The scream came from the northwest, not directly in line with the goblin village, but fairly close.
"Nyssa, emergency!" I shouted to the fae and sprinted off,
"What's wrong, Raak?" Nyssa was flying beside me, keeping pace.
"I heard a cry for help," I spoke quickly, dodging through trees in the forest, avoiding getting anywhere near the goblins between me and my objective.
"In the common tongue? Out here?" Nyssa asked.
"Yeah, if what we're speaking now is common, in any case. It didn't seem to come from the goblin village, but it was close by."
As we got closer to the area I heard the scream from, I began to notice signs of battle. I could hear swords clanging and smell smoke and blood on the wind.
"Nyssa, be careful. Just try to grab whatever weapons you can to keep them away from the goblins, but your safety is top priority. Do you understand?" I spoke quickly as I neared the growing sounds and smells of battle.
"Yes!" The fae replied as she flew into the forest canopy, disappearing from sight.
As I broke through the treeline, I saw what could only be described as a disaster. There were a dozen men in chainmail on the ground, with limbs missing or stab wounds all over their bodies. 6 more men remained upright guarding someone I couldn't see from my location. Behind them were a slightly burnt carriage on a well-worn road and several dead horses. There were more dead goblins than humans, but that didn't mean they were winning. Over 40 goblins still littered the place, many with swords or daggers and makeshift armour. The situation wasn't looking good for the humans.
So I charged.
The first goblin didn't even notice me until he was simply run over. At double its size and more than 4 times its weight, I crushed the goblin like a freight train. A wide swing with Thud took out another 3 of the tightly packed goblins before they finally noticed me. The goblin nearest to me screeched, bringing the attention of the rest. Save for a dozen or so goblins still fighting with the humans near the carriage, the rest had turned to face me.
There I stood, surrounded by more than twenty goblins. Bits of green flesh and dark red blood covered my legs, torso and weapon. I took in the group of goblins around me, several had decent weapons, others slightly rusted, but all of them were angry.
And so, I simply grinned. A savage grin, not of prey, but of a predator. I knew these goblins were no match for me, I could feel it, and so could they.
The nearest goblin took a step back when my eyes turned to it, causing my grin to widen further.
And then the blades came.
The same saw-blades I had used against the treant saw far less resistance in the limbs of goblins. I had only created 2 to save from overdrawing on my mana, but they began wreaking havoc through the mass of hideous creatures. The goblins seemed to have no idea what was going on and began to panic. As the screeching, clicking, and screaming were going on all around me, I finally hefted Thud and buried it into the skull of the nearest goblin.
My action only causes the panic to increase further, I was controlling the blades along the outside of the group of goblins. This caused them to be funnelled towards me, essentially turning me into the center of a meat grinder. After the numbers had dwindled to less than 10, I just shot the blades into 2 others and left them there to conserve my remaining mana. Seven goblins remained standing, surrounding an elemental, covered head to toe in flesh and blood.
And I was still grinning.
Every time my eyes turned to another goblin, I could see them quivering in fear. I looked down at Thud in my hands, ever so slowly, I spun the haft in my hand. Once the axe head was facing downwards, I looked back up at the goblins, who had all watched with rapt attention at what I had done, and grinned even wider.
They ran. All seven goblins scattered into the forest in different directions, leaving me alone in a field of corpses, both goblin and men.
"Nyssa, it's over," I spoke to the empty air while walking towards where the humans were and dismissing any skill gains.
Near the carriage was a mess, piles of goblin corpses in a semi-circular ring around a small group of similarly dead humans. The sounds of battle had finally died down, leaving only the smells. The metallic smell of human blood, the smell of sewage that was the goblins, the slightly burnt smell of the carriage. I quietly sighed at the carnage around me, I don't really enjoy battle, I was only grinning to try and scare the goblins away. As it was, I couldn't go through another fight like that, my mana was at 40% and my health had begun dipping below 30% from all of the small stab wounds and light slashes I had received. Of course, I would be fine in less than half an hour as long as the sun stayed out, but those last seven goblins could have just as easily killed me.
"Raak, are you okay?" Nyssa spoke as she fluttered over to me. "Did anyone else make it?"
I looked at the small group of humans and said. "No, it seems like we were a bit too-"
As the wind died down, I could swear I heard something.
"Raak-" I raised my hand to quiet the fae, and focused on my hearing. Pacing around near the bodies of the humans, it sounded like rough breathing.
*cough*
"There!" I said, and rolled one of the men over. Underneath him was a young woman, bloody, but more or less unharmed. She was wearing similar coloured armour to the men, white with a blue trim that contrasted nicely with her bright red hair. However, while their armour was chain mail, she wore mostly heavy cloth with only a small iron chest plate and guards on her arms and legs. The man who was on top of her had multiple stab wounds in his back and, it seems, he had died trying to protect her.
"SCREEEEEEeeeeeeeeeee"
"Raak, more goblins are coming, we need to get out of here!" Nyssa spoke quickly.
I could hear the incoming goblins, there were even more coming than lay dead here. I picked up the unconscious woman carefully and started running. I ran west, along with the road away from the direction of the incoming goblins. After 15 minutes we reached a pass through the mountains, but I didn't follow it. I turned south into the forest, following the side of the mountain range.
After half an hour I slowed down to a walking pace, as I could no longer hear or smell the goblins behind us, in order to avoid injuring the woman any more than she had already been.
"Nyssa, how close to home do you think we are?" I asked.
"Well, I'm not really sure where along the mountain we are. If we keep going at this pace, it shouldn't take us more than two hours to make it back, though." She responded, with her head tilted to the side, cutely.
"That's fine then. Can you help me gather some grass to use as bedding while we walk back, I don't want to put the poor girl on a stone bed if I can help it."
"Not a problem!" Nyssa said excitedly. "I thought you might want something from the carriage so I grabbed it."
"You grabbed something from the carriage? Like what?" I asked, curiously.
"No silly, I didn't take anything from the carriage. I took the carriage." She said floating in front of me.
My eyes went wide at the little grinning fae. "Like the whole carriage? You stuffed a whole carriage in your storage?"
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"Of course. I have a carriage, 13 short swords, 4 shields, 5 long swords, 14 daggers, and the rest of the stuff that was already in there." She spoke plainly as if she hadn't just rattled off a small armoury worth of equipment. And a carriage.
"Wait, what does the carriage have to do with bedding in the first place?" I asked, trying to get the conversation back on track.
"It has everything to do with it! There is a very nice bedroll stored in the carriage." Nyssa said as she opened a small portal, out fell just the corner of a bedroll, which she then proceeded to rub her face on. "It's so sooooft. Raaaaak, I want one."
"Well, we might be able to get you one sooner rather than later," I said, with a wry look at the still sleeping woman. "I don't imagine she is going to want to stay in this forest when she wakes up. And if she is as weak as the rest of those humans, there is no way she will be able to pass through the forest alone."
"Does that mean we might be leaving soon?" Nyssa asked solemnly.
"We can come back once we get her somewhere safe if you really want to," I told the fae. "And of course after we get you a nice soft bedroll."
"Alright, thanks, Raak." She said quietly.
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We got back to our current home in the early evening. Nyssa placed the bedroll on top of my bed, and I carefully laid the woman atop it. It would probably be rather uncomfortable for her to sleep in her armour, but I wasn't about to strip her, either. Afterwards, Nyssa and I headed back outside the house.
I used plant manipulation to tighten the stretching rack, before asking Nyssa. "Was there any food or spices in the carriage as well?"
"Mmmm, there's just some hard bread and dried meat for food, but there is some salt in here." She pondered for a while, apparently looking through her storage. "There's also this weird lumpy brown thing stored with their food, do you know what it is?"
As she said that, a portal opened up right in front of me and I caught what fell out. "Oh, a potato."
"You know what it is?" She asked.
"Yeah, it's a potato, just a root vegetable. There are almost as many different ways to cook it as there are ways to cook in general." I said and dug a small hole before placing the potato inside. Using plant manipulation, I grew a whole potato plant from it in seconds. I then cleared the earth around the plant and pulled it up, showing 8 more freshly grown potatoes.
"Can you get a fire going, and please give me the sharpest dagger you have?" I asked Nyssa.
"Of course," She said, dropping a small sheathed dagger on the ground in front of me before busying herself with the fire.
The dagger must have come from the humans, as it was still in pristine condition. I headed over to the stream, making a small stone pot along the way. I scooped up some of the water into the pot and began washing off the potatoes before peeling and dicing them into the water. I came back to the pit and there was a nice fire going. I created a small rack out of stone and gave the pot a handle to hang it slightly above the fire.
"I need a few pieces of the dried wolf meat and some salt, please," I said, and 5 pieces of meat and a small bag fell into my open hand. I sliced the wolf meat into very thin strips and put it into the pot along with a pinch of salt, and leaving it all to slowly simmer.
"Well, that should be quite tasty in a little while," I said and made a couple of stone bowls and spoons. I then walked passed the river pear tree, created a stone jug and filled it half full of water from the stream. On my way back to the fire, I used plant manipulation to drop several of the fruits into my hand. I sat down by the fire and squeezed the fruit into the jug to make a rather tangy juice.
"Would you like some?" I asked the fae who was looking at me strangely.
"Nnn, yes please." and she pulled out a small porcelain cup and scooped up some of the liquid, before taking a quick drink.
"The meal is almost finished, please, come and join us. It does no good trying to hide like that, we aren't going to hurt you." I suddenly spoke up, startling Nyssa a bit.
"Eeep!" The young woman hiding just inside and looking around the edge of the door was even more startled. She had been there for nearly 10 minutes, just watching me cook and make juice.
"Please, come sit," I said, and created a stone chair near the fire. "How are your injuries, you were unconscious when we found you."
The woman gave up trying to hide and carefully emerged from the mountain entrance. "I-I'm fine, just a few minor cuts and scrapes." She then went from scared to a bit sad. "What- what happened to the others?"
"Ahhh, I'm sorry, by the time I scared off the rest of the goblins, you were the only one left," I responded quietly.
"Is- is that so." She said, looking downwards. She was silent for a while, before looking up at me with a determined look on her face. "In-in that case, by order of the noble Rambrick family house I-"
"Let me stop you right there." I interrupted. "First of all, I don't know any nobles, and could care less if you are one," I said flatly, watching the woman's confidence visibly deflate. "Second, we're in the middle of a forest with nobody else around, you can't really order me to do anything. Third, and most importantly, the meal is ready. So come sit down."
"But- I- Wha" The woman had a very confused look on her face as she stared wide eyed at me. I gave her a pointed look, causing her to quiet down, then pointed at the chair. She seemed to have a short internal struggle before finally giving up and taking a seat.
"Good, now for introductions. My name is Raak, and the one drooling over there while staring at the soup is Nyssa." I said far more cheerfully.
"Buh- Ah- I wasn't drooling," Nyssa spoke slightly flustered and wiping her face. "It just smells really good." She pouted.
"Um, a pleasure to meet you both." The woman said quietly. "My name is Clarabelle Rambrick from the Ostus kingdom."
"Nice to meet you, Clara," I said, scooping out some of the soup for all three of us, Nyssa had a small bowl ready for me. "If you don't mind my asking, where is the Ostus kingdom?"
"Eh? You don't even know that?" She said, rather surprised. "You're in the Ostus kingdom right now."
"Well, I haven't really left this forest yet, so how could I know what kingdom I'm in?" I said, handing the soup over to Clara along with one of the spoons.
"This is really good Raak," Nyssa said as she dug into the soup with full fervour.
Clara looked at Nyssa and me, both of whom were eating, then picked up a spoonful and brought it to her mouth. "Mmm, this actually is really good." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I don't think I've ever had this kind of meat before, what is it?"
"Smoked forest wolf," I said simply.
Clara nearly choked when she heard that, while spluttering she managed to stammer out. "Forest wolf!. How? It takes nearly 30 men to fight even a small pack without losses."
"Mm? A pack tried to take over my house, so I killed them and smoked the meat." I said, confused.
"You fought a whole pack of forest wolves by yourself? How is that even possible?" Clara said, slumping into her chair.
"Fight? Raak didn't fight them." Nyssa said offhandedly while eating her soup.
"She's right you know. A bunch of wolves locked in a stone room against someone with earth manipulation is hardly what I would call a fight." I said and she sunk even further into the chair. She was mumbling to herself very quietly but I still managed to hear what she was saying.
"He fought 30 goblins by himself! With a hammer! And he's a mage!."
"What do you mean, mage?" I asked, startling her.
"Bwuh! You heard that?" She spoke quickly, before finally calming down. "A mage is anyone who can use one of the great manipulation magics. How can you be a mage and not know you are one?"
"Oh, is that all. What do you call someone who can use three?" I said, picking up a seed, throwing it through a portal into a hole I created in the ground, and then causing a sapling to sprout from it. This caused Clara to shoot up out of her chair, nearly spilling soup all over.
Clara stared at the sapling for several minutes before finally calming down and taking a seat. She looked like she was forcing herself to remain calm. "We don't call them anything because I've never heard of someone with multiple affinities before." She said quietly after a short while. "Very few people have any affinity for magic, and for the few that do, they definitely only have one."
"She's right, Raak. Most races are limited to one type of magic per person." Nyssa interjected, she had finished her soup and had a very content look on her face. "Some, like very powerful elves and dragons, can gain a second or very rarely a third, but it takes hundreds of years of practice."
"Ahh, is that so?" I said, realizing again that the glutton skill is as overpowered as I had hoped it would be. All I really needed to do was eat something with enough magic and I could easily gain the skill from it.
"Uhm, sorry to interrupt," Clara spoke as she finished her meal. "What am I supposed to do now? I can't get back home without any guards and I can't make you take me there." She said with a dispirited look.
"Oh! Right!" I said before putting on a huge smile. "Have you tried asking nicely?"
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Name Raak Race Alloy Elemental Mass 219kg Str 48 Vit 52 Dex 36 Int 22 Wis 20 Hp 760 Mp 310
Skill List - Passive Level Glutton 1(MAX) Crystal Core 1(MAX) Journeyman Photosynthesis 5 Novice Hand to Hand Fighting 4 Apprentice Two-Handed Weapon Mastery 6 Novice Dismantling 8 Novice Cooking 9 Novice Leatherworking 3 Novice Enhanced Senses 8 Apprentice Sneak 3
Skill List - Active Level Glow 1(MAX) Journeyman Earth Manipulation 1 Apprentice Space Manipulation 2 Novice Plant Manipulation 8 Appraisal 1(MAX)