The next day, the group got up early and before they knew it, they met a few groups of straggler goblins. 3 crossbows, 2 long bows and a Sorcereress ready to throw some fireballs, made short work of the small groups they met. Marlin’s impeccable Perception made sure no Goblin band ever got the drop on them.
The area was littered with simple traps but the way they were hidden, it might as well have been painted red for Marlin.
The Combined survival skills of the T’jut and gnoll’s, made sneaking up on Goblins, child’s play.
The term ‘chore’, came to Marlins mind.
Marlin did note a few things. Goblins were tricky. Unlike the Orc’s him and his group had slain, Goblins were rather fragile. But they made up for it with speed. It was actually quite disconcerting to see how easily some danced around fireballs, arrows and crossbow bolts once they were aware of your presence. Goblins were natural cowards and they funneled that into keen reflexes.
they were small and monstrous, had incredible cunning but they were removed from what Marlin saw as sentient and completely Monstrous. Orc’s had intelligence and seemed to have a semblance of their humanity left. goblins had none of that. Sure they were smart, cunning and wicked but after a couple of these straggler groups Marlin managed to put a finger on it. They didn’t really think. They acted based, purely on instinct.
Marlin had surface level knowledge of the 3 scourges, The Lifeless, The Soulless and the Nameless.
Curses were largely an enigma. The Lust curse just happened to be the most well known. But there was a large variety of curses unknown and misunderstood.
A person with a celestial curse could end up as a Soulless, Lifeless or Nameless. Regardless of the curse.
What struck Marlin, was that it sounded like some sort of karma, the more he heard Milly talk about it.
The Soulless had 3 variants. Orc, the most common, Werewolf and Myrkrydon. An orc or Werewolf could still technically live a good life but they were forever marked by their state of being. The instances where an orc or Werewolf was restrained enough to live a ‘normal’ life could be counted on a single hand over thousand years of history.
Milly explained that the 3 variants were most likely stages In levels of rage and a desire to destroy or inflict agony.
The Soulless, primarily sought destruction.
Goblin’s were a weird hybrid between the Soulless and the Nameless. The Nameless sought to inflict suffering. The fact that Goblin were spawn of orc’s was weird to Marlin but no one else gave it a second thought.
Marlin asked about a Seakin or any of the smaller sentient species changing to an ‘orc’. Those were usually referred to as a ‘kobold’ and the larger species such as Giant kin, ‘ogre’, but they all were a state of ‘Orc’, an ancient word for ‘Soulless’.
Orcs were medium sized Soulless and by far the most common. The unspoken fact that Orc vs kobold or Ogre was the most common due to The High Kin, was left unsaid but Marlin hadn’t been blind to that fact.
When he asked about werewolves, Milly explained that it was most likely an inbetween state of orc and Myrkrydon. The lycanthropy part, was a state of uncontrollable destruction.
The thought of an Ogre changing into a massive werewolf, even with Marlin’s lacking fear of death, send a shiver down his spine.
A soulless existence was a constant state of agony and Rage. A Myrkrydon was a creature straight from nightmares, incredibly powerful, fast and unstoppable. A single one, would be a challenge for either Milly’s father or Bradford. Unlike werewolves who didn’t multiply, or Orc’s that birthed Goblins, Myrkrydon’s spawned more Of their own species.
They had Grey thick leather skin. Large sharp Teeth that had their mouths slightly open at all times, bipedal, large, hulking humanoid creatures with wolfish features. Sharp claws that could rend chain mail with ease and tear you to pieces.
The tales Milly spoke off, the Myrkrydon’s in a faraway past, haunted the realm and kingdoms. They had fun hobbies such as building their dens and fortresses from the bones of those they devoured. Anything with a bone in its body was prey.
Marlin didn’t even want to ask but did so anyway, “what about ogre’s finishing their transformation into a giant Myrkrydon?”
Milly answered, “the accounts of ‘Giant Myrkrydon’ are very rare and they all say the same, they never last long because they can’t eat quickly enough, to sustain their ludicrous ravenous hunger. Most died within a month after the transformation.”
She continued, “any of the Fallen kings of queens back in those days would kill off an ogre that threatened to transform. They ate everything and everyone including their own.” Milly continued to explain.
If even one regular Orc transformed fully and was suspected to prowl the region, a hunting party would be established. A Myrkrydon infestation was so widely feared, that armies would immediately agree to a cease fire to deal with a singular Myrkrydon. Their ability to reproduce similar to Goblins was fearsome.
They popped up often enough to keep the ancient alliance agreements alive, thousands and thousands of years later.
“Is there an account of the first person with the first celestial curse? And what are ‘the Fallen’?” Marlin asked.
Milly sighed, “for that I have to explain the Red age”. She gave him a look that told Marlin he better be quiet, this was going to take a while.
“The true cataclysm, the ‘Red Age’, happened so long ago no one truly knows how long but it happened during the uprising against the Divine Empire.
During that time, the Celestial’s still walked the land or at least that’s what the legends say. All images or paintings of a celestial were destroyed back then. According to the sparse lore we do have of them, they looked like the Kin and Nurr but more Fair and didn’t die of old age.
They ruled everything and everyone, their rule became increasingly more cruel and unfair which led to a massive uprising of their serfs, slaves and serf states, with all the other ‘lesser’ races banding together.
The celestial’s had superior soldiers and mages with eons of experience and from the way the accounts go, they were winning, it was a slaughter.”
Milly took a breath.
“However for whatever reason, a large faction from the Celestial’s believed their righteous rule had been insulted and this needed to be punished.
They opened a rift to a place unknown to this day and the First Myrkrydon’s appeared.
what happened next, according to the ancient texts, was the stuff of nightmares. Entire vassal states submitted to the Rule of the Celestial’s were devoured, The Myrkrydon, erected massive pyramids made of skulls in worship of Destruction. ‘The Ravaged lands’ a region far down south was such an area. It had given birth to the Lifeless, poor souls stuck in perpetual torment of their suffering.
to this day, ghosts and worse, haunt those lands, withering down any chance of real life.”
The way Milly described it felt like listening to a nuclear fallout story, everything organic was devoured and destroyed.
”These events gave birth to the shadowed star. Dark redness enveloped the lands for decades. Or so the legend says.
All the Celestial’s that had co-operated with opening the rift had become fully cursed and also given the tyrant role. They sprouted horns, cloven feet, their visage became a mockery of their former beauty, The world forever changed. Collectively they were called. The Fallen.”
Milly paused for a moment to let Marlin digest.
Marlin due to his birth, belonged to that legacy. He knew that.
It was an odd revelation. Marlin realized it was not just his potential but also the significance his presence had. His birth signified destruction, danger and misery. “Fuck me. No wonder my parents never told me any of this,” he thought to himself.
The legends connected with his existence, carried with it an undeniable weight.
Milly after taking a pause went on.
“The Fallen at the time, were a collection of incredibly powerful dark witches, Dark Shamans and Dark Lords that had ruled, by succeeding in submitting the Myrkrydon’s death horde, to their rule.”
Marlin remembered something.
Thror, the now dead Dark Lord memories, had eluded to this. Most of the memories pertaining that tidbit had been shattered however, Thror had researched how to transform Orc’s into Myrkrydon but had failed. His attempts had been detected through magic. And a powerful group of Giant Kin had stormed his Lair and forced Thror to flee.
Marlin refocused on Milly, not wanting to miss what she was saying.
”Although ‘guide’ was a better term for what these Fallen Kings and Queens had done to the Myrkrydon.” Milly said.
”Myrdrydon, at their core were and are a force of indiscriminate destruction. They collaborated in hordes not because of friendship or loyalty but because they have an intense need to destroy.”
Milly kept going on, explaining esoteric context and history in great detail.
Marlin stopped walking. “Why on earth am I allowed to live?”
Bron looked dumbfounded. “You haven’t committed any of those crimes, you Dumb ass.” He shook his head.
”That’s it? That’s the reason? No offense guys but this sounds like an apocalypse, end of the world kind of bullshit.”
Kotak chuckled and Grinned. he looked relieved for some reason.
”what are you smirking about?” Marlin asked.
“Nothing”, he smirked even more. “Didn’t you tell us about that, ‘innocent until proven guilty’ ethos from your own old world?” He asked.
”Sure but if anyone threatened the nation, or national interest, that was conveniently forgotten.”
“Can I keep going? The story isn’t done.” Milly was annoyed at being interrupted.
”please keep going, this is the first time someone actually tells me any of this.”
Marlin held up his hand quickly thinking he heard something. Everyone stood still and held their breath. Marlin focused for a bit. Then he relaxed, “false alarm”, he motioned for Milly to continue.
Milly shuffled a bit and continued the regaling of this world’s legends.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“The records are unclear, how long the red age lasted, what they do know is that the threat of the Myrkrydon’s and the Fallen was so extreme, the Celestial’s that opposed the Fallen, made an Alliance with the rebel slaves and serfs. The Fallen were enraged by this and committed their forces on mass genocide against the Celestial’s, this led to the complete eradication of the Celestial’s as we know it but not before they closed the Rift.
This is widely believed to have given Birth to the Radiant star and the first 3 Champion’s appeared.
One of light, one of Justice and one of order. They inspired a great following so extreme, it catalyzed the birth of the pantheon’s. One by one, priests of different gods appeared.”
Marlin interrupted, “Wow, wow, wow! Hold the fuck up! are you telling me that the God’s of this world came into existence because you people believed them into existence? Because of people like my Dad?”
Milly grumbled, “that is absolutely the worst way you could have said it and I hate how you are technically correct.”
she gave him a look that told him to shut up and continued.
”This was the turning point and eventually the red age came to an end, the champions didn’t rest until all the Myrkrydon and Fallen were destroyed to the last of them.
One of the reasons many Scholars believe that the red age was so destructive, is because Sadanis, God of suffering, Sarrtha Godess of depravity and Pandora god of Destruction, had been birthed prior to the Radiant star and were supporting the Fallen.
Those 3 God’s are also responsible for the fact that all species and races touched by the red light, would be a silent Carrier of their blessing. Their curse.”
”This is why we predominantly built our society on mutual trust and righteousness to keep the curses for all of us at bay.
We do not go out of our way, to kill little babies born under the shadowed star Marlin. I mean how could you even think that? These legends teach us that, Oppression, cruelty and the blatant infliction of suffering was chief cause of these curses. How can we be better if we follow in the very footsteps of the Fallen?”
She gave Marlin a reprimanding look. “We have to be better than that Marlin, get that in your head. We learn the legends and history to learn how to improve on the past not to repeat it.”
Marlin nodded but didn’t respond, his mind awhirl. He got clapped on the shoulder by Kotak who smiled big time and continued walking.
”Hold up, I hear goblins, a big group this time, 9~11, that way.” Marlin pointed.
Everyone was quiet and they stalked forward. They had the wind in their face and the sun at their back. The area was rocky and lots of trees, it made it easy to inch closer.
about 90 yards away a group of 11 goblins huddled around a small pond. 6 of them looked distinctly different, from the goblins they had killed so far. 3 of them had a staff adorned with feathers and small bird skulls. While another was a lot larger and looked pretty buff. Then 2 of them had a good looking sword and a shield.
“What are those?” Marlin asked pointing at the 3 staff wielders.
”shaman’s most likely,” Milly responded, “they are rare, to see three of them is odd. The big one is probably higher up the food chain a war boss or chief, but this could be problematic. We basically have to charge dead on from the looks of things.” Milly pointed out.
Marlin nodded and looked at Bron and Kotak for their input.
”Your call boss,” Bron smirked, Kotak shrugged. The gnolls were growling, they wanted to kill, they had been excited for a good scrap to test themselves out and Marlin Couldn’t help but agree.
”Alright we do our usual thing, Milly wait for the first Volley then blast us with your whole protection trifecta ok? With your buffs covering the bases, we shouldn’t have to worry too much for the Shamans. Afterwards go on the offense, if you see an opportunity to use eruption go right ahead but only if their focus is not on you.”
Milly nodded and grinned she couldn’t wait to blast her spells.
“For the rest it’s simple, Gary you keep using your crossbow and nail your shots, you two,” he looked at Jerry and Barry, “fire a couple of shots during the first few seconds but afterwards i need you two at the front.
Bron you do you, kill whatever you can, Kotak i need you to distract those archers with me and Billy at the front. The three of us will form a line. If they, for whatever reason decide to rush us all at once, me alone won’t be enough. Everyone knows what to do?”
Marlin made sure to look at everyone and have them nod. Before him, Kotak, Billy and Bron slowly moved forward.
Marlin went a little further than everyone else, till he was roughly 40 yards away. Hunkering down behind a big bush. His throwing axe in his hand. With his heightened Domination attribute his strength had increased significantly and he could throw his axe in a good arc relatively well over a 50 yard distance. 40 yards was his comfort zone.
He signalled his Gnoll’s Telepathically to go ahead and start, simultaneously the 3 gnolls shot at the closest Goblin, miserable skanky looking and underfed. Thing about goblins was, they were twitchy and were always moving even when sitting.
So it came as no surprise when Barry the spearmaster missed his shot. But both Jerry and Gary hit dead on. One in the leg and the other in the head, it didn’t even screech. Barely a second later two arrows from Bron and Kotak whistled through the air and hit a second Goblin. Marlin, before the second goblin had even been hit knew which one it was going to be and with a roar threw his axe in an arc. The moment it left his hand he knew it had been a near perfect throw. He watched it in slowmotion spin through the air and land in the goblin’s skull while the Goblin was getting up from 2 arrows sticking out of its ass.
Marlin Clanged his shield to draw attention to himself as Bron and Kotak rushed to his side, as did Billy and they fanned out in the shrubbery. All hell broke loose. The 4 remaining normal looking goblins quickly grabbed their bows, some huddled together and shot arrows in all directions.
Marlin felt the all too familiar Protective Magic from Milly seep into his Mind Body and soul.
Thing about Protective magic in this world was that once cast, Milly could focus all her attention in maintaining those buffs indefinitely, theoretically.
Him telling her to go on the offensive, after having cast her Buffs. meant those buffs would last barely a half a minute. He knew it was a gamble but he also knew that blitzing was a far better strategy in this scenario. If those shaman’s had healing magic, they would be in for a long drawn out fight in enemy territory.
The Goblin’s were enraged and 2 of the grim looking Goblins with shields Rushed forward. One towards Marlin, the other towards Kotak.
All 3 shamans immediately jumped to action and each cast a spell that hit the shield goblins and the big one with a green looking bolt, they had looked tired and fatigued and now they looked fresh and eager.
“revitalize”, Marlin recognized it.
A slight north breeze hits Marlin and Kotak’s Face as each faced off with a goblin that rushed them with blinding speed and precision. It reminded Marlin of his fight with Gromwull. But it had some slight differences to it. The disciplined Barrage surprised Marlin and Kotak, putting them both on a defensive pace but neither of them were in danger. The combination of their own defensive skill and protective Magic allows both allies to calmly take, deflect or dodge the Blows. Although Marlin did lament his inability to throw a few insults.
The Big goblin rushed Billy and Marlin didn’t have the luxury to help his trusty steed but he needn’t worry, with the new Armor and protective magic, Billy was a little mobile fortress, and although the big goblin clipped one of his legs, crushing through the protective Layer of protection, it was a shallow cut that barely hurt Billy, who went onto the offensive and tried to ram the big goblin. The big Goblin cackled and laughed as he lazily sidestepped the straightforward charge of Billy.
Jerry had dropped his Crossbow and had rushed to ‘help’, Billy. His gleefull thoughts and yipping on stabbing the big one, were obvious for all to see. So while The big one side stepped Billy, Jerry flanked him and jumped onto the goblin’s back and stabbed deep. An east wind blew subtly, the big goblin looked at Jerry with manic glee and Jerry jumped away. It hadn’t been quite like Marlin’s intimidation. The Goblin really did look like the stab hadn’t hurt him. There was very little blood.
Barry and Gary Manage to shoot their crossbow at the goblin that was fighting Marlin and surprisingly manage to hit him, right as marlin is forced to step back and reset. Bary at this point dropped his crossbow and gripped his spear rushing forward, keeping his head down from the constant arrows whistling over his head, badly aimed.
At this point Bron stepped in for the kill and slammed his claymore into the wounded Goblin Fighter and drops him.
”Take cover!”
Marlin yells not a moment too soon as a volley of arrows lands on his shield, Bron jumped behind a tree just in time. Kotak the smug bastard, danced around the Goblin fighter while simultaneously dodging Arrows. It looked cool as hell but Kotak fully on the defensive. Dodged with an incredibly slim Margin of error.
Marlin taunted the Goblin fighter. “Hey there you little shit! I heard you sucked boar dick and liked it!”
Needless to say in glorious Marlin fashion it worked, and Marlin could see a vein in it’s forehead pop. charging him with reckless anger, Marlin was incredibly surprised by the sheer number of swings coming his way putting him on the defensive again but it made Bron’s job easy and he simply hacked at him from the back while the goblin Blindly charged and attacked Marlin.
Milly hadn’t been sitting still and two massive electric bolts of lightning crackled in both her hands, lightning arcing over her body as she invoked the power of the sky with her knowledge and comprehension of the ancient language. She focused and launched one bolt at the big Goblin. Who had its back turned and jumped out of the way in reflex. He was grinning wide as he turned mid jump to try and intimidate Milly. Milly grinned and threw the second lightning bolt into the goblins face.
His head blew up from the sheer electric force injected into his head the next moment in a sickening pop.
In that Moment another Volley of arrows from the 4 remaining goblins put Marlin, Bron Kotak and Billy on the defensive. Quite a few clip his armor as Milly’s protective Magic on Marlin starts to fail much quicker on Marlin getting barraged by arrows.
Bary had rushed through the shrubbery and charged one of the closer archer goblins with his spear and drawing blood, Gary in the meantime had aimed and aligned his shot perfectly with Bary’s charge and the combination killed the Goblin.
”Get back!” Marlin roared. But it was too late. The 3 shaman’s had been gathering some black ish energy that they condensed into a black ray. Bary got hit square in the chest. Milly’s Magic protected Bary for most of it but the agony of his life getting sucked out was excruciating and Marlin could feel it.
Bary withered and slumped down, still alive but out of the fight. The other two Shaman’s aimed at Marlin and Kotak. Kotak Narrowly avoided the ray. Marlin blocked it with his shield but the black ray went straight through his shield and armor connectinf with his body. His body went between numb and agony back and forth. It was an incredible drain on his stamina. Billy charged one of the Shaman’s to stop him from hurting his master.
“No! Marlin!” Milly screamed. And she threw all caution to the wind and threw two fireballs. She was too far away to throw lightning bolts. But as luck would have it. All those endless days, weeks and years that she had been forced to throw fireballs by her old master paid off. 1 fireball went wide but it was just a distraction, the other one hit one of the goblins huddled together with the shamans dead on and Milly pumped all of her focus into the fireball. Erupting it with great force.
“Die!” She roared as the explosion killed 4 of the remaining goblins on the spot 2 shamans and the 2 remaining archers got absolutely incinerated and torn apart by the blast.
Both Kotak and Bron wasted no time to kill the last Shaman as quickly as possible.
Milly, dizzy and exhausted from dumping all her powers into that blast, rushed over to Marlin. “Marlin! Are you ok!?”
”Yea for the most part,” he responded trying to get the numbness of his shield arm out. “That spell went straight through my armor and your protective magic Milly, how’s that possible?” Marlin, due to his own lack of knowledge had lost a quarter of his health from a singular hit by attempting to tank it.
“Because no one in their right mind ‘tanks’ drain magic Marlin! Even your dumb mutt had the sense to try and dodge it!” Milly fumed. “How’s your health, can you move?”
”yea im fine, it dropped my health a little but it did a serious number on my stamina.” Milly sighed and they both walked towards Bary. Who was wheezing from exhaustion, caused by the drain ray.
Marlin picked him up and the rest had already gotten busy looting the corpses. “Well that’s enough goblins for me for one
day.”Marlin said and Milly Nodded. “Next time you let me start of with a fireball Marlin.” She muttered. Marlin didn’t feel like disagreeing but he was internally.
Milly was shaking. She was still getting used to the intense drain eruption, caused. She could still fight technically but not at full strength. Eruption was clearly a finishing move not a starter.
”Billy come here! Take the Mistress on her back. She needs rest.” Milly was about to protest but he smooched her quickly.
“Be quiet love, no time for Canta pride. That blast will attract more goblins and we only fight if we get the drop, not the other way around.” His words were forceful but his tone was tender and filled with emotion. It was an odd dichotomy but Milly sighed. “You are right. This headache is pretty bad should be ok in about an hour and a half after some Meditating.” Marlin squeezed her arm gently as Billy trodded over guarding Milly and Bary who was receiving a few drops of a healing potion to get his wheezing down.
Bary would need rest and lots of food to recover from the life drain. “Lots of bacon for you Bary,” Milly ruffled his head as she grinned. She kept the flinching down as she felt the shriveled skin. It was temporary but it still looked disconcerting. Marlin had wrinkles on his face at the moment that would fade after a couple of days but Drain Magic was nasty as ever.
They had no time to celebrate and went to looting as quickly as possible. It didn’t take them long.
”Marlin stop, keep an eye out, we need your keen senses to warn us.” Bron said to him as marlin fumbled with numb hands.
Marlin grumbled but agreed. They were quite deep in the nick of things.
“What was your gain Bron?” Marlin asked. “140~ for this fight.” Bron responded, “you?” Marlin shrugged, “190 for this fight. 100 for the previous stuff.” Marlin looked up to pay attention to some rustling in the distance but it was a boar.
“we should take a couple of days to rest and then get back at it.” He said loudly and everyone nodded.
During his Journey from first to second level he hadn’t paid much attention to the mental impact of constantly fighting but he had noticed it at the end. Putting yourself in dangerous situations had a mental tax to it.
His experience from his previous life and all the research he had read about as a soldier, gave him some insight into the human mind that was largely unknown in this world. Part of his urge and desire to level had come from Necessity but he noticed the subtle tells within himself and his T’jut friends of mental exhaustion.
You needed to offset the constant danger with fun stuff. getting hammered at the guild while getting respectful nods send your way went a long way to keep your mental sanity.
“You ok Kotak? You cut it pretty close there.” Marlin inquired, they were almost done looting.
”Marlin I don’t freak out about almost getting hit by arrows. Go smooch Milly or something, hearing concern in your voice for my sake feels weird.” Kotak brushed him off. “If you want to show how concerned you are, how about 2 rounds on you when we get back?”
Bron hollered “I call crossbow on that!” Marlin shook his head, “these are hardy folk indeed.”