The atmosphere was tense.

Workdidi and Baba stared at Capra without speaking, and the wind blew a tumbleweed past the three people...

“What is this, an old western film?”

Capra felt like he needed a pistol, and a countdown.

“Did I do something?” He pondered.

Before he could ask anything Baba dashed forward. He was within arms reach in milliseconds and his hand extended towards Capra’s neck...

“Well shit.”

Capra closed his eyes and raised his arms defensively, then he waited for death... but death never came. After a moment all he felt was a pat on his shoulder and he opened his eyes to Baba’s grinning face,

“You... Good.”

“Is very good.” Workdidi corrected with a smack to Baba's forehead.

For a second it looked like the two goblins might spar, but their attention returned to Capra. He could tell he had gained favor with them, although it was strange the system hadn’t notified him— then he remembered he had turned notifications off.

“System notifications on!”

Immediately, a number of combat notifications blocked Capra’s field of vision— but he dismissed them until he saw what he was looking for.

System Notifications:

System Notification: Your strange magic and selfless actions have garnered the admiration of Baba and Workdidi of the [Hard Feet] goblin tribe. Affection +50. You are now on friendly terms.

System Notification: Your status in the [Hard Feet] goblin tribe has increased significantly, you may now trade and interact with its members with no penalty.

Status: (Very) Good human.

System Notification: The shaman faction of the [Hard Feet] tribe values you highly, your contributions during battle will allow you to learn a few of their skills, or class change to shaman (goblin variant).

*Warning: Your race is not goblin, and you may suffer severe penalties from the class change should you choose to do so.

System Notification: The warrior faction of the [Hard Feet] tribe values you highly, your contributions during battle will allow you to learn a few of their skills, or class change to warrior (goblin variant).

*Warning: Your race is not goblin, and you may suffer severe penalties from the class change should you choose to do so.

System Notification: You have Leveled up.

System Notification: You have Leveled up.

System Notification: You have Leveled up.

System Notification: You have...

It took Capra a few seconds to go through all the notifications,

“Not a bad haul.” He thought. Capra gained four levels, and a lot of recognition from the goblin tribe.

He had killed countless razor terrors and fortified at least two hundred barricades— so that much was a given, but he had to admit he was a little disappointed he never got a reward from Workdidi.

He examined the notifications again and noticed a particular word that stuck out, “Selfless... huh.”

Maybe that was the sytem’s way of telling him he wouldn’t be getting a reward... not that he wanted to complain. Fighting behind the fortified barricades was similar to fighting from the top of a castle wall.

At one point there were so many razor terrors that a chaos bolt fired with his eyes closed could still get him experience points, plus he knew other players would kill for the opportunity to level that easily, although he had to admit he leveled a lot less than expected.

“The razor terrors must only be around level two or three.” He estimated.

That was the only way he could explain the diminishing returns as his level increased— still, the battlefield had become a great hunting ground so he wished they would be back soon...

“ I need levels..”

As an enchanter he was severely lacking skills he could use in combat, so he had to make up for it in levels, but at least now he knew he could solve that issue by learning a few goblin warrior or shaman skills. At worst he could get experimental with essence siphon, he did have a few ideas he wanted to try.

Workdidi watched as Capra stared at the air in front of him, a hand on his chin. It had been nearly a minute now since the human had gone silent, had Baba scared him too much? Well, no matter. They had work to do.

“Hooman, come with us.” He said.

Quest Notification: The shaman [Workdidi] requests that you follow him.

Reward: N/A.

Accept? Y/N.

The new prompt brought Capra out of his revery.

He thought It was strange Workdidi had become so serious all of a sudden, but then again Chaos and Fame wasn’t like traditional mmos... quest givers wouldn’t just sit and wait while he checked his notifications, so Capra nodded his head and followed.

...

Goblins ran to and from the battlefield, carrying countless razor terror corpses, or dragging along bigger monsters tied with rope. One monster in particular caught Capra’s eye. It wasn’t a flying horror, and it certainly wasn’t a razor terror, so whatever it was, it was new and must have been hiding in the forest.

The creature had big strong arms, but instead of legs its lower torso was reminiscent of a snail's body, and instead of a head it had eyes on its abdomen.

“How does that thing even eat.” Capra wondered, but as the beast was dragged past him, he spotted a gaping mouth beneath its snail body.

Hurk.

It was not a pretty sight, and Capra had to fight back the urge to vomit, but after his initial shock wore off Capra realized what the creature was.

“Log tosser.” He muttered, to which Baba responded, “Mmm. Good... name... tosses logs.. true.”

“Did you kill it?” Capra asked.

“Mmm. New axe... Give. Much... help.” He replied.

Capra returned his gaze to the log tosser, he wondered what level it was but [identify] couldn’t tell him, so it must have been much stronger than him, but the goblins continued to drag and the corpse, and soon it was out of sight.

“What will they use it for?”

As they moved forward he didn’t have to wonder for long. Capra saw that the gobln villagers skinned razor terrors, but everything else was chopped into pieces, and smoked under fire to make jerky.

As Baba walked past one such fire he grabbed a semi-raw piece of razor terror jerky and bit into it. He chewed slowly, and savored the taste.

“Want... some?” He said as he offered Capra a bloody piece...

Hurk.

...

The goblin village was different than what Capra remembered. When he first arrived all he had noticed was that there were bonfires and wooden shacks, but now that he had more time to look he realized that the goblin village was fairly well organized. Some of the wooden shacks even had signs on them.

The first sign he saw read, “a-pot-a-carry,” which he assumed was the village’s apothecary, and another sign said “we-pin store.” A stream of goblins walked in and out of the stores carrying monster bodies and inside the "we-pin" store, Capra could hear intense grinding.

As the village became more and more occupied with work Goblin children started to run out of their homes, they followed behind their parents as they worked, watching with intense curiousity, meanwhile older goblins who had been hiding in their houses also came out and sat on their porches to talk.

The goblin village seemed to become an entirely different place after the battle. It was reminiscent of a normal human village, just downgraded a few notches... and slightly tinted with the odor of fresh bat guano...

...

After a while Capra, Workdidi, and baba reached a large bonfire that took up most of the space of the town center. Capra thought they would walk around it to get to whatever place they were going, but Workdidi stopped in front of it.

Capra raised an eyebrow and looked at Baba. “Is this the place?” He asked.

“No.” Baba Replied, “but... almost.”

Workdidi muttered something in a low voice that Capra couldn’t hear, and then gestured at the flame. In response the bonfire’s flames surged high into the sky and then parted, revealing a bare pathway leading to a dirt tunnel. As far as Capra could tell the tunnel was devoid of any flames. It was dark and without light, and he wanted to ask Workdidi and Baba about the situation, but they had already moved forward and were already disappearing into the tunnel.

“What the hell?”

Capra debated following, but in the midst of his contemplation Baba stuck his head out of the tunnel and called to him.

“Come!” He said in his oddly slow way of speaking, “No terrors... Here. You not... Play Dead. Haha!” he continued, then he ducked back into the tunnel.

…

In the end Capra decided to follow. He had expected there to be torches but there weren’t any even as they headed deeper into the tunnel, so eventually he had to cast enchant for light.

The light from the spell didn’t do much good as it could only reach far enough to see Baba’s back; however, It was bright enough to inform Capra of the steep path they’d descended, and to reveal odd drawings carved into the tunnels walls.

The drawings weren’t very good. There were rabbits drawn out of proportion, as well as some other creatures, but from what Capra could see the drawings depicted the history of something, a battle perhaps. At first Capra couldn’t recognize the creatures fighting, but as he walked along the tunnel, the drawings soon became familiar.

He stopped by a wall, and slid his hand accross it, gently removing the dust and revealing the drawing of a figure holding a spear behind a barricade,

“These are the goblins.” He thought, and on the other side of the goblin spearman were big headed squiggles with sharp teeth, “and these are the terrors.”

As he continued to walk he saw countless more creatures he couldn’t recognize, but a few that he could, like the log tossers and the flying horrors. It was interesting and he was so focused he didn’t realize that Baba had come to a sudden halt, so he crashed into him.

Thump.

Baba didn’t move at all from the impact, but Capra fell flat on his butt.

“Christ.” He thought as he quickly stood up, “What do they feed you?” Baba’s back was as hard as a steel plate, and Capra was sure he’d lost a few hit points from the collision.

“Stop.” Baba declared. “We... here.”

Baba’s broad back blocked Capra’s view, so he had no idea where “here” was, so he walked a small circle around the goblin to be able to see properly, and what he saw left him in awe.

Two large doors stood ahead of him, they were perfectly symmetrical, and crafted out of stone and blue crystal. At the center of each door there was part of a goblin’s face, and when the doors came together they formed the terrifying visage of a goblin, one that had its eyes shut in pain, and held its mouth open in a scream.

As Capra examined the door, Workdidi approached it and caressed it gently, he stared at it with longing then he rested his head on it and muttered incantations under his breath. After he was done he backed away and stomped.

“Open!” He commanded, and all of a sudden the goblin visage opened its eyes. Its pupils were made out of blue crystal, and as the trembling in the tunnel intensified its eyes gave off a mysterious blue light.

Whoosh. Wind blew past Capra's head, rustling his hair gently.

The wind seemed to come in from nowhere, but it slowly grew more fierce. It grew stronger and stronger heading into the dark depths of the visage's mouth. Then it stopped... and there was silence.

Bang!

The doors rushed open, and the underground tunnel was flooded with light. Capra was blinded, but a big strong hand grabbed his arm and pulled him forward and after a few moments the light vanished from the tunnel, the doors shut, and Capra, Baba, and Workdidi were nowhere to be seen.