CHAPTER 5: GOBLINS CAN FIGHT BACK

As she started Enchanting her second piece of glass, Jenna quickly realized where the unevenness in her etching had come from. In short, she had put no effort into ensuring that the etching rod was pressing down with the same amount of pressure throughout the length of the cut. This time through, she focused her energy on pressing into the glass with a consistent pressure during the entire carving.

When she’d finished, the glass looked more or less the same as the first one had. A part of her wished that she’d kept the first to compare against, because her memory wasn’t perfect. Maybe some of the lines were slightly better than they had been. It was possible that it was even worse, but Jenna doubted it.

Analyzing.

First Tier Hardened Glass. Rank: F+ Value: 1 point Would you like to sell your Hardened Glass?

“Not right now,” Jenna said. She still had a little bit of Magic left inside of her, so she decided to at least start Enchanting a third piece of glass, if only because emptying her pool was supposed to be the best way to make it grow deeper.

She carved the spiral and lifted the etching rod. Just as she finished the spiral, she felt the last wisps of Magic inside of her drain out. She caught herself before collapsing this time, though it was still not a pleasant experience.

Congratulations! You have emptied your Magic Pool! Suggestion: use the extra time for Combat Training. Accept suggestion?

Jenna let out a groan. She knew that combat training was essential, and intellectually she knew that, especially at Higher Tiers, she was most likely to need to fight with her hands when she had run out of Magic. Still, the idea of moving right now felt wrong on some fundamental level.

She stood with a groan, forcing herself to move towards the training room. When she entered, the door shut behind her. It had the day before, she assumed, but she hadn’t noticed. She had been too preoccupied with the fear of what could come next.

Gripping her mace, Jenna prepared for the Pyramid’s message.

Beginning First Round of Combat.

Just like the day before, a single goblin appeared on the opposite side of the room. Jenna charged forward, repressing a sudden urge to let out a call. The goblin clearly didn’t know that kind of self restraint, because it howled as it charged.

Even before engaging the goblin in combat, Jenna knew that this was not the same goblin as the day before. It moved much more smoothly, and it had a basic idea of how to avoid blows. Jenna even felt the sharpened stick slide past her as she barely avoided one of its counter strikes.

Still, Jenna had a reach advantage over the goblin, to say nothing of the strength and speed. She quickly broke its staff. Then she broke its arm. As the goblin bent slightly over from pain, she broke its skull.

Jenna was breathing quickly when the goblin dissolved.

Congratulations! You have completed the First Round of Combat. Generating report.

It was more or less what she had expected to see. Jenna knew that he had made a mistake in being too aggressive. It had worked fine yesterday, but the goblins today were far better at fighting.

Beginning Second Round of Combat

This time another lone goblin appeared. Looking at it, Jenna immediately saw the differences between this monster and the ones she had fought yesterday. It had actual muscle mass, and it held itself with far better balance. Thankfully, it was still only equipped with a single stick.

Jenna went to meet it as it began its charge. This time, she moved far more carefully. When the goblin slashed down with its stick, she stepped back.

After it had committed to its swing, she struck at the stick, hoping that she would be able to break the stick early. It was one of the suggestions that the Pyramid had given her. To her slight surprise, the strategy worked. The goblin’s stick snapped where she struck at it.

She took a leap back, considering what to do now. She had already known that this goblin was smarter than the one she had killed the day before. The fact that it changed its grip, clearly treating the newly shortened stick as dagger or some equivalent was just confirmation of that.

Still, she was taller than the goblin, so its lack of reach was even more of an impediment. She wanted to practice techniques for when there would inevitably be multiple of the goblins to fight at once, so when it struck forward with a lunge, she brought her mace down on its outstretched arm.

It didn’t have time to recover before she swiped at its neck. The points on the mace were sharp enough that she didn’t need to use it solely for brute damage. She tore out the goblin’s throat and watched it dissolve.

Congratulations! You have completed the Second Round of Combat. Generating report.

Once more, Jenna saw the replay of her fight. It shocked her how smoothly she moved. There was no hesitation in her actions as she brutally struck down the goblin.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“I don’t like how quickly I learned to not care about this,” she said aloud. The Pyramid didn’t reply.

Beginning Third Round of Combat.

At least the last fight had given her a chance to catch her breath. Looking at the two goblins in front of her, she knew she would need it.

The two lunged forward. Unlike yesterday’s pair, these two moved to flank her. That strategy surprised her for a moment, and the monsters finally got their first strike on her.

Thankfully, they had chosen to swing their sticks rather than stab out with them, so she just felt the dull force of a rod of wood slamming into her ribs. They weren’t strong enough to damage her too badly, especially through the robe, but it was a good reminder that she wasn’t invulnerable.

She swung out with her mace, mostly hoping to push the goblins back. When the one that had slashed at her didn’t jump back fast enough, though, she was more than willing to return the blow that it had given her. Of course, a spiked mace did far more damage than a light stick, and the goblin didn’t seem like it would be a threat.

Keeping one eye on the downed goblin in case it somehow got up, she engaged the one that had missed her with its first swing. Jenna saw nothing wrong with reusing a working strategy, so she waited for the goblin to take a swing. When it did, she quickly swung down and broke the goblin’s weapon.

With one goblin downed and the the other disarmed, Jenna made quick work of the enemies.

Congratulations! You have completed the Third Round of Combat. Generating report.

She was completely unsurprised at how many suggestions the Pyramid had. They all focused on the first seconds of the fight, which made sense. After she had taken a hit, she felt like she had performed more or less perfectly. The Pyramid agreed with her, which made the sting of the suggestions for how not to get hit again sting far less.

Suggestion: revise schedule after Combat Training back to initial parameters. Accept suggestion?

That made sense to Jenna. “Suggestion accepted.” Another three minutes of combat training would be helpful. If she kept staying ahead of schedule, that would hopefully mean that she would be able to keep combat training in her schedule even as she was able to Enchant for longer.

Combat training ended and the mace dissolved out of her hand. It was beginning to grate on her that she didn’t get to keep the mace. After all, what would happen if it dissolved in the middle of a rift. Actually, was that even an option?

“Are weapons provided when delving a rift?”

Weapons must be brought in by the delver. They can be rented, purchased, or pre-made ahead of time by the delver.

“How much does it cost to rent or buy a mace?” Hopefully it wouldn’t be too expensive.

Query imprecise. Best guess query: cost for Unenchanted First Tier Mace Tier One Mace Value: 50 points Rental cost: 20 points Would you like to purchase a mace?

“No.” The comment about the mace not being Enchanted did raise an interesting idea, though. “Would it be within my skills to create an Enchanted Mace?”

At current level of skill: no Confirmed incomplete knowledge: Enchanting Assumed incomplete knowledge: Woodworking, Smithing

“I’m not really sure what I was expecting to see,” she said to herself. The price tag meant that she not only had to save the one hundred points to enter the rift, but another twenty to rent the mace. If she managed to learn Hardened Glass before the rift opened, though, it might be worth trying to learn an enchantment for wood or metal, if only so that she could enchant the mace. Then again, anything she could do at First Tier was probably not worth the expense. Actually, she could check that now.

“How much is an Enchanted First Tier Mace?”

Query imprecise. Best guess query: cost for First Tier Mace Enchanted with Durability. Accept guess?

“Would that be the Spell you recommend I learn?”

Query updated: Best guess query: cost for First Tier Mace Enchanted with Hardness. First Tier Mace (Hardness) Value: 80 points Rental cost: Unavailable at present Would you like to purchase a First Tier Mace (Hardness)?

“No.” That was a disappointment. Enchanting the mace would only be worth 30 credits. It was interesting that the Pyramid didn’t give it any grades like it had Hardened Glass, but Jenna assumed there was a reason. Maybe it would give her the grades once she knew the Spell well enough to attempt to cast it.

You are currently three minutes behind schedule. Suggestion: shift schedule back three minutes. Accept suggestion?

“Suggestion accepted.” Jenna realized that her research had taken her off schedule. It was far too early in her climb to be so easily distracted, and she focused on the geometry lesson in front of her.

The Pyramid had still kept with completely mundane geometry, which was a little annoying. She had hoped that she would start learning about the flow of Magic in a Spell, but that would apparently have to wait. Jenna started answering the questions as they presented themselves.

Jenna’s Status:

Jenna Fredrickson First Year Spells Known: Expected Years Completed: 6 Prediction Confidence: 35% Points: 69 Qualified to Ascend to Next Year? No