Ahhh back into...

*sniff*

Smells like burnt…oh

Peering over the houses indeed I do see a few charred treetops in the distance…whoops.

Alright, let’s forget about completely destroying the forest and figure out what’s changed around here (besides the obvious)!

Baila, where are you hopping around?

Sent her a message, because I saw that she got online a little while before me.

Servers open at 10 am…what a beautifully perfect time.

While I wait for her response time to check my character sheet!

NAME:JoatTITLES:The Social Butterfly, Goblin SlayerClass:NoneRace:HobgoblinGender:MaleLevel:5(+1)Experience:55%

STATUS:Remaining Points (25(+3))Remaining: Badges:1 Raid BadgeHealth Points110/110HP Regen (Out of Combat)1/secAttack:51-51Defense:19Perception:50Brutality:20Vitality:10Strength:10Agility:10Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Satiety:165/180(Almost Full)Unused Stats:Dexterity, Wisdom, Leadership, Communication[tr]

[tr]SKILLS/PROFICIENCIES:Active:

Stomp, Beginner [lvl2]

Suicide, Beginner [lvl2]

Monster Identification, Beginner [lvl6]

Sneak, Intermediate [lvl1]

Sprint, Beginner [lvl4]

Commanding Shout, Beginner [lvl3]

Headbutt, Beginner [lvl1]

Spitful Taunt, Beginner [lvl3]

Throw, Beginner [lvl1]

Bite, Intermediate [lvl1]

Sacrifice, Beginner [lvl1]Passive:

Jump, Beginner [lvl2]

Roll, Beginner [lvl2]

Diplomacy, Beginner [lvl1]

Hearing, Beginner [lvl4]

Smell, Beginner [lvl2]

Night Vision, Master [lvlMax]5.15

Mana Adept, Beginner [lvl1]Auras:

Mild Monster's Aura, Intermediate[lvl1]Crafting:Proficiencies:

Kick Mastery, Beginner [lvl4]

Unarmed Mastery, Beginner [lvl3]

Well apart from gaining suicide…I’m pretty far behind in terms of skills…20 in almost 100 hours…THAT’S TERRIBLE!

At least I know a few other skills for me to get back such as my leatherworking or catch…but in all honesty I’m way behind on my skills!

At least I gained this Sacrifice skill:

Skill:Sacrifice, Beginner [lvl1] (Active)Upon actively taking an attack targeted for another being:

+10 temporary hp

-1% damageCost: None, Duration: Instantaneous, Cooldown: 10 seconds

Huh…I guess that could come in handy…if it weren’t me having to sacrifice myself…

But anyways, skill is a skill and I need every one I can get.

Also I got that Title and this strange raid badge:

Congratulations! For killing over 500 of the same creature type (goblins) within an instance, you have been awarded a title:

TITLE:Goblin SlayerYou are proficient in killing Goblins, so much so that you instinctively know their weakspots, their attack patterns and how to effectively deal with them overall.

This title increases damage against all goblinoid creatures by 10%

For gaining this title you are now known to goblin kind, as an enemy

xp increases by 25%

Sweet! except for the part where goblins are now my enemies (well officialy anyways)...so that may mean I can't get that class quest (not like I can complete it anyway with this damnable mandatory...)

ITEM:Raid Badge (Goblin)This badge is an insignia to your efforts in completing a raid. They type of badge is goblin due to the raid.

This may be traded or used in craftingOoh, that sounds rather interesting...so different raids give different types of badges? for crafting too...I wonder what it does...

Joat, sorry but pretty much everyone is busy smithing weapons…sorry

…

..

.

Excuse-what? Baila's message completely derailed my train of thought

I’m...not part of this?

Well that completely sucks

Zzoid what’s going on!?

At least he’ll explain better than just apologizing for destroying my heart!

Well we got given 1 chance to blacksmith and if we did it correctly we’d be taught. You weren’t here for it…

And he responds quicker too.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

THAT’S A WHOLE SKILL GONE! A WHOLE 100% OF A LEVEL!!

I SHOULD’VE JUST DIED IN THE CAVES AND GOTTEN THAT SKILL INSTEAD, NOOOOOOOOOOOOO…

But then again being in that cave wasn’t completely useless.

Anyways, so basically I’m all on my own

*whoosh*

“And back to hell I go”

Well that’s rather pessimistic…oh DillyDally!

“Hey, need a partner to venture into hell with?” Seems like he’s just been outside…since he just revived.

“Yes, since none of the others are online yet and the rest are smithing, those backstabbers” He’s none too happy he doesn’t get to be a blacksmith.

“Well thank Aiag we have this free weapon treaty right?”

“Never thought it would’ve actually benefitted me”

Well I always plan for the worst case.

“So what’s been going on outside?”

“It’d be easier to show you” He starts to walk outside, guess I’ll follow him.

…

..

.

Holdy mother of Aiag…just what the hell happened here (well I know what happened but still!)?

The green grassy fields are now charred ground with small triple balls of fire hopping around in a line without a care in the world.

[table]NAME:Blaze [lvl6]Health:30(3)/30(3)Attack:20-30Defense:0Resistances:FireA miniature elemental of fire, born from the mixture of magical and non-magical flames

Well damn.

Even though the hp and defense are low…I think that 20-30 fire damage looks way nasty. Also what's with the weird hp?

“Right, so how do we fight those?”

“Go for it” He gestures for me to go…oh ok so learning first hand…great.

Stepping close to the Blaze, it continues hopping around calmly.

Ok cool, passive.

Let’s start with a kick

-23

OW! That hurt me!

The blaze continues on unharmed…even though I’d put my foot through its supposed head.

Ok, so I take damage instead and that hurts!

Right, back to the village.

Heading to the well, wincing at my now burnt foot (in hindsight, not a good idea), I pull up some water and take the bucket outside.

*Splash*

-32

*pshh*

OK, so it’s dead, from me splashing water onto it…alrighty then

Ooh it left something behind!

Picking up a tiny grey shard

ITEM:Fire Elemental shard (broken)A tiny piece of a full fire elemental core

I NEED THIS!

Wait did Nathan know this was going to happen?

...

..

.

Oh my, he’s a sly bugger…he gave us something that’d help him gather materials he needs!

Wow…I actually commend him for that. But before I go talk to him and complain about having us destroy and change the landscape unwittingly for his sake…let’s complete his damnable quest.

“So DillyDally, great and all that I can kill them, but have you got a more effective way?”

“Nope…that’s pretty much the only way to deal with them right now” Hmm I have a feeling he's not telling me everything...well whatever.

Also that isn’t exactly great…especially because there are probably bigger fire elementals beyond the used to be a forest…

Ah!

“I think I have a way”

Drawing some more water, I return outside and this time, dunk my hands into the water.

Ok, let’s hope this works.

Punching the Blaze with my fist

-16

-3

OW!

Taking my hand out and putting out the fire on it, I notice the Blaze having a mini implosion.

Huh? Why’d that happen…I only did 3 damage to it.

Turning to DillyDally he just shrugs his shoulders not really knowing what happened either…

Anyways, that seemed to work, so let’s try it again.

I spot my companion dipping his hands in too.

Punching the Blaze in the head…I do 3 damage but it doesn’t die.

And this time it comes for me.

“HELP” I bound away as it jumps towards me, Oh wait, I can outrun this.

DillyDally sees that so I don’t get any help.

So…last time I killed it with water, whereas this time I didn’t? Why’d that happen?

Could it be?

Running to the bucket, I douse my hands once more and aim for the middle ball and the tail I guess, hands going through both.

The tail hand ball feels a connection and although I take close to 50 damage, the Blaze bursts…AHA!

Picking up the core, I go to another Blaze and instead of punching it, I do a grabbing motion towards the middle ball.

-23 OW

-3

Grab the tail ball.

*pshhh*

AHA!

Opening my hand, sure enough there’s a shard in it, which isn’t broken this time (ooh, though it’s inactive).

So the Blazes can be killed immediately if their core is taken out or broken and that seems to be the only good method of killing them, besides chucking water at them…And this way I can actually harvest the things!

*Ding*

Congratulations! Through following a logical thought process by experimentation, you have found a way to not only kill the creature effectively, but to harvest precious materials without damaging it. Thus you have learnt the Stat: Intelligence

STAT:IntelligencePoints in Intelligence will increase Magic Damage. It will also affect your ability to read and understand magic. Intelligence will affect intelligence-related skillsDo you want to put this stat on one of your stat slots?YESNO

Due to learning a Stat, your xp increase by 10%

Holee Lord…I actually got intelligence?!

Glancing at DillyDally, he’s just smiling…oh he knew about this!

Aha, so that’s why he wasn’t helping me!!

So its different to Wisdom because...I was learning rather than using my prior experience? huh, odd awy to differentiate them but it works for me!

Hmm, so actually this intelligence business will be extremely useful to learn…if I knew how to use it to make water magic

…

..

.

But since I don’t I press no, for now.

“Ok, so now that you understand how to kill them…let’s continue on”

“Wait a second, shouldn’t we try to talk around the village see if there’s a wizard or something?” I mean Nathan might be able to help…but not sure I want to trust him.

“No can do: They’ve locked themselves in for the next 24 hours apparently”

So the game has us face this for 24 hours without help…bastards!

“Ok, so we continue on then…but to where?”

“To the mines of course”

Huh? Oh, to explore Tarakiel’s place!

“That’s a brilliant plan..we could find so much stuff there”

“Oh…you’re talking about Tarakiel’s? I was thinking of mining” He takes out a pick

“But haven’t all the spaces been taken up?” Since everyone has apparently gone smithing.

“DO you even look at your quests?”

I open up my quest log…and apparently I can only look at the mandatory one.

“I can’t…I got a mandatory quest”

“ooh that doesn’t sound nice…those things exist here?”

“Yep. So anyways, what’s with the blacksmithing quest”

“Well according to the rewards bit, there’s 82 out of 30 slots for weaponsmithing…but none out of 10 for armoursmithing”

…

..

.

Oh my...I see a chance!

“Right to the mine we go! But we can head to Tarakiel’s too…probably so much loot there” AND A SKILL!

“Before we go though...you might want to know what we’re up against” He puts a stopping hand on my shoulder as I begin to head towards the forest.

“Fire elementals?”

“Yup, and not friendly either” So that’s how he died apparently.

“But the whole take out their core and their dead rule applies right?”

“Yes” He doesn’t sound very convinced “But…you’ll see”

Ok, time to learn firsthand again!

Walking into the charred forest, the number of trees still standing are well very spread out let’s say.

The ground is the same black, ash covered flooring but small fissures the colour of fire run along the floor here and there Also I can spot numerous fallen trees, charred black, dotted around the place…well that doesn’t look good.

Especially not good because my feet are really hot right now!

Ow ow ow.

Hopping from one foot to the other, I see DillyDally’s having the same problem.

He stops me after a short hop, crouching and pointing to the near distance.

…

..

.

What am I supposed to be looking at?

Rising from the ash…is ash itself.

Ok so guess I’m looking at that.

NAME:Living Ash [lvl8]Health:100(10)/100(10)Attack:14-20A mass of ash revived by magical fire

Alright, not many details, except for the fact that it’s a decently strong creature, apart from that strange health…

The one in brackets might be the core health actually…

“So shall I taunt it?”

“You can taunt?” DillyDally looks at me quite surprised…oh yeah, guess he hadn’t realized that time.

Sneaking towards the Living Ash, I spit towards it.

It collapses into the ash

…

..

.

Oh Shi-DODGE

Jumping out the way instinctively, the living ash bursts out from the ground underneath me, and as I roll back up, I spot DillyDally punching through it with little visible effect.

It raises an ash hand, swiping at DillyDally, who ducks under it before uppercutting the what I guess it its’ face (well it has no facial features so how am I supposed to tell).

Diving into it, I feel my head go inside it, encased in ash and I feel a warmth emanating from a bit below me.

Before I can do anything though, the ash pulls me down, smacking me head first into the ground for a decent amount of damage.

Ouch.

“Dodge” DillyDally warns and I roll, only getting clipped by the rising ash.

“It’s at the bottom” I splutter as the first of its firsts ram into my stomach.

About 2 attacks later, I’m down ¾ of my health but the thing stops and bursts into a small cloud of ash.

…

..

.

Damn that was pretty difficult.

Scrambling to my feet, I spot DillyDally picking up a small shard, still glowing slightly.

“This one’s active” OOH!

He pockets it and we continue.

“So how did you spot it?”

“Just look for them moving through the ash” He points towards the floor nearby, tracing what I suppose is the living ash.

Wait a second, I THINK I actually see it.

It’s like ripples in water; faint but still visible if you’re looking for it…huh so maybe that’s how he knew where it was in combat.

Progress is slow, since we have to stop and most of the time fight the living ashes/recover.

All in all, they’re not too difficult; they start with an underground charge, then once you have your hand inside you can vaguely tell where the core is. From then on DillyDally simply takes it out while the ash is focused on me.

Rinsed and repeated.

Apparently, the way to keep the shards active is to just grab them…which I assume we did before but with water so that might’ve screwed it up.

So now we have 6 active shards and only a distance to this mine.

I mean it’s only a 10 minute walk usually, but it’s taken us 30 minutes to get most of the way.

Spotting the mine just a little ahead, we don’t rush towards it…because there’s a rather humanoid looking shape milling about.

And it’s on fire, well made out of it really…

NAME:Medium-Fire Elemental [lvl20]Health:???Attack:???A being born from fire and magic. A dangerous being of high elemental purity.

Thanks game description, never would’ve noticed that the level 20 monster isn’t dangerous

…

..

.

Well damn, a level 20 in the beginner zone…that’s really messed up.

I look towards DillyDally and he just shrugs…well guess we are waiting

…

..

.

It’s not moving away…oh don’t tell me its pathing is back and forth the mine entrance?

Apparently it is.

“Ok, so DillyDally, you got a plan?”

“Well I say we train our skills and wait for the rest to come online…then we might have a chance”

Might being the keyword there…

I nod, since I do really want to get some skills.

Ok, so what is on my list:

· Grapple

· Catch

· Dodge

· Leatherworking

· Swim

· HYB (Hold Your Breath)

· Climb

· Herbalism

· Lucky Roll

· Physical Resistance

· Luck-Stat

· Endurance-Stat

· Alchemy

Ok so that’s all the skills and stats that I know/knew I could get…hmm quite a bit but in all honesty only the endurance stat and physical resistance are really that useful…and I guess dodge too.

Ooh…could I somehow get fire resistance?

“Ok, let’s go back to the Blazes so you can train up whatever”

He nods and we slowly make our way back, destroying another 4 Living ash on the way back.

Hmm 10 isn’t enough to make a core yet (no idea how to put them together but I’m sure there’s a way).

Back in the fields, DillyDally wanders off to do his stuff and I begin a small bit of hell.

First off, Endurance…I guess, but how do I do that?

Last time I got it was pretty extreme circumstances…hmm.

Ah, maybe that might work?

Going to a blaze, I place my face into it’s face

-46

-46

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Wrenching my face from there, I can see nothing but black…well dammit. And I’m almost dead…

At least in my black world I can still see my hp bar…so I’ve got that going for me...

But first, time to wail in pain at literally burning my face and eyes.

“YAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

…

..

.

Muuch better (not really but still)…

Ok, so guess time to use my other senses…since I’m blind…for now.

Hmm balls of fire don’t exactly make much-oh wait I hear some slight crackling sound.

Following the crackling sound (after regenerating my health and letting the fiery pain dull down to a tolerable level), I actually step into one.

-24

OW

Ok, so I guess I have to do this like an animal then…

Getting down on all fours, I sniff the air, smelling something akin to burnt grass a little off to my left.

Face first, I head over there.

I mean the description for endurance was surviving through an extreme experience that basically almost killed you over and over again…so doing this should count right?

The heat intensifies till it’s like putting my face next to a small fire…I don’t miss the irony on that.

Plunging my face in

-46

-52

OW!

Rolling on the ground, patting my head furiously…I don’t feel any hair, but neither do I feel any fire so that’s a win in a sense?

Right, follow that Blaze.

Slowly stalking it on all fours, I do get used to the light crackling and the burnt grassy scent coming off it.

Thank Aiag no one is here to see me like this.

Continually placing my face into the fire, and what I suppose is the tail ball (since I’m behind it I believe), I swear I feel my face melting…which in hindsight it probably is.

If I had eyes, I’d be crying…but since I don’t, I’m just constantly wailing in pain as I follow the Blaze, tongue burnt too which is extremely painful!

"Come here Blzy, come here" Ah speaking is helping, if just slightly...

Into the Blaze once more

...

-50

-59

OUT!

…phew…almost died there…That was bad.

At least my tracking skills for this Blaze is getting surprisingly good, especially since I’ve made sure not to run into any others…or I might’ve died.

Talking about others…Roll!

Rolling to the side, I hear another crackle slowly past me.

Oh, where did my Blaze go?

Crawling past where the other one went by, I put my nose to the ground and sniff

…

..

.

Apparently this seems to be working.

I can smell the burnt grassy smell veering off to my right, where that other Blaze went, but also straight ahead…kind of obvious when I think about it, but it’s pathing is pretty random so could’ve gone wherever for all I know.

Following it, I feel the heat off of its tail once more and I continue to plunge myself into it, if only for a second…

This lasts for a short while longer till my knees start aching from travelling on them for so long. God I lost track of time...maybe an hour?

I hope I’ve got the skill by now.

But anyways, time for part 2.

Since I’m blind and playing with my senses…let’s try using that to my advantage (which I’ve already been doing but still).

Apparently I’m deaf too now; since the fire burnt the inside of my ears…I do not want to see what I look like right now.

At least I can’t really feel much pain in my face anymore…probably from having burnt all the pain receptors…whoops.

Right so now, let’s try sense the Blazes.

Sitting crosslegged, I try to create my eyes.

Not my normal eyes…but mana sensing ones!

Well I have mana adept, so I should be able to draw some mana into my eye sockets and use them to find mana…which would find the Blazes; because they’re made from magic (as the description sort of said)!

Ok, so how to draw mana?

…

..

.

That’s an extremely good question.

Erm..it is kind of like drawing chi?

Let’s try that.

Uhmmmmm Uhmmmmm, Feel the mana rising from my inner self and into my eyes, uhmmmmmm

…

..

.

I feel something…like a breath of air travelling where air really shouldn’t be, ever so slightly.

Odd, but it’s working(?) so hell yeah!

Uhmmm…no…it’s not working anymore.

Oh it’s working agai-no it’s not.

…

..

.

Hmm..maybe I’m using mana up so it needs to regenerate?

Waiting about a minute, I try again and indeed I believe I’m gathering mana and then it stops again.

So it must be some sort of mana deficiency…right, that’ll be fun to sort out…

Doing it a few more times to try gather enough mana, well any mana really (since all I’ve gathered each time is what feels like a dot…).

Finally gathering maybe a marble size of mana in my eye sockets I begin my creation

…

..

.

I’m trying to make eyes…without having any idea what they’re made of…right, I should probably internet that later…

Anyways, I do feel ‘something’ floating around my eye sockets…but it isn’t taking shape and now it’s dissipated since I stopped concentrating or the mana ran out, whichever. Well that ended quickly.

Right, so part 2 is halted temporarily...now let’s get my eyes back.

Though I’m not sitting down and waiting for them…oh no. I am going to do much without these eyes.

First, is dodging training.

I begin by walking, well crawling, actually being able to hear again

…

..

.

Did I just spend half an hour or more on that? Jeesh that went by fast.

Anywho, back on task…wait why don’t I have my eyes?

Must be because I was playing with magic so I blocked their regeneration?

That’s a strangely awesome yet worrying concept…

Crawling slowly, I try to hear and smell the Blazes, trying dive under them as they jump.

The first many attempts fail horribly with me burning and almost dying in some cases…not good (thank Aiag they don't set me on fire with just a touch...).

But slowly I get better until finally I can crawl at a decently normal pace, ducking under them mid jump, or even diving over them…which didn’t work out as well as I hoped but it’s still had some successes (more than the rolling under to be honest).

Praise Aiag they are all passive or I would’ve been dead so very long ago.

While I do this, finally my eyes regenerate (ok so seems like the regeneration timer reset when I started fiddling with the area…huh interesting) and I stand up, sighing with relief at seeing what looks like the apocalypse came through (which it did sort of).

“Boss, just what are you doing?”

…

..

.

“Oh hey Tikari….don’t tell anyone, please” How long has she been watching, did she see everything?!? Like everything everything??

She shakes her head with a grin. “I promise I won’t tell them. But it wouldn’t do this video any justice without some commentary” A window pops up in front of her, playing a video of my crawling around, sniffing the ground, thankfully the face not in the camera’s view.

“Tikari”

“Juust going to upload this onto foru-”

“GIVE IT HERE” I rush towards her

“WAHAHAH” She laughs maniacally while running away. I will catch you and I WILL get that video deleted (how did she even record it in the first place?), I have a reputation to uphold!!

...

..

.

“AHA GOT YOU” catching her by the waist (thank Aiag for tackling training), we collapse to the floor, me twisting underneath in mid fall (wouldn’t be good if I landed on top, as a gentleman that’d just be terrible).

“Ehehe, I was just ki…Joat” Oh no that didn’t sound good.

“What did you do?”

“I may have accidentally pressed the upload button"

“TIKARIIIIIIIIIIIIIII”

…

…

(Derek’s POV)

“Hey Trent, you really got to see this” I call over to him, and he lumbers over, panting still from the sprints.

“Dude what’s up?”

I turn the phone towards him, pressing play on the new video.

...*Sniff*

“Mmm, my blind senses are tingling with-” *sniff* “-A whiff of burnt grass” The green guy is crawling on burnt ground sniffing and seemingly following 3 linked balls of fire which hop around in a line...

“Dude, wow what the hell is this?” Trent gives me both raised eyebrows

“Some data from the Aria beta…ah ah but this isn’t the best bit”

I fast-forward the video by another minute, just missing out him sniffing and rolling on the ground as he burns his hair…quite funny yet still decently disturbing.

This time, he’s right behind one of these things, planting his face into its tail and one perfectly hops onto his butt.

Stopping the video, I crack up with laughter especially because Trent is just looking with his WTH face.

“Oh man, guess what the title of the video is?”

“Crazy guy in a game?”

Oh no it’s much better than that

…

…

(Joat’s POV)

“Hobgoblin-Blazeipede…SERIOUSLY?”

“Well I thought it’s quite the smart title…” Tikari twirls her foot in the ash

“It is but you actually recorded me doing this…oh that’s so bad”

I continue to watch the rest of the video, which consists of me rolling around trying to put on the fire on my butt…yeah…that’s on a video with more than 100,000 views in less than 10 minutes…

“Hey do you get money for this?” I huddle on the ground hating life slightly.

“Well apparently I can now”

“80%”

“Now c-”

“80% Tikari, I’ve been abused” I start sniffling, letting tears REAL tears come out of my eyes…though they are aided by the prospect of good money. “You should never video a man when he thinks he’s alone!”

Well that’s on the internet now which doesn’t exactly help Joat’s reputation…but that’s not the first time I’ve been on the internet…

At least this time it’s popular and not hidden in a secret account where only a few people can see it…so might as well make the best of it.

“Ok Boss, sorry Boss”

“It’s ok” I’ll just get my revenge later…I’m not vengeful…just need a little payback for having to see myself like that…

“Really?”

“Yeah, we’re cool, just refrain from videoing me in the most horrible moments of my skill gaining life?”

“Sure will do Boss” She gives me a cheerful smile, while still wiping a small tear of laughter from her eyes.

I see multiple rays of light from behind her and out appear SirStripy and the antlered duo.

“Hey Hobgoblin of the hour, how you crawling?” Yinroh gives me a wink

“Yinroh don’t be mean or you might tingle his blind senses” SirStripy clocks him lightly on the head

“Yes, he did have quite the assperience” Snorh chuckles

*Triggered*

“You 3 better run or I will make sure Zebra-antelopede is the sequel” They just laugh to that, so I tackle them and begin wrestling them…half-seriously.

…

...