The first thing I needed to do was dispose of the corpses. I started dragging them back out into the stairwell, and Chez figured out what I was doing and helped drag them through the door. I whistled again into the depths, and for the first time, I got a response. I heard a low, guttural roar and saw the beast moving at the bottom of the stairwell far below. I tossed one of the corpses over the railing, and Chez screeched. My green friend lunged after the corpse, nearly tumbling over the railing before I grabbed him and hauled him back.

“No!” I roared, wondering why Chez had done something like that.

Chez grumbled and whined frantically, pointed at the other corpses, and spoke emphatically in his incomprehensible language. He ranted and raved for a good few minutes before he stopped, stared at me, and said, “Stray!” firmly, while gesturing with his palms for me to stay where I was. He then stared at me and said, “Crab?” while gesturing to the slot in my pant-quiver where I kept my pipe wrench, and so I handed it to him, smiling at his proper use of words. He raced over to the knife the sentry had left on the ground, grabbed it, and rushed to the closest corpse.

What followed was utterly gruesome. Chez used the wrench to shatter ribs, and the knife to carve through flesh, and the gaps between broken bones to pry open a hole in its chest. He then tore out the other goblin’s heart and presented it to me like a peasant offering his priceless treasure to a king.

I recoiled and yelled, “No!” I didn’t want their damn hearts. They were disgusting and covered in blood.

Chez started frantically and irately chittering and grumbling before he carved open the heart with a knife and retrieved a small black shard, and presented that to me just as he had the heart.

I shook my head and said, “No,” again.

This only made Chez more frantic before he rushed to one of the other corpses and started the gruesome process of removing another heart. I had absolutely no clue what I should do. I had never seen Chez like this before. When he had removed the second heart, he removed the second stone. While staring at me and ensuring he had my attention, he tossed both shards into his mouth and bit down on them. He shuddered for a moment, with a smile on his face. Then he grumbled something in goblin and started waving his hand in the air, slowly and precisely.

Suddenly, a sharp stone-tipped spear appeared in the air in front of him, and he grabbed it with a horrifying triumphant grin. I stared in confusion for a moment as he gestured at the carved open hearts, and then to his spear, and then it clicked. Those shards he had been offering to me and then eaten were soul shards. He used them to buy a sharper and far sturdier spear.

Chez gestured at the final corpse, and I nodded. He carved out the heart for me and offered the shard to me. I accepted but did not eat it immediately. Chez then presented the heart to me, and when I declined, he smiled and ate the heart raw.

While Chez grabbed the other two hearts and enjoyed his snack, I whistled again into the stairwell, and the beast below roared back in answer. I heaved the other three corpses over the railing and received a short, higher pitched roar and a moan in thanks.

My trip to the next floor was going to be delayed yet again, as I returned to the hallway and went to the sink of the nearest apartment. I fiercely scrubbed the soul shard with soap and hot water until I could convince myself it was clean. Then I reluctantly popped the shard into my mouth and bit down. As soon as I bit it, the shard dissolved into nothingness. My mouth was filled with a rush of unearthly flavor. It was impossible to describe and tasted unlike anything I had ever eaten in my entire life. A surge of euphoria overwhelmed my mind before it began to rapidly fade away. It felt like that moment was the high point of my entire life, but now it was gone, and there was only a blue screen left to prove it had ever happened at all.

[You have gained 1 soul shard!]

It was no wonder Chez had nearly killed himself while rushing after a blissful high like that. What was truly surprising was that even though he was frantic to have it, he had offered it to me first and gone out of his way to show me what it was rather than hoard it all for himself. I decided right then that he would keep the shards of anything he killed himself. I wouldn’t steal from my only friend just because he was willing to give them up for me.

For the third time today, I stepped out into the stairwell with the intention of marching down to the next floor and clearing it of intruders. It appeared that the third time truly was the charm, and I made it to the door to floor 55 without a fuss.

Chez and I carefully stalked down the hallways, but I was relieved to discover this floor was still untouched. I had a feeling this was likely the last floor left I would find like this, as all the rest down until floor 37 had only been locked on one side, and the goblins would not have wasted however much time I had been stuck on the higher floors. The only snag came when I found out that the master key for the floor was missing.

I had to make a decision. I could break into every single apartment on the floor, I could shut off the breakers in the maintenance room, or I could write this floor off and keep shutting off power on other floors. I was hesitant to break into every last room here, as it would be a lot of work, take a long time, and make a huge mess. Shutting off the power for the floor would cost me a whole floor’s worth of freezer contents. I was starting to think my time would be better spent skipping this floor and clearing another one instead.

After eliminating power consumption except for hallway lights and refrigerators on five floors, the power was only being cut off for about six hours each night. I had to hope that was a short enough period of time for the frozen foods to stay safe to eat, but I had no way to know. I had never needed to know that kind of information, and the internet was down. One floor wouldn’t make that big of a difference, and I could always come back if I changed my mind. So I moved on. I walked down a single flight of stairs and finally returned to floor 54.

The floor was the same as I had left it, and the closet full of cargo pants was still there waiting for me. After I quickly changed and rearranged my equipment into the new pockets, I set off again. This time my destination was the unknown wilds of floor 53. I cautiously descended the stairs on the side I hadn’t locked. The goblins should have figured out by now that the other side was a dead end, with locked doors from floor 37 all the way up to the top, and so most of their foot traffic should have shifted to this side.

I thought of the small band we had fought earlier today in the other stairwell, and I wondered what they were doing there. With nothing but locked doors around them, it didn’t make much sense for them to be sleeping up there, but that was a question I would likely never have the answer to.

The stairwell was quiet, though I did hear movement far below, and I made it to my destination without incident. A quick peek through the small reinforced glass window showed no goblins within sight. I eased open the plain gray fire door and then locked it, carefully stepping out into the hallway. Immediately to our right, I saw two guards, slumped against the wall on either side of a breached door, both asleep.

I immediately regretted not teaching Chez some hand signals for silent communication and realized I would have to settle for pointing and praying. I handed Chez one of my kitchen knives and had to glare at him when he resisted against me taking his brand new shiny spear. He finally relented and I slipped the spear into my pant-quiver.

Knives were best for sleeping guards, and it would be hard to hold a spear while slitting a goblin’s throat. I gestured to the guard on the left, Chez stuck out his chin, and quietly advanced on the one on the right. The spears in my quiver shifted and clanked occasionally, but thankfully the guards didn’t wake.

~Ding!

Skill Improved: Sneak Sneak has reached level 5

Chez reached his target before me, and I held up my hand and tried to signal him to wait. It seemed my worry was unnecessary, as he was already looking at me and waiting. When I reached my target, I kneeled, raised my knife to its throat, and nodded at Chez as I tore its throat open, and Chez did the same a moment later. The eyes of our victims snapped wide open, and they weakly flailed for a few moments before they went still.

I stuck out my Chin at Chez, and he smiled. I tried to gesture at him to follow me, but he just stared at me confused until I started walking away, and then he quietly rushed to catch up. I was heading for the maintenance room to try and get the keys. It seemed that this floor’s goblins were sleeping during the day. I had to wonder if goblins were supposed to be nocturnal. Fantasy depictions often had them living in caves and emerging at night to raid and pillage. The recent power failures would be the first time there has been anything close to a day and night cycle in the apartment complex aside from the hallway lights slightly dimming at night.

When we reached the maintenance room, I peeked around the corner of the hallway and saw another pair of guards nearby at another door. Both were asleep, and I realized I could never trust Chez as a sentry, as goblins seemed ill-suited for guard duty. I sent Chez to the left again, and we dispatched these guards too.

~Ding!

Skill Improved: Sneak Attack Sneak Attack has reached level 5

I quickly broke into the maintenance room, and unlike the last floor I had searched, the key was there. We walked back to the first sentries we had killed, as they were closer to the stairwell, and it would be easier to escape if we had to. I took a deep breath before opening the door. This was the first time I was going to enter a den of the beasts before they had abandoned it. I opened the door and silently sighed in relief. The lights were off, but the blinds were only closed halfway, allowing the light of the midday sun to fill the room. My sigh of relief at not having to stumble around in the dark turned into panic as I realized there were over a dozen goblins in the room.

Chez seemed to be equally alarmed but looked to me for instruction. I left the door wide open, so we could run at any time and had to stop and decide if it was worth the risk. If I wanted to claim this floor, I would have to kill all of these goblins, and despite the risk of them waking, they were helpless right now. I wouldn’t get a better chance to cull the herd than this, so I either had to take advantage of the opportunity in front of me or give up on escaping this tower. I gestured for Chez to approach one of the goblins lying near the entryway while I stalked over towards another. I had to choose where to step carefully, as there was trash and bones littered across the floor.

~Ding!

Skill Improved: Sneak Sneak has reached level 6

I stumbled and nearly fell at the noise. I was so stressed about not making a sound that I panicked almost as much as the first time I had been stalking a goblin and had a level up go off. I had just leveled sneak a few moments ago too. I reached the helpless, sleeping goblin and slit its throat.

Skill Improved: Critical Strike Critical Strike has reached level 5

I watched as Chez did the same to his target, and then we both got to work. It only took about thirty seconds to move between each goblin, even as we crept slowly to ensure none woke. Only one of the beasts woke up to the sound of me murdering its neighbor, but as the sleepy, dazed goblin woke up, I put my hunting knife through its eye. Sneak, sneak attack, critical strike, and short blades all leveled up a few times as we stalked through the goblin-infested room, and my belief that danger increased the speed of skill improvement was confirmed. Soon all that remained was a cuddling pair that neither of us had wanted to attack alone.

I took one, and Chez took the other. Our timing was slightly off, but we managed to kill them both before they could raise the alarm. Just as I started to silently celebrate our flawless victory, I saw a young goblin walk out of the bedroom. The child stopped and stared at the carnage of blood and corpses around the room. Then it screamed.