[Unexpected Stab - Progress - (250/250) - Details: Temporarily replace a limb with a ghostly prosthetic consisting of Mana. Task: Completed.]
He'd done it. He'd somehow survived, and all thanks to his new Skill. Damon was finally feeling like this Class thing came with tangible benefits besides raising his Stats, which had so quickly grown insufficient.
And that wasn't even the only Class quest that had progressed.
[Bleeding Edge - Progress - (1/3) - Details: Bleed more than your foe, yet eek out the win. Task: Incomplete.]
Damon got up and peeked his head out the hut, seeing the goblin village all going about its business.
Just outside the door to his left was an equally bandaged up Billy. Although he looked to be in sorta rough shape, he still instantly perked up upon spotting Damon.
"Hey buddy, you doing alright?"
The goat bleated weakly, clearly looking for sympathy, before rolling over and exposing his belly like a house cat, looking up at Damon expectantly. It looked ridiculous with his little back hoofs.
That's how Läker found him, with Damon going to town on his chimera goat and making repeated exclamations over how magnificent the fur was, as was his wont.
"AHEM." Damon jumped up and turned around. "Glad to see yer up, how are ye feeling young man?"
What faced Damon was the oldest-looking goblin that he'd ever seen, pictures included.
"Holy—, hi. Uhm, oh, yes. I'm feeling perfectly alright, considering. Certainly better than expected. How long was I out for?" Looking at Billy, it couldn't have been terribly long, or the beast would be further along in his recovery as well.
"I'm glad to hear. Three days, or thereabouts. No belly aches?" The healer eyed him expectantly.
Damon touched his full-feeling belly, trying to recall if he'd taken wounds there. "Not in particular, I feel full actually, which seems odd if it's really been three days?"
"Not odd at all, I've been personally stuffing you full of fruit."
The way she said it, keeping her face so carefully blank; it felt like a complete setup for Damon to make ridiculous assumptions, so he refused to rise to the bait.
"Appreciate it. Is that why my belly might have hurt?"
"No, that's because I stuffed your wounds full of Neptunia Sponge, with no confirmation whether your body would accept it, but you were weakening swiftly, leaving me little choice. Billy can't have any, for instance. His flesh rejects the medicine as a foreign substance, whereas I have never seen any body but a goblin's take to it so well as yours," she said, clearly hoping for an explanation.
Damon had turned already and resumed scritching Billy again, so the way he said the next words so casually made the old goblin's jaw nearly unhinge. "Oh, uh. It's because I'm a human. We can eat almost anything. You know, barring allergies," He kept rubbing the goat, then turned around when there was no immediate response. "I'm all good usually, just don't try and introduce me to any giant turtles," He shuddered.
"That's not how…" She trailed off, and then looked even more off balance for some reason, but she squeezed out another question. "An actual ancient?"
"Ancient, what? I'm 23 years old. Oh, the turtle? I never asked."
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There was nothing else to it, but to bring Damon to another village meeting, since he had turned out to be so refreshingly forthcoming with information.
But to Damon's thinking, if the goblins had any questions then it was a done deal. They'd saved his life, and he would not soon forget it. He was not the ungrateful sort, and he'd known exactly what a stupid risk he was taking at the time, without any certainty there was even a real secret to discover. Nobody had asked him to do it, but it had really seemed like the smart thing to do at the time. He'd wanted answers, and didn't see anybody strong or clever enough to stop him from getting them.
Upon reflecting back the experience had been traumatizing, to realize he'd almost walked into a trap headfirst, not to mention painful. Or the loss of several days that the whole ordeal had cost him. But he couldn't complain. Now he was in a position to share valuable information, and if it all resulted in his new friends learning something important, then all the better.
They kept the meeting in the loot hut, and Damon could see why, since it was the largest hut despite the walls being stacked with woven boxes. It was still an uncomfortable choice, since it felt like Ken's staring eyes were somehow tracking him all over the room from over in the corner.
He did his best to ignore it while everyone entered. Then Lila spoke up to start things off. "I'll summarize, to ensure everyone starts off fully in the loop before we begin our questioning." There were accepting nods all around the room. "Damon here is the first person we've met of the ancient tribe calling themselves Humans. He was a young and average member, frozen in time back when the System first arrived, who awoke in the Black Hills Alluvial, merely a week ago—and that's where he met Billy."
I dunno about average, but ok. So far so good. But Damon stayed prepared to jump in and correct any misconceptions. It was just that when they finally arrived, they came in a wave so large that there was no halting it.
Lila continued. "To put it plainly, humans are a supernaturally large species with the perfect blend of speed, power, agility and cunning. They've got enchanted metal for bones, the ability to seduce even the most stubborn among magical beasts, and they can dig out a dwelling in the most porous of materials in but a single day—using water as their only adhesive. Achieving their Daos three in less than a week of isolated meditation is but a stepping stone, their advantage so large that they were frozen away during the dreaded Shuffle, now upon their day of waking they will be capable of striding atop Rex’ a hundred levels above their own and declare themselves superior. They are the returning kings, who refuse to be [Identified], and we have been unknowingly keeping this pioneer's companion captive, right over there," Lila declared and pointed over to Ken’s corner, eliciting light gasps from the adult goblins all around the room, before she handed it off to Damon like he was supposed to nod and assume his rightful throne, from which to start putting the world to rights, at long last.
Damon's eyes had been widening further and further throughout, and by the end he was only helplessly shaking his head. There’s no single good explanation for all that, I’m gonna have to push through and start from the beginning.
"Uh, Lila I think you might have... filled in some blanks. What did you call me, average? Right..."
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It took him quite a while to strike the right balance between explaining how normal Humans were as a whole, without fully waving away all the things included in there that happened to be true about himself in particular, while also making it clear how we could be pretty terrible, and awesome, in equal measure.
Damon figured the best policy was complete honesty, since he was pretty terrible at keeping track of lies. His feats were all easily explainable after all, even for a mere Human. If anything it was this strange, magic world of theirs that was responsible for all the weird parts. But explaining the way of the world before the System, to a bunch of high level goblins... yeah. They weren't going to really understand, and making the attempt only depressed Damon, so he settled for sharing his personal view and the state of their ancient world in broad strokes instead: "Even with being young and strong, I was a nobody really. It was sort of easy back then to just float along. To be an observer, and assume everything would be alright. Or if not, that there wasn’t much you could do about it, like our course was set. I was usually staying busy with martial arts training and studies, trying to learn different techniques from all over the world. I only really bothered with opportunities that there was no need to chase after. Life was less, vivid? Or maybe I just felt like I could afford to be less proactive. Anyway, I’ve learned a lot about myself since this all started, even if it hasn’t been very long, to my reckoning."
The Goblins had looked dubious, finding picturing such a world impossible. But mostly they believed him. Damon spoke too earnestly, and clearly the young man didn't have it in him to keep up a fake persona. But things were getting personal fast, so yeah. Damon stopped with the personal stuff there, feeling like there were a few too many bridges to cross for any real understanding. He shared some stuff about metropolitan cities, and mentioned carts that drove themselves and could even fly which had a couple of young Goblin’s in the crowd outside staring wide eyed, but all this stuff remained stuck deeply in the past.
Soon enough they focused back on the future.
Lila had been staying quiet after mistakenly revealing her embarrassing misconceptions, but she finally felt ready to summarize. "So, you didn't achieve your Daos after waking, but just after the System’s arrival, in the one week prior to crystallizing, while your global civilization was under attack by the Shuffle. And your people aren't all particularly special, hiding metal skeletons—just you are.” Lila shook her head despairingly and looked over at Läker. "And it's somehow worse. Why is that even worse?"
Damon couldn't help it, despite how it was inappropriate. He broke down crying with laughter when they finally accepted his explanations, even breaking out in a guffaw at all the complicated and reluctantly intrigued expressions all around the room. "Don’t overestimate me. I've trained for years to fight like this, the System just made it easier. I'm happy to teach you all too, but maybe once we’ve dealt with the problem at hand?"
That swung all their attentions back toward this supposed villain that was hiding away in the orchard. Damon shared what he knew, and then an older goblin with a purple cap spoke up, after introducing himself as Skalle, the tribe's warleader. "So, it was one of the bastard trees all along. A [Shadewood Rootmother] in the triple digits? Sounds like nothing I've ever heard of, but I suppose it explains how such strange manner of trees are capable of growing throughout a dark cavern."
The Goblins had been in deep before, but always as a larger group who never got in far enough to see any sign of an ending to the orchard, before being worn down and forced to turn back. They had entered with real determination, then given up when the spiders appeared to have no end and they failed to find any hint of a source to where they were coming from. Now Damon and Billy alone had done what they with all their levels could not, to their shame. He’d confirmed there was indeed a culprit hiding in there, one that could be dealt with if they actually committed to the task.
And yet they were Goblins, so there was no denying they could just move on from here. But they’d been doing well for themselves in this place for over a year already, and a good place was a good place. If they really could get rid of the pests that kept them away from a majority of the best fruits, together with the pond and its mysterious depths, this was a place worth defending.
To secure the orchard was a worthy mission, and Damon certainly needed the levels, so after some discussion the Goblin elders and Lila figured they should come up with a plan, with Damon available to provide more info. “I saw no true signs of exhaustion from the [Cat’s Paw Tarantulas] but once I had finished my quest and started killing them a lot easier, that made the rootmother still decide to have them retreat rather than sacrifice the ones that remained for that minimal delay, I’d call that a sign they do have a cost. If we send a fully fledged assault I'd imagine this rootmother will be forced to fight us in the deeps, or risk us exhausting her one defensive Skill on the way in. Obviously I'm the least experienced, but seems to me like the odds should be very decent. You’re the ones with real levels though, anything in particular we would need to watch out for?”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Skalle fiddled with his black cap before answering, clearly thinking the risks over. “This is true, if we commit fully then in turn she will need her full strength to face us down. She'd be unlikely to afford harassing us the entire way, as we’d destroy even the largest clusters too easily. We could even bring the youngsters to back us up in its chambers, while we focus on the tree," He threw Läker a glance at that suggestion, to see how she'd take it, then focused back on Damon when there was no comment. "But you said the spiders became empowered when you entered its final dungeon? If she saves her strength we could be facing a greater threat than usual in the arachnids, and I sincerely doubt that’s the only card up her sleeve.”
Damon couldn’t fault the logic, and started feeling like he should have somehow used the opportunity to find out more.
Skalle continued. “As you never touched her, we do not know if our weapons will cut true as they should, or if maybe her bark has special defenses.”
Damon could only nod and agree they should be ready for anything. “You’re saying we need more preparations? What are you thinking, maybe fire?”
Skalle nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, that is a go-to. Or perhaps we only go there after the sun is set. How is your night vision? If we bring torches, then perhaps she will be weakened, if the sun was indeed empowering her while you were there?”
"It's fine, uh." Damon didn’t know what to say. It was certainly a possibility, but there was no telling if the sunlight was really weakening the spiders or if they just didn’t like it. The light could technically still be making the rootmother even stronger. You need light to cast shadows, right?
Yet what if it was the opposite? Although she had been behaving like a normal tree when he saw her basking in the sun, despite the name shadewood.
“You look hesitant, I can understand. This is all a lot to ask of someone so recent to their Class, merely level 30. Have you considered your path forward?”
Damon had actually gotten his first out of three fights completed for his 3rd quest, and was also over a hundred hours into Prowess Progression by now, somehow. Overall it was going well, but it felt like the biggest issue may well be his weapons. “I can deal with my portion of the spiders for sure, but I think I might have a hard time against the tree itself. I won't be able to get close enough to try and cut it down with a pair of daggers. They're from the System, for my Class, but aren’t even magical, remaining dormant still, so there’s a high chance they will dull long before the tree is damaged.”
“Dormant is well in terms of potential, though they remain magically null for now,” The older goblin stopped for a second and seemed to consider something. “We may have an idea to help with that. One of our youngsters will be going on her Dao mission, to gain the level that confirms her choice of Class. She has achieved her three Daos, at an impressive young age—if she stumbles now however, then it is likely that she might never achieve her full potential. She is to be sent into the Doc Forest and retrieve the valuable, medicinal bark that grows there. It may take her a day to gather enough without being discovered. But if you were to help her, that may ensure she could focus on her task without interruption, and while there you could also take the opportunity to take on the System challenge of the long-abandoned mill that is found there.”
That certainly sounded interesting. And a challenge? Maybe even the sort of place where one might find a [Vigor Draught] for reviving Ken?
"What's there?"
Lila took over the explanation: “An eldritch being has long guarded the old abandoned mill against intruders, for seemingly no reason, refusing to let any who approach take on the challenge and be awarded with the woodsman’s ax which it guards. It claims none are worthy, but then who would dare deny the worthiness of the eldest people? I reckon it is worth a shot, and it will give our village time to gather more weapons and refill our medicinal stocks. We should be ready to lay siege, if worse comes to worse, so plenty of supplies is likely to become a necessity, sooner than later.”
Damon could only nod along, glad to finally be getting some guidance in this crazy world. “Alright, that sounds easy enough, depending on this guardian, but if it's a single opponent I think I've got it. I guess I could take her along while you all prepare. Is it far? Should I wait for Billy to feel better, or is that a waste of our time?”
Skalle seemed to consider. “It is only about as far as your own cave, perhaps a little over eight hours into the north. If you head out early you can be back the same day, or the next if that challenge needs completing. You should be fine without him for this one, and he’ll be fully rested for the true mission.”
Damon looked to his buddy to see if he was fine with the arrangement, and Billy seemed content to stay behind for now. “Alright. Are we going right now, or when should we do this?”
Skalle had to stop and think again, making it seem a habit of his. “I’d say as soon as she’s ready, but she never stops. How about you get to know each other, maybe train a few maneuvers together a little? Then as soon as you both feel ready, head on out. Sooner the better,” He nodded, affirming the words.
“Ok. Show me where she is holed up then, I’ll head over right away. What type of fighter is she, ranged like Lila?”
“Of a kind, but no, not the traditional sort you’re thinking of. She’s right over there, no need to go looking.”
And he pointed over to a vaguely familiar beaker urn made up in clay, with a large cork stuck in the top, leaving the spout alone as an air hole. “Wait, she’s in there? Why, what’s that about?”
“Oh, just an interim punishment for endangering her brother the other day. It was while we figured out what Class mission to put her up for, but now that this is resolved she only needs to complete the challenge ahead for forgiveness.”
“A beaker urn?”
“It’s what we use for burials. To remind her of her mortality, although I believe it stopped working a while ago. It’s mostly force of habit by this point, but don’t tell her that.”
“I can hear you.” Said a squeaky voice, making it echo inside the urn.
“Ye, yeah. Come on out Blåberry and meet Damon, for real this time.”
Damon had no idea what to expect, frankly he’d been expecting just another goblin. A young one, so with a white cap, but otherwise he didn’t have the faintest hint to make him expect anything was different.
Then she came out, and stood there in front of him, hands on hips and posing on top of the cork.
And yes, while she was clearly young that was not the remarkable portion. She was about eight inches tall, rising to the height of a banana—far, far smaller than any other goblin in the village. She was smaller than the newborn goblin who Damon had marveled over in the distance the other day, maybe half that size even.
“Uh.”
As soon as he opened his mouth, Blåberry piped up too. “Uh yourself. Just be glad I’m not heavy you twat. You’ll be my ride for the mission, I trust you have no objections?”
Damon could only numbly nod his head, trying to think of what to say.
“I’d prefer sleeping in your cloak, but I see you don’t have one. Skalle, get him a cloak, would ya?” The older goblin shook his head and went into one of the boxes for a size extra large.
“Come on, snap out of it. You didn’t have dwarfs in your giant cities?”
That actually did make Damon snap out of it, and cause him to have a closer look. She didn’t look anything like a dwarf, if anything her proportions were even more elflike than the rest of the goblins, she was just tiny. “You’re a goblin dwarf?”
“As I live and breathe, check my designation.”
[Goblin Dwarf Redcap - Level 25]
“... Awesome,” He said, somehow feeling awestruck.
“Glad you think so. We grow in reverse. So, you wanna get a move on? I reckon we could make it by nightfall, and I can get'urrdone the next day, then help you figure out that challenge. I've heard the guardian’s pretty ridiculous.”
Damon decided that heck, this wasn’t the weirdest thing that had happened to him so far. Although it probably made the top three.
Eh, so she's small. What the hell. We adapt. “Sure, let’s do it.”
He turned to Skalle, who’d brought over an oiled cloak, and then they headed for the doors, Blåberry grabbing onto a tousle of hair and riding on his shoulder.
As they headed out, little Minst watched them go from a window flap. Worried and happy for her all at once, yet sad to be getting left behind.
His time would come though, and he knew Blåberry would be hard at work preparing for that day already.
I can’t do worse. I just can’t, there’s never any good excuses.
He ran off to do his strength training, limbs bursting with renewed energy after already enduring an early morning session.
Billy's madly rolling eyes saw them all.
Minions.