Gans slowly walked down the paved street, carefully weaving between cars and sharp objects like broken glass on the ground. A slight smile tugged at his lips, some of the stress he had felt from yesterday had melted away in a few short hours since he had left the house.

He had his shotgun resting on his hip as a precaution, but didn’t hesitate from adjusting it back and forth between his hip and shoulder. Carrying a gun any amount of distance in a ready position was tiring.

Red and Cutter walked alongside him and seemed to hold the same cheery disposition as well, albeit with a small amount of fear any time they noticed Gans glancing their way.

Red had the annoying habit of trying to hum on the journey, and it took a few whacks to the head from his shotgun butt before the goblin finally stopped.

Cutter proved an intelligent traveling companion, in that the older yellow eyed goblin was smart enough to keep his mouth shut after what had happened to Arms.

Gans didn’t show it, but Cutter made him nervous. The old goblin made no outward signs of resistance to him unlike the others. He had the feeling that unlike blue face’s betrayal in the house, or Arms and his defiance, Cutter could actually succeed if he tried to betray him.

He knew now, that he needed to train out any hint of rebelliousness out of the goblins whenever he got the chance, but he had the feeling that cutter wouldn’t give him the opportunity to do so. It bothered him that he couldn’t act on the feeling of unease welling up inside him.

Sighing, he, tore his gaze away from Cutter to the open rode in front of him, lifting his shotgun and quickly snapping it on target towards the long figure of Blue face crouch walking in fear Fifty yards out in front of him. The small goblin nervously jerked his head from side to side, looking for anything that might attack him.

Taking a quick breath, Gans repeated the motion and snapped his shotgun up to practice, hissing in frustration when it caught against his chest. Anything other than a quick snap up was far too slow for his taste. He signed and rested the shotgun against his shoulder, his hip feeling sore from being carried against for too long

Alongside the loss of height he suffered from the racial change, he soon realized his arms were much shorter than before. His muscle memory from going hunting regularly with the shotgun was off, and he had to relearn the motions of bringing the weapon to his cheek quickly. He wanted to get the motions back as quickly as possible, he wasn’t sure when the next attack would happen after all.

Having a target to practice on helped.

Gans smiled, Blue Face was becoming extremely useful to him. The traitorous goblin served an unconventional purpose for him. Blue Face represented something to practice his shotgun reflexes on, getting the snap onto a target just right.

Blue Face also made an excellent distraction, hence why the goblin was traveling far, far, in front of the group. It wasn’t a perfect setup, but he would wager he could sacrifice the little goblin to whatever random hazard they would fall prey to. Something like a passing troll would immediately charge at Blue Face, and Gans could slip away with the others in the ensuing chaos.

His goblins might not have had the same danger senses as his previous summoned animals, but if he used them unconventionally he could achieve the same results. Not to say that the goblins didn’t have a well-developed danger sense, it was just nowhere near the same level of surveillance as having a sparrow flying overhead.

Goblins had an odd sense of betrayal hierarchy, another use of Blue Face's unconventional usefullness.. When Blue Face had stabbed Gans inside the house, the other goblins responded by killing Blue Face instead of him. Instinctively he knew that the others would still attempt to betray him later on, but he had the feeling that they would pick on the weakest member of their group before messing with their boss. Blue Face was that weakest member.

The journey so far was relatively uneventful. Gans kept working on quickly snapping up his shotgun to his shoulder. Some part of him expected an annoying blue notification to pop up in the corner of his vision regarding shotgun proficiency but it never came like he expected. It was possible that gun powder weapons like his shotgun ran outside of the system. He glanced at his weapon and wondered how much longer it would work before he ran out of ammo for it, or the system rendered it ineffective.

He needed to work on getting some sort of weapon training going. He had the goblins to fight for him, be he wasn’t sure how useful they would be if he came across another goblin pack, or even another pack of gnolls. If he ran into those, he would just have to run and hopefully they would get distracted by the goblins he threw at them. Not an ideal solution.

There was some hope however, if this truly was a game world like the ones that he knew, then there was a way of getting stronger. He just didn’t dare attempt it without using his shotgun, not yet anyway, even if it hamstrung his ability to use other weapons he was certain he would end up with.

He grimaced as he pictured himself missing with a bow and arrow and getting taken down by a gnoll. He dwelled on that imagery for awhile before a loud shriek pulled him out of his thoughts.

Gans looked down the street at Blue Face, who was currently celebrating by what looked like a bunch of dead goblin bodies on the front lawn of a house.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Red open his mouth to shriek in mutual excitement before Gans cut him off quickly by driving the stock of his shotgun into his head. Reaching over he grabbed the stupefied goblin and ducked behind one of the cars. Chopper follower a second later, peering cautiously over the hood.

Blue Face was making a lot of noise. TOO much noise. Gans peered over at the small blue tattooed goblin who was now eagerly looting the other bodies and making an odd eager sounding shrieking noise that Gans recognized from when the goblins were looting inside of the house.

Keeping his grip on the still dazed goblin Gans lowered himself against the car and slowly counted down from Sixty. Blue Face continued to shriek and was now starting to make an odd sort of war dance on the dead bodies, waving a large looted dagger in his hand with a big smile on his face.

The fact that its traveling companions were nowhere to be seen didn’t seem to register in the mind of the smaller goblin, and after doing its victory dance, it continued to move from body to body, checking for valuables.

Gans continued to count down from sixty. Red shifted nervously under his grip, and Cutter sat there with his eyes closed, as if counting the time down with Gans. It was right around his twenty count with it happened.

Blue Face by now had stripped a fair amount of the dead and was using a shirt like a portable bag, grinning ear to ear. Gans watched as Blue Face quickly turned his head towards the roof of the house, sensing something in sudden fear and only managed to cringe a little before a gold streaked arrow slammed through his skull.

Blue Face’s body slammed into the pavement limply, his prized treasures clattering around him from the fall. Wide eyed, Gans ducked back below the car again, hoping he hadn’t been noticed. Then he counted down from one hundred and eighty as his mind raced and his heart beat.

Then after that he counted another sixty seconds before slowly peering over the hood of the car.

There were six tall male figures standing over the body of Blue Face. They were at least fifty yards away from his hiding spot but it wasn’t hard for him to recognize them immediately. Elves.

Each one of them was wearing dull brown and green clothing with what looked like wood armor covering their vitals. Compared to Blue Face, they looked like freakishly skinny giants, and Gans would guess they all standing well over 6 feet tall. One looked at the body of Blue Face cruelly and gave it a few hard kicks. Gans could hear a light sing song type of laughter in the air alongside the sound of a rib cage breaking.

The laughter was light and airy, but Gans felt the airs creeping up on the back of his neck. Another kick was followed into the body of Blue Face, more light laughter ensued. There was an oddly menacing undertone to it.

Their laughter was cut short as a female elf walked into view from the side of the house. She was dressed in the same type of gear as the others, but her helmet had gold inlaid patterns running on the edges. Probably an officer, Gans mused.

She begun barking orders at the men, who seemed suitably afraid of the female. A conversation began as one of the males pointed at the fallen form of Blue Face. It almost seemed as though they were trying to justify something to the female from the guilty looks on the faces of the men. Their words seemed to carry on the wind, and had soft vowels to them. It was hard for Gans to differentiate between each word, as they all seemed to blend into an unpleasant mush of a conversation. Gans crinkled his face like he had smelled something bad.

The female elf pointed towards the road and began talking, the normally rounded edges of their language coming out much harder than before. Looking ashamed the men turned down the road and begun walking down it.

In a flash of precognition Gans ducked his head back down just as he saw the female turn her head to scan her surroundings. Letting out a breath, he counted down one hundred and eighty seconds, then added sixty seconds afterwards. Red fidgeted during the entire countdown, occasionally opening his mouth before Gans shot a glare to shut him up.

Slowly peeking back up from the ground, he let loose another breath he was holding. The elves were gone, walking down the road.

Cutter leaned next to him.

“What was it?” he asked, rasping out the words softly.

Looking at the older goblin in surprise, Gans shifted away from Cutter before replying.

“Elves”

At that both goblins hissed in anger.

“Bad news elves. Never see them before they kill you. Better to keep away from them boss.”

Red merely held his hands to his head and whined instead of speaking.

Gans twitched an eyebrow.

“Compared to everything else out here?”

“Goblins live in forests. Elves live in forest. They don't get along” Cutter explained in clips, shrugging before continuing, “Better to stay away, other things out here we can see coming. Elves we can't.”

“If elves are so bad, then how can goblins live in the forest as well?” Gans asked.

Cutter smiled slowly, menacing yellow jagged teeth coming out for air.

“Goblins make more goblins faster than elves make more elves.”

Gans frowned at that, and shook away the thought of goblin breeding with disgust before turning back to the empty road.

Were elves bad asses in this world? In most games he had played they were a pretty lame. Most of the time they were depicted as a dying race of pretty looking tree huggers that humans would try to eliminate.

The six foot monsters out there that had eliminated Blue Face with an arrow to the face looked almost military to him. He thought of the sound of the ribs cracking again and shuddered, they didn't seem like the nicest group either.

If the goblins and elves didn't get along very well, then he doubted that they would give him a chance to open his mouth before they turned him into a pincushion. He might not be a goblin, but he didn't exactly have the right color of skin either. The fangs and evil eyes probably didn't help either though, he mused.

Best to avoid the elves, like Cutter said.

Standing up, he motioned to Cutter and Red to follow, the latter of the two goblins still looking like a scared child from the mention of elves. Gans slowly walked to Blue Face's dead body in a half crouch, eyes peeled for any elves that decided to be tricky and lie in wait.

Poking his finger into the dead goblin he created a circle again, first drawing the green blood circle and following up with the specific symbols the book had described. He felt the slight tug of his mana reserve being used to power the circle .

He paused, thinking for a moment, before looking at Cutter and Red again. He didn't trust either of them fully, but if he couldn't trust them a little than they would be no use to him either.

“Help me if he comes out fighting.”

Arms might have been a goblin, but there was a reason Gans had named him Arms. The diminutive creature was strong for a goblin, and could do some damage if given a weapon and the opportunity,

Not looking to see if either one confirmed he turned back the the circular pool, reaching a hand inside. After awhile, he felt his mana hook onto his minion, and he pulled the muscular Goblin from the circle, tossing the goblin quickly onto the ground.

Arms immediately rolled into a ball with his arms in the air in order to fend off an attack. Sputtering out apologies when he saw the look in Gans's face.

He didn't realize it, but Gans was tensed up and looking at the cowering goblin with his teeth bared, a sense of fury filling him again. On some instinctual level, the disobedience his subordinate displayed infuriated him and he had to resist kicking the cowering figure. He would have done so if hadn't seen the elves kicking Blue Face's body, which pissed of off on some unknowable level as well.

Grunting, he looked quickly at Red and Cutter, both of whom nodded in his direction before watching Arms. Gans turned to the circle and reconnected with it, he could feel a faint dizziness as he felt another connection with the circle. Slowly he reached his hand in and pulled out Blue Face, who looked even more panicked than the last time he had been pulled out.

Unlike last time, however, he set Blue Face lightly down on his feet. Gans frowned slightly, wondering at why he didn't feel pissed off at Blue Face as well. The trembling wide eyed goblin knuckled his forehead before shuffling away from Gans, joining Red and Cutter.

Red, surprisingly, hissed at the blue tattooed goblin, taking a step away from it as if he was sick, Cutter merely eyed the other goblin warily. Blue Face didn't notice however, getting as close as possible to the other two, a traumatized look on his face. Gans watched the exchange with curiosity, maybe dying a few times took the fight out of them? He noticed that Arms had shuffled over the the group as well, a fearful look on its face.

Ignoring the reunion, Gans looked around his surroundings, taking in the dead bodies of the small goblin pack that been taken out. Looking down at his feet he twitched an eye brow. The corpse of Blue Face was still there. Looking between living Blue Face, and dead Blue Face he didn't see any difference between the two. Was living Blue Face a clone?

Hopefully his conjuration grimoire had finally updated himself. There were a lot of things not adding up, like the fact that he could re-conjure the dead.

Looking down at dead Blue Face he reached down before pulling the leather belt and dagger he saw the goblin take off the bodies earlier while looting. Strapping the belt to his waist, he felt surprised at how comfortable it felt on him. Taking a look a the dagger he noted it wasn't anything special though.

It was an old looking pitted blade that he turned over in his hands, definitely a useful weapon if something got past his shotgun and tried to tackle or grapple with him. With a feeling of satisfaction he put the dagger into the sheath attached to his belt before taking a look at the other items Blue Face had been looting.

He found a few Silver and copper coins as well and pocketed them before looking up at his four goblins, who seemed to be edging up on him as he had been looting. He hissed at them and the four wisely took a half step back.

Returning back to the dead bodies, he didn't find much else of value besides junk weapons like a shiv or an impromptu stool leg/club. Some armor off one of the goblin bodies caught his interest and he pulled a vest of leather scale off one of the bodies. Lifting it up to the sky he realized that it would be far too small for him to wear.

Looking at his four eager goblins he thought for a moment before throwing it towards Red who caught it with a look of glee. If he couldn't use it, it might as well go towards the most tanky of his small fry group. He cocked his head towards the bodies as red hurriedly strapped on the armor while his companions looked on in envy.

“Alright, go nuts” he said, indicating the bodies.

As if he had shot a gun at a horse race, all four goblins raced towards the dead bodies and begun filling makeshift backpacks and sacks with more of the crap. Over loading themselves with all the loot. The prospect of loot and greed overpowering their sense of logic again.

Gans sighed as he walked away from the Goblins. He scratched at his side, and gave the sun an annoyed look. Out of the corner of his eye he saw clothing hung out on a clothesline, gently swaying in the wind. He looked down at his Punisher shirt and grinned before heading the the clothesline and looking through what was available.

Tossing the Punisher shirt to the ground he picked up a plain brown tee shirt off the line. It was a little large for him, but he pulled it on, glad to be rid of the shirt that would likely get him shot, or filed with arrows. He imagined himself approaching the base in a black t-shirt with a white skull on it and rolled his eyes. That would not be taken well by the defenders.

On that thought he noticed a set of white clothes hanging as well. Grabbing a white t-shirt he rolled it up and stuffed it into his belt. Then after a pause, he grabbed another two white t- shirts and stuffed them both into his backpack as well. After a quick jump to readjust the backpack and gun riding on his shoulders he walked back onto the street and motioned his goblins to get moving. With looks of disappointment of their faces, they picked up their packs and wandered over to him.

They weren't far from the base at all now. He could easily reach it in the next hour assuming he didn't run into any more nasty surprises. He glared at Blue Face, who after while, dropped his head and shuffled out in front of the group.

“Boss?” Cutter spoke

“Hm?” Gans asked, looking down at the old goblin while waiting for Blue Face to get further out.

“The elves boss. They were headed the same way.”

Gans looked down the road towards where he knew the base should be. Then he looked at Cutter again, then looked back down the road. The same road the elves had taken when they had left.

“Shit”