...

Capra’s request to learn shaman spells immediately resulted in a system display with a list of available spells. Oddly enough it was a very short list, but the available spells left Capra gobsmacked.

Curse of Lightning (Hard Foot Tribe): A modified version of the shaman spell [Lightning Bolt]. This spell is exclusive to the [Hard Foot] tribe shamans, and cannot be found elsewhere.

Skill Damage: 10 – 20 (+ Int *0.37.5 + Wis *0.075) dark damage.

Skill Cost: 100 Mana.

Skill cast time: Instant.

Skill Effect Duration: 15 seconds.

Effect(s):

* Targets struck by [Curse of Lightning] are cursed to be chased by a small lightning cloud which will strike the target for 1 (+ Int * 0.1875 + Wis * 0.0375) dark damage every 3 seconds.

* The curse of thunder may stack up to 3 times.

* The curse cloud cannot be outrun.

Cooldown: 3 seconds.

Learning Requirement(s):

* [Friend of the Goblins]

* 100 Intelligence

* 100 Wisdom.

Cost: 10000 Contribution points. (Friend of the Goblins: 8000 Contribution Points)

Shadow Defenses (Hard Foot Tribe): A spell inspired by the spell [Lightning Shield]. This spell is exclusive to the [Hard Foot] tribe shamans, and cannot be found elsewhere.

Passive Shield: 2 (+ Int *0.05 + Wis *0.01).

Skill Duration: Togglable.

Effect(s):

* Tendrils of darkness surround the caster, reducing incoming damage in a 2 meter radius (+0.5m per level), and increasing enemy miss chance by +10%.

* Enemies that come within the range of the shield receive damage equivalent to the shields protection value every second.

Learning Requirement(s):

* [Friend of the Goblins]

* 125 Intelligence

* 125 Wisdom.

Cost: 12000 Contribution points. (Friend of the Goblins: 10200 Contribution Points)

Eyes of Muk’thulu: A modified version of the shaman the spell [Evil Eye], created by the goblin [Workdidi]. The history of of the [Hard Foot] tribe has greatly influenced the creation of this spell.

Skill Damage: 5 (+ Int *0.37.5 + Wis *0.075) mental damage /s.

Skill Cost: 500 Mana

Skill cast time: Instant.

Skill Duration: 30 seconds.

Radius: 10 meters around caster (+ 1m per level)

Effect(s):

* The eyes of Muk’thulu were known to cause an unshakeable terror on its prey, this spell was born in order to mimic that effect.

* Enemies within the spell’s area of effect range are feared: - 50% reaction speed, -50% accuracy.

* If the caster’s combined intelligence and wisdom stats are higher than an affected enemy, the enemy may become terrified, incurring an additional movement speed penalty of 20%.

Cooldown: Two Minutes.

Usage Restrictions: Targets must be within 15 levels of the caster for the spell to have full effect.

Learning Requirement(s):

* [Friend of the Goblins]

* 150 Intelligence

* 150 Wisdom.

Cost: 23700 Contribution points. (Friend of the Goblins: 18960 Contribution Points)

-------

Available Contribution Points: 1900

...

The skills were too good. They weren’t enchanter skills so they would be harder to level, but that mattered very little to Capra.

No one else had access to Workdidi’s spells, and both [Shadow Defenses] and [Eyes of Muk’thulu] were both the kind of spells Capra would have to go through hell to get under normal circumstances, so he decided he’d learn them.

System Notification: You have attempted to learn, [Curse of Lightning], [Shadow Defenses], and [Eyes of Muk’thulu].

System Notification: Insufficient contribution points.

System Notification: You don’t meet the stat requirements to learn the following spells:

* [Curse of Lightning]

* [Shadow Defenses]

* [Eyes of Muk’thulu]

System Notification: You have failed to learn [Curse of Lightning], [Shadow Defenses], and [Eyes of Muk’thulu].

“What?”

Capra had earned a few thousand contribution points so he hadn’t bothered to check the skill costs; after all, all the skills he’d seen so far were only worth a few hundred contribution points at most. Their requirements were so low that Capra assumed the shaman spells would be in the same price range, but as he looked back through the list he nearly jumped away in fright.

“Seriously!?” He shouted. Why were the prices so high, did Workdidi not get the memo? Capra was highly disgruntled, but as he looked towards Workdidi he saw that the goblin was covering its ears and glaring at him. They weren’t far apart, so Capra had practically yelled in the goblin’s ear...

Luckily other than glaring Workdidi did nothing else. Capra was glad they were on friendly terms, and that was especially true after seeing the spells in the goblin shaman’s repertoire. If Workdidi really got pissed he could probably kill Capra in one shot— so Capra needed to stay on his good side.

After seeing the costs to learn Workdidi’s spells Capra realized that getting the intelligence, wisdom, and contribution points needed to purchase all three spells would be a gargantuan task, but not an impossible one...

“So?” Workdidi asked, interrupting Capra’s contemplating.

“So what?” Capra replied.

“...what you want learn.” He said, as his staff tapped on the ground impatiently.

“Really?” That was an unfair question.

Capra wanted learn everything, but he couldn’t, he didn’t have enough resources, and If he tried to learn spells he wasn’t qualified for he might lose serious affection points. Capra wished Workdidi would set better prices, but he let it go, complaining would get him those spells.

In the end Capra decided to leave.

“Nevermind. I gotta go.” He said. Then he cast [Flee!] and dashed off towards the northern forest.

Workdidi wanted to stop him but before he could get half a word out Capra was gone.

...

Running so quickly made his legs feel like they were on fire, but Capra didn’t care because he knew that if he didn’t get a move on he would lose out on an opportunity. The battlefield had been mostly cleared by the goblins, and at the rate they were working Capra was sure there wouldn’t be anything left for him if he came an hour or two later.

Capra dashed past goblins harvesting razor terrors.

Most of the razor terror corpses near the barricades had been harvested, so the majority of the corpses were further away, but the goblins hadn’t started cleaning the forest yet, and if Capra was right then he had a lot to gain by making it there first.

“Bingo!” He yelled, as the forest edge creeped into his field of vision.

...

The clearing had changed drastically overnight. The weird fruit shrubs he had tried to identify were crushed, there were countless potholes in the ground, and the oddly bent trees of the sinking forest were broken and bent more than normal, not that it mattered. Capra didn’t care about the clearing, he cared about what was in it.

The clearing was filled with corpses, but very few of them were razor terrors.

The battle in the sky had numerous casualties, however the flying horrors that had landed on the battlefield had already been harvested. Fortunately, the flying horrors in the clearing hadn’t.

The clearing had at least 20 flying horror corpses, and although they weren’t all complete they would be enough.

“Essence Siphon!”

The first corpse Capra chose had the head of a tiger and the body of a Centipede. The insides of its mouth were more reminiscent of a centipede than a tiger and acid dripped off from the corner of its jaw, carving a deep hole into the ground.

System Notification: [Essence Siphon is successful]. You have gained [Greater Flying Horror Essence Orb] x 1. Enchanting Proficiency gained: +5.

[Greater Flying Horror Essence Orb]:

This orb contains a large amount of the essence of the [Flying Horror], if used in conjunction with the [Enchant] spell the enchanted object has a large chance of receiving a characteristic of the [Flying Horror].

“Good.”

The flying horrors were high level monsters, at least level 20 by Capra’s estimates, so he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to essence siphon them, but he was glad to see he was wrong. The process of essence siphoning flying horrors was slower than essence siphoning stone, and cost more mana, but Capra estimated that he’d be able to empty the clearing within two hours.

...

After an hour and a half Capra had finished siphoning 15 corpses.

He had been surprised after essence siphoning his second corpse because despite the drastic differences in appearances between the first and the second flying horror corpses, he still got the same [Flying Horror] essence. It was strange.

The essence of a flying horror, without exception was black. It didn’t matter what the flying horror looked like, once their essence was siphoned they released black strands of essence that Capra collected.

The essence reminded Capra of the black sludge Muk’thulu’s limbs melted into... and that was worrisome, but in the end Capra put it out of his mind, after all, even if the essence did have any connection to Muk’thulu it didn’t matter, it was Capra’s now.

...

In the end the corpses he siphoned netted him 20 [Greater Flying Horror Essence Orbs]— which was worth roughly 4000 essence units, the largest amount of essence he’d collected to date.

After he finished collecting essence Capra decided to gather wood. The stone blade he made was still in good condition, and Capra used it to cut down tree branches. Wood was the easiest material for Capra to work with, so he gathered a substantial amount of branches.

In total he spent three hours in the clearing, and the process allowed him to level woodworking twice, gaining +2 strength, and siphon 20 corpses to level enchanting once, which resulted in a net gain of +2 intelligence.

“Not bad for three hours of work.” He thought.

Leveling a mastery always gave stat points corresponding to the mastery levelled, so after three hours of work Capra wished he had more masteries related to intelligence or wisdom, then he’d be able to get the stat points he needed for Workdidi’s shaman spells easier.

But three hours was enough, he didn’t know if night would come today, so he decided to retreat back to the village for now.

...

Once he made it back to the village center Capra wanted to immediately start experimenting, but he realized that he didn’t have any place to do that; however, he spotted Baba nearby and figured he could solve the issue by talking to him.

“Baba!” He called.

While the other goblins were still carrying a substantial amount of razor terrors and other monsters back from the battlefield Baba had already gathered an amount he was satisfied with, so he was sitting on a log tosser corpse under a sign that read “War’eeyore Tray’ner,” while munching on a piece of razor terror jerky.

When Baba heard Capra his head shot up like lightning.

“Human!” He cried out excitedly.

He jumped off the corpse and ran madly towards Capra. His pace was intense, and somewhat frightening, but Capra could tell that Baba was glad to see him, although he wasn’t sure why.

Screech!

Skid marks were left on the ground as Baba came to a rough stop before Capra, and before Capra could say anything Baba handed him something familiar.

“Wha...”

It was the [Stone Axe (rare)] Capra had made. Its handle was shorter than Capra remembered, and its blade was tattered and chipped... Apparently Baba had put it through more than it could bear.

Baba scratched his head. “Can Fix?” He asked.

“Ah...”

Quest Notification: The [Stone Axe (rare)] you gave goblin [Baba] has broken. The goblin [Baba] attempted to have it repaired by a goblin weapon smith, but the axe was damaged further. Goblin [Baba] requests that you repair the weapon.

Rewards: N/A.

Accept: Y/N?

If the axe was made normally Capra would’ve accepted right away, but Capra had yet to try repairing the weapons he made, and he wasn’t even sure how to. He didn’t want to decline the quest because the rewards might be useful, but in the end he did.

“No.” He said.

Baba’s oddly bright smile immediately turned sullen, it seemed he had really like his new axe.

“However...” Capra continued with a smile. “I can make you something better.”

Chaos and Fame wasn’t the type of game where quests could only be solved one way, and as if to prove that point Baba was ecstatic. He was so glad that he picked up Capra in a bear hug and hopped around like a kid.

System Notification: You’ve taken critical damage....

System Notfication: Your health is low...

System Notification: You’ve taken damage...

However, it seemed that completing a quest with an alternative answer always had its drawbacks. Baba’s strength was so high that Capra lost a lot of health points, but luckily he survived. When Baba saw how pale and weak Capra had become he released him in a panic. Baba was clearly ashamed as he attempted to pat some dust off of Capra.

System Notification: You’ve taken damage...

“Gah!” Capra screamed out in pain.

“Sorry! Sorry!”

...

A few minutes later Capra regained his health and proceeded to speak to Baba— who for all intents and purposes was keeping a few feet away from what he had determined was a, “squishy human.”

“Baba.” He said. “I need a place to work, preferably a shack.”

It wouldn't do Capra any good to continue working in the clearing, he didn't have a death wish after all. Goblins constantly ran back and forth through the village, and he didn't want to enchant in such an open place, so land would be the best solution. Sadly, land was hard to get.

Even in the trashiest city in CAF would price its territory explensively. A piece of land could go for a few thousand gold coins, so Capra didn’t hold much hope for a home of his own; however, maybe Baba could lend him a place. It was for the good of the goblin village after all.

Unexpectedly baba didn’t say anything to Capra, he just stared.

“Okay?” He said. "That all?" He continued.

“Okay?” Capra repeated. "That all?"

Were they just going to give him land? It couldn’t be that simple... but it was.

...

Baba led Capra away from the village to an empty plot of land and called a goblin workcrew over. Within a few minutes the crew had the rough skeleton of a shack built out, and within an hour it was done. Goblin efficiency at its best.

The shack was exceptionally bare on the inside. The floors were made of dirt, the walls were made of weak wood woven together to be a bit sturdier, and the roof was just a continuation of the walls.

The shack wasn’t the biggest in the world, but it was still fairly spacious for its small size. It was at least 20 square meters by Capras estimate.

System Notification: You’ve attained a home of your own. Because your home is located on the land belonging to the [Hard Foot] tribe it is subject to the rules of the goblin tribe.

More detailed information can be seen in the system window.

“Really?”

It was unthinkable that he’d gained a home of his own so easily, but before he could properly enjoy it Baba walked into the house with a big smile on his face.

“Now you make new axe?”

...