Nenn woke up with a start, his body bolting into an upright sitting position, and he instantly felt a wave of pain overcome his body. He cursed at his instinctual response to waking up from an unexpected nap. The pain around his midsection began to fade into a dull nagging sensation. The last thing Nenn remembered was the appearance of goblin reinforcements and the end of the battle. I must have passed out, Nenn thought.
The clearing had undergone some rapid transformations in the short while Nenn had been knocked out. There was a flurry of activity as what looked to be a new wave of humans had emerged from the Obelisk and the goblins were busy getting them up to speed. To Nenn’s side Aiden and Harper were lying flat on the ground, their chests slowly rising and falling with every breath much to Nenn’s relief. Good. Nenn thought. I guess the twins must be somewhere else then.
Nenn resolved to get back onto his feet. He moved his arm to push off the ground then paused. His arm was still composed of old weathered wood. He stopped in his tracks and sat back down. He held his new hand in front of his face. The hand was intricately detailed. Every detail of Nenn’s previous fleshy appendage was present. The lines in his palm, the wrinkles around his knuckles, fingernails, an old scar he had gotten when he was eleven years old and had gone ass over tea kettle over his bike’s handlebars in front of the twin’s house and cut his hand open on the landing. It was all there, in excruciating wooden detail. Nenn felt up his new wooden appendage with his good hand and interestingly it felt warm. But more importantly it felt. His new hand felt everything, and it felt natural.
If Nenn closed his eyes, he could almost imagine that his arm hadn’t been replaced by an animated piece of ancient driftwood. He laced his fingers together, as he often did, and turned his palms outwards and cracked his fingers. The joints of the Nenn’s good hand popped in that satisfying manner, while the wooden ones merely bent. There was no popping to be had, just a firm pulling sensation that while not painful, gave off the feeling that it should not be held in that state for an extended period of time.
Nenn smiled. He could work with this. It certainly beat not having an arm and a leg. And possibly a lung. How do my organs even work now anyways, Nenn thought. He gave it a thought for a second but decided to chalk it up to System fuckery and moved on. There was another matter that Nenn needed to get through before he could get on with things.
Status, Nenn thought with intent, and a piece of parchment entered Nenn’s hands.
NEW ENTRIES IN COMBAT LOG
Nenn remembered the detail in which the last combat log entry had been and decided that was too much information. I wonder if I could have the short form of the Combat log. Nenn thought.
SHORTENING COMBAT LOG DETAILS.
The status sheet in Nenn’s hand blinked out of existence before reappearing with significantly less Babelscript written on it.
Party has slain 21/22 enemy combatants. Bonus experience earned for level difference, and difficulty of encounter.
Well that certainly is shorter. Nenn thought. And I guess it even counted that last orc as not being killed by the party. That’s a weird hair to split I guess. We didn’t touch it but caused it to run into the ambush? But then again, we didn’t have to split the experience with the rest of the goblin ambush party, so, ehh, whatever.
To be completely honest, Nenn was never one to care for the exactness of stats. The simple notion of more of this, or less of that was simply enough as long as breakpoint requirements were met.
SHORTENING STATUS DETAILS.
STATUS
SHIELD: 300/300
HEALTH: 300/300
STAMINA: 300/300
MANA: 270/300, 10% of total mana locked in reserve.
STATS:
VITALITY: 30
STRENGTH: 30
DEXTERITY: 30
INTELLIGENCE: 30
WISDOM: 30
COMBAT LEVEL: 10
COMBAT CLASS: Druid (Tier - Undefined)
NEW SKILLS OBTAINED
New Skill obtained: (Active) [Rot]. The natural world is composed of more than sunshine and rainbows. A druid well acclimated with this uncomfortable truth can accelerate the rotting process in their target causing them immense pain and suffering, possibly leading to death. Be aware, Rot’s effectiveness will be severely limited against targets that exist outside of the cycle of life and death.
New Skill obtained: (Passive) [Nature’s Absorption]. Embrace the bounty of nature. Allows for the druid to absorb unbound or volunteered mana through the usage of mana channels in the form of roots. Caster must focus on the process and be in a meditative state.
SKILL UPDATE
Skill updated: (Passive) [Nature’s Regrowth]. Embrace the healing factor of nature. Allows for the druid to form a meditation circle in nature and increase the rate of resource recovery of all inside the circle’s boundary. Caster must focus on being one with nature while meditating.
New skills were always a good thing in Nenn’s mind. And these two skills were already something that he had managed to use, the system just formalized their existence. It seemed that he was already on a good path, and it would only continue to get better as he got to understand Mana Theory better.
There were a lot of things to unpack in his status. Such as 10% of his mana being held in reserve. That must be for this form Nenn thought. It must have an active mana upkeep. It makes sense as life and death mana probably doesn’t like to coexist so intimately.
Next, his health was at full but he still felt like he had been hit by a car and then ran over again. His muscles hurt. Well his remaining muscles. His new arm and leg felt fine. Then again those appendages hadn’t been exerted and battered, so that made a certain measure of sense.
And finally his Combat class had gone from Druid (Tier - Integration) to Druid (Tier - Undefined). This part made no sense, and would require some more information. Information that the System probably didn’t want to plainly divulge. Nenn had tried to query the System about it but did not receive a response.
Nenn looked around. A small crowd had formed around him now. A couple of the newly integrated human’s looked on with mixed emotions at him. Shock, revulsion, awe. These were some of the emotions Nenn saw on their faces. The goblins seemed to be much more excited to see him despite his unnatural deformity.
One of the goblins stepped forward. It was Hetruvensho, the goblin elder of leadership. The goblin was dressed in a quiet set of leather armor that looked to prioritize ease of movement over protection.
“So, you are finally awake,” Hetruvensho said. Ortango appeared at his side a moment later. He looked relieved to see that Nenn was awake and aware.
“Yeah. Thanks for coming to help us out. We got in a bit over our heads, I think,” Nenn said.
“You would have been fine,” Hetruvensho said. “You would have had probably until nightfall before the orcs had returned in force. We merely bought ourselves an extra couple of hours before more orcs attempt to avenge their fallen raiding party. Which brings us to the present. Where do we go from here?”
“Yeah, that’s a tough one to answer,” Nenn said. “Although I know one thing.” Nenn pulled himself off the ground and stood before the much shorter goblin crowd.
“I. No. We should do this together. Humans and goblins working side by side to make it to the end of The Trial together. We are strangers in a strange land, and we need help to get our feet under us. You and your tribe are unfortunately caught up in what will probably be a battle to the death between us and the orcs. I think we can help eachother out.”
“What are you suggesting?” Hetruvensho asked.
“An alliance between humanity and goblinkind,” Nenn said. The growing crowd broke into murmurs. But there was no outright dissension. Even the goblins looked like they were on board with the idea. The goblin hunters that had made the trip out to the Obelisk looked as if they had grown tired of being hunted by the orcs.
“We will have to discuss terms, but I think it's the best way forward, for both of our races,” Hetruvensho said.
Nenn held out his hand to the goblin elder, who grasped it with his own, and they shook on it. A handshake seemed to be a universal gesture. Even the Obelisk agreed as its entire length was covered in a shimmering white light that faded away a moment later.
“Well that’s an auspicious sign,” Nenn said.
“I agree and I have no idea what it means. Maybe Genbuto will know. But that’s a problem for later,” Hetruvensho said. He turned around to face the gathered crowd. By now all of the humans and goblins in the clearing had gathered. Nenn even spotted the twins among the crowd. Nenn stepped forward and stood at hetruvensho’s side.
“For those new to the world my name is Hetruvensho, and I am the goblin elder in charge or leading our tribe. Unfortunately we don’t have the time to get to know each other as much as we would like to. The orc hunters, who are well aware that we are here, will soon be upon us. Your forerunners, Nenn, Aiden, Harper, Liz and Jack, along with our own Ortango managed to defend the obelisk from the orc hunters' latest attack.”
“The orcs in this forest are a tribal society that prizes strength and their place as one of the forest's apex predators. They will rise to meet any challenge thrown their way and will defend their lands to the death. They hunt for sport and kill without reason. They are a blight upon the world and have long repressed goblinkind. They take our people and use them for their own nefarious means. Death has long since been preferable than to be a slave to an orc.”
“The orcs want the Obelisk. They know it is here. And they know we are here. The Obelisk represents unlimited power and a chance to become something more than a simple tribal society. The orcs will stop at nothing to try to claim the Obelisk. Without the Obelisk, both of our peoples are doomed.” Hetruvensho said.
“We have bought ourselves a short reprieve,” Nenn said. “But soon the orcs will return and in greater numbers than before. We have already defeated five of their hunting parties, and I doubt they will keep sending them in one party at a time to face us. We have time to prepare and we must use it to the best of our ability. To my fellow humans who have newly joined us, this is our chance to take control of our own destinies and pave the way from those of us yet to come.”
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“We, as a species, have spent our entire existence fighting amongst ourselves, and now is our chance to join hand in hand as brother and sister with our new allies and face down a common enemy. This Obelisk is our beach. It is our chance to define ourselves and stand our ground our ancestors have done time and time again. Our existence does not end here today. It does not end tomorrow, or next year. We will live on until we have defeated this Trial and we will rise to whatever comes after that too.”
“But for now, we need to build our defenses. We need to re-enforce our hold of the Obelisk, and all of our newcomers need to practice their skills until they are second nature. Believe me, this world may look beautiful, but its brutal reality will quickly become apparent. We don’t have the luxury of standing by and wishing someone else will take care of the problem. We are that someone else. Now, let’s do this thing.” Nenn said.
The crowd began to disperse, breaking into smaller groups that got to work. Most of them were joined by a goblin or two who would help catch the newcomers up to speed. Hetruvensho made his way over to a congregation of goblins. The twins made their way forward joining the group once more.
“It's a good thing we didn’t need your motivational speech earlier or we’d all be dead right now,” Liz said as she elbowed Nenn in the ribs.
“It seems like I’m not the only one who's made some changes,” Jack said.
“It looks like someone got out of the woodchipper a little early,” Liz said.
Nenn laughed. It was all he could do. It was good to have a bit of normalcy back after almost dying, coming to terms with his new body, agreeing to an alliance, and giving a troop rallying speech.
“It's good to see both of you too. I’m glad we all managed to pull through,” Nenn said.
“Yeah, I thought forsure you and Aiden were toast. Leave it to getting some busted ass upgrades mid-fight to turn the tides,” Liz said.
“We’d all be dead if we didn’t all pull that magic bullshit out of our collective asses,” Nenn said. “What was that spell you two casted? [Hellfire]? I don’t seem to remember either of you having that one before.”
“I don’t think we’re going to be seeing much more of that one,” Jack said. “Someone is a little too embarrassed to come to terms with the requirements.”
“Motherfucking [Twin Casting],” Liz muttered.
“A little hand holding never hurt anyone,” Jack said.
“It’s just embarrassing that I need to rely on you to cast a spell that was so impactful,” Liz said.
“Oh, I’m sure we are all going to get to that level on our own soon enough. I mean we went from level 3 to 10 in one quick movement. I can only imagine just how much more powerful we are right now compared to before the battle,” Nenn said.
“That doesn’t help anything! It just means that twin casting will be that much more powerful,” Liz said.
“Did you get any cool new abilities?” Nenn asked.
“We both got [Fire Bolt] as an active skill and [Twin Casting]as a passive. [Twin Casting] combines spells and increases the level depending on the synergy between the spells. If we both cast [Fire Bolt], we get [Hellfire]. [Shadow Bolt] and [Mana Bolt] produce a [Mana-Locking Bolt]. It apparently holds an amount of a target's mana in place so that they can’t cast,” Jack said.
“That’ll be useful when fighting other casters,” Nenn said.
“There are drawbacks, such as requiring us to hold hands. It makes us a bigger target,” Liz said. “And it makes skills cost more mana, so it's not practical during long engagements. And we found out the hard way. If you overspend your mana you collapse with a mind splitting headache until you regenerate back to a positive mana balance.”
“Longest half hour of my life,” Jack said.
“Well that sounds powerful,” Nenn said. He then went on to explain how he happened into this snazzy new form and his new [Rot] ability.”
“Good thing you found those skills,” Ortango said. “We’d be dead, if not.”
“We’d also be dead if it wasn’t for you,” Nenn said. “You had some impressive shots.”
“I know,” Ortango said. The goblin turned to leave but was suddenly engulfed in a bright shimmering light. The rest of the assembled group took a step back in surprise. The light looked identical to that which had enveloped the Obelisk moments earlier. The goblin fell backwards, landing with a thump on its backside. The light began to fade as it sparkled into nothingness leaving a smiling Ortango sitting there.
“Status.” Ortango said out loud and a smooth piece of parchment fell into his hands from the heavens. The goblin grabbed it and held onto it tight as he brought it up to his face to read.
The lightshow brought Hetruvensho running back along with most of the goblin contingent.
“What does it say?” Hetruvensho asked, the excitement spilling across his face.
NAME: Ortango
SPECIES: Forest Goblin
ORIGIN: Trialborn ([15707.158.15.27.32] Year 15707, Day 158, Hour 15, Minute 27, Second 32.)
SHIELD: 150/150
HEALTH: 200/200
STAMINA: 225/225
MANA: 150/150
STATS:
VITALITY: 20/20
STRENGTH: 20/20
DEXTERITY: 25/25
INTELLIGENCE: 15/15
WISDOM: 15/15
COMBAT LEVEL: 5
COMBAT CLASS: Hunter (Tier - Native)
ACTIVE SKILLS: [Camouflage], [Powershot].
PASSIVE SKILLS: [Sharpshooter]
Ortango finished reading his status sheet out loud to all of the goblins in attendance.
“It seems like the alliance between goblinkind and humans is more than something superficial,” Hetruvensho said.
“Indeed,” Nenn said. “It looks like goblins will be able to gain access to the System now.”
“It seems a little odd that they didn’t have access to it before,” Jack said. “If everything that’s here has come through an Obelisk at some point in its lineage, why doesn’t everyone have access to the System?”
“It must be the power of the Obelisk that’s required for it to unlock,” Hetruvensho. “That would explain the legends that Genbuto shared last night. Maybe Trialborn, like all of us goblins are, requires a controlled Obelisk to grant access.”
“So, it is a matter of exposure then? And permission?” Liz said.
“Sounds about right,” Nenn said.
“If I had to guess, that would be the most likely answer,” Ortango said. The group turned to look at the goblin who, for the first time, spoke in unbroken sentences. “Hmm. I guess this is another boon from the Obelisk. I can now communicate properly. Maybe this is how we were able to understand you humans, and how you were able to understand us in turn?”
The group looked at each other.
“System fuckery” they said in unison to one another, causing a chorus of laughter.
***
Aiden and Harper woke up a little while later and they were brought up to speed. They had both missed a large portion of the fight. Harper had collapsed after casting Lay on Hands, and Aiden collapsed after his newfound Martyrdom state expired.
Both seemed to be very much in agreement to forming an Alliance with the goblins and were impressed at Ortango’s new found ascension to being System-enabled. But time was not on their side, so the group made the decision to split up and to help bring the newly integrated humans up to speed.
Nenn made his way over to a group of druids. Out of the 40 newly integrated humans, 3 of them had chosen the nature-oriented profession. It was a small enough group that Nenn was able to guide them through their first [Nature’s Regrowth] meditation session, and imparted the beginnings of Mana Theory. He stressed the importance of trying to find one's own interpretation to make sense of it all. He wished there had been more time, but the small army needed to get to work on building an actual defensive position.
Trees were being cut down several at a time as the new warriors, paladins, rogues, and the sole monk practiced their melee abilities, taking turns hauling the trees into position. A wooden wall was starting to take shape very quickly. The druids were working the earth with [Entangling Roots], while the mages and warlocks practiced evaporating the earth with their [Shadow Bolt] and [Mana Bolt] skills. The shamans were able to extract the rocks from the overturned soil and had begun to build some defensive fortifications for the range fighters to fight behind.
A rudimentary watchtower was built after anchoring a couple of thicker tree trunks into the ground, allowing the hunters to have an elevated vantage point to keep watch. Ortango took point in the first one built. With his new found System-enabled class, level advantage, and more importantly his experience as a Trialborn Forest Goblin, he would make the best lookout. Several more towers were built under Ortango’s direction. The hunters could now shoot over the wall, hopefully thinning out an invading force before they could intrude into the fortress.
With the active clear cutting going on, the clearing had expanded by at least 10 meters in every direction. The wall demanded a lot of wood, and the forest thankfully had a lot to give up. As the humans gained a bigger foothold, it would be cut back further and further in the coming days. It was too soon to try and enforce some kind of forestry regulations. Survival came first, then they could worry about not trying to clear cut the natural old-growth forest around them.
Nenn sat down and meditated, feeling the effects of the human’s efforts on the natural world. The cut down trees were very slow to give up hold of their life mana. But the underbrush that was caught underfoot and repeatedly stomped on and cut away was a lot quicker to succumb to the natural cycle. This was a perfect opportunity to try using his newfound [Nature’s Absorption] skill to try and siphon off any loose mana. He found his attempts to be fruitful, but he had to spread his mana channel infused roots across a wide area to have a desirable effect. The mana was slow and reluctant to flow into him, but it did flow. The external mana dumped into Nenn’s body and in turn became usable, castable mana.
With the increased regeneration, Nenn was able to do the work of ten druids, easily outpacing his three newly-integrated level one counterparts. They very quickly found themselves being directed to performing earthworking tasks inside of the fortress while Nenn single handedly kept up with the wall’s progress.
Likewise the rest of the party was excelling in their tasks. Aiden was dragging as many tree trunks as he could get his arms around, working as a draft horse for the melee contingent. Harper was on top of keeping stamina reserves refreshed. And the twins were busy annihilating everything that needed to be removed outside of the wall. The external clearing was being reduced to scorched earth, which further fed Nenn’s mana reserves.
A couple of hours of hard work later and the fortress’s wall was now complete with a gate that faced towards the goblin village. At Hetruvensho’s behest a gap in the wall was kept in what was supposedly the direction of the orcs camps.
Another group of goblin villagers had arrived after having received word that the ambush party had been successful, and that an alliance had been formed. This group was a little more varied. A couple of village guards had arrived with a handful of goblin laborers, who immediately set to work setting up a new goblin shanty town in one of the fortress’s quadrants. The humans began to build rudimentary structures in one of the adjacent quadrants, keeping the remaining two quadrants open for gathering and activities that required more space.
Some of the goblin hunters from the ambush party had set about feeding the masses, after a quick hunting session they had managed to hunt down two of the deer-like creatures and were now busy roasting their spoils over a cooking fire in the open quadrants. Some of the humans, including all of the new druids, were taken outside of the fortress and were given a lesson in foraging. They returned with armloads of fruits and vegetables. Apparently the System enhanced forest would be able to produce plenty of food for three of the four seasons. The winter season was a bit tougher to forage for food, and most resorted to hunting game for nutrition. Overall everyone seemed to be getting along.
Nenn noted that a couple of humans had snuck away from the group and left on their own. Whether that was their own inclination to strike it out on their own, or in disapproval of the human-goblin alliance, Nenn didn’t know. Maybe one day he’d run into them and be able to ask. All that he could do right now was wish them well in their endeavors.
The assembled alliance of humans and goblins sat down to enjoy their first meal together. They shared stories and tales between one another. It was a sight to be seen. A few more groups of goblins had made the trek over to the fortress, and with them they brought more tools and supplies.
Nenn had taken a bowl of chopped game meat and vegetables and walked over to one of the stone bunker positions. He sat down putting his back against the hard surface. He had a sinking feeling that this was not going to be a pleasant experience. He ate a couple of spoonfuls of food then felt his stomach churn immediately. A tell-tale cramp took over Nenn and he doubled over and vomited the food out of his body almost as quickly as it had been ingested.
During the day Nenn had a chance to think about his new body and his new organs. Through his [Nature’s Regrowth] and [Nature’s Absorption] meditation he was able to see the movement of mana in his body and found most of the mana around his organs had stagnated. His heart and lungs were still thrumming with mana, but everything else had shut down. Only a small amount of mana was circulating to keep the organs alive.
Nenn didn’t feel hungry. In fact, he doubted he’d feel hungry ever again as his body had clearly demonstrated that it no longer could consume food, let alone need it to survive. He would have to siphon mana to maintain his body. Maybe he could grow roots out of his wooden half and absorb nutrients from the ground. It would definitely have to be something to explore later.
With the sun now beginning to set, the shadows cast by the fortress’s walls began to grow long. Watch orders were set up, and watchfires were set up around the interior of the fortress to ward off the night predators. The congregation of humans and goblins began to relax, now knowing that they were safe from an orc attack until morning. Nenn found a comfortable spot in the grass and settled in for a well deserved sleep.