Letta watched Denise boil the water using a spellrod. It was a cumbersome process, a fire would burn by itself, but a spellrod required the user to keep a hold of it and fill it with mana. So the woman sat on her place in front of the pot waiting for the potatoes to stew.

"Are you already getting hungry, deary?" The woman said.

"Hhmm." Letta responded. She was in one of her foul moods.

She would get in a foul mood when she caught herself having fun. She had absolutely no reason to be happy, not when her father and brother were dead, and her mother was being kept by goblins. The problem was that sometimes she would forget.

Just moments before Cobaline, the girl her age, had convinced her to help her feed the animals.

The way Cobaline did it it was like a game of make-believe, where the animals were characters, some were being too greedy, some were not being treated fairly, and so on. When one big had acted silly and fallen over trying to eat the food before it came out of the bag Letta had laughed out loud. Laughing when you should be mourning was strictly forbidden, so she had immediately left and was now pouting in front of the pan.

"Say, Letta, would you be a dear and hand me that cup of spice over there?" Cobaline's mother asked her. She groaned and grabbed the ingredient. It wasn't Denise's fault, of course. But it offended Letta that people would just go on with their life like this. That the world would keep turning when hers had been destroyed.

"I spoke with our leader today." Denise said matter-of-factly. "She said there might be a way to save your mother."

Letta almost dropped the spice. "She said that? What did she say?"

Denise looked a bit guilty. "She said there might be. Uhm, the goblins might tell us where they took her, in exchange for one or the other... Next month."

"Next month?" Letta handed over the ingredient, careful to be polite. "They'll make us wait a month?"

"If we can find something to give in exchange..."

"Anything. I-I don't have anything, but please-"

"I'm sure that Lydia will pay anything to help your family deary, if you've been a good kid."

"I will. I'll be good."

After that, Letta forgot to be sad for a while again.

The goblins stopped making fire the days after the first attack, to not show their location.

It worked the first day, the only adventurer they found had had his head bashed in by a log on a rope, a trap devised by Fat.

However, as the days went on the amount of adventurers exploring the surroundings went up. Inevitably, some wandered into the family's territory.

-

Scratch was napping in the foyer after being up the previous night, when a sharp whistle sound came from outside.

As he pulled himself up Second and Digger were already running through the entrance towards the danger.

Spears had been lined up against the wall outside, so they could be quickly grabbed on one's way to the perimeter.

Coming outside he saw Abel, Dumb and George on the tower. They had sounded the alarm after having seen a trio of humans invade the space.

Behind him, Fyro rushed towards the commotion with a spear in his unwounded hand.

"No, Fyro, you're injured." He said, pulling the younger goblin back.

"I've been practicing, I can fight with the other hand!"

"You'll get in our way, stay back."

Fyro groaned as he let Kicker take his spear for himself.

-

Just as before a horde of armed goblins swarmed around the humans as they fended off the thrown pebbles from the tower's sling users.

One was a large man wielding a metal kite shield, putting his body between his two comrades and the projectiles. The others were another bow user and a seemingly unarmed robed woman.

They couldn't haven chosen a more tactical place to climb over the perimeter, the newly constructed longbow shooter and the defenses on the platform all pointed forwards, away from the little town, while the adventurers came from its right and had free aim on the tower guards.

By standing shoulder to shoulder the goblins could defend each other in their efforts to attack, in phalanx formation of sorts. Their spears gave them much needed reach, which they eagerly used to rain down continuous stabs on their enemy, before they could get a good bearing of their surroundings.

"It's a stronghold!" Shouted the archer, while nocking and firing an arrow at the tower. Abel jumped in front of George to catch the projectile on his new shield. The impact threw him to the floor, but both were unharmed.

"Goblins usually infest abandoned villages." The armored man grunted, swinging his shield to deflect the various spears closing in on the trio. He held a mace in his other hand, but didn't have the reach to hit his attackers with it without walking into their weapons.

When he had his shield towards the tower, Biter, who had circled around the invaders and climbed on a perimeter log, released a bolt from the repaired crossbow.

"Watch out!" The third human yelled as it flew towards the neck of the shield bearer.

"Argh!" He screamed as the straight bolt pierced the muscles in his broad neck.

"Timothy!" The archer expressed concern as he fired an arrow back at biter, who had ducked behind the log at the moment he had shot the bolt, as he had been taught. It dug itself into the wood, inches away from his hand.

Timothy, as he was called, dropped his mace and sunk to his knees, but kept a vice grip on his shield, behind which he knelt.

Digger dropped his spear and pulled himself over the shield to attack the man with a kitchen knife. The others were thrusting their weapons towards the other humans, to drive them away from their friend.

Scratch was too focused on keeping the ranged fighter on the defensive to look over his shoulder, but Laugh helped Digger hack into the man in his moment of weakness and it sounded like they had successfully killed him.

"F-fuck." The archer knocked an arrow and pointed his bow towards Second, who was directly in front of him. But he didn't manage to fire a close range shot as the spear threw the bow out of his hands. "Nat. Do something!"

"R-right." The woman put her hands together in a prayer-like gesture and chanted some sort of verse.

"Wait. Everybody, stand ba-" Scratch couldn't finish his sentence as a sudden flash of white light burst out from the female human, blinding them with a painful intensity.

-

"Who said that?" The archer's voice sounded, just as a crunching sound came from behind the goblins.

When Scratch regained his vision he realized he hadn't retreated to make space between himself and the invaders, as would have been wise in their compromised position. "Damn it." He whispered, holding up the spear defensively and jumping backwards as a dagger from the archer's belt slashed the air where his face had just been.

He turned to run but almost immediately ran into the body of 'Timothy', who was standing up straight with no noticeable wounds. Blood stained the head of his mace.

In their single minded pursuit of the enemy the frontmost goblins, Scratch, Second and Kicker had separated from the safety of the phalanx. Now the goblins were now caught in between two halves of the human party.

He was stunned. Like in a nightmare the body he was disposing of had simply stood up and walked away.

The murderer sat down on the dusty attic floor. In front of him was an unrolled canvas that had previously contained an assassinated journalist. He put his free hand to his forehead, the other already had his personal weapon in it, resting heavily in his palm.

He never thought of himself as an assassin, normally he would rely on others to do the killing for him. But he could no longer rely on the old organization. Paradoxically, rising in position had landed him with more dirty work.

No. I'm becoming irrational. The body must have been moved by somebody else. But who? And what are they trying to do?

He stood up, slowly. How far could they have gotten? Dragging around a whole body is a big undertaking. Unless it was a team of paramedics. He hadn't noticed any commotion or evidence of large groups passing through the abandoned building. Perhaps that was intentional, perhaps they had intended lie in wait for the perpetrator to come back.

He instinctively touched his face. The ski mask still obscured his facial features, the car outside couldn't be traced back to him. He had to make a retreat, perhaps through the window rather than the door.

-

Slowly he sneaked down the stairs, both hands firmly gripping the weapon.

No police unit was there to ambush and restrain him. If this was a set up, it was a very strange one.

Just as he wanted to climb out of the second floor window he finally noticed evidence of another presence beside himself in the house. Brief flashes of light would come from behind the door of one of the empty rooms. Faintly, he could hear a voice.

"Benesant's Light." A young woman's voice cracked as another burst of light emitted.

He pressed his back against the wall and cautiously glanced around the corner, the wool of the ski mask obscuring his vision ever so slightly.

On an unsheeted mattress sat the woman he had killed, visibly breathing and alive, holding her arm out in amazement for a short white haired woman with her back towards him. He almost let out a gasp as he saw the wounds from their struggle closing, healing, and disappearing all together.

This was the third time he had seen a miraculous occurrence interfering with his business.

-

"How are you doing this?" The reporter asked the miracle worker.

"In the world I come from, this sort of thing is very common." The other answered. "What happened?"

"I don't know. I got ambushed in the street, somebody threw a bag over my head. I... was in the trunk of a moving car for a while. And in the end..." she touched her forehead. "They shot me."

He could remember very well putting a bullet in her head, she had gotten to close to the trail of his bank fraud. He had needed her dead to make the problem go away, but with the matter being related to his betrayal of the previous don, he couldn't have anybody else than himself and his closely trusted partner take care of it.

"Where are we now?" The reporter asked the healer.

"A long way away from the city, I had to commune with my goddess to find you. We should probably leave before the killers come back."

"Can't you use your magic on them?"

"Honey, I had to bring you back from the dead. Most of my magic is spent for the time being."

Only most of it, eh? He backed away. He didn't feel comfortable challenging the anti-christ, or the anti-christs, as there seemed to be multiple. He swiftly but silently ran out of the building, back to the city. If he wanted to take on these freaks, he would need some backup.

With renewed strength the shield bearer swung his mace at Second, hitting him squarely on the shoulder and throwing him to the ground.

"Ah, fuck. Fuck." Scratch started cursing. He put his foot on the short bow that was laying on the ground, stopping the archer from getting it. The human was about to swing at him with his long knife again, but was thrown off balance by three different attacks, Kicker's spear hit him in the side, another crossbow bolt from biter struck his back, and Scratch used the bottom of his spear to strike his ankle and make him fall to the ground.

They couldn't put down the enemy permanently, as Timothy ignored the pebbles flying at him and swung at them with his weapon they had to duck away.

Scratch just enough clearness of mind to see Second was alive on the ground, clutching his shoulder. The man hadn't paid any attention to him after the first strike, he was more concerned with saving his friend. Laugh on the other hand, had his skull bashed in to be unrecognizable. Digger lay on the ground next to him, breathing heavily and his arm bend in a way that shouldn't be possible.

As Timothy took in a position between his fallen friend and Biter the goblins from the tower came running. They had decided they wanted to be closer to the action, Abel charged forward with his shield in front of him, while Dumb and George lagged a few steps behind, readying their slings again.

"Benesant's Blessing!" The woman suddenly proclaimed, sparks of white light emanating from her hand and falling upon her fallen ally.

"Argh!" He gargled, the bolt forcing itself out of his body. "I almost died!"

"Kill the woman!" Yelled Second. "She's keeping them alive!"

Fat looked at Scratch, he was panting from exhaustion, but he nodded. He agreed to the plan.

Two pebbles flew towards the woman from Dumb and George, one hit her in the chest. "Ow!" She clutched the spot in pain and immediately started to heal herself.

"They're targeting Natalie." The newly recovered Archer said as he stood up and grabbed his bow. "Tim. Hold back the horde, I'll take care of the ones with the projectiles."

"Right." The larger man grunted, turning his shield towards the phalanx and backing away to the healer.

-

Biter just shot another bolt at the woman named Natalie when he got one in return from the human. It went through his hand and out the other side, making him drop the crossbow and drop to one knee, screaming loudly.

Almost in the same movement the men turned around to fire at the sling users, who had gotten a great deal closer. He aimed at those at the back of the group from over his friend's shoulder. But George saw the path the arrow would take just in time and dodged out of the way.

As the man clicked his tongue and knocked another arrow the spear wielding goblins fanned out to approach the shield bearer from different directions. He stood between them and his two allies, but it was becoming clear the shield was too heavy for him as he strained himself moving it around to block their attacks. However, the constant magic from the woman behind him kept the attacks that did hit from building up and slowing him down more.

The status quo was broken again when Abel finally closed the distance between the tower and the invaders. Screaming loudly he didn't slow down a bit once he had entered close range with the enemy, and rammed the edge of the shield against the defender's thigh. His weight being far less than his enemy's he only made him wince in pain and knock him back with his own shield. But Abel was undeterred, he deflected most of the impact of the bash and moved past the defender towards the archer in a fluid turning motion, inspired by Scratch's unarmed combat lessons.

When the archer grabbed the shield the goblin was trying to bash him with with one hand it stopped him from firing his suppressive arrows at the sling users, who made use of the opening by swinging around their last pebbles and hitting him in the throat and eye, saving Abel's life and significantly hurting the enemy.

"Archie!"

The healer quickly transferred the flow of her light from the defender to the archer, but Timothy, concerned by the intrusion in their space and the wounding of his comrade turned around to swing his mace at the goblin, smacking the shield out of his hand. This break in formation was all the spear goblins needed.

-

Scratch and Fat thrusted their weapons in Tim's unprotected neck. Rather than scream he grunted stoically, but when Benjamin, Linus, and Kicker added to his pain with more sharp stabs towards his padded back he keeled forward.

In a sudden burst of energy Benjamin dashed forward, Kicker instinctively gave him a boost when he jumped on top of the enemy, spear in both hands, and ran over his back to jump over the archer.

The healer jumped backwards when the goblin came flying towards her with a pointed spear, he landed where she had stood a fraction of a second ago, caught his fall with a roll, and exited lunging forward, breaching the space she had created. The spear pierced her stomach and stayed there for two heartbeats.

Nobody moved after his sudden acrobacy, until the healer's hand started to glow white.

Before she could heal herself he pulled out his spear and slashed at her throat. She fell backwards, as good as dead.

After breaking the morale and formation of the invaders to such a degree, the goblins where able to overwhelm the enemy. Repeated stabs into the party didn't halt until some time after the men were dead and their bodies significantly disfigured.

Briar looked intently at the battle.

His spot in the tree gave him enough vision to oversee the entirety of the goblin camp, and hopefully some cover too.

The goblins weren't just armed, they were trained. Archibald's party was completely wiped out by them.

Normally goblins with a much greter number advantage struggled to even hurt much weaker parties. He knew of Archibald and his friends, he had studied the adventurers active in the region, and 'the Stallions' was the only level E party participating in the culling. This was supposed to be an event for kids!

Briar let himself down on the rope.

"Look. Briar is coming back." Their Bard told their Paladin. Their names were Desmond and Alexander.

"Und?" Their employer demanded. "Have zhey been EXTERMINATED yet?"

Briar scratched the back of his head. "More like the exterminators have been exterminated. A competent party was hacked apart like I've never seen before in a safe area like this."

"Sounds like a dungeong alright." Alexander grunted.

"I see. Vhat sort of MONSTROSITY has vurmed itself out of zhe caverns, I vonder."

Briar stared blankly at the mage. As a rogue he was commonly associated with thieves and assassins, and other such hidden professions. But this person, Gunther, walked around with his face covered in scarves, somehow eclipsing him in distrustful aura.

"No, just goblins. Or they looked like goblins. But they had better equipment and technique."

"A-ha. So it has yet to spawn anyzhing ferocious. Zhat is good. But ve must act quickly und take CONTROL over zhe dungeon."

Briar sighed at the man's exhuberance. "The goblins are away from their posts now, let's not wait for night-time and attack now."

"Very vell my friends. I vill follow you, how you say, like a shadow."

Now that the fight was over all excitement drained from Benjamin's face and his eyelids became heavy again.

Scratch couldn't help but wave his hand in front of the boy's face. "Ben. Are you there? Did you get possessed?"

"That was amazing!" Kicker still had enough energy to life Benjamin up, celebrating his heroic stunt, and was supported by Fat to keep him in the air. "Benjamin! You did it!"

Benjamin seemed only tired and annoyed at the celebration taking place in the square.

"Let's collected our dead and wounded, before we act all happy." Scratch said.

Second, who had a bruised shoulder came stumbling back, supporting Digger, whose entire arm was broken.

From somewhere among the perimeter lumber Fyro and Linus had retrieved Biter.

"Biter!" Kicker came running, now seeing his brother's injury for the first time. The arrow was still inside the boy's hand.

"It's not as bad as with Scream." Quiet explained. "If we can get Barbara to clean it, it'll-"

Before he could finish his sentence Dumb suddenly collapsed on the ground.

Out of the back of his head shone a shiny metal object, a throwing knife.

"Lydia?" Fat said, recognizing the object.

"No." Scratch responded. "Everybody duck for cover!"

Another of the objects struck Abel's shield, he had had the good sense to turn it towards the direction Dumb's demise had come from.

-

The goblins scattered around chaotically into different directions.

Second pulled Digger into the blacksmithing hut.

Kicker, Biter, Fyro and Linus collectively chose the water distillery.

Abel ran up to George and both hid behind the shield in the open space between the square and the tower.

Mac ran the entire breadth of the square, just to hide with Quiet and Fat who were at the kitchen.

Scratch hid behind the water filter that neighboured the well.

He panted, after no projectiles were bing fired off for a while he dared peek over his cover to try to detect the sniper.

He saw the enemy stroll carelessly into their territory.

They were already past the tower, whose battlements and makeshift ballista had aided them nothing since being constructed.

There weren't enough of us. Ran through his head. A lookout wasn't enough. We needed a constant guard, more than we had the numbers to supply.

-

The enemy was a group of four people. One had his face covered in purple cloth, with only two bright eyes visible. The rest of his clothing was made up off similar purple material.

Next to him stood a tall blonde individual covered from head to toe in shiney golden armor, holding what seemed to be a halberd.

Behind the two of them walked a new individual wielding a musical instrument. A flute this time. Although he did have a buckler tied to his arm.

In the back was a very lightly armored individual, a belt holding various throwing knives adorned his hip. He was the most likely killer of Dumb.

Fyro had realized this too. When the group approached the square and slowed down to take in their surroundings he jumped out of cover, he had a dagger in reverse grip in his good hand and charged at the knife thrower. "Raah!"

The man didn't seem surprised at the attack at alll. He had most likely seen the creature already and effortly kicked him in the side of the head, knocking him unconscious.

"Charge!" Somebody yelled, and all goblins rushed out of their cover to repel the invaders.

Or, as Scratch realized just as he was doing it, towards certain death. Although he did not stop or flee. What an idiot am I. That I would die for a hole in the ground and some planks. Still...

"Ve do not have time for zhis." The scarved man commented. "Desmond. If you please."

The man blew two notes on his flute and all goblins collapsed on the floor.

Healer Class

The healer class is a support role, meaning it is not recommended for solo adventurers.

Adventurers registrated as healers have access to medicinal herbs from the guild store, as well as light magic training herbal healing lessons.

Reccognized priests from the church of Benesant that become adventurers can be instantly promoted to level E upon showing proof of ability.

Only parties with healers may take healing requests.

Healers are considered vital parts of any high level adventuring party, replaced only sometimes by paladins. All of history's S rank parties had healers in them.