1.3

“If a baby can't even strangle a grown man right after being born then what's the point in having one?” - Madelyn the Skull Rain giving important life lessons.

The corridor was mostly cleared out. Some random benches and overgrown plants were scattered around of course but there generally wasn’t much cover.

Thanks to that I could see my opponents clearly. Short and sickly looking, they were about a meter tall each, with large, misshapen noses and pointed ears. I couldn’t discern their colour from this far away, but I bet they were green. Anyone with even a drop of genre-savvy would recognise them as goblins. I could see six to seven. Two were approximately thirty meters from me, a third at thirty-five and the last group clustered together around a campfire around forty meters, where my darkvision ended.

The first two had clubs, the third -I strained my eyes- a long stick? Wait, there’s a pointy end, a spear, I corrected.

The goblin on the left suddenly barked something and pointed directly at me, its counterpart gave out a surprised yelp. Behind them, I could see the rest of the goblins scrambling into action. Did they have darkvision as well?

Unless... I turned my head, catching my reflection in a dusty glass pane. A ghostly blue face looked back at me. I’m glowing. Damn, stealth wasn’t an option it seemed.

I switched my attention back to the goblins. The two in front were running right towards me, twenty meters. I bent down, my left hand touching the ground. “Grow Sporage, Poison Spores.” Ten meters.

I rose, both hands gripping onto my staff. Five meters. I took a step back and did a wide swing in front of me.

I heard a sickening crunch as my staff impacted and launched the foremost goblin. ‘One’ Quickly reversing the swing, I socked the other goblin. Sending both flying in separate directions. ‘Two’

My eyes followed the second one, oh god its eyes popped out- I reflexively took another step back as I heard the third goblin arrive in front of me, spear lunging out.

I glanced at the ground underneath it, “Poison Spores!”

The mushroom burst, releasing a cloud of spores. The goblin stopped, hands trying to fan away the spores. It staggered forward another step before dropping over dead. ‘Three’ I mentally tallied.

That was quick, I suppose tutorial mobs weren’t supposed to be too difficult.

I glanced at the two I took out first. Ugh, mistake. I’ve played my fair share of gory games but indented skulls was a new one. I shoved the disgust behind me, though I made a mental note to try and take out enemies with spells, before checking the other group. Only two left, one armed with a spear and the other with a dagger, both were cautiously watching me. The remainder was gone, outside of my vision.

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It doesn’t look like they’re budging. Damn. For a mage I had a pretty short range, my spells went ten meters at most. I was hoping the remainder would come to me so I could use sporage to take them out. But if the first group was any indication, then these two won’t be difficult to take out.

I took a step forward, both goblins tensed. Hmm. I started slowly ambling forward, might as well get it over with.

Directing mana to my shoulder, I chanted, “Grow Sporage, Balm Spores. Grow Sporage, Sneezing Spores. Grow Sporage, Light Spores.”

I ran, well I went as fast as my stumpy myconid legs could take me, which was probably only as fast as a mobility scooter. I readied my longest range spell, “Acid Spit!” a glob of liquid welled up inside my throat, before being rapidly ejected from my mouth.

Both goblins ducked to the side, the glob of purple liquid splashing harmlessly onto the ground. The one of the left rolled before quickly rising and jabbing its spear at me. I tried to dodge to the left. But I was too slow. The spear stabbed me in the side. I raised my free hand, “Poison Spores!”

The goblin’s face scrunched up as it inhaled the spores, it weakly dropped the spear and fell down. ‘Four.’

I whirled around, trying to scan my surroundings, where’s the second one-

Something heavy grabbed onto my back, quickly followed by a jabbing sensation. Shit, it flanked me. I violently turned around. Throwing the goblin off my back. Using my momentum, I swung my staff horizontally. Only hearing a sickening crack as I got the goblin. ‘Five.’

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Hendrix watched Declan dispatch the first five goblins. Not a bad first start, Hendrix assessed, he moved with the skill of someone who’s played a fair few fighting games. Clearly used to both melee and ranged roles or even a mix in between.

He scratched his cap. The pain limiter needed to be lightened. Myconids didn’t feel a lot of pain in the first place -at least not the ways most animals felt it- but with the pain limiter, Declan was barely feeling anything at all. Getting stabbed probably felt more like a sharp pinch to him. So Hendrix mentally sent a message to Eve to lighten Declan and all future myconid player’s pain limiters. Declan didn’t show any adverse reaction to the gore physics, so there was no need for him to do anything about that. Eve’s mental adaption program was working better than expected. There was a minor disconnect with how fast Declan thought his body would move versus how fast it actually moved but Declan would naturally adjust to it with time.

Hmm, Hendrix didn’t have much to do now. His main job was making sure the player transitioned smoothly but Eve was doing the lion’s share of the work. ‘I suppose I can check on the goblins.’

He could use Admin for this, but Hendrix wanted to keep himself in practice, so he directed mana to the earth. Mana signals travelled through the mycelium network he had prepared prior, towards a hidden corner of the mall. A single mushroom popped up there. Hendrix opened his new eye and glanced at the goblin village. ‘Hmmpf.’ He mentally snorted.

Indiri goblins wouldn’t be caught dead with such poor fortifications, certainly not with such low guard, -half the goblins here were lazily asleep- and especially not with such a poorly hidden lair.

‘Spark’, he cast and mana exited his body through the network and finally out of the mushroom. Striking a snoring goblin in the rear, jolting it awake. It spun its head around searching for what had stuck it in the rear, but its eyes quickly focused on a group of goblins running towards the village.

Hendrix disagreed with all the tutorials Eve had shown them as examples. Far too easy, far too much hand-holding. If Eve wanted players to go to Indiri then she needed to up the ante. If they can’t even solo a goblin village, a Gaia goblin village at that, then they’ll spend forever grinding levels here and that's just boring.

He nodded in satisfaction as the goblins started waking. Even if Declan died, Hendrix needed to give him a demonstration of the respawn system anyways.