“Good luck and goodbye,” the genie said before disappearing.

For the hell of it, Greg cast a fire arrow forward. It flew about five meters before dissolving into the air. It didn’t look like a fire arrow but more like a wisp of flame

He felt his arms strain themselves as if his veins pushed out towards his skin. He felt something leave him, he assumed it was mana.

Three men had died. Men he didn’t know, but simply seeing it shocked Greg, he had lost something he could never regain.

Greg brought his knee to his chest and hugged his legs. The warmth he felt was comforting.

Greg felt his stomach rumble, he needed to eat something. Not too long ago he’d committed suicide and now he was on a road casting spells. It was not what he had thought would happen, at all.

He could summon and remove the window in front of him with a thought.

The moon was descending and he decided to stare at it. He loved the silence that came to him.

The moon had gone down completely and the sun was showing. The sun shine grew on the road and soon ovelapsed Greg, the heat against his skin felt pleasant.

He was reminded that he was hungry, it had only grown, so had his thirst. He stood up and walked towards the direction the carriage had been travelling. Down the road he walked and the number on the window inched down.

He eventually saw the first building, and then another one, and then he saw a whole bunch of them. There were crooked paths going down uneven slopes. The paths were made out of cut stone, they looked worn out as if the town had existed for a long time.

Quest completed, Rewards given!

Again, his head hurt. He had a flash of new knowledge in his mind. He now knew the spell Magic hand which would enable him to control an invisible hand around him.

He reached for a stone further down the road and could pick it up. Again his arm and hand strained themselves and he could feel something actively leave him, as if he was sweating but his skin dry.

The stone felt like a boulder, he couldn’t hold onto it for more than three seconds. He collapsed down on his knees heaving air.

He knew that Magic hand was a spell that cost a lot to maintain, but could see the possibilities

“Hey,” System said, startling Greg “I just wanted to tell you that the weakest part of a goblin is it’s neck.”

“Why?”

“No reason really, no reason at all. Gotta go, chao!”

Greg wandered into the town. He could only see a single person, who leaned against the stone building, and stared at him. Greg made sure to avoid eye contact; he wanted to avoid any conflict.

He didn’t know what to do, he walked up to a building and sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall. In the corner of his eye, Greg could see the man still staring at him.

Suddenly, he started moving towards Greg. Greg thought, “please don’t come to me, please don’t come to me, please don’t come to me,” but soon the man stood in front of Greg.

“Hello!” Greg said with a voice too loud.

“Who are you?” The man asked.

“My name’s Greg.”

“I’ve never seen you before, what are those silly clothes you have on?” The man asked, “You’re not thinking of starting trouble?”

“No,” Greg said and glanced at the man. The man’s eyes were scary, and his face was rough. Greg felt that he had too look on the ground

“Huh, good, we already have enough trouble makers as is. Now you tell me what you’re doing here.”

Easy quest ~ Survive

Task: A goblin attack has begun! Survive the next 2 hours.

Currently 200 goblins alive

Reward: Reward is based on performance

If failure

Punishment: Death

Greg shot up, he looked towards the treeline and saw nothing.

“We’re under attack.”

“What?” The old man said, “Didn’t I tell you no trouble…”

Greg began walking towards the treeline. The goblins wanted the town and not him, if he could escape before then he wouldn’t have to deal with this. He broke into a low jog, but felt his exhaustion. He had already walked two kilometers, he was practically on his limit.

He slowed down and speed walked, the man behind him got angry and shouted.

“Hey! I’m not done talking with you.”

“Sorry!” Greg shouted, “But I have to go.”

He was halfway to the trees when he saw the wicked smiles. There was three goblins, slowly inching towards him. They had completely surrounded the town. The goblins knew they got him and didn’t bother running at him.

He turned around and jogged towards the city, the plug of adrenaline he’d gotten made him completely ignore his lungs, which screamed at him to stop.

“Goblins,” he shouted loudly and gasped for air, “goblins!”

This time he’d managed to catch the man's attention. He banged his fist against the wall in rage and shouted, “Goblins,” as he walked towards the largest building.

It looked like the man knew what he was doing and Greg followed behind. From nowhere he saw humans entering and exiting buildings, it was as if a still ant mound had drowned in ants nestling and pushing and shoving.

“Goblins!” He heard another scream .

“Goblins!” And another one.

Greg entered the largest building in the town, the armoury. As he walked through the long door, a few men pushed past him. They were all clad in iron gear, similar to the two guards he’d been on the carriage with

The rough man continued forward and Greg was close on his tail, in complete fear. He was suicidal but that didn’t mean death didn’t scare the living shit out of him. He had the rope in his room for months, the rope against his neck many times.

But he’d never actually done it until yesterday, and then he’d only done it because he got startled. Death was scary and he was a coward.

The man walked towards an arm stand and began putting on armour. First the pants and then the chestplate and then the arm guards, lastly his helmet. He did everything as if he’d done it a million times in the past, as he put on his clothes he spoke with Greg.

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“Why did you follow me?” He said.

“I-I-I don’t know what to do,” the rough man grabbed a sword and tossed it to Greg, Greg barely caught it.

“Go outside, and kill the goblins.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Boy!” The man shouted, “you go outside and do it now.”

Greg fell down on his knees, crying and wheezing and moaning. He looked up at the rough man and received a stare of full disgust. He’d already put on all his armour and walked out, leaving Greg sobbing on the floor.

Greg thought, “Wasn’t he going to say something to me, call me a coward perhaps? Maybe I’m not even worth that.” He clenched the handle of the sword and for a few moments entertained the thought of going outside but quickly decided against it. He knew he wasn’t a fighter.

He saw a ladder in the corner of the room. He decided to climb up to get a better view of the area. Once at the top, he looked over the wall.

He saw green little goblins all over the streets, some on top of humans, others fighting the guards. Some goblins were bigger than others, some had bows. Greg could only watch as he saw blood drown the floor.

He saw a woman on the floor, screaming and shrieking about her child. A goblin came out of the building, it’s mouth was completely bloody. Greg felt disgusted, but then fear clouded that emotion.

He slumped down behind the wall. He could hear the roars and shrieks below him and could only think when it was his turn. That thought repeated in his mind. But he remembered, the ladder was made out of wood.

He crawled towards the ladder and cast a fire arrow on top of it. It quickly caught aflame and burned up, crumbling down onto the floor. He pushed himself back against the wall and tried to be as silent as possible.

A puddle of piss, snot and tears wet his pants. The only thing he could hear was screams, a lot of screams. He felt like a coward, he wished he could go out. He didn’t choose to become himself.

He passed out after twenty minutes of terror, being awake the past night had finally caught up to him. When he woke up it was day, he heard nothing.

His thirst was the first thing to hit him. It had grown furious and roared at him, he needed to drink water. Then, his mind returned to his scenario and thought about what had happened.

He patted himself feeling slightly surreal. He asked himself if the goblin attack passed, he sure as hell hoped so. He stealthily stood up and peered over the wall, he saw a carnage and many burnt buildings, but no goblins.

He thought, “Thank the gods,” and jumped up into the air, ready to celebrate his victory but deemed it too inappropriate.

“Your first instinct was to run away,” System said, making Greg cry in terror as he first thought it was a goblin, “Your second was to hide. And you didn’t do this out of wit but fear. That’s… something. You completed the quest I guess, and I need to give you a reward you deserve.”

The genie showed his wide palms and a rat slowly appeared in it. It squeaked and looked at Greg.

“Your reward is a cowardly rat, it quite fits you to be honest. Good luck getting down, chao!”

The rat stared at him and Greg back at it, but it seemed the rat had been in a daze, it regained its wits and sprinted away to the corner furthest away from Greg. It watched him like a hawk.

Greg was equally as scared by the rat and was glad it avoided him. He inched towards the hole in the corner, and peered down the edge. It was about three meters down, he knew he could jump out without hurting himself seriously, but it was scary.

He sat down and looked down, trying to muster up the courage to jump but failing. He glanced at the rat, it still stood in the corner, but this time a bit more relaxed, it made some sort of noise. A strange high noise, could it be… was it growling? Greg turned his attention back to the jump.

“I can do this,” he muttered to himself, “I can do this, I can do this.”

He felt something pinch his neck and jerked his entire body outwards, he fell down forward, landing on his stomach and breaking his nose. His head spun, but he managed to stand up. His nose ached.

He saw the rat run to the corner of the room, staring at him. It looked shocked, it hadn’t expected the fall.

He looked around the room, nothing was left. Greg could only see a broken table and the stone walls.

He staggered towards the exit. The first thing he saw was a burnt down building, alongside a corpse on the ground, blood surrounded it. Greg felt sick looking at it. He glanced backwards and saw the rat 3 meters away, it growled.

He could swear he heard a noise. It was faint, but it was there, a noise. He walked towards it, and the noise sounded more clearly. Someone was crying among the buildings. He followed the noise and saw a little girl and her little brother sitting on the ground and sobbing. There was a corpse in front of them.

Greg approached them, for a brief moment their eyes jerked to him but then returned to the corpse in front of them. It was a woman. Wrinkles covered her skin and her hair was grey, she was on her stomach, face on dirt.

“Hello,” Greg greeted them but it felt wrong. They continued crying. “It’s a shame… Uh I mean your mother or grandmother, sorry it doesn’t matter. Those damn goblins, am I right hahaha.”

The little girl gave him a stare that made him take a step back.

“Mommy, wake up mommy, stop joking its not fun anymore,” the little boy said.

“I heard her scream,” the girl said.

“What?” Greg asked.

“When we were hidden… I heard her... scream. She screamed for long, it felt like an eternity,” she sobbed.

“Yeah I heard, I mean… I uhh, I’m sorry for your loss. It must suck.”

“Why didn’t you fight mister?” The boy asked.

“Uhh, where did that come from?” Greg tried at a joke, but only received stares. “I was scared,”

“But you’re a big bo…”

“He’s a coward,” the boy's sister interrupted, “a big old coward who doesn't do no good.”

The words made Greg take a step back. A coward. He knew he was a coward saying it felt wrong, but it was true. He’d hidden as everyone was killed. He was a coward but it wasn’t like he had a choice, he was born to be this way. He never had the courage other kids had.

His father had told him so, Joy said so, his teachers said so and all his peers. That’s why they picked on him, because he was weak. He didn’t have the courage to stand up for himself. He was a coward.

He took a few steps back, the children continued sobbing. He turned around looking for anything, the rat was still behind him. His thirst came back, he needed water. He saw a well, a small distance away, he walked towards it.

“System, what do I do now?” He asked but received no response.

He heard something, it came from the well, he heard splashing. He looked down the well, at the bottom, swimming in the water was a goblin, they made eye contact and it shrieked. Greg jumped back and fell on his back.

His thirst commanded him back, he walked over and peered down the well. The goblin saw him and continued shrieking, but a bit of the water got into his mouth and he choked. The goblin managed to spit out the water, and glared at Greg.

The water looked so appealing to Greg. A part of him wanted to jump down the well and drink it all, but there was a goblin stopping him.

He had magic, he had to be able to kill it, somehow. He couldn’t use a fire arrow as there was water all around the goblin, and the magic hand wasn’t strong enough to kill yet.

Maybe he didn’t have to kill it. He took the bucket on the floor, a rope was attached to it, and threw it down, it hit the goblin on the head which made the goblin roar. Eventually, Greg tried to pull it up but it was too heavy.

Greg looked over the edge and saw that the goblin had gripped the rope, he gave Greg a smug smile. Greg had to find a way to get rid of the damn thing, the thirst urged him to. He looked around.

Again, the first thing to enter his sight was a collapsed building, he walked over and picked the largest stone up. He tossed it into the well but only heard the splash of water.

He looked back at the goblin, if only he could make the stone hit the damn goblin. He walked over and picked up another one.

He had an idea, he used his magic hand to grip the goblin's throat for a second and tossed the boulder down on top of it. Bonk!

5 xp gained!

Level up! Assign your points now.

3 points available.

Strength: 0

Agility:0

Mana: 0

Magic:0

Stamina:0

Vitality:0

He tried closing the window but realized he couldn't. He’d have to invest his points but first, he wanted to drink water.

His arms felt tired from carrying the rocks, but he pulled the rope. He leaned backwards using his body weight to pull it up. He drank the entire bucket in one go. His thirst had been satiated and he looked around at the window again.

It presented 6 different options, but only two of them made any sense to Greg. Mana and Magic, he didn’t quite know the difference between the two, but he could make a vague assessment.

He guessed that mana would increase his mana, whilst magic would do something else. Either way, he needed to increase his mana. He put all three points into mana and the window disappeared.

His heart became loud, like a man repeatedly punching his ear. Shocks spread through his body. His heart skipped a beat, and then beat once too much. He grasped his chest and fell face first, his nose still ached.