I set the fourth and last mine, stepped back, and admired my handiwork. Five seconds later, the mine emitted a soft beep as it activated. According to the description, there was a ‘barely visible’ beam emitted from the device, but I couldn’t even make that much. I’d just have to trust that it actually worked as advertised.
There was a light scuffling noise, and Prometheus reappeared. He hopped back onto my back and scurried towards my shoulders. [The coast is still clear!]
[Good. I think we’re all set here, too.]
From between my ears, I could sense the little rat peering nervously at the bomb. [You certain this is a good idea?]
[Nope. But unless you’ve got a better one, it’s the best I’ve got.]
[I’m just worried about the size of the explosion. What if it’s not big enough? Or too big! I wish we could have tested it beforehand.]
[If we had, that definitely would have drawn the goblin’s attention,] I pointed out. I glanced upwards at the mass of white and yellow dots moving around over our heads. [Besides, this is directly beneath where the horde is camping on the roof, right?]
[Yep, I triple checked that while you were busy.]
[Then it should be more than close enough for any explosion. As for too big...] I shrugged. [That’s where your teleport wand comes in, I guess.]
[Hmm.]
[Hey, how big an explosion can it be?] I pointed out. [They’re tiny bombs. We’ll be fine.]
I could tell Prometheus wasn’t convinced, but he didn’t argue any further as I padded my way down the hall and back up the stairwell. The two dead goblins still lay in front of the door. Good. If they’d been discovered already, it would have made all of this more difficult.
[Are you sure we can’t do a test first?] Prometheus asked. [You only planted four bombs, right? Didn’t you say you had five of them?]
[I’d like to save that last one for a special occasion,] I said.
[Like what?]
[Don’t know yet. Anyway, if four don’t get the job done, a fifth won’t add much more to the party. Now stop worrying. This is going to be fine.]
[If you say so,] Prometheus muttered. I could hear the worry in his voice.
We stopped in front of the doorway and performed our tag-team maneuver to open it again. Once it was little more than a crack wide, I slipped my nose in. Prometheus ran out to the tip.
On the roof, the goblins continued partying, utterly unaware of our presence. That wouldn’t be the case for long. At the far end, their chief sat on his elevated stage, looking for all the world like he might die of old age at any moment.
Grabbing the door in my teeth, I pulled it open as wide as I could. The sounds from the roof flooded into the little landing, and my rat companion had to lean out further to still see. All my attention was on the door.
[Ready?] Prometheus asked, his voice quivering.
No, I thought. Out loud, I said, [Do it.]
Once again, purple light infused me. When it faded away, I felt something squelch between my toes. I appeared to be standing in the middle of a large pudding bowl. Whoever had mixed it—I suspected a goblin—hadn’t done a particularly good job, and there were still pockets of dried powder scattered throughout.
The chatter of the various clumps of goblins died instantly at my appearance, other than one particularly loud warbler who had its back to us. Even as their voice trailed off, I ducked down and snatched up the rack of ribs between my teeth.
Quest Completed — Goblin Raiders!
Retrieve stolen animal
Reward: 1,000 XP, Yellow Quality Loot Box
Level Up!
You are now Level 4
5 stat points available
XP to next level: 3,000
I wanted to howl in victory over another level up—and such an easy one at that!—but there wasn’t time. Already the goblins were recovering from their shock and starting to move.
Before the first could take a step in our direction, Prometheus activated his teleport wand again.
I reappeared back on the landing, the rooftop door still sliding closed slowly behind me. With one of my hind legs, I kicked it the rest of the way shut, the sound making an echoing clang that rang throughout the stairwell.
From the other side of the door came angry screams.
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Time for the fun part, I thought wryly, and took off running down the stairs.
[Bubba! Bubba!] Prometheus yelled as we bounded from step to step. [I went up a level! I’m three now!]
[Did you get a chest, too?] I panted. Behind us, the stairwell filled with screeches and warbles. The goblins were hot on our trail. From the sound, it was most of them.
[No chest, probably because it’s a shared quest. Still, now I can—] The rat cut off as we hit the bottom of the stairwell, leaping the last seven or eight steps. Something zipped by my ear, and I paused, spotting the arrow now embedded in the hallway carpet, black fletching stark against the building’s pale colors. I glanced back.
The first of the goblins had made it to the middle landing. Already it was drawing back its bow to fire at us again. I let off one of my stun blasts to lock them in place.
The goblin froze, bow drawn to its apex. Another goblin came rushing behind them, knocking the frozen figure down the stairs. Both ended up in a tangled jumble.
I didn’t wait around to see anything further and took off down the hallway. Two more arrows zipped by us, but stopping now would be a death sentence. I rushed on.
Twist. Turn. Twist. Twist again. There was the open door to the unit we’d booby trapped.
[Get ready!] I yelled to Prometheus. We pelted down the unit’s hallway. Behind us I could hear the thunder of dozens of feet. Sounded like almost every goblin was on our tail.
Ahead was the wide living room, an open sliding door leading to a patio beyond. I gritted my teeth together and ran faster. The timing had to be perfect, or we were all dead.
Death behind us. Deah ahead. Closer... Closer... Now!
[Do it!] I screamed. With a final lunge, I hurled myself into the living room. Just to the right of us were the four round bombs pinned to the walls, their invisible beams somewhere in the air ahead of me.
Then purple light infused me. Blindness. A sense of nothingness.
Purple light faded. I blinked and stared back into the unit from across the street as the first goblin skidded to a halt in the room, looking for us. Briefly, our eyes met.
Then the building exploded.
Even from the rooftop of the next building, I felt the heat. The pressure of it nearly knocked me over, and Prometheus yelped and had to dig in his claws to keep from being blown away.
Slowly, the fireball receded, leaving us staring at the ruin that was Prometheus’s former home. Before, the building had been worn down on the inside but still looked relatively decent on the outside. Now a full half of the building had collapsed, stone crumbling away from the outer walls to reveal twisted rebar and plumes of dust.
Despite the heat, the building didn’t appear to have caught on fire, and its farther half would stand for a while yet. But looking at it from here, I wouldn’t want to set paw inside again if I could help it.
[Sorry about your home,] I said, as more of the building sloughed to one side, the echoing boom filling the city streets.
[It’s alright. I lost my home when my friends and family died. This was... just what remained,] the rat said sadly.
[Your family? You didn’t tell me your family awakened, too.]
[They didn’t.] Prometheus was silent for a moment, staring out at the crumbling building. [Six of us awakened to the system, but there were close to fifty rats living in the colony before that. The others... They weren’t like us. Didn’t understand this new world like we did. But they were still family. They still loved us, accepted us into the colony. Loved me. Accepted me. And I... I let them down...]
He trailed off. I let him be. He probably needed some space to grieve, now that he’d achieved closure.
Besides, I had an enormous list of notifications to sort through. It took all my willpower not to wag my tail furiously at the thought. Now wasn’t the time.
While Prometheus sat lost in his memories, I sorted through all of our accomplishments.
You have defeated: Goblin (Basic) — Level 2
0 XP and 1 Common Core awarded.
You have defeated: Goblin (Basic) — Level 3
0 XP and 1 Common Core awarded.
You have defeated: Goblin (Basic) — Level 3
0 XP, 1 white quality loot box, and 1 Common Core awarded...
Okay, so bad news: After leveling up from completing the quest, many of the goblins ended up not giving me any experience.
Luckily, there were still plenty of notifications like this as well:
You have defeated: Goblin (Basic) — Level 4
100 XP and 1 Common Core awarded.
Altogether, I netted fifty-five cores, five white quality loot boxes, and 3,300 XP!
That last one also led to another message I was pleased to see.
Level Up!
You are now Level 5
5 stat points available
XP to next level: 3,500
Thanks to that, I now had ten stat points to distribute. This was a wealth of gains the likes of which I hadn’t seen in all my solo adventuring. I felt almost lightheaded from it all.
[I managed to make level five from all of that,] I told Prometheus, unable to keep my glee from intruding upon his mourning. Luckily, it seemed the little rat had recovered, at least enough to review his own messages.
[I did too!] he said, some of the exuberance I’d come to expect from the rat leaking back into his speech. [Fifteen new stat points. I don’t even have a clue where to put them.]
[Well, I do for mine.] I pulled up my interface, then assigned half of my new stat points to Power, and the other to Speed. A little shiver ran through me as I felt the muscles in my legs plump a bit.
Perhaps not the best use of them, but now all of my stats except Presence were comparable with that of a human. I'd get that last one up at some point as well, but it was low priority. For now, I intended to enjoy the benefits of a little additional strength and speed.
[Uh, Bubba?] Prometheus’s words cut into my gleeful introspection, before I had a chance to move on to the loot boxes. [I think we have a problem?]
[What sort of problem?]
[My quest hasn’t cleared.]
Frowning, I pulled up my quest screen as well.
-Quests-
The Grand Adventure — Part 1
Vengeance (Shared)
What...? I glanced up. And felt my heart go cold.
Standing on a crumbling lip of the roof across the way was the goblin chief, watching us. As I stared, he turned away, disappearing into the smoke and dust clouds curling up from the collapsing building.
[How? How is he still alive?] Prometheus squeaked.
[I don’t know, but he’s undefended now. We’ll just have to go back up there and—] I paused, eyeing the ruined building warily. At this point, it posed more of a threat than the goblins did. [—and finish this. C’mon.]