Chapter 20: Vigilante justice

Although his body was aching and he was gasping for air, William felt wonderful. Drawing his sword out of the corpse of the goblin, he could feel a faint smile run across his face. The extra levels had done him wonders for his physique, pushing his already 6’0’’ figure up to 6’5’’ and packing on muscles he had never had before. With messy dark brown hair he hadn’t combed in days and stubble starting to pop up around his face, he did not look like the kind of man you would want to meet in the woods.

“Let’s fall back before the military gets here, captain.” The battle had ended and Sam had come to drag him away as they were nearing the General’s territory, and did not want to start another conflict. Nothing had come to blows yet, but there was definitely some tension between the groups after the military refused to share supplies to those that did not join them, and only accepted those above level 15.

Being called captain was also new to him, as despite his rough appearance and without any official title he had nevertheless found himself as a figure of some admiration among their camp, Sam being one of those admirers.

Sam was definitely one of the more rational [Holy Champions] that Father Jackson had blessed, although their numbers were climbing daily. The priest’s ability let him bestow the class to the number of followers equal to its level, while it also gained experience based on the follower’s experience. And that lead to now 15 followers, a number that was only climbing as every one of the followers of the priest was just as fanatical as him.

An obsession William was self-aware enough to admit to.

He was the first person Father Jackson saved, but not the last, and all of them were fanatics. William could see the fire that ran through all of the people fighting alongside them, all total fanatics trying to distract themselves from different kinds of pain by spreading death. People from all walks of life, not only ex-military but even accountants like himself, an unlikely group of men and women all now dragging their weapons out of the corpses around them.

Corpses of goblins, he should add. Their bodies torn and cut apart by the weapons of the Paladins around him. The Paladins, they had taken to calling themselves, leading the church’s charge against the evil goblins that were encroaching on their land. It wasn’t a title they had given themselves, but rather it was given by the thousands of civilians that needed their help. Standing in contrast to the Silver Knights who arrived at first bearing gifts but now were only breathing down their necks.

They had all swooped in, dressed in shiny silver armour and proclaiming themselves as saviours ready to protect them from certain death. And they did help, giving out the sturdy weapons that William and the other members of the Paladins were all using now with seemingly ‘no strings attached.’

Things quickly began to change when they found the first few fruit trees. It was just in someone’s backyard, but all of a sudden their apple tree was covered in literal golden apples that gave anyone who ate them multiple levels worth of experience. Then the next persons house had the same. And the next. Then they found a stream with water that apparently had a high mana concentration. Then chunks of some kind of metal sticking out the ground in the middle of some field. Then when the dungeon appeared all hell started to break loose.

Lines were drawn, with the Silver Knights claiming huge portions of territory without the numbers needed to patrol it all. They called the planet a ‘goldmine’, either the term was fairly universal or it was being translated somehow as after thinking about this he realised he understood everyone irrespective of what language they spoke. Either way, after the Silver Knights started trying to claim all the resources the tension began to rise. It didn’t help that they weren’t from this world, apparently arriving through a portal from some unknown planet in the middle of nowhere. The Paladins all wanted to fight them, an anti-alien sentiment going around the group irrespective of their appearances being completely human, until they found out their levels.

All of them that came through were now over level 25, likely arriving when they were just below it. Apparently on arrival most of them quickly broke through on certain Rank 2 Level 9 skills up to Rank 3, which gave them enough experience to evolve. This meant that not only were their stats well beyond anything he could amass, but their skills too were at a whole different level.

But now William and others alongside him were doing their best to narrow the gap. [Identify] only showed information on people that were within 15 levels, and even then the information they got was minimal giving suggestions like Warrior – Level 28. But then over time some people had obtained the skill [Observe], one that let them find out more information. Then one member of the thousands they now cared for picked up some skill which gave them even more information, and let them pick up on the classes of their ‘saviours.’ And they were… underwhelming. All common and uncommon, which meant that all the [Holy Champions] with rare classes were already gaining in stats. They were coming up to three days in the apocalypse, as it was now called, and it was getting hard to find someone who didn’t have at least an uncommon class. This meant that every level they picked up was extra stats on the knights, and therefore one step closer to being able to escape these ‘saviours’.

As William arrived back to their camp he was disappointed with the sights around him. The church they originally started at was surrounded by rows of tents and even just bundles of anything soft they could find on the ground, with close to ten thousand people based on their last count spread out into the various houses and buildings around them. They had looted every mall and food store around them to keep people fed, and while he hated to admit it the only reason they had not starved yet was the Silver Knights.

They had planted a town crystal, some kind of rare object that gave them a whole host of functions, key of which being that no goblins were randomly appearing from thin air in the area around it. But now they were monopolising the crystal by taking the credits earned from the kills of the thousands of humans around them to purchase food for them. It wasn’t a resource he even realised he earnt, but by asking the system he could see how much he had earnt and found out that the only way to obtain them was by trade or by battle.

Each kill gave about 80% of the credits that the person was carrying, and this included killing other humans.

The knights would take their credits in exchange for food, at rates he was sure were a complete scam but had no way of proving. None of them knew where to get a town crystal from, nor could they fight the knights for theirs while they were still so under-levelled. They only numbered about 20, but the numbers advantage meant very little when each one moved so fast they could barely see them and were capable of killing multiple fighters in a single swing. The civilians that had protested were killed without mercy, sending a message to those remaining that this was not a game, and these people were not our friends.

These knights were farming nearly ten thousand hungry people for their credits, starving them out until they had to face the green menaces that were plaguing them in order to afford a meal.

And the menaces really had become a green plague. The goblins also numbered in the thousands and seemed to grow by the day. Small battles like what he took part in today were popping up all across the front line, turning the city into a warzone. He must have single-handedly killed hundreds of the monsters to reach level 23 but still they kept coming.

But still he kept fighting. Every one of the sick monsters dead was another person who didn’t have to suffer like his fiancé, another person who wouldn’t have their loved ones murdered moments into the apocalypse, their blood streaming through his fingers, her cold corpse lying in his arms as-

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Good to see you back.” Father Jackson cut his thoughts out from the dark spiral they were going down as he welcomed William into the church.

“Did you make much today?”

This was the usual conversation. The goblins had levels ranging from 5 to around 20, and the number of credits each dropped were varied but generally sat around one or two hundred per kill. Three paladins set out alongside another ten volunteers today, and all killed numerous goblins before donating all their credits to William prior to walking into the church.

“About eight thousand,” he sighed. It was enough to buy bread and rice for maybe a thousand people, depending on how generous the knights were. Thankfully there were over a hundred bands of warriors like his own all out hunting for credits, but unfortunately most were not interested in donating their credits to help those that were either too young, old, injured, or even just unwilling to fight. William and many of the other Paladins couldn’t bear to watch anyone starve, and so out he would go to risk his life for a couple more bags of rice.

“It will be enough. Come, let’s walk.”

Father Jackson led him out of the church to walk around the camps. He had taken to doing repeated laps of the area after gaining [Healing Aura], a practice that both helped him level while also gaining a lot of goodwill from those around them. The priest had stalled at level 21, most of his experience coming from various skill increases such as reaching rank 2 in his heal skill, along with occasionally joining some groups for battle against the goblins as a healer which did grant him experience. There was no party system as far as they were aware, instead it was theorised that experience was divided based on contribution, so it made sense for him to gain some experience from the kills even if he didn’t directly deal damage.

“It’s strange how quickly things have changed. Only three days since the apocalypse began and we are waging war against goblins without even batting an eye.”

William let out a hum in agreement, before confessing some of his own fears to the priest. “I wonder if it changed something in our brains. Look how few people are doing nothing, I would expect more to be lazing about.”

“Giving them some fruits seems to have kicked them into gear.”

They had chosen to give most of the golden apples to those still at level one, as for him at 23 they were useless while for those at level 1 it was enough to push them all the way to level 5. The feeling of new stats, the sudden rush of power, it gave them the confidence to fight some goblins and face their fears.

Although there were still exceptions. There were those that refused to fight and instead looked towards areas like crafting, and it wasn’t long before their classes changed into ones directly tailored for that which also gave them bonus experience when making items. There were also many who, despite refusing to fight, made themselves useful through taking care of the injured or the children who were unable to fight. Even the children had the system, although some investigation revealed it was a more limited version that prevented many impulse actions from being taken and could be controlled somewhat by their parents. The elderly were also given fruits, the extra levels taking years off their bodies and putting them back into the fight.

A horn sounded in the distance, causing the duo to both glance at each other and rush towards the sound. Both were already fully armoured, William in a mismatch of cloth and a tough leather made by the crafters and Father Jackson in a lighter robe, a habit that most now had nowadays. After maybe 15 minutes of jogging at a pace they never would have been able to hold before, they were met with the familiar sounds of a battle underway.

Father Jackson threw his [Lesser Blessing] on to William, the level 9 ability giving him an astonishing 18 extra points in his strength, before then peeling off to the side to help the injured.

William, his body invigorated by the powerful feeling the extra points gave him, rushed headlong into battle and started giving the goblins a tour of his sword. It only took a few seconds before some people recognised him and started calling out his name, and then when word of the head Paladin arriving spread cheers began to ring out from the hundred or so fighting humans.

And then the goblins let out their own cheers, and out stepped Mango.

They were familiar with this goblin, some kind of champion whose name the other goblins had chanted before and had killed many warriors over several battles, and so Matthew was pleased he would finally get the chance to end the menace. It cut a far more imposing figure than the other goblins who only ranged between three and five feet tall, instead this one reached William’s own height up at around 6’5’’ and had plenty of muscle on its frame too. The goblin stood on the front lines, not even bothering to fight yet and apparently waiting for a challenge that William was all too happy to provide.

And so he charged.

The fact it was wielding a large hammer was the only reason William survived the first stroke. He shot forward and swung his sword downwards using all his strength and even applying [Heavy Blow] onto the monster and was met with a block that looked almost lazy, before it shoved its arms forward to push the head of the weapon against William’s chest with a speed and force he was entirely unprepared for.

Hobgoblin Warrior – Level 31

The goblin let out a short laugh, and things became much clearer after William inspected the monster, and he was moments before calling a retreat when a silver figure rushed forward to take advantage of the hobgoblin’s lax attitude and swung his blade into the arm of the monster.

Warrior – Level 31

For the first time William was actually thankful to see one of the Silver Knights. They didn’t often participate in battles, but some obviously wanted the experience and likely this one thought the goblin would give him a good opportunity for a fight. When the goblin swung back the knight raised the shiny silver shield it carried to meet the blow, a decision that would have been stupid had it not used some kind of skill that covered the shield and caused the weapon to bounce almost comically off it.

The knight used this opportunity to swing again at the left arm of the monster, this time causing it to howl in pain and switch to a one handed grip on the weapon. The knight definitely had some kind of combat training, attacking the hobgoblin repeatedly while trying to stay on its right side so it could not put much force behind each blow. It hit the goblin with repeated attacks, none as strong as before but all wearing the monster down without opening himself up to any responses.

William himself was not idle, now taking care of many of the goblins that tried to step into the fight. He did not want to help the knight given the grief they were causing thousands back in camp through farming them all for credits, but he was pragmatic enough to know that he could not deal with this threat without him, and so killing the hobgoblin was a first priority. Some goblins still slipped past him to help the hob but despite some of these monsters being near level 20 they were killed with a simple swipe by the knight who barely even looked at them.

Which is when William noticed something odd. One goblin was edging closer, and rather than circling around towards the back of the knight like most had done it was instead moving forward at a weird angle that looked like it might run into its own ally.

Goblin Warrior – Level 25

William was about to panic at seeing another goblin that out levelled him before suddenly the goblin stepped forward and with a speed that took him completely by surprise it slid its weapon into the back of its own ally.

Immediately after the surprise attack, it rushed backwards towards its own allies and away from the battle, while the Hobgoblin let out a roar of surprise and spun around. It found nothing there as its ally had already fled, and the Knight used this opportunity to step forward and stab directly into the back of the monster.

The knight let out a cheer and stepped back, leaving its blade in the body of the goblin that had now fallen to its knees. The humans around him let out a hesitant cheer, which was enough to make the knight let out a big grin and start waving to the fighters as if they were all his fans and moments later he wouldn’t be demanding all their credits for his help. These were warriors, mages, and fighters of all kinds risking their lives to kill these invaders only to have to later give up all they earnt for food to an invader of a different kind.

Which was why, with surprising solidarity, not one of the hundred or so humans watching warned him when the goblin got back up and slammed its hammer down on the head of the knight, killing it instantly. Matthew took that moment to rush forward at the tired and heavily injured hobgoblin and stab his own weapon directly into the neck of the creature, and moments later was met with a rush of experience when it collapsed to the ground. He pulled his blade out of its body and looked down at the two titans that were the monster and the Silver Knight below him.

If anyone noticed the knight was still breathing they later did not tell a soul, and instead they all turned away as Matthew slid his own weapon into the knight’s neck to quickly end its life. He felt the rush of experience and let out a smile at the huge number of credits he had gained.

While some quiet whispers were shared, all parties would later go on to report the tragedy of the two titans killing each other, and the knights would never learn the truth.