Dawn arrived as Heinrick stabbed the last of the goblins.

It was quite easy.

It had still been trapped by Shiela’s magic, so this was natural.

I’m so proud of my little sister, but…

BUT.

It was the ONLY natural thing that had been going on.

As her brother, he knew Shiela’s limits.

She was powerful, but she wasn’t THAT powerful.

Holding that many goblins, for that long, was impossible for her.

Either she had changed...

Or she had been changed.

That little bastard gave something to her as well, didn’t he? A staff and… something else. What did they DO to her?

The strange sign that suddenly popped up over his head, popped up over hers as well. The text in both signs were the same, from what he could tell.

Not that he could tell much since he couldn’t read anyways.

He didn’t KNOW, and that made things so much worse.

So much more worrisome.

The elf boy was running to each body. Sometimes he would dance.

Occasionally he would even sing.

Heinrick wouldn’t be as bothered if the kid grabbed a fallen weapon or just searched them.

Not that you could expect much loot from goblins...

But instead the brat would just lightly touch them with an expectant or hopeful face.

As if the corpses were just going to go, “Oh sure, here!” or something.

And then the corpse would fade away.

What.

The.

Hell.

“Ooh!”

The kid just made a cooing noise. THIS particular body was especially pleasing.

That damn devil is clearly having the time of his life.

That CAN’T be a good thing.

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“Feel free to loot my body (Just take whatever you want) /

Feel free to loot my body (Just take whatever you need) /

Feel free to loot my body (Just take whatever you want) /

But please… Don't start a band…”

He had already sung, “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor”.

Legendary Tales Online has a rule for corpses, affectionately called the ‘dibs’ system by its programmers.

Putting it simply, whoever killed the body, gets the body.

Loot is generally weighted towards the melee combat characters, since they tend to be on the front line, as opposed to the sit-back-and-relax types such as archers and mages.

So while the mage may sigh over getting yet ANOTHER battleaxe, the warrior will actually pull out his own and compare the two, while chugging from his healing potion collection. The overall effect is that while the back line may live longer, it’s the front line that gets all the best equipment.

Since Heinrick killed all the goblins by himself, the truth is that he actually has ‘first dibs’ on whatever loot they are carrying.

Not that a certain elf would actually mention that to him…

‘Dibs’ only lasts for one minute, more than enough time in a fast-paced MMO game, but after that, the body starts fading away to free up resources for the server.

It’s at THAT time that it becomes available to anyone else.

If there’s anything still in the body, it can be taken.

For example, by a grinning…

happy…

dancing…

singing…

GREEDY elf boy.

A certain ranger by the name of Heinrick started freaking out when the first body started disappearing.

The guy got over it by the twentieth one though.

Mostly.

Shiela was out of it. Either that last spell put a whammy on her as well, or that level up enabled her to cross a threshold of some sort and she had to work out what that meant.

Or perhaps, like him, she was agonizing over where to put the new level-up points.

He had no idea what sort of system this world used.

He would Examine her to check, but since he didn’t do that before the battle, he had nothing to compare her stats to.

Also, there’s this little matter of unlooted corpses…

The last body started to fade away, and he quickly rushed over to it.

The loot had been good.

REALLY good for a level 2 character.

Two rings (yes!), one amulet (yay!), assorted goblin teeth (alchemy ingredients?), multiple bows, some swords, another staff WAY too many daggers (it sucks being just level 2), AND…

Leather armor, leather pants, cloth belt, and cloth boots.

CLOTHES.

REAL CLOTHES.

AS IN NOT-A-GIRL’S-DRESS CLOTHES.

HELL-FREAKIN’-YES!

… with a level 3 minimum level requirement.

Still.

Clothes.

Clothes are important.

Such nice kids…!

Heinrick and Shiela had done good by him.

He honestly felt like a happy father.

Or perhaps a master to his minions.

Either way, those two had proven their worth.

He was definitely keeping them.

They were in no shape for another round of combat, though.

Heinrick appeared to be… a little off right now, and Shiela was just completely off.

Not good.

Unfortunately, those red triangles on his map were still coming this way.

Waaaaaaay too many red triangles.

A huge number of triangles.

Triangles in formation.

Not one group.

Multiple groups.

A hostile ARMY was coming their way.

Or rather, more likely heading to the village he had left behind two weeks ago.

Dammit. I REALLY don't want to, but it looks like I have to go back and warn them. My inventory just hit the weight limit too.

“Hey Heinrick! ‘Up’!”

“[…]”

“HeinRICK, ‘UP’!”

“[… Up.]”

Language Comprehension (Common): + 1

Language Comprehension (Common): Max (level 1)

Thought so. Now I DEFINITELY have to go back, if only to get past the ‘Me Tarzan! You Jane!’ level of speaking.

Now... How to break it to them that they’re coming with me?

“Um… Bad… Many bad. Many, many, many, MANY bad. Death. We go now.”

“[Like hell there is.]”

Huh? What’s he so upset about?

“No! Bad! Over there, there, and there! MANY MANY bad. We go NOW! Inventory!”

He pulled out a crystal shaped like a pyramid, and placed it on the ground.

“Travel Gate.”

The crystal flashed.

The flash became a strobe.

The strobe increased in frequency.

“[Oh no you don’t! We’re leaving! Come ON, sis!]”

“[Mwuh?]”

Heinrick grabbed his sister and yanked her to her feet.

He turned to run, his hand desperately holding hers.

“Oh, what are you doing NOW…?” was the plaintive last words they heard of the elf they were fleeing from as the world turned white and all sound ceased.

But only for a moment.

Travel Gates move the entire party after all.

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Theo Evans yawned again as he handed in this evening’s paperwork and led Pepper out the door into the cold morning light. It had been a long night, and recently the number of reports about goblin sightings had been increasing.

There were much fewer reports about beautiful spirits dressed in white dancing around, which was a shame. Guard work is extremely boring, after all, and given the choice of things to stare at...

*Yank*

“WHOA!”

Pepper had suddenly lunged forward, whining frantically as if a valuable friend was nearby.

In the center of the village, between Robin Evan’s General Store and ‘Happy’ Hogan Evan’s farrier workshop, there was a white pyramid about the size of a large shed, shining brightly.

It only took a moment after it disappeared for the alarm whistles to start blaring and the spotlights to come on.

It had been a nervous week, after all.

They shined on three people: a man, a young woman, and what looked like a small girl dressed in white.

The first sound anybody heard from the group, was from the man.

It was:

“WHERE IN THE NINE HELLS ARE WE, YOU MONSTER???”

--Followed by a strange sound that nine out of ten listeners swore sounded just like ‘an elf getting the life choked out of him’.

What's that, Heinrick? "Railroading"? I have NO idea what you're talking about.