Ascend Online

by Luke Chmilenko

  He looked blankly at me for a moment until he broke out in a short laugh at the absurdity of it all. “Ha! Indeed!”

  He looked back towards the villagers and over at the two spearmen who had made it back to their feet. “We should be safe for the moment. The barracks are part of the Town Hall, just this way. We should have some spare clothes there.”

  He led me out of the Town Hall and into an adjoining room as if having a naked, blood-covered, Adventurer nearby was a regular occurrence. “Your arrival is fortuitous Adventurer. We would not have held out much longer. I would have preferred to welcome the first Adventurer to Aldford another way.”

  “I am the first?” I said in surprise. “My name is Lyrian by the way. Lyrian Rastler.”

  “Bann Aldwin.” Bann was a noble title of sorts, often for those formally recognized as a mayor of a village or township. More often or not they owed direct allegiance to the nobility that sponsored them.

  We quickly made it to the barracks without any goblins impeding our progress. The Bann pointed to a chain mail shirt hanging from a rack. “This was Steven’s. I was told he was one of the first to fall when the Raiders broke gates. It does us no good hanging here. Help us drive away the goblins and it’s yours for good.”

  I took a closer look at the armor, while the Bann provided me with a set of trousers and boots.

  Militia Chain Shirt

  Item Class: Common

  Item Quality: Normal

  Slot: Chest

  Armor: 10

  Armor Type: Light

  Durability: 60/60

  Weight: 5 kg

  A few moments later my shame was hidden. The Bann had given me a pair of plain black trousers, dark leather boots and a linen shirt which covered me up for the time being, even if they didn’t give any stats. Remembering my train of thought from earlier, I took a moment to pull out my Spellbook – essentially what I had traded my starting armor in for. I glanced at the first page – empty. Frowning I paged through the whole thing. I didn’t even get a spell to start with?! A frustrated growl escaped my mouth.

  “Problem?” Aldwin queried me.

  “No. Just my stupidity,” I replied remembering the character sheet details now. I assumed I’d start with a spell in my Spellbook. Shoving the book back into the pack with a sigh, I promised myself I would deal with it later. “How did the goblins assault the town?”

  “I don’t rightfully know,” The Bann admitted as we started walking back to the Town Hall. “I was speaking with one of our foremen about our construction plans, then I heard a loud explosion. Next thing I knew, we were under attack.”

  “Have you had many problems with goblins before?”

  “We didn’t even know there were goblins here! We had just settled here a month ago. I bought the land rights from the Surveyors Guild for a small fortune. They promised that there was nothing there of any concern for new settlers.” Aldwin looked at me. “We border the river on three sides, with a double wide slate bridge we brought with us connecting to the southeast. We were in the process of finishing a stone gateway at the bridge’s mouth to control access. Had we known danger was lurking by, I’d of started on a palisade instead!”

  “They used magic to bring down the gate and charged across the bridge,” interjected the red haired woman I had seen earlier as we reached the Town Hall again. “A caster of some sort. I saw it happen.”

  “Lyrian, this is Shelia. She is a Sister of the Dawnfather, without her, we would have lost many more villagers,” Aldwin said introducing us. “You saw them bring down the gate?”

  “It didn’t just bring down the gate. It blew the entire gate to pieces!” Shelia said shaking her head. “I was watching the sunrise from the side of the river when I saw a single figure approach the gates. Truthfully I thought it was just a villager returning from gathering some herbs or hunting and paid it no mind. My mind was preparing for the morning’s prayers. The next thing I saw was a ball of fire streak from the corner of my eye and the gate was gone.”

  “Was it a Goblin that cast the spell?” I asked curiously.

  “I couldn’t tell, does it matter?”

  “It might later,” I said with a shrug. “We need to drive the remaining goblins out of the village.”

  “We don’t have much help to spare…” Aldwin began. “I can’t leave these villagers alone…”

  “No, I don’t need your help,” I said hoping it was true. “I will do my best to drive the goblins out on my own. What I need you to do, is to barricade yourselves in again. If I don’t need to worry about trying to protect any villagers, I can focus on killing the goblins.”

  “We can’t expect you to risk your life by yourself, let me come wi-” Shelia began.

  “Yes, you can take that chance. I’m an Adventurer. I’m expendable by nature. If I find any other villagers, I will be sending them back here for you to tend to,” I said as I interrupted the cleric. “Though if you could heal my current wounds…”

  Shelia’s eyes rose, then she nodded. “Oh! Of course!”

  Shelia gripped a sunburst symbol that hung from her necklace while holding her hand out at me. “By the grace of the Dawnfather, Heal!”

  I felt a rush of energy swell into me, as a faint orange glow covered my body. I saw a system alert appear as the pain faded away.

  Shelia cast [Heal I] on you! You have been healed for 54 points of damage!

  “Thanks! That feels much better.” The added bit of healing, plus what I had regenerated so far was enough to take me back to full health.

  “We still have a dozen villagers unaccounted for.” The Bann said to me as he nodded in thanks to Shelia. “Jenkins our Smith and Ritts a Merchant were out by the Workshop – just to the east of the hall. It’s the only other building in the village without a straw roof. They may have had a chance to barricade themselves inside. There were others guards at the gate, but if they didn't make it here…”

  Quest update! The Goblin Raid!

  New Objective! (Optional)

  Rescue Jenkins and Ritt

  Reward: Bonus Experience and ??

  I looked at the villagers before me and nodded. “Don’t worry. If they’re alive, I’ll find them and bring them back.”

  ***

  After I left the villagers barricaded inside the Town Hall, I quickly found the Workshop. A dull, mostly stone structure with a large chimney and clay roof, the primary point of interest, however, was the four goblins looking to break the door down. The door looked worse for wear as the goblin’s weapons took small pieces off of it with every blow.

  I quickly scanned the group of goblins, seeing that all of them were lowly level 1 [Young Goblin Raiders]. Hopefully, this will hurt less now that I have armor!

  I made stealth a priority as a carefully crept towards the workshop. Thankfully the goblins weren’t trying to stay quiet, so their noise covered any missteps that I may have made on the way.

  I stealthily closed the distance until I was only a few feet away, then quickly exploded into action. Leaping forward, I led with a heavy boot to the back of a goblin’s head, sending it sprawling into one of its companions with a crash. Using my forward momentum, I chopped my sword viciously into the shoulder of another goblin nearly splitting it in two as the blade sliced its way through the goblin’s body.

  I wretched my sword out of the dying goblin in a spray of blood, quickly cleaving an arm off the nearby goblin beside it. The armor the Bann had given me easily caught a feeble spear thrust, as I backhanded the offending goblin to the ground and stabbed it until it stopped moving. I whirled on the now one armed goblin that had pressed itself against the door in fear and quickly put it out of its misery with a stroke.

  “Starting to get the hang of this,” I muttered to myself as I finished off the dazed goblin I had kicked at the beginning of the fight. Looking around, I paused to witness the results of my brutality, and to ensure none of the goblins remained alive. A moment later the goblin bodies all dissolved in a sp
ray of green pixels.

  “Is someone out there?!” a voice called from the inside.

  “Yes! Ritt? Jenkins?” I called back. “The Bann sent me to rescue you and get you to the Town Hall!”

  “You don’t sound like a goblin… hold a moment…” I heard a bar being moved from behind the door, and it was pulled open slowly. A young, pale skinned man holding a spear peered back out at me and after a moment waved me in quickly. “Come inside, quick!”

  I stepped inside the Workshop, cautiously looking around as the door was closed behind me and the bar was set back in place. A second, dark skinned man standing behind the now closed door looked at me wearily. “Who are you? Why are you wearing militia armor?”

  “I’m an Adventurer, I saw the goblin attack and came to help,” I said somewhat twisting the truth slightly as I looked at the dark skinned man. I noticed that he was dressed in similar style armor as me but carried a nicer looking sword with a matching shield. “As for the armor, I had none of my own, so the Bann gave it to me for helping drive out the goblins in the Town Hall. He said it belonged to Steven.”

  “Shit, Steven didn’t make it? I’m Ritt by the way,” the pale skinned man said. “He’s Jenkins.”

  “I only know what the Bann told me,” I quickly replied with a sorrowful expression on my face. “We can’t stay here though. The Bann sent me to see if I could find you two and take you back up to the Town Hall. We’ve cleared out the goblins attacking the hall and they have a pretty solid defense set up in there.”

  “There's no time for a defense,” Jenkins said hotly while peering out of a finger sized hole in the door, courtesy of the goblins remodeling efforts. “The goblins are up to something. We saw them dragging villagers out of their homes.”

  “I’ll take care of that,” I stated confidently. “I fought my way here after all.”

  “Bullshit! I don't know you, why would you care about these villagers anyway?” Jenkins spat while tightening the fastenings on his shield as he spoke. “I’m going out there to rescue as many as I can.”

  “Slow down, Jenkins! You can’t go alone! If you die, I'll never hear the end of it.” Ritt waved the big man to a stop as he quickly set his spear against the wall, picking up a bow and quiver. Ritt looked at me, motioning me to follow. “Come on, he’s not going to take no for an answer!”

  “Um.” The pair quickly threw the bar off the door a second time and darted outside, leaving me in the workshop by myself. Shit! These NPCs sure are more independent than I’m used to!

  Snapping back to the present, I checked my journal as I moved to follow the pair; there were thirteen more goblins left in town. Easy enough to do now that I had help. Hopefully they won’t run too far off without me.

  Chasing after the Smith and Merchant I caught up with the pair as we approached the broken gate, hearing desparate shouts for help echoing through the air, intermixed with merciless goblin laughter.

  “There are villagers still alive!” Ritts exclaimed as we saw several goblins herding captive villagers into a barred wagon. Four large horses stood ready to pull the wagon away at a moment’s notice. “They’re kidnapping them!”

  “Is that uncommon?” I asked.

  “Sure as shit it’s uncommon!” Jenkins was already on the move towards the group. “Let’s go!”

  “Hold up! We need a plan!” I said as I ran to catch up with Jenkins, pulling him aside. “We can’t just run into there, they’ll eat us alive!”

  “Those are my friends in that wagon!” Jenkins hissed shrugging my hand off. “The plan is to kill them! Hard and fast! I thought you had stones, Adventurer!”

  “Hard and fast is exactly what your ass is going to get if you wander right into that mess!” I retorted, not backing down from the angry smith. “Listen, we need do this smart. We can save the villagers and live through this. Trust me.”

  Jenkins made an annoyed sound but nodded.

  You have learned a new skill – Wordplay.

  Wordplay: Increases chance to persuade Non Player Characters, resolve differences and/or get information.

  Quest update! The Goblin Raid!

  New Objective! (Optional)

  Rescue the Captured Villagers!

  Reward: Bonus Experience and ??

  “Good! First, you and Ritt can back up a few steps so they can’t clearly see you. In the meantime I’m going to go hide behind those crates.” I pointed to a stack of crates with building material strewn around it about thirty feet away. “Once I’m in place, Ritt will fire off a few arrows to get their attention. At that point, Jenkins, you get to put on a show. Make them want you enough to come chasing over this way. With any luck they’ll take the bait and string themselves out as they run. Once they’re past my hiding spot, I’ll pop out and start killing them from behind. From there, we’ll just chop our way through them until we meet in the middle.”

  Looking at Ritt, Jenkins nodded, a smile forming on his face. “Sounds like a plan, Adventurer.”

  “Call me Lyrian,” I said with a smile then motioned them away as crept my way towards my hiding spot.

  Sword in hand I quickly stalked over to the hiding spot I had picked out for myself – a stack of two crates roughly shoulder level high. Ten seconds later, I heard Ritt’s bow twang.

  A loud cry told me that it landed in the midst of the goblins and caused some pain. I crouched further behind the crates as I heard Jenkins start yelling while banging his sword and shield together. “Over here you filthy beasts! Come and get me!”

  Predictably, the goblins took the bait and charged towards Ritt and Jenkins without any regard to subterfuge or tactics, screeching the entire way. Crouching behind the boxes, I saw a few arrows hit the leading goblins, causing them to stumble as they ran. As soon as I counted the last goblin pass by my hiding spot, I moved. I quickly caught up to the rear of the goblins and began slashing out at the goblins wounded by Ritt's arrows, my passive sneak attack ability giving me an edge as I cut my way through the unaware goblins.

  Four straggling goblins later I caught up to the Horde as they swarmed Jenkins. He maintained a desperate defense, swinging his sword in wide arcs, doing his best to keep the goblin horde from flanking him. Meanwhile, I saw Ritt playing for distance as he shot down a goblin that threatened to flank Jenkins.

  Running in a full sprint I crashed into the goblins, using my size to bully two of them the ground. I sank my sword deep into the side of a third, giving Jenkins a chance to behead it as it recoiled in pain. Combat blurred as we hacked and stabbed the goblins to pieces. The fight only lasted seconds, but it by the end of it both Jenkins and I were covered in blood. I was nursing a particularly nasty bite when I heard three separate Dings as the system prompt exploded across my vision:

  You have gained Experience!

  Congratulations! You have reached Level 2!

  Quest Complete! The Goblin Raiders!

  Optional Complete! Rescue Ritt and Jenkins!

  Optional Complete! Rescue the captured villagers!

  You have gained Experience!

  You have gained Experience!

  You have gained Experience!

  Congratulations! You have reached Level 3!

  Congratulations! You have reached Level 4!

  You have 15 Attribute Points Unspent!

  You have completed the Tutorial levels!

  Your resurrection point has been set to Aldford

  Player Messaging has been unlocked.

  You have friend requests pending.

  That's more like it! I thought to myself as I scanned through all the messages.

  "That's the last of the goblins," I said smiling, the levels I gained had restored my health instantly. Jenkins looked quite worse for wear, however. "Let’s go get the rest of the villagers out of the wagon and get you healed."

  “Phew! I may have been wrong about you Adventurer… Lyrian,” Jenkins said in between hurried breaths. “You Adventurer types don’t care about us common folk.”


  “Well, I’m not that kind of Adventurer,” I said flatly, as I turned to make my way to the captive villagers.

  “We will see.”

  Chapter 5

  The aftermath of the goblin raid resolved itself reasonably quickly. Jenkins, Ritt and I released the captive villagers from the wagon and informed the Bann of the all clear. The villagers weren't shy about heaping praise and thanks for helping kill the goblins, but I could see the fear still in their eyes. Their home had been invaded, and five of their own were dead. With how small this village was and how closely everyone knew one another – the mood was understandably depressing.

  "Your timely assistance is much appreciated Lyrian," Things had finally calmed down enough for the Bann and me to talk, ironically enough, in the very office I had first spawned in. "There was talk about sending out a call for all able-bodied Adventurers to help tame these frontiers, but we had left Eberia before a decision was made. We are in your debt for helping us, though I am about to ask for even more of your assistance."