With the situation under control, I hit the ape with Mana Drain and replenished my reserves with 12 mana. Time to grind my shiny new Skills.
Drain the enemy’s mana, then use it against them; delicious.
Karma is indeed a bitch, I chuckled softly.
I waited for the cooldown period for Mana Drain to end, just killing time, standing next to my ‘battery’ in the thick foliage. The other dead ape lay at my feet, and the first one, that fell to its death, was just a few meters away. I analyzed all three apes.
Dire ape, level 7. Dead.
Dire ape, level 8. Dead.
Dire ape, level 8. 120hp. Paralyzed.
I’d defeated the three Apes easily, even though two were higher than my level. Reaching Apprentice rank in Mana Manipulation gave me some ridiculously overpowered options. The combination of Freeze with the dagger’s Sacrifice effect was especially effective.
It reminded me of a boss raid I was part of, a long time ago. The battle was going just fine, we were grinding the boss’s health down. The boss-monster was at 40%, when all of a sudden, he pulled a ridiculous ability out of nowhere, froze everyone and then, completely unhindered, went on a kill-spree that took out half the raid party. And it happened just when we thought we were winning.
It seemed I was playing the role of the crazy powerful boss now, and I wasn’t going to say I didn’t like it.
This…power, was part of me, it came from me. I didn’t get it by consuming or equipping some obscure magic doodad. It was me, and it was mine alone, and it made me feel powerful.
The cooldown period was over, so I smacked the Ape with another Mana Drain, stealing 13 MP. Coupled with my natural mana regeneration rate, my mana pool was already three-quarters full.
I learned an important lesson from this fight. I could only Freeze creatures if the sum of their levels was lower or equal to my Mana Manipulation skill level. That was why I failed to freeze the second ape, the sum of the two apes’ levels was 15, and my skill level was only at 11.
I used Heal Followers for my injuries, healing a measly 5 hit points at the cost of 20 mana. But every opportunity to grind that skill counted. So there I stood, switching between healing myself, and draining the ape of mana.
After a few minutes, I felt my hold over the ape failing, so I cast another Freeze and continued draining him until his mana pool was empty.
Well, he served his purpose, I thought as I methodically slit his throat with the dagger, sacrificing him as well.
Level up! You have reached Character Level 8. You have 1 ability point to allocate
I opened my character sheet and allocated the new ability point into Mental, bringing it up to 10.
I looted the corpses while waiting for my mana pool to fill. Each ape dropped a pelt and three or four pieces of meat.
I was reluctant to eat anything remotely humanoid, but my goblins wouldn’t have such qualms. Besides, I needed all the food I could get to fill the bottomless maw of the Breeder’s Den.
I’d been cool and calculating during the battle. Yesterday’s epiphany, realizing NPCs are to some extent thinking, feeling entities, had changed my perceptions. This was not just a game. I was seeing the world of New Era Online in a different light. But it was still all about survival of the fittest. Despite what I now knew, I had a grim job to do and I intended to see it through.
I stayed for several minutes longer, letting my mana and hit points fully regenerate. Then I pushed forward, deeper into the forest, looking for more enemies.
It soon became apparent the three apes I’d just fought were a perimeter watch.
I found another clearing nearby. I carefully worked my way between the trees, staying hidden. It was smaller than the clearing we built the decoy Chief's Hut in. I counted six Dire apes in the clearing basking in the sun, grooming each other’s fur.
This time I will be doing the ambushing. These animals were trespassers, enemies daring to invade my territory.
But even with my new abilities, six Dire apes were a challenge. I needed a plan.
I started by analyzing them.
Dire ape, level 7. 110hp
Dire ape, level 8. 120hp
Dire ape, level 8. 120hp
Dire ape, level 7. 110hp
Dire ape, level 8. 120hp
Dire ape alpha, level 10. 165hp
Analyze skill level increased to 4
Well, as they say, there’s no better way to train your skills and gain XP then to find and kill stuff. Yeah…whoever said that wasn't very articulate.
This bunch was formidable, and could have easily eradicated my clan if they had attacked us.
How the hell did Vrick and Bek manage to defeat even one of them? I wondered. I’ll have to ask them when I get back to camp.
I needed to split their forces. Divide and conquer.
Hey, Vic, I sent my thoughts to him, though I cringed internally for using an ability I now feared.
Think you can safely draw the attention of one or two of them away from the pack?
Yeah...
How about now?
Vicloack dropped from my shoulder, changing to his purple goblin form. He shook his head, then bent down and did some stretches.
What the hell are you doing? I asked him, perplexed. Your body is made of mana, you have nothing to stretch.
I let it go.
He charged straight into the clearing, in full view of the surprised pack, then he put his hands on his hips, leaned forward and wagged his tongue at them.
Two apes immediately rose, but Vic took off. Leading them away from my position, thankfully.
That left four Apes for me, including the alpha.
I took a steadying breath, and mentally prepared myself.
Resolute, I targeted the alpha. I could feel his abundant mana pool. I started infusing mana into him, priming him for Domination. I was reluctant to use it, considering the ethical ramifications, but I had little choice if I wanted a sure victory.
Using Dominate shouldn’t cause a feedback surge this time. The alpha was just a stronger mob, not a VI operated NPC, like Bek.
The Dominate ability finally triggered after I had pushed a whopping 60 MP into the alpha Ape, much more than I’d thought would be needed. I felt the disturbing awareness and control of a body that was not my own, once again. I closed my eyes briefly and willed the dominated alpha to stand up. He stood up. The uncomfortable sensation was more tolerable, than when I had Dominated Bek.
I cast a Freeze on the ape standing next to the alpha. The beast locked in place, which confirmed for me that Dominate and Freeze didn’t stack in the count of my influence limit.
Then I directed the alpha to attack the frozen ape.
Chaos ensued. The alpha jumped on the poor ape. He was bigger and heavier than the others, and easily overwhelmed the frozen tribe member, beating him to the ground with brutal fists and biting a chunk from his shoulder with massive fangs.
The other two apes stood, alarmed, but didn’t dare attack their crazed leader. The alpha, having dispatched his foe, turned on them. They reacted as one, both engaging their attacker. They landed a few heavy hits before I could intervene, inflicting serious damage on the alpha. I Froze one of them and let the other one punch it out with his alpha. While they were pounding each other lights out, I bombarded the frozen Ape with Drilling Arrows, each one doing around ten damage. Might as well get some grinding done while my minion worked.
After the sixth Arrow strike, my target dropped, and at the same time th
e alpha landed a devastating hammer-fist, bashing the other Ape’s skull in, killing him instantly.
The skirmish took less than two minutes and 60% of my mana reserves.
From the thick of the forest I heard Vic shouting “INCOMING!!”
A moment later he burst out from the trees and into the clearing followed by two, very angry, apes.
The alpha moved to intercept them both, the two apes were already out for blood and retaliated instantly. They hammered mercilessly at the badly injured alpha and together managed to beat him down. He didn’t go down easily, though, taking another bite out of one as he went down, doing 40 damage.
The two remaining apes looked around, searching for their next target. All they saw was Vic. They growled menacingly.
“Err…boss? Help!” he shrieked.
I froze one of them, 30 more mana spent. I couldn’t afford the mana required to dominate the other one, as that would deplete me completely. But two apes weren't a serious threat to me anymore. I stepped out into the clearing.
“Get behind me Vic.”
Instead of obeying, he broke into a mass of quivering purple tentacles and seeped into the alpha’s body through the mouth and ears.
I shrugged and activated Mana Shield then moved toward the frozen ape.
The wounded ape charged at me with in a rage, eyes red and glaring, raining blow after blow at my shield, each draining about 20 points from my rapidly dwindling mana reserves.
I walked toward the Frozen ape, ignoring the enraged one.
He kept hammering at me, and my shield absorbed every hit, but my mana bar was plunging to the red-zone at an alarming rate. Unhurriedly, I unsheathed my dagger and stabbed the Frozen ape, sacrificing him, all the while still absorbing the frenzied attacks from the rage-powered ape. My mana bar had reached dangerously low levels.
I had just enough mana left for one last Freeze. I used it now on the last ape, locking him up in mid-strike. Then I stabbed his heart, sacrificing him as well.
Level up! You have reached Character Level 9. You have 1 ability point to allocate.
Level up! You have reached Character Level 10. You have 2 ability points to allocate.
The dead alpha rose clumsily to its feet and stood in front of me.
“Well done boss.” The ape said with Vic’s voice.
“Nice of you to join in.” I said sarcastically.
“Come on boss, don’t gimme that.” Seeing such a wild beast speaking so fluently was definitely a weird experience. “It takes a few moments to ‘take the wheel,’ you know.”
“Never mind, you did your part well,” I complimented him.
I opened my character sheet and assigned both ability points to Mental, bringing it up to 12. I was a level 10 character now, which meant I was no longer protected from the more severe penalties of dying. I would have to be cautious and more calculating in the risks I took from now on.
This fight was ridiculously easy compared to its challenge rating, it felt more like a slaughter than a proper fight. The six apes would have decimated a normal player of my level. But there I was, the last one standing, and a goblin.
It won’t always be that easy, I reminded myself.
Though strong, the Dire apes were simple minded animals, especially susceptible to my Apprentice rank abilities. I would have a much harder time facing other mobs or intelligent NPCs.
The sight of the slaughtered animals lying all around me, left a bad taste in my mouth, though I tried to be philosophical about it. It had to be done. They invaded my valley, so they had to go.
I looted all the corpses, collecting 6 pelts and 22 pieces of meat. Weirdly enough, the alpha also dropped an armband. It was a crude brown piece of fabric, with an even cruder painting of a skull with two axes lodged in it.
Armband of the Cracked Skull clan
Description: This armband is given to the hobgoblin lieutenants of the clan. The wearer’s reputation with the Cracked Skull is improved. Other factions may react with increased hostility toward the wearer.
Effect: The wearer’s reputation with the clan is treated as one rank higher, but no higher than Friendly.
That was interesting. It looked like the alpha had killed a hobgoblin lieutenant and taken this armband as a trophy. If I put it on, Despise would be the lowest reputation rank I could have with that clan. Which meant they might give me a good beating if our paths crossed, but they wouldn’t try to kill me on sight.
This could be useful. Especially if the Cracked Skull hobgoblins were the ones who attacked my previous clan.
For now, I stowed the armband in my inventory, along with the rest of the loot.
I stood and took in my surroundings. I was missing something. There was something more to this ape problem, or I would have already gotten a notification that the quest was completed.
I searched the clearing and found something at the edge. There were more tracks, but these were smaller than the tracks from the apes I had just killed.
Vic discarded the alpha’s body, taking on his favorite shape, around my shoulders as Vicloack.
I followed the tracks with cold determination.
It’s time to end this.
The tracks led deep into foliage so thick it was almost impassable, there I found a den, almost like a primitive hut, made of leaves and branches.
I heard hooting sounds coming from within, clearly made by more apes.
I had only regenerated half of my mana, but the nest couldn’t house more than two apes. My Mana Shield was already active, so I boldly approached and stood at the entrance.
What I found inside gave me pause.
Instead of being attacked by mindless beasts, I was greeted by a lone female ape. She stood at the front, baring her teeth and growling at me. Behind her I could see two small baby apes. A mother protecting her young. That’s why the quest wasn’t marked as completed.
Quest updated: Make The Forest Safe Again II
A lone female Dire ape and her two babies are all that remains of the invading pack. Deal with them and restore peace to the forest.
Quest Type: simple, chain
Reward: gain safe access to the forest again, increased reputation, ??
For a very brief moment I considered killing them. I was tired and wanted to be done with this quest so things could get back to...ah, normal. I just wanted to go back to developing my settlement.
But, I couldn’t bring myself to attack a mother protecting her babies.
It didn’t matter that they were only computer code, it still felt abhorrent to me.
Though as a goblin, I was now technically a monster, I refused to act as some of the worst examples of human beings have.
The female didn’t attack me, she just stood, blocking my way, trying to frighten me off.
I analyzed her and her babies.
Dire ape female, level 5. 75hp
Dire ape baby, alpha, level 1. 12hp
Dire ape baby, female, level 1. 9hp
So, the next generation leader was growing up in here. But what should I do now?
I was stuck. What can I do?
I had to deal with them somehow, but short of killing them, what other option did I have?
I rolled my eyes. “Generic mobs don’t speak with players, Vic. Only VI controlled ones can.”
I was struck by the notion.
Is this like when we met the Ogre? Can I communicate with this primitive creature?
“Ahem,” I cleared my throat. “Hello”
In response, the female ape roared at me. It wasn’t very intelligible.
Well, I could have guessed as much on my own.
“You can understand her?” I creased my brows.
“No.” I said irritably “you didn’t. Can you talk to her? See if you can get her to tell you why they came to our valley.”
Vic flowed off my shoulders, changing into his purple goblin form. He addressed the female and they began to grunt and roar at each other.
After a few minutes of such exchange, the female eased her aggressive stance and sat down, hugging her babies. Vic turned back to me.
“It wasn’t easy to understand her, she’s about as smart as your generic goblins worker...after a lobotomy.” He snickered.
“What did she say?”
Vic shrugged, “There are groups of monsters roaming in the forest. They kept harassing the apes and forced them to relocate. The pack managed to take down one group before fleeing, though. It's not hard to put things together. Taking into account the armband you found on the alpha, it could mean only one thing. The hobgoblins have invaded the forest.”
You received a new quest: Hobgoblins in the Forest I
Investigate the appearance of hobgoblins in the forest
Quest Type: unique, chain.
Reward: unknown
A sense of fear tickled down my spine. “Are those scouting parties? Are the hobgoblins looking for us?”
He shrugged, “I really can’t say, the female doesn't know. But it's a logical assumption.”
The female roared suddenly.
“She asks what do you intend to do with her and her babies.” Vic translated. “She’s willing to leave the valley with the small ones, though she knows it probably means their death.”
I was still overwhelmed with the most recent news.
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