NOVEL NEXT 23 (One step forward Two steps back)
Frankly, I respected their will to live, but I didn’t tolerate desertion so lightly. Huh, wait, whatever happened to that Paul guy who helped me out? Shut up consciousness, you’ve been awfully quiet as of late so try to keep it that way!
Activating my cloak again just as the two other goblins turned around in confusion, unfortunately, my master plan didn’t seem to work as I wanted it to. Rather than going to investigate the body like they should, they ran even faster than before when they noticed I was gone.
Trying not to disturb the long grass, I followed them back until eventually they arrived at an odd-looking series of thatch shelters surrounded by not only visible goblins but also checking the map, I noticed what looked like many more inside the buildings, with one larger red dot in the middle in what seemed to be a much larger hut than the rest, with ornate skeletons from creatures I had never seen before.
With desperate cries, they banged on the small wooden wall surrounding what I’ll call a village, being let in with a series of cries from the other goblins as they surrounded the two, seeming to ask them a series of questions with high-pitched cries.
Seeming to have found out what they wanted to know, I saw a large band of goblins exit the village. These ones were maybe twice the size of the ones I had been chasing, which frankly, I didn’t want to think on too much, as it might diminish my desperately needed dissociation from what I had done.
I watched the goblin band approach my position, walking along the tall grass, they kept themselves in what seemed to be their best approximation of a formation, which was enough to satisfy me that they’d be a tough fight if I took them all on like that. Instead, I carefully walked by. I was worried about disturbing the grass, as despite how I tried, I still pushed down a good amount as I crept, but it seemed my worries were unfounded as they walked by without paying me much mind.
Arriving at the wooden wall, which was both too low and too shoddy to be effective against anything but their own kind, I waited until the patrol walked off further away. I scaled the wall carefully, choosing to climb over behind a house and entered the village.
I saw what seemed to be the smaller children, like goblins, and perhaps female goblins, though I didn’t know enough about these creatures to tell. They were all being sent to shelter in one of the larger huts.
They were being hurriedly guided by two well-armed goblins, that is to say, they had shoddy, rusty-looking swords and what seemed to be homemade metal armor stitched together from other pieces of armor.
With a sigh, I started sneaking towards them, waiting until the last remaining creatures were shut away before roughly slashing them both, sending them to the ground with a sickening crunch. I didn’t want to look down at the mess, as I allowed monarchs reach to creep down my leg to begin infesting their corpses as well, ignoring the hail of messages that popped up from the system as they did.
Checking my map to confirm, I noticed that the large red dot still hadn’t moved from the imposing hut in the middle of the village. Well, it was imposing as a worn hut could hope to be, but the point still remains, it hadn't moved at all despite the general state of panic in the rest of the village. As I was in the middle of contemplating if I should just try to kill it while the rest of the goblins were, a system message popped up, which my eyes barely read long enough to avoid closing it instantly, quickly being buried under the flood of system messages notifying me of a feel soul integrity check, was the quest I had been waiting for.
System> quest issued
[King slayer] {Kill the chief goblin 0/1}
Calculating reward. . .
[Reward 500 gp]
Reviewing the quest, I felt the reward was a bit low, but it's not like I had anyone to appeal my troubles to. Turning away from the shelter, I used cloak again to conceal my progress as I carefully walked towards the imposing hut. There was no door on it as I got close, revealing the “chief goblin” inside. This sight left me in awe, not that I was afraid, but rather the scene was too comical. In front of me was a fat goblin not too much taller than those two goblins I had just disposed of a short while before him.
In his hand was some overly intricately decorated glass which didn’t seem to fit the rest of the village. He was slumped over, allowing the glass to spill its content onto his well-worn animal pelt cloak.
I can’t say I was disappointed by the scene, but somehow it felt a little anticlimactic. Though this entire thing had felt tame compared to that horrid place full of ants, it felt like it had only been an hour and I had already made it to the final threat. I had even gotten a King Slayer quest for it, yet when compared with the laser-shooting zombie ant thing I had fought before, I almost wanted to laugh.
Taking a confident stride forward, I quickly rushed towards the goblin chief. Extending out my hand, I allowed my monarch reach to lurch towards him as I swung the knife in my hand roughly down aiming at his head. To my surprise, I did not hear the satisfying noise I expected, or the thwack of a hit against flesh. Instead, I felt as if I had just hit a pane of glass as a loud shattering noise reverberated out.
Looking down, the excitement of an easy fight escaped me, as the goblin chief was no longer there. Instead, standing away, calmly drinking out of its cup, not even glancing toward me. The place where it had lazily sat was now covered in sparking fragments of something, which seemed to break down and disappear before they hit the ground.
Looking increasingly forward, I really wanted to curse the system. This somehow didn’t seem like it was worth 500 gp after all. Before I could finish my thought, the goblin in front of me motioned its hand forwards, giving a loud cackling laugh as suddenly a ball of fire flew towards me. Despite rolling out of the way, I ignored the burning feeling of heat as it passed by me. Despite my efforts, I wasn't able to get far enough away to avoid the fireball completely as suddenly a wave of heat encompassed me from behind, knocking me to the side as the fireball exploded into the thatch wall behind me.
Looking up at the creature in front of me, it was now cackling like mad, in its hand another fireball was formed as it looked at me with a strange glint in its eyes. I really wanted to complain that this didn’t seem fair at all, but I couldn’t think about anything other than moving my body as another fireball shot towards my direction.
Using my legs to shoot forward, I charged at the fat goblin, guiding my knife to stab it as soon as possible. Before I could even get close enough to touch him though, he cackled madly before with a burst of light, he appeared behind me, sticking me in the side with some sharp object. The pain prompted an instant reaction as my body turned sharply to the side, launching a kick to its fleshy stomach. This speed seemed to catch it off guard as it was blasted backwards to the now quickly burning thatch walls.
It seemed angered by this, as with a splash of its wine glass, a torrent of water poured out, putting out the fire in an instant. I meant to take advantage of its distraction with the fire to run up to it and land another shot, but my body felt heavy and I was unable to move it very well.
Falling to one knee, I looked up at the goblin cackling at me as it readied another fireball, the burning air of which spread towards me, pushing my hair back across my face and blackening the fabric of the clothes Mariam had given me. With a short cough, I spat out a mouthful of blood as a system warning came on in my mind.
System>
[Warning a foreign substance Is attempting to deactivate user’s nervous system]
Diverting energy to (skill “Lesser Recovery”) . . . .
(success)
[Effectiveness mild]
{Quest survive reward updated}
Calculating rewards. . . . .
[1000 gp, increased probability of soul mutation by 1%]
I smiled a bit ironically that I was actually getting something from the system now that I was in this state. I did have to wonder why it couldn’t have just given out those rewards to begin with, but maybe now wasn’t the time to look deeper into the system.
Looking back at the goblin who kept walking closer, looking down on my quickly going limp body, I saw on his face a disgusting smile as if it were looking at a meal set out before them. The glare made my entire body shudder in disgust, but I couldn’t move a muscle to resist. I really wanted to curse out loud, but even my mouth could hardly move as the heat of the fireball hovering menacingly in front of me kept growing. It was now close enough where I could almost touch it. Unable to even move my head away, now my eyes were locked with its face, its gnarled body clearly laughing at my plight, enjoying the sight I was giving to it.
With a laugh and a sip of its wine, I saw it raise its hand high, ready to smash the fireball down onto me, but before it could, a cold smile spread across my own face as it suddenly began to choke and scream. Giving off a series of high-pitched cries, I couldn’t hold back my emotions. Sighing in relief, I noticed my monarch's reach had finally caught up to him. Despite being completely immobilized, the monarch's reach still hungrily wrapped itself around its body, the vein-like threads eagerly digging in and pulsating as they sucked away its life force.
After the initial confusion wore off, it began tearing the threads off its body, howling and stomping around like mad, its wine glass having been dropped in the process. It managed to get most of the threads off before they could even start sucking, as shown by the lack of system notifications in my vision. The chief seemed furious as suddenly its entire body crackled with blistering burning, the rest of the threads off of it. It didn't seem immune from this attack either as it stumbled slightly, letting out hoarse cries of "kill, kill" in my direction, as if threatening me for what I had done.
Unfortunately for it and luckily for me, it had turned its attention away long enough from me that I was able to activate my hide skill and slowly crawl along the floor away from where I had been. Now it seemed to have been able to notice me last time, but I was betting that a combination of the smoke-filled room and its own clearly exhausted state would allow me to sneak away. This bet sadly did not seem to pay off, as despite managing to put some distance between me and it, it still seemed to be at least vaguely aware of where I was, as with a flash of bright light, its body disappeared and reappeared closer to me, furiously poking the ground to find where I had gone. Eventually, it managed to stumble only a few centimeters away, so that I could clearly see the horrid features of its body, covered in hundreds of tiny marks from where my monarch's reach had penetrated. I was able to move my body slightly as I pulled myself off the ground, gripping the gang leader's dagger tightly, knowing I had to use it soon.
My chance came when a bit of the charred thatch roof came tumbling down nearby, distracting the goblin long enough for me to pounce up, stabbing my knife straight through the head of the chief. This time I felt the expected feedback of the knife piercing the goblin's skull as with a burst of light, the goblin in front of me disappeared, bleeding from the side of the head. It tried to activate more magic, but it seemed it wasn’t able to do so properly as the spell fizzled out, the goblin falling to the floor, its eyes unfocused as blood continued to pour from its wound. After a few moments, it stopped convulsing on the ground as a series of system messages popped up confirming the kill. However, I didn’t have much time to consider that as I heard the rapid sounds of feet approaching. The goblin band from earlier was now sprinting back, most likely seeing the smoke from the burning thatch or just maybe being connected to their leader in some way. Either way, it didn’t matter, as they didn’t seem like much of a threat, though thinking of how the mage goblin almost killed me, I might have to reconsider that.
As my monarch's reach finished sucking out the rest of the chief's gp, I felt the ground shake under me, as suddenly everything went blurry. The approaching goblins stopped in their tracks, almost as if paused, as the light painfully encompassed me once again, blinding me for a few moments. It didn’t feel much different from how I entered, as suddenly opening my eyes, I fell to the floor, finding myself once again in the familiar coffee shop. As a flood of system messages once again filled my vison.
System>
{Special Quest modifier cleared determining rewards. . .}
{Current Time until apocalypse: 291hrs, 45m, 11s}