A Soldier's Life - 4 - Why are Red Goblins Brown?

Chapter 4: Why Are Red Goblins Brown?

The next day, we found out we would be training on the road, and the others were excited and I acted surprised. Our destination was over a hundred miles away. My squad had two woodsmen, two instructors, and two mages, all of whom rode horses. Meanwhile, we marched quickly, wearing training armor and carrying heavy backpacks, spears, swords, and shields.

When we stopped, we were either eating or training. Sleeping outside was not fun either, as the temperature dropped overnight, and our packed bedrolls were made of thin wool that did a poor job fighting the chill. Legionnaires had a lining for the bedroll, but our instructors didn’t think we needed it for this trip. Why they had brought the lining for themselves was one of those mysteries you didn’t ask the answer to.

We even had to spend four hours on night watch duty. The woodsmen and instructors schooled us in those duties. Helena was in the other squad, traveling a separate route, so I could not get additional staff practice. I decided to spend my free time with the woodsmen, and they showed me basic camping and foraging skills.

It wasn’t long before I could identify six plants as edible, filling, and nutritious. Two were roots with bulbs that could be found year-round, but you had to peel and boil them. Two were nuts from trees, somewhat uncommon, very bitter, and made your urine very pungent.

Using urine to mark your campsite at night would keep most wild animals away from your camp. The last two edibles were sap from shrubs, both of which were very sugary. You had to be careful to drink the sap from the hollow stem, as eating the stem would give you massive abdominal cramping and diarrhea. We did not see any wild game on our outings, but one of the woodsmen tried to show me how to identify game trails and animal tracks.

It took five days to reach the farm that had been attacked. The mages and instructors rode out to question the inhabitants of the nearby farms. We got a chance to rest, but I walked the nearby woods with the woodsman who had been training me. We easily found trails with small humanoid footprints. One of them mentioned we were lucky because it hadn't rained, making the evidence easy to spot. The woodsman guessed the farm had been attacked by six to eight red goblins. We traced the direction they left in by following the trail of chicken feathers and footprints.

Soon, the mages returned with the instructors, while the family living on the farm had moved to a neighboring one for shelter. We set out, led by two woodsmen. The pace was slow, and I was positioned on the left flank, about ten yards out, since I was slightly better at moving silently. Another soldier took the right flank. The two woodsmen and our best soldiers led the vanguard, while the main body of the force followed fifty yards behind with the horses, mages, and trainers, ready to support.

One of the woodsmen hand-signed a trap to the lead element. We all stopped and waited. It was only two heartbeats later that all hell broke loose. Two goblins I hadn't noticed broke from my left, less than eight feet away, and more of them attacked our center. My first thought was that they looked more brown than red, and then I got my wits about me. My sword was already drawn and I prepared to react.

I deflected the wooden spear aimed at my chest and put the attacking goblin between me and the other goblin. This would give me only one foe for a short time. I tried to bash the closer goblin with my shield, but it had already backed away, trying to bring its spear to bear again.

The other goblin began to circle, and sounds of combat erupted from our center and right flank. I figured I would need to hold out for at least fifteen seconds for our main force to close in. The two goblins I faced were 120 degrees apart and attacked in a coordinated lunge with their wooden spears.

Using my shield, I cleared the spear on my right. The sword in my left hand mostly deflected the other spear. It cut my armor near my ribs, but not reaching my flesh, but I was able to move forward past the spears. Now, between the goblins, I swung my sword in a short, powerful arc, clipping the right-hand goblin’s head and taking a chunk of the skull with the hit.

Using the swing’s momentum, I came around quickly to face the other goblin with my shield. I saw anger and fear mixed in its human-like eyes. It hesitated, so I pushed forward, deflecting the spearhead down with a shield and using my sword to hack at its arms. I took off one of its hands, surprising both of us as blood spurted from the stump. As the goblin froze in shock, a quick slash to its neck ended its life. This all took less than eight heartbeats. I scanned the left flank, looking for other threats. Seeing nothing, I turned to help the center, my adrenaline surging.

One of the woodsmen was on the ground with the two soldiers, and the other woodsman was protecting him. At least eight goblins had them surrounded, with more goblins coming. The main force was still about thirty yards back, but I could hear the horses pushing through the brush and shouts from the others.

My training told me to fall in and support the center, but looking at the circling goblins, I rushed the flank to take advantage. I started a heavy run and used my shield to barrel into one goblin, driving it into another. Unfortunately, my feet got tangled, and I went down in a mess on smelly goblin limbs.

I felt a pain in my ass and assumed I had just gotten a spear in my left ass cheek. As I rolled away, I was able to slam the hilt of my sword into the eye of a goblin on the ground, crushing its orbital cavity. I had to release my shield or risk getting stuck in the tangle on the ground.

Standing, I backed toward my companions. The odds were better now. Six goblins and four of us. The goblins had noticed our main force, and the reinforcements who had just arrived suddenly screamed, “Flee!” and turned to run. I only understood the goblin speech because of my amulet.

The six goblins bolted. I instinctively pursued and cut down one immediately with a diagonal slash across its back. My efforts met with a splatter of blood across my armor and face. I took down a second slower goblin that had a limp and then paused, realizing I was alone. I had forgotten my training and pursued the goblins, driven by surging adrenaline. I retreated and returned to the main force.

The mages arrived and healed the injured woodsman and our minor injuries. I had a puncture in my buttock that had bled quite a bit, soaking my pants with blood. My pain tolerance was high from training, but getting healing from Damian and drinking some fluids was still a relief. Looking at the goblin bodies, I suddenly felt slightly ill. I had killed a sentient being—an ugly one but still. However, I didn't have much time to dwell on it, as the instructors quickly had us moving to chase the fleeing goblins.

We soon formed two lines and moved forward. Ten minutes later, we arrived at the goblin camp. About twenty goblins were packing up what they could. Seeing us approach, they abandoned their packs and fled. We charged when ordered. I killed two more in the chaos, but they were both clearly females and barely defended themselves. The mages cast lightning at a few goblins who had gotten too far away for us to engage. Overall, three goblins may have managed to escape.

Then, one of the mages took out a large runic disc and tried to suck essence out of the goblins. It was fascinating to watch as the large device was placed on the body and blue wisps coalesced on the surface of the device to form a sphere. The process was not always successful, with only one out of five yielding a minor essence. In total, he collected five essences from twenty-seven goblins killed.

I was quickly tasked with helping two woodsmen track and kill the escaped goblins. Two others from my barracks joined us. After six hours of pursuit, we managed to catch only one goblin; the woodsman stopped us and directed us to turn back under the moonlit night. The moon here was much larger than Earth's, and its intense blue light created a persistent twilight feel. The woodsmen cautioned that the goblins would have the upper hand in the low light.

We had been pursuing them for over ten hours. I was exhausted and had bruises, scratches, and numerous chafe marks on my skin. However, I had no time to rest and was debriefed by the instructors when I returned. I got yelled at for my reckless and undisciplined attacks in the initial contact. After hearing about all my mistakes multiple times, I was able to relax and quickly fell asleep after eating some leftover cold stew.

I managed to sleep until late morning, mainly because the woodsman requested not to be disturbed earlier, which also meant the three soldiers with us received the same treatment. I had three servings of breakfast. While eating, I sat beside one of the mages, and we started talking. He shared details about their loot. “The main treasure was four minor dexterity and one minor strength essence. The goblins only had about sixty filthy copper coins and a few iron tools. Goblins don’t use coins for anything other than jewelry.” He pointed to the pile that had been gathered while I was hunting goblins yesterday.

Damian added, “The instructors decided the coins and tools would be given to the farmer so he could replace some of his livestock.”

“Is that the only way to make essences?” I asked him, indicating the runic shield by the other mage.

The mage tapped the large disc. “Yes, condensing life force from living beings or recent corpses. These collectors are expensive to artifice, and the artificers with the knowledge are a rare breed these days. You are lucky I wanted to come out here and stretch my riding legs.” He had a self-satisfied aura that was easy to dislike.

“Could it be used on a human as well?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

Both mages gave me a strange look, though Damian did answer, “Yes. Some societies believe consuming the essence of your defeated foe is your right. Others believe it should be passed on to their children, and others think they need the strength to succeed in the afterlife in Pluto’s realm.”

“You said it could be used on live beings,” I said to the first mage.

He looked uncomfortable with the question. “Do they not have collectors in your lands? Or are you just from some mudhole in the wild?” He stood up and walked away, taking the collector with him.

After he was a distance away, Damian answered my question, “When used on live creatures, it has a much higher probability of forming an essence. It was outlawed in the Telhian Empire and is now only used to execute criminals. The process of ripping out a man’s soul is…vile to watch.” He pointed at the mage. “He used to work in larger cities performing executions. He has probably killed dozens of men with that collector in the last decade. Ripping life essence from a living person changes you.”

I nodded in understanding. I had not quite come to grips with killing goblins, though it helped that they looked more monstrous than human. But as a soldier, I was going to have to kill another man eventually and I was not looking forward to that day.

I turned the topic to magic. “Can you tell me more about the magic affinities?”

Damian smiled, also happy to drop the subject of collectors, and went into teaching mode. “There are three rarities of magic: common, uncommon, and rare. Each one has seven affinities for a total of twenty-one known magical affinities. Eryk, both of your affinities fall into the rare category, making you a rare specimen,” he flashed a smile.

“What are the rare affinities?” I leaned in close to listen.

Damian grinned as he listed them: “The seven rare affinities are space, time, displacement, materialism, void, worlds, and convergence.”

He shifted to face me. “Space is primarily the ability to create pocket dimensions. Time is limited control over the aspect of time, usually speeding or slowing time around the mage. Displacement is the ability to teleport. Displacement mages are extremely rare and valuable in the Empire; they operate the portals in the larger cities.”

Damian paused to take a drink. He still had my attention when he continued. “Materialism is summoning objects from nothing, but it breaks the second covenant of magic that objects cannot be created from nothing. There is a lot of debate about whether the objects are summoned or created. Void magic is eliminating something from existence. It is a scarce magic, and anyone with its affinity is sent to the Mage College in the capital to study there. Now, world magic is the ability to move between planets. Traveling the cosmos like a great adventurer!” He dwelled for a moment on the idea of traveling between the stars.

“Finally, convergence is the rarest of all the rare magics. It allows a mage to draw mana from the environment, specifically at ley line convergences. Essentially, the mage could have an infinite well of aether under the correct circumstances, and thus wield tremendous power!” Damian finished with a flourish, standing to leave. “Eryk, I know your strongest affinity is space. I do not want to get your hopes up. Still, if you successfully complete the legionnaire training, the Centurion will consider testing you to see if you can learn dimensional pocket. Since you have a low potential in aether shaping, you would have to imprint the spell form on your aether core to learn it.”

“What exactly is a dimensional pocket?” I asked.

Damian grinned madly, “A wondrous space! It creates a private space from which a mage can put and pull items. They are usually small, but even a legionnaire with a small space could be enlisted as a messenger or porter. But do not get your hopes up. When I can get a tablet, we can see if your affinity for the space is at least ten.”

Damian reiterated my poor chances. “Most people have affinity ratings around five in their primary affinity. It is one of the reasons they have not checked you. They assumed you would have been evaluated in your homeland and, if you had any potential, you would have utilized it. I have not told anyone you have never been tested.”

I was twenty-five, and Damian had said it was common for people in the capital or a large city in the Telhian Empire to have all their affinities checked when they turned fifteen. Damian was called away to attend to an injury.

I was gaining a lot of benefits from my friendship with the mage. That he was willing to keep my secrets was a great benefit, along with the preferential healing he gave me. Unlike most of the other men, I had no scars from all the healing I had received while training.

After a few more days, we finally packed up and headed back to the training camp. Unfortunately, we didn't have any luck finding more goblins. The instructors mentioned that they probably crawled into a hole to breed for the winter, so we would need to return next year. We also learned that another squad had killed 38 goblins but had lost three of their members who rushed into a different goblin camp. Once back I was happy to note Helena was not one of the dead. We were given two days of rest before being tested again on the tablet.

Physical

Strength(+2/+0)44/79

Power(+1/+0)40/82

Quickness(+2/+0)26/49

Dexterity(+1/+0)25/56

Endurance(+5/+0)56/87

Constitution(+4/+0)34/65

Coordination(+1/+0)35/61

Mental

Intellect(+0/+0)26/54

Reasoning(+2/+0)40/59

Perception(+3/+0)52/60

Insight(+1/+0)28/49

Resilience(+1/+0)44/71

Empathy(+1/+0)10/21

Fortitude(+4/+0)44/89

Magical

Aether Pool(+1/+0)10/22

Channeling(+0/+0)7/55

Aether Shaping(+0/+0)4/8

Aether Tolerance(+0/+0)20/50

Aether Resistance(+0/+0)3/19

Prime Aether AffinitySpace

Minor Aether AffinityTime

I made modest gains for myself, but Damian said I was doing well, and as long as I didn’t get myself killed, I would graduate. For weapons testing, I finished 11th with the sword, 18th in sword and shield, 22nd in dagger, and 7th in hand-to-hand. I realized that two of the men killed had been ahead of me in the rankings, and they had done something foolish like I had, rushing alone into combat against multiple goblins with no support. In combat against vast numbers, you needed to support each other.

We also competed in dual-wield sword skills, which none of us were familiar with. Somehow, I finished 11th. I liked this style because I could switch which hand was defending and which was attacking, surprising my opponent. From all the training, I also found that I was slightly ambidextrous. One of the trainers said I had the mentality for a two-weapon fighting style. Unfortunately, they only taught two-weapon fighting so we would be familiar with it when facing an opponent wielding two weapons.

Three more had been dropped after tablet testing, and another five were cut after the combat ranking. This left 46 of us. The strange thing was that we actually started forming bonds. Putting our unit against a common foe had broken down the walls of competition between us as we fought to remain in camp. I do not know if this had been planned, but it made life in the barracks more bearable for me.

We had light training as our instructors had to travel to the army camp. We were not told the reason, but 42 of the 49 instructors left for 2 days. Only forty returned, and even Damian was in the dark as to why, but he assumed they were taking command of units of the army to reinforce a fort.

During the lighter training days, I finally had the opportunity I was hoping for. Damian excitedly said the centurion’s estate had a magic affinity tablet passing through. They were expensive, and this one was only going to be here for two days as it was on its way back to the Mage College in the capital. He conspired to bring it to the lake so I could privately test my ability in space affinity.

The secrecy of his offer almost sounded like a trap, but I agreed. Damian brought the tablet, and there were no guards in the tower today. He excitedly forced it into my hands. “I have configured it to display rankings of all the rare affinity magics. The tablet can only display the common, uncommon, or rare magics one at a time.” He showed me how it was set to do so and indicated which line was which affinity.

“Are you going to see my scores?” I asked as I focused on remembering which line was which affinity.

He appeared to think for a moment and, perhaps judging by my anxiety, said, “No. You can keep the information to yourself.”

“Then why are you helping me?” I said, confused.

He seemed uncomfortable. “I’m a bit of a loner. You are the first soldier in my time here who actually made an effort to befriend me. You are a decent person, unlike most of the men and women who come here to be legionnaires.” He seemed like he wanted to say more, but remained silent. Well, score one for me for not wanting to die.

I looked at the tablet. It was much fancier than the general ability tablet we used every three weeks. “Just like charging the amulet, push your aether into this section,” Damian indicated, leaning in close and pointing. I did as instructed and looked at my scores. It took time, as I recalled which affinity was which line. The written language was similar to Latin, but it took a while to translate the numerals which were fortunately base ten.

Damian likely thought my concentration stemmed from disappointment. I looked up and asked, “What do the scores mean?”

Damian pursed his lips like he was about to break bad news to me. “True mages usually have two to four affinities around 60, typically in the same rarity. The average person has only one or two affinities, with a score around 5 in their primary and 2 or 3 in their secondary. The higher the number in an affinity, the more power exponentially. Ten is the recognized minimum to demonstrate power—meaning you can inscribe a spell form.”

“So any magic affinity under ten is essentially useless?” I asked, looking at the tablet again.

Damian nodded. “That is the view of many.” Seeing me thinking he continued. “A score of twenty is twice as strong as a score of ten. From there, the real power starts. A score of thirty is four times the relative power of ten. Forty is eight times. Fifty is sixteen times. Sixty is thirty-two times as strong.”

I interrupted to finish for him. “Seventy is sixty-four times as strong. A score of eighty is one hundred twenty-eight timesas strong.”

Damian held up his hand to stop me. “Correct! But maybe only one in 25,000 people has any affinity over seventy. Maybe one in 100,000 has an affinity at eighty. Scores of ninety are unheard of and are two hundred fifty-six times as powerful as a ten! Maybe one in a million would have an affinity at ninety or higher!”

“How do I clear my scores?” I asked. He showed me, and I did so and handed him back the tablet. “Why was this tablet available?”

“A peasant girl was found with powerful elemental affinities. She was flying over the forest! Can you believe that? I heard she had fire, air, water, and earth all at 72! Can you imagine how powerful that girl is going to be one day?” Damian said excitedly. He asked the question solemnly. “So can you? Is your space affinity over ten?”

I nodded slowly, and his eyes brightened. “Excellent! We can start working on learning the dimensional pocket spell if you want. I can show you all the tricks I learned in my time imprinting spell forms.” He was extremely excited about the opportunity to pass on his knowledge.

After Damian left, I recalled my scores. He had never asked me what they were, but the numbers were burned into my memory.

Space98
Time90
Displacement61
Materialism9
Worlds88
Void22
Convergence74

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