Hi guys, this is the first chapter I wrote since posting all my other chapters.

I wrote it over a period of about 8-9 hours yesterday, and proofread it today. Just please don't expect me to publish a Chapter a day, I think I'll probably start trying for 1-2 Chapters a Week from now on.

Anyway, thank you everyone that read and rated my FF.

As always all criticism is welcome and appreciated. ~borgen92

[p=center]The Winged Knight[/p]

[p=center]Volume 1 - Chapter 4 - Journey with a Friend[/p]

After logging back into Royal Road, I once again found myself at the square. I checked my friends list and Eiden wasn't online so I decided to check if Tervi the Merchant was done with the cloak.

I walked to the place he was yesterday, and found him there selling goods.

"Hi Tervi, finished with the cloak?" I asked with a smile. He looked up at the sound of my voice, it seems like he'd been inventorying. He smiled when he recognized me, I took that as a good sign.

"Hello, and yes It's done." He said with a satisfied smile, bending down behind the stall he brought up a beautiful cloak. It was long, almost as long as I am and almost glowed dark purple, and best of all on the back of it was a white fierce swan.

(http://static3.paizo.com/image/product/ ... SP09BE.jpg)

Tervi handed over the cloak with a big smile while I simply stared at it dumbfounded.

It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, and the Swan looks exactly as I imagined it. I thought wonderingly as I caressed the cloak lovingly.

I raised my head from the cloak to look at Tervi who had a very smug smile on his face.

"It's beautiful." I simply told him with quiet sincerity. After I took a closer look the item window popped up:

[p=center]Cloak of the Raging Swan[/p]

Durability: 35/35

Defense: 2

Beautiful cloak made out of Spider-Silk.

The tailor's high skill allowed him to dye the silk purple and embroidered it with a Raging white Swan, and due to the great care and skill the tailor showed making this cloak it's durability is very high.

The high quality Spider-Silk will keep you warm in everything but the direst of weather.

Restrictions: Strength 10.

Equip: Raises Charisma by 5.

I wasn't even expecting it to have any defense. And increases Charisma by 5? Perfect.

"Thank you so much." I told him while looking him straight in the eyes.

"It's all right, but can I add you to my friends list? You can sell me all your stuff in the future if you want." He said with a smile.

I was grateful for his offer, this way I wouldn't have to walk around looking for some honest merchant to sell my stuff to every time I'm back.

"That sounds like a good Idea." I told him with a smile. We added each other to the friends list, and after that I equipped my beautiful cloak and started walking towards Kat to visit for some delicious porridge while I wait for Eiden to come online.

[p=center]***[/p]

I was once again outside the decrepit old knight's guild. I walked to the front door, entered and immediately filled my lungs with air for a deafening shout.

"Honey, I'm home!" I screamed so loud the walls seemed to shake a little. After a few moments of silence I heard some footsteps coming from upstairs, and a second after that the red headed beauty that is my teacher came down the stairs smiling hugely.

I stepped forward and gave her a big hug, even though it had barely been a week game time I stilled missed her.

"Welcome back Aurelius." she told me with a warm smile after we broke the hug.

"Thanks, it's nice to see you again Kat." I replied with an equally warm smile.

"I see you've grown stronger." she said trying to change the subject.

She's still as uncomfortable with all the mushy stuff as usual. I thought with a fond smile.

"A little, but I'm in grave need of some practice and porridge. What do you say?" I asked her with a grin she answered with a smile, and started walking towards the backyard.

We sparred for an hour, after that we sat down for some of her wonderful porridge.

After the bowl was set down in front of me I gorged myself on it while Kat watched me with a small smile.

I finished and leaned back with a sigh.

"Even better than I remember it Kat, and that's really saying something." she smiled with pleasure at the compliment.

"You should have seen what I've been eating," I told her shaking my head sadly. "stale barley bread and even some raw wolf meat." I grimaced remembering the taste of that.

"Why don't you just learn cooking?" she asked me while trying to hold back her laughter at the image of me eating raw meat.

I shook my head sadly.

"It's impossible for me to cook, every time I've ever tried it's turned out coal black with a truly awful taste." I said disgustingly in remembrance. She laughed at that, I didn't really blame her since my level of cooking was beyond awful.

"Well, I suppose you'll have to learn to buy food before you leave then. And if it runs out, you'll have to live on berries or other things you can find in nature." she told me with an amused smile.

"But what were you doing after you left?" she asked me curiously. So I told her everything that had happened.

"Ah, so Arazud made an armor to go with the sword did he, oh I see you're looking confused. Arazud is Anyrra's father, and the one who taught her everything she knows." she explained seeing my confusion.

"Is he still here? I didn't see him at the smithy."

"No, he left Anyrra in charge of it and left on a journey. He said, and I quote: 'I need to go and find some masters to teach me their secrets, otherwise I'll never be able to advance beyond my current skill'. He's always been like that, going out on random journeys to find a rumored metal or the like." she smiled a bit at some memory.

It seems she really likes him, that's rare.

"And I must say, you've really embraced the Swan haven't you?" she said gesturing at my cloak and armor.

"Yes, while the armor engraving was made by Arazud, the cloak I had made all on my own. I've become really enamored with swans." I said with a small smile.

The class really was right for him, huh. And he certainly looks handsome with that cloak and the parts Arazud made. Katherina thought smiling at Aurelius fondly as he admired the cloak.

-"Aurelius, are you there?" a voice came out of nowhere that made me jump in my chair surprising Katherina as well.

"Hah, thought I was going to have a heart attack. One of my friends used magic to whisper me." I explained to Kat that had also got up when I did.

"Excuse me for a second, I'm going to answer him." I told her with a small smile walking out of the dining room.

-"I'm here, it's Eiden isn't it?" I asked the mysterious voice.

-"Yes, sorry. I forgot to introduce myself." He told me in a flustered voice.

He needs to relax, I'm not going to bite his head off for such a small thing.

-"It's alright, so are you ready now to tell me about the quest?"

-"Yes, where should we meet?"

-"A second please,"

I walked back into the dining room and saw that Kat had cleared the table and was nowhere to be seen, so I walked into the kitchen and found her there washing the dishes.

"Kat, can I bring a friend over? We're going on a quest together soon and we need someplace to discuss the details, and I would value any advice you have for us." I asked her with a small smile. She just looked over her shoulder at me and gave a nod.

-"Eiden, I'm at the knight's guild. Kat has told me we can discuss it here, so just make your way here."

-"A-at the knight's guild?!" He almost screamed in a panicked voice.

What has his sister told him about Kat? I thought almost laughing.

-"Yes Eiden, just come. It'll be alright." I said in my most soothing voice trying to calm him down.

-"A-alright. I'll be there soon."

[p=center]***[/p]

Five minutes later Eiden arrived, I greeted him at the door and he seemed very nervous to be here.

"Let's go to the dining room, that's the best place for this." I told him calmly, trying to lower his anxiety. He responded with a small nod.

Arriving in the dining room Eiden met Katherina for the first time. He seemed to freeze up when he saw her, and when she turned her head to look at him he almost started shaking.

How does this guy fight if just meeting her almost makes him shake? I was beginning to be concerned about this quest.

"Eiden, meet Katherina the Beautiful. My teacher, my benefactor and hopefully someday my lover." I told him with a wink and barely managed to dodge the pot of flowers Kat had apparently taken from the table and thrown at me.

*TING

Charisma has increased by 1

I just continued speaking like Kat hadn't thrown anything at all while Eiden stared at us with big eyes.

"Katherina, meet Eiden the Water-Mage. He's my friend and needs help with a quest of some kind." I told her pushing Eiden towards her.

He looked like he wanted to turn and run, but swallowed his saliva and soldiered on. After walking up to her determined he offered his hand. She just looked at it for a few moments, a tiny blush still remaining on her cheeks until she took it and shook it with her customary strength.

"N-nice to meet you." Eiden said awkwardly. Katherina's eyes seemed to bore into him until she finally released his hand with a brisk nod.

Eiden sighed, he looked like he'd just survived a meeting with death itself.

What horror stories have Diane told him about Katherina? He looks like he thought she'd kill or beat him on the spot.

"Well then, let's all sit down and Eiden this is your show." I told them as I walked over to the table and sat down opposite Kat while Eiden sat down in a chair to the left between me and Kat. He didn't look too happy being forced into that seat.

And so he started to tell us from the start, first in a slightly shaky voice but as his story progressed so did the steadiness of his voice.

Eiden had wound up in Dale by a mistake, so when he arrived here and realized this wasn't where his sister had started he'd decided to do something he enjoyed in real life. So he'd gone to the library to read.

He'd found the large library filled with books, and he was in heaven. He started with reading history books about the Kingdom of Dale, then started with Magic and there he found his true passion.

He devoured all the books concerning magic, he read all day from 07.00-19.00 when the library closed. And one time he almost died because his satiety was so low. An old man who was the head librarian had found him, half starved and almost dead. Quickly he'd brought him into a private room and fed Eiden until he woke up.

The kind librarian had given him a very stern lecture upon the need eat and drink, at this time Eiden had stuttered that he didn't have any more food and all his money was gone. The librarian took pity on Eiden and got him a job at a local inn as a busboy/waiter/chef. (At this point I could barely restrain myself from yelling 'Jackpot!' when I found out he could cook.)

So for the rest of the starting month Eiden alternated between the library and the inn. He'd read countless of magic books and had found himself especially fascinated with Water and Ice Magic. (Ice Magic is a subset of Water Magic, they share the same affinity; Water Magic.)

And so he searched everywhere in the library for anything and everything regarding Water or Ice. At one point he'd even found himself reading a book about the best way to water plants, that's how complete his study of water was.

But then he'd found something very unexpected, an old diary that'd been in a part of the library where the books were still unsorted, but because of his friendship with the head librarian he was allowed in.

The diary was of a Master Water Mage named Otrix, that had actually lived in what is now The Norton Kingdom, right next to Dale. His diary especially spoke of a cave in the Ulta Mountains right at the border between Norton and Dale. There he used to research spells, and the diary said that he'd casted some sort of master-spell that took months to prepare on the cave.

The spell was only ever called 'The Affinity' so Eiden wasn't sure what it was or what it did, but he had a nasty suspicion that 'The Affinity' could be a spell increasing Affinity with Water. To me that sounded good for him, but Eiden quickly explained that if the spell increased the affinity to water over the whole cave, it most likely meant that the cave had just become paradise to various Ice/Water elementals.

Which meant that Eiden's spells were basically useless against them. Since they had something like 99% Water Resistance.

At the end of the diary Otrix had been speaking about a new spell he was so close to perfecting, and just as Eiden finished the book and closed it, a quest had popped up.

The quest was ranked D and on the information it only said 'Find out about the secret cave of Master Otrix' but the rewards section said something very interesting. The reward was: 'The Legacy of Otrix'.

Eiden thought it could mean many things, but he was pretty sure it was the spell Otrix had spent his last days perfecting.

After the month passed Eiden got the Mage class and chose to go the Water Affinity direction.

Because he'd spent so much time reading his first month, his Intellect and Wisdom were leagues ahead of normal players. So he could easily solo Rabbits, Foxes and even lone Wolves. His Frost Bolt slowed them enough that before they could reach him, they'd already taken enough damage and died. He couldn't handle more than one though, if he did the second wolf managed to reach him just at the same time as killing the first one. And it's claws cut through his robes like butter.

Once he tried alternating between two wolves with Frost Bolt, but quickly realized that when he shoots them at one target they stack and the target becomes even slower. But when you just hit the wolves with one they still manage to catch him.

After leveling up by killing wolves for two weeks, he was now level 17. And he'd come out of the forest on the road instead of where I came out, so he didn't attract as much attention.

And when he was walking past the beginners he'd seen the commotion that was my arrival from the forest.

"And then I walked over to see what the crowd was doing, and almost immediately when I arrived you asked if anyone could use water magic on you." he finished his story with a smile.

If he used to hunt wolves alone, he's a lot stronger than I originally thought. I thought chiding myself for judging him too shallowly.

"So these Ulta Mountains, how far away are they and Kat do you know anything about the area where the cave is supposed to be?" I asked her politely while turning to look at her.

"The place you want to go to, the border between Norton and Dale near the Ulta mountains is at least a couple of weeks on foot. And that area really isn't that populated. From what I can remember about it, it's mostly forest and a couple of very small villages there. But you should be careful, I've heard from some friends of mine that a large group of goblins have settled in the area." She said grimacing in remembrance.

"Norton seems to think that the goblins are on our side, and therefore our responsibility. And as you can guess, Dale considers them on Norton's side and wants them to deal with it. Which, of course, results in the goblins running amok in the forests and on some of the small villages in the borderlands." She said in a tone which almost screamed her opinion of both of the kingdoms folly.

"So the villagers out there on both sides are pretty much on their own?" I asked her in a disgusted tone.

"Yes, their cries for help has so far gone unheard. While the villagers are dying or being kidnapped, the kingdoms are blaming each other. Sort of like 'Look you can't keep the goblins in your territory from killing our commoners' while doing absolutely nothing to help them. They just send diplomatic notes back and forth arguing about this, I'm sure someone will see sense at some point, but by then it might be too late for most of the villagers." She said in a sad tone.

"Then we have another goal for our journey don't we Eiden? If we're going there anyways, we should do everything we can to help them." I said in a determined voice. Eiden responded with a surprisingly strong nod. Kat seemed pleased by my response and nodded in agreement.

"Are we ready to leave right now Eiden? You're the official cook of our party, so do you have spices and stuff?" He nodded with a small smile.

"Then I suppose we should get going, shouldn't we?" I said while getting up, the rest followed me up but Kat stopped me before we could leave.

"Wait here Aurelius, I have something you can borrow." She said before walking out of the room. Eiden looked at me curiously, I just shrugged in response.

"Oh, I should invite you to a party. Invite to party: Eiden."

Eiden has joined your party.

Just as I finished we heard a sound and turned towards the door, entering was Katherina with something that looked like a green bag on her shoulder.

"What's that?" I asked curiously.

"It's a small tent big enough for two, I've used it in the past. I'll let you borrow it." She said with a kind smile.

Seeing her smile like that and comparing it to the one she gave me when we first met really makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

"Thank you Kat, that'll help enormously." I said with a smile as she handed over the green bag, and I put it into my inventory.

"It's time for us to leave, Kat." I told her with a small smile and gave her a big hug. As always, she stiffened a little then hugged me back.

"I won't be back for a visit for at least a month. Maybe two, depending on what I do after we've been to the cave." I told her while still hugging her.

"Take care of yourself Aurelius." She said in a worried voice as we broke the hug. I nodded seriously and she led us to the door and waved us off.

Before leaving I decided to visit Marengo in the stables, it was nice to see her again but kind of bittersweet since I had to leave right away. We exited the stables and started walking down the road towards the western exit of the city.

"Do you have all the tools you'll need for cooking in the wild? Also, please tell me how much the spices are so I can reimburse you." Though I have only 1 gold and 30 silver right now.

Eiden looked up at me and answered with: "I have all the things needed to cook on the road. It's fine, you don't have to pay. Spices are cheap and the meat we can get ourselves by killing wolves or animals in the forest. And since you're helping me with my quest, and the one who got us the tent it would be kind of petty of me to demand reimbursement." He told me seriously. I gave him a smile of gratitude.

And so we started our long journey towards the border area near the Ulta Mountains.

[p=center]***[/p]

It's been two and a half weeks since we started traveling now.

We both log out around 22.00 real world time, because of the tent were basically safe leaving our bodies laying there. The tent apparently hides us from low level animals, and because of it's good camouflage it's still pretty hard to see, and we always camped in the forest just far enough from the road that nobody could see us from it.

The journey had been mostly uneventful, at least in the physical sense. I got to taste Eiden's cooking every night which was the highlight of my day. Eiden had Cooking Beginner Level 8, so we hunted some animals nearby and then he just threw them all into a pot of water and some spices and his cooking skill made it taste pretty good. Compared to barley bread it was heavenly.

Eiden also had the First Aid skill, he said it was self-taught. Apparently all I had to do was wrap a wound with some cloth and I'd get it. So he helped me by giving me a couple of bandages he'd created, and the next time we went hunting for food I let the fox bite me in the arm so I could bandage it after.

That created the First Aid skill, and ever since I let myself get hit by any animal before we killed it. Because of that I managed to level my First Aid skill to Beginner Level 4 and my Endurance increased by 5.

The most exciting event so was a merchant that was being attacked by a pack of wolves, we easily dispatched the wolves and sent him on his way with a smile. Hunting things every night combined with killing that small pack had leveled me up to 16, I decided to put my 5 points in Vitality.

The biggest change of the journey was Eiden. He'd completely come out of his shell now, and no longer only answered with nods and actively sought out conversation instead of just responding.

He opened up a lot to me and talked about how he'd always been the quiet loner. Not because he didn't want friends, it's just that every time someone tried speaking to him he froze up.

When he joined a new class in a new school or grade, it was always the same thing. Someone tried to talk to him, he froze up and looked down trying to hide the fact that he was blushing, and so they thought he was ignoring them and called him an 'asshole' or 'jerk' and then never tried to speak with him again.

It was surprising how much he let out, I don't think he was prepared for it either. It all just came flooding out. He was clearly a very nice and sensitive guy, it's just that he's ashamed of his own social weakness.

He told me he started playing Royal Road on his sisters advice, she thought he might learn how to talk to people here where his 'real' body wasn't.

And, she was right. Normally he would never have volunteered for anything, especially in front of a group. But that's exactly what he did when I asked if there was a water mage in the group that time after I came out of the forest.

After he finished speaking, he thanked me for being his first real friend.

That broke me.

I started crying and charged him for a bear hug while I screamed: "You're my friend too Eiden!". Just thinking about it made me a little embarrassed, but I stood by what I said. While my earlier words outside the smithy when I called him a friend weren't shallow, they were not completely true either. Now they were, now we were 'real' friends.

And now we were sitting around a campfire while a stew boiled hanging above the fire. Eiden gave me a bowl filled to the brim with stew and I thanked him with a smile.

"So how long do you think it's to that village?" I asked Eiden while I took another spoonful of delicious fox stew.

"The merchant said the last village on this road is called Nantgarth, and it's supposed to be the largest one in the area. He said it's 2 weeks walk there from where we met him, so I would guess it's only a couple of days away." He said with relief.

It wasn't that we were all that uncomfortable, since the tent was pretty nice. It's that our supplies had been running out faster than expected, and it was incredibly boring to walk all day everyday.

"That's good, I feel like I've been walking on this dirt road through an endless forest for most of my life now." I told him with a grimace. He laughed, and it made me smile that he could do that easily now.

"Yes, I know what you mean." He said after he'd recovered enough from laughing.

"And the only animals we ever see are foxes and rabbits, maybe an odd wolf here and there. I'm sure there's a lot stronger monsters inside the forests, but this close to the road there just isn't a lot of them." I said irritated.

One of the things that had surprised me was how much I was itching for a fight. That didn't mean I was bloodthirsty and wanted to fight anybody and anything, but before this trip I practiced with Kat every day. And after that I battled wolves for hours. So now having to fight only bunnies and foxes drove me mad, since a single cut with my sword killed them. There was no challenge, only routine.

"Agreed." he said with a smile.

Even Eiden wanted to fight something. I'd realized pretty quickly that he's completely different in combat, like another person. He goes all focused and intense, nothing like his previous awkward self.

We finished eating, he used water magic to wash out the pot and we went to sleep in the tent since we didn't really feel like walking after having already done that for 8 hours.

[p=center]***[/p]

Three days later we finally saw the village in the distance. It was a respectable settlement, with a wooden palisade circling it as far as we could see. It looked like it was a lot bigger than we thought, there were dozens of roofs that could be seen from the distance.

We kept walking and when we came close enough we could clearly see that the gate was closed.

Not a good sign when the gate's closed during the day. I thought a bit grimly.

There was a person standing watch on top of the wall that quickly disappeared once he saw us, and before we were at the gates they swung open.

What was behind them shocked me. A man was walking towards us with a couple of other men beside him that looked like bodyguards, but that wasn't shocking.

The shocking things were the houses behind them.

This must have been an even bigger village then what we heard. I thought numbly, looking at the burned houses. It looked like a third of the houses in the village had burned down while some of the remaining ones still standing could barely be called houses anymore.

While I was staring the man had arrived in front of us.

"Who are you? What's your business here?" The man asked us in a very suspicious and angry voice. He was middle-aged, probably around 45 years old. His face was lined and strained, and he looked exhausted. I took a step forward.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Hello good sir, my name's Aurelius." I said with gracious bow. "And this here is my good friend Eiden, and we're here for two reasons. To find a mage's lost cave somewhere in these mountains and to help you against the goblins." I told him in a strong voice while looking him straight in the eye.

The man just stared at us and then tears started gliding silently down his cheeks. He quickly brought up his forearm and wiped the tears away, then held out his hand and introduced himself.

"I'm the village elder. And I'm very happy to see someone coming to help us, even if they're only two!" He said so fervently I flinched. I shook his hand firmly.

"Please help us stop the goblins, they almost managed to burn down the village in the last raid. Who knows what will happen next time!" He cried out desperately.

*TING

Nantgarth and the Goblins

[p=left]Nantgarth is in dire need of help, the village elder has begged for your aid against the vicious goblins.

The Goblins have been raiding in the area for months now, but with no response coming from either kingdom they've grown progressively bolder now even attacking the village outright instead of just lone wanderers.

Difficulty: D

Quest requirement: The goblins must be defeated or chased away.[/p]

"Of course we'll help." I told him seriously. While Eiden nodded gravely at my right side.

You have accepted the quest.

Your party has accepted the quest.

"Thank you! Oh, thank you!" The village elder said holding my hands while tears started to form in his eyes again.

"It's alright, please get us the most accurate map you have of the forests around here and where you think the goblins are." I told the elder. He nodded and sent one of the men standing next to him away to get the map.

"And do you have any spices? Only if you can spare any." I asked him apologetically.

"I'll see to it." The elder said waving at another man who ran away to presumably fetch some spices.

"The goblins are to the west of here, you'll have to walk through the forest since there's no road straight that way. It's almost as if they know where to be, their camp is exactly on the border between the kingdoms." The elder told us while the men were returning with the map and spices.

The man with the map gave it to me, while the other gave the spices to Eiden.

"Thank you, and I swear to you Elder, that I'll do everything I can to stop them." I told him with steely determination before we left.

Charisma has been increased by 1

As soon as we were a couple of meters away the gates started closing again.

"Eiden, please take the map. I'm horrible at reading them." I told him with a grimace as I handed him the map.

"Sure, I'll read it." he told me as I handed it to him and he started looking at it.

"From what I can understand of the map, the goblins camp is about 4 days west of here. But that's through forest so it'll probably take longer. Also, since that's where their camp is they're bound to have scouts around." He told me after he checked the map

Thank god for him, I'm pretty sure if I was alone I'd wander the forest for weeks before finding them completely starved and half dead even before the fight! My map reading skills had never been anything to write home about.

"I'll follow your lead Eiden, so let's go." I told him waving before me. He nodded and so we started our miserable trek through that tight forest.

[p=center]***[/p]

After three days of walking through the thick forest, we finally found some goblins.

"Stop." Eiden whispered at me. I instantly stopped and started looking around carefully until I saw what had prompted him to stop.

Around fifteen meters ahead of us, barely visible were two goblins walking together in our direction. I tapped Eiden on his right shoulder and pointed towards a large tree to the right of us. We walked there as stealthily as we could.

When we were behind the large tree, I leaned out and looked at the goblins quickly. They were ugly. That's the best way to describe them, they were short green-gray things with huge noses, beady eyes and teeth that stuck out from a nasty underbite. Their muscles were large, but the legs seemed almost too short for the bodies.

I quickly brought my head back in and leaned closer to Eiden so I could whisper.

"Two scouts, they don't seem to have any bows or anything ranged. All I can see are those clubs they've got strapped to their waists."

"So how do you wanna attack?" He whispered back.

"Goblins aren't famous for their intellect are they? Since your Frost Bolts are too noticeable, I think we should try to throw a rock at them and let them get closer. When they're almost upon us, I'll charge out with my shield raised while you support me from behind, okay?"

"Let's do it." He told me with a firm nod.

We waited until they were around ten meters away, then we both leaned out on either side of the tree and threw our rocks. We quickly hid behind the tree, but we didn't need to look to know what happened. One rock at least clearly hit its target as one of the goblins started swearing in a guttural voice that almost made me laugh.

He sounds extremely pissed. I thought very amused as we heard them walking closer in this direction.

When it sounded like they were almost upon us, I brought up my shield, drew my sword in one fluid motion and charged out from behind the tree.

What greeted me was a goblin only a meter in front of me, I instantly slashed the surprised goblin from his shoulder all the way to his thigh, blood exploded from his wound but I continued grimly on.

The goblin was falling backwards when I passed him, when I was right next to him in my dash I delivered a slash that took of the arm he was trying to shield his face with. After passing him I charged at the other goblin who had just managed to pull out his club.

He swung it horizontally at me, but it was too easy. I smashed away his weapon with my shield and brought down a graceful slash that seemed to shimmer as it went through the air and finally entering his exposed stomach almost cutting him in half.

I pulled out my sword and before he could even try to recover thrust my sword straight through his neck killing him instantly and making him shatter into thousands of tiny pieces of light.

I turned around quickly to see what happened to the other goblin, but he was already dead. The goblin was laying on the ground with a large mass of ice/snow where his head used to be, and Eiden stood above him with a hand pointing downward making it obvious where the spell had come from even if I hadn't know he could use it.

*TING

You have leveled up

"Good work, and did you also level up?" I asked Eiden as we both looted the corpses closest to us.

"Yup, but I didn't really get to do anything. Next time we'll have me attack from the side instead so I can help a little." He said with a small smile.

"Yeah, it was pretty stupid of me not to realize that I'd be shielding the goblins from your spells with my own body." I said a little embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it Aurelius, I mean this is the first time we're both teaming up in real combat isn't it? Most of our other battles was simply against singletons or that pack that went after the merchant." He told me seriously.

"I guess so, anyway what level were these guys anyway?" I asked curiously.

"Around 30-35 I'd guess. But the scouts are probably not the strongest ones, so the other goblins are probably stronger." He said with a grim smile.

It looks like I'm not the only one who enjoys combat. I thought a bit amused by Eiden.

[p=center]***[/p]

We continued to roam around the camp instead of heading directly towards it. This made us encounter plenty of patrols and we got quite good at killing them.

While we hunted patrols over the period of three days we both leveled up 7 times, my First Aid increased to beginner level 7, Flowing Water Style increased to Intermediate Level 3 and so did Sword Mastery. Of my level up points, I put 10 points in Charisma, 10 points in Strength and 15 points in Vitality.

And now it was finally time for us to visit their base.

We had advanced carefully towards it, checking for scouts everywhere. Once a pair of scouts got cute and hid in the trees, after that ambush we never made the same mistake again.

The camp was positioned in a clearing, it had no walls and the only things inside the camp were small shacks built from tree branches and other stuff like it. But there were goblins, many many goblins. It looked like a permanent patrol of 10 had been assigned to walk around the camp, but there were at least 40 more goblins inside the camp.

"Eiden, I have an idea. I'm not sure it'll work but hear me out..." I explained the idea to him, he agreed and we waited until dusk for our attack.

[p=center]***[/p]

When dusk arrived, the patrol was glad. They had been patrolling for almost 6 hours soon and they wanted to rest, they were going to be replaced in just a short while.

And then from somewhere in the forest a Frost Bolt shot outwards hitting the patrolling goblin closest to the forest.

They all looked turned to look where it came from, and there they saw the back of a human as he began running back into the forest.

Anger overwhelmed them as they saw the coward flee, and screamed out their rage as they charged after him.

When they entered the forest they could still see the cowardly human and followed him. After they'd been running after him for almost 50 meters they started to get tired, but still they kept running after the human until suddenly the goblin at the front fell down.

And so did the rest of them as they reached the mud and came tumbling down into a heap of bodies.

They tried desperately to get up, but they couldn't. The ground was all mud, deep and heavy mud. And as they were trying to get themselves up a human in armor stepped out from their left with a shield on his back and a spear gleaming wickedly in the fading light.

It was a nightmare, they struggled to get up but while they were trying Frost Bolts started crashing into the ones closest to the front. And if that wasn't bad enough, the warrior wielded his spear with vicious efficiency.

He'd moved behind them now, where the ground was only a little soft and he could stand safely. His spear flashed as it thrust straight into the back of a screaming goblin, and then he pulled the spear back, and thrust again, and again, and again.

In a matter of minutes the entire patrol was dead, and when reinforcements arrived all they found was a large spot of mud, with half of it trampled and the other half frozen. And blood. Bloodstains was on all the trees surrounding it.

They were more than a little frightened, and quickly turned back returning to the safety of their camp.

[p=center]***[/p]

"Wow, that worked a lot better than I thought it would." I told Eiden with a savage grin. As we walked away from the place we had killed the goblins.

"When you told me to soften up the ground enough that it became mud with water magic, I wasn't all that sure this would really work." He responded with a smile.

"But it did right? The question is what do we do now? Do we go after the reinforcements or do we try this tactic again in the morning?"

"We can't go after them right now, you might be good to go but I need mana before I'm ready again." He said with a small smile at my aggressiveness.

"Well, let's just try it again tomorrow. If you send a Frost Bolt at them they have to follow you inside the forest. They might wait for reinforcements, or they might go slower and more carefully. But I think, that if they wait for the reinforcements we should circle around them and once they enter the forest we charge the camp instead. Once they hear the cries from the camp they'll come charging out of the forest, but by then we'll hopefully have killed the goblins. And even if we haven't we run towards the forest on the opposite side of the reinforcements so we'll be as far away from them as possible."

"And if they split up to try to hunt us, that'll only make it easier for us." I finished with a grin.

"Okay, that sounds like a decent plan. Let's back away now to make camp for the night and we'll try it out tomorrow." Eiden told me in an excited tone.

We walked even further away from the camp, pitched the tent and went to sleep.

[p=center]***[/p]

After we woke up, we decided to try my tactic out.

Just as I thought the goblins waited until about half of the ones in the camp came out then ran into the forest trying to find us. As they were gathering we continued to circle as much as we could and waited 30 seconds after the group had entered the forest to charge out of our place.

The goblins in the camp were shocked, it looked like these were the guys who'd had night patrol so they had just gone to sleep.

This time me and my sword was upon the first goblin before he even knew what happened. My cut took his head clean off, and I kept charging past him as he exploded into fragments.

The next was just getting up from where he'd been sleeping when I fell upon him with a thrust aimed straight at his neck. It went through it like butter, and I pulled it out with a kick in his stomach that together with the thrust killed him.

I turned around to see what was happening, and saw Eiden shooting Frost Bolts like a madman. His mana couldn't last for more than 30 seconds max, but that was all that we needed.

I charged a goblin that was coming out of a shack behind Eiden, he brought his mace down towards me, I smoothly dodged to the left and turned the dodge into a spin using the momentum to deliver a horizontal cut that separated his body into two halfs before exploding into light.

By now the goblins in the camp were howling like death itself was after them, and I knew we had to hurry. There were only a few goblins left, so I sped up and decided to try something new.

I used the momentum of my charge together with a shield blow for devastating effect.

The goblin I smashed my shield into was thrown into the air by the sheer power of the blow, smashing down on another goblin. And just as they were about to get up my sword made a gracious arc in the air as I slashed twice horizontally, and they scattered into light.

Now I heard the large group of goblins come running out of the forest, I quickly shouted: "Eiden! To me!" his head whipped around towards me, and his eyes were frenzied. It made me smile as I waved him towards the forest on the other side of the camp.

We ran as fast as we could into the forest, and kept going as we turned lightly towards the left trying to circle back. We ran for ten minutes before we threw ourselves down on the ground panting.

"That was fun!" I told him, still more than a little pumped up on adrenaline.

"Yeah..." He just answered with a grin.

After that we rested for a while, then when everything was back at full we moved towards the camp again. They had abandoned their patrol now, so we decided to wait until nightfall for some more fun.

[p=center]***[/p]

When evening arrived we ate some stew and started planning our next move.

"Eiden, do you think you could put out their torches?" The goblins had torches all around their camp.

He looked thoughtful before responding. "I can. But it would probably take a lot of my mana, and we wouldn't be able to see without them either."

Good point.

"How about if you put out all the torches close to us, and we charge into their camp using the confusion and the light from the other torches to blitz the goblins that were near the torches that you put out? We can just put out the torches, charge in kill a few and then retreat into the forest. You can prepare a mud-field nearby so we can run there if we have to." I told him in a serious voice.

"It could work. No it will probably work, so what you're saying is that we put out the torches close to goblins and then charge them, kill a few, retreat and then repeat when I have enough mana?" He told me with mounting enthusiasm.

"Exactly! I'm not sure how well it'll work, but I don't think all of them will charge after us into the forest, if only because of all the confusion. And if a few follows us, that's only better for us. We'll finish them off fast and then wait for mana and do it all again." I told him with a savage grin.

[p=center]***[/p]

It worked perfectly.

After Eiden put out the torches, we charged in. Eiden managed to kill two and I four before we retreated. When we ran back towards the forest a group of six followed us, and as soon as we entered the forest we quickly turned right to avoid the mud-field while the goblins ran straight into it, I equipped my spear and set out to work again.

After we killed them we waited for Eiden's mana to return, when he was ready we did the same thing again. Only this time we didn't have to retreat, when we charged into the darkness left by the disappearance of the torches I encountered a stronger than average goblin that turned out to be their chief. He was still pretty easy to kill, most likely because of my stats and high skills.

When he died the rest broke, there weren't all that many left by then, but with their back towards us we quickly finished the rest of the goblins off.

And so the quest was finished.

[p=center]***[/p]

After walking for another couple of days we finally made it back to Nantgarth.

"I'm so glad to see civilization again." I said with a huge sigh.

"Me too, I'm seriously hoping they have an inn here we can sleep in instead of the tent. No offense to Katherina, but that tent's got nothing on a real bed." Eiden said with a dreamy smile.

I smiled at him and we kept walking towards the town, the gates were still closed but just like last time a man disappeared quickly when he saw us and the gates opened.

The village elder came out to greet us with an anxious look, like he wasn't sure that us coming back was good news.

Well, he can be forgiven for doubting. They've been through enough to last them a lifetime.

"You can rest easy now, we killed all of the goblins." I said with a smile towards the village elder. At first he didn't seem to understand the words, but then his face almost split in a huge smile as he started crying again and hugged the man closest to him.

You have completed the quest: Nantgarth and the Goblins

You have leveled up

You have leveled up

You have leveled up

Fame has increased by 50.

Reputation with the Village of Nantgarth has been increased by 250.

"We didn't really believe that you two alone could do it." The elder said apologetically.

"It's fine elder, I don't know if I could believe in two strangers when my family's life was at stake." I told him with a kind smile that seemed to make him relieved.

*TING

Charisma has been increased by 1

"Thank you for that. Also, I'm sorry to say but we don't have anything to give you. We'll offer you free room and board here in the village anytime you visit, and you can resupply here for free as well." He told me with a smile.

"But we do have something you will most likely be interested in, we have this old legend about a mage that used to live in a cave north of here. And the legend says that he lives near a mountain called Taylak, we can give you a map that shows the way towards it. I will warn you though, that mountain is notorious for it's monsters." He said obviously concerned for our safety.

"Thank you elder, we'll gladly take the map." I told him with a gracious bow and smile.

After that me and Eiden decided to take a break for a day in real life before continuing, I waved him goodbye as he logged out.

I decided to stay and look at my stats now that I'd leveled up so much and spent all my points; "Status window."

[quart=Character name,Alignment]Aurelius,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]37,Swan Knight[/quart]

Status Window

Title

Wolfsbane

Fame

100

[quart=Health,Mana]1930,100[/quart]

[quart=Strength,Agility]135+25,80+5[/quart]

[quart=Vitality,Charisma]105+25,71+30[/quart]

[quart=Endurance,Fighting Spirit]140+15,160[/quart]

[quart=Wisdom,Intellect]10,10[/quart]

[quart=Luck,Leadership]5,0[/quart]

Attack

34

Defense

17

Magic Resistance

None

[p=left]+30 Charisma

+25 Strength

+25 Vitality

+15 Endurance

+5 Agility

+ The Swan Knight class focuses on Charisma instead of Honor, this makes it much easier to raise the Charisma stat but makes it impossible for the Honor stat to be generated.

+ The Swan Knight regenerates a little stamina every time he makes a graceful move/dodge/attack.

+ Being a Knight class, all your weapon mastery skills level up faster.

+ Riding is easier and faster to master as a Knight.

+ Enables you to equip certain items specialized for the class.[/p]

I'm so satisfied, I've leveled up like crazy from killing all the goblins, and especially the Fighting Spirit has leveled up a lot from fighting higher leveled goblins. I thought happily.

Well, time to take a break. And it's time to ask Matt what kind of Martial Arts he does, and if he can teach me. I was very excited as I logged out from Royal Road.

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