It felt like hours, but we find Dagger.

Or what is left of Dagger. Crows circle his body as a few land next to him, poking him occasionally to see if he is still alive. We started running when we saw the murder of crows up ahead, and we were rewarded with Dagger’s barely breathing body, paralyzed from the neck down as crows pecked him on all sides!

“DAAGER,” we scream, unable to say his name properly due to the tears. Only when we shoo away the stupid birds does the System squawk-

Quest Acquire Better Camouflage Completed

Quest Retrieve Spoon’s Namesake Completed

Rocky Party has gained 209 EXP

Dagger has Leveled UP

Spoon has Leveled UP

Dagger pops right up, swinging at birds that aren’t there. He tackles me, and we hug. Tears flow down our faces as we embrace.

“I did that thing the Chief used to do!”

I laugh, remembering that stupid story from a lifetime ago. “You sure did.”

Spoon plows into us both, and we roll in the tall grass. Laughing and crying. We survived. We Leveled UP!

We STOLE FROM THE HUMANS!

My heart is pounding with excitement. This is Goblin Supremacy. This is how we are SUPREME!

And my friends helped. More than helped!

Dagger and Spoon are already picking through the clothes, forgetting the horrors from yesterday.

“Come on, Rock, let’s find you something to wear!” Spoon shouts with a giggle in her voice.

We’ll have to talk about her death magic eventually, and what it can or can’t do. But for now. For now, there is LOOT!

********

At some point, Dagger snuck off. A part of me wants to panic, but I hold myself together. He’s Level 2 now and knows how to move in the world outside the mountain.

Instead, Spoon and I trade clothes. We have to cover our green skin and our pointy ears. Hard task, for sure! A lot of the clothes, especially the dresses, are too big, which Spoon found very disappointing as she really wanted to wear one of the dresses. Instead, we wear t-shirts, many, many t-shirts. Often a bigger one, whose sleeves covered our arms, left plenty of room for us to move, followed by layering three to four smaller ones. It looks comical, to be honest, but… maybe human? Yes, except for our ears. Pointy and proud.

Spoon has the idea of tying a shirt around them. But I think I have a better idea. I take one of those yellow dresses Spoon likes and rips into it. As she protests, I tie the shredded fabric around my head until I am confident I’ve covered my ears. She pouts for 30 minutes until I point out I made it small enough for her to wear.

Then she perks up.

We go through the garments one by one, realizing that we can’t carry or wear everything. It is Spoon who figures we should bury the extra stuff we looted.

“Bury it?” I repeat, confused.

“Bury it like hidden treasure!” She smiles.

And that’s what we do.

Spoon and I alternate between her blasting and me digging (and collecting rocks), and we have a decent enough hole after some time. And that’s when Dagger shows up with a pot of the food we stole earlier.

Quest Food Acquisition Completed

Rock Party gained 68 EXP

I look confused. I don’t remember the System declaring “getting stew” as a Quest. But I did steal it. Well, asked Dagger to steal it. So-

“Rock!” Spoon shakes me before I can take psychic damage. My mind is climbing down slowly from being overworked. I am not meant to contemplate the greater mysteries.

So we eat. Taking turns using Spoon’s spoon. And honestly, the food does taste better coming from a spoon!