The Goblin Horde

by Ivan Kal

  Skinning III

  Herbalism I

  Enchanting V

  Inspect III

  Energy Manipulation III

  7 skill points available

  ABILITIES

  Scatter Shot II

  Piercing Shot I

  Nature Sight II

  Nature Sense II

  Power Infusion V

  Power Siphon II

  Energy Arrow III

  Rain of Arrows I

  Exploding Arrow II

  Ward II

  Arcane Mark I

  6 ability points available

  His ability points were the easiest to assign, and he put one into strength, bringing it to fourteen. He was going for a more spellcaster, ranged, bow-user kind of build, but he had been in situations where he’d had to fight up close. He knew that he needed to get his strength to at least twenty, but he wasn’t about to put all of his points into it immediately. His plan was to do it slowly over several levels. His last two points he put into agility and will, bringing them to twenty-five and twenty-three, respectively. He chose agility because the stat was his bread and butter: it governed how precise his attacks were, and how fast he could move and react. As for will, it made him more resistant to harmful effects but also deepened his connection with his alignment, which in turn made him more capable at manipulating it in order to use his magic.

  Next, he needed to decide what to do with his skill and ability points. He knew that he could advance his skills and abilities by training and use, and because of that it seemed like it was a waste to use them to raise the levels of his skills and abilities. On the other hand, he had a list available from which he could choose new abilities and skills. He just wasn’t sure if doing that was smart—he didn’t want to spread himself too thin.

  But as he looked on the list for abilities, he did find several that were attractive. All were the ones that had become available to him once he had chosen his new class of Arcane Ranger, and the three that he was most interested in were Arcane Shift, Arcane Blast, and Life Domination.

  Arcane Shift allowed him to make his body ethereal for about half a second, making him essentially invulnerable for that short duration. The fact that it was so short of a time and the fact that it had a cooldown before he could use it again made him a bit reluctant to take it, but he knew that it would probably get better as he leveled it up. Arcane Blast was simple, and exactly what it sounded like: he could fire a blast of energy from the palm of his hand that would deal damage and knock back his opponent based on his alignment, which was nature. Nature alignment was the energy of life and death; when used to buff, it encouraged regeneration, and when used to damage, it encouraged entropy and decay. A nature blast would probably not have as great of a damaging power as one from the fire alignment, but it would likely have a weakening effect.

  Life Domination was an ability that allowed him to take control of small wildlife, and control them for a short duration. He wasn’t really sure about that, as a part of him was a bit horrified at the thought, but he knew that it could be useful for scouting and the like, which was why he was considering it.

  He spent the next few minutes thinking about what to do, but then finally decided to take the Arcane Shift ability, as he had very little defensive abilities. It cost four points, and he immediately upgraded it to level II, spending another two points. Leveling that one through practice and use would be far more dangerous than he was comfortable with. At level II it allowed him to become ethereal for 0.7 seconds—not that much of an improvement, but Morgan couldn’t really send in a bad review.

  Then he took a look at his skills. He could upgrade them, but the cost was the same as the level he wanted to upgrade something to, which made it even more inefficient than the abilities, which only cost two to upgrade for any level. He looked at the list of available skills and tried to see if there was something interesting. The only one that caught his eyes was Engraving, which seemed to be something like his Enchanting except that it didn’t require his energy to create something. If he was reading the description correctly, he could engrave basically the same effects as those he could do with enchanting, except that the effects made this way couldn’t be activated unless provided with power. His enchantments, on the other hand, could be both situational and triggered by the user, or even set on a timer. They were more versatile, but they also required a lot of time to create as well as a large amount of power from him.

  It cost four points, and after a few moments of debating, he picked it up. His remaining three points he decided to keep for the future.

  He accepted all the changes and felt the now familiar feeling as Sabila changed his body and transferred knowledge from who knows where into his head. The sensations passed over quickly and he yet again reflected on the fact that this was now his new normal. He took one last look at his screens.

  STRENGTH

  14

  AGILITY

  25

  CONSTITUTION

  15

  INTELLECT

  20

  WILL

  23

  WISDOM

  13

  CHARISMA

  10

  LUCK

  10

  SKILLS

  Hand-to-Hand Combat II

  Weapons I

  Language-Basic

  Elemental Alignment-Nature V(+one rank Guild buff)

  Archery VII

  Hunting II

  Monster Lore III

  Skinning III

  Herbalism I

  Enchanting V

  Inspect III

  Energy Manipulation III

  Engraving I

  ABILITIES

  Scatter Shot II

  Piercing Shot I

  Nature Sight II

  Nature Sense II

  Power Infusion V

  Power Siphon II

  Energy Arrow III

  Rain of Arrows I

  Exploding Arrow II

  Ward II

  Arcane Mark I

  Arcane Shift II

  He blinked the screens away and turned his eyes to the forest. It was already midday, and soon they should reach the town of Terbon.

  CHAPTER TWO

  They entered the town only a few hours later. The guards already knew they were coming, and allowed them inside with no problems—after all, Morgan was in a way their ruler. He was the Guild Master of Skyreach, and the town of Terbon had sworn allegiance to them. There were a few ascended here now, as Lucius had made sure that a few of the Skyreach Guard were stationed here to teach others, as well as to protect the town. Their patrols were dealing with most of the monsters around the town, but still, the goblin threat was very real.

  As they reached the town square, Clara and Ereden took the cart and set out to find and purchase supplies for their trip, while Morgan and Vestella headed over to the town hall to speak with the mayor. Before long, they arrived at the mayor’s office.

  “Good day, Guild Master,” the mayor said as he stood up from his desk and walked over to shake Morgan’s hand.

  “That it is, Mayor Fennes,” Morgan said as they clasped their hands. The man then turned and inclined his head to Ves before turning back to Morgan.

  “We’ve heard about the attack on your Guild Hold,” the older, thin man with gray hair and a bushy beard said. “We were glad to learn that you prevailed.”

  “We did, but were not unscathed. We lost people.”

  “I know. Your scouts have been kind enough to let us know.” The man bowed his head, visibly grieving. He had every right to be, as all the people that were now a part of Morgan’s Guild had come from Terbon—people who Morgan himself had managed to convince to come to Reach with him. He almost wanted to hear the Mayor blame him, but he had spent enough time in this world to know that ascended were like gods to the non-ascended. The man would never do so. Not to his face, at least.

  But even with the deaths of so many, both from the attack on Reach and o
n Terbon itself a few days before, Morgan knew that the town now being under the rule of his Guild made it safer. Reach had patrols regularly moving out and clearing monsters, and those would only get better and better as Lucius enlisted more people for the Skyreach Guard.

  After an uncomfortable pause, Morgan cleared his throat. “The goblin threat is a real problem. That is why I am here, actually. I received your message and I wanted to talk a bit more about the responses from the other towns.”

  “Of course, Guild Master. Come, take a seat.” He gestured to the chairs in front of his desk. Once seated, Fennes clasped his hands in front of his face and leaned on his elbows. “Just yesterday, we received word from one more town: Karon, which is the southernmost town. They, too, have agreed to join.”

  “That is great to hear,” Morgan said. “Out of the ones that had responded beforehand, I believe that only one refused to accept?”

  Fennes nodded gravely. “Heddos,” he said with a grimace. “They are southeast of here, about a two weeks walk. They are… Well, they are a town that stays mostly isolated. They don’t trade much with the other towns, nor do they welcome outsiders.”

  “How so?” Morgan asked.

  “They have an ascended living in their town,” Fennes said.

  “An ascended? Someone from the Guilds?” Vestella asked.

  Fennes shook his head, then looked a bit unsure. “I don’t know much. Most of what I am aware of is rumor and hearsay, but… The ascended is apparently a high level one, at least for our parts. Enough so that they alone are enough to protect the town. From what I hear, they are not a part of any Guild, at least not anymore. The Guild emissaries are not welcome in Heddos.”

  Morgan frowned, and for a moment he wondered if perhaps that ascended was Lucius’s father, who he knew lived in this valley as well. But then he remembered Lucius mentioning that his father lived in a fishing village near Orsa, one of the places that wanted to join.

  “Do you know anything about this?” Morgan turned and asked Ves.

  She shook her head. “No, but then again, Vall and I were not really close enough to the people of our village to gossip.”

  Morgan hummed and turned back to Fennes. “We’ll leave them for later,” Morgan said. He fully intended on getting this entire valley under the control of his Guild. “What of the others? The closest one to Terbon is the mining town of Gebel, if I am not mistaken?”

  “Right,” Fennes said. “Gebel survives mostly by selling their ore, and from their response I gather that they are very interested in joining. The fishing town of Orsa is interested as well. Jarul wishes to negotiate, but I know Mayor Karissa. She will agree. After she gets the most favorable deal.” He chuckled a bit. “That covers all the larger towns in the valley; the smaller villages will be following in the footsteps of the towns they are near to, I have no doubt. Already the villages surrounding Terbon have agreed to be under our rule, which puts them under yours.”

  Morgan nodded. He had gotten the notifications about his Guild’s influence expanding. Fennes had sworn an oath to Morgan and Skyreach, and was now a ruler of a small territory in his domain. If anyone swore similar oaths to him, they came under his rule by proxy. He could see the map when he interacted with the hearthstone—it clearly showed the boundaries of Skyreach’s territory. Morgan considered having every other town swear to Fennes, but he had been told that those towns would want to swear only to him. They wanted the same treatment as Terbon. So now, he had to go and visit everyone.

  “That’s great, but we do not have much time before the goblins come in force,” Morgan said. “Lucius should be along in a few days to coordinate recruiting. Any non-ascended that are willing to learn and ascend should be sent to Reach.”

  “I will let Captain Madock know,” Fennes said.

  “Good—then we must be on our way. There is no time to waste.”

  A few minutes later, Ves and Morgan were walking through the town looking for Clara and Ereden. They walked in silence, until Ves finally spoke.

  “I’m worried about Vallsorim. Maybe I shouldn’t have left him all alone on Reach,” she said.

  Morgan grimaced. Her brother Vallsorim had lost one of his hands in the battle for Reach. His ascension after the battle had healed his wound, but it hadn’t regrown his hand. Vall hadn’t wanted to talk about it after, and Morgan didn’t want to push him. Vall had been somewhat depressed, but that was understandable, and Morgan knew from personal experience when something so traumatic happened to a person, the last thing they wanted was someone prodding them to talk about it.

  Vall was Morgan’s friend, probably the first real friend he’d ever had, even if they’d known each other for only a short time, and he had promised him that he would get him his hand back, no matter what. Vall had just grunted or something like that, but hey, Morgan understood. I know what it’s like to have everyone trying to talk with you when all you want to do is stay in bed. But this was not his old world; here, there were high-level potions that could regrow limbs, or even finely crafted replacements that felt like the real thing—or at least that was what Lucius told him.

  “He’ll be fine. He just needs a little bit of time to brood on his own. We will get him his hand back, I promise,” Morgan told her.

  She gave him a sad smile. “I know that we will, but I spoke to Clara a bit. One of the people in her tribe had lost an arm too, and she told me that he just became a completely different person. He lost the will to do anything, refused any help from the tribe. Eventually he just walked out into the mountains alone and never came back. I don’t want anything like that to happen to Vall.”

  Morgan put a hand around her. “He won’t. I told Lucius to look after him, and I made sure that he would have enough things to do managing Skyreach and all the people we have coming in. He won’t have the time to feel depressed,” Morgan told her. He had been in a similar situation himself; he knew how to get out of those dark places. I know how to pretend that everything is fine.

  They walked a bit, neither speaking, and Morgan couldn’t help but feel like this was what he had been missing for so long. He and Ves didn’t talk, but he felt comfortable in her presence. I don’t need to pretend with her, Morgan thought to himself.

  “So,” he said after a while. “How has your training with Clara been going?”

  The two of them had been spending a lot of time together ever since the attack on the Guild Hold. Clara’s class was mostly support based, but there had been moments during the battle where she had been in danger, and so Vestella had decided to teach Clara how to use her staff with greater skill. Vestella’s first class had been Knight, which came with the Weapons I skill, so she did have the basic knowledge about how to use most weapons.

  “It’s going great; she really is intense. I don’t know why she chose to go the support-class route,” Ves said.

  Morgan nodded. He had already noticed that the short orc woman wasn’t really a stereotypical depiction of a healer. Her clothes were barely covering her toned body, and she was aggressive and fearless. “Why don’t you ask her why she chose to be a healer?”

  “I did, but she didn’t really give me an answer,” Ves said.

  “Huh.” Morgan shook his head. It wasn’t his business, really, and he was grateful to have her as a part of the Guild, as support-class ascended were few and far between within it.

  They walked on until they found their cart sitting in the street and people putting in supplies in the back, with Ereden standing close by to supervise.

  “Guild Master, we are almost finished with the loading of supplies,” Ereden said once Morgan and Ves walked over.

  “And where is Clara?” Morgan asked.

  “Inside. She is looking at some herbs the trader had on offer,” Ereden answered.

  Morgan perked up at that. He had the Herbalism skill, but he had not been using it all that much. He walked inside as Ves stayed outside to look over the supplies.

  He found Clara hunched over a table
that had a cloth unrolled with preserved bundles of herbs. Morgan walked over and stood next to her, leaning down and looking with her. Unbidden, the knowledge of what these herbs were and what they did came to his mind. Huh, this is so easy, Morgan thought. He knew that Sabila had somehow transferred that knowledge into his mind, that she served as something like an implant—an addition to his own mind that stored information his skills possessed. Except that she is somehow fashioned out of a piece of my soul, which is not at all completely bonkers.

  “Those Springbush leaves could be useful,” Morgan said.

  Clara jumped back at the sound of his voice, her staff pointed at his head. Morgan raised an eyebrow at her reaction. Super agility and light footsteps rock!

  “Weren’t you taught not to sneak up on people?” Clara bit out unhappily.

  “We live in a dangerous world. Maybe you should pay more attention?” Morgan grinned. For some reason, he just loved poking fun at her—probably because she had no problem doing the same to him. He had yet to find something that really annoyed her, but he didn’t plan on stopping.

  Clara scowled at him but walked back over and looked at the herbs again, ignoring him. The trader, a stocky middle-aged woman, looked too afraid to move. She was non-ascended, and her eyes clearly showed her fear of them. I’m never going to get used to that.