by Ivan Kal
“I saw him with my Fire Sight. Take care, they might be hiding,” Vallsorim explained.
Morgan nodded and looked around, not seeing any other glows and so no sign of life. They walked deeper into the cave, passing mounds of things that Morgan couldn’t even identify in the dark. Then they reached a sharp turn and entered a large area, which was illuminated by four torches on the walls.
In one corner of the cave was a pile of bones, some of which Morgan recognized as human. A old and rotting chest was set against the wall on the other side. Primitive cots made out of fur were lined in front of what could only be described as a bone throne. And on the throne sat a large goblin, with wide shoulders and bulging muscles, wearing leather armor with a horned helmet and holding a large metal mace in his hand. Morgan knew enough from his Monster Lore skill to recognize what that goblin was.
“Goblin chieftain,” Vestella hissed as she dropped her torch and pulled out her sword.
The goblin looked at them with two red and bloodshot eyes, and Morgan noticed a pool of bile just beside the throne, and waste dripping down the chair. I guess the poison did not agree with him at all. Morgan saw that all three bowls that the other goblins had brought inside were empty next to the chieftain.
Still, the goblin rose to his feet to a height that rivaled Morgan’s. Taking hold of his mace in both hands, the goblin sneered at them and roared. Morgan winced at the noise but immediately raised his bow, letting an arrow fly. It hit the goblin in the chest, but that didn’t seem to even bother him as the chieftain charged. Vestella stepped forward as the goblin swung his two-handed mace and blocked it with her shield. A resounding thump echoed in the cave as she was lifted from her feet and thrown to the side to slam against a wall.
Morgan quickly drew and fired another arrow, hitting the goblin in the shoulder, and just like last time it didn’t seem to bother him. Vallsorim took the chance to step forward, swinging his sword at the goblin, who stepped aside and evaded the attack before raising his mace high over his head. Vallsorim saw the strike coming and jumped out of the way as the mace crashed onto the stone floor, cracking it. Vallsorim’s sword stabbed forward, piercing the goblin through the side and out back.
The goblin growled and backhanded Vallsorim, sending him flying. Then he pulled the sword out of his body and threw it on the ground just as Vestella jumped forward and cut at the goblin’s knee forcing him to kneel. Morgan fired another arrow that pierced the goblins chest again. Blindly the goblin swung his mace, forcing Vestella to jump back out of range.
The goblin then turned to Morgan with hate in his eyes and stood up before charging at him. Crap! Morgan barely had enough time to react as the goblin swung its mace. He threw himself forward into a roll, evading the attack and coming out of the roll behind him. What does it take to take this thing down?! It’s like a goddamn cave troll—and I sure as hell am not Legolas! I don’t have a damn infinite amount of arrows!
Morgan fired another arrow in its back. This thing has thick skin, my arrows are barely penetrating it! The chieftain whirled around at Morgan, but Vestella hacked at its arm, cutting a long wound open from its shoulder to its elbow, making it drop its mace. The goblin screamed and swiped his hand at her, which she blocked with her shield. The strength of the hit forced her back, but this time she kept her feet. It turned around and rushed forward at Morgan in an incredible burst of speed before he had any chance to react. The goblin grabbed Morgan’s shoulder and picked him up from the ground, making him drop his bow in the process.
The goblin chieftain roared in Morgan’s face, nearly making him pass out from the stench. A rock suddenly hit the side of the goblin’s face and made him turn around to glare at Vallsorim, giving Morgan an opening. Morgan reached down and drew the short spear tucked in his belt behind his back. He pulled it out and, just as the goblin turned back to look at Morgan, stabbed it upward, right through the bottom of the thing’s jaw and into its head.
Its red eyes blinked slowly, once, twice—and then the grip on Morgan’s shoulder weakened and disappeared, and Morgan fell back to the ground, landing on his feet. The goblin followed closely behind dropping down to the ground and then disappearing into dust a moment later.
CHAPTER TEN
“That was…” Vestella started, but had to pause to catch her breath as her brother limped over from the side of the room.
“Scary as all hell,” Morgan said. “I mean, really, the hell had I been thinking? Attacking twenty goblins who I just saw butchering people!”
He noticed the looks that Ves and Vall gave him. “I said that out loud, didn’t I? What I meant to say is: Never been easier, bro!” Morgan said as he pumped his hand in the air. Vestella just gave him an exasperated look. Vallsorim just shook his head. Morgan turned to the man and grinned at him.
“Nice throw,” Morgan told him, and then slapped him on the shoulders when he got close enough.
“Nice stab,” Vallsorim winked at him.
“There was not supposed to be a goblin chieftain here,” Vestella said. “They are usually found only in far larger dens. That chieftain had to be at least a level 5 monster.”
“I guess we now know why this group was so aggressive, why we found them so far from their den. The chieftain must’ve come in and started sending out parties,” Vallsorim said.
A flashing symbol in the corner of his eye drew Morgan’s attention. “Looks like we are about to find out how much experience we got from this,” Morgan said.
He focused on the symbol and words appeared in front of his eyes.
GROUP EXP GAINED!
14x Goblin Warriors killed = 420 exp
2x Goblin Scouts killed = 20 exp
1x Goblin Chieftain killed = 100 exp
G.F. bonus — poisoned the goblins and laid down a trap = 200 exp
G.F. bonus — Goblins? What goblins? (Clear out the goblin menace in the area.) Quest accomplished = 500 exp
Morgan Newton LVL 3 — EXP 1269/150 (ascension possible)
“Whoa, we might actually get to level 5 from this alone!” Vallsorim said.
“You’re right,” Vestella said, and then her eyes got a faraway look to them for a moment or two. Then Morgan saw something like a change go over her—any signs that she had been exhausted disappeared, and her eyes focused. She smiled at the two of them.
“It is more than enough,” she told them.
Both Vallsorim and Morgan immediately entered their own soul space. Morgan focused on the ascension and, suddenly, he was inside the now familiar gray space.
“I am impressed, master,” the floating form of Sabila told him. “I did not think that we would survive that encounter.”
“Well, I am awesome,” Morgan said. Never been easier! I was just a few seconds away from death—a great improvement from last time.
“Of course, master.”
“Let’s see now… How many levels did that all give us?” Morgan focused on his stat screens.
He mentally pressed the button for the ascension and was surprised to see that he had hit level six.
Morgan Newton LVL 6 — EXP 19/700
“Wait, why is the required exp from level six to seven so big? Doesn’t the requirement increase by fifty every time?” Morgan asked.
“Only up to the first power marker, which is level five, which requires five hundred exp from level four to five. After that it increases by one hundred every level until the next power marker, which is level ten,” Sabila said.
“Huh.” Morgan shook his head. It didn’t matter all that much. He reached level six, and could now even learn another class. He checked through the list of the classes available to him. They were Soldier, Knight, Rogue, Archer, Scout, Enchanter, Mage, and Wizard. He read through their descriptions and narrowed them down. He wasn’t about to take a melee class; he had no desire to get up close and personal with the monsters, and the bow suited him.
What he was interested in was magic. The three classes each seemed very different from each oth
er. The Wizard was the more traditional magic caster from what he could tell, casting bolts of magic; the Mage seemed focused on the spirits, making contracts and utilizing them for their own needs; and the Enchanter focused on channeling their power into objects, as well as making magic items.
After much deliberation, Morgan finally decided on the Enchanter. He wanted to have another class that would be useful in getting by in this world, and he was certain that he would be able to craft and sell items. But the Enchanter’s abilities also seemed to be useful for offense: he could infuse his own weapons with power, make them stronger. He confirmed his decision and picked the class. He gained two new abilities: Power Infusion I, and Power Siphon I. And a new skill: Enchantment I.
After that, he turned to his other tables, seeing that he now had quite a few points to allocate. He had 7 attribute points, 7 skill points, and 3 ability points.
He put three of his attribute points into agility—getting it up to 20—two into will, one into constitution, and the last one into his intellect. For his skill points he saw that he had a few new skills available, and a quick look found only one which he thought might be necessary—Inspect, which allowed him to inspect and see basic information about monsters, beasts, people, and items. It cost two points, but he thought that it was a bargain, and so learned it immediately. He spent one more to upgrade his Elemental Alignment-Nature to II and one on his new Enchantment skill to get that one to II as well. The last three he spent on upgrading his Archery to IV.
His three newly gained ability points plus the one he had saved from previous level he spent on upgrading his Nature Sight to II and his Power Infusion to II as well. Finally, after he finished and before he accepted every allocation, he took one last look on his stats.
Morgan Newton LVL 6 — 19/600
STRENGTH
13
AGILITY
(17+3) 20
CONSTITUTION
(14+1) 15
INTELLECT
14
WILL
(11+2) 13
WISDOM
13
CHARISMA
10
LUCK
10
SKILLS
Hand-to-Hand Combat II
Weapon Master I
Language-Basic
Elemental Alignment-Nature II
Archery IV
Hunting I
Monster Lore I
Skinning I
Herbalism I
Enchanting II
Inspect I
ABILITIES
Scatter Shot I
Piercing Shot I
Nature Sight II
Nature Sense I
Power Infusion II
Power Siphon I
With a thought he confirmed everything, and felt the now familiar feeling wash over him—only this time there was something different. Morgan looked at his arms and opened and closed his fists. He couldn’t figure out what, but he knew that something was up.
“Hey, Sabila? Do you know why I am feeling a bit strange?” Morgan asked.
“Yes, master.”
Morgan waited for her to continue, but when he figured out that she wouldn’t without more input, he rolled his eyes. “Can you tell me why?” Frickin’ soul implant thingy.
“You are feeling different because your agility has reached 20 points.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“The 20 point mark is the first threshold—your agility is now beyond what even the best of ordinary humans could achieve.”
“What? So I have super speed and reflexes now?” Morgan asked. Watch out, Flash, here I come!
“You are faster and more coordinated, and your reaction speed is increased as well.”
“Hah, great!” Morgan said. He cast one last look on his stats and then turned back to the floating avatar from his former life.
“All right, Sabila, send me out,” Morgan said, and in the next moment he was back in the cave.
Morgan noticed Vallsorim’s blank look, but then the half-elf blinked and shook his head. “I still can’t get used to that gray void. And I can’t believe that we’ve gotten so much experience from that.”
“I don’t remember accepting any quests…” Morgan added.
“We didn’t need to,” Vestella interjected. “The quests made by the Guiding Force do not need to be formally accepted or even known about to be accomplished. There is even a group of adventurers that actively looks for them called the quest hunters.”
“Huh, lucky us then,” Morgan said.
“We are,” Vallsorim said. “We’ve been incredibly lucky. This den was well beyond our levels. If we hadn’t followed your plan…”
“But we did,” Vestella said and smiled at Morgan. “And we have been rewarded.”
“Yeah, right…” Morgan said, feeling uncomfortable with the twins’ attention.
After a moment, Vestella turned her eyes to their surroundings and grimaced. “Let’s gather anything useful and go. I can’t stand being in this place anymore.”
They spent most of the night gathering their loot, splitting up the crystals and then burning the human remains. The twins didn’t want to leave them like that, and Morgan had agreed. They spoke softly as they worked. The twins told him which second classes they picked, and Morgan shared his own. Vallsorim had picked the Soldier class, going for the full melee warrior type of build with Knight/Soldier. Vestella had picked Mage, going for a Knight/Mage hybrid. She didn’t have many Mage abilities, however; she said that she needed to make contracts with spirits for that, and according to her the best way to get them was with the help from a Guild.
After they finished, they didn’t even go to sleep as their ascension had rejuvenated them enough that they didn’t feel tired. They made camp in the forest away from the cave. Then, as the dawn came, Morgan set out to hunt them some food. They didn’t want to touch the food that goblins had, even though there were some animal carcasses around.
Morgan had no problem finding some small rabbits, and as the sun slowly started rising, he headed back to camp. On his way he did remember Vestella mentioning that she found a small waterfall and a pond east of their camp when she had been scouting their surroundings, and Morgan decided to head there first. He hadn’t had a chance to bathe since he had come to this world. Thankfully, he didn’t have any difficulty finding it.
Finally! I can’t believe that I hadn’t had a chance to wash since I died. Actually since before that if I remember corr—
Morgan froze just off the edge of the pool as a form came up from under the water. His mind went completely blank as he looked at Vestella’s piercing green eyes—and the rest of her. She was gorgeous. She was pale, her body athletic, with toned muscles but not overly so, and her breasts were small and perfect. She had a scar running from below her navel curving up and to her side until it stopped just underneath her ribs. Her wet red hair glistened in the morning sun framed by the clear falling water behind her. The sight was almost like something out of a painting.
“Oh, Morgan. You wanted to bathe, I presume? The water is fine, come in,” Vestella said, almost bored, as if she wasn’t bothered in the slightest that he had seen her naked. She dipped below the surface again before resurfacing, then looked at him strangely.
“Well? What are you waiting for?” she asked.
Morgan looked at her in shock for another moment. He considered turning around and leaving, but he didn’t want it to look like he was running away from her. If she isn’t bothered, why should I be? Other than the fact that she would see me naked, but I guess that that is only fair. Damn, I should’ve spent more time on the character creator, I could’ve given myself the body of a god! Stupid! Morgan chastised himself and removed his clothes quickly, not looking at Vestella—but he could feel her eyes on him. Once he was naked he quickly entered the water to his waist.
He dunked himself below the water to try and cool his head. When he resurfaced he threw a gla
nce at Vestella, who was still watching him with a small smile tugging at her lips.
“See something that you like?” Vestella tilted her head and brought her hands up to pull her hair from her face, bending her back backward in the process, which only drew Morgan’s attention to her chest again.
“Yes,” Morgan said before he even had a chance to process her question.
“Oh?” Her smile widened and she started walking over to him. “I’ve wondered if perhaps things worked differently on your world. I’ve read stories about all kinds of chosen customs.”
Things? What things? Morgan watched wide eyed as she came to a stop just a step away from him. Her hair was pulled behind her pointed ears, bringing his attention to them.
“Uh, Vestella…” Morgan started, but she interrupted him.
“I’m glad that you find me attractive. And you should call me Ves,” she said.
Morgan looked at her for a moment, thinking furiously. Why don’t I have a nickname? Should I tell her to call me by my online name? No, DankMaster3321 would sound dumb. “Right, Ves…”
He didn’t have a chance to get anything else out because she had grabbed his head and pulled him in for a kiss. It was over far faster than he would’ve liked—the feeling of her soft lips disappeared, and he was left dumbstruck.