Five villages had been “hit” by flying goblins, all in the last month, as it turned out. Four of them had been completely depopulated, with the fifth having people remain indoors most of the time and never ever leaving during the night.

Even in his previous life, Theo couldn’t describe himself as a people’s person. He was the sort of man who preferred to be left alone and, when needed, spend some time with a small circle of friends. However, even he couldn’t remain emotionless at the pitiful sight of the villagers. The raids had only been going on for slightly more than a week, but that had proved enough for starvation to set in. With the constant threat of nightly snatchings, the people couldn’t venture anywhere that was further away than a day, and with all the horses gone, that meant they could only reach a few of the ghost villages. With no one daring to work the fields and pick the harvest, and no food from outside, it was inevitable that things would go bad.

Theo had immediately given away his food rations. Since he didn’t need any, he was quick to take the opportunity to get rid of them. Initially, it had seemed like a good idea, but had the unfortunate effect of having him be proclaimed as a local hero—the last thing he wanted. Inspired by his example, Liandra followed suit, then even went hunting for more. That, too, was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, Theo no longer had to worry about being caught out. However, it also means that instead of enduring one person’s company, he had to endure a few hundred.

“Thank you so much,” an old woman said, grinning cheek to cheek. “It’s been so long since there’s been hope here.”

“Oh?” Theo’s avatar looked at her, somewhat confused. “I thought the monster snatchings started a week ago?”

“That’s true, but the problems didn’t start with it. It’s been difficult even before the consuming darkness. The last few harvests have been poor. The river that used to go through this valley suddenly dried up. The men in the village had to make the wells deeper and even then it was hard work taking the water to the fields.”

That sounded pretty disastrous. What was more annoying, Theo had the means and the energy to solve the problem quickly… but his avatar didn’t. According to Spok, there were several dungeon spells for creating moats, ponds, and waterfalls, but they required Theo’s main body.

“Didn’t you ask for help from a nearby town?” Theo asked.

“The towns are far away, and heroes are difficult to come by. If you brave heroes hadn’t come when you did, this village would have died out like the rest.”

Please don’t call me that, Theo cringed on the inside. “Ah, well, that’s what we’re here for,” he offered a fake laugh. “How, how about some fireworks while we wait for the brave hero Liandra to return?”

Thankfully, a little ingenuity had allowed him to modify his fireball spell to something more amusing. With just a bit of extra effort, Theo also used some of the materials he’d scavenged from the goblin fliers to add some color to the flames as well. The result was nowhere near as anything that could be achieved on Earth, but still made the local children gaze at the sky, their eyes wide.

The display continued all the way until evening, when Liandra returned with a rather large catch. There was no telling where and how she’d managed it, but somehow the heroine had caught three large boars and dragged them back to the village. Then the feast began.

“You should eat a bite,” the woman said, offering a slice to Theo’s avatar. “You need to be at your best.”

“I’m always at my best,” he replied, but still took the food—it would have been suspicious for him not to. “They seem to be in a hurry.” Theo glanced at the villagers.

“Starvation tends to do that to people. Also fear. Even with us around, they won’t want to be out during nightfall.”

“You think there’ll be another raid?” Theo looked up. For the moment he couldn’t see anything but sky. Then again, he hadn’t seen anything the previous night either, until the portal opened.

“Maybe. Just in case we’ll spend the night watching. Eat up. You need to be full of mana.”

Theo said nothing. Little did the woman know that he had recovered more energy while his avatar was walking than the entire reserves of a small mage tower. There was no chance that he wouldn’t have enough should there be another attack. Also, this time he intended to use his skills much more optimally, and get all the enemy targets. Competition with Liandra would come off as childish and petty, but it helped his avatar level up faster and more levels meant he’d have more skills to use.

When every scrap of meat was eaten, and the bones were boiled to make for soup, the villagers rushed into their houses. All doors were barred as the sun went below the horizon. A waiting game began. This time, Theo had put on his magical life sensing gem, which was supposed to warn him of any sudden surge. As the hours passed by, however, it was starting to look as if it was all for nothing.

“What if they don’t show up?” he asked, fiddling with a piece of bone he had taken from the boars’ remains.

“I think they will. Whoever’s been kidnapping villagers is systematic. They won’t move onto the next before taking everything from this one.”

“Hmm,” Theo said.

This was a matter in which he had a slightly different view. According to the map Spok had made back in his original body, the villages didn’t form a straight line. Rather, they were positioned more like a fork, or an arrow showing the direction from which the threat was coming from. The first village they had gone through seemed to have been deserted quite recently. The one after that had been empty for a month, and the one after—three months. Moving on from the third, the opposite logic held through. There was every indication that the fourth village had been emptied between a month and three ago, and as for the last… they were standing in it.

Theo, of course, had shared his well thought out hypothesis with Liandra, who had been utterly uninterested. That had caused Theo to grumble about the short-sightedness of heroes and adventurers in general.

“I still think we should have gone north from the third village,” he persisted, even now. “It’s clearly where the evil overlord had sent his troops from.”

“Magic portals don’t work that way.” The woman sighed. “Besides, we must save the people in the village.”

It’s just one village, Theo thought. If we deal with the source of the issue, we’d be saving many more, and getting everything resolved that much faster!

“I suppose you’re right,” he said, instead. “One step at a time. Let’s deal with this, then we’ll see how things go.”

“You know, Theo, you’re a weird one.”

The dungeon froze. Theo’s avatar was rendered completely motionless while he calculated whether he had enough energy to teleport elsewhere. It would be a shame if he had to do so, especially since the earl of Rosewind gone through with his promise and magically procured all necessary documents making Theo—or rather his avatar—an official and fully registered member of town.

“What do you mean?” He asked, a nervous, guilty smile on his face.

“You do anything to avoid a fight, but when it happens, you want it done as quickly as possible. At first, I thought you were a coward who was good at magic, but now… now I’m not sure what you are.”

“Just a humble mage from a faraway place,” Theo replied. If he had the ability to sweat right now, he would be doing so profusely. “I just… haven’t been outside much.” Technically, that was very much correct. As a dungeon he would have preferred to remain hidden away in the valley he was initially reincarnated.

“There’s that.” Liandra nodded. “But I think there’s something more. And I have a pretty good idea what it is.”

Theo tensed up.

“You can’t understand people, can you?” She gave him a serious look. Time seemed to freeze. In his mind, Theo could see her draw one of her many unusual weapons and charge at him without warning. “You mages are all alike,” Liandra added at last. “So focused on your spell principles and magical theories, that you ignore all the rest of life. I’ve seen that you mean well, but this isn’t some home assignment to be rushed through. People’s lives are at stake here. Yes, we could have gone in the direction we believed the “evil overlord” to be, but who would have done anything for the people here?”

Phew! Theo sighed, relieved. This was a close call, far too close for comfort.

“I know this isn’t something mages like to hear, but someone needs to say it.” Liandra looked away. “Sorry.”

“Err, no, you’re right!” Theo was quick to agree. “That’s us. Weird mages, not a bone of common sense in our bodies. You were right to point that out. And I’ll do everything in my power to become more human, so to say.”

The heroine laughed.

“You’ve really missed your calling. You’d have done much better as a traveling mage-bard.”

“Is that even a thing?” Theo’s original body asked back in Rosewind.

Mage-bards do indeed exist, the spirit guide said. They are quite rare and twice as annoying, mostly because they are so powerful that people can’t easily get rid of them. There have been several cases of mage-bards making their way into a dungeon and staying there for years, despite the dungeon’s best efforts to get rid of them. Incidentally, for that purpose, a number of anti-mage-bard spells were specially requested.

“The mages destroyed the dungeons?”

Rather, some dungeons found that premature reincarnation was preferable to waiting the mage-bard out. Just because someone is powerful in magic doesn’t mean that their jokes and bard repertoire were any good.

Theo trembled. Having to deal with Cmyk was bad enough. Having to endure a Cmyk who ate and sang would have been absolutely terrible.

“I think I’m fine the way I am,” the dungeon’s Avatar said. “Anyway, let’s focus on the task at hand. You never know when those goblins might come flying in.”

So, they waited… and waited… and waited.

The moon rose, reaching its highpoint, and still there was no trace of the goblins. It was starting to look as if the recent defeat had caused their overlord to reevaluate his plans and either pause them or find a new target. Theo was just about to say the inadvertent “I told you so” when suddenly dark clouds appeared from nowhere, covering the sky.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“There,” Liandra whispered.

“Are you sure?” Theo whispered. Even with his vision, he could see nothing beyond the darkness.

“That’s classic fog of war,” the heroine explained. “Remove the light, create confusion, then open the portal and have the troops swarm in.”

Thinking back, this must have been what had happened the previous night. With Theo’s mind focused on the thief’s quest, he hadn’t bothered to notice that the moonlight had vanished. After all, it wasn’t often that he looked at the sky. Now, though, when he was made aware, the whole thing seemed a lot more mundane.

On cue, the outline of a blue oval emerged in the darkness for a few moments, then vanished away again. Moments later, the life-sensing gem Theo was wearing gave its warning.

“They’re here,” Theo whispered. However, something felt different. For one thing, he could feel the presence of a lot more living things: hundreds rather than dozens. Given the size of the previous swarm, this one had to be monstrous. Several seconds later, the number doubled.

“Spok,” Theo asked back in Rosewing. “Is there a spell that could double the size of an army?”

There are several that can achieve that, the guide replied. A simple illusion technique that uses mana to clone—

“Not clones,” the dungeon interrupted. “Actual beings.”

A spell that would double living creatures? Not that I know.

“Thanks.” That was what Theo was afraid of.

Normally, this was the point at which the heroes were supposed to wait patiently and let the well thoughtout plan unfold. Liandra had gone through great lengths to explain every step they were supposed to take, when they would act, who they were going to target. Theo, however, decided to wing it, casting a directed fire pillar in the rough direction of the portal. As expected, the column of flame lit up the sky, piercing the darkness like a red-hot needle flying through wax. Bright light revealed what the enemy was trying to hide; the moment it did, though, Theo wished that it hadn’t.

Two dirigibles the size of a small castle hovered above the village. Cast iron covered their entire hulls, making them like a pair of floating helmets. Initially, they looked slow and dignified, almost majestic… until the null sections slid open and a pair of giant claws fell down, crashing around a house and scooping it back up.

What the heck?! Theo didn’t hesitate, casting five moderate fireballs at the nearest airship. The flames burst, engulfing the vessel entirely. Upon dying out, though, there didn’t seem to be a scratch on the hull. Apparently, the evil mastermind had taken the previous battle into account and had come up with a new design.

“Stupid gnomes!” Theo shouted. How dare they counter his fireballs? If that’s the way they wanted it, that’s what they were going to get. Raising both arms forward, he was about to cast a maximum strength fireball when Liandra leaped his direction.

“Stop!” the woman used her magic negation item. The forming fireball poofed out of existence. “You can’t destroy them while they’re above the village! You’ll kill everyone here.”

“What do you propose we do?”

Another claw crashed down, snatching another house.

“Do we just let them take all the houses? Why not help them while we’re at it?”

“There’s more than one way of fighting these things. They are slow, bulky, and made for pure defense. All we need to do is reach them, then slip inside.”

That didn’t sound too difficult. Theo could do enough levitation to get Liandra aboard. Given her skills, it shouldn’t be too difficult for her to deal with a few hundred goblins. Maybe that wasn’t a bad idea, after all.

Loud creaking sounds filled the air. Looking up, both companions saw the upper parts of the airships break up and slowly move apart. Dozens of goblin fliers poured out into the sky. Unlike before, these ones were equipped with large harpoon guns.

“You were saying?” Theo gave Liandra an annoyed look. The hundreds of goblins his gem had felt weren’t the airships’ crew, they were their fighter squadrons.

“Change of plans!” Liandra drew her boomerang sword. “I’ll deal with the little ones! You get the big ones away from the village!”

Theo grumbled. He wanted to deal with the little ones—all the cores were there. Unfortunately, he had to agree. Fireballing a squadron of goblins was all well and good in the open, but doing so above the village was virtually the same as torching it himself. Alas, as much as it saddened him, there wouldn’t be a lot of fireballs or core points in this battle. Instead, he would have to resort to other methods.

How would you like a bit of telekinesis? Theo smiled. Quite fortunate that there were two airships. This way, he could just crash them together. Of course, before that, he was going to have to give them a gentle nudge.

Focusing a moderate amount of energy, Theo targeted one of the ships and cast the spell. Nothing happened. Confused, he tried again, this time using more energy. The result was the same. The airships remained floating calmly in the night sky, as if mocking him.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Theo knew that there was no issue casting the spell—he had the lack of energy to prove it. It had to be a problem of power. Maybe for an object this large at such a distance, it was normal to be much more difficult than moving an armchair through a room?

Targeting the nearest ship, Theo gave it his all.

The airship still didn’t move, but this time—by a lucky coincidence—the grabber claw had just started dropping down. Instead of continuing, however, the claw suddenly darted away from the village, dragging the entire airship with it. The force was so large that after a few seconds, the claw mechanism tore off the rest of the craft and disappeared in the night sky.

Theo’s eyes widened, then narrowed as anger filled him along with an idea of what was going on.

“The big ones have anti magic fields!” he shouted. “I’ve dealt with one of them, so it won’t be long before—"

The magic portal flickered again in the darkness. And just as before, Theo felt the sudden presence of several thousand beings. Once again, and against his better judgment, he cast a cone of fire. His suspicions were soon confirmed.

“The bastard’s sending more of them!” he shouted.

A brand-new airship had emerged and joined the fight. If the previous two were any indication that means that there would be a few hundred flying goblins more in the skies pretty soon.

“How many goblins does he have?”

“Goblins are easy to find,” Liandra said as she downed craft after craft. The goblins had made the fatal mistake of targeting her with their harpoons, which only made it all the easier for the heroine to slice them up. Of course, the field she had run off to wasn’t so lucky. An abandoned barn, and quite a lot of land and fences had been struck by so many harpoons that the patch of land looked like a reverse porcupine. “The ships, though. That requires lots of workers and resources.”

That made things annoyingly more complicated. If there were three airships, what was there to say that there weren’t a dozen more? Fighting them one by one was no longer the solution.

“Spok!” Theo asked in his main body. “Aether Shields. Are they physical objects?”

In what way? The spirit guide was confused.

“They can stop swords and arrows, right? What about things like water, fire, armies of ants?”

Well, in that regard, I guess you can view them as solid objects. An adequately made Aether Shield has been seen to save heroes from drowning, albeit temporarily. If I were to say—

“Thanks!”

That was all Theo needed to know. Taking a deep breath, he rushed towards Liandra through the village. The flying goblins noticed him and started shooting their massive harpoons in his direction. Eight-foot spikes of solid iron hit the ground behind the running avatar, forming a consistent—although crooked—trail.

“What are you doing?” the woman asked.

“Leading them away from the village!” Theo snapped at her.

“I see that!” Liandra snapped back. “But why? You’re supposed to keep the people safe.”

“Change of plans.” The village was ten feet behind him now, not that there was any defined boundary for a place this small. The clay and wood walls had been destroyed long before the traveling companions had ever gotten here. Now there was nothing more than an imaginary line that separated the buildings from the nearest fields.

Causing chaos and devastation so close wasn’t the best solution. Then again, Liandra had already successfully murdered the field, so it didn’t really matter.

“Keep close to me!” Theo shouted, aimed at the first flying goblin he set eyes on.

Fireballs flew through the air, filling the sky like fireworks. The flying devices exploded one after the other, turning the cinders along with the pilots.

CORE CONSUMPTION

28 goblin cores into 280 Avatar Core Points.

That’s more like it, Theo thought, casting more and more medium fireballs.

“There are too many of them!” Liandra shouted. As a capable hero, she had switched from attacking to making sure that none of the harpoons hit her companion. Apparently, just because dozens of goblins were bursting in flames left and right was no reason for the rest not to try to kill their targets. “You’ll run out of mana!”

“I have more mana than you think,” Theo’s swashbuckling kicked in, forcing him to look over his shoulder with a confident smile as he kept on casting fireballs.

AVATAR LEVEL INCREASE

Your Avatar has become Level 5

+1 Mind, SWIFTNESS skill obtained

500 Core Points required for next Avatar Level

SWIFTNESS - 1

Allows you to speed up your reaction time, allowing you to perform 2 times more actions for 10 seconds by using 10 Mana (Energy).

Using the skill will increase its rank, increasing the number of actions you can perform while the skill is in effect.

The skill wasn’t exactly what Theo was hoping for, but it could be useful in the present circumstances. Not wasting time, he immediately resorted to it. The number of exploding goblin fliers doubled.

AVATAR LEVEL INCREASE

Your Avatar has become Level 6

+1 Mind, ARCANE IDENTIFY skill obtained

600 Core Points required for next Avatar Level

ARCANE IDENTIFY - 1

Allows you the ability to identify magic materials, runes, spells, and artifacts.

Using the skill will increase its rank, increasing the information obtained.

Ah, the classics, Theo thought. He had no idea how useful that particular skill would be, but he was glad to have it. The first thing he was going to do once his avatar returned was to inspect every inch of himself and see what the stats and values of his furniture were.

Until then, the fire-balling would continue. Come to think of it, this was a rather good exercise. It felt more like having fun than fighting. With Liandra guarding him, and his infinite mana, Theo had the chance to stack up on Core Points and increase the level of his avatar considerably.

No sooner had he thought that than the surviving goblins broke off their attack, returning to the airships. That wasn’t only sneaky, it was terribly annoying.

“Come back, you cowards!” Theo shouted. Sadly, even he knew that it was fruitless to keep targeting them. The goblins had already moved above the village, and when they re-entered their metal dirigibles, he wouldn’t be able to do a thing.

“Give it a break,” Liandra said. “We’ve won this one. Let them retreat. We’ll get the rest of them later.”

“I think not.” Theo cast an aether shield around himself, then around the heroine. “We go to the source.”

Using his levitation, the avatar weaved both spheres through the air, like a pair of bowling balls. His suspicions had proven to be true. The Aether Shield was treated like a physical object, and while it was a physical object, he could levitate it.

Both Theo and Liandra whooshed through the air. Following an irrational path, they twisted and turned, slamming into the side of the nearest airship. Both shields cracked and disappeared instantly. The force exerted onto the airship, however, remained thrusting the ship into the night sky.

But it didn’t end here. Casting two new Aether Shields, Theo repeated the process, slamming into the second airship, then the third. Now all three of the enemy’s ships were far from the village and—hopefully—damaged enough on the inside to make their way back.

“You’re crazy, you know that?” Liandra asked, but judging by the upbeat note in her voice, she seemed to have rather enjoyed that. “It’s the first time I've crippled an airship in such a way, I’ll tell you that.”

“We’re not finished.” Theo smiled.

“What do you mean? The small fries won’t be an issue. We can take them in our sleep.”

“I wasn’t talking about the flying goblins.”

A short distance away in the sky, the portal activated once more. From here, Theo was able to get a really good look at it. It was the size of an extremely large mirror—large enough to let a whole airship through. In effect, the front of an airship was at this very moment starting to exit—more reinforcements, no doubt.

This was exactly what Theo was waiting for.

“Here we go!” the avatar said, then thrust himself and Liandra through the portal.