《Welcome to Global Conflict》 Meet player one, Kif Game start. Welcome to Global conflict, the latest in VR fantasy adventures. Please select your allegiance. The side of light or the side of dark. Please note that some races will be locked depending on which side you choose. (Dark) You have selected Dark; the available races are as follows. Shadow elves Orcs Undead (choose an origin race if starting as undead) Goblin (choose one of three variants if choosing goblin) Demon Human List benefits of undead origin races please? As an undead you have lived and died before, Due to the unholy magic used to bring you back you gain a bonus of infinite stamina. Unfortunately you have been dead a while so most of your memories have faded but one still remains. You will gain one random skill based on the origin race you choose. Elves gain heightened focus, allowing you to crit with magic and increasing the range of any ranged weapons. Humans gain block, as one of the few races who believe in using shields block increases defense while shields are equipped by %50. Orcs gain shove, a quick activation skill that applies 3-8 feet of knockback to the target based on strength. Goblins gain elusive, giving them a small chance to evade magic ability¡¯s for %100 of the damage. Dwarfs gain grapple, when activated stuns both the caster and the target for 2-6 seconds depending on strength, must have no weapons equipped to use. Beast gains slash, applies bonus damage to an attack and a set chance at causing a 10 second bleed. Chance to bleed modified by agility stats. Undetermined, You have been dead so long nothing of your past race remains, gains the skill humanoid scavenging, allowing bonus material drops when killing humanoid targets. Demons cannot be made undead as they return to the demon realm upon death. "Hmm, explain goblin variants" Goblins are both the oldest race in the world, and the stupidest (que brain jokes) All goblins start with the 3 racial skills General Weapon¡¯s mastery General crafting mastery Create goblin lair In addition goblins have a reduced growth rate gaining 1 point of strength, agility, and stamina per 2 levels and 1 point of int and wisdom per 5. Goblins come in 3 variants. Standard goblins stand 3-4 feet tall and are the only one of the 3 variants that can perform magic. Standard goblins start with create embers as a starting skill in addition to their racial skills. Hobgoblins stand 4-5 feet tall and are the core fighters of the goblin race. Hobgoblins spawn with Weapons wielders; they may wield any weapon their strength allows them to lift regardless of level, but may not equip any weapons or armor. (In essence, Hobgoblins drop all items on their person upon death) Brutes are the final variant. Brutes stand 6-10 feet tall and can only wield clubs as weapons. Brutes spawn with perfect wrestling. So long as a brute is bigger (see taller) the brute can match any opponents test of strength (knock back and stun don''t work if you block). Brutes have negative %15 magic resistance. "Hobgoblins sound interesting, I always liked hard mode. I choose Hobgoblin for starting race" A picture of a dark green Hobgoblin dressed in a loin cloth and a belt appears, ¡°Increase its height to 5 foot, smaller nose please, and Pale green Brown eyes.¡± Please choose a name for your character. Goblin names may not be longer than 5 letters. ¡°Kif" The goblin merged with the player and Kif smiled feeling good about his choice. Welcome Kif, to the world of Global conflict. The only Goblin hive that has sworn allegiance to the Dark lord Sear is the Volcan hive lead by Matron Rue. With a flash of light Kif was suddenly in the middle of a dark cave. The voice from character creation asked one more question, "Would you like to begin the tutorial?" "Yes" said Kif. "Please choose a weapon", at those words hundreds of different rusty weapons appeared in front of Kif''s eyes. He looked at the swords and they all had requirements of 5-10 strength. "Character menu" Kif called out wondering what his starter stats were. Name Kif Race Goblin-Hobgoblin variant Level 1 Alignment Neutral Evil (you work for the dark lord) Class: none Stats HP 20 Mana 20 Strength 5 Agility 5 Stamina 5 Wisdom 5 Intelligence 5 Luck 5 Racial traits Stupidity 5 Fear 5 Kif stopped for a moment, ¡°examine Stupidity and Fear" Goblins are stupid, sometimes too stupid to realize how bad the situation is, during combat gains 3 points of resistance to fear and disabling affects for every level. Goblins are cowards, to cowardly to start a fight unless the opponent is terribly outnumbered, Fear gives the player a 1% chance to fear themselves at the start of a fight for every level. "That¡¯s, just mean ¡°Kif murmured. Looking back at the different starter weapons in front of him Kif grabbed a rusty knife. Rusty knife 1-1 damage Strength requirement 3 Flavor text (you could probably do more damage with your fist) "Having chosen a weapon please kill the target¡± With a flash an 8 inch rat with red eyes appeared and jumped at Kif. !!!Fear!!! You have been feared -1 -2 -1 The rat got off several bites on Kif''s arms before the Fear condition faded and he was able to move. Kif grabbed at the rat with his free hand and managed to latch on to it. -3 It bit into his hand and latched on. Holding the knife upright Kif stabbed the rat several times -1 -1 -1 Crit At the Crit for one damage he threw the red eyed nuisance at a wall to get it to stop chewing on him. -5 Congratulations you have slain a rat. +2 experience, 8 more needed for level 2 Kif slumped Gasping, That rat had done quite a bit of damage to him. "Your weapons mastery gives you a percentage damage bonus to any weapon you wield. ¡°Said the voice. "Now touch the rat¡¯s corps to move on." Kif touched the corps and a popup appeared in front of his eyes. [1 rat hide gained] [1 rat meat gained] A needle and thread appeared in front of him and the voice spoke, "Continuing on to the crafting portion, please take the needle and thread and using the rat hide create a pouch, Being a goblin all crafting must be done in manual mode." Kif looked at the needle and thread, then at the Rat hide. He folded the hide in half and stitched the 2 sides and most of the top together tightly leaving only a small opening Ding! You have created leaky coin pouch, [One leaky coin pouch, capable of holding up to 50 coins it has 3 small holes in it (watch out that nothing falls out)] Kif attached the coin pouch to his belt and the character creation voice spoke out, "The next part of this tutorial has to do with your lair. All goblins live in lairs and as such you are able to create a new lair in whatever cave you go to. The lair is where a goblin first spawns, and is considered a safe zone for respawns and logging out. Be careful though as having your lair destroyed will force you to respawn at your races origin lair. Please cast your lair creation in the hatchery cave now." Kif called up his menu and selected Create lair. He noticed half his mana bar vanish and a small dark patch appeared in the wall. Beneath it appeared a chest with the title [Kif''s stuff] floating above it. "I guess this is my in game bank?" he murmured. "The final part of this tutorial deals with death" the voice spoke, interrupting his thoughts. "What?" was all Kif was able to ask before a powerful bolt of lightning struck him from nowhere. -1,000,000 You have died, number of safe respawns remaining for your lair, 4 Would you like to respawn? Yes, No "Yes" Kif said frustrated at being one shot. "Why the hell did you need one million damage to kill me? I only have 20 hp." Ignoring his questions the voice continued "For every rule in this game there is an exception. All races share a penalty of losing half their level upon death except for goblins. Goblins are able to ignore this rule so long as they have safe respawns left in their lair. Upon the lair being destroyed, or all safe respawns being used in a 1 week period the goblin in question will suffer the Death penalty of losing 5 levels and being locked from the game for 48 hours. Please note that the Create Lair spell has an internal 72 hour cool down. This marks the end of the tutorial; please loot your corps and good luck." Kif looked down at the corps of a dead Hobgoblin and sighed, then picked up his empty coin pouch and rusty knife. "I am starting to wonder if getting into the beta for this was worth it" he muttered as he walked out of the hatchery. Leaving the Hatchery Kif came upon an open area in the cave system, lit up by lava flowing from somewhere in the ceiling down into a lava river right through the main hive, it looked like there were some extremely rickety bridges being used to cross. As he looked around in awe he felt a tugging on his arm. Looking down brought he faces to face with a 2 foot goblin child. Her ribs poking out of her side she looked terrified and hopeless. Kif looked into her eyes for a good minute before his inner self Broke down and he pulled out his rat meat. "It isn''t much, but here" He said handing it to her. Her eyes widened and then the girl grabbed it and scarfed it down quickly. "Thank you" the girl said afterwards. Ding! A popup box appeared in front of Kif''s eyes [Goblin Mi wants to join your hive] [You have unlocked a hidden racial stat Goblin Elite {Everyone knows that the most feared opponents on the battlefield are the goblin elite, being tens of times stronger than their normal brethren. No one knows why.}{Having The lowest growth per level of all races, this still probably isn''t enough to make up for it} Bonuses, plus one to all stats for each goblin in your lair. Goblins in lair= 1] "Nice" Kif said. "Now all I need is to get like 4 more goblins in my lair and I will have the same stats as a level one of any of the other races." Kif started actively looking for quests among the other goblins in the home Lair. As he did he got a message that Goblin Mi had found some leather straps and placed them into his lair''s chest. Getting more scavengers could be useful, he thought. Kif eventually found an old Goblin who wanted help. Old goblin "something to do? Why yes the bridge I like is rotting, take these sticks and go repair it. It is bridge number 3" the old goblin pointed to a pile of sticks and boards laying on the floor. Kif picked up the pile and headed off to fix one of the rickety bridges spanning the lava river. He had noticed that none of the goblins in the lair gave out proper quests, instead it was all ''do this for me'' and he would get some experience during the quest instead of at the end. Kif carefully walked out onto the Bridge with the large wooden 3 sign hanging at its entrance. Upon finding some broken and rotting beams he started removing them and hammering new sticks into their places. Upon using the last stick a popup appeared informing him he had reached level 3. It had been 3 hours since Kif started playing and there was a loud BONG sound as the character creation voice spoke. "Now that all beta testers have logged in and started, the global conflict creators are announcing racial survivability quests. In 7 days all the players of each race will be given a quest to determine if that race will stay a playable Race at the launch of the game. Current players in each race Human 300 Dwarf 178 Light elf 361 Beast 266 Dark human 122 Dark elf 290 Goblin 1 Undead 175 Demon 340 "O hell" Kif stated, realizing he was the only beta tester of the first 2000 to choose goblin, ¡°This quest may be the end of me." Squaring his shoulders Kif moved faster off the old bridge and went to the old goblin, "hey Goblin Bu, I need to be stronger, tell me a quick way to get it" he demanded. "Why should I?" Bu grumped. "because I fixed your bridge, before that I fixed the roof of your hut, and before that I broke old man Ub''s walking stick just like you wanted" Kif replied. "I never liked that jerk Ub" Bu said, ¡°alright, the best way to get strong is through being in the Goblin core, Go talk to the Matron, she will assign you a unit." Kif thanked the old goblin and headed towards the Matron''s house. Old Matron Rue was one of the strongest goblins in the Hive, boasting a level of 400 Kif had only met her twice. She was batty as all hell. "Who are you, what do you want?" she demanded as he walked in. "Never mind, I don¡¯t care, Commander Li, Take this young hero and put him in the shock corps, they are running low on bodies." Matron Rue proclaimed. "Matron Rue," Kif started only to be interrupted. "I said I don''t care, Follow commander Li NOW!!" She ranted. A popup box appeared for in front of Kif informing him that his class had become [Shock corps rider] Commander Li, The general of the goblin army walked over to Kif and said, "Come along now, let¡¯s get you learned on what it is to be in the Shock corps. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.The 2 of them Climbed to the top of the cave, near where the lava river flow started. Here Hobgoblin warriors and brutes were sparring with each other to get stronger. "Go on", Commander Li said, ¡°Push 3 of them into the lava and you will have completed your basic training." Kif looked on and realized that this was probably a good reason for why the Lair didn''t have too much of an overpopulation problem. Going down to the wrestling area Kif came up with a plan; he would find himself a strong hobgoblin and watch their back, while having them watch his. Hopefully they wouldn''t be smart enough to decide to back stab him. Kif walked up to a Hobgoblin that was being pushed back by 2 other Hobgoblins, The name Mu floated above his head. Smiling evilly Kif snuck up behind one of Mu¡¯s attackers and quickly stabbed them in the back of the neck. The hobgoblin gasped And collapsed dead from bleeding quickly. Kif immediately jumped the other nameless Hobgoblin and wrestled him into the River. Turning to Hobgoblin Mu he said, "Back me up and ill help ya" then turned to deal with the next threat, a large goblin brute charged him. Goblin Mu jumped forward and intercepted the brute, Kif moved up at his right and attacked the brute''s leg, injuring it and applying a bleed. [Bleed, -2 hp per sec for 10 seconds] The Brute roared and swung its club knocking both Kif and Mu back. Kif staggered up to his feet and yelling his own cry jumped at the brute. He was swatted to the floor like an insect. [-10 hp] He watched from the floor as the Brute raised its club to flatten him into the floor, and then Mu appeared and rammed his own rusty saber into the brute''s chest, killing it. Mu slumped exhausted and Kif crawled up and asked him, "Hey, ya want to work together?" Kif''s reply was a notification, [Congratulations on gaining a goblin to your lair, Hobgoblin Mu Level 5 has joined your lair. +1 to all stats. Current goblins in lair= 2] The week went by quickly, with Kif each day struggling to survive the random skirmish at the beginning of the lava lake. He was only tossed in once. Kif reached level 6, and with a Ding of announcements the racial survival quest began. [The orcs dislike the fact that goblins have the same ranking as them in the dark lords army, they also want your mountain. Fend off an army of 20,000 orcs Remaining defenders, 200000 goblins.] Almost immediately that 200,000 dropped to 199999 as one of the defenders slipped and died in the lava river. "I don''t know if 200,000 will be enough." Kif whispered morosely. Kif¡¯s current stats. Name: Kif Race: Goblin-Hobgoblin variant Level: 6 Alignment: Neutral Evil (you work for the dark lord) Class Shock corps rider (you got drafted) Stats HP 40 4 per stamina point Mana 36 4 per intelligence point Strength 8+2 1 per 2 levels Agility 8+2 1 per 2 levels Stamina 8+2 1 per 2 levels Wisdom 7+2 1 per 3 levels Intelligence 7+2 1 per 3 levels Defense 5+2+ (0) 1 per 2 points of strength Luck 5+2 Racial traits Stupidity 5 Fear 5 Skills General Weapon¡¯s mastery (beginner level 4) 4% bonus damage General Crafting Mastery (beginner level 5) No bonuses available at this time Create Lair (Beginner level 2) Castable in caves only at this time. Increases based on Goblins in lair Commander Li yelled loudly at all the Goblin Shock corps, ¡°those Orcs think they can take my mountain, not over your dead bodies they won''t, come, we go to the upper gates to show them Goblins are unstoppable!" With this Commander Li lead the troops away from the lava river training area and up towards one of the lair''s 2 entrances. Up through the cave routes Past the mushroom farms and near the top of the mountain Commander Li showed off the prized Goblin defensive siege weapons. Big round boulders and Rock sleds. "Man the sleds and go crush those Orcs" Li commanded. Mu pushed forward and jumped onto one of the sleds saying, " come on Kif, I will pilot you ride." Kif stepped onto the sled, looked over the ledge of the mountain and froze. (You have been inflicted with the fear stat {6 seconds}). It was a terrible time to have it trigger as Commander Li stuck his foot on the back of the sled and kicked them off the mountain. "Aaaaaaaaah, I don''t want to die!!" Kif cried clinging to Li. More Rock sleds were launched off following his own and the boulders started getting pushed down the steep slope as well. Kif watched as a sled with 2 Brutes on it passed his own near the bottom of the mountain and hit what looked like a wide purposely built ramp. The brutes were immediately thrown off their sled and Catapulted into the oncoming orc army. 1 second later Kif''s sled hit the ramp and he and Mu were launched into the air. Mu kept them on the sled and aimed it for the orcs before kicking off, Separating them both. The rock sleds impact flattened 2 orcs in the middle of the forward 10000 formation and then it was Kif''s turn. He flew head first into an orc¡¯s helmet. -20 hp You have inflicted stun (6 seconds) upon Orc Warrior. {It is said that goblins have the second hardest skulls after dragons. Only you would put this saying to the test} Kif staggered to his feet, he had dropped his dagger but the Stunned orc had dropped his sword. Grabbing the blade he quickly rammed it into the warrior''s throat, then ate 5 swords to the back and died. -20 hp, you have died would you like to respawn? "Yes" he said. [Remaining safe respawns 3] He quickly ran back up the cave system to the exit of the lair. Checking the quest update showed the following {Remaining attackers: 18,900 Remaining defenders: 145021} As he ran back through the cave system he received the notice that his lair mate Mu had died. Resurrecting him would cost 50 mana. "And I only have 40" Kif grumped as he stepped onto a rocks led for the second time. A brute stepped onto the back of the sled and they were launched off. Calmer than he was before Kif focused on the approaching orc army. He spied forward army¡¯s commander and steered his sled towards his target. Maybe if the orcs lost their leader It would help stem the bleeding defenders. He hit the ramp harder than Mu had but still managed to stay on the sled. The orc commander¡¯s body guard noticed the airborne suicide squad and shoved his commander out of the way getting crushed by the sled instead. Kif landed hard and quickly grabbed the dead bodyguard''s weapon. -20 hp Standing quickly he charged at the orc commander and managed to inflict a wound on its shoulder before it recovered drew its own weapon. -30 hp Orc Second in command Hrolk Level 9 stood out above its head. Hrolk gave a mighty, easily telegraphed swing over his head at the goblin that dared challenge him, and missed. Kif knew he was dead if he was hit so he focused fully on dodging everything and attempted to strike the commander with the stolen blade. No matter how hard he tried though, he could not get passed the Orc¡¯s defense. The durability of the stolen blade hit 2/10 and it was time for Kif to gamble. He charged forward thrusting the blade ahead of him in an attempt to stab Hrolk. The orc struck the blade hard, breaking it but leaving him open. Kif jumped and managed to jam the sharp edge of his broken sword hilt into Hrolk''s throat before eating a backhand by the Orc¡¯s mail gauntlet. {Critical hit -40 hp You have inflicted a heavy bleed upon the opponent -20 hp per second for 10 seconds] -20 damage, you have died do you want to revive? "Yes" he grumped [remaining safe respawns 2]. "I don''t even get to see what the drops are." he complained as he ran up to the battlefield. Kif immediately jumped onto an empty sled and road it down. Observing the Orc¡¯s front Battle group it appeared that losing the orc commander had disrupted them a lot. The orc¡¯s were No longer fighting in formation but were actively splitting up to hunt for goblins through the boulder crusted battle zone. Kif''s concentration was enough he did not notice the boulder passing inches from his sled before him, And the boulder, hit the ramp. He struck a group of orcs and immediately grabbed a downed weapon (there were swords and axes lying all over the place at this point. Over 100,000 Goblins had launched themselves to their deaths by The time he arrived at the bottom of the mountain and more were still coming. Kif fought for all he was worth and managed to kill off 4 more Orcs before succumbing to the Orcish attackers. You have died do you want to respawn? "YES!" he said [remaining safe respawns 1]. Running up to the Upper mountain exit one last time he noticed that they have reached the halfway point of the defense. [Remaining attackers 10,000 Remaining defenders 72,068] Aside from him each orc had managed to take out 13 goblins before dying. He was stopped from grabbing another sled by Commander Li. "It looks like their heading for the Lava flows entrance," Li declared" quickly to the lower gates!!" With this the goblin commander lead his surviving defenders back down into the caves. Through the Mushroom farms, through the city and over the rickety bridges, into the Acid spiders dens, past the poison slime pools, to the lower exit Where the Lava River stopped. There, inside the entrance to the mountain cave was a rickety wooden fence with an opening in the middle. A rope strung across it had a sign saying "gate" Commander Li organized his remaining defenders to hold the walls and when the orcs arrived the final fight began. Kif watched on in despair. He had only been a goblin for a week but he loved the race. Hard mode and the ability to both infinitely stack plus move his spawn to wherever the hell he wanted was amazing. He saw no way the goblins would be able to hold back This fresh attack force of Orcs. They were in a tight formation with shield bearers in the front and spear men behind them. Orc archers and mages were throwing fire and arrows at the crude gates protecting the goblin army. In desperation Kif started looking throughout the cave for something to turn the tide. The goblins lived in an active volcano. About twice a year it did a soft eruption, pouring lava out and burning half the Lair do nothing before releasing the lava through this tunnel. At the back of the tunnel was a natural damn made from a rockslide stopping the Current lava river from flowing through there? Examining it Kif knew there was no way he could break the damn himself, but there was one large Stalactite at the top of the cave. Convincing himself the idea was stupid enough to make the Goblin commander proud Kif ran to the Acid Spiders den. Thankfully the spiders had all gorged themselves on the Goblin defenders as they ran through the cave. He harvested as much webbing as he could and hurried back. Taking a stick and a rock he made himself a fragile club and started climbing the damn. Kif reached the top of the damn and attached a portion of the spiders silk to a long protruding rock. Then, jumping he grasped ahold of the stalactite with one hand and 2 legs and started trying to tie the web to the rock. After 2 attempts he succeeded but now he was stuck as well. Taking his makeshift club he hammered away at the highest point on the stalactite he could Praying he could break it. -1 -0 -0 -1 -0 -1 Ones and 0''s popped up showing him he was doing something and he redoubled his efforts. With an audible crack the rock gave way and Kif screamed in success as he swung into the natural damn, shattering it and dropping to the floor. He managed to sit up and watch in awe as the lava flow gushed out, incinerating him and the defenders and attackers in seconds. You have died would you like to respawn? "YES" he cried happily. [Remaining safe respawns 0] "Check quest" [Remaining attackers 0 Remaining defenders 1] "Woooo" he said and grabbing goblin Mi who was playing on the floor he started dancing in happiness. Mi was shocked but then started laughing and dancing with him until they were both tired. Kif headed out to find the Matron and finish this racial survival quest before he messed up and died one last time. "The orc army has been stopped, there were no survivors" He declared upon reaching Matron Rue. "You survived" she replied, "but good. For succeeding I give you a gift¡± 2 nameless hobgoblin NPCs walked forward and Kif got the message Elite Lair defender level 15 wants to join your Lair Elite Lair defender level 15 wants to join your Lair He quickly hit accept then stopped thinking. Goblin Mi was a scavenger, she added scraps of leather and other things found in the caves to his chest every day. Goblin Mu on the other hand was more like a NPC party member, following him around and fighting with him. So if he wanted to place his Lair in a cave outside the main lair, maybe he needed to gain more defenders to keep it safe. As he thought about the implications of having a summon able army an announcement rang out [The Goblin race has completed their racial defense quest first among the dark races. for this bonus they are the favorite race by the dark lord and gain higher quest rewards for the next 2 weeks.] This announcement was followed quickly by [The beast race has completed their racial defense quest first among the light races. for this bonus they are the favored race by the pope of the church of light and gain higher quest rewards for the next 2 weeks] Exhausted from his marathon Goblin Kif logged out Meet the Shadow Elf Welcome to Global conflict, the latest in VR fantasy adventures. Please select your allegiance. The side of light or the side of dark. Please note that some races will be locked depending on which side you choose. (Dark) You have selected dark; the available races are as follows Shadow elves Orcs Undead (choose an origin race if starting undead) Goblin (choose one of three variants if choosing goblin) Demon Human "Um, Shadow elf please." A 3d shadow elf with the features of the player appeared. Standing 5 foot 6 and bearing curves in all the right places the Avatar winked at the player as the AI spoke. "Do you wish to make any changes to your avatar before continuing?" asked the AI. "No, this is good." Please name your Avatar, as a shadow elf you may only choose the first name. "Elora please," the player asked. The Dark skinned night elf merged with the player and Elora felt a wave of energy rush threw her. "Welcome Elora to the world of Global conflict. The shadow elves warred centuries ago with their light elf brethren and many lives were lost. Currently there is only one known dark elf coven and it is sworn to the Dark lord''s service. The Malon coven is led by Duchess Aurae. The space that Elora was standing in grew thick with fog, blocking her vision of everything around it, when it cleared she was in a small cave, brightly lit by glowing lichen lining the walls. The character creation AI spoke up once more, "Would you like to take the tutorial?" "Yes, thank you." Elora replied politely. "This tutorial will cover Combat, Mage craft, Crafting, and quests. You may log out at any time and return to complete it." To begin, choose a starting weapon. At these words 3 weapons and a book appeared before Elora. A small set of daggers (silver daggers 1-3 damage requires 5 strength) A slim short sword (Crescent sword 3-5 damage requires 7 strength) A large 2 handed staff (druid''s oak staff 2-4 damage requires 10 strength) A skill book named Shadow bolt rank 1. Elora pondered for a moment before calling up her stat screen to help her decide what to start as. Name: Elora Race: Shadow elf Level 1 Alignment: Chaotic Evil (your parents murdered the last pope) Class: none Stats HP: 40 Mana: 48 Strength 10 Speed 10 Stamina 10 Wisdom 12 Intelligence 12 Luck 5 Racial Traits Shadow pact 5 Dark vision (passive) Skills 2 "Examine all stats" she spoke. HP= 4 times your stamina Mana = 4 times your intelligence Strength, strength increases the items you may carry and allows heavier weapons to be wielded. Strength increases melee damage by 1 per 3 points in it. Due to your shadow elf heritage your strength grows normally. Speed, Differing from agility, speed decreases cast time and increases attack speed, but does not increase dodge chance or crit chance. Stamina, Stamina affects the duration that you can perform physical actions in combat before incurring a penalty. Continual actions during combat at 0 stamina incur a growing DPS decrease from the player and higher chance for enemies to perform crits upon the player. Wisdom, Increases mana regen by 1 point a minute per 2 wisdom. High wisdom is required to be able to cast spells beyond level 2. Due to your shadow elf heritage your ancestors have traded the elven growth strengths for more physical abilities. Intelligence, increases your base mana and ability to learn skills. High intelligence is required to be able to learn spells beyond level 2. Due to your shadow elf heritage your ancestors have traded the elven growth strengths for more physical abilities. Luck Affects your ability to crit in combat, as an Elf you have the chance to crit on all spells, healing and damage. Racial traits Shadowpact, Your race has made a pact with the shadows, During combat in caves or at night increases all stats by the level of the pact for the duration of the combat. Be wary as loss of hp at the end of combat may be fatal. Dark vision (you can see in the dark as if it were day, still can''t see invisible things) Any light source turns this passive off. "Show my skills" Elora thought. Skills Strike level 1: a quick melee strike at the target, applies weapon damage plus 2 per level of strike to the attack. costs 10 mana or 2 stamina points if mana is insufficient. Examine level 1: dual skill, In combat highlights one point per level to perform a guaranteed crit if struck. Activation cost in combat = 5 mana per level. Out of combat enables identification of an item so long as examinee''s level is above the item''s highest usage requirements. "Examine shadow bolt skill book." Elora said. Examination failed, Examination failed, Examination failed, Examine has leveled up Examination successful, Displaying skill book. Shadow bolt level 1, Requires 2 intelligence to learn. Casting cost = 5 mana +1 per skill level, 0 cool down, does 1 damage plus 1 per 2 points of intelligence. Requires 5 wisdom to cast. Shadow bolt has 30 feet range but requires vision of the target. ''This spell looks like it will hit for 7 damage right now, at 5 mana cost. Otherwise i am stuck with strike doing either 3-5 damage with those daggers or 5-7 with that sword. I never was a staff girl.'' Elora thought. "I will take the skill book."She said and grabbed it. "Do you wish to learn Shadow Bolt level 1?" A voice rank out. "Yes" she said. With a flash of light the book vanished and Elora knew that all she needed to do was hold out her hand and chant Shadow bolt to cast the spell. The character creation AI spoke up next. "Please kill the target to complete the combat portion of this tutorial." The shadows in the cave seemed to coalesce together and a small slime appeared on the floor. It started slowly hopping towards Elora. "Examine" Elora said -5 MP [Shadow slime level 1 HP???] Appeared above the slimes head. "Shadow bolt" Shadow bolt" -6 -6 Congratulations you have slain shadow slime. +3 experience 7 more needed to level 2 Elora watched in fascination as the slime appeared to expand like a balloon before popping and leaving behind a small circular core on the floor. The AI spoke up again, "Please collect the Monster''s drops to move on." Elora touched the ball and a popup appeared in front of her eyes. [1 shadow core small gained] "The next part of the tutorial is Magic, due to the elven heritage shadow elves are gifted in magic, unfortunately the demonic pack of their forebears limits shadow elves to the 3 disciplines of Shadow magic, necromancy, and sorcery. You may join a particular branch of magic after determining your class. Please choose and use a beginner¡¯s spell book from the list before you. 3 Books appeared before Elora. Shadow''s grasp level 1 (shadow-mancy) Summon Minor minion level 1(necromancy) Souls sight level 1 (sorcery) Elora immediately attempted to examine each book but only received several failures. Her Examinee''s level stayed at 2. After several minutes trying to decide if Shadow''s grasp was a cc spell vs gaining a combat summon Elora chose shadow''s grasp level 1. Shadow''s grasp level 1: non combat spell that allows the caster to grab an object from 5 feet away plus 1 foot per level. Costs 10 mana to perform. Before Elora a table with a boiling pot of water and 3 flasks appeared. "Continuing the tutorial we have come to the crafting portion. Elven crafting includes distilling and refining magical ingredients down to their base forms. Elven craft disciplines include, woodcrafts, alchemy, transmutation, tailoring, and enchanting. While players may learn any disciplines they desire, disciplines outside their racial strengths suffer higher experience curves. Presently, please place the slime core into the boiling water before you to learn your first Alchemical potion." Elora dropped the slime core into the pot and a status bar appeared in front of her, it quickly dropped and after it ended she poured the water into the 3 flasks. [You have gained 3 weak elixirs] Looking at the elixirs descriptions they recovered 15 hp and 5 mana upon consumption. Moreover only one elixir could be consumed every hour on pain of gaining a negative condition from overdosing. "The final part of this tutorial is questing. As a shadow elf you have a permanent racial quest to regain your homeland. On a more achievable level, having just come of age your family desires you to do some great actions to impress the Duchess. Good luck Elora." With this the Tutorial ended and Elora received 2 last popups. [Racial quest rank SSS. Recover your homeland. Quest rewards: Nobility, power, name it and if it is within her power Duchess Aurae shall grant it.] [Familial quest rank A+: Having just come of age it is time now for you to earn your name. Impress the Duchess with some feat and rewards shall be yours. Quest rewards:????] Elora looked at the two monster quests the tutorial had given her and promptly decided to put them off for later. Maybe after she hit level 10. Finally leaving the starter cave Ellora came upon what looked like a large mushroom farm in a more spread out area. The farm was being worked by a bunch of goblins but she saw a Shadow elf farmer with the name [Bryn, mushroom caretaker] floating above his head. Elora approached him and said, "Excuse me sir, would you happen to have any tasks you needed done?" Bryn looked at her tiredly before replying, "Sure kid, take over for me making sure the goblins are properly watering our mushrooms here and not eating them for the next few hours while i catch up on some repairs i need to make to the equipment. [Bryn has offered you a quest: Keep the goblins from slacking off, quest rank f+, and required actions: make sure that the goblins finish their work before Bryn returns, Rewards???] "I would love to babysit them for you." Elora said with a smile. 1 Hour later Elora was slumped gasping, out of breath with 2 stamina left due to how demanding the job was. Herding goblins was worse than herding cats as they immediately started lazing off when Bryn vanished. Yelling at them didn''t work; slapping them in the head injured Elora''s hands more than the goblins, and shadowbolt one shot the poor goblin brute she targeted [+2 exp 5 more needed for level 2] Even after murdering the brute the rest of the goblins still didn''t care about getting back to work. Elora was about at her wits end when she heard screaming coming from one end of the farm and watched as 4 of the 5 goblins stationed on that end came running to hide behind the giant mushroom she was leaning against. She staggered to her feet and walked over to see what was going on. Hilariously one 3 foot tall goblin had managed to get itself totally covered by a slime. Elora used Examine and saw displayed [Shadow slime level 2] Using shadow grasp she grabbed the goblin and then pulled it out of the slime with an audible pop. The slime shrank down some then started hopping towards her. "Shadow bolt" "shadow bolt" -6 -6 [Your shadow bolt is now level 2, new casting cost: 6, shadow bolt now does 2 damage plus 1 per 2 points of intelligence] Elora quickly cast Shadow bolt twice expecting the slime to collapse like the last one. Unfortunately it hung on with a sliver of health and continued hopping towards her. Killing the Goblin plus the various mushrooms she had examined during the quest had left her with not enough mana to fully cast another shadow bolt. Desperate, and out of mana Elora used the only combat skill she had left at the cost of her 2 remaining stamina. "Strike" she gasped out as she kicked at the slime. [-2 damage 3 damage absorbed] Shadow slime level 2 had died. The shadow slime quickly inflated like a balloon and then exploded with a pop, covering Elora in glitter and leaving behind a small glowing circle. Touching it she was rewarded with. [1 partially dissolved mushroom gained] [+4 experience, 1 more needed for level 2] Having exhausted her stamina Elora slumped to the ground unable to move. The goblin she had saved came up to her and said, "Hey boss, you ok?" "I am fine," she replied," just get everyone back to watering the mushrooms." "OK boss," the goblin answered before running over to where the surviving goblins were. Elora distantly heard him yelling, "Breaks over, lets work!" And like magic all the goblins got back to watering the mushrooms. An hour later Elora was feeling better having drank some water. A system message rang out. "Now that all beta testers have logged in and started the global conflict creators are announcing the Racial Survivability quests. In 7 days all the players from each race will be given a quest to determine if that race will stay a playable race at the launch of the game. Current players in each race Human 300 Dwarf 178 Light elf 361 Beast 266 Dark human 122 Dark elf 290 Goblin 1 Undead 175 Demon 340 Looking at it Elora couldn''t help but laugh at the fact that anyone had wanted to be a goblin in this game. Goblins were low level mobs, not Character avatars. She pulled herself up and noticed that Bryn was walking over to her location, examining the field as he went. "You did good keeping these idiots in line." Bryn said. "I think they may have multiplied again since when i left there were only 10 of them and now there''s 13. No matter, here is your reward. If you need any recommendations with the other elven farmers you come see me." [Quest complete: you have protected the farm from the threat of its own workers satisfactorily for Bryn. Rewards. 10 copper coins, 1 water flask, 1 small 4 slot bag, + 20 experience.] [Level up, level up, experience needed to level 4 16] Elora quickly equipped the bag into one of her bag slots and placed the flask and coins inside of it. She asked Bryn for directions to the Coven and headed out. Apparently the experience needed to gain a level went up by 5 per level so she needed 20 total to get to level 4. Calling up her stats Elora noticed that everything had gone up by 1 except for her luck and racial stats. She had also gained 2 ability points and her mana and stamina had both refreshed. Elora decided to split her points between wisdom and intelligence, bringing them both up to 15. With 60 mana she could now cast shadow bolt 10 times and still have the bonus mana provided by shadow pact in reserve. Entering the main Coven Elora noticed several elven, and orc vendors working stalls, trying to sell various foods and wares to passersby. Walking beyond the entrance she came to the center Coven square. South of her location lay the market she passed through, to the north was a large manor hollowed out from a gigantic stalagmite that was growing from the cave floor? West of her were a series of smaller stalagmite dwellings and to the east stood 4 decorated towers, the 4 towers were connected to the roof of the cave and each had elaborate mantles displaying their purpose. These were the combat guild towers. War, guild of elvish swordsmen and archers. Shadows, guild of assassins and and saboteurs. Blight, guild of necromancers and Dark priests. Essence, the guild of Sorcerers and craftsmen. Elora spent some time marveling at the unique beauty of her cavern home before hearing the alarm telling her it was time to log off. She quickly found an inn that had rooms available for 2 copper a night and bought a room. Lying down on the bed she pulled up her menu and spoke. "Log off¡± 16 hours later ¡° Log in¡± ¡°Welcome back to Global conflict Elora¡± the AI said. ¡°Did you wish to continue where you left off?¡± ¡°Yes¡± Elora stretched and sighed as she got up out of the Inn¡¯s bed. Her co-worker had also gotten into the beta and apparently had put in his vacation request before her allowing him to spend the full week playing while she had to log off and get to work the next few days. Heading down stairs Elora grabbed some breakfast from the innkeeper at the cost of 1 more copper. Breakfast consisted Mushrooms, mystery meat, and a plant that looked alot like bell-peppers all wrapped in some type of wheat tortilla. She found it both delicious and worrisome that her Examine failed on the meat several times. Eating breakfast Elora heard other patrons, a mix of orcs and elves, talking about what was happening throughout the dark Lord''s domain. Apparently the Orc¡¯s were gearing up to wipe out the Goblins, and the demons were demanding tributes from the Coven for some reason. The most interesting thing Elora heard was that minor bats had infested several of the residences and locals were looking for someone capable of dealing with those same infestations. Finishing her meal she headed out and quickly found an old Elven couple standing outside their house listening to the breaking of glass and other furniture. Elora offered to fight off the infestation and recieved the quest from the couple. [Quest: Fight off the bat infestation: completion requirements: don''t die. Find where the Bats came from and end the infestation, quest level -E] Noting the quest was a slight notch above the farming quest Elora readied herself mentally and entered the abode. The house was small, comprising of a front living room, a small kitchen, and connecting to the kitchen a small bedroom with attached bath. [Small bat level 2 HP 10] was revealed through her Examination. Elora quickly cast Shadow bolt and struck the bat, almost killing it. -9 The bat, injured but enraged immediately dropped down from the ceiling of the living room and swooped at her. Elora tried twice to cast Shadow bolt but was unable to cast it quickly enough before the bat would pass beyond her vision. -1 -2 -1 She suffered several sharp bites from the bats fangs before giving up on the spell and grabbing a pillow off the near by living room sofa and swatted at the bat -0 -4 The bat took no damage off the pillow striking it, the wall however was in no mood to move. [You have slain small bat] Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.[+2 experience 14 left to level 4] [1 small fang gained] Pocketing her loot Elora moved into the kitchen. [small bat level 2 hp 10][small bat level 2 hp 10][ knapping bat level 4 hp 20] Her examine ranked up to 4 upon using it on the second small bat allowing her to see the sleeping bat¡¯s stats. Elora spent a few moments trying to think about how to handle the situation. The sleeping bat was on the kitchen table with both small bats sitting on the chair near it. Stepping back into the living room Elora picked up a thick blanket from the back of the sofa. She had noticed that the first small bat had not reacted to her until she injured it. Slowly walking up to the 2 small bats she quickly threw the blanket over them. Gathering all the ends together she swung the bundle hard twice against the floor. -5, -5 -6, -5 [You have slain small bat*2] [+4 experience 10 left to level 4] Floated in front of Elora¡¯s face followed by -7 The knapping bat had woken up during the commotion and bit her in the shoulder. Swiping at it Elora managed to get the bat to back off some and quickly cast shadow bolt -9 Upon finishing the casting she had to dive out of the kitchen back into the living room as the bat swooped in for another attack. She pulled herself back to her feet and grabbed the discarded pillow off the floor. Holding it in front of her like a shield Elora started attempting to cast shadowbolt again. The bat glowed briefly for a second then dove straight at her. [Bat has performed bite, Bat has inflicted bleed] -14 hp [-2 hp per second for 10 seconds] Desperately Elora dropped the pillow and cast shadows grasp at the bat. The bat froze in the air, bound by shadows that seemed to stretch from the walls. Two quick shadowbolts later the bat died. From it¡¯s corpse Elora recovered 2 fangs. Both the small bats gave her one. She spent some time resting as her health slowly recovered from the beating she had received. It was obvious to her that she needed to get some weapon to defend herself with as the shadow spells did not increase her defence in any way. Searching the house she discovered that there was a small hole in the wall behind the old couple¡¯s stove. Having defeated the infestation and discovered how the entered the house Elora left to turn the quest in. [You have cured the house of it¡¯s infestation, quest complete] [+ 20 experience, +10 intimacy with Coven NPC¡¯s, + 12 copper] [You have hit level 4 15 experience left til level 5] Having experienced what this quest was about, and with some idea¡¯s on how to more efficiently slay the bats, Elora quickly moved throughout the rest of the housing area of the Coven, exterminating the bat infestations. As her second day ended she looked upon her stats with satisfaction. ¡°log out¡± Elora¡¯s stats. Level 6 Hp 64 Mp 80 Strength 16 Speed 16 Stamina 16 Wisdom 20 Intelligence 20 luck 5 Racial Traits Shadow pact 5 Dark vision (passive) Skills Shadow bolt rank 3, 7 mana 3 damage plus 1 per 2 intelligence Shadow''s Grasp rank 2, 6 mana to cast, grabs target 5 feet away plus 1 foot per rank Items 12 small fangs 72 copper 2 weak elixirs 1 pair of thin leather boots +1 to speed while equipped. Days 3-5 Elora logged in and and continued doing quests for within the coven. On the sixth day she connected and continued her morning routine of getting breakfast at the inn and listening for rumors from the locals about where to quest. As she was enjoying her mushroom wrap one of the Duchess¡¯s guards stepped into the tavern and strode up to her. ¡°are you the one who dealt with the infestations plaguing the citizens of the coven?¡± he asked. ¡°Yes¡± she replied. The guard then directed her to go visit the Captain of the watch at the War guild. Entering the spire Elora saw quite a few names elves and several of the other beta testers sparring in an open arena surrounded by a few small rows of benches. Using Examine she located the Watch Captain and walked over to him to inquire as to what he wanted. [Watch Captain Grim] ¡°It¡¯s about time you got here,¡± Grim said, not turning his head to look at her, ¡° The spire has recently suffered the same annoying infestation that our covenants residents are suffering from, I won¡¯t have any of my soldiers dirtying their hands with bats when there are wargs and other true threats around for them to fight. I heard your some classless shadow caster. Rid my spire of this nuisance and i will see you properly rewarded.¡± With that the captain stood up and strode out of the building not leaving Elora any time to even think about the quest. [Chain quest, The War guild has been infested worse than the homes of the Covens residents, clear the infestation or determine its cause to be rewarded by Captain Grim, Quest difficulty B, Rewards ????] [This quest can not be turned down, abandoning this quest will turn you into the enemy of the War guild] [you have accepted the quest] Sighing in exasperation Elora started searching the area for bats. She found none on the first floor and moved up to the second floor of the guild. The second floor was composed of rooms for the officers and a storage area for the guild¡¯s weapons. Elora handled a few bats but found nothing of note beyond more small fangs. Having cleared the floor she moved up to the third floor. The door to enter the third floor was marked {experts test}. Thinking that surely the test would involve them sparring vs each other Elora quickly entered. A soft click marked the test door locking in front of her and a room with 4 wooden golems being lit up. [Wooden golem level 8 HP ???]*4 appeared in red. The golems all started advancing for her. Quickly Elora cast shadowbolt multiple times, striking the lead golem and on the 4th cast killing it. Her bolt hit it for 10 damage each time, showing that it was armored some as it should have struck for 13 on an unarmored target. Having determined that the golems had around 40 HP each Elora used all the rest of her mana to finish off a second golem. The remaining golems moved so slowly that she was able to kite them to a certain extent and lead them away from the 2 dead golems corpses. Elora circled around and looted both corpses while keeping her eyes on on the slow golems. [wooden sword 5-7 damage][small wooden buckler +1 armor blocks 2 damage] She equipped both items and stepped forward. Her mana regen was far too low to make waiting for enough to finish of the other 2 golems to be an option. Checking her stamina quickly she noted she still had 15 left. Elora carefully moved into range of one of the golems, keeping it between herself and it¡¯s partner. She dodged the strike it attempted at her and used the opening left behind to quickly slash at it¡¯s head. -4 -5 This was going to be a long fight she realized. Elora danced around the forward golem''s attacks for the next 15 minutes chipping it down to 0 hp. Upon defeating it though, she realized she had a problem. Her stamina, even with the shadowpact bonus, was down to 4 points. She hastily drank one of her 2 weak elixirs and used it¡¯s mana to cast shadowbolt twice, bringing the final golem down to 20 HP. having injured it she again stepped forward to try to finish it off. -4 In her exhaustion from having low stamina Elora failed to recover in time and the golem got of a solid hit on her, flinging her into the far wall where she dropped to the ground exhausted. -35 -9 More than half her health in only one strike and the level difference between her and this golem was only 2. Having no choice but to gamble Elora downed her last elixir to gain the mana needed to slay the golem. [you have been poisoned, -2 hp per second for 30 seconds, -2 mana per second for 30 seconds, stamina regeneration stopped for the next hour] Looking at the popup, Elora knew she was dead. She felt sick to her stomach, her vision was getting blurry, and her eyesight was starting to fade. Using the last bit of her mental abilities she cast shadow bolt twice more, killing the golem seconds before it reached her. As Elora slumped to the ground a screen appeared in front of her eyes. [ Congratulations on passing level 1 of the war guilds placement test] [You have lost conscience, should you survive you may re-login in 1 hour.] [You have been logged out] One hour later Elora logged back into the game. She woke up in a bed in a small furnished room. A guard standing watch quickly stepped out and passed on a message before returning. He advised her to wait as the Watch captain was being summoned. Captain grim stepped into the room and silently looked at her for a while. Finally he said, ¡° I am sorry for the way i spoke before. The experts test room was supposed to be turned off as we had no tests scheduled for the next few days. If not for the luck of a messenger from the Dark lord having passed through the spire on the way to the Duchess you would have died, and I take full responsibility for that mistake. You have dealt with a large portion of the infestation, and more importantly you managed to pass a test that none of your current generation have been able to get through. Your reward is on the desk. Take it with my blessings and know, should you ever decide to take up the blade over the shadow magic you seem to favor, I will be happy to welcome you into the guild.¡± Grim left after saying his speech, again giving Elora no chance to get a word in. Checking that she had recovered Elora got up and picked up the rewards the Watch Captain had left her. [apprentices leather jerkin +2 defence] [Apprentices leather pants +2 defence] [apprentices leather gloves +1 defence] [Watch Captains recommendation to the Shadow guild] Awed at suddenly going from 0 equipment to a full set of defencive equipment Elora equipped the entire set. She noticed that the buckler and wooden sword were still in her inventory and happily stepped out of the room she was in. It appeared to be the Watch Captains room as she recognized the area for the 2nd floor of the War guild. Elora went down stairs and left the guild, having seen the other beta testers practicing there she decided to see if she could get more abilities or items in the last day before the Racial survivability quest started. She quickly walked next door to the Shadows guild and spoke with a male secretary there. According to him the guild focused on using shadow magic to both augment melee attacks along with teaching ranged spell combat. If she wanted to become a mage specializing in shadow magic the class he recommended was the Saboteur. Saboteurs fought at medium range and were able to quickly deal large amounts of single target damage. The differences between them and assassins were that assassins gained movement skills and melee augments while saboteurs gained bonuses to fast casting and magical crit chance. Undecided yet if shadows was the path she truly wanted to take Elora left and went to the Guild of Essence. Here she spoke with a Sorceror¡¯s apprentice who explained that Sorcerers were like most game¡¯s classical elemental mages. They specialized in doing large amounts of AOE damage, but had slower and more mana intensive spells because of this. If she decided to change her race to Craftsmen then she would be able to master all of the non-combat subclasses instead of just being able to master one and having the rest unable to get past intermediate level 1. Elora thanked the Apprentice and walked into the Guild of Blight. This was definitely the creepiest of the guilds, it¡¯s door was made of the bones of dead goblins. Stepping inside she noticed that the stairs to the next level were decorated with the skulls of humans. As she looked around a dark priestess came up to her and introduced herself as Priestess Gix. Priestess Gix Informed her that while the guild was a meeting and training place for necromancers, Dark priests made up the majority of it¡¯s members. The side of dark worshiped the 3 gods Mania of death, Amalek of Atrocities, and Drel of Deceit. The priestess then went on to ask Elora what she wished for in life. ¡°To make my family proud and take back our homelands from the Elves of light who have claimed it.¡± Elora replied. ¡°Almost as bad, i need to be stronger soon for I fear our current home may be threatened by I know not what.¡± ¡°In that case, i recommend praying to the Goddess Mania of death. There is calm acceptance in death''s embrace, and you will need the strength of one of the deities if you wish to someday break past the holy barriers that bar us from our lost homeland.¡± Gix replied. ¡°If you wish to become an acolyte to one of the god or goddesses simply kneel before their statue and pray fully. They may grant you what you wish.¡± Elora thanked the Priestess and informed her she needed some time to think. Eating a quick lunch she returned to the Guild of Blight and knelt down before Mania¡¯s statue. She spent the rest of the day praying at the Goddesses statue and as she went to logged out received the notice. [You have been heard. Mania is not what she once was, her major followers having abandoned her for Amalek. Your class has been changed to Acolyte and have been granted the Faith stat. Faith works as a separate mana bar for faith based skills. It may be recharged once a day by praying at a temple or making a small sacrifice to your god. +40 faith] ¡°Log out¡± Day 7 Elora logged in on the 7th day of the beta test minutes before the announcement on what the racial survival quest would be. With a ding the quest started. [The demon lord Kast has decided that he desires the shadow elves enslaved. He has sent his minion Baal and an army of imps to crush the dark elves defences and capture the Coven for himself. Report to one of the Guilds to help defend the Coven. [remaining demons 300 Remaining defenders 500] Elora quickly headed over to the Guild of blight and searched for Priestess Gix. She found the priestess rallying 40 priests and acolytes to lead above ground where the battle would be fought. Catching Gix eye Elora quickly asked if there were any spells Gix could quickly teach her. She had 40 faith but 0 spells to use it on. Gix turned to an acolyte and instructed them to teach her the spells enfeeble and cursed healing. [enfeeble, costs 10 faith, if successfully cast - 10 all stats to the target and all others within a 5 foot radius(death picks no sides so be careful of friendly fire)] [cursed healing, costs 5 faith, deal 5 damage instantly to the target then heal them 4 points for every damage dealt. The damage dealt has an increased chance to crit.] Elora and the acolytes hurried up the spire going up 50 floors of stairs before exiting from the spires top into a small surface village. If the underground coven was the Heart of the shadow elves new home, the surface village was their face, providing a place the other races of darkness could come to to trade. Captain Grim of the watch called all the soldiers together and explained the plan. The elves would start by defending the walls. should they be breached then they would retreat to the spires and fight a defencive battle down the stairs in order to stop the demons from breaching. Should any demons make it through any of the spires they would fail as the demons would instantly create a portal to their home realm there. Elora ended up assigned to a group of 4 other beta players at one of the walls. They quickly introduced themselves and created a party with a level 8 Cursed swordsman named TotalRush as their leader. Elora was slightly worried as TotalRush seemed to think this would be a walk in the park with them outnumbering the demons almost two to one. The demons army came and led its attack off with several brown wargs being sent ahead. Using Examine Elora identified a warg bearing down on her group as [Brown Warg level 11 HP ???] TotalRush Immediately rushed forward and attacked it with his sword. The Warg retaliated by biting his arm and started swinging him madly back and forth like a terrier with a chew toy. TR¡¯s health points dropped by half immediately and quickly started dropping as the warg continued chewing on him. The other players in their party sprang forward, attacking the warg and attempting to get it off him. Elora cast moved up and cast shadows grasp on the warg to slow it down since weakness would hit to many of their party. Restrained and annoyed the warg dropped TR and headed for a different party member. Elora quickly cast her new cursed healing and watched as TR¡¯s hp dropped one last time before rising up to hover around 2/3rds his max. TR simply jumped at the warg again casting his slash skill. They were doing barely any damage to the monster, seeing red -1¡¯s and -2¡¯s float above it¡¯s head whenever they struck it. Noticing that her other party members were defending themselves adequately Elora cast several shadow bolts off getting a crit on the first one and managed to finish the warg off with a second crit for a whopping 30 damage on her fourth cast. The parties loot was set to random and one of her party members got lucky with the wargs drop. Checking the quest log showed the following [remaining demons 160 remaining defenders 322] In that one round of fighting they had managed to kill off almost half the demons at a two to one trade. Elora smiled finally realizing they stood a chance. As if to dash those thoughts the notice appeared. [Baal has become enraged and entered the fray] A large 4 armed demon strode forward with all the demon imps following behind him. Using examine showed his level to be 36 and each of the imps to have levels between 11 and 13. Watch Captain Grim strode forward with Priestess Gix at his side and a short shadow elf with the name [Agent B]. ¡°We will handle Baal, just keep those imps off our backs until we are done!¡± Grim commanded. TR took one look and logged out saying, ¡°to hell with this I ain¡¯t suicidal.¡± Two more of Elora¡¯s teammates backed up as well not wanting any part in the coming onslaught. Elora quickly moved forward with her remaining party member, a cursed swordsman named Jack. Standing at his side Elora Cast her enfeeble on as many imps as she could, hoping the stat drops would be enough to carry them through the fight. Drawing her wooden sword she stood her ground as the imps came onward and Baal met Captain Grim¡¯s party in a brutal fight behind her. Elora dodged an imps claw strike and retaliate with an attack of her own injuring the demon for 7 damage. Shadow elves were fighting imps in 1v1 and 1v2 fights in a small semicircle, that was continually being forced smaller as the imps pushed them back. Jack was struggling beside her with his own imp. They were losing and she needed something to turn the tide. A cry of despair came up from behind her, and throwing a glimpse back Ellora saw that Captain Grim was down and Agent B was struggling to Keep Baal back long enough for Gix to finish healing him. Making a split second decision Elora called on Jack to take over fighting her imp as well and turned, running towards Baal¡¯s back. As she ran she offered a quick prayer to her new goddess for the strength to see this fight threw then Elora focused all her strength and struck Baal in the back of one of his knees with her wooden sword. The blade shattered on impact, it¡¯s durability worn out but she was rewarded with a message. [cripple, %30 slow 40 seconds applied] Feeling elated at Slowing him Elora failed to dodge the fist Baal thew in retaliation. Her last vision before the game faded out was of Captain Grim standing back up and again attacking Baal. [You have lost consciousness, should you survive you may log back in in 1 hours time] 1 hour later Elora logged back in and was greeted with a familiar soft bed and spartan room. The Guardsman watching over her was even the same one. As she sat up Grim stepped in and congratulated her. With his injury Baal was no longer able to handle them and Grim¡¯s party had slain the demon. The imp¡¯s had been driven back and the attack had been stopped. Grim then explained that the Duchess wanted to congratulate Elora herself. [Congratulations for completing the Shadow elf racial survivability quest. As the shadow elf who contributed the most to defending the coven the Duchess has asked for you to visit her at your earliest convenience. Get there in under 15 minutes for additional rewards.] Elora left the War guild¡¯s spire and walked quickly to the Duchess¡¯s manor. The guards recognized her and one of them escorted her in. The large building was dark and for the first time in in the cave there was so little light her dark vision triggered allowing her to see a vast empty ballroom with doors leading to many rooms off of both the left and the right. The guard led her up a set of grand stairs at the back of the ballroom into a smaller office space where Elora finally met Duchess Aurae, leader of their race and third rank in power of the dark lords empire. Elora looked upon the Duchess beauty stunned, she had never before seen someone so beautiful, so perfect before. Aurae smiled at her and spoke, ¡°So you are the child who has caught the eye of our Watch¡¯s captain. You have done us a great service in aiding in Baal''s defeat. We heard that you lost your blade in the battle. We know you are an acolyte for Mania so let us see if we have something that can aid you in your journey.¡± With that the duchess pulled an exquisite jeweled blade out from behind her desk. She placed it on the desk saying. ¡°Take this, know that it has been an heirloom to your family for generations. You have done us proud.¡± With a loud noise Elora read. [you have impressed the duchess with your feet of bravery in the face of impossible odds. For completing the familial quest at such a low level you have been bestowed the secondary name Leafolder. You do not presently have enough knowledge of your heritage for all the benefits.] [new familial quest rank AA: learn the heritage behind your name, be careful as the name Leafolder has many ancient enemies] [You have gained Shard, blade of death] [Shard, Blade of death¡¯s stats. Item rarity: Unique (only the Duchess has the power to create such a deadly blade) Durability 5 damage 6-9 +2 per level, bonus damage temporarily increases for each enemy slain within the last hour passive, Life is fragile, as is the blade. After breaking, sheath to instantly recover blades durability.] Elora held the blade in awe at it¡¯s strength and abilities. Having a growing weapon would be great for leveling up and it was even better that it could repair itself. Elora was so giddy about the sword that she almost missed the next thing Aurae said. We took some damage from the attack and lost several aspiring elves. We have called one of our contacts, Matron Rue to lend us a small raid force for the moment. We wish to strike at the side of light to show the dark lord that the Shadow elves are not a broken race but are strong enough to stand proud at the forefront of his army vs the accursed light. Will you lead this raid? [quest rank A: The Duchess has asked you to lead a combined race raid against the side of light, quest requirements: kill off 20 NPC¡¯s from one of the border villages on the side of light/ Other, Quest will fail if you are unable to inflict enough casualties.][this quest can not be turned down] ¡°I accept.¡± Elora said still happy about her new blade. Leaving the Duchess Elora used the Blight guide¡¯s spire to reach the surface and traveled to the edge of the village where she would meet the allies she had been given for the quest. On her way she invited the Swordsman Jack to share it and he met her at the meeting spot. Before her stood a motley group of over 50 goblins lead by a level 7 hobgoblin. Elora used examine upon the leader as he walked up to them then said, ¡° Matron sais weak elfses needs goblins help. Goblin Kif lead warband and help weak elvses.¡± [Hobgoblin Kif level 7 Goblin Elite] Beginning of the war. Elora slumped exhausted. That damned goblin had led her and Jack through the worst 5 hour trek of her life. At least the goblins seemed to have stopped at a small cave. Elora straightened up and walked into the cave. [You have entered a safe zone][Kif¡¯s Lair]popped up in front her her eyes. Safe zones were different in Global Conflict than in other games. Logging out anywhere that was not a safe zone incurred a minor penalty to the player. Logging out in combat incurred a full death penalty. Also respawn points could only be set to safe zones. You could still fight in a safe zone just like in normal areas. Elora walked in and idly registered her respawn to Kifs safe zone. Considering that they had spent 5 hours running from the Shadow elves home town to reach the border it made sense that there would be some Side of Dark save zones in the area. There was a fire going in the cave and a small goblin girl with [Goblin Mi] was cooking some unidentified meat at it. Elora sat down next to the goblin to rest and recover her Stamina. 5 hours ago. ¡°Right all weak elvses here¡± Yelled Kif, ¡°Lets go!!!¡± With that Kif turned and ran off screaming, leading the rest of the goblins he had brought with him. Elora watched, blankly for a moment before Jack spoke up, ¡°I guess we should get going then as well.¡± The two shadow elves quickly caught up with the goblin party in time to watch it pull the aggro for several wolves in the area. instead of fighting in an orderly fashion Kif pointed and said, ¡°Food!!¡± The goblins swarmed the wolves and the party, including Elora, quickly gained a small amount of experience. Several goblin brutes picked up the carcasses and the party continued on. About 30 minutes into the trek Kif started singing and the goblins sped up their pace to match his song. Goblins are the very best, goblins are the very best Elves are weak and Orks are red Elves are weak and orks are red. Undead smell like Grandpa''s feet Undead smell like grandpa''s feet Matron Rue is nice and sweet Matron rue is nice and sweet The song went on for ever, four and a half hours of all the goblins singing a military marching song, every one of them was off tune and out of sink. Elora and jack both picked up the Goblin Language skill along with a Voluntary deafness skill. The second one decreased any conditions inflicted from sound based attacks such as roars or shouts. During the entire 5 hours the only breaks that the 2 elves got in there running was when the goblins managed to attract something big enough they couldn¡¯t swarm it to the ground. At those times Elora and Jack stepped in to help finish the monsters off. Back in the present. Kif walked up the fire, ¡°Ya ready to burn the humans?¡± he asked. ¡°Humans?¡± she replied. ¡°Farm place on the other side of the hill we be sitting in. small about 40 humans there.¡± Kif replied, then Elora got a notice. [Goblin Kif would like to invite you to his party] ¡°Your a player!!¡± she gasped,¡± why the hell did you run off like that?¡± Kif looked at her weirdly for a moment before saying, ¡°Goblins side of the quest on a timer, Only able to get the matron to send this many for 8 hours. We gots 2 hours left then they go home.¡± Elora just stared at him for a moment then hit the accept button, adding herself and Jack to Kif¡¯s party. ¡°Right, time to go kill all humans!¡± Kif yelled and his goblin party shouted it with him. Kif lead the war party out of the safe zone and around the hill. Before them was a small village of 4 farm houses, a general store, a larger home for the village elder, and a horse corral. There was a field of rabbits between the hill and the village proper and there were several low level Humans cornering and attacking the rabbits in groups of 2 and 3. As Elora took it in Kif yelled,¡± Kill the bunny lovers!!¡± and charged out to attack the human players in the field. His goblins loyally followed him while the 2 elves stayed behind. ¡°A plan would be useful.¡± Elora spoke to Jack. ¡°Your right.¡±he replied,¡±How about we let the goblins draw the aggro while we try to do the damage? they seem pretty good at pissing off every living being in sight.¡± Elora accepted and the shadow elves joined the fray. Kifs Point of view (first time the author tries for this) ¡°Kill all the bunny lovers!!¡± Kif yelled and led his borrowed war party onward. Kif rushed towards the humans leveling in the bunny field and drew his sword. He had been lucky to recover the sword of the ork Sub commander Hrolk and it was amazing. Goblin damage was dependant mostly on whatever weapon they were wielding so the sub commanders blade had proven great at letting Kif get killing blows on wolves and other monsters that he should not have been able to take. The 3 humans he was running towards looked up at his shout and froze, which was not their best decision as the 2 rabbits they were fighting got in a hit, inflicting crippled -30% movespeed, to one of them. Kif got in range and gleefully swung his blade at the crippled player. -20hp Floated up. The player''s allies jumped at Kif and he had to quickly back up receiving a knock to his head by one of their staffs and completely dodging the knife of the other. The staff wielder murmured something quickly and glowed yellow. +25 hp floated up above the crippled player and his crippled stat vanished. Angry, he moved in to attack Kif with his knife wielding ally. Kif moved in grimly, He needed to knock one of them out of the fight before they managed to surround him. At this low level healers were almost as tough as fighters so Kif went for the person he was closest to, the knife wielder. Faking an attack he froze and made his eyes go as wide as they could. He pointed behind the player and said ¡°Monster!!¡± The knife wielder didn¡¯t turn around like Kif had hoped, in fact all he did was shoot a quick glance to his allies, unfortunately for him that glance gave Kif enough time to ram Hrolk¡¯s sword through his Cloth shirt and out his back. With a grunt he slumped down and Kif quickly switched the sword for the dropped players knife. Kif rushed the healer as some goblins from the war party jumped the last player in the party. 3 quick knife stabs later, Kif was sitting on a corps gathering his breath and rubbing 4 growing lumps on his head. ¡°That healer was a better fighter than the other two¡± He muttered. ¡°Well, it is time to heard my fellow idiots back together for the quest. Kif retrieved his sword from the knife wielders chest as Elora and Jack came up. ¡°Now that the players are out of the equation you ready for the quest?¡± he asked. They both nodded and He called the goblins together from where they were scattered about the field. ¡°Lets go.¡± Kif didn¡¯t lead the charge this time, selecting 4 Goblin brutes he ordered them to break down the doors to the 4 farm houses. Kif split the attack groups between the 4 houses and followed one in. Elora and Jack both lead their own groups into a house and Kif left the 4th house to the goblin NPCs. Entering behind the brute Kif quickly looked around. It was a small 4 room building, the front door entered into the living room to the right was a kitchen and in the back appeared to be 2 bedrooms. there was a farmer, his 2 sons, and his wife in the building. [Farmer Dan Fiddles level 13][Joe Fiddles level 4][Baran Fiddles level 6][Elen Fiddles level 9] Farmer Dan and his sons were forming a wall between the goblins and his wife while she started casting a spell. All three of them were armed with swords. The brute that broke down the door charged Dan and was cut in half by his blade. He stepped forward and said, ¡°Come on ya cowards.¡± Kif let out a cry and rushed him with the rest of his party behind him. He ducked the farmers blade and swung his own at his leg. Dan jumped over the attack and then brought his blade down in a heavy strike straight down. Kif struck the sword with his own, shifting its strike to the floor. Dan¡¯s heavy strike buried his sword in the wooden floor. Kifs arms were numb from deflecting the attack but he was still able to bring his blade around and behead Dan. Elen Fiddles let out a scream of despair as her husband and 2 sons were cut down. Cornered by the goblins she finished her spell and launched a fireball at the one who had behead the man she loved. Kif looked up from his victory in time to see a 4 foot diameter ball of fire rushing towards him. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.-200 damage With a bang. Kif died. [You have died would you like to respawn?] {Yes/No] ¡°Yes,¡± he said. grabbing a spare dagger out of his chest in the lair Kif ran out to rejoin the quest. Elora stood in front of the second house. One of the goblin brutes was beating on the door but apparently these farmers had more warning than the ones Kif was fighting as they had blocked the door with something. Seeing the goblins struggling to get in the door Elora walked around the house looking for something to use to get in. She noticed that there was a gap between the ceiling and the outer walls of the house, most likely due to the warm climates and the buildings lack of a fire place. There were 4 wooden supports holding the ceiling up. Maybe she could bring the building down on it¡¯s inhabitants. Elora quickly cast Enfeeble on the wood and watched as it darkened and seemed to rot some. She grabbed one of her brutes and ordered him to attack the corner, then moved around to the next support. The house groaned as 2 of the supports collapsed. Elora moved to destroy the third support when the farmers rushed out of the house, no longer able to hide in the building. [Hunter Gill level 12][Gills kid level 3][Gills kid level 3][Gill''s wife level 5] It was obvious to Elora that Gills kids and wife weren¡¯t that important if the game wouldn¡¯t even give them a name. She left all her goblins but the second brute to jump the family while the 2 of them attacked Gill. As she moved in Elora noted that Gill was armed with a longbow. Elora quickly cast shadow bolt at Gill and moved in to attack him with her sword. -15 Miss Gill dodged her sword strike and then kicked her in the chest, knocking her back several feet. He attempted to draw his bow and fire when the brute swung its club at him. Cursing Gill took the club to the shoulder then rammed the arrow into the brutes side. Elora got back to her feet and struck Gill in the back with her sword. The brute grabbed at Gill and he matched it in a wrestling grip. The brute pinned him in place as Elora struck Gill twice more in the back, killing him. Elora quickly pulled the arrow out of the Brute and cast cursed healing on it, stopping the bleeding. One house down, she thought. Jack looked at the house then shrugged as his goblin brigade broke down the door. He stepped inside and frowned. The farmer in this building was putting up a decent fight but the other five members of the family were to low level to matter. Jack drew his blade and pushed the goblins out of the way. Getting the farmer''s attention he attacked with an overhand swing that quickly lead into the 8 base sword attacks. Jack was no master swordsman but the shadow elf teacher had drilled this basis into him. Left shoulder, right leg, left gut, right shoulder, thrust, Left leg, Right gut, Head. His attacks flowed together, not giving the higher level farmer a chance to attack him back. With a shout Jack activated bloody strike and left a cut across the farmer''s chest. [You have inflicted bleeding, -2hp for 10 seconds] and backed up. letting the goblins handle the injured man. Jack left the building certain that the goblins could finish up. ¡°I hope that this quest isn¡¯t the end of this light versus dark nonsense¡± he muttered. Kif walked up to the 2 elves saying,¡± i got 4 how many you get?¡± ¡°four¡± Elora replied. ¡°Six¡± Jack stated. ¡°So, 6 more to finish this quest.¡± Jack stated. ¡°Headcount!¡± he then roared and started counting the goblin survivors. Of his own group 4 had survived. Elora¡¯s group had 7 left and Jack¡¯s group had 3. One survivor walked out of the 4th house saying they had found 2 humans holed up in the building. ¡°fifteen goblins left and we need to kill 4 more.¡± Jack said. Pulling out the only coin he had he flipped it saying,¡±Heads we hit the store, tails we hit the big house.¡± With a ding the coin bounced twice in the dirt and landed heads. Kif lead the group to the general store and instructed their only surviving brute to knock down the door. The brute roared and charged, and the defenders inside opened the door to let it in. It hit a tripline and sprawled before dieing as the shop assistants and 2 of the few surviving human players stabbed it quickly. With a bang the door slammed shut again, leaving Kif fuming. ¡°how about burning the building down.¡± Jack said. He was looking at the damaged farmhouse that Elora had left behind. ¡°We have 6 regular goblins who have some fire magic, just burn the place.¡± Kif nodded and instructed the goblins to start lighting the building on fire while Elora and Jack got the hobgoblins set to block the exits. For several minutes nothing happened, then with a scream the 2 human players led a charge out the front door. They were quickly followed by the shopkeeper and 5 assistants. The players charged at Elora as the hobgoblins got into fights with the shopkeeper. Elora backed up quickly while blocking their attacks while Kif and Jack moved up behind the humans. With several quick slashes the humans dropped and Kif turned towards the merchants. The players quickly finished off the merchants and relaxed. With the quest complete Elora and Jack headed out to turn it in. Kif sent back the borrowed goblins and looked at what was left of this village. Alone he decided to see if his Shock corps rider class would allow him to ride a horse. The village was silent as Kif moved into the the coral. there were 8 horses in the coral, 6 of them looked like large plow horses while the last two were a Foal and its dam. Noting that there was some tackle on the corals fence, Kif grabbed it and walked up to the Foal. The Foal allowed him to put the tackle on it. Kif led it over to the fence and tied it¡¯s tackle down. Kif then moved towards the Colts mother and tried to put the tackle on her. The horse reared up and kicked him in the head. [You have died, would you like to respawn?] [Yes/No] ¡°Yes,¡± Kif said, then quickly ran out the cave and back to the coral. He glared at the dam then again entered the coral to put the tackle on her. He had to carefully maneuver the dam to be in the middle of the more laid back horses before he was able to sneak up beside her and throw a rope around her neck. He gave up on the tackle and simply tied her to the colt¡¯s tackle. Kif finally grabbed the colt¡¯s lead and led the two horses away to his lair. He had big dreams of getting a mount and this would help him. A few days later Kif returned to the Volcan Hive and, after dropping off the horse and resetting his lair to the main hive, headed to meet with Matron Rue. ¡°We slaughtered hundreds of humans and burned their towns to the ground.¡± he said as way of greeting. ¡°Don¡¯t lie to me.¡±She replied, ¡°you hit a small town of nobodies and killed a few nobodies. nothing more. Get out of my sight for now.¡± [Ding, You have completed the quest to support the shadow elves. +2 levels +10 silver] Smiling Kif headed out to the mushroom farms to steal a snack while he went through the global messages he had ignored. Apparently the only race that failed the racial survivability quest was the dwarfs. The other races of light would have to do several quests to help them before any players could spawn as dwarfs. The orcs and demons had succeeded in a different attack on the side of light and a crusade quest had been generated by the lights humans. It¡¯s army would head out in 3 more days to attack somewhere on the side of dark. Kif determined that he would try to be there to defend the area but first he needed to level up. Throughout all the quests that he had done he had only reached level 12 so far and he still had not added anyone else to his lair. Having made his decision Kif headed out of the mushroom farms back to the lair proper. His goal was to double the goblins in his lair over the next 3 days. {Authors rant, This is the first story I have ever put into writing. I normaly daydream to much about this stuff and never write it down. Expect Looong gaps between my chapters since my job keeps me from working on this all that much. } 2 days before battle Kif logged in and stretched. He had been forced to skip a day of gaming to cover for one of his coworkers and was now looking forward to restarting his training. There were only 2 days left until the Side of light¡¯s army attacked and Kif wanted to attempt a few hazardous to his health things before it began. His current armor was a patchwork of badly sewn leather scraps that goblin Mi had thrown together. The nice expensive leather set he had worn for the helping the elves quest had been burned badly and his current patchwork was all that had been salvageable. He had at least managed to recover Hrolk¡¯s sword and it was going to stay in the chest until the day of the battle started. Kif pulled out one of several rusty daggers that he kept in the chest for respawns and left the spawning area. Traveling through the goblin city he passed the old Goblin Bu and set his sights on the other side of the city. While he had been training near the top of the cavern for the survivability quest Kif had spotted what looked like a pond in one corner of the cavern and that was his destination. ¡®This quest is likely going to be out in the open and if we end up defending a proper castle with a moat knowing how to swim could be useful.¡¯ he thought. As a goblin he couldn¡¯t actually learn any skills, but practicing it to make sure he didn¡¯t sink like a stone seemed feasible. Arriving at the pond he noted that it was empty. Nothing living was in it and a faint mist could be seen rising from it. He cautiously cupped a small amount of water into his hands and brought it to his lips to taste the water. Lime, that was the flavor. The entire pond contained a large amount of dissolved limestone. While not outright harmful, it tasted pretty bad. Shrugging Kif stepped into the pond. He started by simply letting himself sink with a full lungful of breath. It turns out that goblins bones and muscles are so dense that they don¡¯t float like a human or elf would so he quickly straightened up for the next test. Taking a new breath Kif pushed off and attempted to swim by using the forward crawl. The pond was maybe 100 yards across and Kif quickly reached the other side. Kicking off he returned using the Breaststroke. This was harder as it required him to go under water for part of the style and getting back up to the surface was tough. Taking another breath Kif attempted the back stroke, and almost drowned himself as he was unable to keep his speed high enough to keep himself from sinking. He paused, on the far side of the pond to recover his stamina and look out at the goblin city. ¡®I only have this place to myself for 2 more days. They announced yesterday that the next stage of the beta was going to happen and they would be letting the next wave of testers join straight at level 10. I¡¯ll have to catch as many of the important quests as i can first.¡± he thought. Kif looked around the edge of the pond and where it met the cavern¡¯s wall near where he was. He was going to attempt the Butterfly stroke back to the city side and wanted to see if diving was a possibility. As he glanced around he noticed a dark spot on the wall, it looked alot like his lair skill. Kif edged his way around the pond to the dark spot and touched it. [Rumble] The sound echoed through the area and with a loud crack, the pond started draining away. Kif looked down to see that an opening had appeared at the bottom of the pond and stepps looked to be leading down it. The water stopped flowing down into the opening when the pond was halfway drained, leaving the stairs and the darkness underwater. Some small glowing eels swam out of the opening showing that the underwater area was lit up, partially. Kif gathered his courage, stowed it away for later and decided that death by drowning couldn¡¯t possibly be that bad. Taking off the scraps he had on except for a necklace of leather holding the dagger, Kif took a deep breath and dove in. The passageway was poorly lit and led the goblin on a circuitous route down some stairs and through empty hallways. Dark opening appeared on each side of him, showing further halls. Any doors that had used to exist down here had long ago rotted away. As he was starting to get desperate for air Kif saw a few small bubbles of air trapped by the ceiling. He quickly swam up and gasped in a new lungfull before continuing his exploration. He noted that the air pockets were separated out and, the eels seemed to congregate around them, which made finding further air bubbles easier. After 20 minutes of swimming Kifs eyes were starting to burn. The lime, dirt, and random angered eels were combining together to make further swimming difficult. Kif made the decision that he needed to turn around and get back to actually training. unfortunately for him, all the eels he had passed had taken to following the stupid goblin out of curiosity. All the passages he had passed through, along with their accompanying air bubbles were hidden in the pitch dark water filled catacombs. With the choice of slowly drowning or continuing on Kif swam towards the next lit area. It was another 10 minutes before he saw light that did not originate from the eels. Swimming up to it his head broke the surface of the water and he was now in a well lit open cavern, quite far from the Goblin Lair. He pulled himself out of the water and started looking around. This close to the center of the Volcano the air and water were both pretty warm so walking around in a wet loincloth wasn¡¯t much of an issue. The light was coming from around a bend in the cavern from the water pool so Kif crept up to the corner slowly before looking around it. His eyes widened in awe at what he saw before him. Before the stunned goblin was a large open cavern, easily twice the size of the goblin city, and two thirds of it was covered in large glowing red crystals. Most of the crystals were 9 foot tall or taller, only a few approached Kif¡¯s size and none were small enough for carrying. The last part of the cavern was where the light was coming from. The larvae that fed the goblin river was visible flowing up towards its release point in the goblin city. A magical barrier kept it from flowing into the cavern and disrupting whatever it was that these crystals were for. Kif walked up to the closet crystal and touched it. A ripple traveled the surface of the red crystal like the entire thing was made of water, and before the goblin could react the crystal opened up and wrapped itself around him. Absorbing him much like a slime would. [Your character has been knocked unconscious. Should it survive you may log back in in 10 minutes when it wakes up.] With that Kif was forcibly logged out. 10 minutes later Kif logged in to experience himself being forcibly launched out of the red crystal into a wall. -10 hp He impacted head first and slowly picked himself back up to his feet. The crystal had launched him across the cavern and before him was a human sized doorway. Hoping that nothing else untoward would happen to him, and experiencing a migraine that rivaled having a man take a drill to his skull, Kif stepped through the doorway to see what was left. Inside he found a single room home complete with a rotten bed, a bookcase with 1 book in it, a work desk, and a skeleton of the dead owner sitting in a chair. On the desk was a second book along with a large amount of dust. Kif stepped in and picked up the desk book first. [You have acquired Mad scientist Bjorn¡¯s journal] [You are unable to read the journal as you do not know the language it is written in] Seeing nothing else in the room He picked up the other book. [You have acquired Idiot¡¯s guide to ¡°oops is shouldn¡¯t have touched that¡± By: Bjorn] [This book is written in goblin. The AI thinks you should read it!] ¡°Ha ha very funny.¡± Kif said as he looked at the two books. ¡°The only problem is I don¡¯t have an inventory and i drop EVERYTHING I HAVE ON ME WHEN I DIE!!!¡± he then yelled in frustration. The journal was probably worth a ton in an auction house to whoever could read it, but Kif saw no way to get it to the goblin village intact as his current path home was diving through the defencive barrier for a quick lava roasting. Fire and books don¡¯t mix that well. Kif sat down and opened the idiot''s guide to ¡°oops i shouldn¡¯t have touched that.¡± ¡°So in summary,¡± he muttered. ¡°Every few hundred years an insanely greedy archmage or researcher is born in the Side of light. After carving out a swath of destruction they are generally kicked out by the people in power and forced to come build a home here. This guy knew matron rue and devoted his life to researching immortality. He¡¯s the person who crafted the Lair spell that all goblin elites know.¡± Kif set the book down after finishing it. At the end it described the red crystals as HexTech Mutation engines. One engine was designed for each playable race that the mad scientist had known about and would unlock some secret for anyone of that race who touched them. Kif counted 50 large crystals and 20 more that were smaller than him. it was only a 10 minute logout for him if he picked the wrong crystal. He decided to find the goblin one and hopefully gain some new power to make all this time spent exploring worth it. Three hours later Kif discovered the goblin crystal. It was the closest to the lava flow and only a little taller than him. Upon touching it it flashed green before engulfing him. [Your character has been knocked unconscious. Should it survive the transformation you may log back in in 6 hours. A mini game has been provided to allow you to influence the transformation. You must pass one level for each hour needed for your transformation or it will fail.] Kif opened his eyes. He wasn¡¯t in the game anymore, instead he was back in his game lounge. Instead of just having Global Conflict¡¯s icon floating in front of him he had 2. Global conflict with a 6 hour timer that was slowly counting down, and crisis of self, the minigame. Kif opened up crisis of self determined to succeed. Hardmode was fine and all but he really wanted to gain some broken skill to make up for his races shortcomings. The loading screen finished and the game opened up. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it[First stage. Survival horror. Don¡¯t let the infected eat you for 20 minutes.] Kif, the goblin avatar, was in the middle of a burned out building in zombie central Houston. He recognized the sign for the galeria across the block. A snarl made him aware that his spawn location had zombies in it moments before he was tackled to the ground. His vision went red as the zombie ripped out his throat and he died. [You have died. would you like to try again? successive attempts incur penalties] He selected yes and the stage loaded again. This time the goblin needed to live for 25 minutes. Kif immediately started running upon loading in the middle of the street. He saw zombies running out from both sides of the road, exiting most of the empty buildings and chasing him. After 25 minutes of running the streets of his hometown he succeeded the stage. [Second stage, Robbery survival. Some burglars have broken into your home. Kill all of them to survive. Burglars left 3] Kif¡¯s character woke up in bed. Quickly getting out he grabbed his rusty knife off it¡¯s necklace and snuck out of his room. There was a man eating a sandwich while going through some dressers in the room he entered. Quietly moving up behind him Kif slit the man''s throat and covered his mouth as much as he could while the man died. He then moved into the next room. It was a kitchen and in it another man was emptying the pantry. There was a kitchen counter in the middle. Kif moved around it to attack the second burglar. He was noticed as he got near and a quick struggle happened before he managed to stab the burglar twice in the gut. The commotion brought the third burglar who pulled a gun out. Kif ducked behind the counter then watched as the first bullet punched clean through it. Deciding he needed to take a chance he straightened up and threw his knife. It missed and the burglar shot him in the head. -15 hp (Few people believe in stopping weapons with their head. you are one of them. Aren¡¯t you lucky your skull is so thick?) Both Kif and the burglar were amazed he survived, not wanting to take any chances he quickly rushed the man and tackled him. Kif headbutted the man twice before retrieving his dagger and ending the scenario. [Third stage, spicy jalapeno contest, Out eat the reigning champion, Jalapeno¡¯s left 100, Taste buds settings locked to Max] ¡°O my god,¡± Kif whispered as he saw the mountain of green pain in front of him on the contest table. Kif slowly took a seat and asked the host, ¡°Can we drink water with them?¡± ¡°Only one shot every 5 to make it fair.¡± the host replied pointing to a one ounce shot glass. ¡°Alright contestants!¡± the host said to Kif and the Champion.¡± Lets put thirty minutes on the clock! The contestant who eats the most Jalapeno¡¯s Wins. Ready? Go!¡± Thirty agonizing minutes later Kif succeeded and the stage vanished. [Fourth stage, Belcher''s bluff {Motivational quest}, Out belch Gristle the dwarven drunk.] Kif was sitting in a brightly lit tavern. Loud music was being played and dwarven barmen were running around refilling ale to hundreds of tired dwarven miners. Across from Kif was an over muscled dwarf with [Gristle] floating above his head. There was a full mug of beer in front of each of them. Gristle picked his up, drained it in one go, and. {Braauuuuuup} Kif felt a noticeable wind from the force the dwarf put into it. Taking his own mug he quickly drained it then inhaling let loose his own. {Braaaaaaap} Only barely, he thought he had managed to beat Gristle. When the notification didn¡¯t pop up he watched as one of the barmen refilled both mugs immediately. Gristle emptied his ale, then pulled out a small silver bottle marked [Fire breath]. He drank one gulp of it and let loose. {BuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrHHHHHH} Knocking Kif out of his seat with the force. Kif lay down on the floor trying to think of what to do. Remembering his glory days back in highschool and middle school, Kif took several deep breaths and swallowed, putting as much air into his stomach as he could. Getting back up he grabbed the mug, took just a sip and let loose. Arching his throat and carefully using his jaw. {BwUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP} Gristle jerked and looked actually stumped for a moment. ¡°What have i been doing with my life?¡± the dwarf exclaimed. ¡°Boys, I¡¯m not about to let some damned demon imps sit in our halls while goblins come and cheat us in drinking games! Get your weapons, we are taking back our home.¡± [Fifth stage, Cooking surprize {Historical quest}, Cook something so inspiring the world¡¯s cooks will speak of the act for ages, servings necessary 4] Before Kif were an array of ingredients from the game, Flour, apples, eggs, rice, sugar, and other base items. He was in a large middle ages kitchen and at a table at the end were 4 Chef¡¯s watching his actions. He took in all the items and thought back to his days in college. In real life he had spent his first semester not truly knowing what he wanted to do with his life. That semester he took an introduction to cooking class at his college''s Food service college. The professor had been a decent chef, but it was the visiting chef that really surprised him. Kif¡¯s professor had somehow gotten the head Chef in charge of the main menu for the North Korean/South Korean Peace talks. The chef had taught the students 1 dish, the most amazing egg roll Kif had ever had. His own version had been terrible in comparison but, the chef had shown them everything from making the rice wrapper through the cooking and serving. Kif went to work and, 3 hours later had 4 perfectly wrapped egg rolls plated to look amazing. He brought them to the Chef judges and stepped back. [Stage 6, Run, Run without stopping, Time limit = the mutation engine completes its task] Kif looked at the explanation for the stage, then looked around his newest surroundings. He was in the forest and on a dirt path. Sighing he started running. After 10 minutes he heard a roar and a large monster broke out onto the path behind him and took chase after the goblin. He quickly sped up so the monster did not catch him. Further ahead a tree trunk appeared in front of him across the path. Kif leaped over it and kept going. Another one appeared at chest height and he again leapt over it. A double set appeared at chest height and 6 inches over it. Kif slid under them light a baseball player hitting a plate then immediately got back up and ran. The monster bulled right through the tree trunks sending splinters everywhere. The path Kif was running on had become an obstacle course and the trees soon gave way to ruins. Kif kept running and the monster, it¡¯s shape ever changing, just kept after him. Three hours into the run the path took Kif into a cave. Here the obstacles became slick rocks, Stalactites and stalagmites, and random Cave spiders. Looking behind him he noted the monster had shrunk down to about 7 feet tall. It¡¯s features had taken on a humanoid shape. Kif continued following the path faithfully until it hit a dead end. Reaching it the wall in front of him opened and he saw a familiar site. A large room of Glowing red crystals of varying sizes lit by a lava lake flowing UP to likely feed the goblin hometown¡¯s river. An arrow was floating above his crystal and Kif put in a burst of speed to reach it. Touching the crystal he looked behind himself one last time to see a mirror image of himself. This Kif calmly walked up and put it¡¯s own hand on the crystal then stepped into it. [Ding, Congratulations on surviving the Mutation Engine] [You have unlocked new skills] [New skill, Utility equip/Minor has been gained][+3 levels][+ one egg roll] ¡°Display Utility equip/Minor¡± Utility equip /minor 1 utility slot. The player may place one non-combat item in the utility slot for quick access. This slot is accessible from the player''s belt and does not count towards the player''s storage bag limit. Items in utility slots are not dropped on death and can not be stolen. (Examples of items that fit in a single utility slot are as follows. 1Coin pouch 1 healing potion 1 mana potion 1 cooking utensil 1 20 food ingredients pouch 1 20 slot alchemy ingredients bag) (all other bags and utility items require a minimum of 2 utility slots. Kif looked at the information as he held the eggroll the system had rewarded him with. ¡°One Item slot, I sit through all that torture and all i get is one item slot that can¡¯t even store weapons! FUDGE!!!!¡± he screamed. Depressed, and mentally exhausted Kif dropped the egg roll into the slot and walked into the Lava. [You have died, would you like to respawn?] ¡°Not just now, Log out.¡± (Author¡¯s rant. Woo, day one down. ) The day before. [Brrring][Brrring][Brrring] Groaning, Jason Velmont, CEO of Velmont¡¯s gaming company slowly woke up and reached for his phone. The clock on the bed showed 2:00 AM. Jason: There had better be a damned good reason I am getting this call. Caller: Yes sir, if you remember you wanted to be told if anything big happened in the game. Well 2 major events just happened and we are trying to figure out which one is going to have a larger impact. Jason: ¡­ Go on. Caller: The good news is that one of the beta players managed to complete a resurrection quest for the dwarven race so the new wave of beta players that will be starting tomorrow will be able to select dwarves. This will also increase the size of the army of lights army considerably for the upcoming world event. Jason: That sounds great. now what could possibly have as much impact as resurrecting an entire playable race? Caller: The same player completed a follow on Historical quest. The highest level food in the game just became Egg rolls. Jason: WHAT!!! 7:00 AM [Buzzz] The player who is Kif in Global Conflict woke up. His phone had just buzzed and the only people who ever sent him messages were his co-workers. Checking the messages he noted that one of his female co-workers was going to come in late to work tomorrow and the manager wanted him to come in. The player quickly typed in a message that he could come in in the morning but would need the evening off. Hopefully the war that would start tomorrow morning would be an all day event at a minimum. He quickly made himself some cereal then put on the VR headset. [Log in] Kif sat up and stretched. He had spent the entire day on that long quest chain but at least he had gained a mad scientist''s journal and a storage slot. Reaching into his new storage slot Kif pulled out an egg roll. ¡°What, no wait, NOOOO.¡± he cried as he realized in his exhausted state yesterday he had just pocketed the eggroll instead of recovering the priceless mad scientist¡¯s journal. ¡°Maybe i can go get it back, yes ill do that.¡± he cried as he ran back across the city. He replaced the eggroll in the storage slot as he ran. Reaching the pond he noted that it was refilled with water and the stairs had closed up. Kif quickly swam across and touched the dark spot, only to have nothing happen. The mechanism was so old it had broken and this entrance to the Scientist¡¯s cavern was now sealed forever. Kif sat down on the far side of the pond and cried for a few minutes. While he sat there crying a world alert to a new patch rang out. [Players, the devs at Velmont inc have discovered a glitch in our consumable items programming. Starting now consuming a consumable item above your player level incurs increasing negative statuses dependant on the level difference between yourself and the item. Consuming items over 20 levels higher than your own will incur death. Thank you and happy fighting.] Kif looked at it and thought, isn¡¯t this an outright nerf to goblins. We are the only race that can ignore the level cap on equipment and instead have to manage equipment weight. Isn¡¯t it enough that we already have extremely low starting stats? Grumbling about the unfairness in the world Kif headed back into the main portion of the goblin city. He was level 15 now and needed to increase his levels and maybe add more goblins to his lair quickly before more beta testers started tomorrow. He walked up to Old goblin Bu. ¡°Hey Bu, you know any easy way for me to get goblins to join my lair?¡± he asked. Kif figured that it was worth a shot to try to get everything he could out of the old goblin. ¡°Goblins looking to join a young lair.¡± Bu said, ¡° My own lair has grown a bit larger than i¡¯d prefer. I tell you what, If you can clear out the spider queen''s cavern in the lower caves i¡¯ll see about getting some of my younglings to join ya.¡± [Old goblin Bu want¡¯s to move his lair into an area with more space to grow. Clear out the spider queen''s cavern of all threats so Bu can move there. Quest rewards:???] ¡°I¡¯ll take it.¡± Kif said and ran back to his own small lair. Kif spent the mana to respawn his Companion Goblin Mu then retrieved Hrolk¡¯s sword from his chest. Properly armed and with a fellow hobgoblin at his back Kif ventured out of the goblin city towards the ground side exit. Entering the spiders dens the two goblins went on alert. There were several webs strewn about the area but no spiders in sight. Kif tossed a rock into a nearby web and three brown spiders popped up [Brown spider level 5]*3 Moving quickly he slashed off 2 of the legs from the nearest one then moved around to attack the next. His companion engaged the third spider. The brown spiders only had a slow web attack so the first group was easy to defeat. Kif recovered some of their webbing and handed it to Mu. Mu had respawned with his normal leather armor and rusty sword, along with a small satchel. Assuming both goblins survived this they would be able to sell the webs elsewhere. Moving deeper into the spider dens the two goblins came across a split in the cave system. Kif remembered that the right hand side lead to the slime pools and out of the mountain so he headed off to the left. [You have entered Spider queen''s lair.] [Quest update: Defeat the spiders and smash their eggs to lure out the spider queen.] Kif was in a large open cavern area. Small breaks in the rock created a large uneven field before him. Near the ceiling he could see the spider queen sleeping, and throughout the area were 5 large clusters of eggs guarded by groups of brown spiders and green spiders. Kif selected a small group of two brown spiders and one green. Telling Mu to hold off the brown ones he tossed his rusty dagger at the green spider then rushed it with his blade. [-3 blunt damage] Striking the spider with the pommel of the thrown dagger did more damage than the blade did. Having got it¡¯s attention he swung at it¡¯s leggs. the spider jumped back and started glowing a dark forest green. After 2 seconds of channeling it spat out a wad of Green liquid at Kif. He ducked under it and rushed the spider, quickly beheading it while it recovered from its attack. Turning around he went to Mu and helped him deal with the brown spiders. Afterwards Kif examined the green spiders corps and the liquid it had spit out. The green puddle was bubbling and seemed to be letting off steam. Kif touched it with his recovered dagger only to watch as the blade dissolved in front of his eyes. He then went on to examine the Acid spider¡¯s corps. It was smaller and it¡¯s exoskeleton was weaker than the brown spiders but it¡¯s ranged attack would probably one shot an unwary goblin. Kif and Mu recovered the webs they could from the spider corpses and left to get back to the goblin city. He wanted some ranged attack to deal with these acid spiders since their acid burned through metal so fast. The two arrived back in the city and quickly found some goblin weapons merchants. ¡°You, you look strong, you want Groc¡¯s best weapon? Come, Come look, Groc invented Big rock¡± said the nearest one attempting to get them to buy something. Kif wandered through various merchant stalls. None of the weapon merchants crafted weapons. All the weapons in the shops were acquired from somewhere else and were of the cheapest variety possible. Wooden clubs, both spiked and plain were in abundance and were constantly exchanging hands. Kif saw no bow¡¯s, nor any throwing spears. The only ranged weapons he was able to find where slings. Kif was uncertain how useful a sling would be but decided he may as well get his races ¡°latest and greatest military super weapon¡± before some other idiot hurt themselves. Kif traded all the webs he and Mu had gathered for 2 slings and 2 bags of marbles. For some reason there was tons of glass for cheap in the City and Groc threw in the marble ammunition for free in order to get his hands on the web. Kif watched the crazy merchant add his latest trade to a rather large pile of web in the back of the tent before heading out with Mu to get back to hunting. Groc apparently wanted all the web he could get his hands on. Kif and Mu loaded the slings and practiced launching them at random targets of opportunity as they moved out of the city and back to the spider caverns. Spying a newly respawned set of brown spiders Kif launched a marble at them and managed to hit one of the 3 in the leg. -8 damage [Crippled applied, -30% movespeed] Kif quickly wrapped the sling around his arm and drew his sword. The two goblins easily dealt with the brown spiders and returned to the Queen¡¯s lair. ¡°I want you to focus on hitting the green spiders with the sling while i deal with the brown ones. Make sure you dodge their acid spit.¡± Kif told his subordinate. He had noticed that Mu had better aim than him with the slings. Kif started out the next fight by launching his sling hard at the next spider group. -12 damage floated up as he hit the body of one of the brown spiders. Having agro¡¯d the group he switched weapons and moved forward, intent on finishing the brown spiders quickly. Mu launched a large amount of marbles from his own sling at the acid spiders. The benefits of the sling compared to a bow where it¡¯s rapid fire ability and ease of use in close quarters. It¡¯s negatives were how hard it was to aim at anything beyond 10 feet and it¡¯s low comparative damage. Mu was able to wear down all of the acid spiders by the time kif dealt with the brown ones. Then the goblins were left with the harder task. Digging clear glass marbles out of dead green spider corpses without bursting the acid venom sacks within their bodies. Overall the simple plan worked and soon Kif had slain all the spiders in the Queen''s den. He gathered all the spider eggs together with Mu and crushed them all at once. Immediately the spider queen dropped down. [Spider queen Level 50] ¡°What the hell is up with these levels. The darned acid spiders were only level 7.¡± Kif yelled out loud. ¡°This is probably why no ones ever cleared this cavern¡± replied Mu. Kif gritted his teeth as he thought furiously. ¡°Let¡¯s both start with ranged attacks, ¡° he said. Since goblins did not have an identify skill he had no way to figure out what the spiders attacks would be beyond dodging them. The two goblins let fly with their slings and struck the queen''s body. -2 damage -3 damage Her defence from her exoskeleton was so high that most of the damage from the slings was negated. The queen glowed white for 3 seconds then spat out some webbing, faster than the brown spiders had. Kif quickly dodged it then had to dodge again as she spat out 3 more webbing shots before stopping. He took this opportunity to tell Mu to aim for her eyes and let loose another shot from his own sling. -2 -2 The lack of accuracy was going to make this exceedingly difficult he realized. The queen started moving after a moment and charged the two goblins, forcing them to split. She rushed threw where they had been and only stopped when she reached the wall of the cavern, striking it with her legs and the side of her body to stop her forward momentum. -40 hp The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.Making a mockery of them her Hp bar finally showed up displaying that she had %89 of her life left. immediately after her charge the queen glowed green and spat out one large gob of acid at Kif. He dodged the majority of it but some splashed onto his hand. -10 hp [Accid erosion applied, -6hp per second until removed] Kif stared in horror at his left hand. He didn¡¯t have anything to remove the acid with. Grimly he drew his sword and placed his arm on the ground. With a resolute swing he cleaved off his own hand at the wrist. -5 damage [Accid erosion removed] [Small bleed applied, -2hp for 10 seconds] Watching his hp drop he sighed. He could live through the bleed, barely. unfortunately he was unable to use the sling with only one hand. Kif gripped his blade and looked at the queen. 20seconds had gone by and she had not moved from where she had spat the accid. Mu had struck her several times with the sling and had managed to injure one of her eyes for a crit of 10 damage. After 30 seconds of recovery the queen started glowing white again and the two goblins dodged her webshots. Kif now felt confident that he knew her attacks and waited, dodging what she did until after she spat her acid. He ran forward and struck the queen several times in her leg joints. He was able to sever 3 legs before the 30 second recovery period ended and he had to again back off. Hrolk¡¯s sword was again doing work for the goblin as the queen''s health was under %40 after his slashing spree. Instead of charging she went from the web spitting straight to the acid spitting and Kif was able to use that opening to finish her. +1 level [You have slain Spider queen] [New title unlocked: One handed victory] (Gained through winning with only one hand, Literally) Kif smiled, happy that he had managed to finish this quest in only one day. The fights and marble recovery efforts had burned most of the day away. He left Mu behind to loot the Queen¡¯s corpse for her poison sacks and headed to old goblin Bu. ¡°The Spider queen''s lair is clear and all the spiders are gone.¡± He said. ¡°Realy?¡± Bu asked, ¡°Well in that case let¡¯s go. Go knock on Ub¡¯s door and tell him that we can spread out into those caverns.¡± ¡°I thought you hated Ub. You even had me break his walking stick.¡± ¡°That was because my jerk of a grandson deserved it.¡± The old goblin said. [You have completed cleanse the spider caverns for one of the greater goblin bloodlines in the Volcan lair. You may choose one of 3 rewards. 10 scavengers added to your lair, 8 guards added to the lair, or 6 companions added to the lair. Goblin Bu now considers you family] Kif drooled at the scavengers but forced himself to think. His lair was a summonable safe zone so every goblin he had to defend it meant he could put it somewhere more risky but closer. The companions would be good as he wouldn¡¯t need to go out seeking other players if he had an entire party of goblins with him. The scavengers on the other hand would consistently find and build him low level gear and could even be taught some basic crafts as Goblin Mi had been shown how to cook rat on a stick. What decided him was the upcoming war. From what he knew about it the war would start on the plains in front of Dredmont castle, a large fortified city in the darklands. Assuming that the army lost in the morning then when Kif got off of work in the evening he would be stuck fighting to defend the city. Weaponless scavengers would be little use for the defence and the guards would provide little utility since they would only protect the lair. In the end Kif settled on 6 companions and Gained 4 goblin companions and 2 Brute companions. His Goblin lair skill leveled up and now he could summon his lair to any place that was dark so long as it had food sources available. He thanked goblin Bu and headed out of the Mountain and ran towards Dredmont. It took Kif only two hours to reach the city and he quickly headed down to it¡¯s sewers. He didn¡¯t have much time left but there were a few things he needed to do in preparations for tomorrow. First Kif Stopped at an unlit crossroads in the sewer system and summoned his Personal Lair. He grabbed all the loot that he had in his chest and led his companions up to the city proper. There he bought basic crafted leather armor for himself and Mu. Cheap bronze armor for the 2 brutes, and linen clothes for the regular goblins. Additionally Kif spent the money he had left from his loot trade ins on 2 large kite shields for the brutes. Now the only ones armed were himself and Mu. Returning to the lair Kif pulled out all of his surplus rusty daggers and handed them out to the goblins and brutes, making sure each goblin had 2 and the brutes both had one. He instructed them to practice versus each other and hunt the rats and other small monsters that inhabited the sewers. Finally Kif logged out, secure that he had done everything he could to prepare himself for the war. Name: Kif Level 16 Race: Goblin-Hobgoblin Variant Alignment: Neutral evil (You work for the dark lord) Class: Shock corps rider (you got drafted) Stats HP 92 Mana 80 Strength 13+10 Agility 13+10 Stamina 13+10 Wisdom 10+10 Intelligence 10+10 Defence 17+10 Luck 5+10 Racial traits Stupidity 5 ( 3 points of resistance to fear and disabling effects per point during combat) Fear 5 (%5 chance to self fear at the beginning of a fight) Skills General weapons mastery (beginner level 7) %7 bonus damage to weapon attacks General crafting mastery (Beginner level 6) Only suffer minor durability loss when repairing items Create Lair (Beginner level 10) Castable in dark locations so long as a food source is available. Increases based on Goblins in lair. Utility Equip/Minor (one egg roll) 7 goblin companions 2 elite goblin lair guards 1 goblin scavenger child (Author''s rant. This feels short, like too short really. Luckily the war itself should end up long. also it¡¯ll likely take me a long while to type it. Spoiler alert!! Expect pretty much everyone one one side or the other to die.) Jason Velmont glared at the game statistics in front of him. He had named this game global conflict because he wanted to give his players the illusion that they could do anything. Most of the races however were not supposed to be playable in the end. The war itself was designed to completely wipe out the side of dark and make any race that survived it¡¯s original survivability quest moot, however Half the side of dark¡¯s races had been meant to fail their original survivability quest. Now he was looking at the information from a single goblin player. The player had caused several game changing quests to trigger already and had just finished giving the goblin race a 15% growth spurt. If this quest had happened at any other time it would mean a few more goblin raiders running around for players to deal with. With the timing that it had though it was going to mean an additional 8000 goblins assigned to the side of dark¡¯s defences. Even with the inclusion of the dwarf race once again the side of light was only going to be able to muster an army of 40000 soldiers. The goblin defence itself now equaled 2/3rds of that number. Jason was loath to attempt to fix this through programming. Getting a working AI that didn¡¯t go batshit crazy had been hard enough. The only way to weaken the side of darkness would be to reprogram it and that would take months. His game was set to release in 4 weeks so he didn¡¯t have time to go about setting that up. Deciding that there was nothing he could do just staring at the numbers, Jason contacted his Game masters. His company had hired 20 game masters to play in the game as High level Elite and Legendary characters for the beta. They would eventually gain AI controllers based on the actions the Game masters took within the game. 16 of them worked on the side of light, as the intended player base would get the most contact with these more advanced NPC¡¯s in this way. The last 4 were on the side of dark and were there to manage any bugs the dark side¡¯s beta players discovered. Jason looked at the 16 GM¡¯s on the side of light and ordered them all to make sure they were there for the battle. Their high levels would ensure the victor in this matchup. He additionally ordered the 4 dark GM¡¯s to not participate in the first part of the battle. They could participate in the siege afterwards but the battle before the fortress would have to go on without them. Having thoroughly tilted the odds in the direction he desired Jason Velmont, CEO of the second biggest video game company in the world, left work to get some rest. Tomorrow would be an exciting day for everyone. The video of this battle would be used for advertising in the weeks leading to release. the worlds first true battle Bright and early in the morning Elora logged in. She stretched and then went to find her great great grandmother. Elora had just managed to finish her heritage quest and had been allowed to meet her family founder. Countess Vanessa Leafholder was one of the 4 most powerful shadow mages in the Coven. Elora had spent considerable time and effort assisting her elven people and she felt it had paid off with the amount of support they had mounted. Looking upon the army that was arranged on the plains she couldn¡¯t help but feel pride that 11,000 shadow elves had come to fight. The goblins had sent 28,000, and while they had the highest number, all the other races knew they would do the least damage this fight. The orks had managed to round up a combined 6,000 warriors and shamans. The Undead had sent 9,000 soldiers, which was odd since Dredmonte Castle belonged to their portion of the Dark empire. Finally the humans and Demons had put together a joint force of 6,000 imps and corrupted fighters. If you judged based on the numbers provided the Elves were winning in the quality and quantity department. Since there was only one goblin tester Elora doubted he had been able to do much to influence how many goblins were sent. As she stood there musing over the differences of their fighting force the new beta testers started logging in. They were starting at level 10 with a preselected class and basic weapon. Elora helped her shadow elf noobs get sorted into ranks. The cursed swordsmen were sent to the front lines to bolster the shadow elves ranks while the archers were sent to their ranged unit. General Varlace, a large obnoxious level 215 Elite demon, was in charge of the ground army. He had put the army together in blocks. the forward block was entirely goblins. Behind it stood the undead. On their right flank were the elves and on the left flank were the orks supported by the demons. All the archer units were being held near the command area in the back of the midline. Elora wondered why Varlace didn¡¯t want the archers on either flank but did not think much of it. The left flank of their formation bordered a river that flowed south from the castle. The right side, where the elves stood, had no border defining it. Elora finished sorting out the new elf players and looked south towards their enemy. The army of light was coming into view in all their splendor. It looked like they had barely managed to bring 40,000 soldiers to the battle but their formation was far tighter and more coordinated than the empire¡¯s. straight lines of human paladins and pikemen marched in the forefront. On both flanks of the heavy infantry moved dwarven shield bearers and Beastmen warriors. Each of the flanks and the central army was supported by their own squads of elven archers and mages. Rounding out the army was a small 2000 man cavalry force of light elven swordsmen riding what looked like Elks. Behind the army a smaller army of supply officers and cooks started setting up a mobile support base. As Elora was wondering why they were building the base so close General Varlace roared, ¡° charge!!¡± and the entire army lurched forward at a run. Elora, and many of the elves were thrown by this abrupt order but quickly ran to catch up to the Goblins who had launched themselves immediately towards the enemy. The armies were separated by 2000 yards before the order was given, and those 2000 yards proved to be some of the longest yards of Elora¡¯s life. By the time she caught up to the army their goblin frontline had been slaughtered. First by the archers and Elemental mages supporting the enemies front lines, and then by the almost unbreakable wall of shields and spears that the poorly armed and unarmored goblin survivors had attempted to breach. The undead that followed up made some headway but even they had a tough time when the paladins started using their holy attacks. Even through the hard start Elora believed that they still stood a good chance at victory. The Cursed swordsmen of the right flank struck the dwarves and were quickly doing large amounts of damage to their forces. Coupled with the curses that Elora and her fellow acolytes were throwing out victory was going to be decided in minutes. Then the elven cavalry slammed into their flanks and whatever control had existed in the right flank vanished. Elora found herself cut off from her allies and fighting a duel for her life with Shard (her sword) in her hands. One of the elvish cavalry shot towards her and it¡¯s rider swung hard with his scimitar. Elora blocked with her blade and was amazed as it¡¯s durability immediately dropped to 0 and shattered. The smirking light elf dismounted and approached her to deal a finishing blow. She quickly sheathed her blade and drew it again before getting into a basic fighting stance. Seeing the blade fixed good as new gave the light elf pause and Elora used that hesitation to hit him with one of her shadowbolts. -14 damage After the opening spell she rushed forward and engaged the elf in battle. His scimitar was far heavier than her own sword so she quickly learned that she could not block his attacks. instead Elora switched to deflecting them as she could. The fight between the two fighters went evenly and then suddenly the elf jumped back and smiled. ¡°Your decent, maybe we''ll meet again.¡± he said before calling his horseback and riding off. Elora stood there gasping for breath, and soon had another opponent to fight. The running plus the long fight had drained her of all her stamina. In desperation Elora slashed out at the new opponent only to have her attack deflected and to receive a nasty slash on her arm. The enemy light elf vanished in a flash of light and Elora felt something cold slide across her throat. Weakly raising her hand to it she saw a popup informing her she had received a heavy bleed along with a silence. Unable to heal herself, and out of stamina, Elora sank to her knees and died as General Varlace¡¯s army retreated to the safety of the Castle. [Log in] Kif logged into Global conflict and looked around. His goblin companions stood there waiting for him. Everything seemed ready for a new day of adventures, until he noticed His two brute companions. The beautiful bronze tower shields he had spent half of his savings on had been rolled up into 2 ugly bronze clubs. Kif had forgotten that clubs were the only weapons that Brute¡¯s could equip and apparently shields counted as weapons in this world. Crying silent tears at the wasted money he led his companions out of the sewers and above ground into the city. Orcs, Undead, and Demons could be seen running frantically back and forth between the cities central citadel and the outer wall. Wondering how the fight was going Kif moved over to the wall. He instructed his companions to wait at the base as he climbed up the southern edge of the wall. He belatedly noticed there were no goblins within the fortification except for his group but had no time to worry about that as the full spectacle of the battle came into view. The area in front of Dredmonte Castle was filled with an army of Humans, Beast¡¯s, elves and dwarfs. The humans easily made up the largest chunk but the other races held a decent percentage of the battlefield as well. There were so many enemies in front of the castle that It was like looking at a sea of red names. 17 of those names stood out in bright silver or gold. Depicting Elite and legendary champions of the side of light. Looking at his own side Kif only saw 6 such Champions manning the walls. Four of the side of darknesses champions were simply high level elites. The last two were Legendary champions, the Grand general of the undead army General Warclave, and Countess Vanessa Leafolder the head of house Leafolder. ¡°What the hell did the morning shift¡¯s players do that the situation got this bad!¡± Kif exclaimed. As he continued watching one of the lights champions pushed their way forward and ascended the outer wall. They quickly slaughtered several of the defenders before the elites were able to respond and chase them back off the wall. Kif watched this continue several times and realized that the side of light was slowly bleeding the defenders down. Something needed to be done. Something stupid, but brilliant at the same time. Luckily Kif was here and he had 5 safe lives with which to act. Having determined the pattern Kif called his two brute companions up to the wall and had them crouch down out of site. A legendary champion, Magni the Crusher, a level 360 dwarf physically leaped on top of the 40 foot wall and with one swing Cleaved a shadow elf mage in half. Kif¡¯s brutes moved into action immediately, grabbing the dwarf and pinning him to the ground. No matter how strong Magni was the brute¡¯s innate racial ability to not be overpowered by any being smaller than them let them pin him down. Kif then approached and picked up the dwarf¡¯s axe. ¡°It is well known that axes hit for more damage than swords do. I can barely lift this so it is within my strength limits. Let¡¯s see how many strikes it takes to down you.¡± Kif stated. Having given his supervillains monologue like a bouse Kif raised the Axe above his head and swung it down hard at the dwarf¡¯s neck. -35500 Crit Floated up and a third of the dwarfs lifebar vanished. Kif delivered two more strikes and the dwarf collapsed dead. He then instructed the brutes to push the body off the wall inside the city so that the enemy would be none the wiser. His ambush plan worked perfectly for the next legendary figure that reached the wall. In this way he was able to quickly end one of the Wolf type beast races elites. The next legendary was a mage and started out her assault by hitting the area she reached with a large aoe fireball. Dropping the waiting axe Kif tackled the elven mage and stuffed his crippled limb into her mouth. (he was still missing a hand) -6 -12 The elf bit him several times as she tried to get her mouth free to speak another spell. After several seconds of struggling the fight was settled by Countess Vanessa¡¯s arrival. The shadow elf placed her hand on the prone mage''s chest and muttered a quick spell. With a muffled scream of agony the elf died as her heart burst out of her chest and floated to the Countess''s hand. The Countess patted Kif on the head and said good work before turning back to the battle. Kif didn¡¯t notice his Racial stupidity triggering and dampening the fear that all the other defenders in the area had been struck by upon seeing the brutal death. Burning 80 mana he resurrected the two Goblin brutes and continued attempting to ambush the champions that the light was sending. Unfortunately they had noticed their numbers drop and started working in groups, both increasing the casualties they inflicted along with making ambushing them harder. Kif continued fighting, and spent his life''s carefully. The dead dwarf¡¯s axe made a large difference in the battle as he was able to chunk even the highest level champions health by a reasonable amount. Their retaliation cost him his life twice through coincidence, with him being too close to the wall when one of them arrived and dieing to a level 200+¡¯s aoe attack. His third death ended up being to a human swordsman with the title [King¡¯s Champion] but to Kif thought that he managed to make a decent trade as he injured the champion greatly and even disarmed him before the champion was forced to leave. Resurrecting for the fourth time Kif knew he had one more life in him after this. He quickly spent his respawned 80 mana bringing back the two brutes and rushed to the southern wall to continue the defence. All the rest of his companions had died in the fighting and he had long ago lost Hrolk¡¯s sword on one of his previous deaths. Retrieving the axe from where he had dropped it Kif looked out at the enemy army. It¡¯s size had shrunk a little, the constant fighting was bleeding both sides down. Kif estimated there were probably 25000 attackers left. The true threat was the remaining 10 Elite and Legendary commanders. It looked like they had decided to get serious as 9 of them were moving in a group to attack the walls. General Warclave called the 4 remaining high level combatants together. ¡°We will hold them here.¡± the undead declared as he readied his sword. Kif pulled his brutes close but did not actively join them. He had the idea that ambushing the enemy elite¡¯s should hurt their morale more than just being beside the general when they arrive. The first of the monster NPC¡¯s to reach the top of the wall were a pair of elite human swordsmen. [Jill Dalingston level 218][Dan Dalingston level 215] These two split up around Warclave and moved to attack the Countess before she could get any spells off. Kif quickly ordered the Brutes to tackle Dan while moving in and taking a swing at Jill with his stolen dwarvish axe. Some danger sense warned her of the threat but seeing only a hobgoblin approaching her Jill ignored the damage he could do and sped up to slash the Countess. -45200 Crit, [You have inflicted deep wound. All damage is doubled to the affected area until the wound is sealed] Kif¡¯s strike hit Jill for over half her health points. Moreover it had stopped her momentum and gave the Countess the time necessary to raise a shield around herself. [You have died, remaining safe respawns 1, do you wish to respawn?] [Yes/No] ¡°Yes¡± Kif said. He didn¡¯t even know what had killed him there. Thinking the brutes might still be alive Kif hurried to the wall to see that the only allied survivors of the last attack were General Warclave and the Countess. Their remaining elites and his Brute companions had all died to the last attack. They had not gone silently though as 3 Legendary and 2 elite enemies were the only survivors of the latest push. Kif looked out across the wall into the valley. He had no more lives to spare, he had given almost everything he possibly could for this defence. there was no dam of lava to through the battle into a stalemate, no last minute reinforcements existed. Knowing that he could not make enough of a difference at the wall to win the battle Kif returned to the sewers. Dying 5 times in only an hour had left him mentally exhausted and he needed somewhere quiet to think. Absently he paced and focused on what resources the dark had available. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.Minutes passed by and Kif grew despondent. He had no plans, there was no hope. He felt a tugging at his arm. ¡°I¡¯m hungry,¡± little goblin Mi said. Kif looked at her then absently pulled up his own stats. All his pacing had spent 5 of his stamina points. ¡°Wait,¡± he said.¡± Thats it! The new beta testers were all given level 10 characters for this battle, and they are all about as strong as the regular army enemies. Since they just spawned none of them should have any food stored on them. The only race that can ignore stamina demands is the undead with their infinite stamina. Furthermore that patch yesterday made it so neither side could eat any food above their level. If low level food only recovers a small amount of stamina then the enemies legendary champions have to be barely holding on. Their eating majorly low level food since anything of their level would kill their army!¡± The adage that an army marches on it¡¯s stomach ran through Kif¡¯s mind. ¡°So the original fight took place about a mile from the castle. that means their base camp and kitchens need to be somewhere south of that. ¡° Pulling out his map he looked at the area around Dredmont. there was a river that ran near the castle and flowed south into the plains. The sewers he was in likely linked to that river for their runoff. All he needed to do was get to the camp, sneak in, and poison everything he could find. Kif quickly gave goblin Mi a hug then told her, ¡°Gather as much of that black mold on the walls as you can. Bring it back here but don¡¯t eat it.¡± Spending 40 mana he summoned one of his regular goblin companions. ¡°here, Ubne take this to General Warclave and tell him that if the enemy starts retreating they need to push with all they have. Both our armies are on the edges of their stamina.¡± Kif pulled out the Eggroll and handed it to Ubne. Sitting down he started cooking some rat meat and sewing a small leather pouch together. [You have created, flimsy alchemy pouch. (seriously no one wants this just throw it away)] As the rat meat finished Goblin Mi came into view with two armfuls of the Black mold. In the real world Black mold was nasty to someone''s health. Kif was hoping in this magical world it would be even worse. He quickly filled his alchemy pouch with the stuff then placed the pouch in his equip slot. Taking up the stolen dwarven axe He started winding his way through the sewers heading south. After several minutes Kif came across a large iron grate blocking off the sewers. Rushing water could be heard beyond it. With three quick swings he shattered the gate. Kif left the axe behind as it would be useless for what he had planned. Taking a deep breath he jumped in. The water carried him quickly threw a tunnel system. Kif struck several rocks head first but, in part due to his skulls strength, he only received minor injuries and was able to hold his breath. After 4 minutes in the pitch black water system Kif saw light and started desperately swimming for it. He surfaces in the fast moving river half a mile to the south of the Castle¡¯s location. Kif drug himself out of the water and collapsed on the plains catching his breath. Wearily he then spend what was left of his mana and re summoned Goblin Mu. The two goblins stealthily moved towards the main camp of the light. Hiding behind a bush Kif noted that the guards pacing the camp appeared to be beta players as they were spending more time bitching to each other about not being able to fight than watching the camp. Kif took some time to explain his suicidal plan to Mu and pulled out the pouch full of black mold. Both goblins made sure to rub all of their sling marbles in the stuff, and Kif handed the remaining pouch of it to Mu. ¡°I will go for the cooking area and draw all their attention to me.¡± he said. ¡°I need you to sneak into their food storage area and spread this in everything. Use the sling to hit anything you can¡¯t physically reach. You ready?¡± ¡°i¡¯m ready¡± Mu replied. With a yell both goblins straightened up and ran for the camp. Through luck, and the beta players laziness, They were able to enter the camp before the guards reacted. Alarms started ringing everywhere as Kif headed straight for the smoke of the cooking section. He loaded his sling and started launching poisoned marbles as soon as he caught sight of the place. He continued firing them as he approached and once he physically reached the cooking area he started just throwing the marbles into various pots full of food. the cooks and servants froze at the sight of the crazy goblin before several of them started trying to chase him out while brandishing their cooking knifes. Kif continued spreading the mold until he was cornered and cut down. [You have suffered a true death. Mania goddess of death reserves a special place for goblins who think they can cheat her of their souls. -5 levels] Kif was surprised that he was not immediately logged out. instead he was in a dark place with no light at all. A voice from everywhere and nowhere spoke. ¡°Hello there little goblin, you took longer than i expected to reach my abode.¡± [-5 levels] ¡°Wait a moment, hey give me those back.¡± Kif cried. He was only supposed to suffer 5 times the death penalty for true deaths, not 10. ¡°Of course I will return this to you.¡± the voice said, ¡° that is, if you can complete my challenge.¡± [Mania dislikes goblins immensely, however, since you have worked with one of her acolyte¡¯s before she is willing to be reasonable, sort of. Complete the 10 challenges of Hell to earn Mania¡¯s forgiveness for being a goblin.] [Do you wish to face the 10 challenges of hell?] [Yes/No] ¡°Yes¡± Kif cried, and immediately the area he was in grew bright. [Stage one, Champion¡¯s revenge, The spicy food champion wants a rematch after the humiliation you gave him last time. Eat more Ghost peppers than he can in 15 minutes to complete the challenge. Taste bud settings locked to Max] ¡°Oh my.¡± Kif said in a quiet voice. (author''s rant. The end, or is it. In other news let¡¯s go back 16 hours from the events Kif just participated in to introduce the newest player from the original beta players.) Sam Wellington, son of Carl Wellington, stretched as he got home from work. Sam¡¯s family were police officers. It could be said that the work was in their blood. His father was the police chief of the Houston department. His brother was an up and coming detective. His grandparents on both sides had been well known policemen. In fact police work went back in his family 6 generations. And then there was Sam. Sam was born with asthma, He had flat foot syndrome. He only barely made his way through college with C¡¯s and D¡¯s. The academies didn¡¯t want him and his family thought he was a failure. Having the drive so deeply ingrained in his blood Sam got the closest job he could to the real thing. He became a midnight security guard for a walmart. Christmas was a nightmare. His real life may have been in the dumps but his virtual life had been going great. Sam got himself a spot in the first 2000 beta players to the latest VR game. Calling it latest was something since it was the only one out. Both Japan and Korea had tried to make VR games but, their over ambition to give players 3-6 times more speed compared to real life had been their downfall. The human mind was not meant to handle game speeds any faster than it did in reality. Both countries had suffered several alpha testers entering permanent coma¡¯s before the new laws had come out. No time dilation was the name of the virtual game. Sam Wellington closed his eyes and put on the gaming headset. [Log in] And Hrolk the ork opened his own. Having just gotten off work in real life Hrolk planned to recover what had happened in this one. Ork¡¯s racial traits allowed them to gain 3 times the experience other races gained from doing the same tasks. As he stood, baking in the sunlight of the field before Dredmonte castle Hrolk thought about what had happened to get him to this place. Everything had been going fine in his game until the racial survivability quests. there, he had used his high level and familiarity with the orc commander to gain himself a spot in the goblin subjugation force instead of staying behind to protect his race. All he had to do was show off his ability to command and he would have been on the fast track to becoming an ork warlord. Unfortunately he had underestimated a low level goblin and had ended up bleeding to death in the middle of the battlefield. even worse, his sword had been lost. He had spent a lot of money to craft that blade himself and to drop it the first time he died was just eating at him. Since that failure he had been demoted to scout. Now he stood with many of his fellow orcs in the dark army awaiting their enemies to take the field. Hrolk noticed the new wave of beta players logging in. The majority of them were logging in as demons and shadow elves, but a few joined the orc legion. A loud horn blow signaled the arrival of the enemy force. General Varlance, the demon of the forward army ordered their forces to charge. Hrolk thought this was a terrible mistake as it threw their entire formation out of order but he dutifully followed his fellows. Their goblin comrades met the enemy army first and broke like water against the shields and spears of the human paladins leading the assault. Hrolk participated in the fighting for hours, unfortunately the first order had thrown away their numbers advantage and the army was forced to retreat. They fell back and General Warclave, ruler of Castle Dredmonte took charge. Watching his commands was amazing to Hrolk as the general recovered their morale and was seemingly everywhere at first. Then the enemies champions started attacking and a lucky one Crippled the Undead general. Several shadow elf acolytes started healing him but his health was so high it would be hours until the crippled condition was removed. Hrolk stood on the wall fighting off ladders as he could. He refused to fail another quest after that subjugation. As time went on he noticed that the enemies champions had dwindled in numbers, looking around he spotted a familiar goblin wearing HIS SWORD and wielding a dwarven axe fighting upon the wall. Hrolk didn¡¯t notice nor care about the desperate battle happening between the 5 champions of darkness and the goblin, versus the 9 champions of light. Quickly moving up behind Kif he beheaded the little fucker and reclaimed his blade. ¡°It¡¯s alright baby, i¡¯ll take care of you.¡± He said as he backed up from the fight. Everyone was too busy to notice the backstabbing so Hrolk quickly moved to a different location and went back to defending. Armed as he was he fought on for 2 more hours. Then the army of light started retreating. Unbelievably they had held on!. [Bwooooo] A horn was blown by General Warclave. ¡°Open the gates, I am not about to let these weaklings leave after messing up my rock garden like this.¡± the undead commanded. Hrolk watched as the general handed something to Countess Vanessa but he was to far away to see what it was. He did however notice it¡¯s affect. The countess ate it and a deep purple glow suffused her body. ¡°I feel 200 years younger.¡± she declared before leading all the surviving shadow elves out of the Castle and following Warclave¡¯s spearheaded attack. Hrolk quickly left the wall and rushed to the front of the army. there he saw the enemy force, and they looked exhausted. Many of them were dragging and stumbling as they backed up. They were moving slow enough that the General, still crippled, was able to catch up with them. That day Hrolk participated in the most one sided slaughter he had ever been in. The remaining champions of light gathered together to try to save their army but whatever the Countess had eaten had apparently given her infinite mana for the 1 hour it was in effect. At the end of the day there were no survivors on the side of the Crusaders. Before he logged out Hrolk spent several hours celebrating with the survivors. He had his sword back, he had completed an amazingly hard quest. Life was looking up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The effects of the army of lights defeat were far reaching within the virtual world. Most of the elite champions lost had been key quest holders and members of power throughout the different warrior and magic guilds. The summary of legendary figures that died was as follows. The dwarven king Magni the crusher The human king¡¯s Champion, leader of the holy knights The Wolf tribe¡¯s head shaman Ferrer The Katian tribes best archer Genner The Light elves heir to their Forest empire Gly Sandra Losing some of their best and strongest the surviving leaders of the side of light were forced to form unified country to stand against the Dark lord¡¯s empire. This of course, took some time. (author''s rant 2, ok now i¡¯m done for the moment. I um, i kinda called in sick to work because i was inspired, i mean i''m sick, ya im sick. cough cough.) A week into the war ¡®(Author''s rant. Not the most amazing chapter in the world. but sort of descriptive i guess.) Kif spent a week recovering from Maina¡¯s torture room. When he had finally recovered he logged back in to find that his respawn point had been reset to the Vulcan Lair. [Create Lair] Kif¡¯s goblin companions slowly respawned and he took some time to greet them and spend time with them. The past few weeks he had barely learned half their names and knew next to nothing about these goblins that had joined him. His first lair mate, Goblin Mi, was a young scavenger goblin. She was only a few months old and had spent most of her time living as one of several thousand orphans throughout the cave system. This had influenced her to where she was most interested in food. Kif learned that her fire magic had gotten to the point where she could cook almost anything simple. He determined that he would teach her how to make pancakes in the future. Once he had recovered from the war¡¯s expenses. Goblin Mu, His first companion, wanted to see the world. He had the soul of an old fashioned adventurer desiring to go out, see new things, meet new peoples, then kill them (Author''s rant. I don''t know who first created that line but it¡¯s awesome.) Mu didn¡¯t care too much about the little things. Kif had shown him that working together got stuff done and that was all that mattered. The elite guards that Kif had gotten from Matron Rue were named Bim and Bam. They were good with their blades and didn¡¯t really care too much about where they were. They did care about sleeping stuff though. Bam managed to get Kif to promise to acquire the stuff to create tents and bedrolls later on as the 2 were getting tired of sleeping on stone floors. Apparently Goblin Mi fit in the chest so she slept on the leather scraps that she recovered each night. Ebne, Ibne, Ylbne, and Obne, were the names of the 4 regular goblins that had recently joined Kif from old goblin Bu. The four were from one of his great grandchildren''s litters and had been pestering their family head to let them go out and explore. The old goblin had finally decided to get rid of all the would be firestarters when they burned down one of the shacks he owned. As chance would have it Kif had come to him asking about strength so Bu had killed two problems at once by getting rid of the trouble makers and gaining a new larger cave for his family. The 2 goblin brutes that Kif had gained from Bu were named Borg and Barg. Their family had been struggling to keep the two brutes fed as they ate a ton more than a regular goblin. Borg¡¯s goal was to eat one of every race he came across. Barg just wanted to beat his brother in strength at some point. Since they were both brutes of equal size their passives activated every time they wrestled so Kif doubted Barg would ever achieve his dream. Having come to better know his companions Kif left the spawn point and went to track down Matron Rue. The war had only just begun and he hoped to get some decent reward for his part in that first siege. Kif marched straight to Matron Rue¡¯s home and pushed the door open, then he froze. Countess Vanessa Leafolder was sitting next to Matron Rue drinking tea. At the battlefield Kif had thought her beautiful like all Shadow elves were. Here though, she was radiant and he was struck dumb by it. He had a quick recovery when Matron Rue¡¯s cup smashed him in the head though. ¡°It¡¯s about time you get here.¡± She yelled, ¡°Now hurry over and sit!¡± Kif moved to the indicated seat at the table. ¡°Drink!¡± The matron ordered him then dropped something into a full cup of tea and handed it over. Kif looked at the drugged drink wondering what horrors awaited him when his thoughts were broken again by the Matron. -20 -15 She flicked him in the forehead, knocking his chair over he struck his head hard on the ground. ¡°I said Drink you ingrate!¡± she commanded one more time. Realizing his health likely wouldn¡¯t survive another forehead flick Kif downed the tea in seconds. Then everything went black. [You have been drugged. You may log back in in 20 minutes if you survive] ¡°I swear i spend way too much time unconscious in this game.¡± He complained to no one. 20 minutes later Kif woke up to see the Matron bent over him doing something. Looking down he saw that he had gained a tattoo. A pink heart had been tattooed to his chest over where his own heart should be. Around it were the words, Rue¡¯s stupidest Kid in black. Rue was finishing the d as Kif came to. [you have gained. blessing of the Matron. +5 to the size of your lair through magics you do not understand.] ¡°You have done well child. For that Rue here has given you her blessing. I have my own gratitude for i had forgotten how good that food you found for me was. Take this, it may be of use to you.¡± Countess Vanessa spoke up and handed Kif a paper bound package. He blankly accepted it then was shoved off the table he was lying on and onto the floor. ¡°Enough,¡± Rue declared, ¡°the war is still going on. We are sending out new attack forces daily. Go join one of those and don¡¯t come back until that heart is green. [Matron Rue has blessed you, however, you are currently too low level to fully accept the blessing. Gain more experience and return to the Matron to fully unlock its possibilities.] Bowing in thanks Kif quickly left before the Matron decided to just kill him. She was always really angry at him for some reason. Weren¡¯t rulers supposed to be patient or nice? Still in the chamber Vanessa spoke up. ¡°So that is the one who opened the chamber? I had thought we had sealed all the entrances to that damned scientists place.¡± ¡°We had.¡± Rue responded. ¡°Leave it to my get to find an underwater entrance. What did you give him?¡± ¡°The true history of the world. He may find it enlightening.¡± Vanessa responded. ¡°It has been enjoyable spending time with you, however my own family needs my attention. We each have changed so much since our adventuring times haven''t we Rue?¡± ¡°All too much for some, not enough for others.¡± The matron responded as she waved goodby to her friend. Kif decided that the first thing he would do was retrieve that axe he dropped in the sewer of Dredmonte. Then he would hide it in his chest until he found a proper time for it. Sure the thing could one shot any monsters he came across at his level, but the risk of losing such an op item was way too high to waste on standard mobs. As Kif headed out with his small warband he pulled out the package that the Countess had handed him. Opening it he held a book. [World history 101 by Bjorn] With nothing better to do on the walk to Castle Dredmonte Kif opened the book and read. In the beginning there existed the gods and the titans. They fought for ages and the gods prevailed. At the end of the fighting only 6 of the gods were left along with the corpse of the greatest titan Ter. The gods took his corpse and used it to create the world we live on. They created all the plants and animals that live on the land today. Afterwards they rested, exhausted from their work. Centuries went by and the first race to walk the plane appeared. Contrary to what is said in most human histories, the first race was the goblins. Short and stupid their quick breeding and willingness to swarm anything if they outnumbered it 100 to one had them quickly spread out across the land. The gods examined this race then decided they would create the other great races to be getter in some way where they saw a flaw in the goblins. Maina of death created the demons to rule over hell. Strong and tough the demons were to be rulers, not servants. Demons were strong in the magic of death. Amalek of destruction Created the Orks, keeping the quick growth rates of the goblins and increasing their base stat growth some. Amalek gave the orcs shamanic magic, tied to fire and lightning as those where what he knew. Tywin of growth created the Beast races, taking the creatures that already existed and giving them knowledge and power. Their magic was tied to growth and enhancing what was already there. Balfour of truth combined his power with Veradin of essence to create the Human races. Wanting them to see and experience as much of life as possible they were granted some ability in all of the magic areas but no special growths aside from that. Finally Malek of Might created the dwarfs. Though their growth was slow and they bred less than the other races their physical might and focus on earth mana was far beyond any of the other races. The elven race was created as a mix between humans and Demons. No one living except for the elven empress herself knows who mixed the two races together. Not even the gods are willing to answer that question. As for where the hobgoblins and brutes come from. I, your loving scientist Bryn created both. Aren¡¯t i amazing. Kif stopped reading after the first chapter. That crazy scientist whose lab was under the Matron¡¯s lair had written this. even if it was some quest starter, it wasn¡¯t worth some weak skill like the utility equip skill he had gained. He determined to leave the book in his chest and ignore if for the time being. Leaving the forest Castle Dredmonte came into view. It¡¯s walls were under repair from the damage they had received. Kif entered the castle threw the main gate and saw that it was crowded with players buying and selling items. Groups were calling for allies or volunteers to help them with quests. As the closest safe zone to the Empire of light¡¯s border the castle had quickly become a center point for the dark¡¯s quests against them. Kif ignored the bustle until now and entered the sewer. He recast his lair moving it¡¯s location to Dredmonte and dropped off the book. The sewer was far darker than it had been during the battle. Kif picked up a torch and started off towards where he had left the axe. [You have entered the sewer labrinth. After the battle of Doom, where General Warclave crushed the forces of light the general had the bodies of his victims dumped into the sewer system. The foul forces at work within the castle have lead to some of the bodies returning to life as shadows of their former selves. Recommended level 40] Kif spent a while staring at the recommended level. ¡° Lets see now, at level 40 as a goblin i¡¯ll have 20 strength. i¡¯m level 10 right now giving me 7 strength, add in the 15 strength my lair is giving me and i¡¯m practically level 44. Alright guys lets go.¡± He declared. His bad math gave both him, and his goblins confidence. twenty yards down the sewer passage he hit a right turn and stopped. [Black Slime level 35] A slime the size of a refrigerator was sitting in the middle of the tunnel. It¡¯s name was in yellow and it was not moving. From the battles earlier he knew that red meant guaranteed enemy. Yellow might mean neutral, Kif was unsure though. Floating in the slime was a black orb the size of Kif¡¯s head. ¡°That is likely the slime core, destroy it and the slime should die. Easy enough since slimes are low level monsters in these games.¡± Having said that Kif left his companions at the corner and ran at the slime, brandishing a rusty knife. With a leap he dove into it eyes shut. {Gloop} Kif reached for the core and missed. ¡°O my god it burns!!¡± He cried then swallowed a bit of the slimes digestive juices. ¡°It feels like it¡¯s eating my soul!!¡± Desperate, he opened his eyes trying to find the core. ¡°It¡¯s eating my eyes im blind!!¡± Stolen story; please report.[You have been digested, Due to the slimes unique characteristics this death is doubled. Safe respawns 5->4, would you like to respawn?] Yes Picking himself up shakily Kif returned to the labyrinth and looked around the corner again. The slime had not moved. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s friendly and we can just go past.¡± he said to his companions before leading them towards it. When he drew parallel to the black slime in the tunnel it launched out 6 tentacles and grabbed the poor goblin before pulling him in.¡±Nooo, not again!!.¡± [You have been digested, Due to the slimes unique characteristics this death is doubled. Safe respawns 3->2 would you like to respawn?] Yes Slumping down Kif shivered. The axe would have to wait. He needed to get stronger, and maybe teach the bne siblings some fire magic. That might help versus the black slime. With renewed determination he led his companions out of the sewer and back into the main Dredmonte city. There was a job listing building that listed all the quests that the Dark empire was wanting done in the area. [Monster subjugation, capture some ogres to be trained as siege monsters, recommended level 30] [Monster subjugation, capture and raise some wargs to be used as orc cavalry, recommended level 25] [scout out new paths through the mountains for future raids, recommended level 20] There were hundreds of quests on the board but most of the low level ones had already been taken by all the new beta testers who had been playing the week Kif took a break. Sighing he took the scouting quest down and headed out with his companions. It didn¡¯t seem to involve combat, which was good considering how broke he was at the moment. Today was a friday, and though Kif had spent the morning dieing horribly to a slime, he figured he could pull an all nighter to scout out this mountain to the south. Traveling through the plains Kif and his party ran into and slaughtered many low level monsters, this enabled them to make cheap slings from the leather they acquired. Picking up rocks of the ground gave them basic ammunition. No matter how many monsters Kif slew, he did not gain a level. ¡°Mu, do you know why i seem to be stuck at level 10? I don¡¯t get it.¡± he asked. ¡°MM, i think it¡¯s because of all the lair mates maybe? I know that i reached level 9 recently. Maybe their gaining the experience instead of you?¡±Mu replied. ¡°So the more lair mates i have the harder it will be to level. That may make this difficult.¡± Kif murmured. If he truly needed to pull in 10 times the experience as normal to gain a level that would explain why he was stuck at 10 currently. The discussions and random monster fights kept Kif distracted until the party was 3/4ths of the way up the mountain. There they came across a large cave opening. Kif entered it to see if it would make a good spot for his lair during their questing. [You have entered Bile the devourer¡¯s Cave, Recommended level for entering 400] ¡°Holy shit,¡± He whispered.¡± Guys wait here i¡¯ll be back.¡± Dropping his common sense Kif entered the cave quietly. There were no monsters in the cave and, a half mile of walking later he learned why. [Bile Dragon scourge, Level 500 dragon boss] A gigantic black dragon was sleeping on top of a huge pile of gold. Kif looked at the sleeping dragon, then at the pile of gold, and had one of his craziest plans yet. He quickly left and told his companions what to do. Having done so he re-entered the cave and yelled. ¡°Hey dragon, wake up gots some orders for you from the boss!!¡±, the dragon ignored him and kept sleeping. Kif tried several things including using his makeshift sling to hit it with a rock. --1 damage. ¡°how the hell do i do negative damage.¡± He cried. Getting annoyed he walked up and grabbed a gold coin from the pile. [Fear. you have been frozen in fear.] [Stupidity activated, fear abating as you don¡¯t understand what is happening.] Kif turned around to see an eye as big as he was looking at him. He carefully put the coin down before starting again. ¡°The dark lord said they wants ya to burn the forest down.¡± Kif declared. The way he figured it the worst thing that could happen was the dragon kill him and then go attack the dark lord. Surely the most powerful being could handle one dragon. ¡°So,¡± it rumbled in reply, ¡°She finally wants me to act. So be it. But first i think i¡¯ll have a small snack.¡± Bile finished. Reaching out a hand as big as a small shed the dragon grabbed Kif. ¡°My what big teeth you have.¡± he managed. [You have been eaten. Remaining safe respawns 1, would you like to respawn?] Yes Stretching Kif stepped out of the sewer one last time and headed towards the city gates. Now all he needed to do was wait. {Rumble BOOM} With a loud boom the top of the mountain exploded and Bile rose up before flying off. [7 of your 7 companions have died.] ¡°Darnit!!¡± Kif cried. It was late, and the dragon had apparently buried it¡¯s treasure. There was not enough time in the day to get to the dragon''s cave before night and all his companions were lost. Kif sighed and quit the scouting quest. Currently he was just too low level for this area it seemed. Grumbling he went throughout the city looking for some low level chore quests to do. The alchemists didn¡¯t want him and his strength was too low for the blacksmiths. Eventually he ended up at the Inn bussing tables and cleaning the floor. The innkeeper allowed him to sleep next to the fire after closing. Waking up early in game (he was doing a marathon here) Kif stumbled his way into the kitchen and started cooking pancakes. He was still to sleep woozy to notice he was still in the game. The inn¡¯s cook came in to get breakfast started at the inn only to notice the pile of cooked pancakes on a plate and a goblin cooking more. The cook, having an ingredients identification skill looked at the food before blowing up on the sleepwalking goblin. [ Perfectly cooked pancakes. level 10 requirement. +2 stamina and +15% stamina regen for 20 minutes, Due to perfect cooking effects stack per pancake eaten.] The cook smiled greedily then went to grab the innkeeper. Upon seeing the food the innkeeper woke Kif up. ¡°Do you want to help in the kitchen as a cook? we could use someone experienced. I can up your pay to 2 silver a day if you do.¡± ¡°I um, I also want a bonus for every new recipe i bring in.¡± Kif said as he tried to wake up fully. He was a night owl, not an early bird. ¡°I can give you 5 silver per recipe you have, if it sells well.¡± ¡°Deal.¡± Kif said. He spent the rest of the day working in the inn between cooking and cleaning and at the end of the day logged off in a nice bed to sleep. He had one full day left of gaming before the end of the weekend and wanted to do something grand with it. [Log out] Elsewhere¡­¡­earlier that day. ¡°Mr. Velmont sir, are you absolutely sure you want to do this?¡± one of Jason Velmont¡¯s project developers asked. Jason: ¡°Yes i am certain. Have 2 of the GM¡¯s unlock the darned angel race, it¡¯s power will be necessary if we are going to prepare the game in the next 3 weeks for only the newly forged republic of light to be playable.¡± Developer: ¡°Yes sir, it just seems that a lot of the players are enjoying being rivals.¡± Jason: ¡°Just do it.¡± Mr Velmont then went back to reading the summaries of what had happened in the past few days. The newly resurrected dwarf race had taken massive losses with king Magni¡¯s death during the siege. Additionally the beast race had lost one of their hidden classes trainers. Mr. Velmont had been forced to tie down several of his 20 GM¡¯s to take over the important hidden class and skill trainers who had died during the battle. This left him with less influence than he would like over what was happening but it was not all bad news. The orcs had gotten too greedy and, led by some of their higher level players, had gotten most of their armies slaughtered. The orc race was thus stuck with just their main settlement. The zombies had only managed to expand once to a small swamp village north of Dredmonte and the Demons had been put into such a bad position due to their showing in the siege they were still working to earn the dark lord''s forgiveness. The only two races doing well were the shadow elves and the goblins. The goblins were currently expanding their starter city and sending out expeditions to find a good place for a second lair. The shadow elves had gone crazy. The only reason that Countess Vanessa had shown up at the siege was due to the elves clearing several tough quests, additionally they were the only race who had made several successful raids into the republics defences. Reading all this Jason went and looked through all the quests that could trigger something negative for the shadow elves. The quests mainly had to do with political influence as the elves were even now low in numbers. One showed up as key. He contacted his Shadow elf GM and ordered them to attack the dragon Bile. There was an antagonism quest that would have the dragon retaliate and undo most of the influence the shadow elves had gained. It was perfect. Having given out his orders Mr. Velmont headed home early for lunch. He left instructions that for the rest of the weekend he was not to be disturbed as he had important investor meetings to attend. Unfortunately for him, the shadow elf Haven was farther away from Bile¡¯s cave than Castle Dredmonte. Excerpt from World history 101 by Bjorn [The slime race is interesting. Being one of the first races the gods created slimes are the world''s trash recyclers. They were created to cleanse the world of the damages left behind from the great war and turn it into pure magic power in the form of their cores. The larger the core, the more magic available. Most slimes are almost immune to physical damage and come with an elemental type. for example red slimes come with resistance to fire. The only exception is the black slime. Titled properly death slimes, these were created to devour the pure chaos and destruction left behind by the battle, whereas the others were for clearing the bodies. Black slimes literally devour the souls of their victims. It is likely due to this targeted design being the reason black slimes hunt goblins. Goblins racial signature make them look like the chaos that is the slimes natural food.] Sunday, through the calidescope {Excerpt from History 101 by Bjorn, Dragons, The dragon race is not native to our plane. After the great war of the gods, the two greater dragons lumarch and Diarana crossed the barriers between planes and came to live in our realm. Lumarch resides somewhere within the Forces of Lights land while Diarana took up residence in the Mountain overlooking the dark lords keep. In your travels you may come across several varieties of smaller dragons. Be wary as Dragons are greedy and almost unkillable. When dealing with dragons your chances of survival increase when you give them gifts of gold, then promise more at some later date. Don¡¯t ever come back after that first deposit.} The black dragon Bile stretched his wings as he flew out of his mountain lair. Spanning one kilometer in length from his head to the end of his tail Bile looked typical for his kind. All powerful. He quickly headed to the nearest forest to his mountain (the goblin did not necessarily say which forest to destroy). He was a young dragon, having just turned 600 years old Bile was currently grounded by his parents. They had sent him to live on his aunt Diarana¡¯s home plane of existence and his aunt had quickly ordered him to stay in his lair until he had her permission to leave it. He had thought she would just order him to spend the 400 year grounding sleeping but apparently his aunt was more fun. Reaching the forest Bile took a deep breath and spat out black fire. Normally he would use the poison breath that all black dragons had, but the goblins words had been ¡°burn¡± so burnt to the ground the trees would be. As he came around for a second pass a large floating island suddenly appeared and forced the young dragon to swerve out of the way. His tail clipped a tower, sending it hurling to the ground below. The entire floating city seemed to glow with an inner light. As Bile watched a large swarm of flying being left the city and flew towards him. They looked like humans but had wings. Most had 2 while a few had 4 wings. Archangel Krys frowned as he looked at the large flying fel-beast before his city. The Angelic race had come to aid the Beasts in their time of need. Krys had been a friend of their leader before she passed. He had hoped the display of might would help speed up the beast races accepting his aid, however seeing their forest burning and such a huge monster attacking it, Krys gave thanks he had been contacted in time. ¡°Send forth the first and second legions, have the third and forth legions support wings go help save the forest below us.¡± He commanded. At his words Angels and Seraph took to the air in tightly knit formations, charging at the monster that threatened their would be allies. Krys watched as Primarch Godric invoked the cities magical defences and started up charging the Light of Truth. Turning back to the battle Krys observed the beast¡¯s thrashing, as it fought the two angelic legions. It¡¯s size and power were obvious, however it was having trouble with how many angels were swarming it. Minutes into the fight the monster was bleeding from several wounds on its legs and sides, there were small holes punched through it¡¯s wings. ¡®This will be an easy fight¡¯ Krys thought as he directed the rest of third and fourth legion to attack it. Making a lie of his words the beast suddenly flapped it¡¯s wings once, pulling back from the city and its defenders while simultaneously taking a deep breath. With a roar it spewed out a huge black cloud. The cloud moved forward quickly and Krys watched in despair as all the angelic soldiers who came into contact with it plummeted to the ground dead. ¡°Shield yourselves, it is a magical corruption.¡± He ordered quickly as he signaled the Seraph to order the legions back. ¡°We will let the Light of Truth finish the beast.¡± As Krys spoke the shields around the the angelic city cut out as the Light of Truth entered it¡¯s final firing phase. Primarch Godric fired the Light of Truth, the ultimate siege weapon in the Angel¡¯s army. With a loud whine a beam of light crossed the distance between the city and the monster. It struck it in the chest, and with some resistance, started carving it¡¯s way through the beast. After a few seconds the weapon stopped as it¡¯s charge was spent and the shields around the city sprang back up. The gigantic beast Roared loudly and released a large set of curses upon the legions that had turned around after the Siege weapons firing. Krys watched as it then turned tail and flew off quickly, back towards the Dark empire. A large swath of blood continually poured out from it¡¯s injuries. Krys thought to order a pursuit when Primarc Godric¡¯s orders came through for all the surviving legions to fall back. Some of the curses had struck the city and punched through it¡¯s shields. Grimly Krys returned to the city. The only weapon they had that could truly injure the flying monster was the Light of Truth, a siege weapon that took over 200 Seraph to power. While the city could move, there was no way they would be able to chase the beast down, and if it came back while the city was away, it could finish wiping out the beast race. Empyrean, the city of the angels, was likely going to become a permanent fortress over the beast races hometown, protecting them from the forces of darkness. ___________________________________________________________________________ Later, elsewhere Kif logged in and smiled. It was his last day before the end of the weekend and he had come up with a plan as he ate breakfast. He quickly summoned the few companions he had not respawned the day ahead and handed out some cheap leather armor to them all. He had spent all his hard earned cooking silver on armor and slings for his companions and hopefully they would live long enough to keep it this time. As they left Dredmonte, Kif explained his plan. ¡°We need to learn how to defeat slimes, so we are going back to Volcan, Matron Rue¡¯s lair. There we will clear out the poison slime pools. I want us to acquire some weapons before that though, so we will spend the day traveling there, and hunting so we have more than slings.¡± ¡°Well,¡± Mu said, ¡°To get back to the lair we will need to travel through the edge of the shadow wood. I think we fought some wolves and small raptors there. We should be able to get large claws for making knives out of the area.¡± Kif agreed and led his companions into the shadowwood, a small forest that bordered the shadow elves haven. Kif had two goals in this hunt, the first was arming all his companions properly, the second was getting the four regular goblins trained in magic. After a few minutes travel the goblins entered the forest. They immediately started making a large racket to attract some monsters attention. Subtlety was not their forte. The first monsters that attacked them were a group of 5 wolves. [Shadow wolf level 14]*4 appeared [Shadow wolf alpha level 18] appeared. The wolves came at the goblin group from all sides. The alpha stepped out in front of them while the others moved in quickly. Kif loaded his sling and launched the first rock at one of the smaller wolves yelling, ¡°Get the regular ones first.¡± and with that the fight started. The goblins were only slightly outnumbered and so they made use of their greater numbers, all out swarming the 2 wolves farthest from the alpha. -3 -4 -3 small amounts of damage showed up continually as the goblins slings and fists chipped the 2 wolves health points down. Borg and Barg, Kif¡¯s brute companions, helped hold the two targets down while they took their beating and died. A cry of pain as Ebne died told of the two remaining wolves and the alpha reaching the fight. Kif and the survivors turned and attacked the remaining three wolves. During the fight Kif spent some of his mana to respawn Ebne and Ibne when he also died. All told, all the goblin party suffered from were two deaths and a bunch of scratches. Upon achieving victory Kif was awarded with 1 level up finally, ¡°Yes level 11¡± along with 5 bruised and battered wolf corpses. He and Mu went to work cleaning and disassembling them and gained several pelts, teeth, and claws. Kif pulled out a small cooking knife from his one utility equip slot and proceeded to use it to cut a small sapling tree down. He then carved two clubs out of the downed tree, ruining the knife in the process. The cooking knife had been a reward for teaching 4 new cooking recipes to the chef at castle Dredemonte¡¯s inn. Kif broke up one of the pelts into several strips of leather. then poked the wolf teeth through the strips before wrapping the two clubs. [You have created green wood spiked clubs] Arming his two brutes, it was almost time to move on and look for the raptors. Their claws would make decent knives and spear heads, but first, Kif sat down and started a fire. He needed to recover his mana and wanted everyone to be at full health and stamina before their next fight. Plus there was all this wolf meat. ___________________________________________________________________ [Elsewhere] Mr. Velmont sat down for a board meeting with his company''s top investors. The topic of the meeting was Global Conflict¡¯s upcomming release to the public. In front of him sat the only 5 people whose opinions mattered as far as he was concerned. Without their backing, his company would just be another phone app developer. To his immediate left was Chase Whitman, you would be hard pressed to find a more racist billionaire. Next to Chase was Cassandra Bell, a beautiful daughter to some old english nobleman. Directly across from Mr. Velmonte sat Rinako Momotani, another daughter, this one of a rich japanese congressman. Rinako and Cassandra joining Velmont¡¯s board of directors had been necessary to getting the game system released worldwide instead of only in America. On His right sat Mark Brigam, and to Mark¡¯s right sat Chauncy Brigam. The two Brigam brothers had been the original investors in the company and had grown from lucky lottery winners to multi millionaires over the course of Velmont¡¯s companies rise to number 2 in the gaming world. ¡°I would like to thank everyone for agreeing to having our annual board meeting a little earlier than normal, now lets get started,¡± Jason Velmont said. ¡°To summarize our goals and why things have come to where they are, We developed one of the first non-military AI¡¯s in the industry that did not immediately kill itself or commit suicide. Due to the extreme expense that it takes to make an AI currently, we used our current one to create the world of Global conflict. It has managed to create the base story line and now our beta testers are fleshing out the world for the millions of new players we expect to join us in three weeks time.¡± Cassandra: We have already heard this before, can we just skip to why you wanted to call this early? Jason: Of course. As you know we instructed our AI to create several world changing quests to allow us to properly shape the conflict for release date. These quests would become far harder to trigger after the game goes into full release to make it harder for things like racial deaths to happen. Unfortunately it created these quests equally and the players on the evil races side have been able to hold their own. I need more time before release if i am to undo what has happened and fix the game to how we originally agreed it should be. Mark B: I¡¯ve seen some of the clips for the commercials we are putting out. The demon race looks fun. Chauncy B: And the shadow elf women are gorgeous. Chase: Those ugly wenches should all burn. I am in agreement to postpone the game release until you get everything under control. Rinako: But i am not. We have over 2 million pre sales in Japan, and 4 times that in China. If we delay the release then it will cost us Billions in the stock market. I am against. Jason: So we have two for postponing, and three against postponing. Cassandra, you have the deciding vote. As you know in tied votes my decision goes. Cassandra: I choose. __________________________________________________________________________ (Author''s rant. [And back to Kif. Mua ha ha]) Kif smiled as he worked. They had successfully hunted several more wolf packs, and enough raptors to outfit the the bne siblings, himself and Goblin Mu with knifes. The greenwood clubs had been great, giving Borg and Barg about a %10 chance to cause daze for 10 seconds upon hitting their target. Daze halted spellcasting and doubled all stamina and mana costs while afflicted with it. It was a spellcaster answer and Kif was glad to add the condition to his parties repertoire. In other good news, Obne and Ylbne had both learned the fire spell after create embers, [Throw fire]. While not a high damage dealing spell, it cost them next to no mana and had a %100 chance of applying the burn stat doing 7 health per second in damage for 3 seconds. With 0 cast time and a 1 second cooldown the two goblins could dish out the pain so long as their mana kept up. They also ruined any chances of looting any corps they cooked but it was a trade off Kif was willing to accept. ¡°Alright everyone, i think thats enough. Let''s head back to the lair and tomorrow we will clear out those poison slime pools¡± Kif said. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.[The forest guardians have noticed your presence.] Reading this ominous message Kif picked up the pace. As the goblins were reaching the edge of the forest, the sunlight, which had been getting brighter, vanished. The surroundings went pitch black. ¡°Ylbne, Obne light up some fire for us, i can¡¯t see anything.¡± he ordered. The scene that the fire revealed was no longer the edge of the shadow forest. The small goblin party was now deep within the trees in a small circle surrounded by 16 evenly placed large pines. Their leaves blocked out all light from above. [The forest guardian has appeared. Impress it to survive.] Scrolled across Kif¡¯s vision. Looking around the barely lit clearing he still saw nothing. -15 [Minor bleed applied, -2 hp per second for 10 seconds] Kif staggered as something struck his back. A second later Barg grunted and staggered sideways as something cut into his arm deeply. Frowning Kif looked to the only place he had not searched yet. down. the floor of the clearing was covered in vines with no dirt in sight. In the center of the clearing, in the spot where all the vines originated was a single 6 inch tall brown flower. [Forest guardian Onatah level 24 Elite ???] As he watched it, a petal shot from the flower and struck Goblin Mu, injuring him and causing a slight bleed. ¡°Burn the flower!¡± Kif exclaimed and pointed at it. Ylbne and Obne turned and threw the small flames they were holding at the guardian. -2 -2 -2 [You have defeated the forest guardian Onatah +2 Exp] Dieing the flower launched out 16 different petals, they each struck one of the trees surrounding the clearings. [Onatah¡¯s elder siblings are angry.] Kif watched as all 16 great pine trees gained faces and stood up. He was in a clearing of ''. [Elder Ent level 52]*16 Kif despaired as he looked at the Ents. ¡°Focus one of them, we need to cut our way out.¡± He called as he rushed one of them. Large vines shot out of the air while roots rose up from the ground to strike at him. Kif and his companions fought hard but eventually Kif was the only one left. Injured and out of stamina he watched with dread as one of the Ent¡¯s reached for him with it¡¯s branches. He closed his eyes to wait for the inevitable, ¡°I really am not looking forward to visiting Maina¡¯s realm again.¡± he murmured. His Lair¡¯s safe respawns would not reset for 2 more days. Kif waited, and nothing happened. Opening his eyes he was greeted with the notice. [The guardian has become impressed that you have maintained your sanity after meeting the Goddess of death. +1 luck, +1 orb of calling. Orb of calling calls for the nearest ally of the forest guardian to aid you once] Around Kif the light vanished then the area grew brighter. He was once again at the edge of the forest. However his companions had all died and their drops were all somewhere in the middle of the forest. With a sad heart Kif put the Orb of Calling into his Utility Equip slot and trudged towards the lair. Tomorrow he would have to spend a good bit of time getting his Companions more new leather armor and weapons before they could head out. Behind him, a single brown flower regrew itself in the center of the forest. [Forest guardian Onatah level 24 Elite (Avatar of the goddess Tywen) watched the sad goblin leave with a troubled heart. Tywen had wished to reward the goblin for its acts of maintaining the balance between the two kingdoms. Kif had both respawned the dwarves and saved the Empire of darkness from being over run.] _________________________________________________________________________ Cassandra: Do not postpone. All of our commercials have been showing off the two sides equally. We already have players forming guilds on our forums before they even have the game to play. The original plan would have caused us a large amount of animosity from our playerbase as it is. Velmont: Alright, In that case the next thing on the agenda is. _________________________________________________________________________ Bile. Pain, it hurts, The beam cleaved though the scales covering my chest and missed my heart, It roasted one of my four lungs. If not for my enormous constitution and the inherited magic i have as a dragon i would have died of bloodloss or from the shock far earlier. Those damned harpy wannabees will rue the day they challenged me, after i recover of course. With these injuries i should be fit to sink their precious city after a five century nap. With those thoughts Bile burrowed his way back into his lair and fell asleep after caving the mountain in on top of himself. ___________________________________________________________________________ (Author''s rant, Lets up the cast.) [Log in] Shasta stretched and climbed out of her bedroll. As one of the second wave of beta testers she had chosen to create a beast race and had chosen the cougar(her colleges mascot) as her racial family. The beast race specialized in physical combat over magic. The only spells their race could learn were druidic support and modification spells. As one of the Cat family Shasta had been blessed with double the standard beast growth in agility along with the perfect balance skill. Abilities that affected her balance had a 100% failure rate and she could fight fine no matter what weird position she was in. When she first logged in day one, She had participated in the battle with Genner, one of the best fighters of their Kation tribe at the head. The initial fights had been easy, with the elves cavalry breaking forces of darkness cohesion. Then had come the siege of the castle. Shasta had chosen to become an archer from Genner¡¯s influence. She had been pelting the enemy defenders when Genner had gone over the wall to try for a break through. Genner survived the attack but was limping as he moved through the lines.. Their forces had continued pushing, trying to break the walls. She remembered getting word that their camp had been attacked, and then suddenly they were ordered to retreat. The zombie general lead his surviving dark forces in an attack. Shasta had shot arrows defending her fellow Katians until she ran out, then when she tried to retreat the popup, that would haunt her for a while appeared. [You are out of stamina, you will now take double damage and spend health at three times the stamina rate for further activity] Shasta almost died by running away. If not for Genner making a stand with the rest of the NPC¡¯s Shasta would have ended up dead like the vast majority of the army of light. The battle happened last week, and it took her until now to have the courage to log back in. She had scoured the forums to learn that her respawn was in her races home village instead of in the middle of that field. Stepping outside Shasta decided to familiarize herself with the village and pick up some easy quests for food money. She would never again let her stamina get that low. Flames. The village was on fire. Everywhere she looked tree homes were burning, there were corpses of npc¡¯s and players scattered all over the area. Swoosh. A huge form flew by overhead. Looking up Shasta saw her death coming for her in the shape of an enormous black dragon. [Bile Dragon Scourge, Level 500 Dragon Boss] Tearfully Shasta closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable. [Boom] Looking up, a City had appeared in the sky out of no where. The dragon had struck one of it¡¯s towers and sent it hurling to the ground. [Broooom] the tower struck and the entire village shook with it¡¯s landing. From the city Angels charged out to attack the dragon. Shasta watched their fight and the angels chasing the monster away. They were beautiful. After the battle large groups of the angels flew down and started helping with repairs. Shasta spent her first day logging back in after a week crying on the shoulder of one of the most beautiful people she had ever met. Even if this game was scary, she knew that everything would be fine. ____________________________________________________________________________ Last piece. Krys tucked the sleeping Katian girl into a bed and brushed her hair. He understood how terrifying the monster must have been. Silently he vowed to stop the beast¡¯s rampage no matter what the cost. He never wanted to have to see a village like this again. The terror, and loss of hope was troubling, even for an angel¡¯s heart. Having come to terms with his desires he moved off to find Primarch Godric. The fight had not been without sacrifice and Godric was busy praying over lost Legionnaires who had spent their all to save this village. ¡°Well Godric, what do you think?¡± He asked. ¡°I wish we didn¡¯t have to fight at all.¡±Godric replied,¡± This much power could do a lot of good, to see it misused in such a way tears at me. Thank Balfur that there is only one of those monsters on the side of evil. I have been speaking to these survivors. They call them Dragons.¡± ¡°Dragons.¡± Krys tried the unfamiliar word. As a race of servants for the God of Truth Balfur, The angels knew everything about the original races created by the Gods. Of the races from other planes though, they had less knowledge. ¡°We will need to learn all we can about these Dragons, and any other weapons that the Dark Lord has managed to create beyond our sight.¡± Thinking deeply about the implications that the forces of evil had managed to hide such a powerful trump card Krys finally said, ¡° We need more information. I think we need to contact all the races of light. Without more complete information on the Dark Lords armies it is going to be impossible to defeat them, let alone force them to the diplomatic table.¡± Godric nodded in agreement. (Author''s rant. Had a bit of writer''s block. Took me longer than i expected to hit my minimum word count for posting one of these.) Just 9 Chapter 9 (Log in) Kif stretched and looked around. He had moved his lair to Mount Vulcan before logging off yesterday. Having logged back in it was not time for him to train himself and his companions on how to slay a slime. Beside Kif stood Hobgoblin Mu, with Barg and Borg the two goblin brutes. Arrayed around them stood the bne siblings Ibne, Ebne Obne and Ylbne.One of the things Kif had collected from the shadow forest were small straight sticks from the younger forest tree¡¯s. He was taking a page from the Larry Cotter wizard book series on using a solid wood wand with a magic core. Since goblins had no crafting skills beyond (General Crafting) Kif hoped to stumble his way through the magic item creation process. Now he had a ¡®Magic¡¯ wood, he needed a fire element magic something to go with it. Kif started out by retrieving some of the volcanic rocks from the edge of the Volcan lair lava river. Using a club he proceeded to powder the rocks and fill a small leather alchemy pouch with them. This went into his one utility slot for later. Taking the first branch, he carved it into a respectable wand size with a knife. For his first try he carefully cut a line down the wood, reaching the center of the wand, from tip to end. Kif poured the lava dust in, then used a very thin leather strip to wrap the wand closed. He doused the leather causing it to shrink and tighten, closing the cut he made in the wood. Kif handed the wand to Obne, and instructed him to try to cast magic through it. A small jet of flame shot forth from the wand and fizzled into nothing after 3 seconds. The wand itself turned to ash after the first casting. Obne informed kif that it was easier to use the wand than to cast a fire spell like normal, but seemed to take more of his mana. (Maybe i need to add something to the powder, a paste or solid would concoction to give the wand more strength) Kif thought. He didn¡¯t have any other magic ingredients at the moment so he made 4 ¡°oneshot¡± wands and handed two each to his two caster companions, Obne and Ylbne. After a quick trip to the goblin market to rearm the entire party with slings and marbles, kif led his companions down to the acid slime pits. His two brutes were armed with the special shadow wolf fang clubs he had crafted. Mu and Kif both had a short sword and dagger. Ibne and Ebne we both armed with 2 long daggers and a small belt satchel full of dirt to attempt to blind enemies with. Finally his two fire mages in training were armed with 2 one shot wands and an emergency small dagger. The entire party was wearing rough leather armor. Entering the first of the five slime caverns, Kif saw hundreds of green acid slimes, ranging in size from a fist sized slime with a small pearl core, to the size of a small dog with a core the size of an apple. [Small slime level 3 (travels in packs)] [Medium slime level 10 (calls for momma)] Examining the area, in addition to all the slimes there was a large green pool of ooze that new small slimes crawled out of every few minutes. ¡°Alright, We will start by attacking some of the smaller slimes with slings. Once we reduce them, Obne, Ylbne, we will test your magic vs the middle slimes. I am looking forward to this.¡± Kif instructed. Loading their slings, all the goblins but the brutes launched attacks at some of the smaller slimes. -1 -1 -2 -10 (Small slime has been slain +1 Exp) After the first volley, every small slime in the room started hopping towards kif¡¯s group. ¡°O hell¡± He muttered. Kif quickly instructed his companions to move into a new formation. The two casters spammed their (Throw fire) skill onto the floor to the left and right of the group, Shrinking the area the slimes could approach through. Kif an dMu stood in the middle with Borg and BArg to either side of them. The brutes were on their knees swinging their clubs close to the ground in an attempt to slow the slimes down from their approaches. -8 -3 Kif fought with his short sword and dagger. The sword could slay a slime in a single strike, while the dagger was taking two to do the same. Mu stood beside him doing the same. Ibne and Ebne fired their slings from the back at the slimes that tried to hop through the fire, keeping the wall sustained. For thirty minutes the goblins held off the seemingly unending onslaught of small slimes before it finally petered out and there were no more small slimes in the first room. Kif and the other front line goblins were covered head to toe in slime ooze and hundreds of small pearl sized cores could be seen floating throughout it. ¡°Collect all the cores¡± Kif tiredly instructed. Kif scraped some of the ooze he was covered in off of his face and poured it into his alchemy pouch full of volcanic dust. using a dagger kif stirred it together and it formed a greyish substance with the consistency of clay. ¡°Lets take another stab at those wands. ¡° he muttered as he went back to his lair. Kif left his companions collecting slime cores while he crafted. Back at his chest, Kif carved out more of the wood. In one wand to be, he cut it down the center and packed the clay into it before again using the leather as a finish. In a second, he whittled a hole in the base and filled only the hole with clay before capping it. In a third he powdered some small slime cores and added the powder to the clay like substance before filling the center of a wand. In a final one he coated a slime core in the clay substance before fitting it to the base of an above average thickness wand. [Global announcement. Player Kif has crafted the first player made rare+ magical equipment] (+1 to general crafting level) ¡°Success¡± Kif cried. Unfortunately goblins did not have access to the identify skill so he had no way of knowing what his wand would do without testing it. Kif spent the next hour making 8 more of the thick slime core wants & storing them into his chest. It was time to test out the others & revisit his companions. At the slime pools, Mu had a bulging bag of small slime cores. Kif sent him off to deliver them to his lairs chest and passed out the test wands to his two fire mages. The clay filled wand exploded, killing it¡¯s caster and injuring the other goblins. Kif re summoned Ylbne and handed out the next one. The clay base wand caught on fire and burned Ebne badly. The powdered slime core fired off 5 small balls of fire, It looked like it was a roman candle firework going off. It stopped working after the 5 shot volley so Kif concluded it was another consumable wand. Two of the fireballs hit the same medium sized slime and killed it. (Medium slime has been slain. +15 exp) Kif retrieved the apple sized core and handed out the unknown rare+ wand. Upon activation a complicated magic circle appeared on the floor. After two seconds a small red slime appeared. ¡°Boss, i gained a slime companion.¡± Ylbne stated as he picked up the small red slime. ¡°I made a pet summoning wand.¡± Kif celebrated. ¡°I am rich. The only negative is all my wands are still consumables. Ok team, lets get back to practicing. We are luring the medium slimes now. -1 -2 -2 -4 Striking the core did more damage than hitting the body. The medium slime jumped towards the goblins and started Humming. Two more volleys of sling stones finished it. Kif retrieved the core and the goblins continued sling shotting the slimes down. Each medium slime started humming as soon as the goblins attacked it. When only one was left kif sent Mu on a run to drop off the loot and retrieve 2 more of the roman candle wands. That ¡°Calls momma¡± text in the slimes name was worrying enough he wanted to be extra prepared. ¡°I don¡¯t know who momma is but if she appears make sure you aim for her core with these wands.¡± Kif instructed his mages. Having received their instructions the goblins slew the last slime visible in the first cavern. (Acid slime has awoke) The entire ooze pool that had originated all the small slimes started pulling itself together. and a core the size of a basketball with 2 apple sized cores orbiting it appeared. (Acid slime level 35) The slime was as big as a couch and stood almost 5 feet tall. ¡°Attack¡± Kif yelled and the goblins attacked with their slings and 2 candle wands. -1 -1 -1 -1 -15*5 -15*5 None of their marbles were able to reach the slimes core and the slime lost only 1/3rd of it¡¯s total health form the two wand attacks. It¡¯s entire surface trembled for a moment and then 16 tentacles launched outwards towards the ceiling before curving down towards kiffs group. ¡°Dodge it.¡± He yelled. The attack was slow enough all the goblins dodged it successfully. Only to notice more ooze flowing into the grounded tentacles. Quickly they filed out and 4 medium slimes alongside 12 small slimes appeared surrounding the goblins. ¡°Take them out quickly.¡± He cried. During the fight with the spawned slimes, the acid slime slowly rolled forward and the goblins were forced to scatter out of it¡¯s way. It re-absorbed the small and medium cores gaining 1% hp back for each small core and 3% for each medium. After the exchange, the acid slime sat at a pretty 94% hp. It trembled and launched it¡¯s 16 tentacle at the goblins again. ¡°Grab the core¡¯s when you kill them. Barg, You are on holding duty, use your shirt to hold all the cores.¡± Kif ordered. The tentacle attack seemed to have a 30 second cooldown. If they could keep it¡¯s healing they could whittle it down. -1 -1 It was just too big. All the slings were only able to do one damage, being unable to penetrate all the ooze protecting it¡¯s core. Mu moved up close and slashed it for 4 damage but was unable to dodge it¡¯s tentacle attack and received a hit in return. ¡°We need magic to fight this.¡± Kif realized. ¡°Fall back, retreat,¡± He called out. The goblins ran back to the safety of the Vulcan lair. (The candle wands did decent damage. Maybe an elemental weapon would help. I don¡¯t know a darned thing about making a magic blades though and there isn¡¯t a blacksmith in the entire mountain.) Kif thought. Coming to a decision Kif powdered most of the small slime cores and spent some time making 30 candle wands and 15 slime pet summoning wands. He reasoned that if 2 wands were able to do 30% of the slimes hp in damage, then 8 should be overkill. Kif explained his new plan to his companions. Obne and Ylbne would focus on the acid slime with the wands. The rest of them would fight the small and medium slimes it spawned. Re Entering the cave, the goblins quickly slaughtered the small and medium slimes that had respawned in the time they had been away. The acid slime woke up and they engaged it. -15*5 -15*5 The fight was on. The magest unloaded their wands into it one after another and before it had sent out it¡¯s second attack it was down to 10% hp. The two small cores orbiting the large one changed from a milky white to a bright purple, then moved into the center core. (Acid slime has evolved into queen slime) [(Queen slime level 50) 10% hp remaining] (Area message. Warning. Slay the queen slime or it shall damage the local lair) ¡°What?¡± Kif cried. ¡° It just gained 15 levels. This game is so unfair sometimes.¡± Obne and Ylbne unloaded their last 2 wands into the slime. -15*5 -15*5 (Queen slime level 50 %2 hp left) ¡°We can do this.¡± Kif cried and ordered all the goblins to attack. -0 -0 (Queen slime has resisted the attack) The slings were useless, not having the penetration needed to injure the slime through it¡¯s reinforced membrane. Barg raised his club and with a yell charged it. The club bounced off the slime and smacked the brute in the face. In anger he continued swinging uselessly at it. Kif watched helplessly as all their physical attacks bounced off of it. All he had left was the pouch full of volcanic ooze clay. Desperately he pulled it out and had Ylbne light the outside of the pouch. He then attempted to throw the burning concoction only to have it stick to his hand. [you have been burned. -7 hp per second] The queen slime, in this time, shot out an AOE attack of tentacles spawning far more slimes than it had as an acid slime. Kif came to a sobering decision and , with a running leap, jumped into the queen slime burning hand first. [You are being digested. -14 hp per second] He grabbed the core and held his still burning hand against it as long as he could. [Queen slime has died][You have died. Remaining safe respawns, 5] [Would you like to respawn?] (Yes) Kif stretched as he respawned. Slaying all the small and medium slimes had net him 4 levels. Killing the queen slime granted him 2 more. He returned to his companions and went about recovering the queen slimes core. ¡°So apparently the clay stuff burns like napalm¡¯¡± He said, talking to himself. (This can be useful) He thought happily. After several trips to drop of cores in his chest Kif¡¯s party entered the second cavern. (acid slime level 35) There were hundreds of acid slimes moving about the cavern with 2 large level 40 acid slimes mixed in. ¡°Even with all the loot i have i couldn¡¯t make enough wands to handle half of this.¡± ¡° Let¡¯s go ask old goblin Bu if he has any ideas.¡± Hobgoblin Mu suggested. Agreeing, Kif headed up through the caverns to Bu¡¯s new home. ¡°Kif, Just the idiot i was looking for.¡± Bu cried happily. ¡°Hey old man i need.¡± ¡°Exactly,¡± Bu interrupted,¡± You need to run over to my old clan and recruit them.¡± Bu went on to describe exactly what he wanted kif to do. ¡°I knew you were right for the job.¡± [Racial advancement quest; Old Goblin Bu was once the Goblin King of the Blood Reaver tribe. He wants you to follow in his footsteps. Find the tribe, Become king, and attack the council of light to complete. Quest can not be denied. Quest fails if the Blood reavers or Goblin Bu die off. Quest difficulty 3 skulls] (I have heard of f rank all the way up through SSS rank. what does 3 skulls mean i wonder.) ¡°Soo, where exactly are the blood reavers?¡± he asked. ¡°North of us, beyond the bleeding cliffs and the crying canyons.¡± This can wait a bit right? I don¡¯t know if i am strong enough yet to become a goblin king.¡± Bah, you''re an elite. Best goblin i can send, besides i only have like 2 weeks left to live.¡± Bu responded. Bu was likely going to vanish with the games release. From what Kif had read on the forums during work, Several races had already completed some racial advancement quests. The shadow elves had added 3 noble houses to their main coven and were said to be trying to expand. The orcs had gained 2 High warlord''s leading their armies. Even the Demon tribes had managed to summon an Original devil lord of some kind. Kif figured his goblin race was behind so, despite the foreboding 3 skulls difficulty he decided to focus on this quest before retrieving the dwarven axe from Dredmonte. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.¡°Do you have anything to make the job easier?¡± He asked. ¡°Sure, when i was a wee boy i created the Greatest skill ever. Hold still and close your eyes and i¡¯ll pass it on to ya. ¡°Bu answered. Kif closed his eyes. (Whap -30 hp dazed 10 seconds) (You have a concussion, receive double damage the next 48 hours.) (Through much error and a little trial, Bu has taught you Superior Identify) [Superior identify: Only works on being 10 levels higher than your own and greater. FAils and turns hostile all monsters of equal or lower level when used. Costs 20 mana to use.] ¡°Th- Thanks I think.¡± Kif said while he held his aching head. ¡°I¡¯ll be going now¡± ¡°You sure you got the skill? I can give it to ya again to make sure ya got it.¡± Bu called. ¡°No I got it. Thanks.¡± Kif quickly answered and hurried away. Kif staggered back to his companions and lead them out of the Volcan Lair. ¡°First we need more thick sticks from the shadow forest, after that we are heading north to track down the Blood Reavers.¡± ¡°I am out¡± All of his companions declared at those words. ¡°The blood Reavers eat other goblins. I like breathing.¡± ¡°Fine. Borg, Barg, Obne and Ylbne, You gather shadow wood while i am gone. Mu, Take Ebne and Ibne and gather more small and medium slime cores. I will deal with the reavers myself somehow.¡± Kif sized. ¡°I shall miss ye.¡± Mu replied and all his companions quickly left. Kif returned to his chest and spent some time preparing for the trip north. He prepared 3 short swords, 2 daggers, 1 alchemy pouch of clay went into his utility slot and 2 more went onto his belt. He stuck his flint and steel into the pouch in his utility slot. HE hung a bag of marbles around his neck and wrapped his left arm with his sling. Ready, he logged off to go to work. Monday [Log in] Kif left mount Vulcan and headed out north west around the mountain. After twenty minutes of hiking he switched to heading straight north. Kif kept himself busy by killing the wolves and other low level monsters he encountered. After a few minutes more he reached the Bleeding cliffs. So named because of the red material coming out of them. Large amounts of iron and rust caused the water to be both red, and highly toxic. Several rust elementals and sand golems were milling about the area. Kif steered clear as he had no idea how to kill a monster made of sand. Could physical attacks even injure it? none of the elementals or golems had obvious core¡¯s like the slimes. Leaving the cliffs Kif entered the Crying canyons. (Groupon OOOooh) The bane came from the local harpy tribe that inhabited the entire area and liked to nail their still living prey to the walls. Kif cautiously passed his way through them and was well on his way to moving through without issue when he encountered a young harby girl. She had the face and upper body of a human with the wings and feet of a bird. All of her body except her face was covered in small green and gold feathers. She stood only 6 inches taller than Kif and the reason she did not take flight immediately was apparent. There was a tear in her left wing about 6 inches wide. [Identify [Injured harpy youngling Aria level 75->65 2000 hp 1500 mp skills claw swipe shriek childs call nail slash disabled skills flight dive] The two watched each other for a few moments before Aria let out a piercing shriek. (Diaooooooh) [Childs call used] (Flap, Flap , Flap) The sounds of wings flapping filled the air and Kif watched as the sky went dark from the flock all taking wing. Several streaks descended from the circling flock and Kif was soon surrounded by 3 Big male harpies. Their feet and claws covered in nasty blades. [Ronta 1st born level 120] Plugal the swift level 110] Avant Harpy champion level 330] (Why is everything i encounter so much higher level than me) Kif thought Behind the three, a female landed next to the youngling and started crooning to her. Kif quietly put his weapons away and sat down, certain he was about to die. ¡°Who did this?¡± The female asked. ¡°Reavers.¡± The child replied crying. Reavers struck my wing and i ran.¡± ¡°Then lets kill the reaver scout here and wipe out the entire damned tribe.¡± Ronta declared. ¡°I ¡®m not a reaver.¡± Kif through in. ¡°I am a Vulcan. I was sent to¡± ¡°Silence¡± Avant thundered. The circling tribe plummeted to the ground and surrounded the group. Avante continued, ¡°The reavers are becoming a scourge. you say you are from the Volcan tribe? You have one week to fix the problem and rid us of the Reavers, or we hunt both tribes to the ground.¡± [Quest; The Quix harpy tribe is tired of being attacked by the blood reaver goblins, remove the goblin threat or the tribe will attack the Vulcan tribe. Rewards; Potential allies; Difficulty 3 skulls] (Again with the weird skulls) Kif thought. ¡°I was sent to handle the blood reavers, I will fix this problem as soon as i can.¡± He answered. ¡°One week.¡± Avant repeated and then the tribe took off back into the air. Kif quickly hurried out of the area before the harpies changed their mind. Beyond the canyons Kif entered a lightly wooded area. He hoped to find a cave or some other place the Blood reaver lair could be hidden without being found. Kif searched for ten minutes when. Bang -10 [You have been knocked unconscious, should you survive you may log in in 20 minutes.] 20 minutes later [Log in] Kif woke up inside a cage. Surrounding the cage were three shadow elf cursed swordsmen. One of them was speaking with a 4th hooded elf. ¡°Welcome back.¡± Elora spoke. ¡°Whats going on?¡± Kif asked, trying to figure out why he was captured. ¡°we are trying to remove a nuisance from the area of our Covens latest expansion. Once i eradicate the Blood Reaver goblins my household will have it¡¯s own area separate from the starter zone. Players will be able to choose to start as my house. Elora said, dreaming about it. ¡°By the way, what are you doing so far north?¡± She asked. ¡°um.¡± Kif said, stalling, ¡°Just walking as far north as i can go?¡± ¡°He is lying mistress.¡± One of the swordsmen said. ¡°O i know he is lying, i just needed to ask for politeness sake. We can kill him with a clear conscious now.¡± She replied. ¡°The hike wasn¡¯t that bad!¡± Kif cried. ¡°It was bad enough.¡± She smiled. then her eyes rolled up and she slumped to the ground. ¡°Food¡± a loud cry went up and the ground began trembling. with a roar, hundreds of bright red goblins ran into the camp and swarmed the 3 cursed swordsmen. Elora had been felled by a slingstone to the temple. After subduing the elves, the goblins broke Kif out of the cage and headed back off towards their lair. He quickly recovered his equipment and joined them. The goblin war party traveled to a small hole in the ground and Kif saw that the lair was in a natural underground cavern. The goblins drug the unconscious elves to a pit and tossed them in before moving a wooden lattice over the hole to cover it. Kif spent the next few minutes exploring the lair and noted that it was comprised of 2 caverns. The first entrance cavern was large and open. It contained fire pits with spits upon them, the prison hole, and a small cleared area with logs encircling it. The log circled area reminded Kif of a rooster fight coliseum. The second cavern contained sleeping areas and some goblin craftsmen making leather and wood products. Mostly slings and clubs. One last thing kif notices about the Blood Reaver tribe was that they were starving. The tribe only amounted to about 5000 in total. The Vulcan tribe ont he other hand, numbered almost 2 million depending on how many young goblins had decided to go bath in the lava river on that particular day.As kif moved about a short, bright red and well dressed gobin left the sleeping area and went to the colluseum. ¡°I, great King Wax!¡± it declared, ¡° I kill goblin challenger and stay king.¡± (becoming king seriously can''t be this easy) Kif thought. ¡°You, come die please!¡± King Wax declared and pointed at Kif. Kif stared at the short goblin, stunned at how simple becoming king seemed to be for a few seconds before casting identify on him. [King Wax level 130 Master Goblin Mage] (He didn¡¯t need to see any more as a straight up fight would end in his death. ¡°I''d fight you. I is Kif Super Great Unkillable Elite warriors of Vulcan tribe. Best of Bests.¡± He declared, speaking in the broken goblin speak. ¡°First i Eats my super unstoppable potion and then I¡¯s fight.¡± He said and pulled out the alchemy pouch from his utility slot. As kif opened it a whip of fire wrapped around the pouch and it was pulled from his hand. King Wax stole the pouch of magical napalm. ¡°King taste¡¯s all food before tribe.¡± Wax declared before eating the pouch, leather and all. (I feel sorry for doing this) Kif thought. ¡°Fine, Then i do super unstoppable fire eating dance before we fight.¡± ¡°I eat more fire.¡± Wax declared and swallowed a magical fireball. [Bang] [Identify] [King Wax level 130 master goblin mage 10 hp remaining 20000 mp skills Fire hand Disabled skills Flame breath Fire ball Fire whip Burn them all Fire wall Light roast Crispify] Kif immediately launched himself at the ailing goblin king. Wax coughed up a bunch of smoke and did not notice until kif struck him across the chest with his short sword. -2 hp [8 remained] ¡°Couch Couch Hack¡± Wax gasped as he struggled to cast. -2 -2 -30 hp [light burn -7hp per second for 2 seconds] Waxes hand flamed up and he slapped kif in the chest pushing him away. Identify updated showing that the skill Firewall was no longer disabled. (Whoosh) a wall of flames appeared between the two goblins. Kif loaded his sling and launched several shots at Wax only to notice the marbles melt to nothing in the heat of the fire wall. Wax smiled evilly and started walking forward. The wall moved with him. Kif calmly pulled one of his 2 spare alchemy pouches off his belt and threw it into the wall. With a bang it exploded and blew a brief hole in the flames. -2 Kif struck Wax in the head with a sling marble. Wax clutched his head angrily and continued pushing the fire wall. Kif launched his last pouch and fired off one more marble. -1 Wax had dodged it and only received a nick in the arm. Kif desperately threw his short swords and one dagger at Wax, only to watch as the fire ate them all. In a last ditch effort to win he dropped to the ground. ¡°Argh the fire, I is dieing, I has died.¡± He cried. ¡°Hah, *couch*¡± Wax cried and dropped the wall. With a lunge Kif slammed his last dagger into Wax¡¯s chest, Killing him. [King wax of the Blood Reaver tribe has been slain. The title of Goblin King has been unlocked. [Title; Goblin King A goblin crazy enough to prefer leading other goblins. Good luck surviving the year] [+1 level] [+1 level] Kif leveled up all the way to level 42 from slaying Wax and receiving the title. He managed this despite his companions sucking off enough exp to all reach level 40. ¡®(This is great, but i need to act fast.) He thought and moved first to the elf cage. ¡°i¡¯m sorry please let me out.¡± Elora called from the pit. Kif silently tossed his rusty dagger into the pit then turned to the awaiting, starving reaver tribe. ¡°Kif is New King, Puny elvses be stringy and taste bad. Kif know where fat juicy foods be. Follow King Kif to easy meats!!¡± With the rallying cry of Fat Easy Meat Kif led the screaming tribe of goblins out of the cave and south towards the border. As he started up his marching song he couldn''t help but think, (I should write a book. From goblin to king in a day, A Kif Biography) With a growing smile Kif led his new tribe on. {Author''s rant. Is he op? Or not. When building my world i took most of my knowledge of monsters from fantasy books and the magic the gathering playing cards I was into in my younger life. Goblins are Stupid. It is one of those big tenets of my story, along with dragons being almost unkillable save for god crafted weapons (See the angels city killer beam). } The axe Chapter 10 Crossing the border, Kif found a small farming village surrounded in fields. For a border town it was severely lacking in defences as without breaking stride he led the Reever tribe straight into the place. ¡°Kill them all.¡± He declared before grabbing together a party of brutes and heading for the village elder''s hut. Screams and the clashing of swords wrung out as the villagers, and some unlucky beta testers, tried to defend themselves from the starving goblins. Reaching the elder''s hut Kif pointed and said, ¡°Take it.¡± His brute squad rushed the building and plowed thru the wall to the left of the door. Sighing audibly he opened the unlocked door and entered. two hours later Kif sat in front of a large bon fire eating some amazingly spiced bipeds ribs and listening to some of the other blood reaver tribesmen expounding their battle exploits. Upon filling his stamina bar up he handed what was left to one of the small goblin children that were running around the area. [+1 level to lair, +1 scavenger goblin added to lair] Taking a deep breath he spoke. ¡° I is smart king. I sais we join dark empire. Eat lots of fat meats. Tomorrow i leads tribe to bigger caves, best homes!¡± The goblins partying lasted long into the night. Kif retired early and logged out. He had work to get too. [Log out] [Log in] Logging back into the game, Kif quickly corralled the goblins together and set out. He led them back into the Vulcan Lair and brought them to Old Goblin Bu.¡±Hey Bu, ya remember telling me to become king? Well i went and did just that¡± The old goblin''s eyes bugged out as he noted the High leveled Blood Reaver tribe flowing in behind Kif. ¡°Youse did good boy, I chose right.¡± [Global announcement, The Blood Reaver tribe has joined the dark empire. The goblin Berserker and Tracker classes have been unlocked.] [Global announcement, The Harpy Quix tribe has joined the dark empire. Harpy¡¯s have been added to the list of playable races] [You have gained +1 levels] ¡°Only one level for completing two quests with three skulls for a rating? Did i do something to insult the AI on accident?¡± Kif cried. Bu simply patted him on the shoulder before continuing. ¡°Go talk to Matron Rue. She will want to know who the new goblin king is. Theres only one per tribe and the Vulcan¡¯s have been needing one for a while now.¡± The old goblin smiled slyly behind Kifs back. Emboldened at the thought of more rewards, Kif hurried through the city to the matrons home, Leaving the Reavers in Bu¡¯s hands. ¡°Matron Rue, I has become a goblin King.¡± He declared, speaking in the goblin tongue instead of like normal. The matron stood up from where she was drinking and whacked him in the head. -5 hp ¡°Not king just my boy.¡± She declared. ¡°But I has a title.¡± He cried. {whap} ¡°Not king, My BOY!!¡± She yelled louder. [Title: Goblin king has been changed to Rue¡¯s stupidest son.] ¡°That¡¯s not fair.¡± Kif tried as he tried to shield his head. {Whapp} ¡°Mine.¡± Rue declared then ripped his shirt open and stabbed the heart tattoo she had given him with a finger. Pain assailed Kif and he collapsed struggling to breath from the magic the Matron pumped into him. [+10 levels to lair skill] [+10 levels to lair skill] [A bonus has been added to lair skill. General crafting has changed to Goblin Crafting. General weapons mastery has changed to Goblin weapons mastery.] [Local announcement. The Blood of a different type of goblins has been added to the Vulcan tribe. All regular goblins may now learn the subclass of leatherworking and woodworking. All hobgoblins have unlocked the create embers skill. All butes may now wield shields.] [You have gained +2 levels} The bonuses and other screens scrolled for a while in front of Kif¡¯s eyes. He may have only gained three levels from completing the quests, but now he not only had gained an identify type skill. He could cast the most basic fire spell and could teach his scavenger goblins how to work with leather and wood. He could even burn money on shields for his Brutes and not have them end up as wrecked clubs. (Of the bonuses i just unlocked for all goblins, the shields one, while minor, will probably have the most impact for us.) He thought. Brutes with shields would form the perfect shield walls as no one shorter than them could hope to break through them or knock them off balance due to their skills. (I am a genius for having thought of this. I¡¯ll have to get a bunch of shields made up later for the big battles.) Kif thought. ¡°Youse done good boy. Go out and enjoy some time to youself. I deal with the Reavers.¡± Matron Rue said and pushed him out of her house. Kif smiled as he walked out. The first thing he did was call all his companions back together and then headed out for castle Dredmonte. It was time to retrieve his OP axe. After that, maybe digging up that dragon''s treasure. Having spent a day as a king Kif wasn¡¯t about to let a few rocks keep him from being rich. {Excerpt from world History 101 by Bjorn} Most goblin tribes throughout the world only number between 3000 and 8000 in total, and are no threats to anyone but themselves. There are truly only three ¡®Goblin¡¯ Strongholds in the world. The smallest is the Vulcan tribe, Allied with the dark lord. The next largest is located south beyond the Beast mens forest. The Stone spear goblins have mastered donkey and goat riding and are said to have almost twice the Vulcan tribes numbers. They are the undisputed masters of the arid canyons south of the Beasts forest. The largest tribe and the biggest threat in it¡¯s area is the Leatherback goblins of the far west. This tribe numbers well over 30 million strong and periodically sends out 1-2 million strong armies to harass its neighbors. Luckily for most of the world, goblins know nothing of maintaining supply routes. Most Leather back armies starve and scatter into smaller tribes within two weeks of traveling.} Arriving in Dredmonte, Kif headed into the sewer and moved his Lair. He couldn¡¯t wait to get his axe back. During the trip to dredmonte he had practiced his new ember spell with Hobgoblin Mu and while the spell itself had no practical usage in a fight, He was able to light his shortsword on fire for a brief 30 seconds of time. Since magic had done far more damage to the acid slimes than any physical attacks he figured that the burning sword would help immensely vs the Black slime guarding the dungeon''s entrance. Plus Matron¡¯s forcefully increasing his lair¡¯s level by 20 had given him 20 more into every stat. The speed and strength increases were great. Even with all his desire to get his weapon back, He did stop at the market for a few essentials. ¡°Cloth armor half off.¡± ¡°Swords cheap.¡± With all the fighting along the border, merchants had sprung up all over the city, both player and NPC alike. Kif sold some of his slime cores and leather and bought two large shields, then went towards the mages guild that was located in the Keep. Approaching the secretary he said, ¡°I would like to get this Identified.¡± Kif was holding one of the wands h e had crafted. Most of the players in the mage guild gave the goblin a funny look. ¡°Why would such a stupid, ugly little shit want to join our illustrious guild.¡± One brightly dressed demon mage said. Kif ignored him and took the wand to the direction the secretary pointed him. An old man was sitting in a corner of the guild area reading a tome. As Kif approached the old mage spoke up, ¡°Here for an Identification?¡± ¡°Yup, this wand.¡± Kif answered. ¡°Give me that.¡± The Brightly dressed mage interrupted and yanked the wand out of Kif¡¯s hand, ¡°you doubtless stole this.¡± Frowning Kif spoke, ¡° Youse be handing that back now or else.¡± ¡° OR else what you shit.¡± the Demon mage declared shoving the goblin. ¡°Gunther, Return that this instant.¡± a Female voice thundered near the entrance. Gunther (The demon mage in question) Turned,¡± But guild master he stole this.¡± Tired of listening to the nonsense Kif pulled out one of his Daggers and stick it in Gunther''s gut. -16 hp [Minor bleed -2 hp per second for 20 seconds applied] Gunther grunted and clutched at his stomach as Kif pulled the knife out and retrieved his wand. ¡°As i was saying, Please identify this wand.¡± Kif said turning to the old mage once more. ¡°No.¡± The old man said. ¡°You just attacked the mage guild goblin. There will be consequences.¡± ¡°Your darn right there will be.¡± Kif angrily replied,¡± I made this wand and i will be talking to General WArclave about allowing a guild in his keep that robs taxpayers in broad daylight to continue existing.¡± Having been stalled with his original objective of looking for a better cash flow than selling leather, Kif started to leave. ¡°Wait.¡± The guild master called, having gotten free from whatever had kept them at the guild entrance. ¡°Perus is an old racist bastard, and Gunther isn¡¯t much better. I apologize for their actions. Let me see the wand and I shall identify it for free as repayment for the trouble.¡± [Guild master Ames level 215] Very well.¡± He said sounding reluctant. Kif pulled out one of the thick summoning wands and handed it over. ¡°Mmm. It is a medium grade summoning wand. Only one sue but anyone who can cast a spell can use it. I would give this a C ranking as a magic item, Maybe a C+ at best. You should get about 40 silver if you sell it to a merchant.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Kif said retrieving it, ¡°Gunther, I will be finishing my little surgery on your stomach the next time we meet.¡± Kif threatened as he left. ¡°Time for the dungeon.¡± he whistled and walked away. Contrary to his whistling He first stopped to check that his companions were all properly outfitted for the expedition. Barg and Borg now stood armed with their wolf teeth clubs, and shiny new bronze tower shields. They were clothed in heavy leather armor complete with studded leather helmets. Bu and Kif each had one short sword and three daggers at their belts. Two of each of their daggers were coated in the Napalm like clay Kif had discovered. Additionally they each had an alchemy pouch at their waste with more clay within it and their slings and marble pouches. Ylbne and Obne, the goblin mages, had 6 of the roman candle wands each and one small emergency dagger. Kif had all four of the bne siblings summon a red slime. The slimes were hid in a small bag at each of the goblins wastes. Obne and Ibne, the non-mages goblins were each armed with just two daggers and their slings. The four siblings were all wearing matching Light leather armor. As one final preparation Kif summoned a red slime companion and ordered it to hide in his shirt. (This dungeon run should power level the slimes to a usable level quickly) He thought. ¡°I will name you Oozy, the cannibal slime¡± He told his new pet. Naturally the slime did not respond. Being a magical summon it moved to his thoughts with a decent reaction time. Finally ready, Kif shared a rat meal with all his lair mates and then headed out into the dungeon. [You have entered the sewer labyrinth, after the battle of Doom, where General Warclave crushed the forces of light the general had the bodies of his victims dumped into the sewer system. The foul forces at work within the castle have lead to some of the bodies returning to life as shadows of their former selves. Recommended level 40] Coming up on the first corner Kif spoke. ¡°Ok, we all have been here before, you know as well as i how strong a level 40 slime is. Lets go in there and Burn it good.¡± With a yell Kif led his group around the corner. He moved forward and igniting his sword, took a swing at the waiting black slime. -34 elemental damage [Minor burn applied -7hp per second for 2 seconds] Kif was then forced to dodge as it sent out several tentacles at him, trying to engulf the goblin. Bu struck the slime from its other side and also started dodging constant attacks. With it¡¯s core slightly more exposed as a large amount fit¡¯s ooze was being pulled into attacking goblins on opposite sides of it, Ylbne and Obne quickly struck the core with their [Throw Fire] Skills. -8 damage [Major burn applied -7 hp per second for 20 seconds] -8 damage [Major burn applied -7 hp per second for 20 seconds] Two minutes of hard fighting later, the slime collapsed into a spreading pile of black ooze. Kif collected it¡¯s core and dropped it into an alchemy pouch within his Utility slot. While goblins had no item storage space or item boxes, Kif¡¯s one minor utility slot was capable of storing a full herb pouch or alchemy pouch, no matter it¡¯s size(It still needed the Alchemy or Herb identifier in its classification). He was currently abusing this classification by using the largest alchemy pouch he could craft. It was the size of a small rucksack. Having slain the dreaded first monster of the labyrinth, Kif led his group south through the tunnels. He had no interest in defeating the boss of completing the labyrinth so he ignored the easy paths forward. reaching one of the many sewer intersections throughout the city, a swarm of cat sized rats rushed out of two small crossing tunnels. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.[Infected rat level 35]*12 They were low level but had quickly surrounded the goblins and started continuously attempting to bite them with large glistening fangs. Kif dodged and slashed the rat in front of him. -10 -12 He did not want to waste mana on the rat so it took him several attacks to whittle it down. upon finishing it he went to aid his companions. ¡°Argh¡± a rat got through his defences and bit Obne in the shoulder above where his light armor ended. The small goblin immediately started foaming at the mouth and collapsed dead moments later. Kif quickly spent 84 mana points resurrecting the goblin mage. Part of his lair¡¯s magic allowed him to spend mana to bring back his companions upon death. The cost went up with each of their levels, but one of the bonuses for his lairs new levels had been reducing the costs some what. Currently Kif only needed to spend twice his companions level in mana to resurrect them. The goblins quickly cleaned up the rest of the rats and went about harvesting their fangs. ¡°These will be good in the clubs.¡± He decided. He still had no idea how to add an elemental type to the brute¡¯s weaponry, but giving their clubs poison or disease damage wasn¡¯t that much of a difference. It was still more damage after all. The goblin group continue moving throughout the sewer dungeon, encountering several rat groups until they reached a corridor almost at the southern tip of the sewer system. You could hear the sound of water running in the distance. Blocking the way was a group of Skeleton soldiers. [undead paladin level 32]*3 [Undead archer level 34] Three paladins and one archer blocked the hallway. Kif quickly ordered Barg and Borg to form a shield wall and all the goblins hid behind it as the undead archer attacked. {Bang, Crash} The shields shook but held firm from the archers assault. The undead paladins moved up and Kif Started giving out his orders. ¡°Borg, Barg. Stay here. Mu, you move with me. Obne, Ebne, Ylbne, Ibne. Focus that archer down from cover then work on the others. Don''t use the wands.¡± With That Kif and Bu ignited their short swords and rushed the rightmost paladin. -5 attack blocked -36 [Minor burn appled -7 hp per second for 2 seconds] Kif¡¯s first two attacks were mostly blocked but his third strike got through the undead''s armor and scored a decent hit on it. Being a paladin though, the undead had a massive health pool. It¡¯s shield glowed and then it launched itself at kif shield first. Smartly, or stupidly, Kif took the blow to his forehead, not trying to block with his arms at all. -26 hp [Concussion applied. you take double damage for the next 48 hours] [It is nsaid that goblins skulls are the second hardest bones in the world, after dragon bones. Only you would test this][Through many acts, Racial Goblin Stupidity has increased Rank 5 -> rank 7] Kif shook off the pain and focused on holding the paladins attention while Mu struck it from behind. The fight went back and forth for a while between the three combatants and Kif was starting to worry as his stamina was getting low when Ebne struck the undead in the eye with a dagger. Moments later Borg and Barg charged it and Knocked it to the floor. Kif¡¯s companions swarmed the monster and it was soon defeated. Kfi slumped tiredly, happy in victory.(Just one more corner and i get back my) {Thump} (Pain) -11 damage [Minor movement impairment applied -%5 agility) An arrow struck Kif¡¯s shoulder, and while it did not pierce through his armor, it was in a spot that slowed him down some. Kfi spun around and received two more arrows in the chest. -8 damage -12 damage Before him stood three demons, An archer, the demon mage Gunther, and a larger demon wielding a bastard sword. Still reeling from the arrows Kif let himself drop to his knees and then collapsed sideways against the sewers wall. He ordered Oozy to slowly leak it''s way under his armor, giving the back stabbing demons the look that he was bleeding out. Kif¡¯s companions looked in shock for a moment, before rushing the three demons while screaming. ¡°The first stance, Blade dance.¡± The sword wielder called out before sweeping his sword and shattering Borg and Barg¡¯s shields. ¡°Mana barrier.¡± gunther muttered. :Triple shot.: the archer went, launching a flurry of arrows. Kif watched as his companions were slaughtered quickly. They did manage to injure both Gunther and the archer before falling though. ¡°Should we finish him?¡± the archer asked. ¡°No. That looks like a heavy bleed.¡± Gunther replied. ¡°A fast death is too good for the little shit.¡± ¡°then lets go see what they were after.¡± The archer said and the group turned as one to move on, Leaving Kif as he was. [Respawn Goblin Mu] Kif thought and pulled his slime out as well. The two goblins quietly retrieved the 4 candle wands that Obne and Ylbne had not managed to use. ¡°I¡¯ll get Gunther, Get the archer.¡± Kif mouthed and as one both Hobgoblins channeled their new create embers spell into two wands each. -15*5 -15*5 [You have slain the renegade Aeros +30 exp] -15*5 -15*5 ¡°Argh¡± Gunther cried as he collapsed. Kif quickly ran up and tossed his slime onto the critical condition mage. ¡°Eat him¡± he commanded. Kif stood momentarily alone before the sword wielding demon. Mu had backed up and was currently retrieving his weapons and armor from where they had dropped. (Pulling leather armor off a corpse takes a while) ¡°the amount of blood you lost, I had mistakenly thought you died.¡± The demon spoke. ¡° Mo matter, I am a higher level than either of those two.¡± ¡°My name is Benito Chavez, what name do you want me putting on your gravestone little goblin?¡± Benito asked. ¡°I is Kif, Elite goblin shock corps rider. Youse a thief trying to take what i worked hard to earn. Just like Gunther.¡± Kif responded as he pulled out one of the daggers. Using the last of his mana Kif ignited and threw the dagger at Benito, Then charged in with his short sword drawn. Benito parried the thrown blade then. ¡°First stance, Bladedance.¡± Kif dropped to the floor and watched as his short sword was cleaved in half by the bastard sword. ¡°Gah¡± Kif stabbed his broken blade into Benito¡¯s knee. -8 damage [crippled applied. -30% movement for 10 minutes or until healed] With a yell Benito backhanded Kif and launched the goblin back across the sewer tunnel. ¡°I got him boss.¡± Mu said and stepped forward, finally armed and armored. ¡°Didn¡¯t i cut you in half?¡± Benito asked as he limped towards the two goblins. Kif slowly pulled out his second dagger and carefully walked around the combatants, retrieving his burning dagger. He used it to ignite the unlit one. ¡°Hey demon, I gots a nice toasty blade with your name on it.¡± Kif called as he moved to sandwich the swordsman between himself and Mu. Benito grimaced then lunged at Mu in an attempt to remove one of his two opponents. Mu moved in and with a clang blocked the broad sword. ¡°n first stance.¡± Kif mocked as he moved in. ¡°Second stance, Unhinge¡± Benito cried and spun around quickly. Kif barely dodged in time as the demon did a fast overhand slash at him, ending in an underhand attack at Mu. ¡°Argh¡± Mu cried as it struck his chest. The hobgoblin dropped his offhand dagger to clutch the wound but managed to weakly maintain a grip on his sword. Kif lunged forward, attempting to get into range but had to stumble to hold as Benito turned towards him. The bastard sword outranged Kif¡¯s daggers by a decent amount. [You have slain the renegade Gunther. +32 exp] [You have gained +1 level][Oozy has leveled up to 23] [Oozy has slain it¡¯s first enemy and as such has learned a new skill. Oozy has learned bite] (Slimes can learn bite?) Kif thought wildly. He carefully watched benito as he brought up Oozy¡¯s menu. [Oozy level 23 slime companion attack 23 HP 50 Skills Slime- Leave a trail of slime wherever it moves Dissolve- Deal 10 damage per second to any enemy it touches Bite- Can be partially consumed to regain three times the hp and mp the slime takes in damage.] Kif grinned as he realized his slime had just become a living health and mana potion. ¡°Oozy come¡± Kif commanded and the slime slid up his leg and onto his arm. Kif took a bite out of the slime. ¡°Tastes like a mouth full of Cinnamon¡± He grumbled. -16 hp to Oozy[-11 levels from Oozy][should Oozy¡¯s level reach 0 it shall permanently die] +48 hp to Kif +48 mp to Kif Benito apparently had some skill that told him the HP of his opponents as he cursed and dove forward at Kif. Kif dodged the sword but was struck in the chest by Benito¡¯s dive. -12 hp He quickly stabbed Benito and ordered Oozy to attack as well. Both of Kif¡¯¡¯s daggers lodged themselves into Benito¡¯s left arm. -18hp -18hp {minor burn applied -7hp per second for 2 seconds] [Oozy has recovered 3 hp] With a cry Benito dropped his sword and Punched Kif -16 hp -4 hp in recoil damage to Benito ¡°Goblin skulls beat demon bones.¡± Kif laughed bloodily. Meanwhile Mu came up behind the demon -13 hp -15 hp [-10 hp Oozy has recovered 3 hp] With a grunt Benito slumped forward. [you have slain the renegade Benito. +38 exp] [Oozy has slain it¡¯s second opponent. Dissolve has increased in potency to Dissolve level 2 -12 hp per second] Kif struggled and pulled himself out from under the dead demon swordsman. Gunther and the archers corpses had already vanished. The archer left behind two health potions while Gunther dropped a magic ring. Kif spent a few moments unsuccessfully looting Benito, only to have his corpse vanish and leave behind a coin pouch of gold and silver. ¡°I can¡¯t loot players. That kinda sucks since they can loot me.¡± He staid. Kif and Mu spent some time recovering before moving around the last corner. The broken sewer grate was just like Kif remembered it. Moving forward he found the discarded dwarven axe that lay beside the tunnel. Just as bright as it was originally. ¡°Yes, I have the Powah¡± He exclaimed holding the weapon over his head. Kif returned with Mu to his lair and stored the Axe for a special occasion along with most of the other drops. He spent the rest of the day resummoning his companions and retrieving the items they had dropped upon death i the sewer. ¡°Tomorrow,¡± He told them.¡± We go to dig up that dragons gold.¡± [Log out] 11 days left until game release. Exploration [Log in] ¡°Selling swords 1/3rd off¡± ¡°Leather armor only 20 silver¡± Kif moved through the merchant stalls and entered a blacksmith¡¯s shop within Dredmonte. ¡°What ye be wanting?¡± an undead dwarf asked him [Bweolm the stout Level 72] floated above it¡¯s head. ¡°I need some shovels. Also a mining pick, a 20 pound sledge hammer, and a 3 inch 4 foot iron rod.¡± Kif responded. ¡°Hmm.¡± The undead frowned in thought.¡± I have all of that but the rod ready now. How does 3 gold for the lot sound?¡± ¡°2 gold 50 silver and i pick it all up in half an hour.¡± Kif replied. ¡°Deal. I¡¯ll have it ready soon.¡± Kif left the shop and went to the mage guild. ¡°I¡¯d like to get another wand identified.¡± He said to the secretary. She looked at him with a frown before pointing to the stairs to the second floor. ¡°The guild master is up the stairs second door on the left.¡± Kif headed up and knocked. ¡°Come¡± Guild master Ames called. Kif entered and marveled at the room. Ames office was full of expensive and enchanted equipment. ¡°Kif isn¡¯t it?¡± Ames asked. ¡°what can i help you with?¡± ¡°Two things, one. I fought Gunther and 2 of his friends in the sewers yesterday. Am i going to have any problems from the guild? also i want to get this wand identified.¡± Kif said holding out one of the candle wands. Ames took the wand and concentrated. ¡°Another C rank wand. this is a Volley wand, it shoots a 5 shot volley of fire element orbs at the target. It would be worth about 16 silver. It would be worth more but is a consumable as the wood is unable to contain the magic core within it. As for Gunther, He has attacked an officer of the dark lord''s army. He currently has a kill on sight order for his head. I have removed him from my guild''s roster. Does this answer all your questions?¡± ¡°Yes, Thank you.¡± Kif spoke. ¡°You can keep the wand in payment for the identification, i have more.¡± Heading out Kif gathered his companions and marched towards Bile¡¯s collapsed cave. On the way the goblins killed a few low level animals and, per kifs instructions had their slimes finish them to gain abilities. Ebne and Ibne¡¯s slimes gained resistant coating, increasing their physical defence greatly (for a slime). Obne and Ibne¡¯s slimes picked up caustic acid. They could excrete the acid on to the two goblins daggers & their sling marbles. Arriving at the clearing in front of the collapsed cave, Kif first got to work with Mu digging. His lair had gained a lot of levels recently but still couldn¡¯t be placed completely in the open. Kif and Mu dug a shallow cave while Borg and Barg drug over some stones to cover it¡¯s opening. Kif moved his lair into the hole then met his companions at Bile¡¯s collapsed cave. Kif and his companions spent the next few hours digging and moving stones. At noon he stopped and cooked them all some wolf meat sandwiches. He had Barg test the food to make sure it wasn¡¯t to high level. With refilled stamina the goblins continued digging into the evening. Kif spent 3 days digging out the cavern and then on the 4th day his shovel struck something it couldn''t break through. (chink) Kif frowned and then cleared out the area to get a better look at what he struck. After digging around it he realized it was a single black dragon scale, 6 foot tall by 3 foot wide. IT was bordered by more dragon scales.With a sinking feeling he cast Identify on it. [Identify] [Bile Level 500 Elite Boss Dragon HP 3,000,000 / 500,000,000 MP 1506,000 / 200,000,000 Skills (Your identify is to low to see skills) ¡°O shit.¡± He whispered. Despite Biles current HP being under 1% of his max, it was still way more than Kif could hope to dish out, even with his axe. Kif quickly exited the cave and called all his companions to help everyone pack up. ¡°We are getting the hell out before he notices us.¡± He cried. Entering the hole his lair was in he quickly packed what he could into his chest then froze. He could hear screams coming from outside the pid. Kif picked up his shortsword and scrambled outside. Above ground kif spotted Gunther and his two companions. Mu was pinned to a boulder by several arrows through his chest. Borg and Barg lay dead at Benito¡¯s feet and as Kif was finishing his climb out of the pit he watched Gunther slay all four of the bne siblings with a large wave of fire. ¡°We aren¡¯t going to make the mistake of letting you ambush us this time bastard.¡± Gunther called as lightning started to gather between his hands. ¡°Die you Blurg¡± an arrow punched through the back of Gunthers throat and his spell failed on him. Kif watched froze, as a group of 6 beastmen rushed the clearing and butchered the 3 demon players. ¡°What we do with this one?¡± a wolf headed beastman asked. ¡°Bind him and take him with us.¡± the female Katian in charge responded. ¡°Everyone knows goblins are stupider than the other dark races. He won¡¯t be smart enough to lie to us.¡± Kif was bound and drug off by the adventure group. {7 days until game release} [Log in] It was saturday, Kif now had the entire weekend to play. He entered the game bound and gagged in a bamboo cell/. The beast adventurers had carried him south down the mountain, across a lightly wooded area and through some plains, then into a beast tribes village. Now he sat, unarmed in a cell waiting to find out why they did not kill him along with the demons. As he sat their thinking, the female Katian who had been in charge of the beastman party entered. the prison area. ¡°Goblin, you don¡¯t know me. I am Shasta of the Katian tribe and if you answer my questions we will let you go. Your dragon failed and we already know what your plans are. Tell me in your own words what the dark lord plans and I will see you have a chance to live.¡± Kif looked at Shasta puzzled. As a minion of evil there was no way they would let him out alive, moreover he knew nothing at all about the dark lord''s plans. He decided to create a plausible lie. At the worst they would end up sending their NPC troupes to the wrong area. {Elsewhere} Hrolf the ork stood proud next to Warlord Krast. Krast was one of the two ork warlords and was currently the leader of a 50000 strong orcish army. With only one week left in the beta test, the ork players had all come together and created a plan to get one last shot at the council of light. As a united bunch, they had pushed the ork tribes to put together this army under Krast. The plan was to shatter the newly resurrected dwarfs home fortress town and open up a second invasion path into the lights area. With the dwarfs gone the only 2 strong races of light left would be the humans and the elves as the beasts were still reeling from the dragon''s attack. In addition, the beast tribes were on the opposite side of the country from where the attack was. Hrolf had used his past influence, and a decent amount of real world money, to get himself pushed into a position of command. Now he only waited Krast¡¯s orders. ¡°Move out.¡± Krast rumbled. Turning, Hrolf shouted to his lieutenants, ¡° Move out, we have dwarves to kill.¡± As one the 50,000 strong army headed out. It would take them a day to reach the dwarven keep. [Kif] (If i get them to send soldiers far away to the dwarves, then escape should be easier since that will be less beasts here to watch me.) He thought. ¡°We be building a big super unbeatable army to kill Dwarvses.¡± He responded to Shasta. ¡°Kif is hungry, he wants meat.¡± ¡°I will get you some meat.¡± Shasta said happily,¡± But first i need more details. Where, When.¡± Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.Dwarvses fortress and soon. Tomorrow.¡± Kif said drooling. Shasta pulled out a stead from her inventory and tossed it to the goblin. ¡°I will be back for more questions soon.¡± She declared and left to pass on the news. Kif waited a few minutes, then resurrected Mu and started eating the steak. It should speed up his mana recovery and help keep his stamina up for what was necessary. ¡°Help me burn a hole in this bamboo and let''s get out of here.¡± After some work both goblins were out and Kif was topped off in aman again. ¡°Time to get while the gettin is good.¡± He declared and both goblins slipped out of the building the cage was in and headed north through the forest. A few minutes into the escape the goblins heard a cry of anger from the camp and broke into a run, ¡°Let''s split up.¡± Kif said and they split into two different directions. [You companion Mu has died] Kif immediately summoned Mu and again split up. Hoping the pursuers would be distracted again. After an hour of running through the oddly empty forest, Kif reached the open plains, covered in a tall grass. He set off running and encountered a random monster. [Plains rat level 20] -8 -6 The rat dove at the goblin and latched onto his arm, chering. Kif quickly started hitting it with his free fist. -7 -5 and then changed tactics when he heard his pursuers chasing him. He ordered oozy to dissolve the rat and grabbed it to keep it from escaping his slow slime pet. Kif quickly slew the rat and, noting how close his pursuers were, started running a zigzag pattern through the plains, drawing the agro of as many of the rats as possible. The pursuing beastmen soon caught up with Kif and he saw it was the assassin and archer who had been with Shasta¡¯s party. The rest of the adventurers were elsewhere. Kif server and rushed at the archer, barely dodging an arrow he ran up to, and right past the archer before diving into the grass to hide from sight. Quickly Kif pulled out his alchemy bag and pulled a gob of the deceased black spimes ooze out of it ¡°Found you.¡± the assassin sang just as Kif hurled the ooze into his eyes from three feet away. He quickly returned his pouch to his inventory and , ignoring the screams of pain and chittering of the rat horde behidhim, ran. He also focused on ignoring the -2hp signs and the pain as his left hand continued to dissolve from the black slimes ooze. Freedom was good. Three hours later Kif had finally crossed the plains and returned to his lair. He promptly committed suicide by waking up an angry dragon but recovered his lost hand. Bile angrily at the stupid goblin making noise outside his cave then went back to sleep. Kif logged out to let the dragon get back to sleep. Kif logged back in, a few hours later. With Bile finally asleep he snuck out of hte hole his lair was hidden in and headed north. He had no more great plans or ideas. so he would spend some time researching alchemy and teaching his companions what handicrafts he knew. ¡°They will call me Kif the super inventor.¡± He told himself. Shasta Shasta sighted and stretched. The Katian and Angelic leaders were currently arguing about what to do. The orcish race had not done any attacks in several days. So it was possible they were doing a concentrated push at the dwarves. However sending reinforcements was risky. The Katian forest was only a two days march from castle dredmonte, with the mountains small trails being the big barrier keeping armies from marching across it. If you ran you could cross the area in a single day. So close to the front lines, the questions were could they even spare any reinforcements for the dwarves. The final problem was any help they sent would take 3 days to reach the dwarven home keep due to those forces having to cross both the humans and the elven land. Getting tired of listening to the arguments Shasta spoke up, interrupting her tribe''s elders. ¡°We know where they are, and the Angelic city is here to defend our home. we can spare the fighters. I am leading my group to help the dwarves. I am done with cowering in fear. That is not the person i wish to be.¡± She quickly left the council and gathered her adventure group. They had orcs to kill. [Tuesday, 3 days until release] [Log in] Kif logged in and smiled. Currently he was inside the restaurant within Dredmonte. His intimacy with the cooks had granted him access to the kitchen utensils and ingredients for practicing his alchemy. He set up his work area and pulled out all the ingredients he had acquired through his travels. The green slime and black slime liquids went into separate cooking bowls. the ground volcanic ash was dropped into a measuring cup, He took an icing dispenser and filled it with the flammable clay concoction he had used to craft wands. He pulled out the small and medium green slime cores. Finally Kif laid out some leather scraps that Goblin Mi had acquired. ¡°This sums up what i have currently. I¡¯m probably the poorest beta tester in the game.¡± He mused. Arranging the cooking ingredients he had been allowed to use, Kif set out, salt, pepper, Ghost peppers, onions, dried garlic cloves, steak, and fresh swamp fish. After staring at the ingredients for a bit he ground the pepper into dust. Kif chopped up the onions and then placed them into the oven to dry. He ground the garlic cloves into dust then mixed them with the ground pepper and dried onion shavings. He then separated the mixture into two bowls. into one he added the green slime into the other he added the black. The black slimes bowl started smoking and kif watched as all the ingredients seemed to dissolve into it. The green slime filled bowl reacted differently with all the ingredients absorbing the slime then turning into a fine teal colored powder. ¡°If only i knew what i had made.¡± he mumbled. shrugging at the futility of it he decided to heat the black slime liquid up to a boil. [Boom] [You have died, remaining safe respawns 4 would you like to respawn?] [Yes] Kif pulled himself out of the sewer where his lair currently was. Walking through dredmont he reached the merchants area where the restaurant was. The restaurant was on fire with undead players and npc¡¯s franticly trying to put it out. As He watched the cook paused to look around and their eyes caught sight of Kif. ¡°You¡± the cook yelled out angrily and started approaching. Kif quickly ran out of the area and left Dredmonte. ¡°I should make myself scarce. also all my alchemy stuff is gone. Maybe i can get Old goblin Bu to teach me woodworking. it¡¯s way safer than alchemy.¡± Kif reasoned. Feeling upbeat Kif returned to the Vulcan lair intent on gaining some crafting experience. Upon arriving a few hours later he greeted Bu, ¡°Hey Bu, what''s been happening in the area?¡± ¡°Bad news boy, the orks be attacking the dwarvses, Matron Rue wants to see ya.¡± Bu responded. ¡°She always hits me when i see her.¡± Kif complained as he headed towards the matron¡¯s home. Kif found Matron Rue talking with 2 hobgoblins. ¡°Boy, you¡¯ve arrived at a good time. Grand generalissimo Ack here and his son Ick are taking a war party to help the stupid orcs. Go help kill the dwarvses and then kill the orcs. I wants that fort for me.¡± Rue commanded. ¡°Will take you two days to get there so hurry up.¡± ¡°But i wants to learn woodworking.¡± Kif said. ¡°Bua ha ha ha.¡± Ack started laughing, ¡° Come boy, i''ll teach you the art of woodworking at the dwarvses fort. Make sure you bring an axe.¡± Kif¡¯s eyes brightened at this and he followed the Goblin general out of the lair. As the goblins traveled Kif got pointers from Generalissimo Ack on how to tell good carving wood from bad wood along with which trees would make the best bows or could be used to make wooden armor. Kif also learned that the orcs had launched a secret army to attack the dwarves and were losing. where dredmonte was the most exposed capitol of the Dark lords races the dwarvish fort Onyx was the most exposed for the forces of light. The wartrib that Ack collected quickly rose to 30000 in number as the goblins left the Lair and traveled. They had a long 2 days march ahead of them to reach the fortress.