Ryu, Sheila and Ana were staring at a random patch of bushes growing by the side of the bottom of a short cliff. The hunters in their team assured them that the goblins' nest was truly there but for the Earthlings all they could see was a bunch of bushes growing on a cliff side. It all looks the same to them. Fortunately they had a group of rather experienced hunters with them.

They were warned not to get too close lest the goblins get alerted and swarm them, so they decided to first scout for a good direction to attack from. Unfortunately it was quite hard to attack anything if you can't see it.

Ryu had suggested that Sheila toss a fireball into the general area. He got reprimanded by the hunters for being an idiot. If the forest started burning all of them would be trapped and choked to death by the smoke or worse. Not exactly an ideal first hunting trip then.

They decided to risk it and sneak closer to the bushes and it was then that they finally noticed the small cave covered with vines. From afar it was almost indistinguishable from the background and only now could they see certain shapes and shadows flickering in a hollow.

Fortunately, no goblins was out guarding or hunting at the moment. They were nocturnal and mostly relied on crude traps to guard from other beasts. Ryu was able to detect such traps as he was scanning the cave mouth. Some of the vines covering the cave entrance was tied with hollow metal bits and pieces, their rusty smell immediately apparent from his sensitive sense of smell. The group guessed anything passing through would have made some noise, quite like a windchime. A patch of the floor was also a little too obviously covered with dried leaves and sticks, they correctly guessed that a pit trap had also been dug. It was obvious the goblins were not prepared for something smarter than wild animals to intrude, a rather huge mistake the party was more than willing to take advantage of.

The goblins making trouble for villages and expecting them to quietly accept goblins was just pure stupid.

The group of villagers following them were not with the champions, staying quite a distance away and simply observing the three from a distance. They had agreed with the church's idea of letting the champions get battle experience. They were still quite vigilant though, with arrows notched and weapons gripped tightly, tensely waiting in case the champions were overwhelmed. But some of the more experienced hunters were quite relaxed. It seems that they do not think too much of goblins, especially for champions such as Ryu, Ana and Sheila. Hopefully they were right.

For the moment, Sheila and Ana decided to collect dried shrubs and twigs while Ryu guarded the entrance. Sheila had a rather simple idea to fill the cave with smoke, forcing the goblins to escape through a choke point and fighting one or two at a time instead of being ambushed inside of the cave. Hopefully the exit was the only one or the goblins might escape from elsewhere but they decided that the plan was still less risky than them entering blind.

Most hunters agreed that the plan should make the goblins easier to handle and lessen the group's chance of getting surrounded from all sides, giving Sheila more confidence in executing it.

The plan worked and before long they heard clanking noises and screeching and coughing coming out of the cave.

Ryu was not prepared when he saw the goblins. He was expecting tiny green skinned creatures but all he saw was human children. They were feral and were armed with knives and spears. Due to the smoke in the air, many of them were choking and charging blindly at Ryu. One of the children actually stepped on the pit trap and had Ryu not immediately went in to grab her with one arm, she would have been impaled by the sharp spikes at the bottom.

The rest of the children however took the opportunity to start stabbing and swinging clubs at Ryu. One arm encumbered by the girl he saved, Ryu used his free claw to try to grab their weapons away but found that the children were quite nimble. "Ana! Try to disarm them!"

Ana immediately tried to smash her 'toy' scepter on a spear. The spear broke in half and the boy wielding it fell back from the force. Weapon skills for the win!

By this time, smoke had filled the entire cave and everyone had problems breathing properly. The girl Ryu held in his arm was also struggling and even trying to bite him. Although she only managed to bite off fur from Ryu, it still pretty painful to be plucked like a chicken. Ryu was also riddled with stab wounds and scratches from the other children and gaining more injuries by the second. His regeneration seemed to have stopped during the fight and the situation was dire.

Sheila had ran back to the villagers the moment she saw the children. Her mind spinned into overdrive as she came up with ways of restraining them unharmed. Thanks to her quick witted mind, she made the villagers run to the cave entrance, and some she redirected to collect vines and ropes; to tie up the children with. "Ryu! Throw one of the child outside! We'll restrain them one by one!"

Ryu immediately tossed the girl dangling from the pit trap out of the cave. His newfound strength made it feel like he was simply throwing a baseball. The girl flew in the air before hitting Sheila. Sheila was immediately knocked down by the weight and to make matters worse, the girl was still angry enough to scratch and bite at her.

It took two men to get her off Sheila and hold her down. Sheila unfortunately did not come out of it unscathed, the girl in a frenzy had managed to bite off part of her shoulder. She snapped her fingers and flames enveloped her hands. She then used the flame to cauterize the wound and prevent bleeding. She hissed in pain and stood up. "Motherfucker! Watch where you throw her retard!"

In the chaos, Ryu had not realized Sheila's injury and he did not even hear her howls of pain and anger. He next picked up the child whose spear was broken by Ana and tossed him out of the cave as well. Fortunately a villager managed to catch him and another helped to restrain the boy immediately, preventing a similar mishap from happening.

This continued until they managed to capture all of the children. There were over ten of them and they struggled to claw and bite their capturers even when bound by ropes.

Battered and bruised, the heroes tried to catch a breath before they heard loud roars coming from inside the cave. The champions looked at one another. The sound was definitely not made by humans.

"Finally. Some fucking goblins." Ryu muttered. He was bleeding in a lot of places but his thick fur had protected him quite a bit. Most of the wounds were light scratches. Although they hurt, Ryu's bodyguard background made him able to endure the pain. He pointed at a group of five tall green skinned, red eyed humanoids. They were wearing red bandannas, seemingly coloured by the blood of their prey. Besides that they only wore a loincloth. All of them were dual wielding axes. "Kill them?" he gestured to the goblins while looking at Ana.

She nodded. Ana had sustained some wounds herself when she tried to disarm the children. She struggled mostly with the children with daggers. When she grabbed the arm wielding the dagger they simply tossed it to their other hand and started slicing at her. She learnt the hard way that daggers were really dangerous no matter who handled them. Playing games, she always felt that they were quite underpowered and only useful for backstabs and such. Reality was a little more painful though. Fortunately her armour protected her a little. In the end, She let Ryu handle the dagger wielders while she tried to break more spears and even clubs semi successfully.

"Hobgoblins." a hunter noted to Sheila. "Looks like from a warband too"

Sheila looked at the feral children struggling. She had been orphaned herself and was pissed at the goblins for using children as meatshields. She entered the cave and immediately snapped her fingers. Flame enveloped her hands and the hobgoblins winced at the flame. It seemed their eyes were especially sensitive to light and Sheila was quick to notice their weakness. "Ana, looks like they hate light. Got a spell for that?"

Ana's eyed widened at the realisation and she immediately began chanting. She had accumulated enough karma for one holy spell and hoped it would be enough. The goblins felt danger and immediately charged at her. Their charge was immediately interrupted by Sheila tossing the flame at them. She missed but caused them to hesitate in their offence.

That moment of hesitation was enough to give Ryu time to pick up a rock and throw it at them. He hit one of the hobgoblins in the chest and it immediately dropped to its knees. Apparently his strength meant that Ryu was quite the dangerous character.

He was still unwilling to get in a melee with them though.

The axes they carried were metallic and looked rather sharp. In his mind, that was enough to cut off one or a few of his limbs and he was definitely not going to risk it. He still stood between them and Ana though, rock in claw in case another got too close. As much as he'd like to avoid more pain, he understood that he was the 'tank' in the party. He muttered under his breath if Glauc would have made a better tank and immediately dismissed the idea. The fat ass would have ran away at any sight of trouble.

"One who is brighter than the stars. One more harmonious than the seasons. Buried in the hearts of man and gods. I pledge myself to justice and borrow the weight of thy scales to punish the evil and protect the weak. DIVINE FAVOUR!" Ana managed to complete her rather chuunibyou chant and her scepter was enveloped with a bright light. She blushed slightly and secretly wished her goddess wasn't so wishy washy about her skills.

The replica scepter in her hands felt sturdier and more importantly, shone brightly. The dual wielding goblins immediately dropped one of their axe and used their free hand to cover their eyes. One of them actually dropped both of its axe in its surprise. Ana ran towards them and smashed her scepter at the biggest one. She could hear its ribs crack and the force blew it to a wall. Apparently the spell added some force to her already strong blows. Ana quietly muttered an apology to Maat for her earlier complaint. Ok... Her powers were kinda cool.

With the hobgoblins momentarily blinded, Sheila took the opportunity to throw more flames at them. Unable to dodge, they were burnt quite badly and in the pain dropped their weapons. That was when Ryu also charged in. He threw the rock in his hand at the furthest hobgoblin, breaking one of its knee before he leaped forwards and started clawing at them. His sharp claws rendered their flesh like knife through butter and it wasn't long before all five hobgoblins were killed. Ryu only managed to land the killing blow on one though. Sheila had stacked fire after fire on the other goblins and they miserably burnt to death before he could get to them.

Ana had sustained a wound to her arms when one of the hobgoblins blindly swung its axe. It cut through to her bones and she was busily trying to bandage the wounds. She was failing miserably until Sheila forcibly cauterized her wounds. The pain caused Ana to faint on the spot.

Ryu began to regenerate a few minutes after the combat. It seemed the skill only worked after he released the tension in his body for a while. Sheila had used her energy reserves and Ana was unconscious. But the group were victorious. The fight was finally over.

Ryu maintained his werewolf form and scouted the cave. An old hunter called Jeff accompanied him while weilding a torch. Jeff was the same person that had came up with the idea of trapping live animals for the champions to kill so that they can 'age up'. He had lived more than half his life training people in the village and had plenty of apprentices; from hunters to tanners to basket weavers. Many simply called him master.

And now he was teaching Ryu about spelunking; how to listen to the echoes from dripping water, and to watch out for brittle cave ceilings that may collapse. He also told Ryu to watch out for shadows and bends that could be used by goblins and other creatures as ambush spots. His lessons were easier for Ryu to absorb as Ryu's heightened werewolf senses made such irregularities much more obvious.

Especially his hearing, which now was not only more sensitive but the sounds Ryu heard was additionally processed by his mind to create a rough sonar map of his surrounding. It would be quite a challenge to ambush Ryu in his werewolf form thanks to that.

He checked his 'age' and realized that killing a hobgoblin had increased his to 62. "I can finally tell children to get off my lawn." he joked to himself.

The age increase had a noticeable effect on Ryu. It not only made him stronger and faster, he gained further awareness of the nature of Luna's blessing. She had somehow put a kind of magical container in his heart that released 'werewolf cells' whenever he transformed. The cells did not modify his biological cells but somehow enveloped them like a malleable armour. They do however, seem to consume a lot of energy from his fat stores and Ryu's suspicion to his greatly increased appetite was proven.

When they neared the end of the cave they found a carcass that had been butchered. There was no signs of a campfire so it seems the goblins eat their meat raw. Or perhaps they wanted to prevent attention that came from lighting a flame.

They also found a few crude tools and a stretched out animal hide. It had charcoal scribbles and drawings on it and Jeff immediately identified it as a map. What worried him was that the location of the church and nearby villages were marked with blood. He guessed that it might mean that the locations were being targeted for an raid

Jeff studied the crude map closely. He theorised that the hobgoblin scouts had probably been sent to search for weakness in the defences of the villages.

The group salvaged what they could and hurried back to the church. They had to inform everyone of the approaching goblin warband as soon as possible. Fortunately, the children they captured in the initial offence grew more subdued when they saw the dead hobgoblins. As feral as they had been they know that the champions were stronger than their original masters, the hobs. That made the travel back a lot easier than the villagers had initially feared.

"Yo Sheila. Bet you got a lot more powerful huh? You killed three goblins after all." Ryu asked her.

"Hobgoblins." Sheila corrected him. "And yeah my flames are now hotter and bigger. Also this might sound stupid but somehow, I feel that I'm a lot more persuasive. Even if i spoke rudely. Do a hundred pushups!"

Ryu suddenly felt a light impulse to exercise. He pushed the stray thought away quite easily and his face lit up at the information. "Ah. Interesting... So maybe charisma is one of your main stats? Or is that a passive buff? Hmmm we really need to research our powers a lot more. With control groups and science and stuff! Maybe we figure out a better way to use the gods' blessings. Like I can summon a bunch of wolves or something!" His gaming hobby was still evident, some might say Ryu got a lot more enthusiastic after being summoned.

"Yeah. But the fastest way to improve still seems to be killing. It's quite a barbaric method but I feel that the sooner we 'get old', the better. This world is a lot more dangerous than I'd like and we'll need power to survive. Good thing we have a shortcut." Sheila said.

Ryu handed Sheila one of the hobgoblins' axe. "Hey can you imbue this axe with fire? Aww... If only the hobs carried a sword. Then i can finally wield a flaming sword... of DOOM!"

Sheila traced her fingers along the surface of the axe and the sharp edge ignited. Jeff noticed what they were trying to do and grabbed the flaming axe. He tried chopping a tree with it. He shook his head "This is no good, the heat makes the metal softer. You can't cut properly like this. Losing a limb is a lot more damaging than light burns."

"Aww... Can you make the flame not affect the weapon?" Ryu complained to Sheila with puppy dog eyes.

"Nope, but the biggest problem is that i have to dedicate a large portion of my concentration just to keep the flame sticking on to the weapon. Easier to just chuck fire at the enemy and let em burn." Sometimes a hammer works better than a precision tool.

And thus they made their way back to the church without a flaming axe of doom.

Back in the church everyone immediately spread the news of the incoming goblin assault and the priests and nuns got busy praying to their gods.

The church's priests and nuns tend to collect favour with the gods and their ascetic lifestyle meant that they seldom cashed in their favours. This made their gods more likely to respond to their prayers. Any god who would not like receiving constant faith power with such low costs would be called a fool by the others. The priests and nuns informed their various gods for assistance against the goblins.

In this way churches acted as a very effective warning system to the citizens of Nugaia.

They got a quick telepathic reply from their deities of assurances. Some even sent their avatars down personally, telling everyone that they would send help from Cumbria, the nearest holy kingdom.

Then they waved goodbye to the godless champion Jane before disappearing. It was a cheap attempt to earn her good favour, in hopes that she would be their champion. In the end it would be a bad investment though, for sending down an avatar to the mortal plane was extremely costly to gods. Not only that, those who actually bothered to send their avatars down were relatively minor gods to start with and Jane had partially did her research and would never choose them.

Ana had recovered from her injury quite quickly. Fortunately the lack of bacteria and viruses in Nugaia meant her wounds did not get infected at all. Sheila had also cauterized her wounds, preventing her from losing too much blood. All she had to do was eat plenty to regain her energy. Her blessings also helped her recover.

However, the experience reminded Ana that combat was dangerous and painful. Even with Maat's blessings, danger was inevitable. She was also unlike Ryu who had combat experience in earth. Her cushy modern life meant that most altercations were with words.

But saving the children had apparently pleased Maat, as Ana realized that there were more spells she could cast. Her mana reserves was fuller in a sense. Not only that, her spell which was extremely effective against the goblins had a reduced karma cost. She could basically cast it non-stop now. Maat probably disliked goblins, or at least their gods and improved the spell that was rather effective against them.

Ryu was surprised that Jane chose his goddess, Luna, to be a champion of. Jane had told him her real title. [The moon goddess Luna, ruler of rest and night] Jane hoped the goddess' domain would be useful against creatures of the night such as goblins and hopefully, undead. She was also recognized as one of the strongest pantheons and hopefully her blessing would be relatively potent.

However, the church advised against it. Luna was known to ask her worshippers to do strange things and even then, she seldom rewarded them with her blessings. Also those that incurred her wrath suffered quite pitiful existences.

Jane still decided to go through with the idea. She stood in front of Luna's altar. It was merely a rectangle tomb carved with a crescent moon. She laid down a down stuffed pillow and blankets in front of the altar and chanted an improvised prayer.

"Oh, moon goddess Luna, ruler of rest and night. I offer you these quality beddings for thanks to listening to my prayers. I also offer myself to be your champion, to spread your teachings and show everyone your magnificence."

Contrary to the church members' expectations. A silver haired lady materialized. She also had silver pupils and seemed to sparkle. She was wearing pajamas and was holding a hug pillow. It had a wolf picture on it. The childish clothing actually contradicted with her mature looks.

Everyone in the church immediately kneeled down. Luna might not be a popular god but she was still powerful. Offending her was a grave mistake, and many were still shocked about her banishing all female werewolves. It required a very precise control and plentiful reserves of divine force for such an act.

The godess gave a dismissive look at Jane. Her eye glowed silver and everyone but Jane and Ryu fell asleep. The two started shining and floating like they were being abducted by aliens. Then they fell to the ground.

“Hmpf! A mere girl dares talk to me! Wait a minute…” The goddess squinted her eyes and stared at Jane. A sly smile flashed in her lips before she hid it with a nonchalant cough and pretended she did not notice anything. “You're lucky Glauc asked me to help your party.” Luna gloated at them before disappearing in a puff of silver glittery smoke. She also took the blanket and the pillow offered to her.

Everyone started waking up to the sight of the dumbfounded Jane and Ryu. Ryu asked Jane.

"Glauc?"

That was a very familiar name to him.

Ryu's lycanthropy had been conveniently improved by Luna. In a stroke of luck, he had just been curious about how Jane would get her new powers and the gods of the world and so was nearby when the goddess materialized. The fact that Jane wanted to contact Luna, the goddess that gave him his powers, also increased his curiosity and in turn that curiosity had given him a power up.

He did not exactly get stronger or faster, but he was now able to transform specific parts of his body to a werewolf's. After testing it out for a while he decided to leave his left eyes permanently in werewolf form and the other in human form. This allowed him to have a wolf's keen eyesight while still being able to see more spectrum of colours with the human eye. The best part of the blessing was that he was able to combine these two sights into a single image. His eyesight now allows him to see in the dark, is more sensitive to sudden movements but had no aversion to bright lights. It would definitely help him in a fight, not to mention in scouting and detecting traps.

The only downside was a mismatched eye colour. Which he thought of as super cool anyway. He had an intense desire to cover one of his eye with his hand and shouting 'Just according to Keikaku!' to his opponents.

He wanted to 'copy' his regeneration too but realized that it was just something that activated while he was in a state of rest. It did not matter whether he was in human or monster form but it seemed like it could not be used in battle. He was also unsure if he could regenerate limbs and was unwilling to test it out. Only someone crazy would experiment with cutting off one own's limbs.

Jane on the other hand, received quite a powerful blessing. She could 'shoot' a pulse of silver light from her forefinger. When hit, one would feel extremely sleepy. Against a weak opponent it basically meant instant defeat. Unfortunately, Jane's age was still quite low as she had not participated in any combat on her own. One use of her power was enough consumption of her energy that she fainted herself. Fortunately the blessings of Luna also meant that she needed less sleep to recuperate her energy.

The church immediately decided to let Jane 'age' as much as possible. They believed that her particular skill would be crucial against hobgoblins that liked to use human children as meat shields. Her powers would reduce human casualties from the enemy, something that might cause a big drop in morale. They decided to let Jane kill most of the livestock they raised up since they were to be prepared as rations in the upcoming war anyway. It was enough to let Jane shoot three 'sleep darts' in succession after all was done.

After all the meat was smoked and dried, and grains were loaded on carts a large portion of the church members, as well as the heroes and their villager posse headed out to the village of Sinai in the north. The desert it bordered, was quite uninhabitable for most civilizations, making it a common breeding ground for monsters. This also forced Sinai to build stone walls to protect against such monsters and thus made it the ideal place to defend against the goblin invasion.

Jeff told Ryu that the journey would take them more then a month. Hopefully the goblins would take even longer to prepare. He assured everyone that champions of gods from Cumbria would definitely assist and sabotage the goblins any chance they had.

During the trip, the group was attacked by wild beasts quite often. The hunters of the group took care of them quite easily with fire and arrows. The beasts were no match to humans with tools and ended up as extra rations for the group.

Ana hated road trips. Well she liked them when she was sitting behind a car but walking on a jungle trek that seemed endless and was full of bugs was a nightmare. Not only that she had to be aware of random beasts that like to hide in the shadows. The last one had been particularly bad, a kind of tree climbing lizard that could glide down to catch prey unaware. Not only was it fast, it was the size of a horse. Were it not for Ryu's eyesight and him informing the hunters, it would have swooped down on the group and eaten a few of them. Even prepared, the hunters had a lot of trouble with the monster. They had shot at its winglike skin attached to its arms while it tried to glide down from a tree. When it fell to the ground, its venomous fangs and powerful tail was enough of a deterrent for Ryu and Ana to help. A villager had been hit when he tried to throw a net over it and had broken a few of his bones. Sheila had tried to burn it but her fire seemed to slide away from its slippery scales. Jane also tried to hit it with her sleep dart but it instinctively dodged the silver light.

The monster was agitated from its injuries and attacked the nearest person it could find, which was Jeff the old hunter. Jeff tore off his bracelet. It glowed green and he threw it at the lizard. The bracelet transformed into a writhing mass of thorny vines and restrained the lizard. Jane shot a sleep dart at it and unable to dodge, it immediately fell asleep. Jeff then handed her a spear and told her to pierce its skull.

"This jabber better have a lot of soul age fer ya. That ensnaring strike bracelet wasn't easy to make." Jeff remarked.

"Holy crap old man! You made that magic bracelet? Think you can make one for me?" When Ryu saw its effects, he was definitely tempted by how useful it was.

"It'll take me a few days, and you're not gonna be able to use it unless ya know ranger spells boy."

"So you can teach me ranger spells then!" Ryu asked. Jeff had never hesitated in teaching Ryu new things and he was sure spells could also be taught.

"I will if you want to. But first yer got to reach two hundred years. Thats when everyone can see mana." A few villagers nodded their heads in understanding. It seemed many of them were a lot older than they looked. Ryu also noticed some of the hunters had similar bracelets to the one Jeff had used.

This was new information for the heroes. The limit of two hundred years bestowing some kind of mana sight ability was an exciting prospect. Not only that, it seemed spells could be taught to one another and the champions were not 'class locked' as they had initially assumed.

Ryu fantasized being a fireball throwing flying werewolf of doom. That would be fun.

A few days through their trip, the group camped near a natural well. The well was a known spot for many travellers and hunters but if one did not know of it was almost impossible to spot. It was basically a bush covered hole in the middle of the forest. It even had some water plants growing from it which made the well look like another normal spot in the forest.

Ryu had a bath near the well. During the trip he had not have a shower. Not only that, he had to walk most of the trip as the horses and oxen were already strained from pulling the overfilled carts. The sweat and dust from the dried mud path was refreshingly washed away from the water in the well. He had to use a bucket and rope to collect the water and soap was unavailable but the cold water was heaven to him. That was when he heard shouting.

"Champion!"

When Ryu went back to the carts what he saw was only carnage. Jeff and several of the villagers were lying on the floor. The ground was charred and many had sustained burnt wounds. However there was no fire. In the middle of the black ground stood a robed figure bound by several thorny vines. Most of the hunters had used their ensnaring strike bracelets at great risk and bound a goblin.

It was holding a long bone on its right hand and some kind of charred wood in its left. Its robe shone with runic inscriptions and the vines magically shattered away. It calmly moved its blindfolded head around before it faced Sheila. And then SHE asked her. "Orphan. Where others?"

"They're safe from you monsters! And I'll make sure you don't kidnap more!" Sheila snapped her fingers and summoned a ring of fire around the robed goblin, separating her from the injured villagers. Ana and the others immediately got to pulling the downed fighters out of the way. Fortunately, none of them were dead, only unconscious from the previous attack.

The goblin merely watched from her fiery prizon. She could have easily casted her witch bolt through the flame and injured the rescuers but chose not to. "No kidnap. Save orphans. Kikanuti's will."

Jane fired one of her magical sleep darts which the goblin effortlessly parried with the bone in her hand. The goblin then crushed the charred wood in her hands and pointed her finger at a tree behind her. A bolt of lightning struck the tree and Ryu fell down from it. He had climbed the tree from her back in hopes of ambushing her at an opportune time but she had easily detected him. The arc of lightning continued electrocuting Ryu as he spasmed on the ground. When the arc of lightning stopped Ryu was already unconscious. The goblin reached into her pouch and took out another charred wood, daring anyone to attack her. "No fight. Talk."

Ana tried to charge at her when she was pulled back by Sheila. "Didn't you hear her? She doesn't want to fight!"

Ana looked at Sheila and in a confused tone asked "You know what it's saying?"

The rest of the villagers looked at Sheila with pity. A stout woman told her "It's been said that goblins speak with those who are orphaned young and trick them into fighting for them. Be careful of what it says Sheila."

The whole group were now stuck in an impasse. If any villagers attacked the goblin it could simply zap them with lightning and the goblin alone was calmly standing in a ring of fire Sheila had created. Sheila asked to no one in particular "She said Kikanuti's will. What is that?"

Jeff had awoken from his injury and replied to her. "I've heard that Kikanuti is the dessert goddess. Not sure though. That goblin must be her champion, something called a Grandmother. They are priests that cast offensive spells, I think."

"And what does this Grandmother want with the orphans?" Sheila asked.

"Doesn't matter. Ask it what the goblins want with human towns."

Sheila looked at the goblin and snapped her finger. The fire ring flared up and she asked "The hobgoblin cave we found the children in. There was a map of the villages and church. What does the goblins want with them?"

Seemingly unaffected by the flame, the goblin put back the charred wood in its pouch and sheathed her bone in goodwill. She kindly smiled at Sheila. "Not goblins. Bhukas. Orphans' rite. Look home. Last time. Then desert. Be Bhukas."

Sheila's face contorted as she grasped the Grandmother's meaning "Its a magic rite to turn the children into goblins, or Bhukas. That's how they refer to themselves. And if she could be believed, they are not going to attack the settlements." She then continued talking to the goblin champion "You're still changing children to Bhukas, i don't like that one bit!"

The goblin opened its jaws and pointed to its jagged teeth. "Sharp teeth. Eat meat. Bhukas eat less. Drink less. Orphans weak. Desert kill. Kikanuti's blessing. Orphans live."

Sheila started calculating in her mind. If the goblins were 'rescuing' orphans, where did they rescue them from? "Taking children from villages and putting them in a desert. That's not saving them! You're just making life miserable for everyone!"

The goblin was blindfolded but when it raised its eyebrow it was still obvious "No kidnap. Save. Humans war. Orphans taken. Send war. Grandmothers come. Take them. Desert. No war."

This reply stunned Sheila. It took her a while before she asked Jeff. "Do the humans often have wars with one another?"

"Not just humans. Everyone fights. Not all gods like peace. That's just life." He shrugged.

"And the children?"

"Its war. Everyone fights." he was starting to get angry at Sheila. "The goblins come after a big fight, kills the adults and kidnap the younger ones. They cause more casualties everytime there is a skirmish! Now are you gonna fight that champion or do i have to do everything myself!" He tried to stand up but was too weak and staggered down to the ground again.

The Grandmother looked disdainfully at Jeff. She seemed to understand him despite being a nonhuman. She motioned to Sheila. "The orphans. Go war?"

"They're taking care of the church. They're probably gonna grow up as priests and nuns." Sheila weakly replied. "No war."

The Grandmother stroked her chin. "Hmmm. Good. Orphans. Kikanuti marked. If war. She knows. Bhukas destroy church." It was a threat, and one Sheila know the Grandmother could easily fulfil. Even now everyone was having trouble with a single person. If they came in a group, Sheila could not imagine the destruction. "You killed Bhukas. Kikanuti forgive you. Once."

And the Grandmother slowly turned and walked through the flame ring, unaffected by Sheila's flames, back to the forest before disappearing in the shadows.

"She's gonna be trouble in Sinai. Should have got her here." Jeff complained.

"One. She kicked our ass. Two, as i have said before. The Bhukas are not going to attack the villages. Sacred rite remember?" Sheila moved to the unconscious Ryu and kicked him.

"Argh. What was that! That gob was a lightning mage or something? How do we fight that!" Ryu had woken up from the kick and had already regenerated to full health.

"They call Kikanuti priestesses 'Grandmother'. And only a very old and skilled one can use ." Jeff explained.

Sheila explained to Ryu what had happened while he was unconscious. He asked Ana "So the goblins are good?"

"Don't know." Ana replied. "When it spoke I just heard gibberish. It was like 'Gah! Bululu! bleeehhh!' and stuff. Sheila seems to be able to understand her just fine though."

"It tricked Sheila! It's gonna tell the rest about us! Fool!" Jeff was the only person brave enough to scold a champion although more than a few villagers had the same thought as him. "It probably was running out of components for its spell!"

"They're called Bhukas. And i have a feeling they're not just simple pests."

"Well we'll find out soon won't we?" Jeff spat on the ground.

The convoy wearily continued on their journey to Sinai. Not only they had injured to take care of, they had to guard against possible goblin ambushes. The villagers still believed that the Grandmother's intention was to slaughter humans.

Sheila was conversing with the rest of the Champions. "Well, she did not kill anyone, despite being more than capable of it. As a matter of fact, I'm sure she could take out all of us quite easily." The rest agreed with her but decided to keep their opinions to themselves for fear of offending the villagers. After all, they were being fed and escorted. Hunting for food and camping by themselves would be a tough task for ones used to the modern life.

Fortunately, aside from a couple of beast attacks, the rest of the journey was mostly uneventful. After an arduous amount of trekking they finally saw Sinai in the horizon.

Sinai was located in a rocky surface. A few bushes and cacti dotted the surroundings and the village was surrounded by a mishmash of stone and wood walls. They were over five meters tall and the traveling group noticed men carrying lit torches patrolling them. The men all wore leather armour and caps and had bows slung around their shoulders.

They must have noticed the convoy first as Ryu and the rest were greeted by a group of horsemen. They were unarmed and wore thick fur coats. Their leader, an asian man with golden irises, fingers adorned with gold and jewels greeted them. "Yo champions! You guys from America? Or Europe?"

"U.S.A, you're an earthling too? How long have you been to this world? I'm Ana by the way. That's Ryu, Sheila and Jane. We're the Champions and the ones following us are from the previous village, near the tutorial forest." Ana grinned as she realized that the asian man was also from earth.

"I'm Yang, from China! Been here for more than two decades! I already have mana-sight though. So for the people in this world I'm like over two hundred years old! Dunno how they count em but that's what the gods say or whatever. I'm champion of Hermes by the way. God of messengers and more importantly of profit!” He rubbed his forefinger and thumb together to signify money. “Anyway let's enter Sinai first. It's a pretty neat town. Plenty of money to be made trading!"

The group entered Sinai and noted there were already some makeshift tents set up for them. They were served a hearty meat stew and told to take a rest.

Yang continued conversing with the champions, telling them that repairs and additions were being done to bolster the defences of the village. There were even a few Nugaia local champions that had travelled to aid Sinai. "Goblin warbands are nasty though, they usually got siege machines and poisoned arrows. Gonna be messy. Also I'm no good at combat. I'm just a merchant and messenger. Hope you guys got some blessings from the god that summoned you."

Sheila asked him. "So the goblins are bad guys? We met one that said she was just saving orphans."

"Wait. You met a Grandmother? FUCK! Those goblins you guys met, they had brownish skins right? Please don't tell me they had green skins..."

Ryu, Sheila, Ana and Jane simultaneously nodded at the question and all the colour drained out of Yang's face.

"Oh shit. I've got to tell everyone! You guys wait here and i... I'll talk to you later. Fuck!"

Yang started running at a group of soldiers and shouting at everyone. "IT'S THE BHUKAS! FUCKING COUNTRY BUMPKINS GAVE US THE WRONG INFO! IT'S THE BHUKAS!!"

Everybody looked at Yang and immediately started shuffling and running around and the information spread like wildfire. Only the newly arrived group stood around in a daze. Ryu looked at Jeff. He merely shrugged his shoulders. He had been living in the forest his whole life and did really not know the difference in fighting abilities between goblins and Bhukas. In fact he had thought they were the same type of creatures.

It was until late at night that Yang met with them again. After the news had spread it seemed everyone redoubled their effort to fortify the village. "Ah guys. Sorry for panicking. The Bhukas. Guess i should explain. They're not really goblins. They mostly stay to themselves. Unfortunately, their god tends to ah, hate certain professions. And your so called goblin warband news had attracted exactly the kind people, me included. Which means the Bhukas are gonna attack this place if they know we're here, which I just learnt from the scouts that they do. Bhukas are a lot scarier than goblins so uhh, yeah, it's going to be bad."

"Wait, so you were saying they were not going to attack the villages? And we made them attack because we lured a bunch of what? Merchants? Messengers? Why would Kikanuti hate em?" Sheila asked

Yang guiltily looked away from her eyes and replied "Umm, no, not those professions. Its uhh. Its complicated."

Ryu had a rough idea of what Yang was. His experience being Glauc's bodyguard meant that he had joined some meetings with the more unsavoury parts of society and he knew the kind of things they were willing to do for money. And he could guess what Yang did to offend the Bhukas goddess. "You're a slaver."

Yang widened his eyes in surprise and stared at Ryu. He then looked down and guiltily nodded his head.

The ladies looked at Yang in disgust. "Wait, we're gonna risk our lives just to save some scum? Why don't we just offer them to the Bhukas?" Ana glared at Yang. She could not believe that just a couple of hours ago she had been happily discussing their circumstances with Yang.

"You don't understand. This world. The slaves are important. Lots of cities would be ruined if there were no slaves..."

"Fucking bullshit! Fuck you! And fuck this world! And fuck the gods! What sick gods are okay with slavery!" Ana had always been subdued but this had been a little too much to stomach for her. She started worshipping to Maat to inquire about slavery. She suddenly gave an evil grin. "Maat is fine with punishing the slavers. As a matter of fact, she wishes to abolish slavery." She unsheathed her scepter and pointed it at Yang. "Surrender. Or I'll be forced to knock you down. You did say that you can't fight right?"

Ryu transformed into a werewolf and growled. "I don't care about slavery but it seems you guys can't win against the Bhukas. I'd rather just give you guys up. Nothing personal." Having personally fought a Grandmother, Ryu had assessed that Sinai's defence would crumble if a group of Grandmother attacked.

Sheila stood to the side, watching the events unfold. She noticed that some of the soldiers had overheard their altercations and had unsheathed their weapons. It wasn't long before the group were surrounded by bows and spears aimed at them.

Everyone was nervously waiting for the other party to make the first move.

A pot-bellied man holding a pickaxe walked towards them slowly. His soot covered face indicated he was a miner or smith of some sort. "Champions. Sorry for the late introduction. I'm the village head. Sorry, but we can't give up the slavers."

Ryu's werewolf fur bristled, making him look even more intimidating than he already was. "Go ahead and protect your slavers and whatnot. My problem is i don't think Sinai has a chance against the Grandmothers. Give me a good reason i should stay here."

The girls glared angrily at him, especially Ana. They were quite offended at Ryu's nonchalant attitude towards slavers. He looked back at her and knew what they were thinking. He simply shrugged and said "You guys realize we still have slavery on earth? During my mercenary days we were protecting mines that were slave run. The same mines that produce minerals used to build your favorite electronics. And Idunn LLC? The company you guys were applying at before this whole magic shit happened? Glauc fucking imported boys and girls from war torn countries, some were even kidnapped. And I fucking escorted them to bribe politicians. And all the slave run factories that make your clothes and everyday shit? Didn't see you girls complaining then!"

"Yeah we're all guilty of enjoying modern pleasures. But don't twist the world with your words. Not all products are slave made and i admit my ignorance in certain things. But now. Now we know slavers exist and we sure as hell are not going to work with them! And unlike on earth, we have the powers to change this world for the better." Ana reprimanded him.

"Good point. What are their powers?" the village head asked Yang.

Yang shook his head and threatened the group "I don't know yet. But i don't think they'll survive from a rain of arrows" Some of the soldiers tightened their grips on their bows to support his claim.

Sheila looked around and put her hands on Ana's shoulders. "Calm down. We're outnumbered. Mister village head. How bout a deal. You let us go, and we won't make any more trouble. I'm sure you're busy with the Bhukas."

"And what if you heroes decided to help the Bhukas fight us?" Yang retorted. "You Americans are always causing trouble everywhere you go. That's why China closed its borders to protect us against you!"

Jane's eyebrows twitched as she heard this. "Um Mr Yang. China and the USA are trade partners now. Sure we have some disagreements but that's true for any two countries. Earth has changed, and for the better. Too bad you're stuck in your old ways. And as much as I'm against slavery, I have to say fighting now will just cause more suffering for everyone involved. Just let us go on our god's quest. And you can fight against the Bhukas by yourselves."

The village head pondered about it for a moment before raising one of his hands. The soldiers relaxed their grips on their weapons. "Although I blame you champions for this mess, having you here will only bring more trouble to the coming fight. Mister Ryu, I am disappointed that you think so little of us. We have a few tricks up our sleeves to handle the Bhukas. Are you sure you don't want to join our defence? A werewolf would be a welcome addition to the militia. I'll guarantee our victory against those uncivilized beasts."

Ryu shook his head. "Sorry. But Jane just reminded me that we have a quest to complete. I'm sure Min would be displeased if we delayed with her orders."

The defenders of Sinai were shocked to find out that they were champions of Min. Yang was the first to get back his cool and snickered "Huh. So you guys were summoned by Min. No wonder you're so troublesome. Just like your goddess."

The village head gave Yang a dirty look "She might be able to hear you through them you idiot! Uh. Um. We respect Min of course! Right guys? Totally most awesome goddess in the world! Although we don't need any blessings! Too much blessing would make things too er… easy? No blessings! Please?" The surrounding soldiers nodded their head vigorously as if doing otherwise would bring their doom.

This was not true, for Min might be powerful but she was not a vengeful goddess. She might get offended but just choose to hide and cry in her room. The citizens of Nugaia still would not test their luck against such a goddess though, only cursing her in their own thoughts.

Unfortunately for Min, she could actually feel thoughts of living things and so currently chose to ignore the mortal realm until her broken heart has mended. Thus even her worshippers could not receive her blessings now which in turn reduced her popularity more in a downward spiral.

The village leader clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Well I'm sure what you champions need to do are important! So, where do you need to go? Nowhere near here I'm sure! Come let us help you pack your things! Yep! You guys know where you need to go right? It's not here right? Did i say we'll help you pack up? Soldiers! Stop standing around and help them pack up! You want Min's attention here? Uh. I mean... You want to delay their holy quest?"

The champions were amused at the reaction to Min. Sheila was the first to act. She clasped her hands together as if praying and loudly proclaimed "Ah! Dear goddess Min! I'm sure you're going to notice Sinai if they cause trouble for us. Especially if they take away our supplies and weapons! Let's see... I remember our party had full armour and weapons!" She winked.

The village head gritted his teeth. She was obviously extorting him! But he still chose to gave in and armed the Champions and their escorts.

And that is how the group found themselves travelling further north towards the undead. This time fully armed with studded leather armour and metal weapons. Some villagers chose to stay back in Sinai to fight the Bhukas but overall the group were much stronger in a fight than when they entered the mining village.

News spread quickly of Min’s new terror, summoned champions whose first famous deed was to indirectly plunder Sinai of their most powerful weapons and armour just before a war.