I should have asked more questions, do assigned missions generate more side-quest’s? or is it something to do with my [gut feeling] skill. Too little too late at this point, I’ll have to ask Ianata when I get back. Jesus I wish I could sleep. I don’t trust the locals though. Not that they are overly aggressive, every time I look out and up the road they are in the same place, it does appear I’ve gotten a guard though. There’s definitely someone watching the back of the house too, I can hear him moving around occasionally, I hope he doesn’t think he’s stealthy or he’s in for a rude awakening.

Looking over at Kelly, she’s pretty enough after all the snot and tears are dried and cleaned off probably be prettier without the bruises. Shoulder length dark-brown hair, her nose is one of those that come to a roundish end, but are slightly upturned, her smallish mouth hasn’t smiled since I met her, but that is completely understandable. I give a little sigh, I guess I should wake her up, I need information. The poor girl has circles around her eyes dark enough to make a raccoon jealous. “Kelly, I’m sorry to wake you.” I put my hand on her shoulder and she sits bolt upright trying to swing a punch in my direction. In my surprise I don’t even think to dodge, it’s a solid left-handed jab to my chest. “I’m so sorry! I don’t do well with being touched.” She looks a little embarrassed, but it’s not like she broke something

“No worries. I’ve never been in the exact situation you were, but I’ve been in situations that leave you feeling powerless and weak. Few people come out the other side the same. I don’t have the cure-all, only advice I have is don’t let it break you. Shitty advice, but it’s all I got.” I’ve gotten through most of my hard times with compartmentalization1, and either pure force of will, or unbridled hatred none of these are even close to the ideal ways of dealing with trauma, especially long term. I haven’t broken yet though.

“I woke you up because I need information and I don’t know how much longer I’ll have before they come back, so I need to get it from you as soon as possible. I need to know; are these people worth saving? I get a very odd feeling from Doug, everything about the situation with the people here makes me anxious, and the story he gave me about your group leaves me feeling like it is not on the level. Did they mistreat you? Are they closet bandits? Is Doug just a shitty leader? I will complete my mission either way, but I don’t have enough information on the people I am working for, and I hate being at a disadvantage.” Taking the advice and word of an 18-year-old girl who is still recovering from a severe trauma is not ideal, but I’ve taken less savory intel from crappier sources.

“They haven’t mistreated me. I’m not exactly let into the inner circle though. The town probably has somewhere between sixty and seventy people, and a most of us aren’t allowed up into the center building, that big gray house at the end of the cul-de-sac. It's something of a base. Doug isn’t a leader, he’s a member of the security force that usually guards the gates and other things around town. I’m almost sure whoever is in charge is trying to form some kind of popup kingdom type of thing. I’ve only been here for a month, maybe a month and a half?" The statement brings a distant look to her eyes, with a little nostalgia behind them, "The people I came here with were drafted into the foraging crews, the whole crews disappeared it wasn't just my friends.” She doesn't seem too phased by that, there's a story there, or maybe she's just good at suppressing her feelings. Kelly opens her mouth in a yawn, and quickly closes it with a snap when she realizes she hadn’t even tried to cover. A little red in the cheeks, she pushes on, “this place isn’t ideal, definitely not safe either. The town proper is pretty close and I think the school up the road is spawning monsters. Most of this little area is just covered by some foot patrols with the exclusion of the end were on here that is” she air quotes ” 'fenced’ they’ve got posts and some plyboard up but it’s not great. Something breaks through every couple of days, noone has died in at least a week though. the defenses arent better, just nobody is going outside.”

“A few more questions and I’ll let you get back to sleep, is there anything suspicious going on at the gray building? People go in and don’t come out, more activity after dark? This town feels wrong, I’m not I can get past leaving you here if something wonky is going on.” I can see that she has turned red and is looking everywhere but my face, I dont want to give her the wrong idea so I need to lay down some uncomfortable truth. “Don’t get too excited. You seem like a good kid, and I want to help you, but I can’t take you with me once this missions over. Aside from the fact that I’m fairly certain it’s physically impossible, I can barely take care of myself at this point.”

“That’s not why I’m embarrassed. You brought me in from the woods, carried me for at least a mile back to town, risking your life bringing me here. I repaid you by snoring half the night, and punching you." , she starts playing with her hands and shoves them in between her folded legs, I see a little bit of a smile through her hair as she says " You could always stay with us, I haven’t been mistreated here, and people will get used to your looks. You might have to work on the manner’s but most people are assholes now-days anyways.” Her smile is a bit timid, but an immense improvement.

“I’m sorry, I really can't stay. I’ve got a week, at most, to report back. Even if I didn’t, I really like my job. I might settle down someday, but I’m getting to go all around the world and help people. I used to be in the army, I really was a human before I got changed. I was in for a few years, and I felt like I was making a difference, but it’s hard to see when you’re only visiting a town once or twice every few months and then never seeing it again after your tour is up. This job has me making even more direct changes, your alive because of the actions I’ve taken, that’s not hubris, I did that. It’s not something the old me could do, and I want to see where I can take this. I'm truly sorry, I’ve got to change the subject back. Having feels makes me uncomfortable.” My trademark stellar mental condition paired with my winning attitude showing through now.

Information, I need information “anything odd you can think of around here?” she scrunches her face a little “I’ve never actually met the leader of this place, we were told the guy in charge is the one who actually owns the company that built the subdivision. He’s supposed to have a kid and a wife, but I have never met them, or had anyone pointed out to me.” After she tells me that I suggest she lay back down. after she closes her eyes I make a quick pass of the house and loot what I can. As expected there isn't much usable in the cabinets, the only thing for food is a package of white albacore a few weeks over the expiration. I'll take it, most canned goods are solid for some time after they expire, if I open it later and it smells funny I’ll toss it. Waste not want not, or whatever.

That’s that then, looks like I’m going to that house. Were already inside of nautical twilight2 I need to act before we push into astronomical. “I was really hoping they would bring the supplies I asked for but I guess that’s not happening.” The girl has fallen asleep by the time I make it back to the living room. I write her a quick note apologizing for leaving her in the middle of the night, and asking that she wait till daylight to leave the house. I hope she doesn’t just wake up and start an alarm in panic. The thought of her panicking before reading the note gives me a few seconds pause. Deciding there isn't really anything I can do about it I head up the stairs to move out.

Moving up to the second floor I go out a bedroom window onto the roof. I’m not completely sure where the guard around back is, but I think he is leaning against the rear gate back here. The closer I get to the edge of the roof I can hear shallow steady breathing, you’ve gotta be kidding me. I peak over the edge and sure enough, there is a man with a gun sleeping with his back against the fence. Going to get him killed one day. Now I guess I’ve got to decide if I wake him up to just to knock him out again, walk away, or just try to rob him while he’s sleeping. No matter where you are every soldier from every branch does something refered to as 'tactical acqusition'4 time for a little bit of practice. Maybe he'll learn a good lesson from having his targed not only get past him, but take something off of him. Good luck explaining this one away.

Confident in my the stats of my new body I slowly roll over the roof and activate sneak, I can see the green bar in my top right peripheral start to go down. Shit, at this rate I’ve only got like 30 seconds. I drop to the ground and start moving to the sleeping man. Once I’m within a few feet I can see that he is out out, mouth open, drool, were he in a more comfortable position he’d probably be snoring. I can’t help but smile a little, his life is going to suck when he wakes up. He’s got an older style hunting rifle with a round pouch attached to the rear, probably around 10 shots overall, I pull my knife and cut it off him, I’ll identify it later, sticking it into my inventory I quickly look over him to see if there’s anything else easily accessible. The only thing he has reachable that I really want is the flashlight half hanging out of his pocket. better hurry though my sneaks going to give out in about 10 seconds. As I reach for the flashlight I get a feeling that I need to lift my arm a little further out to his side, and slide the flashlight towards the ground, once it’s out of his pocket a little pulsing blue spark pops up in my peripheral vision. I get the flashlight to my pocket just as the sneak gives out.

Despite the skill going inactive I decide I can get away without making too much noise. Walking crouched, sideways so I can see the guy on the ground I move towards the end of the walk. This place is rural-everywhere U.S.A. houses lining both sides of the street, the only difference I see is the fire at the ‘gate’, and the lights inside the 2-story gray house off the little side street. Memories crowd into my head; flashes of me and a few friends building a ramp and jumping out bikes off of it, running out my front door chasing the sound of an ice-cream truck. Ignoring the stinging coming from my eyes, and the lump in my throat I push my mind back to the task at hand.

Guess I know where I’m going, just need to get there. I look both ways and decide that even though the safest way to get where I want is probably to crawl through the open area, I’ve got to risk moving quickly, tucking into a deeper crouch check both ways tense my body, and sprint for all I'm worth across the street. The trip across feels like an eternity, I'm expectin gunfire or an alarm the entire way. My heart is pumping so loud I’m not sure I would hear if any alarm were raised.

Reaching the corner of the house I was heading towards drop into concealment between the house and a bush…no sounds, I’m good to go. Taking a few minutes to calm down I glance at my green bar my SP will be refilled sometime in the next 7 minutes, about a 10-minute turn around. Another thing I should have checked before I jumped into this mission, the list is growing by the minute. Staying low I move around the bushes and into the back yard of the house. Peeking over the fence I see the gray house two yards away, they might have someone laying on the roof, I can't really tell from this angle, but if there is he’s facing the woods in the opposite direction. The only fence left is a chain link around the gray house. My luck hasn’t held though, it’s a tall chain-link fence, the kind you keep for huskies and other dogs that are motivated enough to climb out. I don’t have any way to get in easily. Shit.

Recon, I guess, I drop to the ground and crawl to the edge of the fence to see if it would be hard to move, it’s buried, clearly the last owner had a dog that liked to escape. Doing the only option that really made sense I started crawling towards the house along the fence, they’d cut down all the bushes so the concealment here was lacking. After reaching the edge of the house I can see that the basement has those in ground windows with the circular metal sheeting and some rocks outside of them. There’s just enough space that I could probably slither my way inside, the window is locked. No free meals.

Options are limited as the sky starts to lighten, I’ve got maybe an hour till dawn. Think, think, c’mon brain do something. The knife! I pull the knife out and try to activate the skill, that’s not working. Hmm, maybe it’s a mana thing? How the fuck do I use magic. I will my blue bar back into my peripheral, under the green bar. Hoping for the best I close my eyes and think about my blue bar, imagining the blue bar connected to the knife. All the sudden there is a cool, freezing sensation coming from my chest, it's like there is a ball of ice. Ahh, mana core. I can’t see it, but it feels like I swallowed a menthol cough drop, I've either gone insane, or this is going to work. I imagine the knife transforming to the stiletto form. The temperature of the ball in my chest raises and the knife in my hand is suddenly a short-handled knife with a thin 6-inch blade. Smiles for days. “I’ll be damned if I don’t owe you one Hel.” I breath out under my breath.

and the little blue star in my peripheral pulses again.

Balls.

Gonna have to take care of that star at some point. I slide the blade between the window and push the catch to the side. Slowly pushing the window in so it doesn’t creak I slide my body into the basement of the house. Pushing the window closed behind me I pull the pillow case I had planned to use for looting out of my cargo pocket and cover the window with it. With that done it is pitch black down here, my only option is the flashlight. I cover as much of the lens as I can and click the on switch the basement is an open room full of boxes, most of them with clothes spilling out of the top. There are a set of stairs a few feet away leading upstairs, but my attention is locked on the whimpering noises from the next room that started with my flashlight being turned on.

Making my way across the room to the door it’s padlocked, I have no way in that is quite I’m sure the other side of this room runs into the garage. Checking my inventory just to make sure, nope, not a damned thing. Listening to the whimpers I can here slight growls along with it, it sounds like whatever is in there is in pain and caged. Is this a prison area? I must know now, Kelly never mentioned prisoners. The only ways into the door are force though, this basement is sparse, the only thing with any leverage is the ski in the corner and I’m fairly certain it’s not going to break the lock.

Trying to decide whether I’m going to kick in the door or find a key I hear the whimpering coming out in the same language as the goblins I killed in the woods. Prison cell then, screw em. I turn around and start moving towards the stairs. A few steps off I realize that the goblins that are in there are probably supposed to be with the group I killed in the woods. Shit, gotta get in there.

At this point, if you count the couple of hours I was out after falling into Valhalla I’ve gotten about 4 hours sleep in the last 48 hours. I’m tired, stressed, hungry, and my mental acuity is working somewhere just north of autonomous operations. I close my eyes for a few seconds to decide what I should do. There’s probably a key somewhere in the house. There’s also a good chance I could get that door open and kill those goblins before anyone found me though. Escape, escape becomes a problem either way. What if all the goblins aren’t there? Fuck it, god hates a coward.3

I spin around, take a few steps, and slam my shoulder into the door between the lock and the handle, I have vastly underestimated my strength. I fly through the door for a few steps and slam my hip into a work table sitting just to the inside left of the room, tripping and falling on the ground. Shining my flashlight around the far-left side from me has what look like stacked dog kennels there are 2 goblins in one kennel, and 1 in the next one over, shit where’s the other one. Standing up I whip my flashlight around the room, trying to hurry without rushing and jacking everything up. There is a giant metal table in the far side of the room with a cut up mostly dead goblin and a man who is in the same state next to him.

Messages pop-up in little boxes in my lower left peripheral.

The local’s in charge are experimenting mixing humans and monsters. This is an abomination on any plane.

-bring mercy to the experiments

-Kill the one responsible for preforming the experiments

-bonus: destroy the lab, and/or bring this to the attention of the camp population.

I’ll be damned if that aint convenient. I cringed, I guess an agreement must be spoken or directed to become a contract. Either way, I've got to start paying attention, I can hear someone coming down from above, they haven’t reached the basement steps yet, they have to be coming from the second floor. No way to destroy the lab, I pull the knife back out of my sheath and run towards the experiments. A quick stab into one chest’s then the other, and I’m moving towards the cages. I don’t want to let the goblins out, and I feel kind of bad for killing what amounts to a caged animal, but sometimes you gotta rise above. I sheath the knife, pull out my pistol and squeeze a round into the head of the first goblin. The basement door slams open, not completely sure but it sounds like at least 3 people, this could get nasty. Before turning to the door, I put the last two goblins down.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON DOWN HERE?!?! WHO IS IN MY LAB!?!?!” comes from the bottom of the basement stairs. A scientist huh? After the thought a man in a pajama’s wearing glasses burst’s in, not the brightest scientist. I step into a weaver firing stance and put 2 rounds into his chest before even getting a good look at him. “James!” Two more guys stumble in behind him with guns up, not ready enough. Doug had walked in right behind James, I put two rounds into his chest and one into his friends. they drop to the ground like they had been hit with sledge-hammers. Walking over to the bodies I can see that they are both part of the group with the search party. The portal back to Valhalla opens behind next to the experiment desk, and I can hear lots of people rushing into the house.

I start to go through the portal but decide to wait in front of it. A teenage boy rushes into the room with an axe in his hands “Dad?” he’s looking at James, well that sucks for him. I stare at him with as much indifference on my face as I can "This is the price you pay for trying to play god, do not repeat your fathers mistakes." After a few more people come through the door to see the mess I step backwards through the portal, hoping my patience paid off.

Stepping from through the portal door back into one of the portal offices I receive a message.

-MISSION COMPLETE-

Goblin subjugation- G.

10/10 goblins

1/1 boss(ORC)

-Side mission errant lovers-

-Kelly 1/1

-mike-0/1

50% completion

-SIDE QUEST-

-Something funky going down-

-Discovered someone was experimenting on monsters and humans and punished the perpetrator.

100% complete

-Bonus complete-

…Calculating rewards…