Congratulations! You have reached level 3 in the Chief job. +1% increase to all stats.

Congratulations! You have reached level 13 in the Ruler specialty. +1 to all stats, +1 to attack and +1 to defense.

Once the battle was over Elijah received two notifications for his job and specialty. Although Elijah expected to gain a level in his job and specialty, he still couldn’t help but smile when he read the notifications. Gaining levels in his job and specialty wasn’t easy because he gained experience based on his interactions with the characters in the game.

Of course, interacting with characters in game wasn’t a terrible way to gain experience. However, so far, Elijah only gained experience when he had helpful interactions with his villagers. Sadly, for him there weren’t many opportunities to have helpful interactions.

Before Elijah arrived, the village had been operating very well. All of the adults had a task they were responsible for. If one of the villagers became overworked and needed help, they would share their workload with the children. If Elijah tried to help the overworked villagers, he would be taking learning opportunities away from the children. Even when Elijah kept his Ruler’s Presence active around a group of villagers, he didn’t receive much experience in his specialty or job.

Truthfully, Elijah started to doubt the path that he was put on by his future self. Other than the large increase he received in his specialty when he became a chief, both his specialty and his job gained very little experience. He felt like he would be doing better if he focused on a job and specialty that were like the typical warrior, he played in other virtual reality games. The more Elijah thought about his future prospects as a ruler the quicker his excitement waned.

At first, he was excited about taking the path of a ruler while playing Fallen Heaven. In other virtual reality games Elijah played, he often tried to form guilds, clans and teams where he was the leader. Although the groups did well in the beginning, they all eventually ended in failure.

Elijah felt like the same thing was going to happen in Fallen Heaven. Elijah knew he was in the beginning of the game, and it was natural for his growth to be slow. However, he would often recall his previous failure and his mind couldn’t help but think about the worst-case scenario. Thankfully, Elijah received the quest to hunt down goblins.

Initially, Elijah saw the goblins as a major threat toward the safety of the village. However, after his first battle with the goblins, Elijah started viewing them as experience points with legs. At the end of the first battle against a large group of goblins Elijah received experience toward his specialty and his job.

In addition to receiving experience for the battle, Elijah was able to gain experience toward his job when he healed injured warriors. The brief experience drought was over and Elijah’s faith in his future self was restored. He only hoped that the goblins would keep coming and provide him with an endless source of experience.

Shaking his head, Elijah immediately got rid of that ridiculous thought. He knocked on his wooden shield hoping to chase away any bad luck he brought himself. He would hate for the villagers to suffer because he was greedy for experience.

“Anyone needs healing?” Elijah asked everyone.

Healing injured warriors gave Elijah experience, but it also gave him his first insight into what being a ruler was really about. Being a ruler was about helping others. Of course, there were other factors involved in being a ruler, but it would take time for Elijah to learn about all of them.

Light began emanating from Elijah’s hands when he activated his Heal Minor Wounds skill. Elijah focused on wounds that gave the warriors bleeding damage and mentally guided his skill to stop the bleeding on those wounds. Elijah didn’t know how his skill worked, but he was still able to slightly affect the effect it had on wounds. Sadly, he wasn’t able to change the amount of health the skill recovered.

Once the warrior was healed, he gave Elijah a look full of gratitude and respect. Whenever Elijah received that look from the warriors, he healed he couldn’t help but feel joy and pride. It gave him a sense of accomplishment he wasn’t able to receive by simply walking around the village. Every time Elijah received that look from his warriors, he wondered why he ever thought being a ruler was a bad idea.

“So, these are our captives?” Elijah asked. After Elijah was done healing the warriors that were experiencing bleeding damage, he walked toward Justin, the players and a few warriors that were guarding eight goblins.

Goblin Lvl 26

Goblin Lvl 30

Goblin Lvl 31

Goblin Lvl 28

“Yeah, we’ve been trying to get them to talk, but we haven’t had much success.” Justin responded. “I know at least this one is able to talk, since it was able to curse at us using our language.” Justin kicked the goblin he was talking about. “But the moment it realized we were trying to get information out of it, its mouth has been locked shut.”

Looking at the goblins in front of him Elijah saw that they were all male and they looked back at him with eyes full of hatred. All of them were between level twenty-six and level thirty-one. Justin and the others tied up their arms and leg. Also, they removed most of the clothing that the goblins were wearing, revealing their green skin to the night air.

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“Let’s bring over Goblin One. Maybe he could give us some advice.” Elijah suggested after he thought about what Justin said.

“Who?” One of the village warriors asked.

“The first goblin we captured,” Justin clarified. “Go grab it.”

“Where trying to get these goblins to talk.” Elijah told Goblin One after he was brought over. “Do you have any suggestions?”

The eight goblins tied up on the ground looked at Elijah in shock. Elijah noticed their shock and correctly guessed that it was because they heard him speak in the goblin tongue. The goblin shock quickly disappeared and was replaced by anger when they heard how Goblin One responded to Elijah’s question.

“I suggest you torture them until they talk. Our ears are the most sensitive parts of our body. If you want, I can do it for you?” The goblin looked at the captured goblins with a sinister smile on his face as he asked Elijah for permission.

“Traitor!”

“Bastard!”

“Go Die!”

All of the goblins started shouting at the top of their lungs raining down curses on to Goblin One. As they did so, Elijah told the others what the goblins were shouting and what Goblin One suggested. Justin and the other quickly agreed to let the goblin conduct the interrogation. Elijah gave the goblin the go ahead and stepped back to watch it work.

Goblin One stepped forward with a wide creepy smile on its face and began torturing its fellow goblins. At first, the captured goblins continued to curse at Goblin One, but it only took a few moments for them to start begging for mercy. Goblin One didn’t have any tools or equipment. He relied on his sharp nails, teeth and understanding of the goblin body to get the goblins to talk.

Although the captured goblins were willing to talk, Goblin One didn’t stop torturing them. He had a perverse expression on its face, and it looked like he had lost himself in the pleasure of torturing his companions. It took several commands from Elijah before Goblin One reluctantly stopped torturing the other goblins.

“Now, tell us what you know about the other groups of goblins, and use the human tongue.”

The goblins began to sing like canaries. However, only the level thirty and thirty-one goblins were able to speak in the human tongue. The other goblins were speaking in their own tongue, and they would have continued to do so if Elijah didn’t tell them to shut up.

The two goblins told Elijah the same information he got from Goblin One, but it was much more detailed. They told Elijah and the others that there were two more small groups of goblins and the approximate number of goblins in each group. Also, they were able to give Elijah more information about the goblins main group.

The good news was that the main group wasn’t full of warriors. Instead, approximately half of the group was comprised of women and children. Bad news was the total number of goblins in the main group was six hundred.

“We can go after the smallest group first,” Justin suggested once the goblins finished speaking. “Elder Jamal and the others are close to the larger group. We can meet up with them before the second battle.”

“Sounds good to me,” Elijah responded. “What do you think we should do with the goblins?”

“We don’t need to bring all of them with us. We should kill the ones that only speak goblin and force the other two to swear a heavenly oath.”

“Are you sure we should kill them?” Tyler asked. “I think we should try to find some way to make them fight for us?”

Justin words made the two goblins frown, but the other goblins didn’t have a reaction. The level thirty and thirty-one goblins began informing the other goblins about what Justin and the others were discussing. Elijah and the others noticed their conversations, but they didn’t care since the goblins wouldn’t be able to escape.

“There’s no way we can trust them,” Justin refuted. “Even with a heavenly oath they can still cause a distraction or attack us in battle before they receive punishment from the heavens.

“Yeah, that’s why we tied Goblin One up before the battle,” Elijah agreed. “It would be best to kill most of them and-”

“Please spare us!” The level thirty-one goblin shouted at Elijah in the goblin tongue. “We can be useful. We will definitely help you fight and never betray you. If you really need to kill one of us, then you should kill that weakling over there.”

Goblin One panicked and immediately began trying to defend itself. “Don’t believe them I’ve been with you the longest and I’ve always obeyed your commands. As long as you let me fight, I will definitely kill anyone you ask me to.”

“Why would he need a weakling like you-”

Elijah watched them argue with a neutral expression on his face. Justin and the others were watching them as well. They couldn’t understand the goblins, but they found their arguing entertaining and were curious to see how it would end.

“Master, if you really want to control them then you can force them to be your slaves!” Goblin One shouted.

Immediately the goblins stopped arguing. The captured goblins looked at Goblin One with eyes full of shock and horror, but those two emotions were quickly suppressed by their anger. Elijah was surprised by the goblins' reactions, but he was even more surprised by the fact that he felt he should understand what Goblin One was talking about.

“What do you mean by making them slaves?” Elijah asked, “I’ve already captured them.”

“It’s very common for us goblins to be enslaved by stronger races.” Goblin One stated. “If you-”

“Bastard, shut your mouth right now. If you say anything else, I’ll-” One of the warriors kicked the goblin speaking when he saw Elijah frown.

“Continue,” Elijah told Goblin One.

“You only have to say ‘I want to make you, my slave. Do you accept?’ to make a goblin your slave. If they don’t agree you can enter a battle of wills to forcefully make them your slave. But there is a chance you will be injured through this method.”

Elijah frowned as he listened to Goblin One’s explanation. Every word he said was like a puzzle piece clicking into place. It felt like Goblin One was awakening memories he didn’t even know he had. That’s why he asked Goblin one to continue speaking even though he finished his explanation.

“What else can you tell me?”

“That’s it. You only have to say those words and fight if a person refuses you.”

“That can’t be it. There’s should be more to the process. What aren’t you telling me?”

“That’s all I know. If there’s more, nobody ever told me anything.” Elijah could sense that Goblin One was telling the truth, so he decided to move on.

“And why didn’t you mention this before?” Elijah remembered asking Goblin One if he had a way to earn his trust and Goblin One swore a heavenly oath instead of offering to become a slave.”

“I forgot because I was truly scared at that time. Now that I remembered, I immediately told you about it. I would be happy if you made me your slave.”

It was easy for Elijah to see that the goblin was lying. Most likely the goblin was planning on escaping or betraying Elijah in the future. However, Elijah didn’t dwell on the goblin’s previous deceit. Instead, he focused on answering an important question. What were the consequences of turning goblins into slaves and was he prepared to face them?