The waypoint led us to large area which became unlocked on the game map after crossing its border. Once I figured out how to access the map, a large area was highlighted as an exploration area.

Region Discovered: Kamarii Badlands +50 Exp.

It was just as the name suggests, rocky, barren, and shitty. It reminded me of wastelands I’ve seen in old westerns, except more dreary. I looked at the map again. “This is a lot of ground to cover in goblin country, how the hell are we supposed to find anything? What the fuck are we even looking for?”

“A goblin cave,” answered Shawn.

“Perfect. Throw a fucking rock in these hills and you’ll hit a cave.”

We walked around for almost an hour without finding anything useful. There was a cave with a level eight Mammoth Spider, another that was a dead end, and yet another with a shit load of bats and nothing else.

Reaching the highest point we could, we surveyed the badlands. Usually, if someone’s putting a quest related cave in a game, it shouldn’t be that difficult to find. The sun was almost beyond the hills. Night, and all the dangers that came with it, was rapidly approaching. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw something, glints in the fading light. Down in an adjacent canyon, a pack of goblins hobbled along. “Over there!” I pointed. “If it’s a goblin cave we’re after, maybe they’re on their way there.”

The two of us hauled ass down the side of the canyon, sliding down the rocky slopes as if we wore skates. At the bottom, we ran in the direction the goblins had been going. In a matter of minutes, we were on their trail and hanging back a healthy distance. Around a bend, through desert brush and over a ridge, we followed the ugly fuckers. Suddenly, we saw them pick up speed.

Shrieks pierced the air and the sounds of fighting quickly followed. Shawn and I got crouched behind a big sagebrush plant nearby. The goblins had happened upon two men and a woman, NPCs that were desperately trying to defend themselves. “We need to help them,” I said as I stood and drew my rusty sword.

“Do we?” Shawn’s hand gripped my sword arm. “We can’t follow the goblins if their dead.” He had a point. I sheathed my blade and crouched back down. Red numbers appeared above the fray as various members took damage. One of the men had his head split open by a goblin ax.

Next, the woman ran her sword through a goblin’s chest and killed it. The woman’s health must have been low because the next blow she took brought her down with a spray of blood. The remaining NPC spun around in a circle, holding his sword out. A goblin arrow stuck into his forehead and the man collapsed to his knees and fell face first. The creatures snarled and shrieked with victory before heading off.

I was the first to reach the bodies. “I’ll keep on their trail,” Shawn said as he ran by. “Get the loot!” I searched all four and came away with some decent findings.

Leather x2

Gold: +8

Basic Short Sword: LvL 2 +2 Atk

Walking over to the woman’s body, I checked her for loot.

Elder Star Crystal x1

The item was a clear obelisk-shaped crystal that gave me the option to use it. I checked the description: Uncommon item, description locked. Increase insight or use item for first time to unlock information.

What the fuck? What was the point in hiding descriptions from players? It’s a goddamn game, you have to know the rules. I suddenly remembered what Shawn had said when I first logged on, about how this was a deceptively hard game. How he was still figuring out how it worked and all that bullshit. Fine, if there were secrets to this game, I’d figure them out later.

I opened my inventory and equipped the short sword which gave me +1 attack over the rusty one I previously had equipped. Things were looking up. I could probably sell the gear that no longer served a purpose, which would give me extra gold. With all the loot safely in my inventory, I ran in the direction of my quarry.

Viewing the mini-map, I found Shawn’s character marker. Having set it as my waypoint, I followed the general direction on my compass bar until I was almost at his position. While running, a notification window came up

Endurance increased +1

That made me think. I hadn’t been doing anything special, just running after Shawn this whole time. With a little time to think about it, it seemed to make sense. When I leveled up, my attack, defense, and HP increased but none of my other stats. I pulled up my current stats.

LvL: 2

Exp: 60/250

HP: 11/11

Atk: 4

Def: 4

Stl: 1

End: 2

Mgk: 1

Unless I was way off the mark, this could mean that I actually had to keep using Stealth, Endurance, and Magic in order to level those skills up. That sounded pretty straightforward but what about magic? Something to figure out later. I closed the window and resumed running.

The distance to the marker I placed on Shawn was counting down from one hundred meters. At thirty meters, I could see someone sitting on a boulder waving at me. “I think I found the cave,” he said as I got closer. “I followed those fuckers down this canyon, right to the hidden entrance.”

“How many do you think are in there?”

He winked, “Bout to be a lot of dead ones.” I followed Shawn down the canyon until stopping at what appeared to be a huge clump of dead tree roots protruding out the side of the canyon wall. Getting closer, it looked like they were covering something dark.

Pushing my way between them, I found myself in a dark cave. It took a moment for our eyes to adjust. At regular intervals on the walls of the cave were clumps bioluminescent mushrooms, giving off just enough light for us to walk without bumping into literally everything. This was more like it.

Just ahead around a bend in the path was chatter. Shawn and I crouched and moved forward as quietly as we could. Pressed against the curving wall of the cave, I peeked around the bend to find two level 3 goblins.

One turned and walked right at me. I stepped back and waited for him to come around the corner. Each step made my heart beat faster with nervous energy. The goblin rounded the corner and immediately the Execute option came up. I took the chance. My hand grabbed the creature, slammed it into the rock wall, and I drove my short sword into its back. -25 appeared above it’s ugly green head.

The goblin stumbled back and drew its sword with a snarl. Shawn clubbed the enemy with the pommel of his sword, stunning it. I stepped up and brought my sword around with both hands as the blade cleaved straight through its neck. The ugly head dropped the the cave’s floor and black blood spurted from the corpses’ neck as it fell.

LvL 3 Goblin Slain: +30 Exp.

x3 Goblin Teeth

Shawn crept around the corner and slit the throat of the next goblin. “Man, this is too easy,” he said. “Two down, about seven more to go.”

I was about to agree when I saw movement behind him. Shawn turned to find a goblin that had no lips or eyelids. It seemed to come out of a tunnel we hadn’t seen. “Shit!” He jumped back at the same time the creature started shrieking and took off in the other direction. “Kill it!” he yelled. “Kill it!”

Our disgusting prey shot down the tunnel quickly. It felt like we were constantly five feet behind as we chased it from tunnel to tunnel, before stumbling into the cave’s main chamber. The entire ceiling was covered by glowing mushrooms that bathed everything in a dull blue light. The shrieker had halted in the middle of the room and howled as loud as it could.

I was about to charge it when I noticed the crude cave drawings surrounding us. Every part of the rock walls had been covered in pictures of torture, illegible symbols, and great tentacled monsters. Every drawing was different, like they really had been made by individuals.

Shawn charged the shrieker, it didn’t stand a chance. A powerful blow sent it stumbling back towards me. I rammed my sword in its back and with my free hand, snapped its neck. The ugly body fell limp at my feet.

LvL 3 Goblin Shrieker Slain, +35 Exp.

“Hey Shawn, these ones-” I stopped mid-sentence as animalistic shrieks echoed from every tunnel around us. A chill crept through my bones. We fucked up. “Which way leads out?”

My friend was frozen in place, his eyes darting from tunnel to tunnel. “Get ready to fight,” he said. “We’re way past running at this point.” That might not have been true, but I sure as shit couldn’t remember how to get out. A horde of goblins poured in from all directions and encircled us. There must have been thirty, all level 3. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run. This is where we would die.