“Arti, you may leave,” Sameno continued. Arti threw a glance up at Eli, then quickly scurried out of the room, happy to be out of there, judging by the obvious relief on his face.

“So, judging by how our last few bouts have transpired, I suspect you are here for...?” the goblin trailed off. “Not surrendering, I take it?”

“Well, no, but I’ve come here to end the fighting.”

“End the fighting?” one of the younger goblins scoffed. “You started the fighting, and now you want to end it?”

He turned to the others. “They must be on the verge of losing.”

“We didn’t start this," Eli said. "You attacked us out of the blue, just like Solomon told me you would.”

“Solomon? When did you speak with my brother?” the first goblin asked, shocked. His years looked to have caught up to him all at once, and his previously straight back bent as he placed his little elbows on the stone table.

“Your brother?” Eli replied, surprised. “When we first arrived in this place a few days ago. He said you didn’t like us being here and that you would attack us on sight.”

“We attacked that eyesore of a building in retaliation for you slaying a group of innocent younglings who were out learning to scout. You even stole everything they carried, including their clothing,” one of the older female goblins said. Eli inspected her.

Rasmunda. Goblin. Level 8.

“My group has done no such thing. Most of us are too afraid to even leave the building, much less attack anyone. When was this?”

“Three days ago," Rasmunda replied.

“We'd just arrived at that point. None of the humans in my group would do such a thing,” Eli insisted, wondering if Janus and the rest of IT were responsible for all this pain and suffering on both sides.

"Solomon left us before the younglings were killed,” a soft-spoken older goblin said. “He couldn’t have known about our loss. Why would he tell the humans we were coming?”

Leil. Goblin. Level 18.

“He said he and a group of other goblins had left this place to strike out on their own because they didn’t like your barbaric attitudes,” Eli explained.

A tall, skinny female goblin rushed into the room, took one look at Eli, paled, and hurried over to one of the female council members who had yet to speak, whispering into her ear. Everyone turned their attention to the one who had received the news.

Umunda. Goblin. Level 21.

“You are able to work magic?” Umunda, the old female goblin, asked, looking right at Eli.

“I'm a Priest of the Dying Light,” Eli replied. “I’m not religious, but I can heal.”

The mention of the Dying Light made them all look at one another in a way Eli couldn’t quite interpret.

“It’s true,” the young female goblin whispered. “A bunch of us saw it. The human healed every goblin in the entire hospital. We couldn't believe our eyes!”

Umunda nodded. “I think we can afford him some measure of trust."

“Maybe it’s a ploy,” the young goblin with a red-colored mohawk said, a suspicious look on his face. "Haven't ever heard of a mage who can heal."

Halifax. Goblin. Level 7.

“Look,” Eli said, “we don’t want to fight you. I’d be happy to be friends with you guys. All right? Most of us are still powerless. We just want to grow food and try to find a way back home.”

“Where is home?” one of the older goblins asked. "Are all of you healers?"

Peter. Goblin. Level 29.

“Earth,” Eli replied, ignoring the second question.

“Never heard of it.”

“We were sent to Aryxia through a portal."

The oldest, most decrepit-looking goblin spoke next, her voice a rasp. “Where did you learn that name? This world hasn’t been called that in thousands of years. Most goblins—or humans—wouldn’t even know that name today. It fell away, even before the Dying Light winked out of existence.”

Eli shrugged, unsure how much of the pop-ups and classes he should reveal. “The name was in here,” he said, pointing to his head, “when we arrived.”

“So, you don’t know where you are,” the goblin muttered.

“You haven’t met any other humans—not even in the small villages?” Sameno, Solomon's brother, asked.

“None,” Eli confirmed. “The farthest from our building we’ve been is to the graveyard.”

Two of the goblin council members leaned forward. Neither of them had spoken before—a male and a female goblin.

“How did you bring the graveyard?” the female asked. Her hair was unusually long, from what he'd seen, and colored a bright blonde. “It appeared out of nowhere when you did, as well as the cavern by the edge of the forest northwest of you.”

Kalina. Goblin. Level 14.

“We didn't bring that,” Eli said. “It’s not from our world. It’s a church of the Dying Light."

The goblins looked at each other but said nothing further.

“Many humans have died,” Eli began, “and even more goblins during your attacks on the building. We don’t want to fight. And from the time it took to ride here in that cart, you are quite far away from us. Can’t you just move back? We’ll keep to ourselves and not bother you.”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"My brother told you we were your enemies, and he has been missing," Sameno began. "I think we need a stern conversation with him. Meanwhile, we’ll withdraw from the building.”

“Thank you."

"We have tried to find Solomon and have not been successful. We would be most grateful if you could find him and bring him here so that we may settle this matter once and for all. If he is the responsible party, we must make sure he pays for his crimes."

A new quest popped up: Find Solomon the goblin and deal with him.

Eli wasn't sure what to think. Solomon had been grumpy, sure, but not a bad person, he didn't think, and Eli was usually a pretty good judge of character. Things did, however, seem to point to him being the one behind all this, pulling the strings.

"I'll do it," Eli said. "When can you send word to your troops to withdraw?"

"That's already done. They are no longer near your stone tower."

"That was quick."

"Goblins are quick and smart," Artie piped up from around the corner.

Sameno sighed. "Please return here once you have him. Artie will return you to your kind."

Eli shook his head. "I'm able to teleport to your hospital. No need to go back in your carts."

They all stared at him.

"What?"

"You know traveling?" Umunda asked.

He nodded. "Look, I have to go. There's this pressing issue with the church too. I really shouldn't have taken so much time here, but I'll find Solomon and make sure you can talk to him. See you in a bit!"

With that, he warped back to the bottom floor of Infinite Innovation Solutions. The goblins were all gone and people were rummaging through the corpses, trying to find loot. Upon his return, he sent a message to Samantha.

Eli: Hey. Ready to go?

Samantha: You survived the goblins?

Eli: Disappointed?

Samantha: Maybe. I'll be down soon.

Eli: Scholar of the Dying Light give you the Warp spell?

Samantha: No.

A single word, but he felt like he could read her frustration through the interface imprinted on his brain.

"Eli, you're back!"

Amy's face didn't look quite as pale as before, despite her obviously seeing through the eyes of her pigeon where it sat on her shoulder.

"Starting to get used to it?" he asked, nodding to the pigeon.

"Somewhat. It's easier when their eyes are level with mine, but I managed to look in while Birdie was flying for a little while without hurling, so that's nice."

"Speaking of hurling," Eli said, "I have a skill to create food, so let me know if you ever run out, okay?"

"Great," she replied. "Hey, Princess leveled up earlier, and she has some pretty nice skills. I selected some things to make her an even better tank, so in the next fight she won't be defeated so easily."

Eli laughed. "I wouldn't say she was defeated easily. The corrupted priest was higher leveled than us and Princess stood up to him a lot longer than I would've managed. She did fine."

"So what now?" Zack asked. "It's late. Can we finally go to sleep?"

Eli looked around, not seeing him. "Are you just going to stay in stealth all the time now?"

"Maybe," Zack said. This time, Eli heard the answer come from over one of the couches.

"Why not?" Irene answered instantly. She was obviously sitting right next to him. "It's nice not always having people's eyes on you."

"Yeah," Zack said. "There are too many people here."

Eli sent a party-wide message.

Eli: Still no sign of HR or management?

Dana: Nope.

James: Your boss is still here, Eli. Guy Thomas, that's your guy, right?

Amy: The Dragon!

Eli: So, he didn't go with the others?

Dana: Guess not.

James: Last I saw, he was stewing in his office, not looking very pleased with HR's departure.

Eli: Do we know if HR is coming back?

Cruella: If anyone knows, it'll be him.

Amy: They found Mr. Harn in his office, frozen to death.

Eli: Barbara?

Dana: Who else?

Eli: Samantha, I'll just go have a quick talk with Mr. Thomas, then we can go.

Samantha: Fine. Whatever.

People were coming downstairs now, gathering around Eli and the others, asking about the goblins. They looked scared. Eli raised his hands. "The goblins thought we were responsible for some of their deaths. I have made sure they understand that we did nothing to them before they attacked us. They won't return, so you don't have to worry."

People nodded, and he saw some of the tension leaving their shoulders. Some of them hugged each other, but then they just shuffled back into the building. It was late, and people needed their sleep, but soon they would have to start leaving this building and contributing, or their new existence would crumble all around them.

Eli felt the weariness in his own bones. But he couldn't sleep, not just yet. And honestly, he didn't feel like he needed to. Not really. Neither sleep nor hunger bothered him much since coming to this world, and even less so since he'd started leveling up. Was this related to his improved stats, or something else? Either way, he could go a few more hours without sleep. If that voice, Light, was telling the truth, there were people in need of rescue back in the church.

Eli turned to Amy, then sighed and turned back to the couch. "Can you please show yourself so I can talk to you?"

"Fine," Zack grumbled, dropping stealth and appearing beside them.

Irene stayed hidden.

"Look, we have to find Solomon."

"That goblin you met," Zack asked.

"Yeah, I think he's the one who put this all in motion. For some reason, he tried pitting us against the goblin council."

"The goblins don't have a king?" Amy asked.

"No. Strange, right? A council, and the whole freaking city, with a railway system running on mana and everything. It's really weird."

Amy furrowed her brows. "Hey, I just got a quest that says to find Solomon."

Zack scratched his short beard. "Mine says to kill him,"

"Mine just says to deal with him," Eli said. "Please don't kill him before we get him to the goblins."

"I'll do my best," Zack promised, not sounding very confident.

"Anyway," Eli said, "Amy, maybe you could take your bird out looking across the forest?"

She yawned. "Tomorrow. My Birdie doesn't see very well in the dark."

"Tomorrow then," Eli agreed. "I'm heading out to the church with Samantha. I'll let you know how it goes."

"What do you want me to do?" Zack asked, handing over a bunch of potions that Eli popped into his inventory. They were mostly mana potions, but there were some explosive ones, and fire potions as well. Also, a nice new addition:

Potion of Experience. +10% experience gained for 10 minutes.

"Hey, you made it better," Eli remarked.

"Sure did," Zack replied. "Mostly leveling up my poison potions, but I can't just stop learning the other stuff, I figure."

Eli nodded in agreement, glancing toward the stairs. "Did we lose any people in the attack?"

"A few down here before we arrived, then three more on the stairs," Zack said. "They were all level one."

"We need to get them to start leveling up," Eli said. "The goblins said there's another dungeon near the edge of the forest, to the northeast. We should check that out too, see if we can't start bringing people in to get their feet wet."

"We can't force people to go out and fight monsters," Zack replied.

"They have to do something," Eli said. "If not fighting, then they'll have to get to level 10 and pick up some crafter class."

Amy chuckled, and they both looked at her.

"Sorry," she said. "I just spoke to Charlotte earlier. She selected her multi-class option."

"What did she pick?" Eli asked.

"She picked crafter. Now she's a farmer, and she's actually working with Stu."

"Well, that's good then," Eli said. "She doesn't want to fight, so she can get stronger that way."

"Yeah," Amy said. "I just can't stop imagining her huge, muscular frame planting potatoes."

All three got a good laugh out of that. Still, it was a good choice for Charlotte. If she couldn't get over her fear of pain, Eli couldn't blame her. So far, that arrow from the skeleton was the only injury he’d received. Now, with Aegis, hopefully it would be the last. He knew, of course, that it wouldn't be his last.

"Well. Talk to you tomorrow," Eli said, casting Warp to end up on the 13th floor.