As the three goblins approached, I started getting more and more nervous as I as slowly as I could came out of my sleeping sack without alerting them, I had no doubt in my mind that if they found me and I had to fight those three semi-humans creatures I would either end up dead or they would end up alerting others of their kin in which case, I would also end up dead, and neither of those options were something I wanted to partake.

I started panicking as I got deeper and deeper into what a call a mental downwards spiral… I had literally just survived a life and death experience in which, another human had died in front of me, I was in no state of mind to put myself through it again, and worse, now I was on my own against three.

That’s when I realise these monsters, weren’t much of monsters, they were also clearly capable of thought as they seemed to have crafted their own crude weapons and clothes and they were also capable of communication as they started speaking to each other in their on crude and guttural language and that made matters worse... I mean how many of us can say that prior to the Integration they had killed anything. Even a chicken? Not many and certainly not me, now imagine if you had to kill something similar to a human, how many of us would have the balls for it? I suppose on a life and death situation you don’t really think clearly but still and even then. I remembered the closest I’d gotten from it was when someone tried to rob my house… but right at the moment, I wasn’t with killing intent, I was scared and nervous out of my mind.

‘Molkac mel'daal rhec huukhaaluur or den daagekhuugec, khruul daan shac ogac or daagekhuugec’ Said what I assumed to be the squad leader, as he was slightly broader than the others and held a mace in one of his hands, he was also level 14 while the others were only level 12. He was articulating towards Brandon body as he said that.

‘Daan daach Nuuk, daan or ghuugaan dhuul ac dhaalkal'daan, replied one of the spear wielding Goblins.

I noticed the spear was made of a short stick and a sharp stone attached to the tip yet the mace was made of metal, probably belonging to someone else, my stomach twisted in knots as I thought of the possibility that they might have killed someone else for that mace.

‘GhUuGAan DUuLkAaC AC DhUuL!’, shouted the squad leader as he started to maniacally laugh. The other two did the same.

‘Daan daach Nuuk, daan or ghuugaan dhuul ac dhaalkal'daan’, said the second spear man, and they all laughed.

I had absolutely no fucking clue what these hairless green dudes were saying, until the last spear man said Nuuk and then I realised that I had a quest to kill someone called Nuuk Snarl, that couldn’t be a coincidence. The Nuuk guy must be their leader or something of the sort.

They gathered around the Boar and muttered a few other words but I couldn’t hear it properly, then they moved towards Brandon again and my heart raced as they started ‘inspecting’ the body, they were more of smelling it.

‘akuukhaar molkac taach’ said the spearman smelling Brandon, and the other two jumped to their feet and started looking around.

That’s when I knew something was wrong as my ‘Detect Danger’ skill started buzzing in my skull again, stronger this time, I knew instinctively that they were looking for something or someone, they probably had a skill to do with smells and they noticed there was someone else with Brandon so they were looking for him, which in this case was me, which in this case I was screwed.

In my terror, I upgraded my skill ‘Hide Presence’ to level 5, which costed me 800 Essence, leaving me with 3650 Essence. As soon as I did that, I could feel the skill changing, I could feel my seemingly knowledge of how to breath, blend, walk, look around in a way that I wouldn’t be noticed, or less noticed, it was all sorts of amazing and strange. There was more to the skill, I could somehow feel like at higher levels it would let me hide in plain sight if someone didn’t have a high perception or some sort of tracking skills.

In my haste and terror, it became clear to me that I didn’t really have to upgrade the skill as the Goblins hadn’t really found me yet, although as soon as I upgraded it, the spearman who had sensed my smell, seemed to grow a bit more attentive, I could see the look in his face as he got confused and muttered something to the leader. I assumed my skill ‘Hide Presence’ had somehow countered his tracking skill a bit, making them a bit more wary. In response, the leader shouted, I guessed they were a few orders as the other two goblins moved to Brandon’s body and started to gather his stuff, they took his armor, his longsword, backpack… It made me extremely angry at how they were handling his body, their laughs as they looked and kicked it, one of the spearmen removed one of Brandon’s ears all the while he laughed, I had to control myself not to jump on the fucker even though I would end up losing, probably. I wasn’t sure if they were doing it as a ritual or to get a reaction if someone was watching, but I supposed they weren’t that cleaver to play mind games.

A few minutes later, the leader shouted again and one of the spearmen started carrying all of Brandon’s stuff, clearly struggling with the longsword as he started following the squad leader as he went back the way they had come from, I felt relieved but not so much, as one of the spearmen seemed to have stayed behind to guard the Boar’s body. Meaning that they would come back, and with more Goblins. AH MAN, I was fucked and I knew I wouldn’t sleep that night.