We stepped out of the western gate of the village and started down the path into the woods. The cobblestone road had ended the moment the gate opened, quickly dwindling down to a simple dirt path with small furrows where wagons had been repeatedly pulled through.

“Say Ophelia? How did a village like that get such a large wall around it anyways? It seems like a lot of time and money for a simple farming village.” It had been on my mind since we entered, but it hadn’t been a really pressing issue. The village was moderately prosperous from what I could tell. At the very least, there had only been a few beggars, and even they had looked like they were fed regularly enough. Everyone had well worn but decent clothes, and nobody seemed to be starving, even when their food supplies should be running low after winter.

“This village is a crossroads of sorts. It’s the last farming village before the climate gets too cold for conventional farming, and so is the resupply point for the caravans that pass through. Since it's important for traveling to Nightfrost especially, the city paid to install the wall to protect it from monster attacks.” Ophelia seemed happy to explain just about anything I asked, as long as it didn’t pertain directly to her family.

“What else is in the area then?” They had gates on each of the four cardinal directions, surely that was for a reason, right? It couldn’t just be one village and one city this far north, and nothing else.

“In this direction, about three weeks on foot, you have Istala, a port town. They handle a lot of fishing and are the only real source of supplies for Maugdlin and Nightfrost come winter. To the east, you have the snow wastes, a desolate land of frost and ice. Nobody travels that way. And to the south, if you go past the forest, you can get to the capital city of Imequia.”

We passed the place where the forest had been cut away to provide sightlines for the village, and into the woods themselves. The road, if you can call it that, hadn’t seen regular use in a long time. Debris littered it, and the boundaries of where the road ended and forest began had fallen away somewhat. I couldn’t tell if it was in disrepair, or if this was just the standard for this new world.

A new question popped into my head as we walked. “Why is it called Nightfrost?” I asked, an eyebrow raised as I pondered the odd name out.

“I told you, it’s because the city is coated in an endless frost all year round.” She gave me an odd look. She had just explained this a few days prior after all.

“No, that's not what I mean. You have three places where the names sound like proper names, or perhaps at least a person’s name. Then you just have Nightfrost. The name doesn’t fit the rest of the naming convention.”

“Oh!” She gave an embarrassed laugh and shrugged. “It's a bit silly actually. Most towns have a lord of some kind who presides over them. Often the town is named after the lord. Nightfrost has a council, and when the city was being built, they couldn’t decide on a name. The people just called it Nightfrost as a placeholder, and it eventually stuck.”

Now that was something I could understand. A group of people, all eager to leave their mark on the city permanently, unable to come to a consensus. Wasn’t that an old tale.

We continued on in relative quiet, as we were nearing the site of the goblin sightings. According to the job posting, workers had been clearing the road of fallen trees and other large debris from the winter when they had been attacked. Nobody had died, but the goblins were still at large. Eventually, we came to the site of the ambush.

A destroyed wagon with a broken axle was strewn across the middle of the road in a particularly tight area. The trees closed in tight on either side of the road, and it wasn’t possible for another wagon to pass through without clearing the old one first.

“Ophelia, does this seem-”

“Yes, keep a close watch.” She cut me off, her voice hushed low, and we started moving slowly, keeping our eyes on the surroundings. The posting hadn’t mentioned the villagers losing a wagon, nor seeing one. We had expected to find a few corpses, or maybe some old blood or a broken weapon or two. Seeing the wagon instead was concerning.

I heard the bushes rustle to one side, and quietly called out my spear into my right hand. The sounds of movement grew louder and louder. We started to back up, keeping our eyes on the places we could hear sound coming from. “Ophelia…” I started again, but she just made a fist in front of my face, indicating silence. Her own sword was out in her hand.

The fighting started in the blink of an eye. An arrow came whistling out of a bush, flying just past us both. Even with kinetic vision, I couldn’t react in time to an arrow coming from so close. Especially if I couldn’t see it being fired. As soon as the arrow was gone, four goblins jumped out from the woods. They were short things, coming up to just above four feet tall. They had long, warty ears and a sickly green skin. Short, upturned noses and nasty long teeth dripping with saliva made for a disgusting vision.

Immediately, I scanned them with the PSD.

[Forest Goblin] - Goblinoid - Level 0 - A small greenskinned creature lacking in intelligence. They live in small tribes and travel together, hunting food with poisoned arrows.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Abilities: Poison Resistance

“Don’t let the arrows hit you! Poison!” I knew where the archer was now, and when the next arrow flew from the bush, I was ready. I called out a barrier, and the arrow shattered upon it just a few feet from Ophelia’s side.

My knees were shaking just a bit, I’ll admit. Seeing these things come at us as a group, without the confines of the dungeon to keep them contained was terrifying. Three of them charged at Ophelia, with short, thick blades at the ready. But they had no finesse, no actual training. They just hacked away with large, telegraphed strikes.

Comparatively, Ophelia was a whispering wind. Ever since getting her focus core, she was stronger, faster, and seemed more skilled even. Her rapier poked holes in the goblins' defenses, quickly dispatching the first of the three attacking her.

The fourth goblin came for me. And much to my dismay, I was about as skilled as the goblin. Unlike the fight against Roquain, where I could focus all my attention on one enemy, and had backup helping to keep him from being able to so much as take a step without tripping, I was alone in this solo fight while keeping arrows off Ophelia. Each time the archer let one fly, I was ready with a barrier. It was a simple enough strategy that we had come up with. The basic frontline/backline fighting style. With me protecting her, the elf could focus on offense, mercilessly ripping through the goblins like a hot knife through butter.

I just hadn’t realized that it meant I would have to split my attention so much. I used my spear to keep the goblin from getting close enough to land a good strike. Each time it approached, I jabbed out with a quick thrust, landing a small blow on its unarmored body. With each blow, the threads appeared, tying up its movement and making it slower and easier to keep at bay. The problem was that I couldn’t keep my eyes on it. I had to fight with it only half in my vision, keeping my eyes focused on the bush where the arrows flew from.

Ophelia dispatched a second goblin suddenly, her rapier piercing through its eye and out the back of its head. However, as she tried to pull her weapon free, the goblin’s head simply came with it. I could see her panic, trying to jerk the weapon out of the creature’s skull, but it just wouldn’t come off. The last goblin saw an opportunity and struck out at her side with its blade.

I tried to cast another barrier spell, but the goblin attacking me used my distraction to get under my spear and swing at my midsection horizontally. I swore and dipped back, dodging the blow, but it was too late for Ophelia. The goblin’s sword was coming at her, and she couldn’t get the dead one off her blade.

“Ophelia!” I screamed out her name helplessly, throwing out my hand to cast a barrier, but it was too late.

The blade missed. One moment, Ophelia was there, the next, she wasn’t. She didn’t move her feet, didn’t dodge. Her body just changed position. My eyes went wide as I saw the blow pass through the place where she had been. What kind of awesome ability did she have hidden up her sleeve?

I couldn’t focus on that though. She finally freed her sword by stepping on the dead goblin’s head and pulling, and she was back to fighting. In my own fight, I created a bit of distance, and struck out with my spear once more, finally landing a solid hit on the nasty green creature. My spear went right through its gut, causing a fountain of blood to spill out of its belly and onto the ground where it fell.

Another arrow whizzed out, aimed at me this time, and I blocked that one too. No longer under siege, I fired back, the tome in my left hand opening up as the spell took shape and a bolt of force launched at the bush. The poor bush exploded, and I could see the fifth goblin get launched backwards and into a tree, slumping to the ground.

Ophelia finished her last target off at the same time, and suddenly the fight was over.

“Is… is that it?” I asked, looking around a bit nervously, waiting for a followup ambush. “I was sure they would use more archers.”

Ophelia shook her head. “The job board didn’t mention they had any archers at all. They must have taken the bow from the workmen or perhaps from whoever had been in that wagon over there. I doubt a small group like this has anyone capable of actually crafting a quality bow.”

“What was that ability by the way? It looked like you teleported.”

“It's a passive ability that lets me evade the first attack that would hit me each combat. Useful for things like that. I thought it would keep me safe from an arrow, but you handled those fairly well on your own.”

“Well that's convenient. Seems right up your alley too, with how aggressive you are combat-wise.” We were both talking off the adrenaline from the fight as we walked over to the archer goblin. We finished the unconscious creature, and checked the wagon after that. It had been stripped of anything valuable, and left broken as a roadblock to make the next ambush easier.

“My father says that is how it works. You get abilities that suit you. My abilities are aggressive, and even use a bit of my own vitality instead of all mana.” She put away her sword, the magic implement disappearing in a puff of red smoke.

Wonder what that says about me then… My abilities were all defensive in nature so far, except for the one that obviously had Fate’s finger on it.

Ophelia taught me how to properly dispose of a monster. We cut off the left ear of each goblin as proof of the kill, and we tossed the bodies into the woods where the local animal population would quickly take care of it. Apparently, scavenger monsters were extremely common, and more than happy to eat up the kills left behind by mercenaries and the like.

We spent the next hour or so trailing the goblins’ path through the woods back to their cave. They weren’t exactly subtle creatures in their own turf, and they had left scraps of refuse that made tracking their path easy, even for us two who had no experience doing things like that. We found an empty cave, a few crates of food, and the remains of an old fire. Nothing worth taking. No treasure chest to mark the end of an adventure or quest rewards from killing the goblins. I really needed to find the path to advancement soon. The longer I spent in this world without gaining any real strength, the more nervous about the situation I became. What if I never leveled up, no matter how many monsters I killed?

Once we were finished, we got back on the path and followed the road back to the village before turning south, towards where we had come. We didn’t follow the path this time, heading into the woods to the east, where the ‘tersnik’ had been spotted.

“Say, Ophelia, what exactly is a tersnik?”