Reaching the top of the gate entrance, I found myself cornered on both sides by thousands of goblins and nowhere else to run. Then out of nowhere, I heard voices shouting “Jump!” And quickly turning to them, I saw a huge wolf running along the bridge carrying my Party extending their hands out. Trusting them, I jumped off the top of the gate, hearing the goblins crash into each other behind me. Grabbing my hand first in the air, Lavie pulled me up onto the wolf with the help of the others.
“Thanks, you guys saved me.” Letting them know, “I took out most of the higher level goblins, but I ran out of arrows and didn’t get the chance to pick some up with all the goblins chasing after me.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of the rest.” Dream assured me, as we rode through the gate and entered the castle courtyard.
“Yeah, more goblins for me to catch up with.” Faust said, jumping off and changing into a large goblin—with white hair—and then began flinging fireballs at the hordes of goblins.
Following suit, we all jumped off too, and Lavie cleaved her way straight to the middle of the courtyard. Dream on the other hand stayed back and told Neon to take out the goblins on the wall, and for the Lv.15 Dire Wolf to help Lavie, but seemingly having a competition with Faust, Dream also attacked—sending bolts of black and green magic from her hands. Immediately listening to Dream, Neon climbed on the nearest wall—using his sharp claws—disappearing from sight, and then the sound of goblin screams could be heard from above.
To my suprise Tobias just stood beside me, so I asked “What’s wrong?”
Tobias laughed, showing me his empty bolt quiver and pulling out his broken short sword and dagger. “I’m just like you, I ran out of crossbow bolts, and my weapons are broken right now.” I laughed as we watched the battle from the entrance.
Being pelted by arrows from all directions, Faust placed a hand on his chest, and I could hear him say to himself “Mage Armour.” And a set of blue magic armour appeared on his goblin self. But not staying goblin for long, Faust shifted into a wolf—with the magic armour changing to fit his form—and he started targeting all the range attacking goblins. The magic armour tanked most of the physical attacks landing on Faust, only making small cracks in the armour and a few small cuts on his body; but when any magical attack flew towards Faust, his floating crystal quickly moved and absorbed into itself.
Drawing a lot of goblins from the offensive and healing magic she sent out, I watched Dream expertly block every incoming physical attack aimed at her with the shield. Unexpectedly though, every attack disappeared into the shield shortly and then reappeared reflecting back at them. She continued to block until they stopped attacking, or they ended up killing themselves.
In the center of the courtyard, the dire wolf was trying to help Lavie who was completely surrounded by thousands of goblins, but the expression on her wasn’t even the least bit worried. I also noticed the strange red glowing marks under Lavie’s clothes, and saw that they seemed to be glowing brighter the more she fought; with even her light red hair starting to glow the same vibrant red colour. Killing about 50 with her greatsword, she threw it into the horde—killing countless more—and switched to a rapier and dagger. Eventually she threw all her weapons into the horde after killing a few goblins with them, only leaving her with a chain whip left. But as she whipped the chain back and forth at the goblins attacking her, she lifted her right hand up and her rapier she threw away came back floating back into her hand. Sheathing the rapier as she continued whipping the chain whip around, Lavie did the same for her other weapons, and was now back to having 5 weapons to throw away again.
Then finally goblins took notice of Tobias and I, but before I could react, Tobias was already rushing at them—old key and chain in hand. Not even attempting to dodge, their attacks passed right through Tobias and he swiftly tied them up and took their daggers and swords. He smiled, killing them and saying to me “I’m joining in. Watching got me ansty for a little more fighting.” Tobias’ lower body suddenly became ethereal and he floated himself up onto the broken balcony overlooking the courtyard, killing the goblins shooting down at the Party and coming from inside the castle.
Captivated by the absolute massacre I was watching, I thought to myself “I really underestimated them. Not only are they really skilled, but their God-Make items look strong, and their Subclasses look even stronger.” Seeing the thousands of dead goblins all throughout the courtyard and on the walls already. “I’m Lv.21 after all the killed goblins so far, but I still feel like I would lose to any of them if we fought each other.” I quickly shook my head at the idea, thinking “It’s a good thing we’re on the same side.”
The battle continued for another two hours, and I had to wrap my cloak around my mouth and nose to cover up the strong stench of blood from affecting me, but I knew it was over when I was hit by a barrage of notifications.
All the Monsters in the Dungeon have been killed.
The Closed Dungeon has now been cleared.
Congratulations you have Leveled Up! All Stats have increased by 2, and you have gained 10 Available Points.
You have gained the Title: [A Goblin Slayer]. You have gained the Title: [Destroyer Of A Goblin Kingdom]. You have gained the Title: [An Army Of Five].
A Goblin Slayer: Having slayed thousands of goblins, slaying more has simply become much easier for you. +30% Damage against any type of Goblin.
Destroyer Of A Goblin Kingdom: Playing a main part in causing the complete downfall of an entire Goblin Kingdom, your accomplishment has been recognized. +20 to All Stats.
An Army Of Five: Against incredible insurmountable odds, your chosen Party has endured and prevailed. +5% of All Stats while in a Party with Dream Manic Pixie, Faust, Lavie En Rouge, and Tobias Casper Grim.
“Now these Titles are more like it.” I thought to myself, happier with the Titles compared to the last ones.
Walking through the blood soaked courtyard, the Party gathered back to me, and Dream asked “Did you guys get those amazing titles just now?”
“The slayer, the destroyer, and the army one?” Lavie asked, calling forth her weapons and sheathing them.
“I got the same ones.” Tobias answered, strapping daggers that looked like the ones I saw a Chieftain have.
“I did too, but I’m too sad that I didn’t get to Lv.20 so I can use my new staff.” Faust sounded disappointed.
“What level did you get to then?” I asked, but remembering I stopped him from answering. "Wait, everyone take off your Guild bracelet and put them away.” Unsure of the point, they still listened and put them away in their Inventories, and I did the same.
“What’s wrong?” Lavie asked, concerned.
“Oh it’s nothing, it’s just that the Guild spies on us with those, and since we cleared the Dungeon, I’d rather us talk in private.” I answered.
“They spy on us!?” Faust shocked by the fact.
“That’s so creepy.” Dream shivered at the thought.
“I had my suspicions on how they kept track of us, and it looks like I was right.” Tobias smirked to himself.
“But now that they’re off, we can talk.” Gesturing to Faust to continue.
“Oh, I only got to Lv.18.” Faust answered.
“Lv.19 for me.” Lavie added.
“I guess I’m the odd one out, I only got to Lv.16.” Tobias said.
“Nice, almost 10 whole levels for everyone.” I said, looking for usable arrows.
“Wait, Dream didn’t answer.” Faust pointed out, noticing she was being quiet.
“Well you see...I only got to Lv.13.” Dream whispered, embarrassed by her low level.
Faust laughed a little, saying “How is that possible? Weren’t you higher than Tobias earlier?”
“It’s not my fault, I have to share Experience gain with my Tamed creatures.” Dream explained, causing Faust to laugh and tease her more.
“What about you, Eyes?” Lavie asked, handing me a few good arrows she found.
“Thanks,” Accepting the arrows, “and I only leveled 2 times, so Lv.22.”
“That’s it?” Tobias questioned.
“Yeah, and from seeing you guys not even get to Lv.20 after all that, I think leveling is harder than I thought.” Then saying to them, “But you guys should try to get to Lv.20, there’s a Class Promotion or a Class Change when you reach it.”
“Ooo...what's that?” Dream asked.
“Basically it means you can choose a better upgraded version of your Class, or you can change your starting Class if you want.” I explained.
“What did you choose, Eyes?” Faust asked, sounding excited to upgrade his own Class.
“Archer of course.” Happy with my choice.
“Boring, but you still got me pumped. Let’s go find some monsters to level up on.” Faust said, restlessly moving.
“I wonder what an upgrade for a Healer is?” Dream wondered, beginning to think of ideas.
“That’s great and all, but I want my money from the job first.” Tobias said.
Lavie agreed, saying “He’s right, we should head back to town first, leveling isn't going anywhere.”
“Aww, you guys just ruined my mood.” Fausted pouted.
Not forgetting the women in the dungeon, I said “First we have to go rescue some people.” Leading the Party to the barred gate and going down the stairs, I stopped just outside of the chamber, and gave Faust and Dream a serious look. “This could be a pretty dark sight for you two, so if you need to, just head back out." The both of them reacted to my seriousness and nodded at my words.
Stepping into the dungeon chamber, the Party saw the prison cells filled with crying huddled women of different races, and their bodies mostly bare with multiple kinds of different bruises and injuries. I carefully observed the Party’s reaction as they realized what the goblins have been doing to the women. Faust cringed at the sight, Dream had to look away, Tobias was straight faced, and Lavie looked furious.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
As Lavie audibly clenched fists tightly, her whole body erupted in an intense fiery red colour, and we could all physically feel the emotions emitting from her. Though finally getting a closer at her in that state, I could now recognize the red marks all over her body as specific Nordic patterns and symbols, and that they looked more like perfect tattoos than painted marks on her body. Lavie then stomped to the nearest prison cell and ripped the door right out of its hinges, and all the women inside screamed and pleaded for their lives at the sight of glowing red Lavie—her mask making it look like she was some type of horned monster.
Realizing the reason for their fearfulness, Lavie calmed herself down and her red glow quickly dissipated. Then taking off her mask, Lavie spoke softly to them. “I’m not a monster, you're safe now.” Still afraid, the women slowly realized that Lavie was just a regular human and they all began to cry.
Taking a deep breath, I shouted to the huge chamber “All the goblins are dead!” My voice echoing in the chamber, “Don’t be scared! We’re going to release all of you and take you to the town of Asheton!” Turning to Tobias, I asked him in a normal voice “Do you know how to lockpick doors?”
“I do, but I have something better than a lockpick.” Showing me his old key and chain, “I have a Key of Opening, it can unlock almost anything it touches.” I watched as Tobias went around tapping the key to every cell door and suprisingly hearing them all unlock themselves. “Open sesame.” Twirling his key and chain.
“Wow, nice job!” I said to Tobias, turning to the other two. “Faust, can you help and bring the women to the castle entrance? And Dream, can you go around healing and cleansing the women Faust helps out?” Both of them just nodded, doing as I asked.
Realizing that most of the women had no clothes, I decided to leave and check the castle for clothes. Running through the halls, I started using Sprint and Archer’s Dash to quickly search the rooms. Searching, I found that just like the outside of the castle, the inside was also a complete mess: from a destroyed library, a huge empty kitchen, a large wrecked dining room, a scribbled on war room, and a filthy master bedroom—the last two being in the doors in the throne room. The other regular rooms and bedrooms were ransacked, but quickly searching some more I came across a room with a runic circle on the floor. Using my eyes I could tell it was magical, but stepping into it nothing happened, and I couldn’t understand any of the runes. Ignoring it for now, I found a door leading to the back of the castle, where there was a huge overgrown but still beautiful hedged garden. I spotted at the other end of garden was a metal gate that opened to another bridge, and getting closer I could see that the bridge led to a carved out tunnel inside of the mountain.
Getting too distracted with exploring, an idea suddenly popped up in my head to help cover up the women. Turning away from the tempting bridge and mysterious tunnel, I returned to the foyer and throne room and tore down all the hanging banners. Bringing back the 12 long banners to the dungeon, Lavie offered to help already knowing what I was thinking; and she finely cut up the huge banners with her dagger, turning them into multiple red poncho shaped clothes, and gave them to me to distribute to the women.
Having released a total of 131 women, I looked in the chamber and counted 67 that were already dead before we got here. Heading above ground, I found Lavie reassuring some of the women, Tobias keeping a lookout on the walls, and Dream and Faust trying to make the other women feel at ease.
Seeing me come up, a group of 27 women approached me, with the leading woman—in her late 30s—saying to me “Saviour Eyes, I am Sister Maebel, and Saviour Lavie tells us you're the Leader.”
“Not really, but what’s wrong?” I asked.
Speaking confidently, Sister Maebel said “We are a group of missionaries from the Church of the Twin Goddesses, and before we leave for Asheton, I ask you and your Party to help bury our sisters and the other women who have passed. We have nothing to offer you but our gratitude, and the gratitude of the Twin Goddesses, but please help their souls return to the Goddesses.”
Party Quest
Burial For The Dead:
Help the missionaries of the Church of the Twin Goddesses bury all the bodies of the dead women.
Reward: Gratitude
Will you accept:
*The decision must be a majority.*
[Yes] Or [No]
"A Party Quest?" Noticing the rest of the Party was surprised by the sudden Quest. They took a moment to read it and already made their choices.
Quest Updated.
[Yes(2)] Or [No(2)]
The Party looked at each other and then argued in Chat—hiding the discussion from the women.
Tobias- The Reward is Gratitude.
Lavie- So? It's the right and good thing to do.
Dream- Don’t u guys feel srry 4 them after seeing wat they went through?
Faust- Sure I do but that doesn’t mean I wanna waste my time on burying the dead just for gratitude. Isn’t bringing them to town good enough?
Tobias- Here, here kid. Never work for free.
Lavie- What if the Gratitude pays off?
Tobias- Yes, cause someone’s gratitude always pays off, right?
Dream- Eyes ur the Leader and u have the last vote so u decide
Faust- Choose NO
Lavie- I’ll respect your decision.
They all stared at me, “Looks like I’m the deciding vote.” Curious, I asked Sister Maebel “What happens to the women if their souls don’t ‘return’ to the Goddesses?”
“If a person does not get a proper burial, and they die with great hate or regret, they will most likely manifest and return as an undead. Haunting the surrounding land, waiting for the living, and having them join them as an undead.” Sister Maebel explained.
“Are you talking about ghosts?” Giving Tobias a little look.
“It depends on the dead. Some turn to ghosts, others become zombies, or even skeletons. Though what is a constant, is that they are all as powerful as their hate or regret, only getting stronger the longer they linger.” She informed me.
“Umm...shouldn’t we bury the goblins then?” Pointing to the thousands of dead goblins.
She chuckled, “Unnecessary, we are not Gom’s heretics.
“Gom’s heretics?” I wondered, listening to her continue.
“And it’s very unlikely for a monster to manifest into an undead, unless risen from necromantic magic or filled with immense hatred for a particular individual.”
“I see, well I guess we can help.” Accepting the Quest, Faust and Tobias sighed, while Dream and Lavie smiled, but I reassured them in chat.
Look, I know they’ll just give us Gratitude, but how about I give a 25 Gold bonus for those who help out. Sound good?
Dream- Really?
Faust- How do u have enough gold to pay all of us?
Tobias- You hiring me for a job?
If that’s what you want to call it.
Lavie- You can keep mine, you already saved me gold a few days ago, and I was planning to help out even if you said No.
Dream- I’ll take her half
Faust- Actually I did more in the battle so I think I deserve it
Dream- What!? U know I won the bet right?
Faust- Ur true 2 ur name cuz u must be dreaming if u think u won
...
Dream and Faust began to argue in chat, so I closed the Menu and headed down to the dungeon with Lavie, Tobias, and the missionaries. Tired of arguing, Dream and Faust also joined us, along with some of the other women who weren't missionaries but who just wanted to help. Discussing as a group on where to bury the bodies, I told them about the beautiful garden in the back of the castle and they all happily agreed to bury them there.
Needing a quicker way to transport the bodies than just carrying them, I asked Dream “Can we use your dire wolf to help carry the bodies?”
“Of course, just let me call out for it.” Rolling up her sleeve, Dream had a tattoo image of the entire dire wolf covering her left forearm, and she said “I haven’t thought of a name for him yet, so I have to manually call him out.” Then tapping the tattoo 3 times, it glowed a bright pink colour and suddenly jumping out of her forearm, the full sized dire wolf stood beside us.
“What the hell, warm me next time!” I exclaimed, surprised by the sheer size of the 8ft tall wolf.
“I can help carrying too, just give me a minute to take the dire wolf’s Shift.” Faust said, trying to place his hands on the wolf.
“Woah, woah, woah.” Dream said, stopping him. “You're not killing my wolf just so you can take his form.”
“I’m not gonna kill him, I only take Shifts of monsters when they’re dead because they won’t attack me then. Taking the Shift of a live one shouldn’t do anything but weaken them for a bit, plus you can just heal him afterwards anyway.” Faust explained.
“I swear Faust, you kill my wolf...” Dream readied her healing just in case.
“Yeah, yeah.” Faust placed his hands on the dire wolf and the same white magical aura emitted from him and surrounded the wolf. Hearing Faust’s bones breaking and moving into shape, the dire wolf just slowly laid himself down looking tired but overall okay. Being much quicker than last time, Faust was already a full white furred dire wolf, but turned back to human saying “See all good.” Dream just glared at him, healing and petting her dire wolf.
As they left up the stairs, I shouted to them “Tell the other women before you scare them too!” But moments later we could hear the screams from above, giving everyone in the chamber a little laugh. With the help of the dire wolves, we carried all the bodies to the garden in the back in half the time, and they even made digging the graves for each of them much easier.
Finishing the last burial, Sister Maebel stepped forward and began a prayer. “O’Twin Goddesses, hear my prayer. The Goddess of Life Luci’El, and the Goddess of Death Noxi’El, please bless these poor souls so that their bodies never corrupt into monstrosities and be taken by Gom. And allow them instead to return to your wombs, able to be born again.” Completing her prayer, all the graves suddenly erupted with a glowing light. Half glowed with a golden colour, while the other half glowed with a purple colour. The lights shined all the way up to the sky, and after about ten seconds they began to lessen and dissipate. Sister Maebel turned to the Party, and said “Thank you. You have helped these souls return, and for that you have our gratitude.”
Party Quest Complete Burial For The Dead has been completed. Reward: Gratitude
Party
Faust- That was a waste of time
Dream- Pretty lights tho
Lavie- Didn’t that feel good to do?
Tobias- Absolutely not, I want my money.
Speaking to Sister Maebel, I said “To Asheton then?”
“Of cour—” Cutting her off, a sudden flash of light blinded us, followed by a loud echoing boom. Our eyes slowly recovered, and we were greeted to the sight of two unbelievably beautiful radiant figures floating in the air above the graves. Immediately all the women around us fell to their knees—even the non-missionaries ones—and they all bowed their heads down, not even daring to steal a glance at the radiant figures above them.
Radiating with a golden light around her, the figure on the left wore a long sleeveless low cut white dress that hung past her shoeless feet, which had a colourful floral design on the top and the bottom of it, and which also extended onto her elegant arms. On top of her head, on her long silky golden blonde hair—that reached down past her waist—was a floral head wreath made of different types of colourful flowers. But what stood out the most to me about her, was her contrasting purple coloured eyes. However I was more pleasantly surprised to see the figure on the right.
Radiating with a purple light around her, she was almost exactly the same as the first time we met; with her wavy black and silver hair, wearing the same short shoulderless black dress with see-through long sleeves, and her captivating golden coloured eyes. Though she was without her black feathered wings, as well as the roman numeral XIII on her throat, I still recognized her as 13.