Chapter 4

Serk handed me a small, sealed scroll, I stared at it for a moment curiously before reaching out to take it. As soon as my hand touched the scroll a window appeared in my vision.

You’ve received a quest:

Clear the Goblins Camp

Goblins have set up a camp somewhere in the forest and have been terrorizing traveling merchants.

You have been asked to help clear it.

Clear the goblins camp 0/1

Reward: Unknown

Accept: Yes/No

The quest window floated in front of my vision I mentally selected yes, and it disappeared. “Is that how you normally get quests?” I asked curiously.

“We are official members of the Adventurers Guild; they give out these quest scrolls that update once the quest has been completed. We turn them back into the Guild to get our coin and sometimes other rewards. Once we get back to Ravensbrook I can get you set up as an official member of the Guild so you can earn coin as well. If that is something you want.” Serk said with a smile as he tucked the small scroll back in his inventory.

“That sounds great, I guess I will need to earn a living in this world,” I said looking around me. Serk smiled and gave me a reassuring slap on the arm.

“So, which way to the camp?” Serk said. I brought up my map and turned towards the ping on my map. I noticed that the ping had changed from settlement to Goblins Camp. I glared at Shadowfire for a moment, but he seemed unfazed by glare. I shook my head and turned to Serk. “Looks to be another half mile or so in that direction,” I said pointing in the direction my map indicated.

“Good, might be best to find a place to camp for the night though. The forest is treacherous to travel in the dark, too many places you could fall or break an ankle.” He turned towards Alvor. “Alvor, find us a spot to camp, would you?” Alvor didn’t respond, he simply nodded before disappearing into the forest.

“He doesn’t talk much, does he?” I asked as I watched Alvor disappear out of sight.

“No, he doesn’t,” Serk said with a chuckle. We moved over and sat down on a couple of fallen tree logs. I turned and saw Zavra sitting close to me, she wasn’t looking at me but staring at Shadowfire who looked uncomfortable, like a cat when someone gets too close to them.

“Can I help you?” he asked her.

“Sorry I’ve just never encountered a Dragon before. Are you a Dragon? Or do you just look like one?” she asked.

“I don’t know, I’ve never met a Dragon either. When he named me, this was the form I took, now I can’t change out of it.” Shadowfire said with a shrug licking one of his claws like a cat.

“Wow, that’s interesting, so what were you before?” she asked.

“A glowing blue ball” I responded before Shadowfire could speak.

“Did you know that naming him would cause him to change?” she asked.

“Nope, I just didn’t like the idea of walking around calling him ball all the time. I mean if I am stuck with him, he at least needed a fitting name, you know.” I said and she chuckled.

“So, are you really from another world?” she asked curiously.

“I am, my world was called Earth.” I heard a ruff chuckle at that and turned to see Serk sitting across from us.

“Your people named your world after dirt?” he said with a laugh.

“Yeah, I guess so, kind of lame now that I think about it. This world is called Elseria right? That’s what Shadowfire called it.” I asked curiously.

“That's correct and you are on the continent of Elseria,” Serk replied.

‘Wait you named the world after the continent?” I asked.

“There is some theological debate on which was named first, but most agree that all life started on this continent and spread out to the others. So, we call it Elseria.” Serk said.

“That's pretty cool, no one on my world knows where life started.”

“Cool? I don’t understand what cold has to do with that.” Zavra said in confusion.

“Uh, it’s a saying from my world. It means I think that’s really fascinating and interesting or something like that.” I said awkwardly.

‘Why would you not just say that?” Zavra asked.

“I don’t know, it's just what we do,” I said lamely.

“I have found us a campsite,” A voice said from directly behind me, making me jump off the log in alarm.

“Holy crap dude don’t sneak up on me like that,” I said glaring at Alvor, he simply gave a small smirk.

“This way,” he said with a jerk of his head, turning to head away from where we were sitting. A short walk later we reached a small clearing and all three of them began setting up a small camp. Zavra started a small fire while Alvor moved away small rocks clearing more comfortable places for us to sleep. Serk brought over a couple of heavy logs to use as makeshift seats. As they set up camp a thought occurred to me, something Serk had said before. He said he hadn't seen a map skill on my character sheet. I hadn’t even thought to use Analysis on them. I quickly activated the skill checking each of them in turn.

Name: Serk

Race: Half-human, Half-Orc

Class: Fighter

Level: 5

Experience: 1570

Name: Zavra

Race: Half-human, Half-Elf

Class: Wizard

Level: 5

Experience: 1563

Name Alvor

Race: Wood Elf

Class: Ranger

Level: 5

Experience: 1566

I kept my jaw from dropping as I starred at their information. No wonder they had such an easier time with the goblins. They were all much higher level than me and each seemed to have a Class, I wasn’t sure how to get a Class. Before I could ask Shadowfire, Zavra waved at me to sit near her by the fire. She was holding a skewer of some kind of meat, my stomach rumbled loudly, and I realized how hungry I was, having eaten only berries since arriving in this world. I sat down on the stump next to her and gave the meat an appraising sniff.

“Do not worry, it is not poisonous. It's just been dried so that it travels better, I find it tastes better if you warm it over the fire for a couple of minutes,” she said seeing my uneasy look. I bit into the meat; it was a little chewy more like warm beef jerky, but the flavor was savory. I downed the piece in a few quick bites, she handed me another and I ate that one as well. She handed me a waterskin and I took several long pulls of the water. “Thanks,” I said trying to stifle a belch.

“I hope it’s not rude, but I used my Analysis skill on you. I noticed you all had classes; how do you get a class?” I asked curiously as I handed Shadowfire some food. He began to munch away happily, landing on the log at my side.

“That’s not rude at all, we all have it and analyzed you the moment we met you,” Zavra said with a nonchalant shrug. “In order to gain a class, you first have to reach level 5, and then depending on your skills you are offered a choose between 2 or 3 different classes.”

“Who offers you the choice?” I asked. Zavra starred at me for a moment in confusion.

“We don’t know who, it just appears in a window before you, you do see those windows don’t you?” She asked eyeing me curiously.

“Oh, yeah of course. I just wasn’t sure if you had to go to a certain person to pick a class or maybe you had to be taught or something.” I said quickly.

“Once you reach level 5 your windows will give you a couple of options based on the skills you have. It was an easy choice for me, I have always wanted to be a wizard. I come from a family of wizards, so when I was old enough my parents enrolled me in the Arcaneum, it’s the magic school in Ravensbrook. So, I could learn magic, I studied there for a couple of months to learn how to properly channel my mana and raise my spell casting skill. Once I had that I left the school to become an adventurer.” Zavra said cheerfully. I stared at her for a moment.

“It took you months to learn a single skill?” I asked in surprise.

“No, although learning skills does take time, it took me nearly two weeks to learn how to properly channel my mana. The rest of the time I took to learn the Spell Casting skill and then raising my skill to Basic rank. Why do you ask?” She asked tilting her head curiously.

“Um… just curious, I don’t know much about spell casting. Are all skills that difficult to learn?”

“Spellcasting is one of the hardest to learn, most people are unable to learn it. Most skills take between a few days and a couple of weeks to learn.” Her eyes went slightly wide as she said this, looking at me with newfound curiosity. “How long did you say you have been in this world?” She asked.

“Most of the day” I responded, her eyes went unfocused for a few seconds, and I realized she must be reading my character sheet. I looked over at Serk who was watching me.

“You already have 4 skills, after a single day?” Zavra asked her eyes wide.

“They just sort of came to me, that’s not normal?” I responded growing a little uneasy.

“We don’t know much about Realm Walkers, but I have heard tales.” Serk said, “some say they are great heroes with incredible skills they get by crossing over into our world. Not sure how true that is though.” I weighed his comment in my mind, I certainly didn’t feel like I had any special powers, sure I got Shadowfire when I came here but he was only slightly useful. According to Shadowfire, I could come back to life a few times if I died, though I certainly wasn’t willing to test that theory anytime soon.

“I have a friend back in Ravensbrook,” Serk said cutting through my thoughts, “might be we go and speak with him when we get back. He knows more about your kind than anyone else I know. He would certainly be worth talking to.”

“Uh… yeah that sounds great,” I said awkwardly.

“We should get some sleep, I want to head for the goblins camp in the early hours, maybe catch them before they are all awake,” Serk said and then tossed me a bedroll. “You can use this, it’s more comfortable than sleeping on the hard ground. I doubt you’re as used to that as I am.” He continued giving me a wry smile.

He laid out on the ground using a rock for a makeshift pillow. I spread out the bedroll and laid down for the night. Despite how exhausted I was, I struggled to fall asleep. My mind raised over the events of the day, less than 24 hours ago I had been a simple IT guy working long hours and living in a tiny apartment. Now by some twist of fate I was in a world full of magic and danger. I had meant Elves, a Half-Orc, and battled goblins. Nothing about my new life was boring, intense and terrifying at times sure, but certainly not boring. I glanced over a Serk and Zavra laying several feet away from me, I could see Alvor sitting on one of the logs taking the first watch. I smiled at them thinking I could get use to having friends like this. They all seemed nice enough and were happy to let a low-level adventurer brand new to this world follow them around. This life seemed like it was off to a good start.

A slight weight settled on my chest, and I looked down to see Shadowfire curl up on my chest. I smiled at him and rubbed his neck. ‘Despite all the danger I had been in today, I really think I could learn to like this life,’ I thought as sleep finally took me. All too soon someone was shaking me awake. I nearly screamed seeing Serk standing over me. My hazy mind threw the events of the previous day back at me, and my sleepy mind remembered I wasn’t on Earth anymore and waking up to an Orc standing over me might happen more often.

The sun wasn’t fully up yet, but he wanted to get a move on. We weren’t sure how many goblins were in the camp, but if we could catch them by surprise, it would certainly help. Once the camp was packed up Serk asked me to guide them towards the camp. I led the way my map guiding me in the direction Shadowfire had pinged for me. A thought occurred to me as we walked ‘Hey Shadowfire’ I called out mentally ‘How close will this map actually get us?’

‘Should be somewhere within a couple hundred feet’ he said casually. I stopped walking abruptly and stared at him.

‘A couple hundred feet? That’s a pretty big area.’ I said glaring at him. Shadowfire simply shrugged.

“What's the holdup?” Alvor said quietly as he and the others approached me.

“Shadowfire says the spot on my map is only accurate to within a couple hundred feet,” I responded.

“Well then perhaps we have him, scout ahead when we get closer, less chance he will be spotted than us,” Serk said. Shadowfire rolled his eyes. ‘Fine’ he said reluctantly in my head. I started walking again and after another half hour, we were nearly on top of the ping.

‘Alright buddy, fly around and let me know what you see. Don’t let anyone see you.’ I said mentally. Shadowfire launched off my arm and we all crouched down trying to keep out of sight just in case any goblins were scouting the area.

‘I found it’ Shadowfire said in my head after a few minutes. “It’s about 5 minutes North of your current location. Looks to be about 12 goblins in the camp. Unsure of their levels there are 3 scouts outside the camp. One is directly between you and the camp. One is patrolling the Northside of the camp and the other the Eastside. Westside of the camp is against a large rock wall.’

“Alright, so we need to take out the guards first,” Serk said after I relayed Shadowfire’s words. “Alvor, you take out the North most guard, I will take out the east guard. Derek and Zavra you two take out the guard in our way. Stay there and we will come back to you. Then we attack the camp. Zavra, I hope you prepared fireball, I want to light them up.” Serk said with a grin. Zavra flashed a couple pieces of parchment that seemed to have strange runes written on them. Serk and Alvor snuck off towards their targets leaving Zavra and me alone. We sat waiting as Shadowfire watched their progress. He would let us know when to attack. “You use parchment to cast spells?” I asked Zavra curiously keeping my voice a low whisper.

“I am a strong enchanter; my evocation spells aren’t as powerful. So, I found a way around that.” She showed me one of the parchments, it indeed had strange runes on it that seemed to glow ever so slightly. “I enchant this parchment with my evocation spells, all my enchantments are 10% stronger making all my spells that much stronger.”

“That seems like cheating,” I said with a small smile.

“Maybe I little, but I do not think you will complain when the goblins get toasted.” She said with a sly wink.

‘Serk is in place, Alvor is moving to his target, prepare to engage.’ Shadowfire said in my head. My pulse quickened as I quietly drew out my sword. I activated stealth and crept forward as quietly as possible Zavra a couple of steps behind me. A couple of moments later I spotted my target, a goblin was sitting on a rock about 20 feet from me. His head was slumped, and I could hear faint harsh snoring sounds. He was facing me clutching a spear in his hands. I crept forward gesturing for Zavra to stay where she was. She was louder than me since she didn’t have the stealth skill. I kept watching the goblin as I slowly circled around him, if I could get behind him, I could strike easier. As I moved, I used analysis on the sleeping goblin.

Goblin Scout

Level 1

Experience 20

I crept closer towards the sleeping goblin raising my sword. I slipped my arm around his neck and slit the goblin's throat quickly placing my other hand over his mouth to silence the squeal he made. My attack worked perfectly scoring a critical hit. Hot blood covered my arm and the goblin thrashed in my arms, but it was useless as his health drained away and faded to nothing. He slumped in my arms, and I laid him on the ground. I looted his body gaining 4 silver coins and a tarnished silver ring. I motioned to Zavra to get closer.

She crept forward and gave me a nod when she saw our target was dead. I turned towards the goblins camp. It was laid out in a semi-circle with four crude tents butted up against the large rock wall on the west side of the camp. Not all the goblins were in tents though, most lay sprawled out in a pile near the embers of a fire. I guessed the higher-level goblins were probably in the tents. I counted at least 12 goblins in the pile, but I had no idea how many were in the tents. The tents weren’t overly large so probably only one or two, to a tent.

Serk and Alvor approached a few moments later, both their goblins were dead, and no one was left to warn the camp of the impending attack. “Zavra, that pile of goblins looks mighty flammable,” Serk said with a grin. Zavra pulled one of her parchments and tossed it into the air. With a flash of fire, the parchment burned away leaving a marble-sized ball of fire in the air. She gestured at the pile of sleeping goblins and the ball raised away. A second later the early morning lit up as a ball of fire exploded causing the ground to rumble beneath us. A dozen goblins started screaming as they ignited but quickly fell silent. The tents burst open, and five goblins stepped out seeing what was left of their companions. I used analysis on each of them.

Goblin Brute

Level 2

Experience 45

Goblin Brute

Level 2

Experience 45

Goblin Hunter

Level 2

Experience 45

Goblin Battlerager

Level 4

Experience 85

Goblin Witch Doctor

Level 7

Experience 145

The two Brutes wore armor made of bones, one somehow had a human skull sitting on top of his head, the other was covered in strange red tattoos. The Hunter wore crude leather armor and had a spiked longbow clutched in his hand. The Battlerager was the largest of the goblins easily standing five feet tall. He wore no armor but wielded a pair of axes looking around in eager anticipation of the coming fight. The Witch Doctor was smaller than the other goblins with sickly yellowish skin and he was wearing a tattered loincloth with some kind of animal skull hanging from a belt. He seemed to have open sores on his body and carried a gnarled wooden staff with a skull on top which pulsed with a nauseating green light.

Shadowfire let out a growl from his perch on the trees towards the east side of camp. All the goblins looked towards him and away from us. Zavra had been waiting for this and launched another spell from her parchments. This one flashed with blue light and a bolt of lightning shot off striking both Brutes, the Battlerager managed to dodge out of the way, and unfortunately, both the hunter and the witch doctor were too far outside the spell range to be affected.

Both the brutes staggered half their health gone. Serk bellowed a war cry and charged forward. Alvor began firing arrows at the hunter. The hunter dodged the first arrow but took the second one in the leg. He snarled in pain and unleashed a barrage of arrows towards Alvor. Alvor danced out of the way using the trees around him for cover.

Zavra and I raced forward as Serk and the Battlerager slammed into each other. I locked eyes with one of the Brutes who was slowly getting back to his feet, the lightning bolt had stunned him for a couple of seconds. I charged the tattooed Brute scoring a deep cut across his stomach, his health dropped several points. He then swung his crude axe at me narrowly missing me. I staggered back trying to put a little distance between us. He swung the axe again aiming for my legs I leapt over it only to be hit by something hard in the face. I fell to my back, blood gushing from my broken nose. Too late I realized the skull-wearing Brute had moved to my side hitting me full in the face with his hammer. My health had dropped by a quarter, and I could see a bleeding debuff draining one point of health every second. I tried to roll away my head still ringing from the blow, but the hammer caught me in the back knocking the wind from me and shaving off several more points of health.

I heard a deep chuckle and looked up to see the skull-wearing Brute raising the hammer again. He staggered as two purple glowing darts took him full in the chest knocking his health down to less than 10%. I swung out my sword nearly taking off his leg, he staggered and fell as the blood loss overwhelmed his low health and he died. The axe nearly cut my head in half, it landed near inches from my face. I turned to see the tattooed Brute raising his axe again. I stabbed out with my sword plunging it deep into his belly, I twisted the blade and wrenched it free. The Brute howled in pain and clenched at his gut a second later he fell silent as a pair of arrows pierced his throat and he collapsed. I staggered to my feet and fished out the last handful of berries I had in my inventory. I looked around and noticed the Hunter was pinned to a tree by several arrows, his health bar was gone.

Serk was still fighting with the Battlerager, its whole body was glowing an angry red. I wondered what skill he was using to make himself glow like that. He had taken several wounds that probably would have crippled me, but he seemed unfazed by them. I took a step towards Serk, but a strange yellowish gas erupted around me. I started choking as the gas-filled my lungs.

You have been poisoned by Poisonous Stink cloud! 6 Health lost per second; you are suffocating. You have 1 minute of air left.

The debuff flashed in my vision as my health started draining rapidly and I couldn’t breathe. My vision started to go white at the edges. I fell to my hands and knees crawling forward trying to find the edge of the cloud. I feebly swatted at the cloud, but nothing happened. I staggered and collapsed, then something grabbed me and was pulling me free of the stink cloud. I tried to kick at it, but my strength had left me. My health was at 10% and I could feel the life leaving my body. I was pulled free of the cloud and roughly tossed away. I began coughing and hacking as my body tried to pull in air and expel the toxic gas at the same time.

I staggered to my hands and knees as my vision cleared. I saw Serk next to me he was bleeding from a few shallow cuts and had angry yellow blisters on his skin. A glance told me I had several more. I pulled the health potion from my inventory and downed it. Cool relief filled me as my health began to climb. I climbed to my feet to see Zavra throwing spells at the Witch Doctor. He was the only goblin left standing, he had more than half his health left while the rest of us, save Alvor who was probably still outside the camp, had taken a serious beating. I picked up my sword, the cloud had finally dissipated. Serk stepped next to me, and we looked at each other for a second before turning towards the Witch Doctor.

We both raised our weapons and charged both yelling a war cry. Seeing us the Goblin turned his attention on us launching a couple of sickly green spells at us. I rolled under one, but Serk got hit in the chest, immediately his skin was covered in angry boils, and he staggered falling to his knees. The goblins distraction had left him open and a blast of fire from Zavra hit him right in the face. He screamed in pain as his health dropped too below half. I came up to my feet and continued my charge at the goblin. I closed the distance driving my sword into his chest. His health dropped to less than a quarter, and he snarled at me, dragging his claws across my face dropping my health to 10%. I twisted the blade and pulled it free his health dropped several points. I staggered back my vision going black at the edges.

The goblin started chanting some sort of spell building on his lips. I was certain I was about to die, my body ached and my legs refused to move. I was too far away to hit him with my sword. The light on his palm was building and it reminded me of something. I reached into my inventory and pulled out the Blazing Scepter I had looted off the Mystic. I raised it focusing all my will on activating its enchantment. A beam of fiery energy ripped out of the tip and slammed into the Witch Doctor. He staggered back nearly losing his footing, his spell fizzled out. He looked down at the crater that was now his chest, blood spilled from his mouth as he took a step towards me then collapsed face-first into the dirt as his health bar drained away. I fell to my knees and simply sat there breathing heavily.

For several long moments, I just sat taking deep breathes letting my health slowly creep back up, I had 45 seconds left on the buff from the berries. They hadn’t done much in the stink cloud but now that I was out of danger their healing properties slowly brought strength back to my aching body. While I sat, I brought up my combat notifications. Serk had a skill called Party Leader that allowed him to form a group thus allowing us to share experience between us, so that we all got an equal share of the XP, needless to say, I was not disappointed.

You have gained 167 XP for defeating multiple goblins. 665 XP divided equally among four party members.

Quest Complete!

Clear the Goblins Camp

You have earned 70 Experience points

Return to the adventurer's guild for your payment.

Level up!

You have reached character level 2 you have one stat point to distribute.

Your skills have improved, Untrained combat level 3, Stealth level 2.

A feeling of warmth came over me as I noticed my Health, Mana, and Stamina go up 10 points each. After thinking it over for a moment I put my one point into strength since my main attack was with my sword. Serk approached me, his wounds had healed over some. I wasn’t sure if he had used a potion or had some kind of healing skill, either way I was glad to see he was ok.

“Good job, kid we might just make an adventurer out of you yet.” He said with a chuckle, slapping me gently on the arm.

“I think I have had enough of fighting goblins for a while. I need a bath, and something to eat that isn’t berries or trail rations.” I said with a groan. Serk laughed out loud.

“Spoken like a true adventurer.” He said with a grin. We all sat for a few minutes letting our wounds heal. Shadowfire landed on my shoulder and nuzzled against my neck. He was unharmed having stayed out of the fight entirely. Once we rested a bit, we turned our attention to looting the bodies. Since I had killed the Witch Doctor Serk let me loot him. I turned towards the goblin and touched his leg bringing up his inventory.

You have found: 5 Gold Coins

You have found:

Ceremonial Dagger

Weapon Class: Dagger (good)

Damage: 6-12

Enchantment: Twice per day when striking a helpless target, you may sacrifice them, instantly draining all their health.

Durability: 35 of 35

You have found:

Spell Book

Reading this book will teach you two Basic level spells.

Note: You cannot read this book as you lack the appropriate skill.

Gold coins, a magic dagger, and a spell book freaking sweet. I was a bit disappointed I couldn’t use the spell book, but I guess now I just needed to learn how to cast spells. Maybe Zavra knows how I can learn that skill. I put the items in my inventory and turned towards the rest of the party.

“Well, our job here is done, what say we head back to Ravensbrook,” Serk said then turned to me with a thoughtful expression on his face. “It might be best once we reach the city if Shadowfire doesn’t speak. Many people have familiars, almost none of them can speak and you don’t want to draw unwanted attention to yourself.”

“Definitely don’t want that,” I said with a nervous grin.

Zavra you still got that scroll right?” Serk asked turning to her.

“Of course,” Zavra said pulling a scroll from her inventory. She cracked the wax seal on the scroll and tossed it into the air. As it unrolled the scroll glowed a violent blue and a shimmering portal appeared a few feet from us. I starred at the shimmering blue tear in reality until I felt a strong hand grab me.

“Come on boy, portal travel is fun,” Serk said and pushed me into the glowing portal. I flung my hands in front of my face and shut my eyes as the world spun around me.