A gremlin lay hidden within bushes, watching a boy play in a clearing.

“I am Hakon the Great!” the boy roared, pretending to be like the folk hero of yore, swinging his wooden sword at imagined foes. On this typical day in Halbit Forest, Jeser played by himself. After winning the bravery contest among the village children, where they competed to see who could explore the deepest into the wood, Jeser aimed to impress his peers more by pushing even further into the forest and played there for hours, despite the other children being too scared to come along.

In the bushes, the gremlin’s cat-like eyes were fixed on the boy. It had been watching him for weeks now. Jeser’s display of bravery in his world of imagination set the gremlin aflame with intrigue. Gremlins were both scavengers and, given their diminutive forms, inherently cowardly. The gremlin found it tantalizing to witness a creature like this child, displaying traits opposite to its own.

Jeser’s blue cape fluttered majestically as he swung to and fro, an epic battle with high stakes playing in his mind. The boy’s uncle had sent Jeser the article of clothing since he had said he wanted to join the king’s royal army when he grew older.

Meanwhile, in the gremlin’s mind, it was imagining playing with the boy. If only they were of the same species, they could laugh and play together all day. It would do anything to become the boy’s friend, to learn from him about bravery, and how to laugh as carefree as he did.

A screech pierced the air. Above, an eagle flew circles around the clearing, its fierce eyes locked onto the gremlin stooped low in the bushes. Uncontrollable shivering took hold of the gremlin. Predators like eagles and foxes made meals out of creatures like it.

“Begone, foul beast!” Jeser roared, pointing his toy blade at the bird, challenging it. In the clearing, Jeser was imagining the eagle to be a flying demon. Another screech, emitted from the eagle's beak, rang across the sky, one that sounded like defeat to the gremlin, and the eagle soon flew away. To where, it was anyone’s guess. But to the gremlin, Jeser had just saved its life.

Giddiness grew in the gremlin, as well as immense gratitude. It had to say something; it couldn’t let such a good deed go without thanks. Yet, when the creature crawled out of its hiding place, Jeser stilled. The gremlin tried to mimic the expression of a smile it had seen human children make, but it only seemed menacing with its sharp teeth.

Without a word, Jeser ran.

This was it, the gremlin thought. This was just like its daydream. They were playing! It and the boy—playing together! Without hesitation, the gremlin gave chase, “smiling” with its gleaming sharp teeth all the while.

Pale in the face, Jeser looked back to see the gremlin catching up. He had been warned by the adults in the village not to stray too far into the forest, and now he was paying for it.

“No!” Jeser screamed in defiance and spun around to confront the encroaching monster.

The gremlin was having the time of its life. It leapt up to embrace Jeser when the boy’s wooden weapon struck its head, flooring it.

“D-demon!” Jeser shrieked and began to relentlessly pound on the gremlin’s head with his toy.

Red blood oozed from the gremlin’s head and began to pour down its face. It didn’t know what was happening. One moment they were playing, the next, it was on the ground. The boy continued hitting it with no pause, and for what reason, the gremlin didn’t know. It only knew it would die soon, and that made the creature sorrowful.

The gremlin began to cry.

The sound of its sobs gave the boy pause. Jeser’s fright took flight from his body at the sight of tears falling from the gremlin’s cat-like eyes. What appeared was not a demon but a sad, pitiful creature with no more strength than that of a chicken.

“…Are you alright?” Jeser asked, reaching a helping hand toward the bleeding gremlin, guilt beginning to fill the boy for having harmed such a weak woodland animal.

To the gremlin, the assault had finally stopped, and it was determined to survive no matter what. Without pause, the gremlin broke away, perceiving that the boy was trying to finish it off by grabbing it. Through the grass, it sprinted with all its might toward the forest, away from the evil boy who had turned the innocence of play into a nefarious attack.

“I’m sorry!” Jeser yelled. However, the gremlin couldn’t understand human speech.

Underneath the dark shadow of the forest’s canopy, the gremlin bawled, tears running without end as it held its injured head. Nearly had it died to such an evil boy it thought to be good. Now it could see why the other gremlins had warned it not to get near humans.

“Whatever seems to be the problem, little friend?”

The gremlin nearly fainted at the appearance of a tall, hooded figure emerging from behind a tree. This person did not belong in the forest; that much the gremlin knew.

The hooded figure clucked in understanding, “Tsk, tsk. Such a poor creature — weak too. Ah, I’m in a good mood. Allow me to fix you, dear gremlin. Take this power and become more. Take this power to fight back against those who would harm you.”

The gremlin soiled itself as the hooded figure’s hand reached out and touched its bulbous head. A strange feeling then coursed through its body, empowering it; as well as instilling new knowledge. A new way of life suddenly opened for it to see.

“…What happened?” the gremlin asked, only to clasp its hands on its mouth in surprise. It could suddenly talk.

“This is what power feels like,” the hooded figure answered, eyes beneath the hood glowing dark violet.

A week had gone by for Jeser as he visited the clearing in Halbit Forest every day with a basket of food. He had vowed to make wrongs right. He would offer food as an apology to the creature he had abused. As a future officer of the king’s army, he took his honor quite seriously.

On the seventh day, his joy knew no bounds when he saw the gremlin again.

“Ah, it’s you!” Jeser sighed with relief and offered up the food basket. “Look what I brought!”

A dark bolt of magic leapt from the gremlin’s finger and struck Jeser in the chest. The dark magic’s rot seeped through his flesh and entered his heart, killing him.

“So, this is what power is…?” the gremlin awed, standing above Jeser’s corpse. The vibrant blue of the boy’s cape beckoned to it. The gremlin ripped off the dead boy’s cape and donned it. “…Yes. This feels right.” It suddenly struck a pose it had seen Jeser do so many times in play, its back straight as it had seen Jeser do, with its hands on its hips. “I am Hakon the Great!”

***

Banst couldn’t breathe. The ghoul had stolen his breath away, standing before him like a reaper, its decaying flesh dropping maggots, its yellow eyes corpse-like and promising only death.

Behind Banst, the gremlins, eager to feast, continued their charge toward him. Their gremlin leader had granted them a taste of human flesh, and since then, they could not get enough.

A raucous roar suddenly erupted from the ghoul’s mouth with the sickening sound of gurgling in its throat. The display of aggression nearly caused Banst to release his bowels from sheer terror. Such a nightmarish sight the ghoul was, with its corpse appearance and the animalistic way it walked on all fours like a beast. Not only Banst but also the gremlins shared in his fright, halting in their tracks and shivering like cold, wet dogs.

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“Master, I will not be able to beat this creature,” Basnt’s armor informed him.

That much was given, so Banst responded with silence. The only path available for Banst to travel was toward his own demise. Not much of a life he lived, being pathetically weak all throughout and never ceasing to dream of becoming a proper Adventurer into his late twenties. Yet, it was a life lived nonetheless.

“Father, mother,” Banst prayed, his head falling in prayer. “Welcome me in the afterlife with open arms, for I was not a coward in this life. With honor, I’ve lived. With honor, I die.” Banst wasn’t prepared for death, but who was ever ready for their end? He would fall here during this quest, much like other Adventurers had fallen on quests of their own — much like his parents had.

A shadow soon enveloped Banst that grew quickly. Above, the silhouette of the ghoul could be seen outlined against the light of twilight. Jumping at such a height and landing would outright kill Banst if the ghoul ended up on top of him.

However, the ghoul had overshot its target, missing Banst by a considerable distance. The undead creature landed with a heavy thud between the gremlins and Banst. Its thick gray forearm swung wide like a fortress gate, but not in the way Banst had anticipated. The ghoul’s attack fell upon the gremlins, squashing a handful of them and bursting their bodies into gushing blood and guts.

Banst backed away warily, unable to grasp the situation, and his confusion deepened as the ghoul continued its rampage against what was supposed to be its allies.

The ghoul had begun to throttle more gremlins and took their small lives without pause. It seemed the undead creature would not share its meal with them. Growling with frustration and disappointment for not getting to eat a human, the gremlins retreated. Only when the stout monsters were on their way back to the Gremlin Capital was the ghoul satisfied and turned to face Banst.

“Dammit, now it’s my turn…” Banst grimaced, staring into the creature’s dead eyes, balling his hands into fists — little good that would do against an undead with nigh impenetrable skin.

Under the setting sun, a glint came off iron as the ghoul held up a blade of cheap quality but with a well-maintained edge.

“My sword!” Banst sputtered in seeing the weapon. Did ghouls use weapons? Banst wasn’t sure. Such undead creatures only appeared in Wolf-Rank Quests and above.

The iron sword clattered to the ground at Banst’s feet; the ghoul had thrown it to him. Confusion seemed to be the only thing Banst could feel during his last moments alive. Perhaps the ghoul wished for an honorable duel, but such a whimsical notion couldn’t be real since ghouls weren’t considered anything other than mindless undead monsters.

“…H-help,” the ghoul croaked.

Banst trembled. Words were coming out of the ghoul’s blackened mouth, words he could understand.

“Hakon say, kill you,” the ghoul carried on, a sorrowful expression crinkling its rotting brow. The Weakest Adventurer could not find words to respond with. “Hakon say, kill you. I no kill you. You help me.” The ghoul bowed its head, its corpse face twisted in remorse. “Please. Help. Me.” Its ability to speak had begun to strain.

A surge of somber emotion filled Banst in realizing the state of the ghoul. “By God, man. Are you still alive in there…?”

“My son, you help.” the ghoul pleaded. “Gremlin. Capital. You. Save. Son.”

“We need to get you to a church,” Banst entreated stepping over his blade on the ground to reach out to the undead monster, “Perhaps the priests there could possibly—”

“Please!” the ghoul responded with its gurgling roar. “Save. Son! Hakon. Magic. Will. Not. Let. Me…!” Its roar soon took over, overpowering its voice. The humanity that lingered within it began to weaken. With a final pleading look at Banst, the ghoul forced itself to run deep into the forest, retreating before its undead nature could take complete hold.

Banst stood in place as the darkness of night enveloped the world around him. His life had been spared. The road back to Hildew City was close by. He’d been running toward it since the battle with Hakon, the gremlin ruler, when he was found by the gremlin horde.

All Banst needed to do was take ten minutes to continue westward, find the road, and make his way safely back home. A failed quest was dishonorable for an Adventurer. However, none would blame the Weakest Adventurer for ineptitude, especially considering the presence of dark magic afoot here.

Banst sighed and began to walk. Solo Trials were for the truly skilled and the foolish — Banst neither of those things.

***

In a clearing where a boy in a blue cape used to play, three mounds of dirt served as entrances to the Gremlin Capital. Going through the mounds and into the dirt tunnels beneath, glowing worms provided enough light for anyone to see that the burrow the tunnels led to was far from any kind of “capital.” The ruler of this place was present and not anywhere near content.

The gremlin leader, Hakon, sat upon the boy, Mido, as if he were a throne — face down, prone, with Hakon atop Mido’s back. Initial complaints arose about Mido’s abdomen feeling crushed, but those were silenced when Hakon threatened to rip out one of Mido’s eyes.

The thought of how juicy and succulent the eyes of children were made the gremlin ruler reach down to caress one of Mido’s eyes, causing the boy to flinch. Hakon had initially wanted to refrain from eating the boy. The ritual the gremlin ruler had set was that it demanded the captured children play with it before they died. Any game the children could come up with, Hakon would command they show it how to play.

Only after Hakon had its enjoyment fulfilled did it kill and consume the child. But this child Mido was a bore. All he did was shiver and cry. Near useless this child was when it came to entertainment.

Just one eye. Hakon would eat one of Mido’s eyes. If Mido still couldn’t come up with a game to play after that, Hakon would kill and eat the rest of him.

The tips of its long nails started to slide into Mido’s eye socket, prompting him to begin screaming in agony. At that moment, the other gremlins came pouring into the burrow, tumbling in their haste like rolling barrels. Their leader was taken aback by the frightened expressions morphing their blotchy faces, reminiscent of what they once showed in the cowardly lives they used to lead not too far gone.

If it wasn’t for Hakon’s dark magic warping the gremlins into formidable beasts, they would still be the hapless scavengers they once were, frightened by even foxes, contending for mere morsels against raccoons.

Its kin, having already transformed, exhibiting fear caused Hakon to become wary.

“G-ghoul…mean!” the smartest among the gremlins informed their ruler. It was the only one so far that could speak besides Hakon and had adopted Hakon’s childish way of speaking, though the ruler could understand its meaning completely.

Hakon halted its attempt to dig out Mido’s eye and frowned. The ghoul was supposed to be its loyal steed. How dare that undead thing turn against it? After all the care Hakon had shown it, the ghoul still dared to misbehave.

The ghoul emerged, crawling into the burrow only a few minutes later, coming face to face with Hakon’s furious visage.

“Steed!” Hakon addressed the undead creature with veins coursing its mottled skin. “Stupid and ungrateful steed. To me!”

Compelled by the dark magic enveloping it, the ghoul crawled through the cramped space to lay at Hakon’s feet like an obedient dog.

“You hurt gremlins?” Hakon charged, its black glowing eyes filled with reproach. “You were mean to gremlins? To my gremlins?!” In its fury, the gremlin ruler shifted its body upon Mido to point an accusatory thin finger at the undead monster.

Mido whimpered, feeling crushed by Hakon’s weight on top of him, unable to breathe. The ghoul saddened and reached out to him, words involuntarily coming out, “My. Son…”

Mido looked up to what had once been his father, now a ghoul. His father was always here next to Hakon, witnessing Mido’s mistreatment. Even though his father had been transformed, why wouldn’t he save him?

“Papa…” Mido begged the ghoul, “save me…”

Hakon suddenly stood, its black eyes growing in their glow, teeth bared, and eyes staring at Mido with mounting fury. “…That is my steed,” Hakon spat coldly. Its voice began to deepen as its black eyes grew brighter. “That is my steed, not yours! We won’t play anymore. You die now!”

The gremlin ruler’s long nails splayed out like a tiger’s, nearing Mido to tear the boy into pieces.

A roar, gurgling wet with old blood, stilled Hakon as the ghoul bellowed, “Leave. My. Son. Alone!”

“Papa!” Mido murmured, a smile growing on his dirty face. His father had finally stepped forward to save him.

Black light illuminated the burrow. Dark magic formed on Hakon’s long-nailed hands, the likes of which neither gremlin nor Mido had seen the gremlin ruler use before. Both hands engulfed in what looked like black fire latched onto the ghoul’s head.

An agonizing groan drifted up from its decaying lips, dark magic intruding into its mind and beginning to erase all that had been there before. The husband of a loving wife, father to an obedient boy, friend to his neighbors — all of it began disappearing. The last images the ghoul saw of its old life were when he was a man, entering the forest to try and find his boy, Mido, who had been taken like the other children by this insidious forest.

“You. Are. Mine!” Hakon roared. No longer did it sound like a child. Its voice had deepened to sound more akin to a demon. Smoke rose from the ghoul’s scrambled head as it slumped down, its mind devastated. “Now,” the gremlin ruler ordered, pointing at Mido, “Kill this human child. Silence this annoying thing forever.”

“Papa…?” Mido muttered, the ghoul’s shadow suddenly enveloping him as what used to be his father approached him with a blank expression. Cold fingers of the ghoul wrapped around Mido’s neck, beginning to squeeze the life from the boy.

“Yes, my loyal steed,” Hakon encouraged, its sharp teeth exposed in a smile. “Kill him!”

“That’s enough,” a voice entered the burrow, a voice in defiance. A decapitated gremlin head then rolled down from one of the burrow’s three tunnels, ending up at Hakon’s feet, its cat-like eyes reflecting Hakon’s surprised face back to it. “Hakon the Great, come face me — Banst the Weakest Adventurer!”