King of the Mountain

Chapter 26: Oh Right Monsters Exist Now

Someone or something is trying to kill me. I quickly pull up my status screen. Only 5 hit points are gone, I can heal that in less than a minute. So they are not very powerful whatever they are, but there is more than one. I still need to be careful. Quantity has a quality all of its own.

I pull my shotgun out and sling it against my chest. Next up comes a medium shield for my left arm and of course my war hammer, The Persuader, for my right. I quickly look out from behind the tree I am hiding behind and note that 5 greenish brown, ugly, short people are running towards my hiding place while yelling and waving about sharp implements. Goblins?

I ready myself and jump out and launch a quick 50 mana fireball towards the middle of the running pack of creatures and countercharge. My countercharge is useless. When the fireball hit it exploded and threw all five of the creatures flying like ragdolls. I veer over to the closest burn victim ready to finish it off and realize that, yep I really am OP and that just killed all of them.

I quickly use identify on one of the corpses.

“Forest Goblinoid Lvl 5”

Huh, it really is a goblin. This is my first experience with monster mobs outside of a dungeon. They look different than the goblins I’ve killed in the dungeons. I guess it’s an adaptation for the forest because of the creature’s designation as a forest goblinoid.

I quickly give them a cursory search, weapons I don’t want and a couple of coppers I throw into my inventory. I need to hurry to the village. Man am I glad that I gifted them with a defensive wall when I settled them in. It hasn’t even been 4 hours since the change over and I already ran into dangerous creatures in the new world.

As I continued to hurry towards the village, one horror scene after another played through my mind. The village would be in flames, the village would be besieged by a horde of orcs and goblins, or the village would be mysteriously empty of life with only blood stains left behind. I finally rounded the last corner before I could see the village in the distance. Nothing seemed to be wrong. Oh no, that probably means that something has already wiped them out.

Wait a second, those are guards on the wall. Human ones. As I get closer I realize that nothing at all seems to be wrong. It was just my overactive imagination causing problems. In fact, the village is looking much better than it did the last time I visited. It looks like Edward and the villagers have been busy.

The guards see me running towards the wall and wave at me like nothing has changed. I call out to them and ask where I can find Edward. They say he should be at home. I slow down and try to look more like a king as I enter the gates to Hidden Valley Village. I thought I knew everyone in the village, but one of those guards I did not recognize, strange. As I enter the village the kids all swarm around me. I have visited the village a couple of times since I liberated them from the dungeon. I always try and keep some hard candies like Jolly Ranchers or Lollies to hand out when I do visit.