A large orc, twice the size of most of his kind, sat on top of a pile of wolf-creature bodies. He was enjoying looking at the blood flow down his ax. Loklok the third Chieftain of the Lok clan thought that it had the most interesting texture.

Another orc stepped forward. He was an old orc, his face covered in wrinkles and scars from many battles. “Loklok. You’ll want to see this.”

“Oh?” Loklok stood, bodies squelching under his boots.

Two orcs stepped forward, holding a rare specimen of the Krinol forest. A High Goblin. Loklok had greatly enjoyed butchering the last High Goblin when he was a young orc.

The battered and bruised High Goblin was thrown to the ground, whimpering in pain from its many broken bones.

“Tell him what you told me.” The weathered and old orc said to the High Goblin.

“Th-” The goblin coughed. “The goblins are rebelling oh, oh great chieftain. A goblin named Risha can evolve any goblin she wishes and she killed your overseer. I came here at great risk to myself to warn you-”

The orc chief laughed. “Oh what fun! More High Goblins to kill. I do enjoy seeing the sight of your purple skin covered in blood.” The orc reached down and picked up the High Goblin by his throat.

The High Goblin choked and gurgled in the orc’s grip. “High Goblins do have such pretty skin. Much better than their lesser brethren.”

A snapping sound cracked loudly as the orc chief snapped the throat of the goblin. “Halt the advance Ril.” The chief ordered the old orc. “We march towards the goblin villages as soon as the snows melt.”

“Yes Loklok.”

“I look forward to meeting this Risha.” The orc chief said, then shouted at an orc to bring his warbeast. A war spider that bled from the chains and spikes in its body moved towards the large orc. The orc climbed up onto the creature, then left towards their camp. Thousands of orcs moved to follow him.

Under the pile of bodies the chieftain had been resting on, a pair of eyes opened.

***

Risha watched her children sleep in their hibernation. Their next molt would be coming soon, she could tell. She’d evolve them when they woke up for it.

A High Goblin Elder jumped into the pit, grabbing her attention. Elder Milo, the craftsman smiled widely. “Come Risha, I have something to show you!”

The stout goblin smiled wide, his teeth not as sharp as the hunters, but still pointed. Risha took one last glance at her spiderlings, then moved to follow the excited Elder.

The Elder led her through the growing streets of the busy goblin town. No goblin had time to rest as they used their evolved skills to prepare themselves for the war that they knew was coming.

Milo led her into a small hut. Inside the walls were covered in chitin armor, webs, and weapons. A familiar craftsman sat at a table, his gaze stuck on a piece of chitin. He was familiar, but he’d changed. Ego the High Goblin Craftsman was bigger than she remembered him, his ears smaller, and he had two longer sharp teeth that stuck out of his mouth as he worked.

He looked up as the both of them entered the tent, a large smile spreading across his face.

“Ego, tell her what happened.” Elder Milo said with excitement.

Ego nodded. “I’ve been crafting ever since I evolved! Every time I created something I was proud of I’d get these ‘level up’ Words in front of my face. Like that breastplate, or that spear or-”

“Get to the important part.” Milo interrupted.

“Yeah, well, when I hit level fifteen new words popped up in front of my face. They asked me if I wanted to evolve into a High Goblin War Crafter.” the goblin looked sheepish. “I said yes. And now I’m level one again.”

Risha’s eyes went wide. “We can evolve again.” She turned to Elder Milo who mirrored her excitement.

“We can evolve again!” Milo said.

“The changes aren’t big.” Ego said, interrupting their excitement. “Not like when I first became a High Goblin.”

Risha shook her head. “But there are changes! That means we can get even stronger!” Risha paused, but she was already level 17, and she hadn’t leveled up yet. She also knew that a few of the hunters and warriors had hit level 15 while she was travelling.

Elder Milo must have guessed her thoughts, because he turned to her and continued. “Ego is the first craftsman to hit level 15. We don’t know if its the level or something else that allowed him to evolve.”

“Oh! Grand Mother, I had something I wanted to give you.” Ego picked up an arrow off the wall next to him. “My new skill seems strong, but I can’t seem to get it right. This is the only one that worked and well… look at it.”

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Risha was confused, because they looked like normal arrows. She stared harder, but didn’t see anything.

“What?”

“You can’t see it?” Ego looked down at the arrow intensely, then mumbled to himself. Suddenly, a blue screen popped up for Risha.

Arrow

Imbued with the bone of a bear, this arrow has extra piercing power.

Risha’s eyes widened at the description. Milo looked confused until Ego mumbled some more to himself and then his eyes widened as well.

“I’ve been trying to make another one with a blue screen, but it’s not easy.” Ego turned to the armor he was working on when they walked in. “I think this one’ll work when it’s finished.”

Risha pulled her sword out and held it out to the craftsman. “Does this one have a screen?”

“Where’d you get that?” Ego took the sword from her, his eyes roaming over it in awe. “It has a screen, but… you’re not going to like it.” Ego mumbled something, and a blue screen appeared in front of her.

Sword of the Calithi

???

???

Risha frowned as Ego handed it back to her. “There is something there! It just won’t show me for some reason. Maybe try again after I have more experience with my evolution?”

Ego looked embarrassed, but Risha didn’t care. Just the fact that there was something special about the sword had Risha excited.

They left the tent after a few more questions, but the craftsman didn’t have any new information.

Milo was pulled aside by another goblin as soon as they left tent and went off at a quick pace.

Risha watched him go, then turned her gaze to the goblins around her. They’d created a kind of crafting district for themselves. Gone were the days when Risha carved her own arrows, and she felt a little sad about that fact. It was how she’d calmed herself down after the stresses of daily life.

She returned to her pit, several arrows and her knife in her hand. She spent the next hour just etching meaningless symbols into her arrows with her knife. Halfway through a symbol, she paused as she felt one of her skills activating.

[Shaman’s Magic] was trying to flow through the little swirl she’d carved. She let it, pushing some of her mana through it.

The tip of the arrow dripped water where it had been dry a moment before.

She stared at the water, then to the symbol she’d drawn.

The next several hours were spent carving other symbols and seeing if they did anything. Some activated and seemingly did nothing, while others had minor effects. She only was able to discover a few, but the four elements quickly came to her, something about their design just making sense. She continued to experiment without much success until she decided to put two symbols in a row and flow her mana through it.

The water at the end of the arrow curved around the arrow instead of just going down. Risha tried several more combinations until she noticed that one of the combinations she’d drawn caused wind to flow around the arrow.

Fascinated by the change, she drew the arrow back, flowed her mana through the symbols and shot the arrow.

It shot faster than any arrow she’d ever shot, hitting the wall of the pit and burrowing into it.

Immediately, she made her way to Lia.

Lia, and the two other shamans who happened to be with the Elder were just as fascinated by Risha’s discovery.

They quickly found out that only shamans were capable of putting mana through the symbols, which made them useless for most of the goblins, but still incredibly fascinating to the shamans.

Risha enjoyed her experimentation with the shamans, and they in turn showed her the movements needed to create a wind, move water, and move rocks, something Lia and Risha had been having trouble with on their own.

Risha spent a lot of time on the movements, trying to memorize them. The wind one was incredibly useful for deflecting arrows, as the orc shaman had shown during their ambush of the Overseer.

Life in the goblin city slowly normalized as they worked towards creating an actual society.

Over the next month, another couple craftsmen evolved into specialized evolutions. One became a High Goblin War Crafter while the other one became a High Goblin Weaver.

A High Goblin Warrior hit level twenty and became a High Goblin Spearman, and Moko hit level twenty, evolving into a High Goblin Ranger.

Risha herself joined several hunting parties, reaching level twenty, but she didn’t evolve, instead gaining a skill.

[Mother’s Care] Those around you find their wounds healing without a trace.

Glo also hit level twenty without evolving, and they both had trouble leveling after that point.

Risha was talking with the shamans again when a goblin hunter burst in. “Grand Mother, a- a messenger has arrived.”

“A messenger?” Risha asked.

The goblin nodded, then motioned for Risha to follow.

She followed the goblin to the road leading out of the city. Kneeling in the dirt, with several arrows and spears aimed at it, was a familiar looking wolf-creature. This one was evolved, but not like the one she’d fought in the forest. It was sleeker and its eyes had more intelligence.

Risha showed her teeth in a growl at the creature, and several goblins around it tensed. Anger filled Risha, and she was tempted to order it dead, but stopped herself when it spoke.

“I have a message.” The creature said. Its accent was thick, and came out as more of a growl than words, but Risha still understood it.

Risha stared for a long hard moment, then motioned the goblins to stand down. It was by itself, and Risha was confident in being able to kill it.

The creature stood up, but still kept its head lowered.

“We need your help.” The wolf creature continued

Risha showed her teeth and growled.