A whole new world of possibility before me, I had stumbled over some of the smaller blocks on the way. With aching hands I had tried to hold on to the things of my past, stuck in my old ways and unable to grow. Once I had been forced to adapt, I was in then freefall through almost infinite possibility. Getting to that point without all the blood and heartache would have been nicer, but wishes seldom came true.
Although I now had the Power Token burning a hole in my pocket, I was cautious to spend it so soon without knowing how rare they truly were. At worst, I would wait for my looming level four abilities to have the full picture of what I had available before we started preparing for what lay ahead.
I stopped to let the elf go beneath some overhanging branches before I did. “I suppose most people are rather tight-lipped about their Class and abilities?”
“Most,” she said as she nodded briefly, before going ahead. “It’s not like they can be stolen, but sometimes the threat of the unknown is enough to keep people wary of you.”
“Sometimes,” I agreed, following her through the foliage.
“If one of the thugs had escaped, they would be able to report back that you can summon demons and throw cards. They could prepare for that.” She stood in the small clearing beyond the trees and crossed her arms.
“I can also turn a corpse into a demon, too.” I grinned, my stomach sinking at how terrible that sounded.
She tilted her head. “Is this new demon also a dog?”
The skill description hadn’t really mentioned, so I shrugged a response, not ready to commit either way.
“There are a few other quests you usually do first, but we can skip ahead to this next one. It’s quicker to get your next level up and you only miss out on some junk items.” She gestured her head to the side, and we continued walking.
“So you can’t get to level Five without being teleported?”
She scowled back at me as we resumed traveling between thick trees. “No idea, exactly. But I don’t want to risk it.”
“Didn’t your friend, the fighter-“
“I pushed her away before she left.”
We carried on in silence. Once again, unfair for me to fill in the blanks, but I could imagine a conflict where one wanted to stay and one wanted to leave. I didn’t want to pry, mostly because conflict and I were often at odds. She would elaborate if and when ready.
After a few more minutes through the woods, a Quest popped up on the side of my vision.
“Kill thirty goblins, really?” My shoulders already felt tense at the mere mention of the mass murder.
“It will go by quick. They aren’t as sturdy as the bandits, but there are a lot more of them. It’s a repeatable Quest.”
“Repeatable,” I repeated, mostly due to not being able to help myself. “That means I’ll be killing more than thirty.”
She nodded slowly. “I’m glad you catch on quick. They’re just over this ridge.”
I could see now that the treeline about forty feet off petered out, and the horizon was almost visible. Straining my senses, there was the slight sound of something, and the smell was different. Less clear vegetation and more… burning wood and leather. Perhaps that was placebo and my brain was filling in the details it wanted.
Walking ahead, I tried stretching out my fingers to limber them up. Maybe I could go back and have another bath after this - that almost made the ordeal seem worth it. Reaching the edge of the trees, I kneeled down and moved to peer closer to the edge, rising up slowly from a bush.
Below me was a small valley teeming with little green bodies milling around. Stout shacks of rough wood and leather roof coverings dotted the edges of the valley walls, while a well-worn dirt path stretched from one end to the other. The goblins themselves were short - maybe three to four feet tall, by my estimation. Pointed ears and noses, grim mouths full of sharp teeth. Either equipped with some manner of tools, or at least having a weapon stowed on their sides or backs. Their sharp features gave them a malevolent look, not helped much by their bright yellow eyes and constant scowls.
“I take it you’ll just be watching from a distance as usual?” I murmured as I focused on the little greenskins.
At the back of my neck, I felt the pointed tip of something metallic press against me.
“What would you do in this situation?” She asked in a level tone.
An arrow to the back of my head, point blank. I could now hear the slight flex of the bowstring and arms. I worked my jaw. Although at this distance it wouldn't have the full force of a fired arrow, I still wouldn't want to see what the actual effect would be on my head-holder. A confident smile sparked at the corner of my mouth.
“There’s already a card behind you, and an Imp to your right holding a fireball.”
“Hmm? No, there’s-“
The card spun around back into my hand, and the arrowhead bounced down my back to the ground. “You’re right, I lied. I just needed a moment to actually cast the card without you spotting it.”
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She relaxed the bow and crouched beside me to look down to the village. “Acceptable, but you can’t always rely on tricks.”
I smiled, knowing that was my whole thing. “What would you have had me do?”
The elf shrugged. “Wasn’t my place to imagine a win condition.”
Exhaling through my nose, I furrowed my brow at the goblins. She could probably tell I wasn’t much of a fighter in my previous life, and was massaging my brain into thinking like someone whose life was on the line. Shouldn’t be too difficult to pretend to be competent, although I had been pretty close to shaving off the back of my head or some of her fingers if I had rushed the card any further. Despite the test, I trusted her - just as she must have trusted me to actually have a way out of that situation without hurting either of us.
Looking at the slope before me, it seemed to be the best spot in the area to really breach into the goblin throng successfully without drawing too much attention. I stood and readied myself to go in hot - a group of three goblins sat at a table right at my proposed landing spot.
“Hey, Max?”
I raised my eyebrow and looked down at the scowling elf.
“Don’t die, okay? I’ve invested too much time into you already.”
A smile crossed my face. “I can only promise to put on a good show.” As I went to give her a bow, my footing slipped, and I began to slide down the loose gravel towards the goblins. Something that would have been much more amusing had I not been living it, and if I could stand any slapstick in my acts.
My card went out into the air, striking the first goblin in the neck as I hit the dirt. I rolled forward to absorb the impact and brought my dagger out, stabbing it into the head of the closest one as the magic card zipped into the neck of the third and dissipated. That may have just saved my reputation.
I drew the dark card of
Immediately, purple mist began to swirl around the body, and it slowly clambered back to its feet. The yellow eyes then popped fully out of their head onto the ground, to be replaced by burning circles of bright purple light. From the top of the goblin’s skull, two long ears of purple energy burst upwards, shattering through the skull.
“Oh fuck! I exist. Who am I?” The demon’s voice was tinny and harsh and he clutched at the face of his new temporary abode.
The inhabited corpse turned to me with a look both bordering on confused elation, but to me was just abject horror to see the puppet body look so grim.
“Uh, you are Roger. It’s time to kill goblins.” Bringing up names on the spot wasn’t one of the tricks I held up my sleeves, but something about that seemed to fit. “I am Max.”
“Okay, sure.” Roger shrugged, and he picked up a discarded sword from the ground. “Straight to the action. I like that, boss.”
I hadn’t imagined I’d need to make rapport with a demon so soon in my journey, and probably shouldn’t have been surprised that he would be so intent on violence from the get-go. From the deck, I threw out an Imp and readied a card toward the next group of four goblins.
The purple card sliced off the arm of the first before embedding into the chest of the second. Roger was already halfway over to them, running awkwardly as if he didn’t quite know how the body should function, with sword raised.
With a flash of amber, the Imp’s fireball shot across the two dozen feet to explode against two of the group just before my pact demon arrived. He waved the loosely held sword around wildly, doing a decent amount of damage while receiving a few choice stabs in return. This didn’t seem to bother him at all, however.
I spun the next card around him, slashing at the backs and hands holding raised weapons before twisting through one of their necks. Roger cracked the skull of one of the pained monsters and did a little dance of joy, his left arm being lopped off in the process.
There was a mania to it that I struggled to parse. My brain couldn’t work its way around the macabre cartoon character having a blast using a corpse as a living host to enact further violence. Even standing here, severing goblins to pieces myself, there was a slight dissociation that made me feel like a spectator.
Already the next fireball was on the way to a second group of goblins as my card finished off the last of the first. Although I hadn’t directed him overtly to pull more enemies, there was an unspoken acceptance that we were capable. Perhaps he could read my intent the same as the lesser demons. I gave the Imp a nod, which his little round head returned. My card twisted and cut into the leg of the closest goblin, hobbling him to a knee so that Roger could run in and club him around the head.
“This is fun as fuck!” Roger yelled out, now starting to use the sword to attempt to block attacks.
From way in the back, I felt like a conductor. Moving my hands around and directing a card at a time so as to not force my mana reserves too hard. I tried to imagine music to dull out the sounds of violence. The Imp tugged at my slacks and I looked down to see him wave goodbye. So soon? He had done well, and I gave him a brief bow. Without realizing it, we had gotten through another two groups while my mind had been trying to block out the process.
I paused as my card finished off the last goblin in the group. Let myself breathe so that I could summon another Imp. My pact demon paused and rested his good hand on his knees, as if out of breath.
“You okay, Roger?”
“Yeah, boss. Having the time of my fucking life over here.” He stood up straight and worked the goblin body into grinning. I hated it.
We were now in the middle of the village and had cleared maybe a fifth of it. As I held the Imp card ready, I checked the quest progress.
[Goblins killed 23/30]
“How long are you with me, Roger?” With only two packs until completion, we could either push ahead to get it done, or take a break if I needed to bring him back.
He tilted his head from side to side, his purple ears of energy flopping back and forth. “Time’s almost up - but I can jump into one of these other bodies if you want me to stick about?”
“I’d love that,” I smiled and nodded, despite thinking the opposite. I’m sure I would see worse in my time in this world, but today had been filled with death and the taste of it was numbing my senses.
I watched as the mist pooled away from the body; the ears dissipating and eyes fading as if blown away in the breeze. The empty corpse dropped to the ground and a different goblin rose, his eyes bursting out as his skull cracked open to allow the ears.
“Either these guys are short as fuck, or you’re a fucking giant, boss!” Roger stumbled his puppet body over to me and looked up, hands on his hips.
“It’s the former,” I managed to grin. “Try a different weapon. You need to get used to a variety if you’ll be borrowing all the time.”
He nodded way too violently and hopped over to the last pack we had killed, this time bringing an axe into his hands. “Let’s go, boss. Chop, chop!” He mimed waving the weapon in the air.
I wondered if the System had a way to check my sanity. Doubtful. As Ren had become my mentor, I too had to teach my fledgling demon to become more effective.
Another Imp was summoned from a magic circle, the pudgy demon giving Roger a quizzical look before offering me a slight bow.
After returning the gesture, I brought up a card, spinning it over my hand. It turned out that killing was relatively straight-forward, even easy. The smile faded from my face, as I could almost feel Ren’s glare burning into the back of my head.
The part that was actually difficult was remembering to loot everything.