attack by a kobold. The one from under the backpack was freed when Ashton pulled up the chain without him noticing, so it tried to attack his ankles with its sharp claws, but he noticed it approach beforehand and simply stomped down onto it.

  Kobolds were pests. Smart pests, but pests. They could probably be killed with almost any trap meant for rats, so a simple stomp was as effective as it was disgusting. While the second kobold died, Ashton turned around toward the ratman and three kobolds. The ratman still had the shirt trapped over its eyes, but its mouth had been freed as it bit down on one of the goblins’ throats. It died, and Ashton got a message about it. As he was the only one that could be considered an opponent around here, the kill was attributed to him.

  However, at the end, the flailing goblin pulled the ripped shirt away from the ratman’s eyes, and it calmed down, realising what was going on. Instead of fighting the other goblins further, the monster ran right at Ashton.

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  And to dodge out of the way, Ashton ran right into one of the narrow aisles. The ratman followed behind, and Ashton tried to figure out how to best improvise, but the kobolds had already positioned themselves in here to try and mess Ashton up. One of them was hiding, albeit quite badly, behind a pickle jar, which it swiftly pushed off the shelf in an attempt to stop him.

  But, even if his body wasn’t quite what he was used to, when it came to precision and skilled handling, his skills dulled a little less. Sure, it was hard for his body to keep up, but for tutorial monsters? He could handle anything they threw at him. Quite literally. He sprinted forward momentarily, and turned around, using the broomstick to catch the jar in the air and push it back at the ratman. It was already mid-lunge, its mouth wide open - becoming the perfect receptacle for the pickle jar.

  He then hit the underside of the monster’s jaw, and the glass quickly shattered into pieces. The pickle brine forced shards of glass down the ratman’s throat, and though it choked and tried to spit it out, they had already embedded themselves in the inside of its mouth and throat. It retched and gagged, coughed and convulsed, but it didn’t stop. In its last moments, despite how disorganised and panicked it was, this oversized, mutated rodent still tried to attack Ashton.

  It spat out blood, right onto Ashton’s exposed upper body, as he slammed his staff into the side of its head. Basically the instant that Ashton was out of sight, it just began to convulse and practically scrape out the glass shards with its claws. It continued bleeding out, and wouldn’t be able to do much anymore. So… Ashton focused on the kobold that tried to throw the jar at him. It was still hiding out behind the other pickle jars, so Ashton could just smash the broomstick against them and shatter the glass, squishing the kobold behind them. The next time he had a proper view of it, its body was also littered with glass shards, and it soon passed from its injuries.

  By the time it was dead, the two goblins, injured by the ratman’s indiscriminate attacks before, entered the aisles. The ground was covered in shards of glass and pickle brine, so the moment that they stepped into the one, they jumped back in pain, holding their feet. But Ashton just walked through to them, striking one into the pit of the stomach and the other into the side of its neck. Ashton swept their feet away, stomping onto the back of one of their heads, killing one, while the other was stabbed through the throat with the broomstick’s sharp end.

  With this, only kobolds were left. They were hiding out, preparing for the next attack. There were four of them still, as far as Ashton had seen before. And just as he wondered where they were, the shelf right next to Ashton began to tip over onto him. All the jars and cans fell onto the ground, breaking or denting, and Ashton had to hurry to get out of the way before getting hit.

  But as he ran out of the aisle in a rush, he spotted the chains from before at just the last moment. They still had the other kobold’s blood stuck on it. He tried to jump over, but his right foot got stuck at the last moment. Ashton tripped forward, but pushed the broomstick into the ground to hold himself up. But by then, two of the kobolds were already climbing up his leg. They were stabbing their claws into his skin through his trousers, and then once they got to his torso, clawed at his back and belly.

  Ashton grabbed one of them, but it bit his finger. He smashed the kobold onto the ground, injuring it, but not killing it. The other one was scuttering around his upper body, and no matter what, Ashton couldn’t catch it. By then, the other two kobolds that had knocked over the shelf were running at him as well, jumping from the adjacent shelf over at him. One aimed straight for his face, but the other one seemed to go for Ashton’s chest.

  The one going for his face was quickly smashed away with the broomstick, thrown across the store and behind the counter. As for the ones on Ashton’s upper body, he used his staff to scrape across his back to all the spots he couldn’t reach and forced them to the front where he did finally grab onto both. Just like the other one, Ashton smashed them onto the ground and stomped down on their small, fragile bodies. By then, the other one had also passed, and just a single kobold was left.

  The one behind the counter. Ashton stretched lightly - the wounds were shallow, but they still hurt. He looked over at the register, spotting the tiny monster tearing open a small pack of mustard in an attempt to squeeze it at Ashton’s eyes. But… the mustard plopped onto the ground, as Ashton stabbed down the sharp end of his staff.

  As if the universe was telling him something, the broomstick finally broke with this, cracking into two pieces. But beside that, all the kobolds were dead. Now, Ashton just had to finish off the ratman. It was half underneath the tipped-over shelf, barely breathing. He quickly stabbed its neck with a sharp part of the splintered staff, and finally finished this battle.

  Covered in blood, though most wasn’t his own, cuts scattered across his skin, and his clothes torn up, Ashton took a deep breather. Fighting in such a small space wasn’t exactly the smartest, but it was good for a few reasons. One, he could clear this place out so that he was able to grab what he needed, and two, he knew exactly the limits of his current strength.

  He was absolutely worthless right now. Just a dozen of the weakest possible monsters were so difficult? That was an embarrassment.

  But at least, something interesting came out of it.

  [Congratulations! You have fulfilled the requirements of acquiring the [Seasoned Staff Fighter] Class!]

  [Slay 30 Monsters with a [Staff] type weapon]

  [Show a certain level of expertise fighting with a [Staff] type weapon]

  [Do you wish to acquire the [Seasoned Staff Fighter] Class? [Yes]|[No]]

  "..." Ashton silently stared at the system window. Frankly, it wasn't the worst class in the world. Starting out with a 'seasoned' class could give him a pretty good boost to begin with. He could get strong enough to lead a faction of other survivors without any sort of contention in the process, and if he worked hard enough, might even somehow get through the later bunch of quests.

  But what Ashton wanted... what he needed was absolute supremacy. And that was not something he could get as a Staff Fighter. So, he quickly selected the 'no' option on the system window.

  [Understood. You are free to select the [Seasoned Staff Fighter] class as long as all requirements stay fulfilled]

  Of course, for most classes, requirements that were once fulfilled would stay that way. But once he got his first class as a Summoner, the requirements for other classes would be boosted, so he wouldn't be able to get the Staff Fighter class anymore then.

  That being the case, it didn't matter much to him. For now, Ashton had a few things he had to do. He grabbed his backpack and took out one of his replacement shirts. His old one was in tatters. Using a bottle of water from the fridges, Ashton cleaned the blood off himself and out of his wounds, and quickly changed. Then, he took out his small kitchen knife and once again got to work. As he did, a few people seemed to have spotted the store, but they were chased away by monsters before coming even too close. That was the only good part about the early chaos of the tutorial.

  Though Ashton felt bad about it, this place wasn't actually as good a spot to hide out as one would think. Only one entrance that was completely visible from the road? Not just monsters, but other people would very happily try to break in and mess you up.

  Anyway, right now, Ashton continued to collect all the materials he needed from these monsters, collecting as many magic stones as he could get, though none were bigger than some rice grains, and even filled up a few more small water bottles with blood. Since he actually had the leisure to right now, Ashton decided to collect a few more things. Mostly fangs and claws from the ratmen and kobolds. With that now done, Ashton treated himself a bit, and grabbed himself a can of soda. It'd been so long since he had one of these. These probably wouldn't be easy to come by soon.

  As Ashton heard that nostalgic hissing of a can being opened, he couldn’t help but smile. The disgustingly sweet soda was one of the tastiest things he has had in years, too. He might grab a few more before heading out.

  Ashton stepped over the dead bodies here in the corner store and started looking through some of the merchandise. When parsing his memories of this place, he remembered that they always sold this weird 'Man Kit' stuff. Super cheap pocket knives, levelling sticks, and most importantly: compasses.

  With a bit of tinkering, Ashton could find the place where he could form his first summoning contract using one of those.