It took two hours for the beast to die. I had hoped to stab it with Chez’s stone spear to speed up the process, but only its shoulder was visible through the gap. I had to make new cuts on its arm frequently as blood clots formed and the flow lessened, but the beast was unnaturally resilient. A thick smear of blood covered the floor of the elevator, and the rest poured off into the gap between the elevator and the hallway, but the beast hadn’t cared and only continued to pound on the elevator door in rage.

Chez and the female had been terrified the whole time, as I hadn’t been able to explain to them that we were just waiting for the beast to die. Then again, I was afraid too. I had no idea that an elevator door could take so much abuse and remain standing.

Eventually, the monster’s cries of rage and fury weakened, and shortly after, it lost the strength to stand. With its body hanging limp from the trapped arm, it was within stabbing range. I pried the spear out of Chez’s shaking arms and proceeded to stab the beast. It uttered a feeble groan but was unable to stand or shift its body away. I skewered it over and over until the groans stopped, and the beast’s side was a ragged mess of flesh.

I listened carefully at the gap, for breathing or noise of any kind, but there was nothing. As I held the “open door” button down, I prayed that a lack of noise meant that the monster was both dead and alone. The top half of the beast slumped into the elevator, eliciting screams from both of my goblin companions, and I got my first look at the monster.

The first thing that stood out to me was the tusks. Two yellowed tusks jutted out about two inches from the lower jaw of its unnaturally wide maw. The ears had short points at the top, its nose was short and flat, and its brow ridge was thick and jutting like a neanderthal. It had a broad and strong chin and jawline, and its face was locked in a vicious snarl, completing the visage of ferocious brutality. It was an orc and a monstrously powerful one at that. I could only pray that it was either uniquely impressive or that orcs were rare and few in number. Its beady, amber eyes confirmed its demise. I had seen enough dead, lifeless eyes in the goblins I had slaughtered to know the beast was dead.

I wasn’t brave enough to trust my intuition though and used the spearhead to tear into the beast’s throat. It was dead. I wanted to study it more, but first, I had to ensure the floor was secured. I left my ice cream bucket in the pool of blood and set out on patrol. The hallway was clear, but two apartments had had their doors torn off their hinges. Thankfully my apartment was intact, but the kitchens of both that had been broken into were ransacked. I re-checked the apartments that had goblin holes in case something crawled inside, but there was nothing there. My next puzzle was to wonder how the beast got in when the stairwell was locked, but the answer was rather obvious. It had probably ended up in an elevator, and then it happened to hit the button for floor 37, which brought it here.

I thought I had a way to secure the elevators, but it would have to wait until tomorrow. The floor was clear, and my bed was waiting. I had a scalding hot shower and felt a bit of the day’s stress wash away as I got ready for bed. I had to wash the blood off the ice cream bucket, and it was tragically quite melted after sitting in the elevator for two hours, but I was still looking forward to eating it as I crawled into bed. I remembered my phone was sitting on the bedside table and checked the date as I started to doze off. Thursday, May 13th, 2027. My sleep was plagued by nightmares of dying goblins, and Chez begging me to save him as poison ravaged his body.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday, May 14th, 2027

I awoke in darkness to the sound of arguing goblins and cursed when the light switch didn’t work. It was only two am, leaving four hours till sunrise, and the power wouldn’t kick in until thirty minutes after that. I grabbed my flashlight and followed the voices until I arrived at the bathroom. The door was open, and Chez was yelling at our newest companion while holding a dustpan full of shit.

He dutifully dumped it in the toilet, and I cursed as I realized I had to search the apartment and find the scene of the crime and steam clean it as soon as the power kicked in. Chez started to walk away when I said, “No,” and pointed at the toilet. Chez stared at me confused, so I walked over and pointed at the flushing lever. Chez slowly walked over and flushed the toilet but jumped in fright at the noise. I sighed and hoped he would remember to flush next time. I hadn’t even bothered trying to plunge the toilet he had ruined while I was hibernating in the higher floors.

I figured I might as well make use of the time I had, and the first thing I needed to do was alter my football pads. I had only tried to throw a spear once, and the pad prevented me from throwing correctly. I used my knife to cut the right pauldron off, which left the pads lopsided, but it ensured my throwing arm would be unhindered.

Next, I decided to exercise. I was planning on taking a day off after our harrowing experience, so wearing myself out a bit wouldn’t be dangerous. The green emergency lights in the hallway were still lit, so I could see well enough to start running laps, and Chez followed along dutifully. I did almost trip over the legs of the orc that were sticking out of the elevator, but after a quick stop to shove his obscenely dense body fully into the elevator, I had a clear path.

About halfway through my run, I got an alert I wasn’t expecting.

~Ding

Base Stat Improved: Speed Base Speed has reached level 5

I had assumed that since running leveled up my endurance, I would have to do sprints or at least something more than jogging to improve speed, but it seemed that there was overlap in activities that could improve stats. A short while later, another blue window appeared.

[Skill Unlocked: Running

(Speed Skill) Place one foot in front of the other until you arrive at your destination. Increases running speed by %1 per level. Current Level: (1)]

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, given that cleaning was a skill, but I had never imagined that running would have its own skill. I had thought that the speed attribute would be so directly related that a skill would be unnecessary, but I was glad to have it.

I pushed myself harder now that I knew there were two attributes and a skill I could improve, and when I finished, I dove straight into strength training. I added planks to my routine, though I couldn’t hold one for very long. I was struggling to remember strength training exercises that I could do without weights. My level-up from heaving goblin corpses into the abyss made me wish I had an unopened bag of rice to pick up and drop. I couldn’t think of a way to reliably seal up the one I had.

With that done, I still had a few hours to kill till the power came back on. I decided to get a head start on cleaning out the elevator and set Chez to work trying to crack open the orc and get the shard out. It didn’t go well. Chez simply did not have the arm strength to break the orc’s ribs. Resigned, I grabbed the wrench and took over. It took many blows to break the ribs enough to slide my knife through, but after that, it went much the same as it had with the goblins. The grey, muscled flesh was challenging to cut through, though. Soon I was holding its heart, and Chez was licking his lips.

The heart was much larger than a goblin’s, and I had to carve into it repeatedly before I found the shard, except it wasn’t a shard. It was a tiny ball. If it hadn’t been the same metallic blackened purple as the shards, I wouldn’t have been able to tell it was what I was looking for. Chez was staring at the mangled heart in my hands with longing, and I sighed.

Even if goblins and orcs weren’t human, eating sentient beings bothered me. On the other hand, the more orc meat Chez ate, the less of my food he would need, and the longer my supplies would last. I handed Chez the heart and heard a soft whimper from behind me. The female goblin was standing there, with a pitiful look in her eyes, and I noticed again how weak and emaciated she was.

I looked at Chez and was grateful I had continued working on his vocabulary. I pointed at our new companion and then at the orc’s corpse and said, “Eat.” Chez paused his scarfing, gulped down his current mouthful of orc heart, and muttered something in goblin. I heard a squeal of delight, and the female rushed past and started chewing on the orc’s neck.

I left them to their meal and headed back to my apartment. I still had the shards from the poisoned goblins in the pocket of my dirty cargo pants from yesterday, so I decided to scrub them and the strange ball all at once. Light would have been nice, but at least the water would work.

The water was cold without the electric heaters, but with a bit of soap and a scrub brush, the blood came off just fine. I was hesitant to put the shards in my mouth, though. Clean or not, the suffering those goblins had gone through was seared into my mind, and these had been inside their poisoned bodies. I agonized over whether it was worth the risk, stared at the shard between my fingers, and squeezed it slightly in frustration. The shard shattered between my fingers and dissolved into nothingness. A muted wave of euphoria washed over me, but it was nothing compared to the sensation of biting one in my mouth.

You have gained 1 soul shard!

I sighed in relief. I was starting to worry I would have to throw these shards away. Chez had only killed two of them, but I owed him after I took the majority of the profits last time. I would give him six and keep fifteen. I told myself that I just picked that number because it was an even five, but I knew it was a lie. I called Chez over and had him hold out his hand. I held his hand firmly just in case he tried to eat them immediately, set his six shards in his hand, and squeezed his hand into a fist.

Chez shuddered at the sudden rush of six shards at once and then scampered off when I released his hand. I assumed he would do some shopping while I tried to figure out what to do with the ball. I lifted it in my hand and was about to squeeze it, but then I remembered the muted rush and placed the ball in my mouth instead. The orc hadn’t been poisoned.

The euphoric surge was as intense as the time I took bites out of the massive handful I put in my mouth, and I sank to my knees as I basked in the ultimate pleasure before it faded into nothingness.

You have gained 10 soul shards!