Silvermoon wolves were monsters perfectly adapted for life in the forest. Their claws were razor sharp and pointed, allowing them to dig into protruding roots and any sort of soil, and combined with their powerful leg muscles, they were able to cover tremendous distance during a hunt. Even with her slightly boosted agility stat, Elaria was struggling to stay on the tail of the cowardly goblin fleeing atop his canine mount. If she lost them now, all of her effort would be for naught. There was still a lot of ground to cover between here and Lockmire, so she was sure that completing the three missions from the adventurer’s guild wouldn’t pose a problem even if she did miss out on this opportunity, but her sharpened sense from years as a reporter were telling her that there was a deeper mystery hidden in this forest, and following her targets was the key to unlocking it.
Luckily for her aching legs and burning lungs, the pursuit finally came to a close as a wooden palisade made of thick stakes, at least three metres tall. The goblin was stopped outside a gate, and two other goblins on guard inside a watchtower that looked like it might collapse into splinters at any moment shouted out in the garbled tongue of their kind. The ragged goblin shouted something back, the panic evident in its voice, such that even with the language barrier Elaria could roughly guess what it was saying. The goblins in the watchtower started yelling at something behind the palisade, and the gates flew open, the wolf limping in with its charge, exhausted after fleeing at top speed for almost twenty minutes straight.
Elaria realised that the source of the highly organised goblins must be this fortress deep in the forest. Given how close they were to Felspire, it was rather shocking that the monsters had been allowed to develop to such a level. Were the adventurers in the city simply too scared to venture into the forest and keep up the regular subjugation of the goblins? Or perhaps the mastermind behind this group was intelligent enough to realise that not attacking the humans would allow them to remain undiscovered and give them time to grow and stabilise their position. If that was the case, then this was definitely a massive problem. Low level monsters like goblins weren’t supposed to be this smart. She had to try and get closer to the fortress and check it out without being discovered.
Thankfully, the commotion caused by the goblin’s return had distracted the guards in the watchtower, and Elaria was able to dash from the treeline to the palisade without being spotted. The tall stakes were almost double her height, but with her physical ability it was no problem to leap up and grab hold of the smoothly carved wood. Peeking ever so slightly over the top, in case any of the monsters were watching the wall and happened to spot her, she was shocked to see a sprawling village, perhaps you might even consider calling it a town, given the amount of buildings constructed from timber and some larger structures even utilising carved stone. It was an impressive display of architectural skill given the poor reputation of goblins. There were hundreds of the things, running around performing various tasks, in a poor mimicry of human civilization, alongside a lesser number of silvermoon wolves, following the goblins and assisting where necessary.
Although perhaps it was arrogant to assume that only humans could have organised civilisation, goblins were not renowned for their smarts or cooperation, so it wasn’t that unfair to assume producing such a settlement was an impossibility for them. Near the gate was a crowd of goblins surrounding the escapee, listening as the skinny fellow spoke in garbled tongues and waved around arms so thin they looked as if they might snap in a strong breeze. After hearing the story of their brother, they started yelling in rage and fury, and a few of them ran in a direction Elaria guessed was the centre of the town. She jumped down from the wall, and stealthily made her way around the circumference, repeating her action of peeking at various intervals, gathering information about this unique goblin fortress.
After creating a rough mental map of the place, Elaria retreated back into the forest, putting some distance between her and the town, making sure to erase her tracks as best she could in case they decided to send another search party after her. Either they would be wary of reckless pursuit given the swiftness and overwhelming strength with which she put down the previous group, or the loss of more of their comrades would light the fires of vengeance in them and the next time they rode out it would be in greater numbers. The sensible decision, and one which most in her place would take, was to return back to Felspire and report her findings to the adventurer’s guild, so they could issue an official mission to wipe out the goblins. Such a mission would probably be of silver grade, and thus out of her reach. She might get a reward for her diligence, but it wouldn’t be that substantial.
The darker, battle hungry part of Elaria was offering a far more dangerous, yet exciting choice. Compared to what she was about to do, all of the battles she’d faced until this moment seemed like child’s play. It would be stupid to simply charge into the town and start slicing up goblins, especially given that it was still the early afternoon, and even with the progress she’d made, killing hundreds of goblins on her lonesome was most definitely an impossible task, at least in open battle. If her father knew the risk she was about to take, he’d probably kill her himself before the goblins could even try, but the tempting prospect of the rewards that would await if she brought down this fortress solo won out over her rational mind.
Imagine all that experience! Given that she hadn’t heard a single story about Jacob since he left home, his grand boasts of becoming a world renowned hero before she turned ten years old clearly hadn’t come to fruition. At the rate she was growing, perhaps by the time she managed to find her old friend Elaria would already have overtaken him. His reaction would be hilarious. She could just imagine the look on his face now. The only issue was having to actually take down all the goblins first, without any help. It was a herculean task that she had decided to undertake, but whether or not it was overconfidence that made her believe she could achieve the complete destruction of the goblin town by herself, it was something she was going to do, or die trying. Living a life of adventure and risk was what she had pledged to do the day she left home, and if she wanted to make a name for herself, this kind of heroic feat was perfect.
Taking her backpack, Elaria began rummaging through her belongings to see if there was anything that would be useful in trying to assault a town. Unfortunately, most of what she’d brought with her was dried food, water and some clothes. The stink bomb might have been useful, but she’d been forced to use that to escape the ambush of the goblins earlier. She would be able to use Lesser Call of the Treasury once night fell, and if the pattern continued, perhaps her good luck would persist and she’d receive something useful for distracting or slaughtering goblins. In the end, after going through everything, she kept her fire starting kit and some water with her, before hiding her pack underneath a tree and making a mental note of the location so she could return after her victory. The only thing left to do now was assign any extra stat points she had, and wait for the sun to set.
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Taking out the final pursuers earlier had been a tremendous boon, since a few of the monsters were above level 5. She’d levelled up two more times, giving her 2 stat points to allocate. There was the temptation to put them into luck and see if the treasury would give something even more ridiculous than it had so far, but in the end she split them between strength and agility, knowing that the small increases to her fighting prowess would prove invaluable against the hordes of goblins and wolves inside the fortress. Checking out her status, she noticed that upon reaching level 10, the box which said ‘Class: Locked’ had changed, and upon tapping the arrow, a message appeared.
[https://i.imgur.com/mf1ut2L.png]
Hello again my dear, I’ve once again snuck through the firewalls, and replaced the default class selection message to check up on you and give you some much needed motivation and possibly assistance! Level 10! An impressive milestone, and one I’m surprised you reached so quickly, even with my gift. It’s rare to find someone who takes to the system so quickly. Choosing your class is not a permanent decision, but changing it later on is extremely difficult and time consuming, so it’s best to select one that you will stick with. It is also one of the toughest decisions to make, given the endless options to choose from, a lot of which provide similar or identical bonuses, at least to start with, and many that offer little to no clues about what they do. You’ll only be able to see classes which you’ve met the requirements for, however, so most people don’t get much in the way of choice beyond the basics. You know my nature by now, and I won’t be offering help beyond explanations, so you might end up a little confused, but we both know you love to take a risk, so perhaps a mysterious class is perfect for you. I’m rambling. Let me briefly explain the basics for you. A class is a crystallisation of your goals and talents, a name for what it is that you do, whatever that may be. The most popular choices in Teron are ‘Farmer’ and ‘Warrior’ unsurprisingly. To begin with, they provide minor bonuses to your stats, and some even give you skills. You can read about all the available classes before you make a selection, and I recommend taking your time here. Classes evolve once you reach higher levels, but that’s a topic for another time. Once you’ve made your choice, you’ll have to complete a quest to truly obtain the class, but for you, it should be a breeze.
All the best,
Zel
PS. Good luck taking down all those goblins!
Her mysterious benefactor was frustratingly unhelpful as usual, offering little in the way of actual advice or assistance, instead simply rambling on in flowery prose and throwing about tantalising hints for the future. Frankly, she was surprised Zel even slipped in an actual explanation of the class system. Checking out the list of choices, ‘endless’ was an apt descriptor. It went on and on and on, a truly infinite number of classes she could take for herself. That meant that she’d managed to fulfil the requirements for all of them, although she wasn’t sure exactly how the Chain judged that.
It had taken her almost five hours of trawling through the list, but Elaria eventually narrowed her choices down to just three. While there was some minor variation in the benefits each class provided, none were obviously overpowered, even the higher grade ones. Zel had also mentioned that she would need to complete a quest to receive the class, so with greater rewards would presumably first come a more difficult task. However, given that she was in the midst of preparing to take on an entire town of goblins and wolves by herself, she didn’t expect the class quest to be too much for her to handle, no matter her choice of class. The three options left would take her down slightly different paths, and she had wanted to hold out as long as possible before making this kind of decision, but there was a chance she wouldn’t survive the coming battle, so it seemed pointless to wait further.
Gambler (Exotic)
Most people are born without luck. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as the dice of fate can roll for blessing or disaster, and those favoured by fortune often have lives marred by loss and despair. There is a certain thrill in putting everything on the line and relying on the will of the universe to see you through.
+3 to Luck
Dice of Fate - 6h Cooldown
People are more likely to agree to wagers you propose
Shadowstalker (Legendary)
You are the predator in the shadows.
+1 to Luck and Dexterity
+2 to Agility
Hidden Blade - Passive
Child of Mana (Legendary)
The energy of the world bends to your will. Born under a star of fate, the children of mana are naturally gifted in the ways of mana manipulation and magic.
+3 to Intelligence
+1 to Dexterity
Manablessed - Passive