After eating the rabbit, the group followed the goblin tracks to what appeared to be a goblin outpost. Debris, dead plant life and jagged outcrops of rock adorned what would otherwise be an open plane. They snuck close enough to inspect the area and with that, they saw how the outpost was only a gathering of low-tier goblins, even weaker than the goblins that had attacked Adil and Swift. Hiding out of view Seras motioned to Adil:

“We’re taking over this camp and you, Adil. Get first kill.”

“So are we just going to charge straight in?” Adil asked.

“No, we will draw out any we can, reduce their numbers, get some reconnaissance and then we charge straight in.”

Swift patted Adil on the back. “it’s cool man, you got this” a slight grin on his face. Swift then moved in sneaking and opportunistically jumping from cover to cover. He was happy to flex his new skill in stealth.

“Swift will set up a shot for the old-lady window peaker over-there,” Seras said. With a few hand signals from Seras Swift moved in, he dipped low and quickly hid behind a large rocky protrusion.

Swift was now close enough to hear loud clashes of metal and the goblins awkward shouts. He saw a goblin working on a makeshift furnace whilst another dropped off lumps of coal. The delivery goblin began shouting at the Smith before getting shouts in return, it was hard to tell if they were working together or about to start a fight. Then Swift noticed barrels placed around the camp, they were mostly holding what appeared to be a black ooze similar to what they found in the cave.

A goblin started approaching closer and with that Swift decided to throw a rock near the goblin's feet. Alert was shown on the goblins face and he quickly went to where the sound came from. This gave Swift the opportunity to run to another point of cover, casually throwing another rock to see if the goblin would walk further out.

It worked, and so testing his luck he threw another rock, this time closer to his cover, just enough to give Adil a clean line of sight. Adil could see the goblin move up as he crouched in cover. *Silly mobs* Swift thought.

The goblin carelessly moved around checking for the source of the noise, peering into a bush and out of view from the others in the camp.

Adil held up his bow, he was aiming at the goblin that came looking. It was clear none of the others would see if it died.

“Shoot,” Seras commanded.

Adil held his bow up and.. didn’t fire. The goblin started to get back on track, finding nothing that could have caused the noise he started walking towards the outpost.

“Fire” Seras insisted.

“These are goblins, kill them.” She added through gritted teeth.

Adil still held his bow aiming the arrow at the goblins face. Seras drew a throwing axe from her side. The Goblin now walking back was spooked by a sound, he looked and saw Swift not fully hidden in his cover. The creature nearly shrieked but an arrow lodged straight into the side of his head, knocking the creature down to the ground.

Notification

Slain creature experience gained

Goblin 40

Skill Level up!

Archery, novice II

10% Increased stability and control with bows.

Note

Using skills in new and highly focused situations will increase the systems simulated skill refinement.

Adil felt a slight change, as he reached for the bow it was as though it was easier to carry out certain actions without much effort. The strange mechanism of this new world seemed to have built and reinforced the muscle memory within him.

Swift began dragging the goblin back into cover, making sure it was out of view of the outpost. None of the goblins seemed to have noticed. He gave a quick thumbs up to Adil who gave a grim nod in reply.

Swift came back dashing from rocky protrusions to the place the others were hidden.

“The goblins have the black slime,” Swift told Seras.

Seras thought for a moment and managed to formulate a battle plan.

“Do you think you can set the barrels on fire?” She asked Swift. Swift nodded in reply.

“Goblins hate fire.” She added.

“Adil set up in a bush and shoot the barrels open. Swift, you can start a fire then move in and remember to leave some for interrogation or we won’t find your killers,” the two nodded and then moved like soldiers into the battle. Still, though, the goblins seemed too human and Adil couldn’t quite shake what he had done from his mind.

Adil moved in biting his tongue, was he selfishly killing another living being. The goblin seemed like a person and could have even had a family, but Adil felt in this world it was kill or be killed, and some things weren’t meant to be. He rationalized that down the road it would just end with more problems if he had let the creature live. But Derek could have been a good goblin. *No, don't give them names!* Adil shouted in his head.

Swift entered the camp again, rushing from rock to rock and quickly shuffling behind a tent. The nearest goblin, the blacksmith hadn’t noticed him. Instead, the blacksmith was still battering away at what Swift assumed was a makeshift anvil. Swift waited until the blacksmith went back into the tent and then motioned it was clear. Adil moved in whilst Seras still stayed behind, she had to stay some distance away as no one could sneak in with that heavy armour.

Adil held his bow up as Swift went further in. Adfil could see three barrels he could open before the goblins could even respond. They needed to be more open for Swift to ignite the tar.

Adil fired at the barrels, one hit and smashed it open, the second aswell. The third arrow though, lodged into the side of the container allowing only a trickle of the black goo. Goblins all around were alerted, some of them immediately running towards the group before Adil managed to shoot the other barrel bursting it open.

Swift then charged past and used firebolt to set the tar alight, flame erupting from the barrels between Swift and the creatures. The goblins confused, they did not immediately attack due to the fire-based distraction but started to run around the flames. *Aren't they meant to be scared of fire* Swift thought as they closed in on him.

Then Seras came in through the front both battle-axes waving in the air, the goblins immediately fled in fear. “The demon is here!” one of them exclaimed, though only Adil understood.

“See what I told you, fire makes them scared” Seras chimed. It seemed to Adil that she may have developed a taste for fire about the time she was known by the goblin as 'the demon'.

The goblins were scuttling around, none of them brave enough to fight. Then one with an almost high-pitched screech braced his fear and charged in. Seras dropped her axe and grabbed the creature by the throat, held it in the air and in the midst of all of them broke its neck with a quick squeeze. A cough of blood spurting from the goblin's mouth sprayed onto the side of her face. No other goblins resisted.

They bound five remaining goblins and put them forward in a line to be interrogated.

“You’re up” Seras called out to Adil.

Adil came forward, he was to question the remaining goblins about the location of their bone-armoured leader, the goblin that slit his throat.

“Seen…Goblin…. Leader…Armour… Bone.” He said in goblin, pointing to areas of his armour the bone would have been.

The first goblin spat in his face, and a second laughed. “Man talks like baby,” he said in the goblin tongue. Seras immediately slammed her axe into the first one’s head crushing it, then drew the blade out letting the goblin fall to the ground.

She then motioned for Swift to step forward. “Your turn,” she said. Swift looked at her puzzlingly and then let out a burst of fire in front of the goblins, nearly singing their barley present eyebrows.

They only looked confused. Seras came over “See fire. Scary, we will burn you.”

The goblins seemed to whimper and shiver away on her approach. A third one looked to Adil for help and Adil was taken back. He moved forward and down to the goblin before he asked again. “Goblin. With bone armour.”

This time the goblin spluttered “He chief, big camp north, keep demon away. I’ll tell anything”

The group pushed and gathered more information. Adil relayed it and they both formulated a plan. Seras placed her axe to the ground and put one foot on the top of the blade “Can we trust what the goblins say?” She asked Adil.

“If we don’t, we take one as a guide and kill the others” added Seras.

“That's so brutal, we can’t kill them... They surrendered?” Adil protested.

“They’re goblins!” Seras replied sternly.

“You're starting to sound like a mass murderer” Adil retorted. She looked confused. “Like someone who wants to commit genocide,” Adil added.

“Genocide of what, goblins? You can’t compare goblins to a human race.”

“What? because some of them are bad, you paint them all as evil with no exception?”

“Do you even hear the things coming out from your mouth? These ones even had the black shit. You think we should just let them go till they come back and kill us all? You... Comparing a human race to... Goblins”

“Guys!” Swift exclaimed. “Stop that. I have a plan,” He explained.

After a brief discussion, Adil worked over and said to the group of goblins “You're free to go.”

After that Adil, Seras and Swift went around the tents trying to collect anything useful exerting their will over the goblin corpses for loot. After transforming the bodies into tendrils of energy they found 12 'mana forged' arrows, and a decently weighted throwing dagger. Then they began to wait outside, just far enough away to follow the goblin tracks without being seen.

When it grew dark, the goblins left camp heading north. Adil and Swift decided it would be better if Seras waited back. Her shiny armour and its metallic sounds still making it difficult to sneak.

The goblins were moving fast, in an almost frantic pace, likely spurred on by memories of the demon they spoke of. Still, Adil and Swift managed to follow them easy enough, their stealthiness made them feel like they were one with the darkness.

They all travelled far, Adil and Swift kept close to their mark and no other humanoid shapes arose across the distance. The journey appeared to be approaching a conclusion as the paths drew narrow and winding. When they finally started seeing the distant lights of a settlement Adil and Swift stopped, hiding out in part of the path that was now wedged between two cliffs.

There, they saw the goblins walk towards an enclave where a large camp lay. The walk was longer than they thought it was, but they had been dragged the journey unconscious last time. Swift even decided to lay on his back with his head in the direction of the camp just to check. "Yep, seems familiar,” he said.

They started waiting for Seras to catch up. As they waited they saw some torches appear, waving around in the distance. Adil and Swift backed up further into the darkness. Upon closer inspection, they noticed three goblins on route to their location coming from where Seras should have been. They waited in silence to avoid the troupe, but as the goblins approached Adil and Swift started to hear the echoes of their cries. The goblins were frantically running.

They suddenly realized the goblins were running to alert the camp, and probably because of Seras. Adil and Swift hunched down, pushing further behind the rocky formation.

They waited in ambush and once the goblins finally drew close enough, Adil shot an arrow, lodging it into one of their legs whilst Swift fire bolted the other in the face. Both goblins stumbled and fell. The scorched one had cracked its neck as he tripped over, head first and on the floor, twitched his last death roll.

The other having been shot in the leg tripped to the side, landing on his arm, he was quickly silenced by Adil’s second shot hitting into the face.

The final goblin carrying the torch was spooked by the others and narrowly avoided Swift's fire, bracing his face with an arm. But soon he was taken by Adil’s blade plunged through his chest. New notifications appeared for both Adil and Swift.

Notifications

Note

Using skills in new and highly focused situations will increase the systems simulated skill refinement.

Slain creature experience gained

Goblin 40

Skill Level up!

Archery III

10% Increased stability and control with bows, your essence is further integrated with the bow.

Learnt skill

Medium blades II

Your blade can now feel like an extension to your arm, as you intuitively know its length and sharpness.

Swift's notifications

Slain creature experience gained

Goblin 40

Skill Level up!

Fire magic II

Your control and emission of fire magic is increased by 10%

Swift could more easily focus on his mana. It was as though an internal reservoir of mana was being pushed through his being and shaped into the fire he controlled. Now able to shape the fire instead of just shoot it out. The roaring fire he could manifest now frightened him. He felt his limits as much as his potential.

Seras took her time coming along as Adil and Swift waited. It was long enough that Adil started to think something might have happened. He focused on his internal map, the area they had travelled appeared vast but along the route they had taken was a detailed path highlighting the winding path they had taken through the rocky maze.

Then Adil noticed Seras had an icon showing where she was. She was moving quickly through a dark spot, off from the path they had travelled.

“Seras has gone a different way,” Adil said.

“She can track us and knows where we went. Should we wait or go help?”

“This is Seras. I’ll just scout out the area before she arrives.”

“Sure,” Swift replied. He created a controlled burst of fire, holding a small flame in the air and using that light began to finish the book he was on.

Instead of waiting, Adil moved in closer to the goblin camp. The camp didn’t have many rocky outcrops like the other one, and instead, he could only crawl through dead bushes and long yellow grass. They weren’t under any false impressions that they could take the camp on their own, but Adil came to realize how difficult it would be, the organization these goblins had, by comparison, was like the stone age to medieval.

The camp consisted of two watchtowers, three small tents, and one larger main tent. He could see the height of the watchtowers was 20 feet, they would have a significant range advantage to Adil. A group of goblins were roaming around, drinking and moving torches clashing against the darkness. Adil thought they were too drunk to pay attention and so in the patch of tall grass he thought he could shuffle closer, trying to get a better view. He noticed how his tracking skill came in useful, seeing the paths goblins took in rough detail.

He grew a slight grin as a new notification popped up.

Notifications (1)

Level up!

Stealth II

+10% harder to see, +10% harder to hear. Your essence becomes more adaptive with the environments, your farts even start to smell like the bush your hiding in.

Adil saw a scuffling in the torchlight, a couple of goblins had launched at each other. Approaching even closer Adil shuffled through some tall grass and managed to make out enough of the goblin’s features to tell them apart. It was then he saw him, sitting on a log in front of the fire, the glow of the fire glinting off cleaner bits of the dark armour adorned with bone. It was the goblin that murdered him. Adil backed off. He tried to signal at Swift to say he was coming back but before he did he noticed that one of the goblins was walking up to the fire. It was a goblin they had been following.

The goblin scuffling nervously as he walked up to their leader. Adil couldn’t make out the conversation but saw that the goblin was almost immediately slapped down with the backhand of a gauntlet. The leader pointed in multiple directions across the camp and non-armoured goblins started sprinting around the perimeter. The armoured goblins had barely moved, instead just staring into the fire.

Suddenly the leader pointed at Adil and let out shouts “There!!” he shouted. Adil immediately got up and ran, a goblin with a crossbow jumped out from one of the camps, looked at Adil and fired. Hitting him in the leg, Swift came out into the open, but in response, Adil shouted: “RUN!”.

Swift started running back, he got around to the crevice that lead to the camp but suddenly Swift was grabbed by the scruff of his collar. “Where are you going?” Seras asked.

“Adil, he’s in there!” swift replied in a haste pointing to the glowing camp.

“What the fuck did you guys do?”

A moment passed whilst Seras tried to suppress her annoyance in an effort not to comfort Swift.

She put her hand on Swift's shoulder. “It’ll be ok, I have a plan” she said. Then swift noticed, she was standing next to a barrel of the black oozing slime.