I sit down and watch as goblins butcher another hedgehog. We have been killing them for two weeks straight. We killed all of them near our new village. Now, we will need to send hunting parties for day-long hunts. Maybe longer. Soon, we will have to hunt outside hedgehog territory. This is both good and bad. Wolves will probably come here. They don’t have shields, so hunting hedgehogs is too deadly for them, but now they may come over. On the other hand, there will probably be more meat elsewhere.
More monsters are going to hibernate in the winter. It’s possible ants will sleep through the winter, too. I’m not sure about other monsters. Most of the leaves have already fallen off the trees. It’s becoming cooler. We may need to at least take a peak at the 2nd tier region. I shake my head. Time to pick my perks.
You have killed 86 1st tier monsters. You have earned 6450 Experience Points.
You have killed 12 2nd tier monsters. You have earned 9600 Experience Points.
You have killed 1 3rd tier monster. You have earned 7500 Experience Points.
Your Plotting skill has advanced to level 21!
Your Leadership skill has advanced to level 22!
Your Vitality Clot skill has advanced to level 21!
Your Vitality Buff skill has advanced to level 22!
Your Dodging skill has advanced to level 16!
Your Sneaking skill has advanced to level 28!
Your Spear Fighting skill has advanced to level 26!
Your Vitality Mana Control skill has advanced to level 28!
Your Soul Perception skill has advanced to level 23!
I have two perks to pick. One for both Plotting and Vitality Clot.
Acting II
Learn how to lie even better and make you lie more believable.
Relationships Analyzer I
Learn how to figure out a relationship between two people.
Greed
Invoke a mild feeling of greed in your target.
Greed is related to mind manipulation. Again. Anastasia learned some skills like that, and I’m pretty sure their effectiveness is based on the difference in Will between attacker and defender, but not only. In effect, such skills only work on emotion, so you can usually dismiss such feelings and work only on logic, though that’s rather hard to impossible for most. I don’t like such skills, though I would love to get some defensive skills against them. I need to ask Anastasia to use them on me while she is still on my side. Hopefully.
I take a look at the previous threshold perks.
Recognize Emotions
Learn how to better recognize emotions on the faces of your race.
Expression Master
Learn how to control your face to project your emotions.
Not very useful. I pick Relationships Analyzer. I don’t have a problem lying to goblins. Vitality Clot perks:
Sails II
Learn how to make your clot travel in the target’s vitality even faster.
Bigger Clot
Learn how to make your clot bigger.
I take a look at previous perks as well.
Stealth
Make your clot look more like part of the target’s vitality.
Delayed Activation
Harden your clot at will, after it finds itself at a vital point.
I pick Bigger Clot. I should help against bigger monsters, and given I may need to hunt in a 2nd tier zone, I will need it.
“How about you?” I ask Axi.
“I reached the max level, but the best option is only Very Rare. I’m yet to cap my skill levels, though. And I feel I’m getting better with fire magic, so I will wait for now.”
I nod. “That’s probably for the best, though we may need your strength if we are to push into the 2nd tier zone.”
“Can’t we continue like this for now?”
“I don’t know. That’s the problem. If there are monsters around, then we will. Otherwise, we can only try to hunt farther, eat humans, or make peace with the fact that our tribe will barely survive the winter.”
“We gathered a lot of food.”
“But we will need to give some of it to humans. Unless you can talk Anastasia out of it.”
She grunts.
So I thought.
[Adam's POV]
“Steady… Now!” Frank shoots an arrow, and it hits. The rabbit is dead. Good. Two weeks is a short time, but we have started to bring our own food. Too little to feed ourselves on our own, but it’s a start. We also got some levels and stats from it. Things are looking a little brighter.
We pick up the rabbit and continue. We spot a sleeping hedgehog not long after. This time, I march forward holding a spear and a shield. Frank hits the monster with an arrow, and I jump forward, stabbing it. The monster shoots spines, most of them not even in my direction, but one of them goes into my shield. I stab it again, and the monster dies.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
You have killed 1 1st tier monster. You have earned 70 Experience Points.
Your Spear Fighting skill has advanced to level 23!
Your Spear Fighter class has advanced to level 23!
More stats.
“Good work, Adam.” It’s not Anastasia congratulating me. It’s my friend. We take the hedgehog back to the camp. Not all of us become hunters, so there is no point in doing everything ourselves. People in the camp will butcher our prey.
We walk in, and I stop Nicole and Samantha. They are going into labor today. I grit my teeth. We'll have to feed goblins at least once. Probably. I exhale. This is not the main problem. We got food from goblins, so giving it back is not that great of a problem. The problem is that I doubt they will stop at Nicole and Samantha. Annie and Maia come over, and I hug them. I will not give you to goblins. No matter what. I don’t know why they didn’t kill men, but I’m not going to drop my suspicions just because of that.
“We had a good hunt today! Enough to not borrow from goblins!” Tom shouts. People cheer. It’s true, but only because we were lucky today. I come closer to Tom.
“Can we talk?” I ask. “In private.”
“Okay.” He replies with hesitation.
I lead him to the outskirts of our camp. “Do you think our situation will last?”
He frowns. “I thought the very point was that it shouldn’t. You know, we need to figure out how to take care of ourselves.”
“I was speaking about goblins.” I take a pause. “I think they will want more women.”
“I don’t know. But it’s not like we can do anything about it.”
“We can," I reply. “Currently, Anastasia practically rules us. We need our own leadership.”
“Like who?”
“Like the best fighter around.”
He scowls. “You may be the best right now, but not by a large margin.”
“Sure,” I admit. It’s not my plan to argue. “The point is to pick a leader. Who do you think has a better chance of being accepted? Nicole?” I ask with derision.
He thinks about it and answers after a while. “Why would you even do?”
Now, it’s me who takes time to answer. Should I tell him? I probably need to. Tom is popular and has a way with people. Securing his support will make it easy to become a leader. “My plan is to send a message to Roheb. They don’t care about us, but they should care about a goblin horde. A horde with access to multiple women.” I whisper.
“And then?”
“We can’t do that right away, but if I’m right, they will demand more women. We will send a message then. I’m not a good scout, so I need authority to order someone else to do the task. Hopefully, we will be strong enough to hunt on our own by then. If not, we can eat goblins.”
Tom sighs. “Fine. I will support you.”
I smile. I know he has two sisters with him. Maybe a girl he fancies as well. Probably. He is popular. He has as much reason to oppose goblins as I do.“You should start it. Speak of a need to pick a leader and propose me.”
He sighs. “Fine.”
In the evening, I take over as the official leader of our community. I’m not going to wait for goblins, though. The governor is unlikely to respond immediately, anyway. I walk to the witch. She is lying in her shack.
“Lady Anastasia?” I push back my innate distaste for looking at her.
“Yes?” She raises her head.
“I think we should send a small team to trade with Roheb. They may become suspicious if we suddenly try to trade a lot of high-value goods. So I thought we should send a small team now so we can establish that we are fine and we are going to trade more in the future.
“Okay… But I don’t think I can go with you."
“Actually, I think I should stay as well. A scout and a few porters should be enough.”
“I suppose this is fine,” she yawns. “Most monsters around there are weak or have gone to sleep. They should be fine.”
“Very well.” I bow a bit and walk away. That should take care of suspicions, both the witch’s and Tom’s.
“Frank, I have a task for you.”
“Ehh? Are you already using your new position?” He jokes.
“Listen, this is a serious matter. I need you to go to Roheb.”
“Why?”
“Officially, to trade. We have a few things. Pick two others, but not hunters with you. Unofficially,“ I lower my voice, “I need you to tell Roheb’s governor about our situation. They don’t care about us, but he can’t leave goblins alone.”
“Do you think it’s a good idea?”
“I wouldn’t ask you otherwise.”
“Fine.”
The next day, a hobgoblin comes around, fucks both Nicole and Samantha, and then leaves with goblin children. Frank leaves for Roheb as well.
[POV of Ferdinard, former master of the Adventurer’s Guild of Fikeral]
I sigh again. I look down at my empty mug. I shouldn’t drink.
“Pour to the full.” I tell the tavern maid. I sigh. The Guild route is now closed to me. Earning achievements could mean a promotion and, with it, access to training manuals.
Blazing Spear Style (Rare): 43
There are seven more levels. Can I relevel again? I would get one, maybe two more levels from perk knowledge. Magic skills? I was never a great mage. I only have access to fire and air mana types. They give rare skills, but it’s not like pure effort will lead to level 50. Sure, you need to train, and you need to spend a lot of time on it, but you also need knowledge. I need a manual. It doesn’t even matter what kind. Any rare skill will suffice. I still have at least five years. Maybe ten. I look at the title.
Old Age (-32% All Stats)
It gets worse. I need to tier up, but I don’t know how. Guild is out. Money? Catching witch would give me quite a bit, but it’s not like buying manuals is so easy. My best bet is getting the attention of nobles, but how do I get a manual from them?
I sigh. I tried to follow the witch, but it’s stupid. Now, I sit in this Roheb town and drink. The surrounding forest is filled with hard-to-deal hedgehogs, making the town unpopular. Only local dungeon somehow helps, but drops are of poor quality, and even the dungeon core is just some old rusted sword. I sit in the middle of nowhere.
“Give me a mug of bear.” Someone sat near me. “By the way, do you know how someone can contact the governor?”
“If you wait long enough, you will be able to find him walking the streets. If you have important matters, just go to the keep. Otherwise, you will need to spend some coin.” Barterer replies.
I take a look. The guy looks like a fresh, poor adventurer. “What’s the matter? Maybe it would be better to go to the Guild.” I give half-hearted advice. Lad has probably been spooked by something.
“I don’t think so.” He says it with hesitation.
“Unless it's a private matter, just tell me. I may be able to help you. I'm a platinum adventurer.”
“That’s… fine.” He leans over and speaks quietly. “I’m a part of a group of refugees. We thought we would be able to survive in the forest hunting, so we went there.”
“Poor you.” I sigh. “Condolences.”
“No, no… We are fine. Mostly. Someone helped us. A witch.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“She led a tribe of goblins. The problem is, she demanded a few girls as a payment. You know…“ He deflates. “We can’t do anything about that, but this means there are going to be a lot of goblins in the forest.”
"This is indeed problematic.” I reply. This may be my chance. "The governor won’t believe you, though.”
“But…”
“Wait! I will go back with you. I’m platinum. Everyone is going to believe me, and I want to make sure you don’t tell fairy tales. Is that fine?”
“Yeah! The witch may notice you, though."
“I doubt it. I will stay some distance behind you and leave as soon as I confirm what you are saying.”
“That’s fine. I came with two others. Officially, we are here to trade. We can leave at any time, though. Just let me finish my bear." He starts to drink quickly.
“No need to hurry.” I reply with a smile.
I walk with the boy. He came with another boy and a girl, though it’s obvious that only he has fighting skills. The local forest is calm. Hedgehogs are hibernating. I trail after them until I spot the place. I climb a tree and observe. My Hiding skill is not that high, but unless someone is actively looking for me, I should be fine. After a few minutes, I notice the witch. She looks just like people have described her in Fikeral. My new friend speaks with her, probably giving her a report. After that, he goes to another boy, who walks in my direction. Fool. He should have waited at least an hour. I sigh. Whatever. This shouldn't disturb my new plans.
I climb back and meet back with him. “Hello.”
“Are you the adventurer Frank spoke about?”
“Yes. I confirmed the woman back in your camp is a wanted witch. Are you the leader of this group?”
“Yes. I’m Adam. Will you bring adventurers? Soon, there may be enough goblins to threaten the town.”
“Indeed. I will tell that to the governor and the local guildmaster, but don’t expect a swift response.”
“What? Why?”
“Winter is coming. An army walks slower than a small team. It will also be harder to march in the snow. And there is also a problem with supplies. Also, I didn’t notice any goblins. We should assume that goblin numbers are already high. This means more adventurers and soldiers will be needed for subjugation. All in all, you will need to wait at least until the spring.”
“That’s… “
I shake my head. “It’s just the reality of war. Actually, it’s possible the governor will decide otherwise, but don’t count on it. We should meet again, let’s say in two weeks. I will give you an answer. For now, your best bet is to placate the witch and play being obedient.”
“Damn it.”
“I know. It sucks. Don’t send people to trade too often. That’s going to give you out.” We decide on a spot for a meeting, and I start to walk back to Roheb. So far, so good. From a guildmaster's perspective, it’s best to attack right away, but I’m no longer a guildmaster. The boy doesn’t know anything about armies, so he bought my lies. This camp is near enough to attack without much preparation, but that outcome won’t help me.
Before the spring, goblins should get rid of the boy and enslave the rest of the women, and then they will attack Roheb. The town is too poorly defended to withstand a big horde, so it will fall, which will only strengthen the horde. This will endanger nobles’ domains. And this will be my chance. I know a lot about those goblins and the witch. I will learn even more by using Adam to feed me information. Either I will get a manual for my contribution or I will get a chance to steal one in the chaos. I smile. I still have a chance.
The only problem is that they know me now. I considered killing that Frank, but Adam would probably send even more messengers because of that. Giving them hope should keep them here. I just need to make sure none of them survive.