Leon

I learned a few things on the walk back the way I came this morning. I thought I was doing well to be level three after traveling all morning up until now. I may have been over estimating my prowess. My own desire to solo this new world might have clouded my judgement, just a bit. Why the change of heart? Well... Not an hour passes after we group up before Jenny hit's level three as well. This is on top of the fact that she has only been outside after escaping for a few hours. I'm rapidly gaining experience as well, though the actual amount is even smaller now that it's split between two people.

I blame the fact that by myself I had to balance how much MP I had at any given time. Jenny on the other hand has 36 arrows she can blow through before making more from just about every twig she finds. Adding [Sharp Tooth] to her arrows apparently adds more damage, and most of her arrows are recoverable for repeated use. The arrows she makes are short range and inferior to the ones she got initially so she uses those first. But needless to say, her hunting speed is just plain faster and more consistent than mine.

I finally ask how she manage to get stuck in a tree if she's so good at killing these rats. Apparently, she wanted to test a skill that needed more than one enemy. Despite her level, her agility was high enough to easily dodge multiple [Rodentia] so she ran around letting a few gather around her, then ran a short distance away and unleashed her skill, [Scatter Shot]. The skill hits one enemy then fragments of the arrow exploded stunning and damaging enemies around the target, [Rodentia] are so weak she thought the fragments would kill instead of stun the adds. It didn't. the exploding arrow drew out more rats, and before she knew it, she was fighting a swarm of the vermin.

Her class is [Woodsman] with passives on Arrow and short blade damage. She as an active [Camouflage] ability in wooded areas and the ability to skin things. But what may prove to be most useful is her [Tame Animal] ability. She's been trying to use that on every rat we encounter but no success as of yet.

Given that the system focuses on bonuses to classes rather than limitations, I assumed I would be, not only fine, but better off on my own. That may still be true at higher levels, but right now, I am still a glass cannon. Jenny on the other hand is a soldier.

We hunt for the rest of the day making our way back to the last Goblin encampment I came across. Our pace is... phenomenal. I'm going to have to revise my plans a bit. It's obvious people working together are going to help more than hinder each other, though it still depends on the people, of course.

Finally, at a house turned pawn shop on the street we travel, we come across one of the more isolated Goblin outpost. The guard on duty looks less alert than the ones I saw this morning. maybe time for a shift change?

The day of hunting as left us both at level four. I now have 13 points to distribute, and level three [Fire Shot] is 10-19 damage for 9 MP. Throwing 3 points into strength gives me 200HP the rest is split evenly between INT and WIS, getting me 255 MP and a ridiculous regen of 108 a minute. Without the wisdom stat I would only be looking at 12 regen a minute, though my mana pool would be larger. I want to get my MP regen high enough to leave [Haste] and [Stone skin] continuously running.

Stonskin

50 MP, 3mp/s

Magic Defense

10% Armour

--

Turtle Turtle!

It's at Jenny's insistence that we are here. I left the house this morning thinking I'm surely pragmatic enough to do whatever I need to in this new world, But I'm really having trouble at the thought of killing these humanoid creatures. On my own I think it's likely I would have kept coming up with reasons to avoid them. Oh well, time to put up or shut up.

The plan is simple. Since Jenny takes less damage than me for some reason and I can cast [Haste] on her, but not [Stone Skin]. She'll stagger by the lone guard, acting injured, then act surprised when she see's him and hobble away in fear. Hopefully he follows and when far enough away from the house, we double team him.

Definitely a few areas where this can go to shit, but running away, as a backup plan, got unanimous approval. Surprisingly it works even better than expected. The guard comes on alert when he see's Jenny but when he see's that she's 'hurt', he DROPS HIS SPEAR!? Are you kidding me? The little green monster takes after Jenny with no regard for anything else. Jenny hobbles past my hiding bush, a few moments later, the little green bastard runs by with a disturbing tent in the loincloth.

Green Goblin

Level

Type

Health

Mana

6

Humanoid

75

30

I waste no time and place a fire shot into its back. It screeches and turns around only to get another in the face. as it claws at its eyes, 2 arrows sprout from the back of the creature. It dies quickly but I'm worried about that screech.

I focus on the house, no need though, none of its buddies seems to have noticed they're one manling short. An awful lot of noise surrounds every Goblin house I've come across though. That might explain it.

"Did anything drop?" I ask when Jenny comes near.

"Some coppers and this," she hand me something to identify.

Cloth Pouch

Upgrade Material, Small Item Storage

OK, so I guess there really is no avoiding these things, I need these pouches to upgrade my inventory. Jenny has almost the exact same quest, but hers is from Sigma-33. She wont tell me the exact quest text though. A little testing shows this pouch is basically an inventory slot, but it really can only hold small items. Backpack no, but [Sharp Tooth] yes. We put the teeth we have collected so far, not a small amount, into the pouch and strap it to Jenny's thigh. Still no response from the house, so we wait another half an hour.

When the Sun is starting to hit the horizon, we briefly argue about setting the house on fire. She's for it. I'm also for it. We are arguing about how safe it isn't. We sneak up to the side of the house anyway and I start to cast Fire shots at it, but it just won't light up. Damn. I don't have anything flammable to help out and it's getting too dark to go running about the street. We sneak around to the front of the house. Still no new guard. Inside sounds like the kitchen cookware came alive and are having the world's loudest gang bang.

We grab the discarded spear then confer. This girl is brave, suicidal or just plain reckless, maybe all three. She wants to sneak in, I want to go find a place to crash and come back in the morning. She rightly points out it may be just as unsafe to run around in the dark as attacking the house. I'm not sure that's accurate but...

She decides to sneak toward the front door, assuming I'll follow. Sigh. We get to the entrance and, yup, should have expected this...

Dungeon

Small Green Goblin Abode

A Base settled by a small Goblin band

Difficulty

Levels 5-10

Type

New Dungeon

Inside there is a long hallway leading to the back of the house, with former living room, dining room,and what looks like a kitchen leading off at the back. The house is deafening. Screeching, banging pots and pans and a general ruckus of epic proportions is taking place. These guys are having a party of some sort.

The first room is off to the left just a few feet in. I poke my head around the bottom corner from the hall to have a look. The windows are crowded with obsolete merchandise and so are the walls. What really catches my attention though are the two goblins passing an old timey wine skin back and forth, having a loud conversation with much laughter, in what I'm going to assume is their native language. They're on the other side of the room, but their spears are against the wall next to my head.

I turn back to Jenny. "Simple plan, you take the one on the right, I'll take the left. There's only 2." She only nods.

We round the corner and immediately start shooting. Their reactions are slow and their screeching come close to the existing noise level of the rest of the house. Still, they go down fast enough. One burned in the head and chest the other feathered with 3 arrows. Jenny's target was level seven.

Unlike the outside sentry, which I avoided taking a close look at, I can't help but see the damage we do here. The light has gone out of their eyes. I know I've killed someone, not just something now. I want to take time to wallow in my own guilt and misery over this, but there is no time for that.

Only one dropped a pouch, but they drop 7 copper coins between them. The next room is more difficult, but even I feel confident, with three kills under our belt. I see four goblins inside. Two are passed out though and the other two look like they would like to join them, but only after they finish whatever they're drinking. We take out the ones awake in much the same manner as the first two, then switch to the ones struggling for consciousness. It's not as quiet as I would have liked. My nerves are fracked. I keep a look out while Jenny collects the loot. One more pouch and a few more coppers are ours.

Finally though it seems, someone might have noticed something was wrong. A lone Goblin is coming down the hall towards us. We hide beside the entryway, not knowing what to do. The goblin gets closer and closer, it looks like he is going to walk right past this room. Thank you 'Being that resides in this part of the Universe'. But the silence , most likely, makes him glance into the room. Before his dead friends can register and before I can think of the best course of action, Jenny Runs at him and slams her knife into his chest. I forgot she had that thing. I can't fire a shot, she's too close, I run out into the hall too. The Goblin isn't dead though. He's on the ground wheezing, blood trickling from the mouth. I help drag him into the room we were just in.

He's in a pretty pitiful state. Clawing weakly at the knife. A stand up fight is one thing, but I don't think I can just finish him off like that. Jenny seems to feel the same way. I sigh quietly, Jenny was quicker on her feet than I was and likely kept this one from raising the alarm. It's my turn to at least pretend to be a bad-ass. I look down at the green dude, I know we can't leave him at our backs, that would just be stupid. Fuck it. Before I can think too much about it, I yank out Jenny's knife and slam it into his throat. I avoid looking at the goblin until I'm sure it's dead. I don't need those kind of thoughts right now.

There are two more rooms on this floor plus the kitchen. We can either wait here and pick them off as they pass by, hopefully one by one, or continue on and hope for the best. In either case we risk being overwhelmed. There are stairs at the entrance we could use, but I didn't want to end up trapped on the second floor with no escape but a window. Of course if we continue on, A goblin could come down the stairs and trap us between enemies.

Sigh, I hate this. One choice isn't really much better than the others, leaving me indecisive. I don't mind hard choices, so long as one is better than another, but this situation... It's Jenny who come up with a decent plan.

We go back and up the stairs. There are two rooms to the left and three to the right, one of which is a bathroom. only one door, to the immediate right, is open so we have to check that one out first. We get into the room and freeze. I tell Jenny in a low voice our best course of action is to stick to the plan. It's a struggle, but we manage to quietly drag everything that isn't tied down, even the single beds, to the top of the stairs. We stand the beds up on their headboards and lean them against the railing. The dresser is next, easy enough, with the drawers out. It's stood directly in front of the stairs.

Our own retreat is somewhat blocked, but if it's right now, we can still be down the stairs and out of the house fairly quickly. The second room on the right, has a surprise in it, 3 goblins, only one of which looks up when we enter. We could hear them though, so we are prepared. I jump forward with [Stone Skin] and use [Splash] in the middle of them. The hardest part was gathering my courage and not being a pussy in front of Jenny. The three are thrown in different directions. As per the plan, we both take the one closest to the door. It dies, and the time for ranged combat is over. Like the ones down stairs, their spears are against the door frame, so the remaining two are unarmed. Jenny closes the door and pulls her knife just in time to meet the charge of one goblin. I pull my bat out of inventory. Good thing since I only get off one [Fire Shot] before it's too dangerous and close for magic.

My opponent is wary of the bat and I'm wondering about it's claws and teeth. Whelp, screw it. I rush forward with a right to left downward swing. The little bastard dives to the left and tries to get at me before I can recover, but I'm in a good position to deliver a kick, so I do. He's small and gets knocked back into a dresser. Jenny gives a muffled yell from behind me, but I can't really take my eyes off the prize at the moment. A downward swing from me misses a green head, but catches a shin. I feel the bone snap all the way through the bat. There is a shriek of pain but I no longer have any hesitation. Not after what we found in the other room. My Bat come down hard on the Goblin's head.

I turn around to see Jenny struggling to put her knife into her goblins throat, But desperation is making him strong enough to resist her. She'll win in time, but we don't have time. I run over and swing my bat close to the floor, it's a weak hit, but enough to dazed the little shit. Jenny finishes him quickly.

We nod at each other but follow the plan. I run to the window and open it, Jenny goes to the door and peeks her head out. We both wait, frozen, listening and sweating. Finally she signals me that it all clear. Phew, I really don't want to have to jump out of a second story window. Loot is collected and we resume moving furniture to the top of the stairs. Jenny as a shallow bite on her right arm.

We both leveled after that fight, so points are distributed and, nice. New skills and abilities! These will come in handy in a moment.

Next is the Bathroom, with another, more pleasant surprise. A little Girl is Gagged and tied up in the bathtub. She looks like she fell off of a 1950's movie poster, with a ridiculous level of Curly Blond hair and Blued eyed cuteness. She's somewhere between 5 and 9, hell if I know. She's dirty but not starved, so far at least. she's still clothed and seemingly unharmed. That's good enough for me, I go to close the door, but Jenny rushes in and starts to remove her gag.

I hiss at her to stop, but she doesn't listen. I have to physically drag her away and she punches me. I don't know what to do, so I lock my arms around her and hold her as best I can until she stops struggling. Thankfully we are both smart enough to make little noise during the fight.

"If she makes any noise after you remove that gag, all three of us are going to die." I whisper to Jenny. She's finally calm enough to realize what I was worried about. The little girl meanwhile is crying and struggling and moaning louder than I would prefer.

"See what I mean?"

"We can't leave her here like that!" jenny fiercely whispers back. Sigh, seriously.

"I never said anything about leaving her here." I was thinking it, but just in case we don't make it, it would suck for this girl to suffer after being so close to rescue. "Help me move her to the window. she comes with us, if we have to bail."

The little girl is still trying to make noise, so Jenny has to agree I might have a point. I go talk to her while jenny keep a look out. I lean down into the tub and whisper at the girl. "Be quiet. how are we supposed to escape if you keep making noise!?" She goes still as the key words 'escapes' and 'quiet' do their magic. I continue, "We can't remove your gag because, now I can't trust you to keep quiet when it counts. We are going to move you next to the window, in case we have to leave in a hurry, so keep quiet, you understand?" After a vigorous head nod, Jenny and I do just that. I think for a second then send the girl a party invite, telling her to accept.

Zoe has accepted your party invite

There is nothing in the bathroom worth moving to the stairs except the toilet tank cover. Two rooms left and both sound like they have occupants.

The Rooms are next to each other so noise is a problem. Both sound like they have at least three Goblins in them. Either we charge into one room, and probably alert the other occupants or charge into both and face 6 Goblins at once. We agree we don't want to face armed Goblins so we are going to open both doors and take the spears, that are likely against the wall.

First I give jenny all my Kitchen knives for her new skill [Knife Throw], the she uses [Mana Trap] at the floor of the left door. We take a deep breath and go about our tasks. I open my door she opens hers. I take up 3 spears from the wall and put them in my inventory, I assume Jenny is doing the same. I cast my new spell

Quicksand

50 MP, 2mp/s

Magic Assist

Damage n/a

Movement debuff

Not so fast!

I drop a large circle of influence centered on my position, it should help Jenny too if any of her opponent come too close. I start with [Fire Shot] but there are three of them. I only manage to drop one before they reach me, but another new spell make them both reel back, I follow closely though. The [Quicksand] circle moves with me. They can't retreat fast enough, but they do separate, forcing me to concentrate on only one of them.

Flamethrower

60 Mana 5/s

Magic Attack

Damage 10-25

Ignite

Needs more fire!

At 10-25 damage per second, it didn't start off much better than a level three [Fire Shot], but it did hit every second, finally letting me see the secondary effect of fire spells. The target goblin started to burn on his own. My MP dropped from 265 at the beginning of this fight to less than 70. I was tempted to use one other new spell to finish the last Goblin, but that might be stupid, so I pulled the bat instead. He was still burned and wary, but alert. Quicksand kept him from dodging too well though, so It only took a few more seconds to use the bats longer reach to finish him. I deactivated Quicksand and went looking for Jenny.

She hadn't even needed her trap, with my Quicksand active , she just burst in and threw every knife until two were dead, then finished off the last one with her arrows while backpedaling down the hall. These guy had been a bit stronger level seven's and Eight's. Strong enough to live long enough to make too much noise.

The clamor down stairs has stopped. Then a lone Goblin voice calls out. Jenny and I stay absolutely still, just staring at each other in dread. We expected this, this was part of he plan. Didn't help knowing we were going to die though. We decide to move at the same time, Jenny pulls her bow and gets ready to hold off who and whatever comes, I start to move some of the lighter furniture out of the last two rooms. More voices are calling from down stairs, we naturally don't answer.

I move a few night stands and start to drag out another single mattress, when Jenny lets off a shot. There's a shriek down stairs and we are definitely out of time.

The mattresses are toss unto the stairs to fuck with the footing. A few moments later there are about 20-30 or so very angry Goblins at the foot of the stairs. Jenny is using her three combat skills, two of which are new. [Stun Arrow] disables a single target, and whoever is in front trying to climb up the stairs gets that one. [Quick Shot] Fires 2 arrows so rapidly it looks like one draw on the string. Her [Scatter shot] Also stuns targets with minor damage giving her time to do more damage.

I start to toss every thing over the railing and unto the mass of green bodies. Clothing, empty drawers, the night stands, then when they get too close, the heavier dressers, and even a fairly large mirror. Then the beds. I quickly run into the last two rooms and toss the drawers as well, the dressers are too heavy to move by myself. After a few minutes, my Mp is recovered and there are only a few goblins left. The stairs are impassable and they are pissed. But jenny is out of arrows too, so they are getting ready for another push.

Jenny goes to collect the kitchen knives from the earlier battle while I get ready to meet the leftovers. I haven't used any magic yet, so they won't know what to expect now that they are no longer in danger from arrows. They probably think i'm a short range fighter.

We let them scramble their way to the top of the stairs, glaring at us the whole time. I think about jeering at them but I don't have the nerve or inclination. When they are near the top, too close to turn back, Jenny starts throwing knives. I reactivate [Quicksand] and pepper them with fire shot. They force their way through, only losing 2 more. There are 3 left and one is in Armour and has an Axe.

Jenny and I retreat towards Zoe, she has run out of knives again. I keep shooting, wishing I had given her the bat. The last three are close enough to lounge at me, and I use [Flamethrower] when they do. The Armored one survives and is the only one left. Rather than back into the room with Zoe and Jenny I back into the first room on the right. Firing the whole time but doing little damage. I take a good look at this guy.

Green Goblin Leader

Level

Type

Health

Mana

10

Elite Humanoid

138/200

24/80

Oh. Great. I'm almost out of MP so I deactivate [Quicksand] and pull the bat out of inventory. I only thought I was afraid before, but this time I really am going to die.

"Jenny! Run!" No point in both of us dying, the stairs are a mess but I might be able to hold this goblin until they get outside. but then what? This room as fairly large windows and I can see outside has only a few minutes of sunlight left. After that surely it wont be safe out there for anyone.

Sigh, I don't have much confidence in taking this guy and after killing his troop, I doubt he'll let me negotiate a surrender. Assuming he speaks English.

Finally he gets tired of waiting for me to make a move and lounges at me. I jump away avoiding the Axe. Despite everything that's happened today, this is the most surreal moment for me. An Axe for God's sake. I fire off a lone [Fire Shot] , my recharging MP dropping by 9.

The damage is negligible. I figure about 15 more of those and I might just win, it would only cost my about 90 more MP than I have. Not to mention he would basically need to stand still. But that's not on the agenda. He come in with a nice full horizontal swing, and I'm forced to jump back again. I hit the wall. Crap. Another swing but I drop completely to the floor. I start rolling and crawling along the wall to the corner.

Worst place I can be, nowhere to dodge. I turn and face my executioner, but this time rather than waiting to die, I take a wild swing in the general vicinity of his face, which is only chest high to me, but he easily blocks it. That's OK, I was expecting that, I take another swing straight down for his head, but I'm not expecting to hit anything, I'm waiting for... NOW! I dive out of the way of the straight jab by the head of the Axe. I end up in front of the window, but at least I'm out of the corner. I toss another fire shot to celebrate being alive for another few seconds.

The Goblin takes a step towards me, when an arrow magically appears in his arm. He's more shocked than I am, so I take advantage. Another wild swing from me sends the Axe flying out of his weakened grip, but now he's clearly enraged. He turns and charges at me, so quickly it must be a skill. I take a small shoulder to the chest and am surprised by how strong this guy is. The pain is less surprising, but still unwelcomed. The other surprising thing is the sound of broken glass and the wind at my back. I've grabbed unto the goblins armour so we are both about to become lawn ornaments. As if. I use my second to last new skill and almost all my regenerated MP

Slowfall

Type

Magic Assist

Damage n/a

---

I can see my house from here!

The Goblin Leader is rip out of my grip as our velocities suddenly differ from each other. He hit's the concrete driveway with a heavy thud while I float gently down, landing not far, a few moments later. Well, that was way too close! My MP as bottomed out, I don't know where the bat is, and the sun is just about to go night-night. For a brief moment I'm about to throw up again, but I manage to man the fuck up. This is life now. Well, at least he was worth another level up.

I search around the green goblin leader and find a silver coin as well as a few coppers and, Oh? A book? I smile, that could only be a good thing. there is also a ring and a jewel.

I strip the chest armour off and make it inside just as the sun is setting.

'Being that resides in this part of the universe', what a day!

Status

Name

Leon

Level

6

Health

270

Mana

275

Stamina

170

Strength

27

Intelligence

29(26)

Dexterity

13

Agility

17

Wisdom

15

N/A

0

N/A

0

N/A

0

Status

Name

Jenny Revenge

Level

6

Health

250

Mana

140

Stamina

270

Strength

25

Intelligence

14

Dexterity

20 (19)

Agility

28 (26)

N/A

0

N/A

0

N/A

0

N/A

0