A group of five goblins that were patrolling in the woods suddenly got hit by a fireball that Username_Here had shot off. It wasn’t enough to kill them but it did do a lot of damage from the surprise attack. Just as they were drawing their weapons, two goblins died as they found themselves stabbed in the back with a dagger each. BlondHuntress had jumped down from a tree she was hiding in and using a dagger in each hand had backstabbed them.

ConfusedHero along with Tina rushed in as one goblin got stabbed in the chest and the other one’s head flew off its shoulder. The last goblin quickly realized it was outmatched and tried to run off only to find a firebolt in its face and a knife digging into its back at the same time.

GothicPriestess laughed while saying, “You all are getting too good at this. How am I supposed to do my job as a healer if you all don’t get hurt?” While wiping the blood off her sword and with a grin, Tina said, “Well I can give them a few wounds if you want to practice your healing that badly?” GothicPriestess giggled, “You would do that for me? I’m honored.”

After they both were done joking, everyone started heading closer to the goblin village. Despite the fact that it took them all three hours to get here which included breaks. All that was the easy part as they only had to fight small groups of goblins and at times other monsters native to the forest.

This village not only had a mini-boss in the form of a hobgoblin but held a group of 100 goblins that lived inside of it. If they weren’t careful they could have all 100 of them rush them all at once. Worse is if they moved too far away from the village, any goblins that they did kill would just respawn.

They spent another couple of hours both planning and setting up the traps. Well, BlindHuntress set the traps up as she was the only rogue in the group and most skilled at hiding. She was the only one who could sneak close enough to the village with the lowest chance of being seen.

That didn’t mean that other classes couldn’t learn skills that weren’t part of their class. Like how Tina was able to learn a few skills of a warrior. But players wouldn’t get the added bonuses that those skills provided if they weren’t in the correct class. There were other factors when considering the sneak skill as well. The level difference between the player and the NPC, monster, or even another player. Armor also made a difference and how much noise it would produce.

Although lighting did affect the skill, being outside even during the night didn’t change much as if it were day. The reason being is that the creators of the game knew there would be people who preferred to play at night. So the lighting during the night was only slightly darker during the day. If you were to take a clear sky during mid-day being at 100% brightness then midnight would be 80% in brightness.

Once everything was set up they all walked towards the village. Username_Here sent off a fireball towards the nearest group of goblins within his range. After getting the attention of the entire village that was now being attacked and alarm bells were going off. Tina and the players ran off a little way before stopping to turn around.

BlondHuntress had placed and used every trap she had in her inventory. Poison traps, direct damage traps, traps that would only slow someone down, and even simple traps that would trip someone. But they still weren’t enough as all those traps had only killed about 20 goblins and injured another 10 as all the goblins had gathered and started rushing towards them.

No one raised a hand to fight the horde of goblins. The horde of goblins was only 20 feet away when Username_Here shot a fireball off while shouting out, “Do it now Gothic!!!” GothicPriestess had cast her own spell which was a barrier. If it weren’t for this barrier they would have even been caught into their own trap. The field around them suddenly lit up in a blazing fire burning almost all the goblins alive. They had covered the area with lamp oil.

BlindHuntress had bought the large barrel of lamp oil to make fire traps and to sell them. She never thought she’d have to use all the oil at once in such a way. There was also a huge difference between a controlled fire and this uncontrolled fire.

The downside to killing all these goblins this way is that the party didn’t get any exp. The game considered this fire as environmental damage and considering none of them actually entered combat. With the exception of the few goblins that were hit by the fireball and the goblins that died from the first traps that had to be set up only gave exp. This was to prevent players from abusing the system to level up quickly.

Sure it killed most of the goblins but now not only has the fire spread to a few buildings in the village but a forest fire has started. If that weren’t bad enough the mini-boss hobgoblin and the 6 elite goblins that had watched this happen were now enraged.

GothicPriestess had used a little over half her mana keeping the barrier up before the fire finally died out around them. ConfusedHero let out a roar as he activated his aggro skill as the mini-boss and six elite goblins changed their targets to him. Tina had rushed to their side and used all her strength to slash at the hobgoblin’s neck. If this were the real world hitting a person that hard would have chopped their head off. But this didn’t end up in a killing blow but only in a critical strike as she hit a vital area. The hobgoblin became even more enraged as he looked at Tina who backed up a little bit. Only 5% of his health got cut down from that one strike.

While Tina did her best to keep the hobgoblin busy the rest of the team started taking out the goblin elites. GothicPriestess was having a hard time keeping ConfusedHero and Tina’s health up. Mainly on Tina’s side. She may have better stats than most NPCs and players the same level as her. But she was still only level 16. Everyone in the party was either level 20 or 21. The goblin elites were level 22 and the hobgoblin was level 25 and a mini-boss to boot.

Tina was pondering if she should run away and try again later as she backed off when the four players finally finished the last elite goblin off and came to rush to help her. Her old armor was broken and useless. Her clothes had a few holes and shreds in them. She had only taken between 10-15% of the hobgoblins' health. He was faster and hit harder than she had expected. Worst of all she didn’t bring any backup armor.

Username_Here was shooting off all the none AOE spells he had, ConfusedHero was doing his best to keep the aggro and tank the damage while GothicPriestess was constantly healing him. BlindHuntress couldn’t get any sneak attacks in as she couldn’t go into hiding while in combat while already revealed. But she used her poison attacks as fast as their cooldown came. Even though Tina’s armor was no longer useful she still stepped in to temporarily tank damage to give ConfusedHero some few moments of relief while his health got topped up.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The main reason they all had such a hard time was that it was a few levels above them as well as a mini-boss. If it were an actual boss or worse a raid boss they all would have died a long time ago. The entire fight from beginning to end lasted a good hour before the hobgoblin fell.

They all sat on the ground to rest. ConfusedHero asked, “We killed every goblin including that boss. Why didn’t we complete the quest yet?” Username_Here simply replied, “Because we haven’t handed the necklace over to Tina yet.” GothicPriestess looked at them, “Umm the boss didn’t drop any necklace though. And all the goblins we killed from the fire didn’t drop any loot.”

BlindHuntress complained, “D-don’t tell me we have to go through all this again?” Username_Here shrugged, “Possibly but we should search the village first to find any stashed loot. It’s possibly inside one of the huts.” BlindHuntress made a fist, “That better be the case. Using all that oil cost me a fortune with nothing to gain from it.”

As for Tina, she was relieved and also slightly annoyed that the game didn’t just give her the last few exp needed to gain her second level. She gained one level and had like 10 exp away from gaining a second level.

Just as she got up so they could start looking, she vanished. Username_Here and all the others barely had time to process what happened when a blue box appeared in front of them.

Quest Failed: Find the Stolen Necklace

Help the flower girl find her stolen necklace.

You have strayed too far from the flower girl and failed the quest.

Quest Failure:

You and your party members have each been given a random curse. You are cursed with….

Before they could even fully read the blue box it vanished and another box appeared.

Your Quest has been canceled:

On behalf of the staff we are sorry to inform you that we have to cancel your current quest. We need to apply updates to the NPC known as the flower girl.

We are sorry for the inconvenience this may have brought you. We have removed your curses as well as given you all a free token to use in the player shops slot machine.

All that hard work and they got nothing to show for it. Sure they didn’t have to spend money on the random item they would win from the player shop. But it was nothing but skins, visual features, and roleplay items. Nothing in the shop would give an advantage to anyone else in the game. They didn’t want to go the play-to-win route. They couldn’t help but feel that they just got cheated as they were after those golden keys from the quest reward. But there was nothing they could do about it either.

***

Tina found herself in a white room with red carpeting. In one corner of the room were two dividers with floral designs on them. Across the room on the other side was a simple leather brown couch with a guy sitting on it.

Tina asked in annoyance, “Stan, why the hell did you bring me here without any warning? I had given a quest to some players and now because of you they just failed it.” Stan just chuckled as he replied, “Don’t worry I took care to cancel their quest so they won’t suffer the consequences. As for why I didn’t contact you beforehand it’s because you forgot to add us to your friend list.”

Tina glared and pointed her finger at him, “You are a dev in this game. You didn’t need me to add you to my friends list and could have contacted me anyway. So why did you bring me here anyways? This better be for a good reason.” Just for the added effect that wasn’t needed, Stan raised his hand and snapped his fingers as a rack of assorted clothes appeared next to him. With a grin, he said, “Well I’m here to find the perfect set of clothes for you of course.”

She shuddered as this is what she was afraid of when she first talked to him. She waved her hands, “No way am I going to let you dress me up. I know how you are, spending hours dressing up those anime loli dolls you buy online. I’m not a dress-up doll so just send me back already.” He leaned forward, “I don’t know how you know that about me. But you only have yourself to blame for this. You said it yourself and told all those millions of players to beg the company to make you the face of the game. We have our first game event coming up and need you to announce it. I of course took the liberty of volunteering to find the perfect outfit for you.”

Tina kept trying to argue her point but in the end, she reluctantly agreed in defeat. She knew he was taking advantage of this situation as she was forced to try on three different types of wedding dresses, 5 types of different princess-style dresses, assorted ballroom dresses, different shirts, skirts, shorts, pants.

Stan even pulled out an anime-style school bathing suit. After trying it on she then saw him holding a bikini with frills, Glaring at it she said, “How is this event related to swimming? Haven’t you already had enough fun already? I know you already have in mind what you want me to wear for this event and I played along with your game already.”

Tina started wondering if this was revenge from his own creation that he was stuck in. She did the same thing after all when she had created this avatar back when he was still alive in the real world. Back then he even helped Stan dress up his newly bought anime girl figures whenever a new anime came out. At least Tina was able to dress herself behind the dividers.

Waving the bikini towards her, Stan said, “Fine after you try this on the next item will be the last I promise. I’ll even give you some special enchanted armor for troubling you.” Tina snatched the bikini from his hands and said before stomping her way towards the dividers, “It better be worth it.”

The bikini was one of those bikinis that would look normal other than the added frilly layer that made the clothing look loose and wavy on top while the bottom had a really really short skirt attached to it.

Tina walked out and barely gave Stan a chance to appreciate it as she had grabbed the last set of clothes that was sitting and waiting for her. Before he could complain she had already walked back and started changing again.

After putting on the last set of clothes her hairstyle changed into twin tails with ribbons. She was wearing an anime school uniform with long songs that raised an inch or two above her knees. Her cyan skirt to match her hair color stopped just an inch above her long socks. She had the classic white shirt and a red ribbon just below her neck.

She had to admit it did look good but it didn’t exactly match the fantasy vibe of the game. When she walked out, Stan clapped his hands as he said, “You look great. Now we can go and start recording to advertise the first event of the game.” Tina shook her head, “Before that. Give me what you promised me.” Stan nodded and handed her the bikini she had just worn earlier, “This is it. It’s enchanted to grow its defense along with your levels and even has water breathing attached to it. Of course, it’s soulbound only to you and not tradable.”

This was a video game and anything can be coded to be armor. She glared at him in anger as she had just gotten the worst end of the deal. But before she could argue with him, they both teleported to another location. Some people waiting for them in an almost empty arena each one of them at least GM in rank. One guy walked up saying, “So you all are ready? Have you given her the script yet?”