A grand side Quest

Well this sucks. While I was taking a quick moment to look at the Necromancer. The elf corps was reanimated it stab me with the kitchen knife though the body-of the now second dead cook- and it sunk into my gut.

The elf towered above me as I lay there on the ground. Its face expressionless and mangled ‘Identify’ showed it as only as (Undead elf). The elf’s moments were jerky, sometimes fast and other times sluggish.

I slashed its arm with a shallow cut and the arm went limp. This did not deter it from attacking. It next tried to kick me, but missed and knocked the cooks body off me freeing me to strike again at it.

I cut its calf and then it fell to the ground with his head colliding with my chest. It felt like I was hit with a bowling ball. The undead elf bit into my side hard. I stabbed it in the neck and it went limp. I rolled to the side gasping and switched to only have ‘Accelerated regeneration’.

I stood up and noticed the goblin turn and started running away from me as I got up. I chased it, but I was falling behind and with this limited visibility and heavy rain if it got more than a dozen paces from me then it would get away.

The pain from the fight had already passed so I switched to ‘Water step’ with ‘Foot wetter’ and charged. I was on it in a hot second. I stabbed it right in the back and the gem on the dagger flashed again, if it was not for the extreme darkness I probably would not have noticed it was doing that.

I would have felt bad about stabbing the goblin in the back had it not reanimated corpses to attack me. Necromancers were evil and this one was going to get dead and stay that way when I was done with it. The goblin fell forward face first into the mud. It tried to get up and I shoved it down with my foot on its head back into the mud. I found out that with my foot on its head I could cram water onto its face using ‘Foot wetter’ I gargled struggling to breath. I was not a monster, so I quickly slit its throat putting it out of its misery.

[Congratulations you have defeated a level 3 goblin necromancer. XP received. Your stats have improved. Essence stored in Essance striker. Would you like to absorb? Yes / No ]

“Yes.” I was surprised this level 3 necromancer was much easier to fight than the level 1 scout. I knew the system would not answer my questions about the dagger, but I bet it had something to do with that. The undead beings went down so much easier than I would have expected. All I had to do was scratch a limb to immobilize that and a single good jab put them back to being fully dead. I also bet that if I had not had the magical dagger, they would have been unstoppable without smashing them to bits.

What were the chances of getting the right tool for the job just before getting into a situation I would need it. I mentally marked another box by this being an elaborate simulation. I did my usual looting of the coin purse and rejection of everything else I could easily see on the body. I stabbed the body a few more times in calculated places. I did not want this creepy thing coming back as undead. Then I headed back to the hole in the wall.

When I got close there was yet another goblin standing out near the entrance of the hole. It was looking around poking at the bodies. ‘Identify’ was kind enough to point it out to me even before I got a good look at it.

(Goblin: Soothsayer)

I bet it was friends with the necromancer. Well now I would need to kill it as well. Water step made it so I could be quiet and move quickly towards it. It was putting on the armor I had rejected as trash from the grunt.

When I got close. It quickly snatched up the spear and swung it towards me even though I had snuck up behind it being quite and in the dark. The strike landed in my right arm and I dropped the dagger. I screamed out in shock and pain.

It pulled the spear back and got ready to make another attack. I kicked water at him the same way I did to catch the scout off guard. He moved smoothly out of the way of the flying water. The goblin cacked and said something in scratchy language.

I jumped to the side, as he swung the spear at me. It struck me in the foot. I felt an odd sort of resistance as it failed to puncture my skin. This seemed to surprise both of us. I did; however, fall down because if it. When I landed I was able to grab one of the crappy spear off the ground. He released my foot and I stuck out with the spear. He smoothly parried it.

I rolled to the side and landed on the thief. I felt one of the rusty daggers jab into my back. I unconsciously flinched as he came around and swung the spear at my head. He gouged a chunk of my cheek off but failed to make the killing blow he had expected.

His spear became lodged in the corpse of the thief. He struggled to get it free. With my off-hand I wrenched the rusty knife out of my back and tossed it at him. It bounced uselessly off his half-put-on wooden chest armor.

He looked at me bemused for just a second as I kicked him right in the soft spot. He did not see that coming. He also did not react the way I expected. He just casually tossed the spear to the side and stared at me a moment.

I used that moment to reclaim the magical dagger I had dropped and crawl backwards. He bent down and grabbed something else as I stood up.

The taste of my own blood had filled my mouth. I spat it out in disgust as my face stung from the wound. We eyed each other. In the dark he was nothing more than a pointy-eared dark figure with cold calculating black eyes standing a few feet away from me. He seemed reluctant to move until I did.

I started thinking about my next move and a way to attack him. His body subtly changed matching a perfect counter-reaction to every stance I took in preparation for going after him. I think he is toying with me. He is clearly better at fighting than I am. What is he waiting for? Why does he not attack me? He had something in his hand that I could not make out. We shuffled around in a cycle staring at each other waiting and planning.

I bent down to pick up another rusty knife on the ground and he charged in. I immediately changed my plans and kicked out towards him. He realized a moment too late and I knocked him back. It was then that I saw he had a spiked club in his hands and that the strap on his armor was not correctly done up and was being more of a hindrance to him than a benefit. My kick had also helped worsen his connection and now it was tangled around him.

I pointed towards the strap and his gaze followed mine down to his armor. I charged in. He swung his club into the space I was planning to move into and I had to dive into the mud to avoid getting my head smashed in.

While down there I decided to stab at his foot he swung his foot back so I settled for slashing his other leg. The cut was shallow but he still screamed like a girl as he stumbled back away from me.

Was it a girl? It was dark and I had no idea what a goblin girl looked like compared to the guys. I hoped it was not a girl. I did not want to fight or kill a girl even if it was a goblin monster. It stepped forward just close enough that I could not reach it.

It loomed over me as I was still on the ground prone. It then lined up to swing the club in a killing blow. I grabbed a hunk of mud in my off-hand and checked it at its face as I rolled to the side. The goblin's strike lacked the grace of the previous attacks allowing me the chance to roll away from it unscathed.

I landed onto a stick or something and grabbed it with my free hand still clutching the dagger in my right. To my surprise it did not attack me as I stood up to my feet. The goblin's posture had changed it was no longer intimidating. I decided to strike with the stick. I swung it recklessly with my left arm towards the goblin. The goblin deftly caught it and proved to be stronger than me.

It did not matter I pulled myself close to the goblin with the stick and then stabbed with the magic dagger I was holding in my right hand. It bounced off the wooden armor but managed to dislodge it even more. The goblin swung the club with its good hand as its arm got tangled in a strap and it spun to the side instead.

I thrust the dagger towards its face it flinched back and fell face-first into the mud. I jumped on it and then stabbed recklessly and nicked its shoulder. Another scream came out and then it forced itself up pushing me off like I was nothing.

This thing was tough and could easily overpower me but seemed like it did not understand this. I clenched my dagger harder as I stabbed at the goblin hitting in the pelvis bone as it tried to get away from me. It cried out again. It finished getting up and started to run from me. I got up and made chase. It dived into the hole and started crawling. I followed without thinking. I was blind in the crawl space and since I was mostly lying down crawling 'Water step' was not very effective.

Thankfully the tunnel was not very long and the goblin was also struggling to get through to the other side. I managed to get a solid kick to the face when I got close. It also had stopped moving forward. It must have reached the other side.

I took the opportunity to stab at its feet. This goblin had on sandals that were proving to not be very effective at protecting its feet. It squealed as I blindly swung the dagger at its feet as it tried to kick me in response. This just made it cut its feet more.

It eventually freed itself and exited the hole. I followed it once I released it was not waiting to ambush me when I came out. As I exited I got a glimpse of light. Thankfully no other goblins were around when I emerged.

I noticed that the soothsayer had failed to get up and was crawling away towards the forest. The visibility was still terrible. I was only 15 feet away from it. The soothsayer was feebly trying to make its way to the forest by its hands and knees. It had managed to shake off the tangled armor.

Thanks to the large clearing between the wall and said forest it had no where to go and even if I could not see it well it was making a lot of noise. I stood up and cautiously made my way to it. Once I got close I considered letting it go. I did not want to kill it, but if I did let it go, it would only come back with more of its friends and there was no one else guarding this hole in the wall.

While I was in a state of indecision. It lunged at me. I fell to the ground and we landed in a heap together. I reflexively stabbed the dagger deep into its gut. It screamed. The pommel glowed for a moment and then the goblin went limp. I pushed it off me as a prompt appeared.

[Congratulations you have defeated a level 3 goblin soothsayer. XP received. Your stats have improved. Essence stored in Essance striker. Would you like to absorb? Yes / No ]

“Yes” I said as I lay there catching my breath. Another window pop up.

[New title acquired: Goblin bane]

How many of the goblins have I killed? 5 I think it was 5. That’s all it took to get a title? I started counting them on my hands as I looked through my system history. Scout Cook Thef Grunt Necromancer and Soothsayer. 6 in total. They all had a level. Did I even have a level? I checked my status screen and it did not have anything related to a level. “System why do I not have a level?”

[You first need a class to begin receiving levels. Everything you do up until that point will affect what class options are available to you at that time.]

Well seeing as how I just killed a bunch of goblins attacking my home. I had a sinking feeling it would be all combat classes. I wondered if I took up baking or something if I could get a non-combat class. Gah even if I didn’t just kill a bunch of goblins there is no way the system would let me off that easily after all I still had the grandiose goals he shoved onto me.

“Why did I get this title I did not kill that many goblins?”

[All of the goblins were significantly higher level than you and two of them were special classes. Most must kill hundreds or thousands to get that title and you did it in 6. Good work.]

“My ‘Identify’ does not show titles does there’s?”

[Some will and some will not.]

I rolled my eyes. I would pick this conversation up later. When I was not lying down in a dangerous place surrounded by baddies and monsters.