“Goblins?” Amy asked, grimacing after Jade had explained what the next goal was for him. They all sat down for breakfast at the inn’s tavern, trying to keep their voices down as to not be overheard. “We had one encampment near our home village, but it was wiped out years ago.” Jade gave a sigh at that, unsure if he should be relieved or horrified that goblins existed in the world.

“I know this one,” Yondol cut in, giving Jade a small smile. “They have an encampment near Ormand, the forested city. No one has been strong enough to clear out the main one, but the outlying villages the goblins make are constantly wiped out. We should revisit, see if we can find one of their camps.”

“That’s where we need to go, then,” Jade sighed once again, giving the siblings a wry grin. “I can only get the required crafting station from goblins, but once I have it, it will allow me to combine ‘accessory’ items together to make stronger versions.” Amy and Yondol’s eyes widened at that, both looking at the swift shoes they wore. “Yup. After a stop in the jungle dungeons, we should be able to upgrade those guys to give you both the running effect I use, as well as a bit of flight as well.” He made sure to whisper that last part, making sure the other patrons could not hear him. Amy had a wide smile at the idea of flight, while Yondol looked a bit sick at the suggestion.

“That’d be so cool!” Amy excitedly yelled, both men giving her withering looks at her volume. “I mean, being able to fly, even a little has always been my dream. It just wasn’t an option for the magic I could choose.”

“No flying for me unless it’s a must.” Yondol shook his head at that.

“Well I would need it for more maneuverability. The crafting materials I used to make your guys’ weapons came from very mobile monsters and if I want to make quality gear…” Both siblings nodded at that, Jade giving them both a smile. “Besides, depending on how high we can go, we might be able to get to the floating islands before they crash down to earth.” He’d noticed a few of the glowing islands when he’d been stargazing the previous night, having found out from the siblings that they were created by magic and only landed when hit by a falling star. Both siblings, again, gave him wide eyed looks at that, Jade shrugging. “What? One of the best accessories is on those islands, plus an upgraded sword for you, Yondol.” The elf sighed at the point, Amy looking even more excited by the possibility of flight.

After they finished their meals, they headed out to the plinth in the middle of the city, the predawn light still making the streets somewhat empty. With another activation of his magic mirror, the three party members were whisked away to their next objective, the jungle city of Bambostle.

#

As soon as they landed, Amy immediately complained about the humid air, though Jade was more focused on the surrounding area. Instead of landing on solid ground like the other cities, Bambostle had apparently been made in the tall branches of the mahogany trees. Each building was housed in the middle of the trunks, the paths in between bridges that looked to be made out of bamboo, though with them being wide enough to carry two carts, he supposed he could still call them streets.

They found that the dungeons were apparently sectioned off in a nearby cave system, eliciting a chuckle from Jade. He’d remembered countless times when he’d made similar towns above one of the jungle caves, the depths being treacherous, but well worth the materials he could get from them. They quickly went down to the dungeons after visiting a nearby general store, making sure to sell off the extra materials they’d gotten from the seaside dungeons. Amy had convinced the other two that they would be more valuable in another town, trade apparently making the materials more expensive to source directly. They got quite a good windfall from them, soon heading into the local cave entrance to get to the main dungeon hub.

The cavern that the dungeons were inside looked rather overgrown to Jade, who’d only seen that kind of overgrowth in post apocalyptic movies back home. He had no time to admire the scenery, however, as Amy wanted to get out of the area quickly. One hour of dungeon diving later, and they found three of the items he’d come for, they were that common.

[Anklet of Speed]

Once again, it increased each of their movement speed by another little bit, allowing the three party members to quickly rush from the dungeon before the guild member manning the entrance could question them about why they took so long. The rooms had taken longer for the party to kill, mostly being overrun with various flying insects and man eating plants. Luckily, healing potions took the sting out of the poison they’d been dosed with multiple times on their trip, the party soon once again in front of the plinth that would lead them to another town.

“Next is the forest area,” Jade explained, giving Yondol a bit of a glare. “Now goblins work way differently than I’m used to, so we’ll just have to see how we can source the items I need. Hopefully they’re just normal loot drops from the goblins.” Both siblings gave him raised eyebrows at that, Jade returning a shrug. “If it’s too hard, I can try to see if I can get invisibility potions and we can sneak in.” Amy perked up at his mention of the potions, Yondol giving them both an eye roll.

“You can make potions?” she asked, making sure to keep her voice down.

“I could in the game. Actually…” Jade pulled back up his inventory, looking at the empty potion bottles he’d accumulated from their many drunken potions. As soon as he’d had the thought to add it to his crafting stations, one bottle disappeared to show a new station in his crafting section. “There we go. We just need to see which herbs I need, and I should be able to craft some, if need be.”

“Still a cheat even if it isn’t your fault…” Amy muttered, the three of them holding hands as Jade once again activated his magic mirror to take them to Ormand.

#

Once again they plopped down in the forested city, and once again they weren’t noticed, even as Jade panicked slightly on remembering they’d been trying to keep it a secret by teleporting at night or early morning. He then looked around confused, not one person in the huge crowd seeming to have noticed their arrival. “That’s… weird.”

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“No one noticed…” Amy muttered, Jade barely able to hear her over the loud noise of the crowd. It was a lot busier than the last time they’d landed, the crowd overly thick with more temporary food stands around the square.

“It’s part of the magic?” Yondol suggested, Jade letting out a sigh at the only explanation they had as they started moving through the thick crowd. After asking a couple of people what was going on, they’d learned that it was apparently a festival day, one held every year. They’d only spent a few days out of the city, but apparently that was all it took to set up all of the stalls. There were even banners and decorations littered all over the place, even street performers setting up magical shows for a gawking audience.

Once they reached the familiar guild building, they walked up to the receptionist on duty, Jade noting with relief that it was a different one than before, having a similar shade of pink to Amy’s skin. “How can I help?” he asked, leading Yondol to lead into asking for a map to where they could find the goblin villages. After confirming all three guild badges, a map was given, showing which direction to head out of the city and what paths to take to reach the goblin area.

“Thanks!” Amy yelled as they left the building, quickly having to try and squeeze once again past all of the crowds. Once they were far enough away from the city center, the crowds started thinning out, giving them an easier time to get to the west edge of the city while also lowering Jade’s anxiety. He’d always hated really big crowds, another reason why he wanted to keep himself quiet until he’d built up a solid reputation. And maybe see if I can make hellstone armor into something that could help with my magic weapons. He’d always liked the magic based items in Errant, preferring them over the ammo based range weapons, and the melee weapons that led to more injuries in game.

Once they made it out of the city, they soon found the path that headed towards the goblin areas, Jade frowning all the while. Please don’t let them be disgusting… please don’t let them be disgusting…

“Now that we’re out of the city,” Amy began, absentmindedly petting her starling pet, “how exactly does you magic work? I mean… having crafting, fighting, and movement all in one powerset seems like it wouldn’t be possible. Maybe two, but not all three.”

“Well… it’s all based on the game I played, Errant,” Jade explained, Yondol showing interest in his story as well. “It was a game all about mining resources and exploring the worlds that were created.” Both siblings looked confused at that, Jade thinking for a moment to try and come up with a better analogy for the video game than before. “So… is there illusion magic here?”

“Only in the rare few,” Yondol replied, giving Jade a thoughtful frown.

“Well imagine a flat illusion that you could… direct it to have whatever you wanted displayed on it.” Both of them nodded at that. “Well, with some clever commands, all layered on itself, you could play out scenarios on it. One was a game where it simulated the world in one meter chunks. You fought monsters, could build structures, and craft items using the game’s complicated rules.”

“So like pretend, but structured using the illusions?” Jade nodded at Yondol’s question. “And because your magic is based on the game, you can do anything you could do in the game.”

“Basically. The one thing that I think would take up too much magic is the building system, as my powers don’t have the tools the game had in that regard. Seeing as how you could dig up any ground with a pickaxe, even leaving floating structures if you wanted, I can see why it didn’t transfer over.”

“But what about building the structure itself?” Yondol asked, causing Jade’s walking to stop as he froze.

“I… haven’t tried it…” he mumbled, pulling back up his inventory and looking at the abundance of building blocks in his inventory. Focusing on specifically the oak-like wood the forest area they were in was full of, he focused on a bit of ground not far off the trail. He didn’t feel anything activate at first besides the drop command he could do, which caused him to frown. “Nothing’s happening… I’m focusing on the wood and the ground and all I’m feeling is my magic wanting to drop it.”

“Imagine the structure you want to make?” Yondol suggested, Jade’s frown now in thought as he imagined a wooden floor being placed where he was looking.

Immediately he felt exhaustion roll through him, Jade noticing his mana bar staying the same on his inventory screen. He still felt energy drain out of him, however, even seeing it as orbs of blue light that flew out of him and coated the ground. After a couple of seconds, a couple of wooden logs from his inventory disappeared and a solid wood floor appeared at the spot he wanted. All three party members looked at it in shock, Jade sitting down roughly on the ground as he suddenly felt light headed.

“No way that- Jade are you okay?” Amy asked, cutting herself off as she noticed Jade and his labored breathing.

“I assume it’s… normal to feel tired if you use too much of your personal magic?” he huffed out, both siblings nodding their heads. “Why this didn’t happen when I made the armor or used my wand…?”

Yondol walked over to the wooden slab, tapping on it with his fingers. “It looks solid. Sunk slightly in the ground, too. That might be why it took more energy, displacing the dirt and all.” The elf shrugged at the guess, Jade giving him a thumbs up.

“Well whatever. Can I take it back?” Jade asked, focusing on the wooden slab and calling up his magic again. “No need to leave it out here like that…” He felt his magic wiggle but not take away the wooden slab, Jade getting the feeling that he needed to do it by hand. “So I can build, but destroying it is out of the question?”

“At least you’re not too overpowered,” Amy commented, patting Jade on the shoulder. “We’ll leave it there for now and hope the goblins take care of it.” Jade gave her a withering look at that, Amy huffing back at him.

“Maybe we can come back later,” Yondol muttered, going around and testing how solid the foundation was. “Anyway, it’s good to know if we get stranded somewhere not close to a town. You can just make a structure to hide out in.”

They soon left the slab sitting there, Jade feeling his anxiety trying to bubble up at that. It’s fine. They won’t know it’s me. Besides, we’re leaving once I have what we need. After about an hour of following the trails from the map, the three soon found themselves right outside one of the smaller goblin camps. It looked like it’d just recently been constructed, fresh dirt and cut down trees around the clearing making it obvious even to Jade’s inexperienced eyes. They spent some time sneaking around the camp, though Jade winced at every stick he stepped on. Okay so… stealth is not one of my specialties either.

Once they had a good look at how the camp was structured, mainly haphazardly branching out from the center fire pit, the party moved further away to speak, not wanting to draw the attention of the nearly twenty goblins. Around twenty tents were parked on the grass, one for each goblin, Jade assumed. Otherwise, the rest of the space was bare, Jade guessing the goblins kept all their belongings in the tents.