I took a few slow, deep breaths and tried to think things through calmly. Chez seemed to be enjoying guard duty for the moment, but he would likely get bored soon. Only one more goblin had tried to come through, and that had been an hour ago. We were surrounded, with no safe path for escape. Breaking through a few apartments to the side and running for it seemed to be our best bet, but I didn’t like our chances. If there were any goblins in the hallway or stairwell to slow us down, the horde would catch us.

Then again, what choice did we have? All we had in here were a bunch of weapons and just over two-dozen corpses. Chez would have plenty to eat, though I found his cannibalism abhorrent. Though those corpses likely had soul shards, and with that many shards, I might be able to buy something useful.

“NPC shop,” I muttered.

NPC Shop

Perks

Equipment

Consumables

Territory

Balance: 1 Soul Shard

Perks and equipment were out. Unless the goblins Chez had harvested earlier were the exception, there would not be a full hundred shards among these corpses. Even if there was, none of those “cheap” one-hundred-point perks was going to get me out of this mess. As for equipment, goblins were so fragile that a single stab with a sharpened wooden spear was often enough to put them down. A better weapon wouldn’t help me fend off a horde, and there were enough of them out there that I would be overwhelmed no matter what armor I wore. Maybe if I could get a full set of armor they were too strong to break through, I could fend them off in the doorway indefinitely, but the second I stepped out into the hall, they would surround me, and I would have to keep Chez safe somehow as well. I also doubted that the two-dozen shards I was expecting to recover would be able to buy me such a set of armor.

That left consumables and territory. I didn’t have much hope for either one. The consumables section was likely comprised of things like medicine and food, but I wasn’t sure what territory would contain. I couldn’t imagine anything related to territory that could help here, but I decided to start with the greater unknown and tapped on “Territory”.

NPC Shop - Territory

Claim

Upgrade

Repair

Manage

Balance: 1 Soul Shard

There were only three options, but upgrade and repair were greyed out, so I selected “Claim.”

NPC Shop - Territory - Claim Sunset Tower:

Floor 37

Floor 53

Floor 54

Floor 55

Floor 56

Floor 57

Floor 58

Floor 59

Balance: 1 Soul Shard

All the floors I had secured so far were listed, along with this current one. I chose “Floor 53” to see if anything there could help me.

NPC Shop - Territory - Claim Sunset Tower: Floor 53

Apartment 5314 - 1 shard - Under Siege

Balance: 1 Soul Shard

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Unfortunately, the only option available was the apartment I was in, and I couldn’t select it because it was under siege. I gave up on territory, returned to the main shop menu, and selected consumables.

NPC Shop - Consumables

Food

Beverages

Medical Supplies

Potions

Poisons

Balance: 1 Soul Shard

My finger lunged at the word “Poisons” as soon as I read it. It was the first shred of hope I had found since the goblins had laid siege to the apartment. A long list filled my vision of countless poisons, all sorted by price. I was overwhelmed, I had never heard of any of the cheap ones listed here, and I had no idea what I could use. As soon as I thought, “What would work on a goblin,” the list reformed. All the potions worth less than five shards vanished, and the cheapest one remaining was simply called “goblin bane.”

At five shards each, it was painfully expensive, and there was no further information available. I didn’t know how many doses it contained or how best to administer it, but I had nothing else left to try. I called Chez over and handed him a club and a knife. I tried for a few moments to explain what I wanted, but eventually, I had to start cutting open the first goblin and then gesture for him to continue. I took over guard duty at the doorway while I heard the sickening crunch of bones breaking behind me.

Chez came back with each shard, and each time I sent him back. He worked dutifully, only occasionally stopping to eat one of the hearts. If I hadn’t seen him harvest shards before, I would have wondered why it took so long, but it took a great deal of effort to break through a ribcage with a wrench and carve out a heart. I wondered if it would have been easier to cut in from below the ribcage, but the only way I could explain that to Chez would be to show him. I would rather wait than have to stick my hand inside a goblin’s corpse.

Eventually, he had harvested them all. I had twenty-seven shards now, counting the one from earlier, and in the time it took for Chez to finish his work, only a single goblin had tried to come through the hole. It was getting late. The sunlight streaming through the half-closed blinds had faded into night, and now the only light that remained was from the apartment lights, but I knew the building’s power reserves wouldn’t last much longer. I needed to be off this floor before darkness came.

I washed the shards in the kitchen sink, and I was grateful that the goblins hadn’t defiled the soap. I shuddered in anticipation as I remembered the rush a single shard had given me, but I didn’t have time to savor the feeling right now. I counted out twenty-four shards, set the remaining three aside, and poured them all into my mouth. I hesitated for a split second, wondering if I was making a mistake, and then I bit down. The euphoric surge was overwhelming, and I struggled to remain standing as my teeth broke a handful of the shards. The taste was heavenly, and I involuntarily shuddered in pleasure. It took me a few minutes to recover, and then I bit down again. When all of the shards had dissolved, and I had taken time to clear my head, I looked up and found Chez staring at me with heartbroken longing.

Despite knowing that I had to spend the shards on the poison to give us a chance at breaking out of here, I felt ashamed of myself. I had promised myself that Chez would get his fair share of soul shards, and I had just betrayed that promise, even if he didn’t know I had made it. I walked over to him and held out the remaining three shards to him.

“Shard,” I said.

“Chard,” Chez whispered as he slowly reached out and tenderly took them from my hand.

I took over guard duty while Chez scampered away with his treasure, and his growls of delight filled the room while I opened up the shop.

I bought five batches of goblin bane without hesitation, and twenty-five shards turned into five small leather pouches hovering in the air before me. I snatched them out of the air before they could fall, and I called Chez back once he had finished his treats. He rushed back when I called and proudly showed me a new knife.

The handle was crude and appeared to have been crafted from bone or antler. The blade was rough and blocky but was very strong and wickedly sharp. At least he had bought something useful, as kitchen knives were rather flimsy and fragile in comparison, and it looked like we would have plenty of throat slashing in our future. It was rather adorable how proud he was of his new knife, like a dog showing off his new toy. I set Chez back on guard duty, and he gestured to the room with a pleading look on his face. I stuck out my chin, and he rushed around the room and back, making a pile of over twenty hearts, some of which were sickeningly small.

I knew how many goblins had been in the apartment. There was one shard for each dead goblin plus a single spare that I imagined could have come from the leader if he was “worth more,” but that math only worked if I counted the children. I tried to tell myself that six more of the goblins had provided two shards, but I knew that one of my pouches of poison had been bought with the lives of those children.

What was done was done, but I still felt wretched for my part in children’s deaths, even if they were goblin spawn. If I had known what would happen, I would never have left Chez alone with them. I wondered if all goblins were so merciless when met with the children of their enemies, or if Chez was uniquely damaged. I would have to avoid that situation happening again until I could speak with him well enough to ask him why.

I carefully opened one of the leather pouches while desperately trying to ignore the sound of Chez eating on the job. It was full of grey powder. I had to think for a moment about how I would get them to eat this. What it was going to be used on was obvious. The only food I could see in the apartment were the corpses of their kin, but how to lace them with poison was the hard part. I didn’t think smearing the dry powder on their skin would be very effective, and much of it would fall or be brushed off when they started eating. I could mix it with water and spread it on, but I felt that would be equally wasteful.

The best I could come up with was slicing new wounds in the corpses and rubbing the poison into the wound where it would mix with what little blood the corpses had left. I dragged five corpses over near the door, one for each pouch, and started slicing deep wounds in their arms, chests, and legs. I used a whole pouch on each corpse and spread the poison around as best I could.

Once I was out of poison, there was only one thing left to do. I heaved the corpses through the hole in the door. The first corpse was impaled as soon as its head was through, but as soon as they realized it was dead, they pulled it through for me. The next four went the same way, and soon I heard elated chittering, howls of triumph, and the delightful sound of tearing flesh and gnashing teeth.