Once both goblins were dead, Luke finally had an opportunity to get a good look at them. Mindful of his battery life, he used the flashlight to give them a once over and then turned it back off. Their skin was a kind of sickly greenish-yellow, with overly-long arms and too-short legs, and a torso somewhere in the middle. Long noses and floppy ears adorned their faces.
They were mostly naked except for their loincloths and kind of sash-thing tied around their waists. Neither had a sheath for the swords Luke had taken from them, or any kind of armor, or even shoes. In fact, the only thing he noticed to distinguish them at all was a tattoo on each one’s chest. The symbols were more or less identical at the core, but one goblin had some extra lines around it.
“System, can you tell me what these tattoos mean?”
“Maybe goblin societies have primitive marking methods that designate a sort of tribal hierarchy. I cannot tell you what these particular tattoos stand for, only that more complicated ones often denote higher ranks. These seem very similar, so I doubt there is much of a difference between them.”
Luke pocketed the flashlight and picked up both swords. “No easy way to carry these, but maybe I can rig something up. Any advice before I get out of here? I don’t think it’s safe to stay.”
“It is still two hours until dawn. You will be vulnerable to nocturnal predators if you venture out into the open now.”
“I’m vulnerable to more fucking goblins coming up this tunnel if I don’t,” Luke countered.
“As you say.” System floated through the air around him and off to the side. It was interesting that Luke could make out every detail on him perfectly, he even seemed to glow, but he illuminated nothing at all in the cave. Luke suspected that System was some sort of hallucination, that only he could see and hear the apparition. He decided to test that idea out.
“Could you go down the tunnel to keep an eye out for any other goblins approaching?” he asked.
“Apologies. I am not able to assist you that way.”
“Why not?”
“I am experiencing your local area through you. I cannot tell you anything about your physical surroundings that you do not see or hear yourself.”
Luke grunted as he rolled one of the goblins over onto its back, the one he hadn’t stabbed. They were surprisingly heavy. The sash was knotted on the side, and he started picking the knot out by feel. Even his perception wasn’t enough to make out the details in the dark.
“At least you’re honest about it,” he told System. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust System, but that he understood exactly how high the stakes were. If he pulled this off, he could bring back everybody in his family. If he died, that was it for the Bennet family. Plus, well, if he was being honest, he didn’t really trust System.
There was some funky stuff going on here. Luke hadn’t figured out what it was yet, but there was definitely more going on than he understood. Somebody wanted something from his family, and he didn’t think Uncle Duncan was the beginning and end of it. There had to be someone on Aros that wanted his family here.
SysAdmin seemed like a really fucking weird name for a bloodline. Luke would be the first to admit that he was out of his element. Curt would have been able to tell him immediately what the score was, but even without his advice, Luke knew it had to be the reason. It was a bloodline, so presumably that meant everyone in his family had it.
“So, how often do you appear to people?” Luke said, as though he were just making casual conversation while he finished picking apart the knot. The sash came free and he pulled it out from under the goblin’s body. It was long enough that he could wrap one of the swords in it and tie a simple knot around the hilt. One tug would be enough to free it from the cloth if he needed to fight.
“Almost never,” System said. “Really only to off-worlders.”
“Interesting. How does everyone else ask for help then?”
“They don’t, for the most part. They can see their status and receive notifications, but I am not able to answer questions or engage with them directly. The system protocols do not allow for it.”
The second sash was a bit blood-stained, but Luke didn’t have anything else to use. Well, that wasn’t true, but using a pair of goblin underwear was not an option he was willing to explore. He pulled the sash off the corpse and did his best to tuck the bloody parts inside the wrapping, then picked up his entire pile of weapons and his plastic bag of empty water bottles and walked to the front of the cave.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“I need a better way to carry all of this.”
Luke stayed near the outer edge of the valley. He avoided the forests and the fields, mostly sticking to the barren stretches where no murderous rodents would be able to sneak up on him. Hopefully he wouldn’t run into anything else either. After a few minutes of travel, he found a large boulder to set his back against and waited for the sun to come up.
Despite everything, his eyes grew heavy and Luke caught himself drifting off. Even with his increased stamina, he still needed more than a few hours of rest, especially after almost an entire day spent hunting. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but the trials of the previous day caught up to him.
That lasted until he heard something overhead. Blearily, he cracked his eyes open and looked up. Perched on top of the boulder looking down at him was a huge bird. It cocked its head to the side and studied him intently, perhaps hungrily. Dread twisted Luke’s guts.
“Oh come on,” he whispered. “That’s not fair.”
His hand inched to the sword next to him while he studied the bird. It was at least four or five feet tall, with a wickedly curved beak set between two fierce eyes. It was hard to tell in the pre-dawn light, but its feathers looked dark red, and Luke was pretty sure there were blood stains on its beak and breast.
The bird didn’t make any moves other than to tilt its head the other way. “You going to make a move, or just stare at me?” Luke said.
A raucous caw split the air and the bird spread wings that easily spanned fifteen feet. A blast of wind swept across Luke as it took off into the air and soared over the trees. The feeling of dread from encountering a higher level creature eased up. He shuddered and gathered his stuff up.
“System, why is a damn bird so much stronger than me?” he asked.
“That appears to be a predatory species. It has likely killed many, many more enemies than you have. Even if its prey are all low level, a whole life of hunting will have increased its power greatly.”
“How does a bird even use the system? It’s not like it can read. It wouldn’t be able to pick any skills or allocate AP.”
“For non-sapient creatures incapable of making such decisions, the system applies a template that automatically allocates resources as it gains levels. It is reasonable to expect two animals of similar level to have a similar build and skills. There are occasional differences in similar animals that are different species, or if an animal has had an unusual life.”
“Why didn’t it attack me?” he wondered. “Maybe it’s not hungry.”
The sun was visible through two peaks, barely, but it was there. Luke didn’t figure he was good for any more sleep at that point, between the goblins and the hawk. He could still see it floating up in the air, circling around the forest, watching him. Probably. Or maybe he was just being paranoid.
“Okay, day two of grinding. Made it to level 6 yesterday. Let’s make it 12 today, and then get the hell out of here.”
He needed to find a source of fresh water to refill his water bottles, and find food. The jerky was long gone and he suspected he’d be eating campfire-cooked marmot today. Maybe he’d find some fruit or something to round it out. [Survivalist] damn well better be worth that AP he’d invested in it.
Luke moved into the first field and started watching for the tell-tale waves of grass. Somewhere in there was a delicious little chunk of XP, just waiting for him to decapitate it with his new sword. He already had one unwrapped and ready to go. He just had to be patient and wait for the first one to attack him.
It took twenty minutes before he found the first marmot and discovered that using a sword instead of a club was a challenge. Holding the edge just right to get a clean slice was harder than he’d expected it to be, hard enough that he was considering spending that last AP he was saving on [Sword Mastery]. Before he did, he wanted to see if he could figure it out well enough to earn the first rank on his own.
Added to that was the fact that he didn’t know if the swords were going to be a long-term upgrade. They were in awful condition and too short for him to comfortably use. He didn’t want to waste the AP if the swords were just going to break before the end of the day. What he really needed was a good weapon, something he could trust to stay in one piece. Then he could start figuring out a build to go with it.
Luke roamed from field to field throughout the early morning, and as the sun got higher, he started running into marmots more frequently. The sword proved to be far more effective than his tree-branch clubs, so much so that when he unexpectedly ran into another matriarch, he easily slaughtered it.
[You have slain Blademouth Matriarch (lvl 8). 65 XP awarded.]
[Congratulations! You have reached level 7. 7 AP awarded for use.]
It was a relief to hit the milestone, and he was glad he had a few more AP to play around with, but it wasn’t hard to do the mental math and figure out that he was going to be lucky to hit level 10 today, let alone 12. Worse, he was getting hungry. He eyed the matriarch’s corpse up, [Survivalist] filling him with knowledge on how best to carve some meat off it. His folding knife wasn’t an ideal tool for the job, but it was better than the sword.
Luke gathered some tinder and dead branches, lamented that he had nothing better than some sticks to dig a fire pit with, and thanked God that at least his uncle had given him a lighter. It didn’t take too much work to get a small fire going and a few chunks of marmot cooking over it.
While he was waiting for lunch, the hawk descended from the sky and landed on the remains of the marmot matriarch. It looked at Luke, flared its wings, and let out a loud caw. “All yours, buddy,” Luke called out to it. He’d already gotten what he needed. The hawk lifted back up with a few powerful beats of its wings and flew off with its prize.
That explained where the corpses from yesterday had gone. Other predators must have loved coming in after him and claiming a free meal. When he thought about it, that was kind of scary though. He’d never noticed anything. Maybe the animals had waited for him to move on to another field before they scavenged the corpses.
“Hey System,” Luke said. “Got a question for you.”
“Yes, Luke?” System appeared across the fire from him.
“You said my brother died to some goblins, right? Not far from here.”
“I did.”
“Can you tell me where? I want to go pay my respects.”
“Of course,” System told him. “Whenever you’re ready.”