Noel swore.

“I mean, I can handle a few goblins here and there, but a tribe of them? Who the fuck do they think we are? Are Awakened and Blessed humans supposed to be fucking superheroes?”

Ed... agreed. The System hadn't given them all that much yet other than an axe and an ability to see the status of other creatures. It wasn't a terribly helpful 'System', if it could even be called one. It had mentioned something about the levels of 'manna' finally reaching high enough levels for the System to be activated, and it might have spent all of the manna 'Awakening' all the humans or something.

No, the System hadn't made them superheroes at all.

And yet.

“Let’s… scout the area and look for the camp before deciding anything. It seems that the goblins have a pretty sharp sense of smell, so…”

Ed looked at the corpses of the goblins, and walked over. He dipped his hand into the pool of blood that had gathered on the ground, and began smearing it over his clothes.

Noel gagged.

“Are you really smearing yourself in goblin shit?”

“It’s blood, not shit Noel. I think it should be ok. If there were any diseases that came with the demons, it would’ve caught on by now. I think.”

Ed conjectured out loud, continuing to douse his clothes and his hair for good measure.

“If there were any diseases that came with the portals, I’d say we’re all fucked anyways, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. Besides, this will cover our scent.”

Noel merely scrunched her nose in disgust.

“People are being held as livestock, Noel. I’ve had to walk away from a few situations in the past month, but with the System and our blessings, I feel like I have to at least try.” He continued, trying to keep the creeping emotion out of his voice.

Ed had been scraping by day by day before the Spirit Realm had implemented the System. With the many hours of constantly being on guard, he might have gone insane after another month.

Noel hesitated, but eventually knelt down beside him and began to dip her hands in the blood as well, muttering under her breath.

“These Spirit Crystals better be worth a shit-ton of... something.”

He had decided from the second that he’d read the first blue box that he wouldn't, couldn't, live the rest of his life cowering in the shadows anymore. He had hope now. And he would do anything to keep it alive in his heart.

Including smearing himself in goblin shi- blood.

_

Once they smelled sufficiently of dried gore more than anything else, Ed and Noel began walking back the way that the goblin scouting party had come from. Ed figured they had about two hours before the sun set completely, and would turn back if they hadn’t found the goblin camp in an hour.

Strangely, the area seemed to be devoid of other demons. Which made sense, if the goblins had settled nearby. They would have had either cleared the area of other demons, or chosen one unclaimed by them in the first place.

They ran into one more goblin scouting party, but this one had consisted of only three goblins and Ed had slashed the throat of two of them while Noel had literally bisected the other at it’s waist. It had been a lankier goblin, but still.

Despite yet another ‘miniscule’ growth, their status remained unchanged. Adjusting direction slightly, they traced the second goblin scouting party’s tracks.

They had been about to turn back when Noel began to hear something again.

“I think I hear goblins ahead. A lot of them this time, and they are not trying to be quiet.” She said.

It was also the first time Ed heard fear in her voice.

Looking around, Ed eyed the tallest building that had remained standing.

After some deliberation, they carefully made their way up to the roof.

They didn’t have to look far to discover the source of the noise. Only about 6 or 8 blocks off was the ruins of a small city park that was crawling with goblins.

They had cleared the area of trees, using them and rubble to build a rather solid wall that encircled the park, which seemed to be about a couple city blocks large. There were a couple entrances, which seemed to have dedicated sentries in addition to a steady stream of small goblin scouting parties.

Within it’s walls was a hodgepodge of wooden structures and tipi like structures made of beast skins that were obviously not from Earth. Ed wasn’t sure if the goblins had brought them over from their dimension, which seemed to be called ‘Heloth’, or if they had hunted down other demonic beasts that had also crossed over to Earth.

Bones of obvious human origin, as well as a few others, littered the grounds of the encampment.

In the center of the camp was the largest structure. But what caught Ed and Noel’s attention was the humans who were next to them.

There was only crude wooden fence surrounding them and none of the goblins seemed to be paying attention to them, but none of them looked to be in a state to plot an escape, much less carry one out. Ed could see how emaciated they were even from the distance.

Before he could see much else, the door flap to the central tipi fluttered open.

The goblin that came out was nothing like Ed had seen before. It was as tall as about three goblins combined, putting it’s height well over even humans and on par with orcs.

Where the orcs looked like bull-dozers built of bulging muscle and tusks, this goblin looked wiry thin, it’s striated muscles standing out like thick metal cords.

True Sight allowed him to see what it was.

Hobgoblin - (???) Class- Shaman Body: C- Spirit: C- Mind: D+

Fledgling.

This hob-goblin has evolved only recently, and still growing.

Before he could examine anything else, Ed dropped like a rock, dragging down Noel with him.

The hobgoblin had seemed to notice his gaze, it’s body freezing up as it quickly began to look around.

Thankfully it didn’t seem to be able to locate where the gaze had been coming from.

After a long while, Noel whispered under her breathe. “How many goblins do you think there are?”

“At least a hundred.” Ed replied. “The scouting parties seem to be returning, too, so they’re probably not that active once night falls.”

Noel fell silent yet again, before speaking heavily with deliberation.

“I don’t know about you Ed, but I didn’t team up with you so I could die for other people. If that’s what you want to do, this is where we part ways.”

Ed grit his teeth. She was right. He had thought, just for a second, that maybe if the encampment was smaller, or the prisoners weren’t obviously malnourished and probably injured… The thoughts he hated the most began to rear their head. The ‘what if’ and the ‘if onlys’.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and breathed out, letting the action wash over his mind and blow away the thoughts.

“We’ll have to sleep here for the night. Regardless of what we do, it’s not like I’m going to attack the camp by myself, and stumble back to my hideout at night even less.”

Ed threw Noel a couple of candy bars and a bottle of water from his travel pack and trudged back downstairs.

--------

Ed settled in one of the rooms he had chosen for himself. Many of it’s furniture was discolored and rotting with miasma just like many of the other rooms he had found himself in recently.

He’d become well-acquainted with being alone and the silence that came with it in the past month, and he almost reveled in it’s embrace now that he was alone. It had been an insane day, almost as insane as the day that the first rifts had opened.

He felt the emotions he had kept disciplined and locked away rise bitterly to the surface of his mind.

He thought he’d be able to help. Do something, now that the System had been activated and he had been even seemingly chosen by a being whose power was beyond his comprehension.

He sat down on a dilapidated bed, running his hands through his hair, dirty and matted with sweat and blood. Water didn’t run through the city anymore. As silly as it was, it was the last thought that sent a burst of determination through his mind.

Humanity had fallen far and lost so, so much. Ed didn’t want to just live, or survive off of Twinkies for the rest of his life. He wanted power. Power to change the world around him, the power to protect whoever the hell he wanted to protect, and the power to thrive even in this new world that was quickly beginning to look like a scene from Hell itself.

He took out the Blood Crystal from his pocket, considering it's deep red color. Before he could overthink it, he swallowed the Blood Crystal and felt it travel down his throat and into his stomach, where it dispersed into a searing energy. He felt a strange vitality enter his body and wash away the fatigue that had accumulated over the past month.

He felt good. Actually, he felt great. It was a lot more than the ‘miniscule’ improvement that the quick ‘hunts’ had afforded him earlier. Hell, he might even have increased his stats. He’d check right now! If the Blood Crystals could give him a boost in-

His world exploded into a deep-red color and the overwhelming smell of blood.

Ed managed one thought through the pain as he passed out.

'Not again.'