Hearing a yelling at the house, he turned and ran toward the sound, seeing the side door was busted open on the wrap-around porch leading into the kitchen. As he unsnaps his knife and pulls it out, he sees a hobgoblin facing the door peering in. Slamming into the creature while plunging his knife into its back, it hits hard against the frame and stunning it. Twisting the knife before pulling the bloody knife out and slashing its throat as he peers into the room, hoping Mrs. Robertson was not dead. Seeing a goblin go flying into the kitchen stove from the dining-room door. With dead three goblins already on the floor. The fourth one fell off the kitchen stove and sat stun with a bloody head. Checking briefly at the hobgoblin, seeing it is on the floor, grabbing its throat, he kicks it in the head before entering the kitchen. He plunges his knife into the neck of the goblin that fell off the stove as he tries to stand up.

You have killed a goblin! Exp. Gain fourteen exp!

You have killed a hobgoblin! Exp. Gain nineteen exp!

"God damn! Green ass monkey! Come to my house! Dirty my floor! Make me make a mess!"

Wham! Another goblin fell backward with his head busted in.

"Mrs. Robertson, you okay!" raising an eye at the dead goblin on the floor.

"I am now that these grin skin monkeys are dead! Shit, all the blood on the floor." She exclaims as she walks into the room with her son's baseball bat. She kept the same bat by the door to the kitchen, where her son left it shortly after dying in the war. Chet was in his unit and his best friend when an IED killed him. After Jason's tour in the war ended, he came here and delivered a letter from her son that he promised to deliver. Having no family of his own or a place to stay. He stayed on at Mrs. Robertson's request and took a job in town at the silo. It was hard work, but it allowed his mind to gather its thoughts and will enable him to resettle into the world again.

"Jason! I told you to call me Alice and stop with Mrs. Robertson!" She ran her hands through her long red hair, a tangled mess while blowing a hair out the way. She is wearing a colorful flower pattern dress that comes down to her knees and an apron covering a large chest covered in flour and green blood splatter. Looking down and seeing her barefoot. Her five-foot-two height stood there glaring at the dead goblins on her floor, bleeding out. He found her attractive, even more so with the freckles covering her face. For a woman that twenty-some years older than him, she is a beauty. The fact she not only lost her husband ten years ago to a farming accident, but she also lost her son in a war shortly after. If not for her son was his best friend, he would have bedded her long ago.

"What the hell are goblins doing in my house!" staring at his surprise look. "What? Surprise, I don't know what a goblin is? I watched Chet play games with those creatures in it. It helps with the stress. Not as much as beating the hell out of them in real life. So what going on?"

Shaking my head to clear his thought, "I saw an opening or portal like those games in Mr. Hendrick's field. I think several groups must have come through. I wiped out most of the goblins in my group when my truck hit them. Seem like there are seven in a group counting the big guy." rubbing his jaw and pointing at the hobgoblin.

"I count six right here, counting that big guy." she points to the hobgoblin. Looking around, worry.

"I kill one at the blackberry patch in your field between here and the road."

"How many came through, do you think?"

"I need to check where the portal opens up at. After I get the cows and horse into the barn."

"I go with you." Pausing with a puzzled look on her face. "Where Shep at? I figure she would have been barking and attacking this little bugger."

"Loot the goblins, and we go check," reaching down and touch the hobgoblin, and found another goblin ear, an elven spear, another arm bracer, and another settlement orb.

'Do you wish to merge the two orbs? Yes/no.'

Pausing for a moment, "yes."

'Merging...'

'You have acquired a level 2 Kingdom orb.'

Arm bracer

Good

Durability 32/50

Defense 2

+1 Physique

"That nice," whistle as he put it on his other arm.

"Must be nice. I hadn't heard a whistle like that since I was in my twenties." Laughing as his at his red face. "Let finish up and see if Shep is alive.

They found Shep whimpering from a spear wound. Alice ran by me. Cradling the shepherd in her lap. Tearing her shirt, bandaging the wound. With a look of surprise, she turns to Jason. I heal Shep for five hit points with my makeshift bandage. Shep jumps out of her arms shaking herself, and growls as she looks around and sniffs the air. Sitting down as she perks up her ears, listening for anything. Still wounded but not bleeding.

"I get the animals in, and I think we need some more makeshift bandages. Can you do that?

Nodding her head. "I take Shep with me, and you get the cows in. After that, you need to meet me at the cellar inside. I need to show you something.

"It will be getting dark soon. I need to check our neighbors down the road. There are only two houses near us. The Patrick and Hendrick's place."

'Quest: Save your neighbor. Check on your neighbor and kill any creature attacking them.

Save or check on the Hendrick (0/1)

Save or check on the Patricks (0/1)

Reward 100 experience and a settlement orb.

100 Honor.

Failure loss of friends. -100 Honor.

"Shit, I just got a quest."

Okay. Saddle Rita and then check the cellar please, Rita is not shy from danger being a cut horse. She will keep you safe.

Getting the five cows in was not too hard. Just call their names, and they come running. Getting the six-horse into their stall was a little more complicated. Sundance, the stallion, wanted to breed the girls and got them a little spook. Once I put him in his stall, the other calmed down. Daisy was a month away from dropping a foal. And having three cows pregnant is going to be interesting in the future. Check on the four sows and the male in their pens. All of them are like pets except the sows. When they have a litter of piglets running around, then they are mean. Once the cows and horses are in the barn and into their pens, I close the door and latch them in after feeding them. Checking on the chicken and gather ten eggs. I decided not to milk until I later. The turkeys were already roosting in the barn. One hen was in the loft with babies under her in the hay.

After saddle Rita, I lead her to the house. Tying her to a post out front. I went inside and was about to put the eggs on the table. Looking around the room, puzzle at the now clean kitchen. Staring at the busted door leaning in place against the door still. I put the eggs in the basket on the table and went into the pantry. Opening the door in the back and climb down the concrete steps into the dark cellar. I can see the shelf pull out like a door revealing a small tunnel that light came from in the back. Stepping through the tunnel and past a metal door that belongs to an old merchant ship. Into a room and seeing Alice sitting in a recliner petting Shep. Light burning in an oil lamp lit the room.

"Welcome to my hideyhole my husband built me a few years before he died. Got about five acres of tunnels and rooms under ten to fifteen feet of dirt and concrete. God knows how much concrete. It took him fifteen years to get most of it done," raising her hand to stop him. "He built this all by himself, bought in containers and reinforced them. Pour concrete to enclosing them all around them and below. Tunnels are all concrete. He left a few doors that could be open to digging more space. He woke up one day and built this for me. Saying it would protect me for when they came. Never told what is coming only he been having dreams every day about it, it would wake him up screaming at times."

Pointing to a door on the right. "That leads to the armory. Unlike other preppers, he places more thought on non-bullet-type weapons. Go ahead, look. You need to go soon."

Five containers were welded together end to end and with reinforced walls and ceiling, peering into a room. Covering the wall are swords, axes of various types, bows, and crossbows. There must be thousands of arrows and bolts. Spears. Clubs, you name it, might be here on the wall and in the boxes. Grabbing a crossbow and the quiver of bolts. Loading it up, putting it in storage, and pulling the loaded crossbow several times felt most satisfying. He decided to load another and store it away. The knife he had is good, but he still needs something with reach. Finding an old civil war saber with a scabbard. The blade has been sharpened. So I put on around my waist and slung the quiver over my shoulder. Seeing another door in the side. I open it and hold the oil lantern to see and open my eyes to various rifles and pistols filling the room. I guess he did not pull everything into no guns policy. Shaking my head as I pull out my 30-30 and place it on the table. I close both doors, enter the main room.

He found Alice looking at the bag of groceries set on a table with the ears.

"What with the ears?"

"I don't know." watching Alice pick up the goblin's ears and drop them and look at the pile of copper bit.

"There a star on the one side and blank on the other." handing him the coin.

Looking over the copper bit and seeing that it is like a coin about the size of a dime. "Wonder that this for?"

Surprising him, Alice reached up, grabbing Jason's head, And gently bought his lip down to her's. Giving him a passionate kiss that took his breath away, He kissed back and pulled her close. Groaning as Jason deepened his kiss. Then he broke the kiss and stepped back up.

"I can't, Alice. You're my best friend's mother..." She put the finger on his lips.

"Ssh, I know, and your all I have that was a part of him. His memories and the times he was together with you. He never made friends until he met you. That letter you brought me was him asking me to take care of you in case he died." Her eyes water, "I know I am older than you, but I have needs and wants. In the last year, you have been here, you have driven me crazy wanting you, and if I die, I would rather do it by your side in combat or bed. If you want me, and right now, I want you, and most of all, I need this. So go rescue our neighbors down the road, and I drag a door out of the shed and put it on. I have Shep watch over me and keep a crossbow loaded just in case. If it is too much for me the handle, I lock myself in the bunker and wait for you.