While Sonya healed Oliver’s back the four of them discussed their abilities, Oliver was able to understand from them that when you kill you’re first monster, you are added to what they call ‘the system’. It is when you are first added that the system gives you a small jumpstart, or a skill in the case of Jake, Blake and Sonya. Oliver’s race change probably happened because he was among the first to kill a monster, so the system awarded him with something bigger, such as a race change.

The skill that Jake and Blake received was called [quickstep], it was a skill that allowed them to temporarily increase their movement speed, at the cost of mana. Sonya also received a different skill, [Heal], a skill that allowed her to rapidly speed up the recovery time on wounds. The limitation was however that it could not be used on herself, and it only speeds up recover, so wounds the body cannot recover from, such as the loss of a limb, would not be under the effect of her skill.

Another thing Oliver learned from the group was that each skill can be levelled up through continued use, and when a skill reaches level 6, they are ranked up. The ranks of a skill can be Novice, Adept, Expert, Master and Grand Master. The time to takes to rank up apparently grows exponentially.

When Oliver asked how they knew all this, they responded that once you gain a skill for the first time, you can ask the system from help about skills. This does not seem to work if you do not possess any skills though. Oliver grew increasingly annoyed at the system, because of this the system could have any number of additional features that they wouldn’t have a clue about.

“Okay, we need to talk about that quest you got, Oliver.” Jakes stern voice quickly woke Oliver from his angry thoughts of the system.

“Okay.” He simply replied, waiting for Jake to start outlining a plan. Oliver hadn’t been with this group long, but he knew from watching his interactions with the girls, and how he spoke with such command in his voice, that Jake was shaping up to be their leader. Which Oliver was more than fine with, if anything, Oliver was always more of a sheep than a Shepard. Responsibility intimidated him, even more so now that lives would be in his hands.

“First, you said the Quest mentioned something about parties?” Oliver nodded.

“Then we need to test this out ourselves, sharing experience is something that could prove vital to us.” He finished, turning to Sonya he said with a tone of command in his voice. “Invite Sonya to Party” There was a moment of silence before Sonya perked up at something in front of her.

“It worked!” Jake quickly repeated the gesture to Blake and Oliver.

You have been Invited to join [Jake’s party]

Accept or decline?

“Accept.”

The four of them couldn’t help but smile at this, this was the first time the four of them felt some semblance of control and hope in their situation.

“Alright, Oliver’s quest should be shared now, now hear me out here, I think we should complete it as fast as possible. Gabrok is strong enough on his own, we don’t need for him to have a hunting party as well.” Jake finished, looking each of them in the eye, daring them to disagree with him. Oliver wasn’t, he needed all the help he could get.

“I agree with you Jake, I doubt his hunting party will stop with Oliver, we’re probably next on his hit list.” Blake agreed with Jake, Sonya gave Blake and hug and smiled at Jake, now Oliver felt like he was intruding on something special. After  moment though, the three broke up, Jake then surprised Oliver again when he pulled out 3 large kitchen knives, handing one to both Oliver and Blake, though the knife was little more than a shiv in Oliver’s large hands.

“So, uh, what’s the plan?” Oliver coughed out meekly.

“This is what I was thinking.”

Oliver stood in the hallway, his legs getting close to shaking. He looked behind him and saw jake and Blake stepping into two dorms that were facing each other in the hallway. Sonya staying in one of the dorms further back, away from the impending action.

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Jake’s idea was fairly simple and straightforward, but still effective. Oliver was to draw out Gabrok, then Sprint down the hallway towards the waiting Jake and Blake, who would then ambush Gabrok as he ran after Oliver. A simple plan, and a terrifying one. Oliver roughly cleared his throat before shouting out at the top of his lungs.

“FACE ME GABROK YOU SPINELESS SACK OF SHIT!”

For a several minutes, it was only silence.

Then.

“You’ve got quite the set of balls, ogre.” Gabrok had arrived, he rounded the corner of the corridor, looking smug and walking lazily to Oliver, like he had already won the battle. Oliver’s grip around his knife tightened as he prepared to start running.

“Now die.” Gabrok shot forward like a cannonball, Oliver threw himself backwards and sprinted for Jake and Blake in response, when Gabrok had just ran past them them they shot out of their dorms, cutting off Gabrok’s escape route and surrounded him in the corridor. Gabrok came to a halt and looked around himself, seeing that he was surrounded.

“Smart move pink-skins.” He sneered at Jake, Jake raised his knife and prepared to activate his skill.

“Too bad I’m smarter, Asgore!” Gabrok called out to someone behind Oliver, He quickly spun around only to see something that would haunt his dreams forever.

A goblin wearing leather armour walked out of a dorm room, dragging behind him the corpse of Sonya. In his other hand was a small short bow.

“What?” Jake whispered to himself, his haunted eyes staring at the lifeless eyes of Sonya, Blake dropped to her knees, hugging herself while trying desperately not to look at Sonya’s corpse. Oliver was speechless, this was the first death, it was to surreal, how?

“Did you really think I would gather my hunters in one fell swoop? No you dumbasses! I gathered them one at a time, and one was all I needed to find you.” Gabrok sneered at the despairing humans, suddenly, Jake screamed and threw himself at Gabrok, his eyes losing all semblance of sanity.

“NO!” Oliver screamed, but it was too late. With an almost lazy swing of his sword Gabrok easily sunk his sword halfway into the skull of Jake, the superior reach of Gabrok’s weapon showing its deadly efficiency. Jake’s body immediately slumped to the ground, Blake screamed and leaped to her feet, turning to sprint away from the monster that just killed her friends. Before she could even get 5 feet however, an arrow struck her in the shoulder, sending her spinning to the ground. Oliver whipped his head around and saw that goblin with its bow drawn, this time on him, it didn’t fire though.

“This is just pathetic.” Gabrok remarked as he walked over to the whimpering form of Blake, sword raised and ready to end her life.

Oliver could stand by no longer. He leapt forward and broke into a dead sprint for Gabrok, expecting an arrow to impale him at any moment, though that moment never came. He quickly reached Gabrok and threw a wide punch at the bastard, Gabrok ducked under the heavy blow and grabbed the now outstretched arm, Using Oliver’s momentum he turned his body and executed a perfect over-the-shoulder body throw, Oliver felt his world go upside down before he was slammed back down to earth, the floorboards creaking under his considerable weight.

“You fight worse than a goblin! Even if I didn’t throw you, you would have fell over anyway! Are you still getting used to your body you fat oaf?” Gabrok snarled as he thrust his sword down in one fluid motion, seamless from his shoulder throw, Oliver watched as the blade went straight through Blake’s chest and skewered her heart, she let out one last breath before the life left her eyes forever.

“You Pinkskins are so weak, so fragile. It’s disgusting.” Oliver could only watch as Blake’s life was ended in an instant, was this how fragile lives were?  Was there something wrong with their plan? Should they have planned more? He didn’t know, this was all too much, until recently the scariest thing he did was math homework. Gabrok turned to him.

“Get up you dumb oaf, I want to kill at least you on your feet.” Oliver quickly scrambled to his feet and watched Gabrok for any sign of him attacking, Gabrok saw this and wasted no time, he lunged forward with his sword, Oliver ducked out of the way but Gabrok spun around, using his momentum to send a bony elbow into Oliver’s side, but Oliver barely registered the hit and simply drove a fist into Gabrok’s left shoulder blade which sent the hobgoblin into the wall, Gabrok bounced off the wall and landed in a backwards roll, putting some distance between him and Oliver, his arm hanging limply at his side. Oliver grinned, he knew he felt something crack. He threw himself once more at the Hobgoblin but his eyes widened as he saw Gabrok jump off the wall, spin his body around and yell,

“POWER OVERWHELMING!” Just before his glowing red foot collided with the side of Oliver’s face who was quickly sent reeling into the ground.

Oliver quickly got to his feet and felt his face, a black eye was quickly forming, but aside from that he seemed fine, but what was that? He felt like he just got hit by a truck! Oliver pushed the thoughts about that power and the pain in his face out of his mind, he had to kill Gabrok while his arm was still dislocated. But when he looked at his foe, he saw him slam himself against a wall, forcefully pushing his arm back into place. There goes that chance, Oliver thought gravely to himself before once again throwing a punch at the hobgoblin, Gabrok fluidly ducked away from the punch, so Oliver quickly sent a kick at him. In response Gabrok threw himself to the floor and kicked out the only leg Oliver was standing on. He quickly fell to the ground and before he could get up Gabrok put the cold steel of his blade at Oliver’s throat.

Oliver’s heart was pounding in his chest, the realisation that he was going to die striking him painfully and repeatedly. He looked up at the eyes of his killer, the yellow eyes that seemed to sneer at him without even words, taunting him for his weakness.

“Idiot oaf, you are weal, you fight like you were once a dwarf and you are quick to despair. You disgust me in more ways than I care to count. I have bested you in what your kind are supposed to excel at, close combat. Therefore, I exercise my right as Captain, to do the following.” He raised his sword, Oliver started at the ceiling, knowing his end was near and there was nothing he could do about it. He looked at the bodies of Jake, Sonya and Blake, closing his eyes he them a mental apology for his weaknesses, he should have protected them, paid them back for saving his own life. He looked up at Gabrok who glared down at him, before speaking in a sadistic tone of command.

“You work for me now, Ogre.”