Immersion Online

He didn’t need to go far before he saw the door at the end of the hallway. It looked like it would slide to the side like the one he just walked through. The only difference was that this door was made of glass and that there was a short green monster on the other side of it. The monster stood with its back towards the door and was gnawing on something electrical. It looked thin, but it was still scary looking. Unnatural. Nathan tried to focus on it through the door and succeeded.

Feeble goblin

Level 1, Monster

Health 5/5

Damage Resistance: 0

Strength – 4

Constitution – 5

Dexterity – 5

Perception – 6

Charisma – 2

Attack:

Natural claws – d6-3 slashing dmg

Natural bite – d4 piercing dmg

That wasn’t too bad. He felt confident he would be able to handle the goblin. At least as long as it was only one. Two or three at once would probably still be challenging. He raised the crossbow, aimed at the door, and yelled. “Open the door”.

The goblin immediately spun around searching for the source of the noise. It had red eyes and sharp fangs. It didn’t see him initially, but that changed when the door opened. It lowered its head and charged towards Nathan, clawed hands leading the way ready to swipe.

It managed to just barely get through the door and into the hallway before Nathan fired the crossbow, hitting the goblin in the face. It somersaulted backward, landing awkwardly, and remained still.

“That went easier than expected”, Nathan muttered to himself. If he remembered correctly the crossbow could potentially do 4 damage, and as the goblin had 5 health, he shouldn’t have been able to kill it.

He quietly moved forward and kicked the goblin. It still didn’t move. He walked backward back into the hallway so that he could be surprised by another goblin and reloaded the crossbow. When done, he whispered “Menu!”.

The menu opened and he quickly found an action log. There was also an option that let him have a version of the log open in a small window in front of him, but that was distracting, so he rejected it. Instead, he found that you could bind the log to a certain hand movement and that this could be done with other menu options as well. He set that up for the log, the character screen, the quest log, and a couple of other menu options. After having done that, he opened the log to check what had happened.

[Attack] You critically hit [Feeble goblin] for 6 piercing damage (5[d6]-2 x 2). It dies. You gain 10 XP.

[Quest] [Clear the temple] has been updated, Goblins removed: 1/3

Critical hit? In most games Nathan had played before, critical hit chance was dependent on the dexterity stat, but the Guide had not mentioned it. He browsed the menu a bit and found an encyclopedia where he could search for game terms and mechanics.

Critical Hit

When you hit a PC or an NPC in a vulnerable area, you do double damage. The damage is calculated after DR calculations. High perception will let you see such areas, but in most cases, they are obvious (for example the head for most humanoids). Some creatures are immune to critical hits.

He drilled down on DR, as he wasn’t sure what that did either.

Damage Resistance (DR)

Damage Resistance value is subtracted from any damage received. Some resistances are only viable for certain types of damage, while others are universal. Armor and high constitution (natural armor) are the most common damage resistance sources.

That sounded like something he should focus on as his current damage resistance was a big fat zero. Luckily, that was the case for goblins as well, which reminded him that he still had two of them left to deal with.

He closed the menu and moved forward again. Stepping over the dead goblin he entered a small square room that looked like a recreational or possibly a dining area. There was a large table in the middle of the room, and a couple of chairs spread around. The room had three doors in addition to the one Nathan entered through. One on each wall. They were all open.

Nathan moved to the left first, sneaking up to the door and moving through with his crossbow raised. It was a medium-sized room and contained a couple of bunk beds with connected wardrobes. Everything was made of steel. Besides that, the room was empty. Nathan didn’t feel like looking for things to loot, as he suspected this was where Alpha and his crew spent the nights. He briefly wondered why they had twice the number of beds they needed, but that was none of his business. He backtracked to the recreational room.

He now had two doors left. He stopped to listen and was pretty sure he heard something moving from the door straight ahead. Still, it's best to keep your back clear. He went left again.

This room had what could only be described as a reception area. There was a desk facing forward with a single chair behind it, flanked by a couple of large clay ferns. In front of the desk, two wide glass doors lead outside. He could see a gravel path and a forest through the glass, but no other details. He confirmed that the doors were locked before turning back.

This whole facility seemed rather small, so he suspected that the next room was the last one. One room, two goblins. He probably had to use his axe, so he checked that it didn’t get stuck in his belt or anything. Then he found a small clay bowl on one of the shelves and threw it into the next room.

He barely had time to raise the crossbow before a goblin came running out of the room in a beeline towards him. It made a weird crackling sound while running, and he could hear another goblin screeching beyond the door.

Before the goblin got too close, he shot it in the chest. The impact stopped the goblin's momentum, giving Nathan time to throw the crossbow onto the table and ready his axe. Nathan had never been in an axe fight, but he had received some training in how to fight with a hatchet at some point, although he was much more proficient with a knife or in unarmed martial arts. That was probably why as the goblin gathered itself and continued, instead of trying to hit the monster with the axe, instinct took over and he did a front kick, putting his heal with all his weight behind it in the perfectly aligned face of the smaller charging goblin. The impact gave a meaty sound, and the cackling stopped as the goblin flew back through the door it came from.

The screeching didn’t stop, however. It got louder, and the source became apparent as the third goblin slowly walked through the doorway. Unlike the two others, this one wielded a weapon. It also looked just a little bit taller and quite a lot wider. The red glowing eyes and the sinister mouth were the same.

The goblin stopped and quietly assessed its opponent. Nathan decided to do the same. With the crossbow unloaded on the table beside him, he knew this fight would not be as easy as the previous two. Any extra info he could perceive could be deciding.

Starving goblin

Level 2, Monster

Health 7/7

Damage Resistance: 0

Strength – 6

Constitution – 6

Dexterity – 6

Perception – 6

Charisma – 3

Attack:

Primitive club – d6-3 blunt dmg

Natural claws – d6-2 slashing dmg

Natural bite – d4 piercing dmg

The goblin’s weapon -a one-handed wooden club- actually did less damage than its claws, but the extra reach made it more practical and indicated an intelligence not displayed by the other goblins.

As Nathan pondered the implications of this, the goblin charged. When in reach, it jabbed with its club, before sweeping it sideways. Nathan deflected the first attack and took a step backward to avoid the second one. The little green monster jumped up on the table and threw his club at Nathan before lunging at Nathan himself without any sense of self-preservation. Nathan ducked the club but was unable to avoid the green missile hitting him in the chest. He dropped and rolled, flipping over so that he ended up on top of the goblin. He managed to keep a hold of the axe during the acrobatics, so while holding the goblin down with his left hand, he chopped it into the goblin's head until he was sure it had stopped moving. While victorious, he didn’t escape unscathed, as he had scratches on both his chest and arms.

He stood up and checked his logs for both battles.

[Attack] You hit [Feeble goblin] for 1 piercing damage (3[d6]-2).

[Attack] You critically hit [Feeble goblin] for 4 blunt damage (3[d4]-1 x 2). It dies. You gain 10 XP.

[Quest] [Clear the temple] has been updated, Goblins removed: 2/3

[Attack] [Starving goblin] hits you for 1 slashing damage (3[d6]-2).

[Attack] You hit [Starving goblin] for 2 piercing damage (2[d6]-2 x 2).

[Attack] [Starving goblin] hits you for 2 slashing damage (4[d6]-2).

[Attack] You critically hit [Starving goblin] for 6 piercing damage (5[d6]-2 x 2). It dies. You gain 20 XP.

[Quest] [Clear the temple] has been updated, Goblins removed: 3/3

He didn’t quite understand the math, as both one of his and one of the goblin’s attacks should have done no -or even negative- damage but ended up doing some damage even so. He checked to see if he could find an explanation.

Damage

When dealing or receiving damage, the amount of damage is a random number in a predefined range dependent on damage source. The amount is further changed based on modifiers from attributes, weapons, blessings, and other sources. The minimum damage amount is 1. There are several types of damage, but the most common ones are slashing, piercing, and blunt damage.

That made sense, but it also highlighted the importance of damage resistance. If you had at least 1 DR, you could shrug off a lot of low damage attacks.

Nathan’s thinking was interrupted when Alpha entered the room. The acolyte was beaming. “Excellent work. Quick and efficient. I am very happy this little plan of ours worked. If you had failed, it would be… embarrassing. But it didn’t! We are once again open for business.”

Nathan noticed a little text box like the ones which showed up when he identified items floating in the air in front of him and a bit to the side. It wasn’t in the way or anything, but it was a bit distracting. Evidently, some information was deemed too important to be buried in the log.

[Quest Complete] Clear the temple

Goblins removed: 3/3

You have resolved the problem. Violently. How do you sleep at night?

Another icon indicated that there were some new entries in the log as well.

[Quest] For completing [Clear the temple] you gain 50 XP.

[Local area] The local temple can now be selected as respawn point.

“As promised”, Alpha continued, “here is a pouch with some rations, and some coins. This pouch is actually one of the more common relics, and it interacts with your implant. I think you will find this very useful. We have added you as a valid respawner, so if the worst were to happen, we will have a copy of you ready... after some delay, of course. Do try to avoid that, though. Until next time.”

With that Alpha retreated into the back area. Another of the acolytes walked over to the front desk and started to clean up any mess created by the intrusion.

Nathan managed to fasten the pouch in his belt, and discovered that when he touched it, a 3 by 3 grid opened before him. Currently just two of the slots were taken, one by 3 rations of dried meat, and the other by 5 bronze coins. He tried to select the rations in the overlay. The slot got a brighter frame to indicate that it was selected, and when he put his hand into the pouch, he found them there. He analyzed them.

[Basic dried meat]

Food

Heals 1 hp every 10 minutes for 10 minutes

“I agree, this will be very useful”, he said to himself, getting a smile from the remaining acolyte. He picked up the club from the dead goblin and after analyzing it and finding that it was worse than his axe, he successfully deposited it into his pouch. Looking up natural healing in the menu, he discovered that by default you healed hp equal to your level every hour. As his health was down by three points, he ate one of the rations.

Before addressing him, Nathan analyzed the acolyte. “So, Echo, what should I do next? Where is the closest town?”

“Well, the closest town is quite far away. Perhaps 5 hours walking or so. That area is under the jurisdiction of another temple, so I don’t know exactly where it is, but it should be somewhere east south-east. In this area, which I am more familiar with, there is a village south of here. The path will lead you there.” Echo indicated the exit and the path on the other side. “There are also some farms in the surrounding area, and some small ruins spread around. I would suggest you head over to the village first.”

“Thanks, Echo. I think I will do just that.” Nathan asked as he headed out the door.

“Oh, and you should probably get some friends” Echo added as Nathan walked away. “Adventuring can be dangerous. If you don’t, I imagine I’ll be seeing you.”