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Known Danger System 42
Chapter 13 - Tower of Beginnings

Chapter 13 - Tower of Beginnings

Jax groaned and lifted himself off the ground. What.The.Hell.

He noted the blue box.

Entry: Tower of Beginnings Floor 1

Jax looked around him and noticed the many forms of other people sent to this place with him. They were now inside an extremely old fashioned and dilapidated village. The village was filled with wooden buildings in various state of ruin and appeared simply to have been abandoned. Small random bushes sprang out of the ground all over the place. The others all around him were starting to shift around and struggle to their feet. Jax inspected them and noticed that most seemed to be relatively close to him in age. If there was a reason for that, he didn't know. He did, however, notice that several people where currently looking off into space, their eyes darting back and forth. He figured that they were probably checking their status pages to see if anything had changed.

He checked his own status page and couldn’t find any discernable change.

Just then he caught some movement from the corner of his eye.

A sign hung on one of the larger buildings suspended on each side by twin chains. The sign read in large bold script. Village of Gordor with one word scrawled in big blocky script beneath it.

WELCOME

Jax continued to look around, not feeling welcomed in the slightest.

"Excuse me everyone, please gather around." called a voice originating on the far side of the group opposite Jax.

The speaker was a guy with a small group of people already behind him facing outwards. Jax edged away slowly thinking there was something definitely off about this group. They gathered together so quickly after arriving that it seemed obvious they must have some prior connection.

"Everyone, everyone please. If I could get your attention. You can call me Coyle and as you all know this is somewhat of a emergency. If I could, I would like to offer my advice to the group. The first matters of import I would like to discuss is who should lea-"

"Well aren’t you the gracious pragmatist." A second voice called from the crowd speaking over Coyle. Jax looked around but could not lay eyes on the speaker.

The voice continued. "What gives you the right to order us around?"

Coyle who was also searching the crowd in vain retorted. "If you want to speak for everyone here then show some balls and step forward."

 The crowd began to part from the general area the heckler had been calling from. At that time a mortal shriek pierced the air. It was all but impossible to see where the shriek had originated. So Jax stepped apart from the others and looked around for a vantage point. The screams were fairly close but the panic of the crowd was causing people to run into each other.

There! Jax spotted a gap in the crowd and sprinted for it. Seconds went by as he tried to separate himself from everyone else, he could hear the screams getting closer. Jax spared a glance behind him and noticed the crowd had started running in three different directions away from the square. Coyle and the heckler that had been arguing before had gone their separate ways and Jax was lucky enough to not be stuck with either of them. On the flip side of the coin however, Jax silently counted and realized he was in the smallest of the three groups.

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Taking a moment to get some cover behind a wooden wall that had most certainly seen better days. Jax looked back down the street from where he had come. He noticed all of the sudden it was quiet and thought a silent prayer that that at least everyone had started to hide and stopped their screaming. Watching from behind his wall, Jax noticed the sudden movement from between two wrecked buildings. The movement quickly separated into three small forms that seemed to be covered in blood as Jax stared at them and the corresponding blue boxes that sprang up in confusion.

Goblin Children

Level 5

People actually died from baby goblins? Jax brought a hand to his face and rubbed his eyes. How sad would it be to be murdered by a baby while surrounded by a large group of people?

However, as Jax was contemplating the sad fate that some unknown others had met at the hands of these pint sized goblins.  Someone ran onto the street right across from the goblins, Jax caught sight of a flash of red shirt as a young man probably in his early 20's sprinted before the goblins. The young man was wearing camo full camo except for his shirt. Jax noticed the oddity right before yet another person burst onto the street.

"Back away from those things unless you trying to get yourself killed." a young woman spoke softly. Just barely enough for Jax to catch it.

The unknown guy just snorted and ignored her before yelling in a challenging tone "God wills it!" and charged straight at the goblins. The goblins in turn, went ape shit. Jax watched in awe as the small goblins gained a massive increase in speed and launched themselves at the man.  Jax didn't know if the man just looked really tasty to them or if the small goblinoids where just really sold on God, but either way with their razor sharp teeth gleaming, the first two latched onto an arm and a leg respectively while the third went straight for the jugular. The guy never stood a chance and no sooner had the guy hit the ground the goblins where back on their feet looking for the girl.

Jax had only taken his eyes off her for a second as well, but that had apparently been enough time for her to make like a ninja and vanish.

At least now I don’t have to worry about explaining myself and holding back Jax thought as he stepped out from behind the wall and slowly made his way towards the goblin children. The sound of footsteps quickly drew their attention straight to him. Jax stretched out his arms while they charged him, not attempting to dodge the first attacking set of jaws as they clamp onto an ankle. 'Hah dumb ankle biter' Jax thought. The second is not so lucky however, as Jax catches it by the throat in midair and slams it head first into the third that was going for his throat just like it had with red shirt before.

Not giving the second or third goblin time to recover Jax grabs them both and throws each of them against a ruined wall. They each bounce off before the wall shudders and collapses into rubble over them.

The last goblin realized something was very wrong, it could not taste blood. The fact it did not know was that due to both level and attribute difference Jax was simply not something it could kill via a bite. The goblins teeth couldn’t even break his skin. The goblin opened its eyes and tried unlatch its bite as realized it could not break the skin but it was too late as it immediately felt itself hoisted into the air by its supposed prey. The goblins eyes flew wide as it was engulfed in blue flames, its low intellect preventing it from understanding that it was not taking any damage.

"Well, that’s disappointing." Jax mused out loud as he noted that his flames gave him no additional intel on the goblinoid.

"Time to say goodbye to this life, better luck in the next one." Jax chided the goblin as he absorbed the small amount of health the goblin had before laying it on the ground peacefully.

 Continuing onto red shirts remains. Jax crouched to the ground, careful to avoid the bloody mess that man had become. Covering him in blue flames and inspecting the informative blue box that appeared. Jax spared the man another glance. "Poor guy."Jax whispered sadly as he looked from the man to the blue box.

Race: Human

Name: Emil Tago

Level: 1

Status: Deceased

Jax felt the weighted hands of fate as he considered what to do silently.

"Step away from the body, slowly, hands up." an authoritative voice orders from behind him.