Marcus looked at the map where the last known location of the necklace was given. He charted the way and started to walk. Before he exited Solaris, he shopped at a General Goods store to buy some bottled water and dried rations. He was sure the quest should not take more than one day but it was better to have some supplies. He did not buy a tent, thinking he would sleep on some tree if he needed to.

He soon exited Solaris. It was the first time he was in the wilds. Well not the first time. He had woken up in the forest near Solaris and had been chased by fucking wolf like creatures which Marcus had learnt later were called Zagui.

Solaris was surrounded by forests from three sides, North, South and East. Marcus had woken up in the Eastern Forest. Sinanan seemed to have lost her necklace in the Northern Forest. As Marcus exited Solaris, he got a notification. He looked at it. It said, Would you like to open your interface as you are exiting a safe zone?

Marcus thought, Yes.

At once his vision was flooded with information. On the top left corner of his vision Marcus could see his health and mana. It was 112 and 106 respectively. The bottom part of his vision was faded, as if it was not unlocked or something. It had to be his active spells. He did not have any. There was also another box. It was not faded though and it was empty. It looked the same as the box that would hold an artifact. So it had to be an artifact power but Marcus did not have any either.

On the right side of his vision was a drop down menu labelled Quests. Marcus thought about touching the drop down and it dropped down instantly. It showed his active quest.

Find the blacksmith’s necklace

Sinanan has asked you to find her precious necklace which she lost while dealing nefariously with the goblins. Go adventurer and retrieve it.

Marcus rolled his eyes at the description. Seriously, who wrote those? He then thought of minimizing the current quest menu and it happened. He looked around and the interface remained constant. It would take some time getting used to.

He wondered about the interface and looked for the option of its display. He touched his utility belt and thought, Options. The Options screen opened. He looked for the user interface options. He found them. There were three

Adventurer UI Always On

Adventurer UI Off in Safe Zones

Adventurer UI Manual Selection

Currently, the Adventurer UI was in Manual Selection mode and it was On as Marcus had just activated it. He chose the option Adventurer UI Always On and closed the options. He now started off into the forest.

Marcus walked for what he felt like hours but it was mostly six hours. He was now feeling thirsty. He opened his inventory and got bottled water out. It was the same cool temperature when he had bought it. It seemed that the inventory of his utility belt stopped the perishability of perishable items.

As he was drinking, he heard a sound. He quickly put his bottle back in the inventory and hid behind some bushes. Some time later three goblins came into view. Marcus checked them.

Tashuk, Goblin, Level 2

Health: 50/50

Barthan, Goblin, Level 2

Health: 52/52

Tanin: Goblin, Level 2

Health: 46/46

The goblin, Tashuk said as he came to the place where Marcus had been standing a few moments before, “So, is this the place you saw someone eh, Tanin?”

The goblin had a high pitched yet gnarly voice. It hurt Marcus just to hear it speak.

Tanin said, “Argh. Yes. Yes. I am sure. It was here. There was someone. The eyes do no lie. Yes, there he was. Here. Here.”

It seemed that Tanin did not have much intelligence or this was just his way of talking.

Barthan grunted, “Tanin is seeing things. Tashuk should ignore.”

Tanin snarled at Barthan but the other goblin seemed unfazed. Tashuk snarled at both to be quiet and they did. He sniffed the air as if he was trying to catch Marcus’ scent. He did it for a minute or so. Tashuk sniffed all around and Marcus was afraid he would be discovered.

Tashuk finally said, “There was someone here.”

“Aha”, said Tanin but Tashuk raised a hand.

“I do not know how long ago but there are many scents. Adventurers. Definitely. Warn the camp. We may have intruders.”

Marcus did not like that. He could not let these goblins go. He was afraid they would come back with a larger party. These seemed to be some sort of scouts or were they out in the forest for some other purpose. He saw knives in their hands and no other weapon. That did not mean that they had no other weapon. They could be having one in their inventory.

He had read about the goblins in his free time. They were stronger in groups but an individual goblin was not that strong. They had a weakness to fire and taking them out fast was advisable as they do not tire easily and are very fast. Marcus wondered whether he could take on these three or not.

He made a split second decision. As soon as the goblins turned their backs and started to walk back, Marcus sprinted as silently as he could up to the nearest goblin. Tannin. He struck the twinblade in the goblin’s back and saw its health fall down to 12. Another fast slash from the twinblade and the goblin was dead. His notification tab was blinking rapidly but he did not have time to check it.

The other goblins noticed him. They charged him with a guttural snarl. Tashuk came from the left while Barthan came from the right. They attacked Marcus in sync and Marcus had to dodge their attacks. He got slashed twice. He lost 28 points of health and swore.

He dodged back, sidestepped an attack from Tashuk and charged Barthan. He slashed and twirled fast, attacking Barthan aggressively. His slashes staggered Barthan and the goblin was dead in four slashes. Marcus lost 10 more points of health.

Tashuk was the last goblin standing. Tashuk licked his lips and looked at Marcus cautiously. Marcus could tell that Tashuk was looking for a means to escape. Goblins, when alone, usually ran. Marcus was not going to let Tashuk escape.

Tashuk suddenly started running to the right, away from Marcus and into the trees. Marcus followed. The goblin was fast but Marcus had long legs and he soon caught up to the goblin. He brought his twinblade down. Tashuk staggered at the blow and that was the opportunity Marcus was looking for. He made short work of the goblin.

He was not panting. His hands were shaking. He looked at them and started to laugh. He was high on adrenaline. He had killed his first enemy. Three of them to be precise. He somehow enjoyed it. Wait, was he a fucking serial killer before amnesia?

He put this thought aside. He was not going to go down that path. He had to learn to embrace his amnesia and stop worrying about what he was before all this. It was going to be tough.

Marcus now looked at the blinking notifications. He opened them. He read them all.

You have learned a new passive spell [Stealth] Level 1

You hit goblin with a critical hit 34 points

You hit goblin for 12 points

Goblin is defeated

You get 10 points of experience

Goblin hits you for 16 points

Goblin hits you for 12 points

You hit goblin for 20 points

You hit goblin for 20 points

Goblin hits you for 10 points

You hit goblin for 10 points

You hit goblin for 2 points

Goblin is defeated

You get 10 points of experience

You hit goblin for 20 points, goblin is staggered

You hit goblin with a critical hit 30 points

Goblin is defeated

You get 10 points of experience

His experience now showed 50/120 points and he had learnt a new passive skill [Stealth]. He could guess what it did. So, performing certain activities did give you new passive skills. He would be able to level up by practicing them. That was good.

He looked at the goblin corpses. What to do with them. He saw them glowing a bit.

“Huh!”, he said and went to examine them. As he approached them a short blue rectangular screen popped out of the bodies.

Loot

Cancel

Those were the two options. Marcus selected loot. Another screen popped up showing the items.

Goblin dagger

10 units

He took them. He repeated the same with the other two goblins and received two more daggers and 32 units. Those were really less units. Maybe the daggers would be worth something. He sighed as he straightened up from the goblins.

He checked his health now. He had lost a total of 38 points of health. Now, how the fuck was he going to regenerate it. He cursed as he remembered about a health potion. It would have helped. Well, it could not be helped now. He would rather go forwards than back. Time to search for the necklace.

Marcus reached the area indicated by Sianan and opened the map again. A string of expletives escaped his mouth. The dot on the map had changed into a circular search area.

“God damn fucking quest. Can you not make this simple?” Marcus was feeling a bit pissed. He thought this would be easy. Where the fuck was he going to search for the necklace now?

He heard a rustle behind him and turned. A goblin came wandering out of the bush.

Farun, Goblin, Level 3

Health 56/56

The goblin stopped looking at the expression on Marcus’ face. An evil grin had spread on Marcus’ face. Marcus could see the goblin literally trembling. The knife fell out of the goblin's hand. It started to run but Marcus caught it by the scruff of the neck. He slammed it to the tree and then pinned it down with his legs.

Marcus said with gritted teeth, “You are going to fucking talk or I am going to fuck the shit out of you. Do you fucking understand?”

Farun nodded. He was literally shivering and squirming under Marcus’ boots.

“So”, said Marcus, “Where is your camp?”

The goblin took some time to reply. He was opening his mouth but no sound was coming out. Finally he croaked, “Map.”

Marcus opened his map. Then he looked at the goblin and said, “Now what? This is not helping.”

“You need to share your display with me, you idiot”, snarled Farun.

Marcus was surprised at the outburst and put pressure on the goblin. The goblin looked terrified again. What the fuck was that? Marcus shared the map display. Farun scrolled a bit and marked a location.

“So this is the location”, mumbled Marcus. Then he turned to the goblin, “Do you happen to know about a necklace which fell around here?”

“Chief”, replied the goblin, “P-p-please let me go.”

“After you tell me if you know about the necklace.”

“I told you the chief has it, you gorking moron. Go get it from him and stop bothering me.”

Marcus was surprised. However, he had got what he wanted. He killed Farun with three stabs. He looted Farun for another goblin dagger and this time a goblin armor.

He checked his notifications and his confusion cleared. It seemed that he had intimidated the goblin and then he had also failed in intimidating him. The notifications alternated for a couple of times about the intimidation status before showing the damage points and experience points. He had earned 15 xp from killing the level 3 goblin.

So, he could intimidate others. Marcus wondered how that worked. He would look into it after the quest was over. Now, he started towards the goblin camp. His quest log had also changed. It showed Defeat the Goblin Chief. Reclaim the necklace. Fucking perfect. He just had to go into goblin camp. Defeat the chief of goblins and loot the necklace from him it seemed. Marcus let out a string of more expletives and set off in the direction of the camp.

The sun was low when Marcus neared the goblin camp. He checked the time. It would be one hour before the sun completely set. He looked at the camp and shook his head. He was hiding in a bush to ensure no goblin saw him. Because, this was not a small camp. It was a medium size encampment.

Tall wooden spikes surrounded the encampment with a large wooden gateway to the South. The encampment was constructed on a cliff and he was sure that there would be no wooden spikes on that side. He could not see because his view was obstructed by the tall spikes. But he could not enter from the cliff side as he was sure he would fall off rather than successfully climb. Also, he had no climbing equipment.

There were also six sentry towers. Marcus noted their position. He also did not know as to how the buildings or tents or whatever there was in the encampment was placed as it was all out of his view. He wondered how he was going to get in. He thought of scouting in the dark but he remembered that goblins had excellent night vision.

He needed to do whatever he was going to do fast. After the sunset, he would not be able to do much and the goblins would make mincemeat out of him.

As he was pondering what to do, he saw a cart approach the goblin encampment. It was slowly moving on the road and no one was driving it. Its cargo was covered. Marcus frowned at the sight. Was this magic?

The cart came to stop at the encampment gate. There was a flurry of activities amongst the goblins. Marcus could not see clearly what was happening. Then the gate slowly opened. The cart started to move again. The cart went inside and the gate closed.

“What the fuck was that?” muttered Marcus.

His question was answered the next moment as there was an explosion from the encampment. The gate and its surrounding spikes were blasted and Marcus had to take cover so as to not get hit by the flying debris.

His ears were ringing. He got back up, still ensuring that he was hidden from the encampment and looked at the devastation before him. The gate and the front part of the wall were completely obliterated.

He saw an interesting sight. Four short figures charged through the now devastated gate. They seemed to be shouting something but Marcus could not catch it because of the ringing. He saw this as an opportunity.

He slowly made his way towards the encampment. The sentries were not present on their tower anymore. They seemed to have gone towards the fighting. Marcus could now hear the sounds and there were sounds of weapons clanging, goblins shrieking and some deep voices which Marcus could not identify.

He ducked behind a large rock which was somehow near the entrance and looked at the scene in front of him. The front area of the goblin encampment looked completely obliterated. Whatever buildings or tents or structure would have been there had been completely blown off and Marcus could see only debris.

Marcus started moving cautiously into the encampment, hiding behind cover as much as he could. He could see fighting near a large building. It had to be the barracks. It was almost to the West of the camp. He glanced around and saw another large building. Marcus had no other word to describe it other than posher than other buildings. It had to be the chief’s place. There were no guards at the building. They seem to have somehow gone towards the fighting. That did not mean there would be no guards inside.

He checked his health. It was 74/112. He did not have a healing potion. Was he going to do this? He decided to check out the building. He now went into a prone position and crawled towards what he guessed was the chieftain’s headquarters. He met a few level 3 goblins on the way but he dispatched them fast. He levelled up once. He was now level 4. His health became full now. That was good. He put the points in Wisdom for now as he felt it was too low at 3. It was now 5.

Marcus reached the desired building. He could see no goblins around. Moreover, it seemed that the fighting near the barracks was subsiding. Whomsoever had attacked the goblins seemed to be winning. There must be over a hundred goblins in the camp. Yet, the attackers seem to be killing them efficiently.

Marcus ignored the fighting at the barracks at the moment and focused on getting inside the building without getting detected. The building was not well constructed and there were many hand holds Marcus could use to climb up. He did so and soon he was on the roof of the building.

“That was easy”, muttered Marcus as he searched for the door to get into the building. The door was on the floor of the roof. Marcus frowned as he looked at it. What sort of an entrance was this? He opened it and peered down. He saw no stairs. Only the wooden floor beneath him, about four feet down. He slowly jumped down and looked around. It was a closed room. This was ridiculous.

Marcus heard a new sound now. There was someone shouting and pounding at the chieftain’s building's front door. Marcus explored the closed room and found another door on the floor. He opened it cautiously and looked down to see a large room beneath him. It looked like a throne room. There were wooden beams beneath the door and Marcus dropped down onto them.

Marcus now looked at the room closely. It was indeed the throne room. It was the chieftain’s throne room. The chieftain sat on a wooden throne adorned with skulls and bones of animals. There were two guards beside him. Other than that, the throne room was empty.

Marcus was confused at this. Were the other guards hidden. He looked around the room, walking along the beams as slowly and cautiously as he could, without making any sound. It seemed that there were only three goblins in the room. This was highly confusing. Marcus focused on the goblins.

Thanonudra, Goblin Elite, Level 4

Health 192/192

Goromash, Goblin Elite, Level 4

Health 250/250

Thanandara, Goblin Chieftain, Level 5

Health 502/502

Whoa, thought Marcus, what’s with this fucking high health? How the fuck am I going to defeat them?

As Marcus pondered what to do next, he heard commotion outside the throne room. The chief ordered his elites to check it out. They went as ordered. There was only the chieftain in this room. Marcus could attack him but was not sure whether he would be able to defeat him.

As he was thinking what to do, the chieftain turned around and looked up, looked right at Marcus and grinned.

Thanandara said, “Come down little human. Let us talk.”