Sam was somewhat taken aback, he had read the quest before he explained it to Toren, but at the same time, a part of him didn’t properly realise that he would be the one doing the actual killing for this to count. At least not until now.
One part of him didn’t feel shit for Goblins, he had seen pictures and videos of Players who had recorded things in Aetheria and posted it on some video platform. But even if he didn’t, it felt different now that he knew that he was going to be the one doing it.
Toren changed the channel and activated the walkie-talkie. “This is Toren Ashford, does anyone have the location of a small Goblin camp, preferably one with a Chieftain in it?”
He stood there, nodding like he was reacting to someone talking, odds were that he was.
“Yeah, I know where that is... No, don’t worry about it, one of the new kids got a quest... No, I’ll go with him, that should be enough. Thank you.”
Changing something on his walkie-talkie, Toren focused back on Sam. “Good news, there’s a camp not far from here. There’s way more than just five, but we don’t need to take them all, just enough for the quest.” He smiled as he started walking deeper into the forest.
“Come.” He ordered.
Sam followed halfway on instinct, other parts based on the curiosity of the quest and experiences, but parts of him tried to make him speak out, have him not do this. It was kind of scary now that they were heading there.
During their trek through the forest, Toren spoke with Sam, perhaps because he looked nervous, or perhaps just to make the walk feel shorter.
“You don’t have a crafting or gathering Class, so you can’t get Experience from just gathering, that means that your Telekineticist class must be focused on combat, if that’s supportive or not I don’t know, but if you want to get stronger you will end up in this position sooner or later.”
They both had to look mostly down as they walked, there were plenty of roots or ground-based plant life that could trip them if not.
“So, I think you getting this quest this early on is a blessing in disguise. It might be a bit hard for a Level 1 to do alone, but today you’re not alone. Your magic arms looked weak when we tested, but if nothing else I can hold them and you can use your normal hands to slit their throat.”
Explaining this like it was just a random day, with the same severity as peeling some fruit, something in Sam’s mind had him realise that this man had done this many, many... many times in his career. But then again, he was a combat person, big and strong, enough to be the main individual heading the training in TAC. He must know what he’s talking about to get that spot.
This calmed Sam a little. He felt safe enough, all things considered, being in the hands of someone experienced who casually said that he could just hold them for him. The comparative strength between him and a Goblin must be immense.
He felt better, but it was still not enough to make Sam feel entirely calm, he was still extremely nervous. The homeless street rat in the back of his head was screaming for violence, the time he spent on the streets, fighting for survival, wanted him to feel big and strong, strong enough that no random monster would fuck him up again. His humanity was leaning towards the same side as these were Goblins, even in the best of cases that he had read about, they seem to be insane creatures who live for torture and murder, eating you as soon as they get the chance. Killing them should be considered purging vermin.
Still, killing sentient creatures didn’t sit entirely right in his mind. But... these creatures, they were part of the Towers, the same Towers who let the monster loose in his neighbourhood. The same Towers who let the monster kill all his friends and his family. A memory flashed before his eyes; a cargo-truck-sized lizard-like, almost demonic creature with six eyes, teeth larger than your arm, scaled skin thick enough to stop bullets and needing Players to handle it. His mind’s eye replayed the scene where it burst through their house walls and stepped on his family like they were tomatoes bursting under pressure. The long teeth sank into his family members, friends, and body. It took a long hospital stay for him to recover, which caused even more problems.
His eyes grew cold, he didn’t feel the same remorse about the creatures of the Tower anymore. If anything his pent-up rage could have found an outlet.
“There, we should be cl-” Toren turned to look at Sam, explaining something but stopped himself. “You... you doing OK there?” He sounded a bit worried.
“I’m fine.” He didn’t feel entirely fine, but at the same time, he felt excellent.
“If you say so.” Toren’s worries faded as he focused towards a specific spot instead. “We should go quiet from here, they are a short distance over there, but they have very good hearing. Keep close to me and just do your worst, I’ll do my best to protect you.”
Taking a few steps, Toren stopped and turned back to Sam. “Just a warning, they are crafty bastards, whatever you do, do not underestimate them if they get a chance to think.”
Sam nodded, this was good info, something he somewhat already had an idea of, but it was still good to hear it from a professional.
Sneaking through the forest was both easier than it sounded, and harder than it sounded. Everything was covered in plants, dirt and so on, muffling your steps. But everything is covered in plants, roots and so on... Giving off sounds of broken branches, and rocks sliding and hitting each other. All in all, it was surprisingly hard to be consistently stealthy. At least for a city boy like Sam. Given Toren’s size, Sam was amazed at how silent he was, the man was easily two heads taller than he was and barely made a sound. He didn’t carry any weapons on his body, which helped a little bit, but it was still an incredible experience.
The instructor stopped suddenly and crouched, Sam mirrored it and found himself hiding behind a tree. He was waved forward and took a few steps to see what his protector was seeing. Through the forest, there was a small clearing, in this clearing there were dirt and straw hovels. More like dirt piled up and stomped hard before being dug out, finally covered in straw. Sam had no idea if that was going to be enough to be structurally sound, but that’s what it looked like. The Goblins were half-men, mid-thigh tall to a grown man, with green skin, and sharp teeth and looked just as one would expect. A dead deer was being torn apart, lacking any good knives they just tore into it with their claws and ripped out chunks, passing it around. They ate it like it was an amazing delicacy, caking themselves in blood, innards and gore at the same time. Sam could count 8 of them, one looking larger, both physically and muscularly.
Toren leant in closer to Sam’s ear and whispered, very, very lowly. “Find a straggler, attack weak points, best place is neck, draw the blade across, stops them shouting.” He pulled a finger across his throat almost to emphasise the recommendation. “People don’t consider it, but cutting with a sharp knife is like cutting a steak. Same force is needed.”
Sam considered that for a brief moment, and he had a really good point. Steak and meat is... well... meat. Cutting a person isn’t harder than cutting a slab of meat, not considering armour, clothing or bones. So he might not need huge strength or lots of damage, he just needed enough damage.
Having three daggers was good at the moment. He could create up to five Psyhands and move them about within his 10m/30ft radius, or he could extend the radius up to 16m/50ft and only use one Psyhand. At least those were the numbers displayed in the info window about Psyhands and the Area of Influence. Or that would be if each hand could lift a dagger. The daggers he had were decently solid, meaning that they were relatively heavy. He felt that he needed three Psyhands to hold it and still have enough force to properly use it. This limited his range to a maximum of 13m/40ft, this mix would consume all his energy but would allow him to attack from afar at a relatively safe distance.
All of this was what he gathered from just unsheathing a knife and lifting it. The range was just the simplest of math based on the numbers in the System windows. But it should be enough. He didn’t need that much force, after all, and with three of the hands, he had a little force to spare, being able to swing it at weird angles with his Psyhands would make up for this.
They sat there for a few short minutes. Sam tried to look around and find someone alone, but he didn’t, so he waited for one to walk out from the others.
Toren waved slightly to get his attention and pointed near a bush not far from them, he put his hands together and used it as a pillow, fake-sleeping before he pointed again.
A sleeping individual, this was almost too good to be true. Sam looked in the direction of the pointing, he could see one! Some guidance and more perceptive aid had helped in this case.
Sneaking closer he got within range without the need to extend his Area, this allowed him to place all five hands on the dagger for maximum strength. Floating the dagger over to one side of the sleeping Goblin’s throat, he was a little surprised at himself when he didn’t even hesitate to pull the entire length of the blade across the throat. He put all the strength into it as he did so the Goblin woke up but failed to scream. There was a staggering amount of blood pumping out of his throat as he thrashed in an attempt to remove whatever attacked him, failing to do so. The thrashing calmed down as the gurgling intensified before the Goblin slowly stopped moving. The whole process took about five or six seconds. He was still bleeding and it took a few more seconds before a little window popped up in Sam’s view with the Quest details.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
[ Quest: Personally deliver the killing blow on 5 Goblins.
Progress: 1/5 (+)
Optional: Personally deliver the killing blow on a Goblin chieftain.
Progress: 0/1 ]
As the window opened there was a green plus next to the progress that blinked for a second before fading. The window remained at the edge of his view, something he could easily look at if he chose to but far enough out of the way to not be annoying.
Realising that he didn’t feel any remorse or hesitation in this case was a good thing at the moment, he decided to ride that for now. He could only lift one dagger at the moment but it seemed that he could do enough damage. He just needed to hit vital points.
Crouching he noticed that one of the Goblins had reacted to the sounds, coming walking over towards his now dead ally, Sam prepared. He floated the dagger closer to where the new Goblin would come past. Even though the Goblin stepped into his range, he waited a few more steps, enough for him to get to a more secluded point.
As he got closer, he seemed to notice something wrong with his sleeping friend. Before he could get properly into range Sam swung his blade swiftly across his throat. He missed the angle, it wasn’t enough to slice through his neck cleanly. However, luckily it was enough to cut his windpipe. The Goblin wasn’t able to shout but grasped at his neck, covering the weak point.
In a kind of panic at being discovered, Sam just started stabbing. He couldn’t put more than the full power of 500gram/1.1lbs behind the knife, but it was sharp. He went for the throat and though the first stab hit his hand, doing minimal damage, the second one made it through a gap and embedded itself in the Goblin’s jugular. Twisting the dagger and pulling it out at an angle to maximize the wound did the job. The Goblin grasped at the floating dagger but fell over before he could do anything.
The quest log was updated again; 2/5.
However, at this point, it became a bit worse. The other Goblins were doing other things that kept them in the clearing, nobody even came to the edge of the forest. He wondered what the best way to handle this could be. He could launch some daggers at them, but even considering that he kind of only had two to spare, taking out two would leave four left as well as the bigger one. He assumed the larger one as the Chieftain, and since he had help, he wanted to properly do that quest.
Taking the few needed steps back to Toren he whispered at him while eyeing the little village in the clearing. “How do we get the others? If I’m lucky and can launch the dagger at them, that’ll at most be two of them.”
Toren thought about it for a few seconds before replying. “I think I want to use this as a test. I’ll be right behind you and jump in if needed, but I want you to make all the choices.” He had a strange look in his eyes that Sam couldn’t properly identify.
A moment of consideration had Sam realise that this was a perfect opportunity. He had someone who considered the Goblins a non-threat to him, meaning that he could use this to gain the experience he needed for testing purposes.
Nodding in agreement Sam took a few steps closer and tried to make a plan. He didn’t have any experience with this, but he knew that one of a few things would happen. Not sure what was more likely from scaring them, getting swarmed or Mr Big-bad just curbstomping him. But he wanted to not let that happen.
A brief thought back to earlier today, Janik had a few good ideas. Not the balls things, but going for non-lethal but incredibly painful and weakening. Eyes, joints and feet were a good place to start. Using the needles he got in the pack, he could easily use all five hands and just go to town stabbing. The odds of killing someone with needles were close to nil, but it would be plenty to fuck with some eyes.
There were five of them left, counting the Chief. The most likely thing to happen if there was something to investigate would be either the Chief himself checking it out, or him sending some others to do it for him. It felt unlikely that all of them would go.
He’d create a distraction, then kick his plan in high gear. He took out the needed tools from his bag as silently as he could, the needles and objects acting as spikes. He had six needles and three spikes.
Taking a few steps closer to the edge, he needed to have his Area extend a little out of the forest line, into the clearing. Taking a gander at where Toren was, he felt satisfied that the pile of muscle on legs could easily stomp in and take care of it if needed.
Letting out a noise, literally shouting ‘Bleh’ was more than plenty to get their attention. Now he just had to wait.
The whole camp reacted, stopping everything they were doing and focusing all their attention on the source of the noise. They just stood there for a few, long, agonising seconds. The big Goblin said something in a language Sam didn’t know, but as the two closest stopped digging into the deer and walking towards him, he could guess.
Hovering up the dagger with the needed three Psyhands, he used the remaining two to pick up needles. He hovered things around trees close to the edge of the forest, ready to strike as soon as possible. Using the Psyhands was as natural as using his normal hands, just that he needed the angles at times. Now, facing them straight on should give him the perfect line of effect.
They got in range, stopping at the edge of the forest, standing there and staring, smelling the air, trying to hear anything. Sam decided to act, and take advantage of the surprise. The needles went first. On the right Goblin, he hit true, he stabbed him straight in the eye, the left Goblin he hit his face but not exactly the eye. However, in the following pained seconds, he got several more chances. As if he was standing close he did his best, just stabbing with the needles over and over again. He had finally done enough for them to consider running, he couldn’t have that so he brought the knife down as fast as he could, landing a solid stab towards the right Goblin, hitting the nape of his neck. The dagger landed true and he instantly fell to the ground. The quest window was updated to 3/5.
However, a problem he hadn’t considered happened. Though the dagger landed true, it did so through speed and momentum, now the muscles and whatnot inside the neck of the Goblin were clamping down on his dagger, and he didn’t have enough strength to pull it back out.
Fuck.
He abandoned it for now as he pulled out his second dagger, it started floating over and he was again ready for the next one.
The chieftain picked up a stick from the ground next to him, Sam realised it wasn’t a stick, but a spear. It was thrown in Sam’s direction. He didn’t even have the chance to react before it landed and hit him in the side.
It wasn’t enough to penetrate him properly, but it stabbed him surprisingly hard.
Two windows opened. One showed a health bar and some numbers, the bar had a section greyed out, and the other a message that popped up on the right but faded soon after popping up, explaining that [ Defense 3 ] had lowered the damage by 3.
[ HP: 32 / 35 ██████░ ]
It manifested in the centre of his vision and moved to the upper left where, like the quest log, it remained available but not in the way.
This was the first time he had been hurt since he became a Player, it hurt, it really fucking hurt. He had been stabbed before when he was homeless, and this was way worse. The spear was now on the ground next to him. It looked dirty and nasty and was not more than a thin stick with a pointy rock on the end.
However, this did mean that he now had a spear. Pulling in his Psyhands to return the objects he held with them to his normal hands, he picked it up, needing all five hands to pick it up comfortably. This meant that he couldn’t launch it back, it was too heavy. Though he did have his normal hands for that it wasn’t the same.
The Chieftain seemed to smirk, noticing that he had hit something. He picked up another spear and took a few steps closer before he sent another spear towards Sam.
This time he was somewhat prepared, the long windup let him take a few steps to the side to avoid getting hit. He could tell that the Chieftain aimed in the same place he was before, so Sam was safe from the start. However, he needed to test something. He tried using all his Psyhands to redirect the incoming spear a little. As the throw entered his Area he did his best to push it to the side. He managed to do so rather well, though the spear was too heavy for him to lift and Launch, it was within his lifting weight. Pushing it to the side it hit another tree than the one it would have. This was an empty victory but a good one for Sam, the test was successful.
The Chieftain stood there, waiting for a moment, smelling the air and listening. He shouted something at the others which had one of them pick up a rusty sword in horrible shape and give it to him. He looked at Sam’s new location and, with a mighty warcry, charged!