Chapter 28 - Goblin on Goblin Crime

Apparently being an Adventurer was mostly about walking. They’d been at it for an hour and he was already bored of it. They had swung by Oran’s farm without a problem. The old man, wisps of white hair still on his sun tanned head, had told them he hadn’t seen anything else, but one of his bellok’s had gone missing the night before. Bellok’s were apparently sheep-like animals. Nate had managed to spot a few in a field from a distance. They did look like they were coated in something like wool, but were significantly larger than sheep on Earth. Closer to the size of a cow really, with six legs.

That was enough for Kiri and they found a trail less than an hour later. Which had finally led them to their current situation, traipsing through the outskirts of Firth forest, following a trail that even Nate could’ve seen with one eye closed. If it was goblins that had stolen the bellok, they were even dumber than literature and media had made them out to be. That thought had elicited a cackle from Frick.

On the up side, Kiri was great company and the two had joked and chatted about little things like the shops in Helmfirth, and other such inanities. The beautiful weather also helped. The sun was warm but the wind had a nice chill to it, and coupled with the protections from his robe he felt perfectly comfortable as they walked and scrambled beneath the trees.

At first Nate had just been allowing the ambient mana to slowly refill his reserve. However with the decreased concentration outside of the Dungeon he’d refilled less than half of what he had lost from Frick’s nightly foray. A foray that Nate suspected had been minimally about gathering information and mostly about tormenting the mice, or whatever passed for mice in this world. That meant his mana reserve was only a little above half filled. That didn’t pose an immediate problem, but it definitely posed a problem for levelling Improve Material. The first thing he was going to study was how to create a mana gathering array to start trying to recharge some of his mana gems.

Kiri and he had been walking in comfortable silence for a few minutes now and he was about to break that silence when she held up her hand. Stopping, he crept forward next to her. Together they peeked over a log and Kiri pointed off to their left. It was easy to see what she was indicating. They didn’t have the best angle but less than thirty metres away from them was some raised earth that looked like it might be a small cave. Lying outside the cave was the bellok, missing two legs, but still alive and bleating in pain. Surrounding the bellok was a pack of short green creatures who appeared to be eating the meat of the bellok raw. They’d found the goblins.

As he watched, one of the goblins sauntered over to the bellok before biting it with its razor sharp teeth. The bellok bellowed in agony as the goblin tore a bit of meat away. Nate couldn’t help himself and leant over to quietly be sick, vomiting up some of his breakfast. The casual cruelty was underscored by what sounded like laughter from the goblins.

Kiri gave him a look that seemed filled with pity. Wiping his mouth Nate looked over the goblins. doing a quick count and came up with twelve of the little cretins. They were a dull green colour that would’ve blended in well in the forest, with large floppy ears, long noses and sharp looking claws on their hands and feet. A couple were standing and he judged them at a metre or less in height. He noted a few weapons being carried or lying around them. At least one shortbow, a few rusted short swords, but mostly just clubs with what looked like glass or pieces of stone jammed into them. Nasty, he thought.

Looking to Kiri he held up ten fingers, then another two to indicate his count. She paused a moment, looking him over carefully, before nodding back to him, her brown hair tied up so it didn’t move about, before she pointed at the cave and held up her hands to indicate she didn’t know if there were more inside. He nodded and pointed to his mouth questioningly. She moved away from the log they were hiding behind and motioned him to follow. As quietly as he could, he moved through the forest, trailing her.

After they’d gone around a hundred metres, far enough that they’d most likely not be heard by the pack of goblins, Kiri stopped and gestured for him to come closer before whispering, “Are you okay?”

Nate gave a small nod, “Sorry. That… I wasn’t expecting that.”

She eyed him for a moment longer before continuing to keep her voice down, “Twelve should be doable, but I don’t like not knowing what’s in the cave. Do you have any ideas?”

“I can maintain two barriers at a time. If we get close enough I can keep one for me and put the other over the cave entrance. It’ll mean I don’t have one for you though,” he replied softly, looking at her with concern.

“Don’t worry about me, your lordship,” she teased quietly, trying to lighten the mood. “I’ll be up in the trees. I’ll take out their archers first so they won’t be a threat to me. More worried about you. You sure your barriers can hold up against them?”

“Watch and see,” he murmured with a confidence he didn’t actually have.

It was the right thing to say though, as Kiri grinned at him and nodded.

“Alright. I’ll start the fight. We go back to where we were, then I will go up into the trees. When I shoot my first arrow you approach and block off the cave. Then we pick them apart. Have you got any other tools in your kit or just barriers?” she asked, clearly unsure.

“I can shoot earthen projectiles. I wouldn’t worry too much. Between us we should pick them apart pretty easily. Did you identify them?” He’d forgotten again. Though given he could usually tell when someone identified him, maybe that was a good thing. He might have alerted the goblins to them without them having a plan in place.

“Yeah. I checked two. Level thirteens. Should be easy work for us.”

Nate nodded and they started walking quietly back to the log. There was only one question left.

“Frick, is this going to make me level? I know we need to develop my Skills before I hit level 21 and evolve my Class,” he thought at his Familiar.

“Pfft, some level thirteens? For your Legendary Class? If this moves the dial more than five percent towards your next level I’ll eat my own feet. You’ll be fine. If you’re really worried you could probably use the mana exclusion rune you have to prevent any processed mana from getting to you. Don’t know if that works to be honest,” Frick replied. “Now get to work. It’s time to go goblin mode. Girl’s got a high perception so I can’t slip out and taunt them. So it’s on you to do it for me. I’ll feed you some good lines. Promise.”

Nate just sighed knowing that Frick was going to scream things in his mind as he fought. That said, this battle didn’t seem particularly threatening. Arriving back at the log Kiri gave him a nod before jumping off the ground. Before she fell back to the ground she jumped off thin air and Nate was reminded of the first time he had seen the Skill. It was the next best thing to flying. Kiri bounced off thin air a second time and he watched her land on a branch a moment later, before she vanished from his sight among the canopy.

Preparing himself, he spun up one of his barrier runes, manipulating it with his intent till it surrounded him in a sphere. He had five Intents to work with now that his Intellect was over fifty, and pushed it further than usual, trying an abnormal Intent. One went to shape, creating a sphere around him. The second for distance, giving him enough room to move his arms without hitting his own barrier. The third and fourth went to strengthening the barrier. The final was a new method he had been considering as he focused on efficiency. The drop in his mana drain wasn’t huge but it was enough for him to immediately notice. Better, the notification in the corner of his eye was viewed and dismissed a moment later, leaving him smiling.

Runic Intent Level 8 > 9

Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.

Prepared, he waited for the telltale sound of an arrow being released. He didn’t have to wait too long as he heard the twang of release followed by screaming goblins a moment later. Rushing forward, his chest hurting slightly as his ribs were still healing, he found the goblins in chaos. A few were grabbing their weapons but others were looking around screaming. The worst part was he could understand them. Why Arikanvil had bothered to learn goblin, he would never know, but to call what they spoke a language was doing languages a disservice.

“Enemy here. Get! Get!” One screamed.

“Bow mine! Mine! Stinkyfoot get beat if touch!”

“Need chief! Need shaman!”

The cacophony was annoying but Nate did pick up on the word ‘chief’ and ‘shaman’ more than once. Getting close enough he threw up the barrier in front of the cave entrance, using the same five Intents to shape and reinforce it so that it was a flat barrier sealing the cave. With that done he turned to find that of the twelve goblins, six were already down, dead or dying. Each one sprouted at least one arrow. A couple were in the chest, three in the neck and one straight through the little beast's eye. He’d known Kiri was a good shot but seeing her drop six of them in under ten seconds was both amazing and terrifying.

He felt some mana drain from his reserve and turned to see one of the goblins had charged at him from behind. The goblin lay on the ground, the remains of a short spear in its hands. The rest of the spear was in splinters from having crashed into his barrier. It was only his third time fighting living creatures, and like with the Lobster, Nate had some initial misgivings. He didn’t like or enjoy killing things. But there was a vast difference in his mind between these goblins and the Lobster. The Lobster had been sentient, a beast, with the instincts of a beast. To feed and to survive. He couldn’t hate it for following its basic needs. That was just part of the circle of life.

These goblins however were sapient. They had language, community, even a complex social structure, from what little he had seen. What did they do with that capability? Torture an animal. That behaviour, alongside Frick’s words and the feral snarl and sharp teeth of the goblin as it launched itself at his barrier again, claws first, convinced him of the necessity of killing these creatures. A moment later a thin spear of earth had shot through the creature's head.

It was oddly clean, the hole he’d punched through the goblin and the rush of processed mana was so small he barely even felt it. The whole situation made him feel cold for a moment, but he just imagined what these goblins would’ve done if they’d encountered farmer Oran, or worse, some children. That image was enough to allow him to swallow any lingering misgivings and two blasts of earth later, the final goblin had fallen. Kiri dropped down next to him a moment later, bouncing once to arrest her fall using her jumping Skill.

The whole thing had taken less than thirty seconds and Frick had been right. The death of the goblins had barely moved the needle on his Class Core. Nothing had come out of the cave either. That thought was apparently the trigger though as he felt his mana drain again as something impacted against his barrier covering the cave. Looking over to it he found two goblins standing just inside the cave. One was taller than the average goblin, more muscled with a glint in its eyes that spoke of a cunning intelligence. In its hands it held an axe as big as it was. Next to it was the smallest goblin he had seen so far, with blue paint marring its face in swirls and lines. But where the larger one didn’t make him feel any pressure, he couldn’t say the same for the smaller one. Remembering for once, he quickly activated Identification. He got back both less and more information than he had expected.

Goblin Level 21
Goblin: Level 26

Corrosive Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)
Fluid Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)
Drain Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)
Life Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)

Identification – Runic Level 10 > 12

Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.

He had thought it might give names, like he had gotten in the Dungeon. But perhaps that was just a function of Dungeons. Getting Sigils however was new. Nate could see now what had triggered them. The shorter goblin held a staff in its hand and what he was beginning to recognise as enchanted gems were stuck into the top of it, one green and one red.

The grating voice of the larger goblin echoed out of the cave, “Deal with this Sniveller. I want to eat their hearts.”

Nate would’ve remembered Frick’s words even without the Familiar telling him I told you so in the back of his mind. It turned out that goblins did in fact want to eat his heart. The pissing on his corpse was something he hoped never to find out about.

Sniveller leaned forward and Nate felt a burst of mana before a green liquid was flung out of the end of the staff. It impacted his barrier and he felt it fail a second later, the corrosive nature of the spell making short work of it. Since it would probably have the same effect on his personal barrier, he immediately raised his hand and started shooting spears of earth at the smaller goblin. He wasn’t the only one with that plan as he heard the twang of Kiri’s bow.

Surprisingly the larger goblin moved in front of Sniveller, the stones impacting the larger goblin leaving wounds that dripped blackish blood, while two arrows stuck out of his chest. Nate was surprised they hadn’t punched right through the creature. His surprise lasted only a moment as a red aura began to surround the goblin and the wounds stopped dripping blood, the arrows pushed out of his skin falling to the forest floor. The goblin was visibly healing before his eyes. He’d played enough games to recognize a berserker style Class.

“This is bad, boss man. These two might be a bad matchup for you and the girl. Want me to help?”

Rather than answer his Familiar in his mind, Nate yelled it out loud as he started running, “Get out here Frick! Replication under the mage!”

The blue goblin flew out a moment late, cackling at being free, or Nate figured, mostly because it meant he would actually get to taunt his enemies. Unsurprisingly the little bastard was able to make use of the translation spell applied to Nate, using it to speak to their enemies in goblin.

“I’m Frick the Great, Chieftain of the Blue Spirit tribe. You two better kneel and kiss my smelly feet before I have my minions cut your heads off and pike them outside that cave. My cave now!” Frick yelled at them, flying straight over the red glowing goblins head and darting at Sniveller. A moment later Frick was seen rolling to the side, fighting what looked like ghosts of goblins. The creatures had the shape of goblins but were wispy. Nate didn’t have time to pay any more attention to Frick’s fight as the red glowing goblin charged him, axe held high. It seemed like the fight was just getting started.