Well, Fuck, thought Marcus as he looked at Thanandara, the goblin chieftain. How had the chief found him? Marcus was sure, even though his [Stealth] skill was not high, he was well hidden.

Marcus looked at his notifications and scrolled down to the last. His [Stealth] skill had levelled up but it had failed as soon as the goblin elites left the throne room. Marcus wondered why that was.

Marcus was not given much time to consider his next step as Thanandara said, “Are you coming down or do I need to make you come down.”

Marcus saw a bow appear in Thanandara’s hands and he already had an arrow nocked in it. Marcus narrowed his eyes and looked around. Then he said, “Wait a minute. I am coming down. I just… don’t know how.”

Thanandara had an incredulous look on his face, “You jump you gorking nitwit.”

“It is high.”

“You won’t lose more than ten points of health.”

“I don’t have a healing potion.”

“What sort of a gorking adventurer are you?”

“A bad one, apparently.”

Thanandara snorted and said, “Jump down or I will shoot you. Then you shall be hurt with more than just fall damage.”

“Okay, okay”, said Marcus sourly, “No need to be grumpy.”

Marcus jumped. He did not land gracefully. He fell with a big thud and let out a shout of pain. He checked his health bar to find out he had lost 19 points of health. Great fucking start.

Marcus said, “I am down. What now?”

Thanandara looked at Marcus carefully. He did not say anything and Marcus wondered what the goblin chief was doing.

Finally Thanandara said, “It seems you are not with the party that is attacking my encampment.”

“Yes”, said Marcus slowly, “It seems so.”

“So, what is your purpose here?”

Marcus frowned at that. He was confused. Why was this goblin talking with him rather than attacking? Marcus was sure that if Thanandara wanted, he would be dead.

Marcus said, “I am on a quest to retrieve Sinanan’s necklace. I believe you have it.”

Thanandara widened his eyes. He said, “Sinanan the blacksmith. She sent you on this quest?”

Marcus shrugged, “She sent me on a quest to retrieve her necklace. She said her deal with you had gone South and as she was running, she lost her necklace. I do not think that she has any idea that you have the necklace. She thinks she lost it in the forest.”

Thanandara nodded and said, “She is not wrong. However, there is more to the story than she told you.”

“I figured”, muttered Marcus but Thanandara continued, “I will give you the necklace but you must do me a favour.”

“And what would the favour be?” asked Marcus.

Thanandara took some time before answering. He then said, “My tribe is doomed. Whoever is out there is killing all of my goblins very efficiently and very fast it seems. Soon, they would be here and kill me too. If that happens, the truth will not come out.”

“What truth?”

“You would not believe me if I told you. I am a goblin after all. A villain in your story. It is better if you talk with Sinanan. Tell her what transpired here today. Tell her to tell you everything. Maybe you could help her, help Solaris.”

What the fuck was that supposed to mean? What was this goblin’s plan? Was he stalling or trying to get Marcus on his side so that Marcus would stop the attacking party from killing him? This was weird goblin behaviour. It did not match with what Marcus had read about them.

He was now starting to feel uncomfortable. He did not know what to do.

Marcus said, “Can you at least give me the necklace?”

“No”, said Thanandara, “You need to defeat me to take it. Do not worry though. It will not be long.”

Marcus suddenly focused on what was going outside. The sounds of battle had dissipated. It was like the quiet before the storm. What the fuck was happening?

Suddenly the door to the chief’s room was thrown off with force and four figures entered. They were dwarves. Marcus recognized one of them.

“Orin!” exclaimed Marcus.

Orin was surprised to see Marcus too.

“By Gromlin’s beard. Marcus Blank”, Orin laughed a bit, “What are you doing here? And what the gork is with that level? How in the gork did you manage to reach the boss room with such a low level?”

Marcus shrugged, “Luck?”

One of the dwarves beside Orin said, “Friend or foe?”

“Friend”, replied Orin.

“Then let us finish the chief together. Then we can catch up, aye?”

Orin nodded and then shouted, “Marcus stay out of our way. We will talk as soon as this chief is down.”

Thanandara said, “Wow! As if I am not even here. You gorking butt chimps. Come on then. Let us see if you can even put a dent on me.”

The dwarves charged and Marcus retreated into a corner. Orin was the one leading the charge with his shield up and his flail swinging. The dwarf to his left had two axes and the dwarf to his right had a greathammer. One of the dwarves held back and had a crossbow with him. They were all wearing heavy armor. Iron armor, Marcus guessed.

As they attacked the chief, Marcus could see that they were well coordinated. It seemed initially that Orin would be the tank of their group but it was not so. It looked as if the three dwarves in the front were all damagers, with the crossbow dwarf being more of a controller or support. Not a healer though.

Marcus wondered how it all work but seeing them in action, he dismissed that thought entirely. They attacked Thanandara from all sides and Thanandara hardly had time to attack or defend before the dwarves made short work of him.

From 502, his health dropped to 0 in mere moments. Instead of bow and arrow, Thanandara had been fighting with two curved swords, but it was useless. The dwarves were too powerful.

As soon as Thanandara fell, the dwarf with the crossbow muttered, “This was too gorking easy.”

Orin agreed, “Yes it was. I know we are over levelled but the chief should not have gone down this easy. His army was tougher.”

The others nodded their assent. Marcus was not listening to them though. He was focusing on the fallen chief. Something weird was happening with him. Shadows seemed to be swirling around him. He seemed to be changing. The dwarves had noticed it yet.

“Look out”, Marcus shouted as Thanandara was absorbed into the ground by the shadow.

The dwarves jumped back. There was a blast and Marcus was blown back into the wall. He lost 40 points of health. He swore and vowed never to forget storing a health potion in his inventory before starting any quest.

Thanandara had transformed. Initially he had been a four feet green goblin. Now, he was looming over everyone at about eight feet in height. His skin had gone several shades darker. Four limbs protruded out of his upper torso, each holding a different weapon; a curved sword, a dagger, an axe and a mace. His legs were long and bent.

Marcus checked the status.

Thanandara, Goblin Chief (evolved), Level 5

Health 2500/2500

What the fuck! Marcus was gaping at the transformed chief. The other dwarves also seemed to be frozen at the sight before them.

One of the dwarves said, “Of course. Phase 2.”

Thanandara slowly shuffled towards the dwarves, “I am now going to make you pay. All of you shall suffer for killing my tribe.”

And he attacked. The dwarves jumped out of the way as the arm with the mace smashed into the floor, leaving a small crater. Marcus was sure Thanandara would one hit him to death. He just needed to survive till Thanandara was dead. Then Marcus would get his necklace, leave the rest to the dwarves and just go back.

However, it seemed that Phase 2 was not easy for the dwarves. Marcus had checked their levels. They were already level 10, each of them. He could only see Orin’s name and not of the other dwarves. It did not matter to him though. What mattered to him right at that moment was whether the dwarves would be able to defeat the phase 2 of Thanandara, and would he be able to help them?

Marcus thought about getting a secondary ranged weapon at that moment. It would have helped. Maybe a short bow and some arrows. He would think about it once this was over.

The dwarves charged Thanandara now but they were a bit cautious. Orin again took the lead and one of the dwarves started slinking around Thanandara. Marcus assumed that the dwarf was going to attack from behind. Marcus remained near the wall. He was happy and comfortable there. He did not want to die.

Thanandara attacked when Orin got close. Orin tried to parry, but he could not parry two attacks. He parried the axe but the sword hit him. He was thrown a bit back. The dwarf with the greathammer took the opening Orin had provided and slammed his greathammer into Thanandara. It seemed to be a powerful critical attack as Marcus saw Thanandara lose 102 points of health. Whoa. That was some powerful attack.

The dwarf dual wielding the axes had reached behind Thanandara and started chopping off the goblin’s health. He jumped back as Thanandara focused on him. Orin took this opportunity to attack and rushed in. Thanandara did a spinning attack and the three dwarves had to dodge back. They did get though. At that moment, the dwarf with the crossbow performed a spell and Marcus saw red auras surrounding the rest three dwarves.

Marcus observed that he was also surrounded with a red aura. He opened his notification to read the last line.

[War Hymn] activated. Damage and Attack speed increased by 10% for 60 seconds.

The dwarves took this opportunity to take a major chunk of Thanandara’s health. Thanandara attacked back. He did not seem to care about dodging or blocking. It was understandable. He did hava big chunk of health.

Five minutes into the fight, Marcus saw that Thanandara’s health had reached 403. However, the dwarves were also not doing good. Each of their health was less than 40% at least except for the dwarf with crossbow as he did not seem to have lost much health. It was understandable as he was remaining out of the reach of Thandandara’s attacks.

Marcus saw Orin charge in as the two other dwarves used health potions. Then Marcus saw the two other dwarves charge in taking off chunks of Thanandara’s attacks as Orin drank a health potion. Fuck, these dwarves were good. They were doing at least 50 points of damage on Thanandara on an average with each of their attacks. They did not seem to have many active skills but whichever skill they had at least doubled their attack.

The dwarf with the crossbow had cast [War Hymn] two more times after the first time and the dwarves had capitalized much on it. Marcus did not know about the other three dwarves' skills as they did not show up on his notification. The damage numbers did though. So, he had by default become a part of the group fighting the boss.

When Thanandara’s health reached less than 100, he let out a large roar. All of the dwarves froze. Marcus did not understand what was happening. Thanandara charged towards Orin with all his weapons raised. Orin was not moving. Marcus made a split second decision. Faster than anything, Marcus ran towards Thanandara and jumped on his back, burying his twinblade deep into the goblin chief. Thanandara froze mid way in his attack and turned suddenly.

Marcus jumped back but his twinblade was stuck in Thanandara’s back. Marcus saw that he had done only 30 points of damage. And that would be his critical attack. Fucking pathetic. And now he was going to die.

Thanandara raised all his weapons again. Marcus put his hands up in defense. Thanandara gave a mighty roar and brought his weapons down. Marcus closed his eyes for his inevitable death. But it did not come. He opened his eyes. Thanandara’s health had dropped to 0. Thanandara fell and Marcus rolled out of the way. Marcus looked at Orin who seemed to have dealt the final blow.

“Well”, said Orin, “It’s over.”

Marcus nodded and pulled out his twinblade. The goblin chief’s body dissolved in front of them. No one spoke for some time. A glowing bag had appeared in the place where Thanandara’s body had been present. It was undoubtedly the loot.

Orin looked at Marcus, “I have some questions.”

“So do I”, replied Marcus.

Orin nodded and said, “Let’s divide the loot and get out of here. Our campsite is nearby. We can talk there.”

Marcus nodded and said quickly, “I just want a necklace from the loot. It is part of my quest. Rest you can keep.”

Orin raised an eyebrow and searched the loot. He brought out a necklace which Marcus identified as

Necklace of Sinanan

Last memento of her father to Sinanan

Marcus took it and put it in his inventory. It was stored in the Quest Items section of the inventory. His quest was updated.

Return the necklace to Sinanan.

This was all it said now. Marcus was relieved. to see that somehow. No more complications. Hopefully.

Marcus and the dwarves left the chieftain’s building. Marcus looked at the carnage the dwarves had caused. No goblin seemed to have been left standing. Moreover, the dead bodies seemed to have disappeared. Maybe they dissolved like the chieftain, Marcus mused.

The group carefully made their way out of the encampment. It was not much of an encampment. A fire had started somewhere and it was spreading. Soon, it would engulf everything. They increased their speed after seeing the fire.

It took ten minutes of walking to reach the dwarves’ campsite. It was in the forest, in a small clearing surrounded by some trees and under a large rock. It was a good place to camp according to Marcus.

Once they settled down, Orin introduced everyone. It seemed that the dwarves were his brothers. The one with the crossbow was Orik. The one with the greathammer was Oril and the one with dual axes was Orim.

“They call us the Ori brothers”, said Orin, “I think you can guess why.” Orin grinned at Marcus.

Marcus grinned back and said, “It is nice to meet you all. Orin talked about adventuring with his brothers when we were training. Did not give other details though.”

“Orin has always been a little shy, the little tyke, you know”, said Orim.

Orin rolled his eyes but did not say anything to him. Orin turned to Marcus, “So, out with it. What are you doing out here?”

Marcus told the dwarves about his quest. They all waited for him to finish, and did not interrupt even once. After he was finished Orin gave Marcus a whack on his head.

“Ow! What was that for?” asked Marcus.

“That”, said Orin, “was for being a twat you gorking dud monkas.”

Marcus frowned and said, “What does gork mean? And what is a monkas?”

Orin explained what gork meant. Marcus considered it to be a crude equivalent of fuck. And apparently monkas was a monkey like creature but larger and more viscous. Although monkas were considered to be highly dumb.

Getting the immediate doubts out of the way Marcus asked, “And why am I gorking dud monkas?”

Orin started counting on his fingers, “One, you are at level 4 in a level 5 zone. Two, you have no health potions. Three, your equipment is shit. You have basic armor and a twinblade which can be used to kill max up to level 3 mobs. And four, you just got up and left Solaris on a quest without any strategy, back up or team member for that matter.”

“When you put it like that…”

“I do put it like that by Gromlin’s balls. You are either the dumbest adventurer I have ever met or you are so skilled that you do not care about all this shit and are confident you can do quests in shitty conditions. Which is it?”

Marcus shrugged, “I guess I am lucky.”

The other dwarves roared with laughter and Orin snorted, “Lucky you most definitely are. Lucky that we came along. You would have never completed this quest on your own.”

“Well”, said Marcus, “I would have failed once but I would have come back and you know thought of something better.”

“You like dying that much lad?”

“What do you mean?”

“Use your head, you gorking monkas. Failing here meant certain death. And let me tell you something. Death, even as an adventurer, is not that pleasant.”

Marcus was silent as he considered what Orin had said. He had not thought about dying or how it would impact him. He thought it would be okay as he had activated the resurrection stone and so he had thought it would be okay. He had not actually experienced dying these last few days.

Marcus said, “I am sorry. I am new at this and have not had much help. I should have thought more before taking a quest outside Solaris.”

Orin shook his head and said, “It is not wrong to take this quest. However, you should have done it after proper preparation. You saw the boss' health did you not? Could you have defeated him on your own?”

“Yes. No. But I had not planned on fighting anybody. It was a simple fetch the necklace. I did not expect it to turn into such a bloodbath.”

“If not, then what were you doing in the chief’s throne room?”

“Well, I had almost given up on the quest. I was thinking of going back to Solaris, and trying something new. If given some time to think, I would have also asked you for help. I knew you were here. Sort of. Not the others though. They are not here. And then I would see from there.

However, you all just blasted that gate. You have to tell me how you did that. And I saw an opportunity. And I told you then what happened and how I infiltrated the encampment. It seemed to make sense at that moment. Maybe it was the adrenaline rush. It was mostly the adrenaline rush, I think.”

There was a short silence after Marcus’ words and then the dwarves started laughing. Marcus smiled. He could maybe see the humour.

Oril said, “By Gromlin’s hairy ass you are crazy.”

Marcus nodded. He thought he needed to spend some time reading about Gromlin. He seemed important to dwarves.

Orik said, “Well, so how much experience did you get in killing the boss. We each got 2000 experience points. We were at level 10, and now at least I am at level 17. This is 7 levels up and I am happy.”

Marcus checked his notifications the first time after the boss fight. He had received 2000 experience points as well. That had him level up to level 14. That was quite the jump. It was 9 levels and he had 18 points to spend. He spent 2 on Strength, 5 on Dexterity and Intelligence each, 4 on Vitality and last 2 on Wisdom.

He read his status screen again. It read,

Name: Marcus Blank

Race: Human

Designation: Adventurer - Rank 1

Age: 25

Current Location: Solaris

Adventurer Statistics:

Adventurer Level: 14

Experience: 45/300

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 15

Intelligence: 15

Vitality: 10

Agility: 10

Wisdom: 7

Luck: ???

Health: 120

Mana: 114

Active Effects:

None

Passive Effects:

Stamina Regeneration - Level 3

Well Rested - Level 1

Twinblade Proficiency - Level 6

Alcohol Tolerance - Level 1

Stealth - Level 2

Description: The anomaly is now not just an anomaly and is taking his baby steps on being an adventurer. Best of luck to him!

Spells known:

None

Spells Equipped:

None

Spell Slots: 0

Physical Attack: 18

Magical Attack: 23

Physical Resistance: 8

Magical Resistance: 8

Critical Attack Chance: 5% (max 25%)

Critical Attack Damage: 11.25% (max 51.25%)

Status:

None

Social: 300/1000 (Neutral)

NAIF: 100/1000 (Neutral)

Solaris: 700/1000 (Neutral)

It seemed that his [Stamina Regeneration], [Twinblade Proficiency] and [Stealth] had levelled up. That was good. He was happy.

Marcus now looked up at the dwarves.

Marcus said, “What about you? What are you doing here?”

Orin replied, “We got a quest from the owner of The Fire Forge. He said he was sick and tired of the goblins messing with his supplies and wanted them gone. It was a group quest. It required ten members at level 5 to complete it. However, there were not many takers as very few adventurers seem to be able to form groups at such a low level. We were at level 10 when we saw the quest. We thought it would be manageable. It was.”

Marcus started at the name The Fire Forge. It was definitely the new blacksmith Sinanan had talked about. This was not a coincidence. Something was going on in the blacksmithing industry of Solaris and Marcus intended to find out.

Orin noticed the thoughtful expression of Marcus and asked him what was bothering him. Marcus told him about his doubts.

Orin nodded, “Yes, it seems our quests are connected somehow. We need answers. I will ask our quest giver while you do the same with yours. Something is fishy. It could turn into a major quest. That would be exciting.”

Marcus somehow did not find it exciting. He found it concerning but decided not to comment looking at Orin’s excitement.

Oril called a halt to their conversation, “Let us eat. I have made stew.”

Marcus’ stomach grumbled. Orin said, “Please tell me that you at least brought food before embarking on the quest.”

“I did”, Marcus showed him the jerky he had bought. Orin simply shook his head.

Oril said, “Don’t worry Orin. There is plenty for everyone.”

And it was. It was meat stew with vegetables and seasoning. It was delicious. However, Marcus could only eat one bowl of it. The stew was filling. For the next few minutes there was only the sound of four dwarves and a human eating stew.

After he was finished Marcus said, “Oril, you are amazing. This was the best stew I have ever had.”

Orin gave a short laugh, “The secret is my special seasoning. It really enhances the flavour of the meat.”

Marcus nodded to that. Orin said, “We will be camping here tonight. What about you? Have you brought a tent?”

Marcus shook his head. He said, “I did not plan on staying in the forest at night. I think I will head back to Solaris.”

“That is stupid”, said Orin and the others agreed, “Zagui come out at night.”

Marcus shuddered at the memory of the Zagui. He did not want to encounter them again.

Orik said, “I have a spare sleeping bag. Use it.”

Marcus thanked Orik and took the offered sleeping bag. The dwarves set up two tents very fast. Marcus would be sleeping outside though. He did not mind. He did feel he was intruding on their hospitality. The dwarves had been nothing but kind to him.

Soon they went to sleep. They did not set watch as their campsite was considered to be a safe place. They would not be attacked at night. Marcus went to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day. Tomorrow he would get some answers.