Chapter 7

Coming to a small meadow we see one of the small goblin creatures digging around some of the very bright and colorful flowers. Stopping at the edge of the woods we just stare. I start speaking my thoughts out loud and the group listens. “ Ok guys, let's watch what it does before we walk out there. I know in the wild it's always smart to watch what animals do before making a move. Maybe they are herbivores, or maybe it knows something we don’t know about those flowers.” They just nod at me when I finish speaking and we just watch as the goblin keeps digging. Looking closely at the goblin I see a level two next to its label.

Skill level gain

Inspection Level 1 < 2

Did anyone just level their Inspection skill? “Yes,” everyone says. “Alright, John, come with me. We are going to confront this thing and see what it does. Everyone else stay back. If it attacks, feel free to join in.” Getting confirmation nods from everyone, John walks just off to my right as we step into the meadow. He is wielding a cutting axe, with a dagger just like mine on his hip. I pull one of the hatchets and hold it low in my right hand.

Approaching the goblin I start talking to it like I would a wild dog. “Hey there little guy.” The goblin immediately snaps its head up looking straight at me. I slow my steps even more so I don't approach it too quickly. When I am about fifteen feet from it I stop as it peels its lips back in a snarl showing me the pointed teeth. Welp, I think to myself, it is definitely not a herbivore. It pulls its hands out of the solid and I see the short claws it has on all four of its fingers. I slowly bend my knees to give myself better movement, also to lower myself like I’m dealing with a dog. “Hey buddy, I don't mean you any harm. You look like you are struggling there. Can I help you get that out of the ground?”

Taking a half step closer I quickly stop and step back as it starts to rush at me growling. It leaps when it’s about three feet away aiming at my face. Sidestepping I feel a tug at my shirt along with a stinging pain on my left shoulder. “Fuck, you little shit.” It quickly turns around and runs at me again. It’s so short that it is now running on all four. It doesn't jump this time and just keeps coming at my legs. As it gets closer it stops running on all four as it lifts its arms up and swipes at me again. Stepping back I take a wide swing with the hatchet. Of course I miss it. It’s a quick little fucker as it bends back down to all four and moves under my swing and off to the side. While focusing on me though it didn’t notice John.

Coming in a run John doesn’t even swing with the ax. He just steps into a kick, almost like he is trying to kick a field goal. I hear ribs crack as his work boots make contact with goblin and it goes rolling away from him. Not giving it a chance I run towards it as it is slowly getting back up. I take a good one handed grip on the hatchet and swing it down, right into the back of the goblins neck. The hatchet goes all the way through leaving its head hanging on by just a strip of flesh. I’m slightly disgusted by the black blood that squirts out onto my pants leg, as I hear someone behind me retch.

Enemy defeated.

Level 2 Goblin.

Experience gained split. 5/200

I step back to get away from the goblins' blood, and also to wipe my hatchet clean on the grass. I look at the other guys and see one of them bent over as he throws up again. The others are watching the goblin bleed out. “Ok, well they are definitely not friendly,” I chuckle. “John, did you also get five experience from that?” He nods, “ Yeah I did. I think that I broke its ribs’ with that kick.” “Yeah you definitely did. I heard them snap. So that tells us that these things are weak, and easily killed. But also they are fast. Did everyone see how it moved? It stayed low right until it was ready to attack. Also watch out for their jump. I didn’t expect it to be able to jump that high.”

Everyone looks at me as I’m talking. I walk over to the goblins corpse. “ It has sharp claws, and teeth.” I look down at, and reach down to flip it over. The first thing I notice are its pupils, they are hourglass shaped like a sheeps. I start talking as I look it over. “It has eyes like a sheep, so that must mean it has excellent peripheral vision. But its arms and legs are really thin. So I don't think they are that strong. Also does anyone else see the slight glow on it?” “I do,” John says. Everyone else just says no or shakes their head.

I reach down and touch the goblins chest.

Loot Goblin Yes/No

I stare at the message for a second before mentally clicking yes.

Loot obtained

2 Copper Pieces

As that message fades so does the glow. “Alright, it seems like this is even more like a video game, because I just looted this thing.“ John walks over and also touches it. “ Same here, I got one Copper piece.” “I received two from it. I wonder if it is random or if I received more for killing it.” Not knowing what else to do I take a few steps away from it and address the group again.

“Ok so we know these things are hostile and dangerous. Also they give loot when you kill them, I don't know what the copper is for but it has to be used for something. So now we have a choice. Do we keep exploring or do we turn back and wait to see what the info dump says at the end of the day?”

After everyone talks to their partner we all agree to keep exploring and to stay close to each other in case of any issues. Before heading out I walk over to the flower that the goblin was digging at and inspect it.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Unknown flora

Uses unknown

Not knowing what else to do with that, and because I don’t think I have ever seen this flower before, I quickly take a picture of it and send it and a message about what happened to Alice and the rest of the Reps, and programmers. I wonder if like a video game that there is an herbalist skill or something and I just don’t have it. Feeling a slight sting on my shoulder as I stand back up I figure I should look at the wound goblin left me. I didn’t notice any notifications about it so i figured it’s just a scratch. After pulling my shirt sleeve up I see that's all it is. The bleeding has already stopped, and there are just three little red lines, and the holes in my shirt.

“Well they must not be that strong, it only left a small scratch on me.” I say as I turn to show John. He nods at me and I look back down at the flower the goblin was digging at. “ I wonder why it was digging this one up?” I kneel back down and dig around it trying to uproot it. As I get deeper and deeper I notice that this flower has multiple tubers growing off of it. “This thing is like a potato.” I pull a few of them out and store them in my inventory for later. “Who knows they might be useful.

Standing up I head towards John and we start to make our way around the clearing. John says “I used to do some hunting back home. So I wonder if we can’t find this things trail and see where it came from.” “ Do we really want to find more of them right now?” I respond. “Point taken, but we should know what direction they come from so we can let other people know to be on the lookout.”

“Alright, I agree if nothing else we want to be able to warn everyone. Assuming other people didn't find them already.” John notices a bush with some broken branches on it. Looking farther into the woods he points out the trail. “I think this is where it csme from. It’s hard to tell with a new trail like this, but the broken branches and scuff marks look fresh. Too bad the ground is so dry. There is no mud to leave footprints in. But let’s head this way and see if we can get a rough area of where it came from.”

“Ok that sounds fine, but first sign of trouble and we haul ass back towards town. Last thing I want is to be surrounded by a dozen of the little green buggers,” I say. We start to make our way down the trail as quietly as possible. Of course never being a country boy myself it sounds like I step on every twig and stick laying on the ground. It doesn’t take long before we can’t see the field anymore. “John, I hope you can find our way back. Because if we go much farther I think that I will be lost.”

“I can find our way back.” John whispers back. “ We are only a few miles away from town if we head straight towards it, instead of going around the long way we did to find the clearing back there.”

“Ok good.” I check the time on my interface and I’m surprised it's not even noon yet. Whispering back, I try not to break John’s concentration. “We should head back no later than three or four pm so we don't miss the evening meeting.” Also so it doesn't get dark while we are out here I think to myself.

Following behind John I am surprised by how little noise he is making. I try to step like he does. Heel to toe, keeping my knee’s bent. I am surprised when I get a notification.

Stealth Unlocked

Level 0<1

Huh I think to myself. I wonder if John unlocked this already and this is why he is so quiet, or if this is just a natural way to walk for him. I guess it doesn’t really matter. I stay ten or so feet behind John and just keep looking around. If he is tracking I should keep an eye out around us. After twenty minutes of moving slowly John pauses and signals for me to come closer to him.

“There are multiple tracks now. It looks like a group of them came this way and split apart here. The main track heads that way.” He points ahead of us and to the left. “The others split off and went in multiple directions. We are going to keep following this main trail and see what we find. If we find them we might have to run. This trail looks to be at least six of them.” I nod to him. “Ok lets go.”

John started moving again and I followed. We slowly moved through the forest, as we moved I noticed a few more skill ups for stealth. Looks like I was level three now. Why is this skill leveling so quickly? I doubt it’s from me sneaking up on John. Who knows, I think to myself. Soon after I see the trees thin out up ahead and John slows down again and waves me up.

“There is a group of three of them up there.” Stepping up next to him I see them as well. It looks like they are bending branches together to put together a rough looking hut. While watching we see two more of them come back and drop off more branches and head out into the forest again. “It looks like they are setting up a camp.” John states. “Let's move off this trail and deeper into those bushes over there. We can watch them for a bit then head back.” I nod to him and we slowly and carefully move into some thicker brush to hide ourselves.

Crouched down in the brush we just watched them for the next half an hour. About the time my knees start to ache, we see two more groups come back each carrying more branches. They start grunting, clicking and snarling at each other. Leaning towards John I whisper, “are they talking to each other?” Before he has a chance to answer, the goblins go quiet and look right at the bushes we are in. They keep staring and I can’t help but think there is no way they heard me from forty feet is there? Two of them make a clicking noise after what feels like an eternity of me holding my breath. They all get back to work after that. John just looks at me and motions me to stay quiet by holding a finger to his mouth. After a few more minutes he motions to me and we slowly make our way back from the bushes to the trail and move back away from their camp. After ten minutes or so of slowly moving away from them John turns back to me and whispers.

“Ok, that was too close for my liking. It seems they have incredible hearing and we need to get back and let the others know about this camp. It looks like there are at least a dozen of them living here.” I just nod to him and we pick up the pace heading back towards camp. I try to send a message to the others of our group and I get a system message.

Unable to send messages. Too far away from town to send or receive messages. Get closer to town or build relays.

“John, we aren't able to send or receive messages this far away from town. The system says we have to get closer or build relays according to the system message. So I can’t message the rest of our group.” He stops then turns to me.

“I just got the same message. I hope the rest of our group knows the way back. But we are heading back through the clearing before town. So if we see them we will let them know. If not, we will see them back in town.”

“Alright that sounds like a plan to me” We made good time getting back to the clearing. Luckily we saw the others there looking like they hadn’t been there too long. “ Alright everyone,” I say loud enough to get everyone's attention. “Let's head back to town and we can discuss everything that we found.” The group nods and we all quickly head back to town.