Chapter 4

A fire burned in a pit at the back of Joe’s house. They sat near the fire with their backs to the house and the dogs managed to shove a head in each of their laps giving them two dogs a piece. They had finished eating the leftover cold pizza, probably the last pizza they would have for a very long time. Sarah was watching for movement in the darkness. The fire messed with her night vision, but the benefits of having a fire outweighed the disadvantages. She looked over at Joe asking, “Joe, did you find out anything?”

Joe looked up from the fire, and she saw a glimmer of blue light in the back of his eyes. He moved his hand in front of his face like he was moving something to the side. “A bit. At least, I know why I have not gotten any more skills. I have more than I should, so until my intelligence catches up there will be no more skills for me.”

“Joe how does intelligence determine skills?”

“Well Sarah from what I get from the menus every character can have three skills, as long as your intelligence is above five. From there, it’s based on your intelligence and level. So, a 10 intelligence will normally get you three skills, after that it’s one for every 2 points of intelligence over 10. My intelligence attribute is 15, so I should be able to have five skills. That said I have ten skills, could be a First thing, but I have a feeling until my intelligence attribute gets higher I’m stuck skill wise. Levels come into play with professions, as a combat class I can put 50 percent of my skills into professions. It's allot but you have to have a trainer or skill books for almost all profession skills. Also you don't need to have skills to do things. I can climb a tree without a climb skill, but I don't get any bonuses either. Other than that you get at least one class skill every five levels from the system."

“Joe, I have a lot of skills, and my intelligence stat is only at 10”

Joe hmm’d. “Check your race. Focus on it and you should get more information.”

Sarah focused on the Winged Valkyrie on her status page.

Winged Valkyrie (Rare)

The Winged Valkyrie are a race of warrior women descended from Divine Valkyrie and a Winged Elf. All the descendants are female and breed true regardless of the race of their male partner. Due to their Divine heritage, they are immune to all types of disease. They receive bonuses in all combat skills, starting with ten combat skills instead of the normal three skills. However, they are only allowed to choose a non-combat skill at every 10 levels and are only allowed to choose a single profession skill at level 20, 60 and 100. Every level they gain 1 attribute point in Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and Agility with an additional 2 points to distribute.

Sarah said “Damn, I’m a badass. I can gain up to 10 combat skills at level one. They really restrict me on other skills though, but I can live with it.”

Joe nodded “That’s good but try and save one of those skills for a ranged skill.”

“Joe?”

“Yes?”

“How do you have 15 intelligence?”

Joe laughed. “I’m the First with a capital F. It seems I was the first human to be.... absorbed? Infected? Not sure what to call it, but it came with some bonuses. Speaking of which, I forgot about these.”

Joe held out his left hand. Small purple lights appeared out of nowhere and coalesced into a card in his hand. “This is a rare weapon ticket. I also have a land token but when I focus on it all I get is a countdown timer.”

Sarah smiled and held out her own hand. A black weapon ticket slowly appeared. “Aww, I didn’t get a light show, but it is a common weapon ticket.” Sarah stared at hers. “It seems I can upgrade an existing weapon or make a new one.”

Joe grinned, nodding his head. ”Same with mine. It’s just more special.” Joe ran his fingers through his beard “Wonder if I can apply it to the wood axe?”

Sarah giggled. “You’re special all right, First Boy, but there is only one way to find out.”

Joe smiled, grabbed the wood axe from the ground next to him. “True.”

Holding the ticket up against his weapon he got this.

Would you like to upgrade your wood axe?

Joe hesitated “Do you think we should try your common one first? I would hate to waste it and end up with a wood axe of chopping.”

Sarah smiled “Yes, we can do that. After everything you have given me, it’s the least I can do. But what do we use it on?” After thinking a moment, she said “Hand me your axe.”

Joe passed her the wood axe. Taking the axe from Joe, she held up her ticket to the axe.

Would you like to upgrade your wood axe?

Sarah said, ”Yes.”

Would you like to improve the wood axe, change type of axe, or replace it entirely with a new weapon?

“Joe, would you like to improve it, change its type or make a new weapon.”

Joe thought a moment, “Try great axe. Wait! Dwarven great axe. It’s best ta be specific.”

Sarah nodded “Dwarven great axe it is.” With those words, the ticket broke into small black particles and sank into the wood axe.

Release the wood axe.

Quickly letting go, Sarah watched as the familiar white mist poured out of the ground to surround the wood axe. The axe slowly stretched out to five feet in length with 12-inch half-moon blade and a heavy spike coming out the opposite side. The bottom three feet of the handle was covered in braided leather, and as the last of the mist faded away it start to fall toward her. She quickly grabbed the weapon, “Whoa, this is heavy Joe.” She looked over at Joe and it looked like he had fallen in love.

Joe reached for the great axe. “May I?”

“It’s yours Joe.” Sarah said, as she handed him the great axe.

“Thank you, Sarah.”

Joe stood up disturbing Milo and Charlie. Yawning, Charlie, who considered himself Alpha dog, looked up at Joe and a voice in Joe’s head asked *Danger?* That’s cool, Joe thought, they don’t need to bark for me to understand them. Now can they understand me, Joe looked at his dogs thinking *Safe.* Charlie settled back down falling right back to sleep. Good to be a dog sometimes. Joe leaned the great axe against the side of his house. He brought the purple card up to the Dwarven great axe almost touching it.

Would you like to upgrade the Dwarven Great axe (Common)?

Joe glanced over at Sarah and said ”Yes.”

Would you like to improve the Dwarven Great axe, change type of axe, or replace it entirely with a new weapon?

Joe said, “Improve it.”

The ticket slowly started to glow. As it continued to brighten, Joe started to get a little worried. A beacon in the night next to his house was not something he had expected. Joe thought to himself “Well nothing I can do about it now.” As he watched, the light moved to the head of the axe, and sank into the weapon. The glow spread from the head of the axe out to the rest of the weapon. As it spread, the light slowly dimmed, and he was able to make out some of the details of the weapon. It was beautiful. The metal of the axe acquired blue highlights. The head of the axe now resembled a dwarf wearing a great winged helmet with the wings forming the base of the double blades which extended out 12-inches from the haft. A large spike extended from the top of the helmet. Runes formed along the blades with fancy Celtic knots running along the haft. As if adding a final touch, a pair of purple gems formed in the eye sockets of the helmet.

Dwarven great axe of Shout has been created. Do you wish to name it?

Several names from books occurred to him, but the name of a magic axe he had gotten as loot in his first role playing game won out. Joe said “Helm Cleaver.”

Dwarven great axe of Shout renamed Helm Cleaver.

Sarah said, “That was sooo cool.”

Joe nodded “It was, but I am afraid of what may have seen the light.” Joe slid the cover over the fire pit. It wasn’t perfect with all the holes, but they would both see better in the dark.

Joe looked at his four dogs. The whole mental telepathy thing was new, or was it? Thinking back, Joe couldn’t remember if he was translating the barks in his head or if the words accompanied the barks. It didn’t really matter. Besides, now was not the time for an internal debate. With a low whistle to get the dogs attention, he thought *Quiet. Be alert * and imagined the dogs moving out to lay in the tall grass. After a moment the dogs looked at him, then ran out into the grass before going to ground about where he imagined it.

60 minutes prior in the town of Oakhurst.

Eighteen-year-old Rachel Running Dear was running for her life. Things had been crazy ever since the blue screen saying something about Earth 2.0. She worked nights and while she must have missed what everyone was calling The Change, it hadn’t missed her. She had awoken to shouts from her family to find herself sitting on the ground next to her bed. She had turned into a centaur in her sleep. She wasn’t the only one. Her entire family had been changed into centaurs. The weird part was how everyone had gotten over being changed so fast. She went from “What the fuck!!” to “Well, that’s odd.” in a matter of minutes. The problems didn’t start until morning. The biggest being her fucked up neighbors. The Waltons were a whole extended family of screw ups before the change but after being turned into a bunch of goblins, things had gotten worse. Despite her parents’ protests, she had left to check on her friend Donna, barely making it halfway there before a ten-foot-tall thing attacked her. She had turned around and run back home, easily out distancing it, only to find a bunch of goblins in her front yard eating something. At first, she hadn’t recognized them but when she stared at the largest of them a blue box appeared in front of her. It said

Goblin Chief level 2, male, name: Hairy Gobeye

She only knew of only one person in town with that spelling and it was Hairy Walton. When they turned to look at her, she saw what they were eating… Mom! No! She couldn’t think about it right now, because she had to run, and run she did.

Rachel had been running away from one group fighting another all day. Not everyone in town had changed into monsters, and not everyone who changed had been aggressive, but she had to run. As it got dark, she encountered the goblins again, but there were more of them. The shock of seeing them again seemed to clear her head and she knew she had to get out of town. Heading east, she ran into the woods outside of town, but she was tired, and she kept having to stop. The goblins were still behind her and not having many options, she kept moving as fast as she could in the dark. Stopping once more to catch her breath, she saw a brilliant purple light flare briefly to her right. She was desperate and, in a worst-case scenario, maybe she could get one group of monsters to attack another. As she headed for light, it started to fade, however, she could see glimmers of a fire.

Rachel slowed as she spotted the five-foot wire mesh fence. Looking toward the fire, she could make out a short, bearded man, wearing something out of a fantasy movie, with a big axe. There was a winged figure off to the side. Wait! Was that an Angel?

“Identify yourself!” barked out the short man, lifting the axe to his shoulder.

The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place it. “Rachel Run…er…Hunter. I’m being chased by the Waltons.”

Joe thought he knew that voice, “Follow the fence to your left. There’s a gate.”

Joe looked over to Sarah. “Sarah, open the gate for her. I think I know her. She’s good people.”

Even as he said it, he heard high pitched voices coming from the woods. Being a Dwarf, he immediately recognized the language. “Goblins” he spat out.

As Sarah went to let Rachel in, Joe stepped back to the fire pit and kicked the cover off. The rush of air caused the flames to flare up. Joe heard cursing in both common and goblin speak. Even with everything going on, Joe was amused to discover he knew some goblin, not enough to hold a conversation, but he could swear in it. Kicking more wood into the fire, he stepped away from it. Keeping his back to house, he brought the massive head of Helm Cleaver up to his face, covering his exposed face from possible missile fire. Thinking about what Rachel had said he called out, “That you Hairy?”

The voices in the woods went quiet and a guttural voice came out of the dark woods, “Hello Joe. Seems you came out of the Change just fine. You always were the lucky one.” “Rachel! Why don’t you come on back out, so we can finish our dinner with your folks? No need to get Joe involved in our little neighborly dispute.”

Rachel heard Hairy’s comment and the memory of the goblins, the Waltons, eating her parents came back to her full force. She looked around for a weapon, any type of weapon. Sitting in a wagon nearby was a pole saw. The six-foot-long tool with a serrated edge fit her anger. Looking toward Joe she yelled “They ate my parents!!”

Hearing this, Joe stared into the darkness. “I think we’ll be keeping her. Any of you cowardly fucks come on to my land, I have someone you need to meet.”

Hairy screamed, “Kill him!! I want the women alive!”

The goblins rushed over to the fence easily climbing over it. They were green skinned, well-muscled, about four feet tall, with long noses and pointy ears. There were over twenty of the them carrying makeshift weapons: bats, lengths of pipe, and apparently anything they could find with an edge.

Joe stepped back near the fire, as several arrows came out of the woods. Most of the arrows missed, but one splintered against Helm Cleaver’s blade and another hit the back of one of the onrushing goblins head, dropping it the ground. As they got close to where his dogs were hiding, Joe thought *Attack and keep moving. *

Joe saw two of the goblins fall to the ground, the dark shapes of his dogs on top of them. When the dogs attacked, Joe charged forward into the lead goblin, bringing Helm Cleaver down in an overhand blow. Joe hit hard.

Damage 51(Base 30 x 1.7 strength bonus) Over half of original health lost in a single blow, Stunned, bleed effect 5 per second.

The blow knocked the goblin to the ground. Not wanting to lose his momentum, he redirected the weight of Helm Cleaver spinning around in a circle. As he was turning, he felt impacts on his side.

Damage 4(Base 10 x 2 Strength bonus - 80% Hvy Armor)

Damage 2(Base 5 x 2 Strength bonus - 80% Hvy Armor)

Finishing his spin, Joe spotted both goblins who had struck him. He swung Helm Cleaver and sliced them across their stomachs.

Damage 77 (Base 30 x 1.7 strength bonus x 1.5 momentum bonus) Over half of original health lost in single blow, stunned, bleed 5 per second, Target Disemboweled.

Damage 72 (Base 30 x 1.7 strength bonus x 1.4 momentum bonus) Over half of original health lost in a single blow, stunned, bleed 5 per second, Target Disemboweled.

Seeing the numbers, Joe started to laugh. He was a fucking tank in this armor! As he stepped over the dying goblins, he brought Helm Cleaver around to his next target.

Sarah looked over to Rachel standing with the pole saw in her hands, “Stay back and protect my flanks.” She drew her saber from its sheath and prepared to go help Joe. She saw him smash into a pair of goblins, disemboweling both of them. As he started to laugh, Sarah decided she was glad he was on her side. With the goblins focused on Joe, she lunged forward, driving her saber into the back of a goblin trying to flank him.

Analyze: Goblin (level 4), Male, Name: Burley Gobeye

Damage 36 (15 x 1.2 strength bonus x 2 Backstab bonus)

Recovering from her lunge the goblin turned toward her screaming, “Grogack!”. Three other goblins hearing him turned around to attack her. Burley sneered, “I’m going to enjoy cutting you up. Surround her, remember Dad wants her alive.”

With that he came toward her swinging his bat toward her head. Blocking the blow with her shield, she lashed out with the saber, caching him in the left arm, cutting deep. As she pulled back with the saber in her right hand, she twisted her torso and lashed out with the shield’s edge catching him in the throat.

Saber damage 18 (15 x 1.2 strength bonus)

Shield damage 24 (10 x 1.2 strength bonus, x2 critical hit, stunned. Target: Burley Gobeye throat crushed

Damage received 3 (10 x 1.5 strength bonus) - (60% medium armor +20% for slashing damage vs chainmail)

Sarah lunged forward aiming for the throat of the goblin carrying the metal bat. One of the goblins with a knife made a strangled scream as the serrated edge of Rachel’s pole saw ripped across his throat. Sarah’s lunge was deflected by the owner of the metal bat and she recovered from her lunge without taking further damage. Stepping back to stay close to Rachel, she found herself grinning, she didn’t understand why but she felt like this was what she was born for.

Hairy stood in the darkness watching the fight, and for the first time since eating that bitch Tracy, he was afraid. That bastard Joe was killing his people. Like a damn blender, he was tearing into the ones trying to surround him. He was already down eight of his 24 goblins and his people’s weapons were doing shit to the armor. Damn Joe and his fucking dogs. He needed to get his people out of there while he still had them. He yelled “Back into the woods! Back! Back!!!” More fell as they turned to run and the goblins morale broke, many of them running blindly into the woods. Turning to chase after the broken remains of his goblins, he swore to get even.