Four weeks after Benjamin had disappeared into the night in search of the goblin mage, there were still no signs of his return. Whether he was alive or not, Roland and the three elders had no clue, as for the villagers, after that rumor spread, most of them believed he had snapped, killing many before he fled into the forest abandoning his children. While other villagers mourned at the loss of loved ones, the evidence to them was the death of their brothers and fathers. Once these bodies were brought back from the caravan, to them, they could only see it as Benjamin being a guilty murderous fiend. Benjamin was already now known as a traitor and while he was out and about at god knows where, the only place for these villagers to vent, was at the man's children. Seeing them still live in the biggest house with the biggest yard and the many items they owned, this caused many to burn with jealousy and anger, some villagers could only scorn in thought.

(How can that bastard`s kids live in such a nice house? It isn't fair.)

(Damn it all, if I was in charge, I`d string those kids by the neck and let that Benjamin feel exactly how we felt.)

(That animal killed my brother and nobodies doing anything, is there no justice anymore.)

The thoughts of the villagers swirled with anger and impatience but what seemed to upset them the most is that Chief Roland had yet to do anything. Whether it be denouncing Benjamin or even telling the villagers any information at all, in the end, he only said that he was handling the situation but right now, people found little to no comfort in those words at all. As the days continued to pass by, the people could only grow more and more irritable.

Inside the Chief Hall, Roland was sitting at a table growing more and more confused and upset. His mind was filled with questions but no answers.

(Damn, was I wrong? Was that goblin just a normal goblin? Did Benjamin play me? No, it cant be. I may be losing my power day by day but my senses and instincts are still top notch. But then why, why is Benjamin still not back? Did he really slip up and die just like that? Was I wrong about that goblins power? Did I send Benjamin to his death?)

A storm brewed in Roland's mind as many chaotic thoughts both came and went like the wind. Roland had made many mistakes in his life over the years but he couldn't help wondering if letting Benjamin go that night was his biggest ever. He kept wondering if he should have waited, maybe raised some money to hire another mage to come to take care of it but Roland's pride wouldn't allow him to do something so low. That was admitting how weak he truly was at the moment and that was something he absolutely couldn't allow himself to acknowledge. All he could do now was wait, wait for Benjamin's return.

For now, he would do what Benjamin had asked of him and take care of Benjamins kids but he wasn't sure how long the villager's patience would last.

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It had now been two months since Benjamin had disappeared and winter was just about here. As the last few leaves finally fell, people were preparing more and more, making sure they were ready. The daily temperature was dropping regularly as daytime grew shorter and shorter.

The villagers worked harder and faster to use as much daylight as they possibly could before they had to turn in for the night and today was just like any other. Since Ben didn't return and the goblins never came for revenge, people assumed Ben was a murderer and people had already begun to publically scowl at Nia and Ben, even going so far as to say terrible things behind there back. The two children could only stay at home as to avoid there now scowling neighbors in hopes that it was all just a bad dream. As they sat in their house, they hoped and prayed that their father would come back as soon as possible and whisk them away to someplace safe.

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The moon was now full and shone down beautifully over a quiet little village before a few clouds quickly blocked it. The stars gleamed brilliantly as a tranquil wind swept its way through the calm forest. The night was quite enchanting as a peaceful stillness filled the ever stretching boundless seeming mountains. If only this peaceful atmosphere could have lasted. As the clouds gently parted, the light from the moon touched the edge of the forest and within its depths, 100 pairs of eyes could be seen reflected back, a quiet danger had made an appearance. With a hushed command, the creatures moved forward with silent movements. As they began to exit the forest, under the radiating moonlight their appearances could now be seen. Short in stature with pale green skin, pointed ears, and sharp teeth, these were goblins and the one leading was, of course, the goblin mage. Approaching the village, the large group crept in like little disgusting rats, however, they soon stopped. Standing quite a distance away from the Chief Hall, they quickly began to make their move.

The goblin mage was no fool, if he wanted his plan to work properly then he needed to act as long as possible without alerting the only one in the village that could stop him, a mage.

Sneaking from house to house, one after another a group of goblins would silently enter a home. With feathered steps, they would walk quietly up to a bed, a few goblins would then quickly stab the man sleeping several times or slit his throat killing him almost instantly before they would gag and tie up any women or children in the household before carrying them off into the woods. The goblins were becoming more and more excited as they sliced the men's throats. Seeing the men suddenly wake up with pain and shocked expressions, only for them to die soon after, seeing the despair and sorrow in the men's eyes, as the goblins watched the last bit of life finally drain from the men's eyes, the rush these goblins felt was like nothing they had ever experienced before. More and more houses were being broken into and now the goblins were starting to get greedy. Instead of just taking people, they were now taking items they deemed valuable. Whether it be farming equipment or even simpler things such as pots or pans, the goblins were gonna take it all.

As another goblin exited a home with his hands full, he carried many odd things, a pot a sword a couple of jars, he was even chewing some food he found in one of the many cupboards he had opened. Making his way out of the village, he struggled greatly trying to carry everything off and while doing so, he wasn't paying attention where he was going and immediately tripped.

*Bang, Crash, CLANG*

Everything he had in his hands crashed into the ground and the sword and pot struck each other making a loud echoing metallic ring. This suddenly alerted all of the goblins, they all quickly stopped moving and listened quietly. Nothing seemed to happen and all of the goblins released relaxed sighs as many wanted to rip their greedy friends head off. It was at this moment that a nearby tied up dog had woken up from the noise, it couldn't see anything in particular but it could smell something it absolutely didn't like.

*BARK BARK BARK*

The dog's loud barking began to wake a few households up and soon a man had gotten out of bed and lit a candle. Taking a look outside, he could see the barking dog but not much else. Looking around for a second, the man decided it was nothing.

"Shut up you dumb dog, I'm trying to sleep."

With that, the man turned around and went back inside but still, the dog continued to bark loudly. Finally, a few more men got up in anger and looked outside their homes as well, waving a candle around, it was then that a man spotted it. A few feet away, he could see the small stature of what seemed to be a child, shaking the sleepiness from his head, the man rubbed his eyes trying to get a better look. As he walked towards the child he said.

"Hey kid what are you...."

Before he finished his sentence, the man came to a complete standstill, in front of him was no child. That pale green skin, those pointed ears, and those sharp teeth. Even though the man was three times bigger than the goblin, he was still frightened beyond belief. Just as he was about to shriek in terror, the goblin mage pointed at the man and with a small whisper, he said.

"I command you...sleep."

The man, like a puppet with its strings cut, crumbled to the ground instantly, his mind in the void of a gentle dream, he was fast asleep. The goblin mage released a sigh of relief. He looked around making sure no one else was near and was just about to turn around when he noticed something terrifying. He was close, way to close to a building he didn't want to be anywhere near. Not because of the building itself but because of who resided within it. The goblin mage had done the one thing he never wished to do, he had used magic in proximity to this other mage. Before he could warn anyone, a sudden thunderous roar shook the sky.

"WHO DARES!!"

Roland's sudden roar had instantly woken every man women and child. The goblin quickly yelled to his friends.

"Plan B."

As many people exited their homes, what they saw before them instantly turned them pale in fright. House after house, was on fire and running towards the exit of the village, was what seemed to be a hundred goblins. A wave of intense anger took hold of many men as they dashed at these invaders with intent to kill, but in the end, they could only kill a few as the rest had managed to make a clean escape. Roland had wanted to chase down these vile creatures, especially the one leading them, that goblin mage but looking around, most of the village was burning and Roland could hear desperate screams for help. With a bit of bitterness, Roland could only choose to help these weak villagers. Using his ability to control fire, even with every man and women's help fighting to put the fire out, it still took Roland all night to quell every flame, in doing so his injuries only deepened. With overexertion, Roland's life had once more been reduced. While coughing up bits of blood, Roland called a meeting. The elders, as well as a few other villagers, looked at the pale and sickly looking Roland with concern. Roland, however, waved it off and said.

"Tell me, how many?"

One of the elders stood up and bitterly began to cry, he stumbled over his words as he said.

"178, including my son..... and his family, I....I."

The elder suddenly collapsed to his knees and began to cry out painfully, his son, his daughter in law, his two grandkids, he had nothing left. One of the other elders came over and helped the first elder up, after sitting him down in his chair, he spoke gravely about another matter.

"Chief, that's not all, some of those 178 are missing."

Chief Roland was caught off guard by that.

"Missing, what the hell do you mean missing? How can they be?"

The elder shook his head.

"Many of the houses may be badly damaged and unlivable but are still intact. Looking inside we found there were men with their throats cut still laying in bed, their families gone. Not burnt to ash from a fire but simply gone. I Believe those goblins were here for a while and kidnapped many people before they set fires."

Roland's vision shook as he looked at this elder, he could barely bring himself to ask but with a hard swallow, he did so anyway.

"How many do you believe they took?"

The man slowly held up four fingers.

"At least 40, When we finish sifting through everything, that number may even climb to 50."

Roland couldn't help but suck in a cold breath.

(So many, how could this have happened, under my watch no less. Damn damn damn, Benjamin, how could you fail? How could you lose?)

Roland had such confidence in Benjamin but it had all been for naught.

Suddenly a villager barged in, dragging behind him with a rope tied around its neck was a goblin with a small amount of life still within him. As the goblin was thrown to the floor, a few of the men recognized this goblin, it was missing an ear. When Ben was taking the caravan away from the village, many had witnessed a young woman go berserk and slice a goblins ear off and this was that goblin. One of the villagers couldn't help but shout out.

"Ah, that's the goblin that got its ear cut off the day the caravan was leaving."

The man saw that some were looking at him weirdly and so he quickly explained, many others recognized this goblin as well and stared at it with a burning fury. Roland understanding the situation, looked at this vermin and asked in anger.

"Why did you attack us? Where are the people you kidnapped?"

The goblin only laughed at Roland's words. This human was asking him such a stupid question, the goblin had found it funny. Roland and the others, however, were not laughing. Roland took his cane and pushed it into the goblins crouch, causing immediate pain. The goblin then began to scream in agony as he experienced an indescribable pain. Without anyone's notice, Roland had heated up the end of his cane with fire magic, so when the cane touched the goblins genitals, it was just like a hot poker. What little the goblin had down there was quickly blistering and burning, pretty soon it would be nothing more than charred ash. Soon a smell filled the room but the others just assumed that the goblin pissed or shit itself or both. They had no clue the smell was burning goblin flesh. The goblin quickly screamed out for it to stop and Roland did.

"Will you talk now or will you deal with my cane? The choice is yours."

The goblin quickly nodded its head.

"I talk."

The goblin stared at the men in anger but eventually gave up any hope.

"You people's fault we attack."

The men instantly grew enraged. The first sentence out of the goblin's mouth and it's blaming them. Roland simply signaled for them to be quiet before asking the goblin what everyone wanted to know.

"How could it possibly be our fault? When has anyone here ever done anything to you or your fellow goblins?"

Roland had just spoken but already recalled what someone had done. The goblin started to shout in anger.

"Your human friend, he kills my friends in mountain, then he wants to sell me and my friends. After we escape, he finds my home and kills more my friends, its all his fault, he kill us and our friends so we kill his friends."

Roland instantly understood but looked at the goblin in anger. Everything goes back to that first encounter. After Thomas and Jack ended up in their territory they killed Thomas without warning and were about to kill Jack but then Benjamin showed up and slaughtered a bunch of them, it's been a cycle ever since. Something still bothered Roland though.

"He killed your friends at your home as well?"

The goblin nodded.

"How many did he kill?"

The goblins face twisted in anger, after recalling that tragedy, with poisonous hate-filled eyes the goblin spoke coldly.

"623."

Hearing this number, everyone's jaw dropped to the floor, even Roland couldn't believe it.

"He killed so many within 2 months, how?"

The goblin shook his head to Roland's words.

"No, he kills 623 in one day."

Like a bomb had just gone off in everyone's mind, words could not be formed let alone thoughts, Benjamin truly was a monster.

Everyone seemed to understand all at once, no wonder, no wonder why these goblins would seek revenge, no wonder why they would kidnap and kill so many. Compared to the goblins, this village was doing exceedingly well. Roland shook the away any useless thoughts, he still needed the most important information of all.

"Where did you take my people, where is your home?"

But the goblin refused to answer this time. Roland became enraged and hit the goblin a few times with his cane, still, there was no answer. Once again he burned the goblin's crotch and even though the goblin screeched in torment, the goblin refused to say one word. This continued for a while. Roland would burn the goblin then hit him but he quickly ran out of energy and collapsed on the floor whilst spitting blood. He had used up too much energy and therefore spent too much life force. The villagers helped him up and continued the torture in his stead. Beating after beating but still no words, only agonizing screams. They beat him with a whip, slashed him with swords and knives, peeled his skin and continuously dunked him nearly drowning him several times but still he wouldn't talk. After several hours of torture, the goblins heart finally gave out and it died with a horrific and twisted expression across its face. The villagers felt utterly defeated. Roland sent many messengers to the two nearest villages that were only 2 days ride away, asking for fighters or anyone at all that could help search for his villagers but everyone he asked refused. Not only because they would have to go up against an entire village of goblins but also because in order to get to them, they'd have to cross the goblin border. They would be breaking a treaty and that was not something they would break for a few people. After learning the reason why the goblins attacked, the other villages became even more adamant in their refusal. They all looked at it as being Thomas, Jack, and Benjamin's fault. Since people were in the wrong and the goblins got their revenge, the other villages considered the matter over and no longer responded to Roland's letters.

Roland could only sink further and further into depression, this not only affected his people but Roland's pride as well. He was a proud mage and he had been thwarted by one of the lowest creatures in existence, this struck a deep chord with him. Now when the elders told the villagers what happened and when they blamed the dead Thomas, The alive Jack, and the presumed dead Benjamin, Roland had no reason to stop them. The way they treated Nia and Ben now was even worse and as their home was burned, they were now forced to live in a run-down shack and fend for themselves. Anywhere they went people would scowl at them and call them traitors, some kids would even throw things at them. Their year of anguish had just begun, meanwhile, even Jack and his family were affected. People blamed him as well and due to the harassment he faced, Jack moved himself and his family to someplace far away, he was never heard from or seen again. With 2/3 of the village burned and more than half of the people either dead or missing, the village became a sad and depressing place. With houses burned, people missing, animals and other items stolen, this already poor village became even worse off and the struggle they went through that winter was the worse one yet.

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Roland looked at Lowen with a face full of depression and shook his head bitterly.

"I don't know my self if I still blame Benjamin or not. If he never stepped into goblin territory then none of this would have ever happened but at the same time, he did what he thought was right. Would it have been over if he didn't go to the goblins home and kill hundreds of them or would they have attacked anyway I don't know, that's something I can't know."

Lowen stared at this old man who suddenly looked as though he aged more than 10 years in an instant. As he listened to Roland recounting the past events, he wondered something.

"Roland, why was that goblin mage so afraid of you? Is the gap in power between a 1st circle mage and a 2nd circle mage so great?"

Roland didn't even need to think, shaking his head no, he answered.

"The difference in power is minimal, besides a 2nd circle, the biggest thing that separates a 2nd circle mage from a 1st is the mental power one gains. It increases by a wide margin, as to why the goblin mage was afraid of me, I assume it was because it used some type of mind power while I used fire."

Roland had answered Lowen's question but Lowen had a sudden thought.

(Mind power, at the 2nd circle ones mental power increases by a wide margin. How would the goblin mage know that Roland uses fire, that's not what he was afraid of, it was mental power. Curiosity began to grow within Lowen as he thought about mental power.)