Chapter 2 – The Blue Goblin
”No one must ever enter the great forest. Great monsters of legends and the undeads of your nightmares stalk the lands. Poisonous fumes and man-eating plants cover the forests. Entering in the forest is equivalent to suicide. Chances are, you won’t make it out alive.”
–Journal of Keyan Peale.
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Part 1
Mronnger’s Forest
Aegar 267, Era of the Phoenix
Trees stretched beyond in all directions, untouched by sentient beings. Monsters, big and small, roamed the land, following only the natural laws of the world. The birds sang their tunes in peace and the deer ate their grass in harmony. All was in harmony and peace, until today.
The birds scattered from their perches and the deer bolted from the meadows at the sound of an explosion. Two great gatherings of humans were facing each other, one dressed in red and the other in blue, each firing devastating balls of fire at each other.
Every time the fire landed, the sound of the explosion resonated throughout the entire forest. Sometimes, the balls of fire would miss and land in the forest, starting a growing forest fire.
Unaware, or uncaring, of the destruction caused around them, the two great gatherings ran at each other. The sound of steel clashing and men screaming echoed throughout the land.
In the midst of all the chaos was a blue goblin. He was about 3 feet tall with a grotesque face. Warts and moles covered his face while two yellow tusks protruded from his lower jaw. He had an average muscle mass and didn’t look too strong. He had no name for he was not the chief of his village. But he was blessed by the gods, his unusual blue skin was proof of that.
The goblin hid in a bush by the side of the battlefield, dodging a fireball every now and then. He observed the battle with glee, taking in every human tactics, weapons, magic, armor, weakness. Anything he could observe or deduce.
He watched in awe as the two lines of armored humans held out against each and humans on great beasts rode straight through a wall of spears. He watched the armor of the soldiers glint in the sun and memorized every single fine detail. He watched the movement of muscles made by the soldiers every time they slashed their swords or lifted their shields. He watched as the humans soldiers moved as one unit, moving forward no matter what they encountered, whether it be arrows or explosions.
The little goblin memorized everything he observed. He hungered for the knowledge and power and this was a once-in-a-lifetime event. He sat through the entire battle, wide-eyed at human ingenuity.
The red army routed the blue army after four hours of fighting. The commander of the blue army stupidly decided to take the front lines himself, attempting to duel it out with the red army’s commander. Not being stupid, the red army’s commander ordered all of his mages and archers to fire everything they have at him. The blue commander died without even opening his mouth to initiate the duel.
Without a commander, the blue army’s morale broke and all their fears gushed out like water in a broken dam. They retreated in total chaos, running this way and that. The red army pursued them throughout the forest and killed or captured many of the blue soldiers.
While the rest of the red army was out chasing the routed soldiers, the injured or dying soldiers were left in the field. The goblin, after learning and memorizing the weak points of the armor and the vital areas of the human bodies, decided to take his lesson to a more practical level.
He grabbed his favorite spear, fashioned out of a Gilgori, a type of big cat monster, bone, and targeted a heavily wounded soldier close to the woods as his first target. He moved from shadow to shadow, not making a sound.
He was quickly approached the injured man. The man looked quite old with a brown beard filled with blood. His armed was cracked and broken and one of his leg twisted in an unsightly angle, lying in a pool of his own blood.
The man’s eyes widened in fear as the goblin approached him. He did not want to die, no one did. He survived the onslaught and the four hours of fighting but here he was, about to be killed by a simple goblin. The man grimaced in pain as he tried to move away from the goblin.
The injured soldier grabbed his sword and pointed it at the goblin. His hand shook from a combination of fatigue, injuries and fear. He shouted something but the goblin could not understand and continued to advance.
The blue goblin, seeing the suffering of the old soldier, stabbed his spear right through his eyes, killing him instantly. The little monsters dragged the soldier back into his hiding spot and stripped the soldier of his equipment.
The menace examined each of the armor pieces carefully, observing every nook and cranny, letting nothing out of his sight, and carefully placed the armor in a neat pile beside him. It took the goblin half an hour to get through all of the soldier’s gear.
The goblin then proceeded to skin the man and butcher his flesh. The cuts were precise and neat, leaving no mess or evidence of the event. Blood dripped down from the goblin’s chin as he proceeded to devour the man.
Monsters do not eat for sustenance rather they eat for mana capacity, something akin to gaining exp. Because a monster’s power is essentially made of mana, the amount of mana it can hold determines a monster’s power. The amount of mana and type of mana also changes or mutates the monster, though very slowly. After a tens of thousands meals for a goblin, it would be indistinguishable from a goblin, thus becoming a different creature. Do notice that a goblin is at the very bottom of the food chain and is one of the weakest monster. Thus it requires the least amount of meals to strengthen itself.
However, the blue goblin is blessed by the god of wisdom and magic, Elcros, allowing for rapid change, massive increase in intelligence and absorbing traits that originally belonged to the prey.
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In other words, the blue goblin became even smarter and stronger. Its once grotesque face was now bordering ugly and was able to understand some human language. It grew a bit taller and its once pointed ears dulled a bit.
Happy with the change, the goblin decided to hunt for a bit longer. By the time the goblin was forced to retreat by the returning troops, the goblin had already killed and devoured fourteen troops. Its intelligence had skyrocketed, beyond that of an average human genius, its strength is nearly triple that of an average soldier, its reaction and coordination also increased to rival that of an assassin and its once bordering ugly face has now transformed into an okay-to-look-at-without-turning-into-stone face. The goblin has also grown a foot higher.
He equipped the best of the stolen armor and weapons and hid the rest in the bushes and followed the red army. By now, the sun had fallen behind the hills and the stars ruled the sky while darkness lorded the land. Sight was rendered useless in this perpetual darkness.
Slowly, rows of flickering dots of lights fought back the darkness. The red army had lit candle and torches all along their lines. The goblin stealthily made his way over to the army, tripping on a tree root every now and then.
The soldiers were fidgety in total blackness. Some saw shapes and beings that weren’t there and others swore they heard some kind of voice or sound or that someone was watching them.
And they had all the right to be fearful of the dark. Mronnger’s Forest is infamous for its deadly inhabitants. Countless adventurers and heroes had gone in boasting of their strength, none had come out alive. Kings and queens have sent their armies in to search for these missing people and of the tens of thousands of people, only an average of five made it back, mentally scarred and crippled for life.
It is said that only the greatest monstrosity that defined fear dwell within these lands such as the man-eating cyclops, the soul-ripping reapers or man’s most primal fear, shopping with their wives.
The goblin followed the trail of light and his eyes eventually adjusted to the darkness. He caught and ate some creatures prowling the night, allowing him faster adjustment in the dark. The blue skinned monsters stopped suddenly and widened his eyes at the scene in front of him.
A huge wooden wall as tall as the trees and a deep pit filled with pikes surrounded the village of the humans. A small wooden bridge dropped down across the pit, allowing entrance for the soldiers. Wooden towers sprouted out form the walls regularly. Something as simple as this didn’t surprise our little goblin friend. What did surprise him was the size of what-he-thought-was the village. As far as the eye can see, tents and cabins littered the floor in a checkboard formation.
It was the largest village he had ever laid his eyes upon, larger than the largest goblin village. He watched in awe as the “village” slowly lit up block by block. Soon, the entire night sky was brightened by the sheer amount of light the human village projected. There were even houses built for the animals they rode on and giant storehouses for resources. The entire complex was centered around a hastily built wooden castle on a hill.
The goblin watched wide-eyed as the humans went and did their business. A large celebration seemed to be underway as a huge ruckus was made. Music and jolly-making filled the area with noise. The smell of thousands of chefs preparing food permeated through the air. Barrels were broken and men danced around swinging their tankard, spilling the content.
Even with all the celebration and partying, the army did not let its guard down. There were regular patrols along the walls and the towers were all manned.
After digesting everything he learned and saw today, the goblin ran back to his village with a smile on his face.
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Part 2
The Golden City
Aegar 267, Era of the Phoenix
Sebastian’s POV
I waved my arm in vain as I flew through the air screaming at the top of my lung. The ground came closer and closer and I tried to adjust myself to land feet first.
I crashed landed right into the huge pile of gold.
“Agh, you okay Bernie?” I moaned at my colleague to my left.
Bernie grabbed his head and replied with another moan.
The city we landed in was inside an enormous cavern. Not a single source of natural light could be seen but something was lighting up the room. It seemed like we landed in some sort of plaza the buildings were pushed back to make this empty space.
“At least there aren’t any monsters.”
“Don’t jinx it," Bernie replied in a foul tone.
As I was about to tease Bernie about his superstitions, the sound of footsteps, or rather many footsteps, echoed throughout the chamber. Bernie glares at me and prepares his weapon.
“Oops.”
The footsteps got louder and louder and it was evident that there are multiple enemies. I signaled Bernie to take the left while I took the right. He nodded back at me and took his position.
I slow my breathing and relax my eyes, concentrating on footsteps. Soon, all was silent except the many footsteps coming this way.
“Three more steps, two more steps, one more step.”
I opened my eyes and dashed towards the enemies. A wolf’s head dropped to the ground as my blade sliced through its neck. The enemy stood 7 feet tall and on two legs. It combined the characteristics of a wolf and human. It had the body of a wolf but stood on two legs. It was bald in some areas, showing off the diseased warts and dead skin. The eyes glowed a sickish yellow as it displayed rows of rotting teeth.
The body of the beheaded werewolf fell with a thump. Yellow pus bled out of its wound. A disgusting smell of corpse filled the air. I gagged as the noxious fumes raided my nose.
Five pairs of yellow eyes glared straight at me. Shit.