Ignoring the car keys that had fallen to the floor Carter turned around and sprinted back inside his apartment building. Taking the stairs two at a time he quickly climbed to his apartment on the third floor. Flinging the door open, he walked past his modest decorations to a small closet where he retrieved a box a little bit larger than his torso.
Flipping the lid off revealed two things: a well cared for rifle, and a neatly folded leather jacket. The rifle was his obviously, he only used it for hunting but if he was right that was about to change. The jacket on the other hand was a little more special.
He’d received it as a gift from his brother a year or two back and it was nothing short of a masterpiece. Custom made from goat leather dyed black it was fairly thick and cut off slightly below his waist, the back featured small loops to hold the rifle and knowing he’d love it, Warren had commissioned a machete sheath that clipped onto the inside.
Grinning he slid the rifle onto his back with practiced ease and checked the machete inside the sheath. Satisfied with his preparations he grabbed as much ammo as he could fit in his pockets and walked back out into the hallway cautiously. Deciding to take the stairs rather than risk the elevator he stumbled to a stop halfway down as the building shook around him.
Leaning on the wall for a moment he continued down the stairs and paused slightly before entering the lobby. There were roughly 20 or so people gathered and a few had begun to shout loudly not to go outside, above he could hear muffled voices from the stairwell and feet pounding along the ceiling.
Taking a moment to consider where to go before pushing through the crowd he refocused on the lobby as he heard a faint *pop* as something appeared among the gathered tenants. The lobby was fairly large so despite the people Carter could clearly see a small green creature that was roughly the size of an eight year old child.
It had gangly green arms and legs and short claws at the ends of its hands while the head seemed too small for its body. Its skin was leathery and wrinkled and it wore simple cloth scraps as clothing, the right hand clutched a small rusty dagger which it clutched before shouting:
“I, Rizh-Nek of the Rabbit Slaughter, claim this land in the name of tribe Giz-Nek! You lowly creature have five nips to surrender yourselves as slaves or face my blade, make your choice wisely”
As what was definitely a goblin finished its self important speech Carter choked back a laugh deciding to see how strong the thing actually was before provoking it. His suspicions about what was happening were pretty much confirmed and while he couldn't hear the goblin over the crowd he could see the aggression in the way it stood. Watching silently from the stairwell he watched the goblin look around before loudly calling out.
“Nip!”
At Rizh-Neks cry a few of the surrounding people managed to hear him over the clamor and turned around only to yelp at its unsightly appearance. The first one to notice it was a middle aged man who upon seeing the goblin reacted by attempting to kick it in a panic. Glancing towards the leg coming in its direction Rizh-Nek smiled cruelly.
“So your choice is made then”
Immediately, the goblin punched the leg causing a loud crack to sound throughout the lobby as it bent in a way a leg should never bend and the man fell screaming. As the stranger fell the goblin leapt gnarly five feet into the air before grabbing a stunned woman's head and slamming it into the ground as he fell.
Carter remained still in his position as he watched the violence unfold, a few people attempted to fight it but despite the creature's small size, its strength seemed to be somewhere around the level of a pretty athletic adult man. In a matter of minutes the remaining members of the crowd had either escaped out the front door or been slain by the goblin who was roaring in victory over their corpses.
Smiling as he felt the slightest trace of fear run through him, Carter pulled the rifle off his back. Flicking the safety off he took aim at the goblin and took a deep breath. Exhaling he pulled the trigger, only for his smile to die as nothing happened except for a loud *click* that caused the goblin to turn in his direction.
Screeching, it leapt over the bodies scattered across the lobby as it rushed to finish its task. Cursing under his breath he flipped the gun around and swung the butt of the rifle into Rizh-Nek’s chin sending him tumbling across the floor. Watching it twitch on the ground he quickly crossed the distance before delivering a sharp kick to the side of the goblins head.
The goblin yelped sharply and curled into a ball as the blow landed, grinning evilly as he aimed a few more kicks at the green ball. Quickly accepting this wouldn't be enough he hefted the rifle again before slamming the butt down on the things head in an attempt to finish it off.
Carter grimaced as the butt cracked the goblins head against the floor splattering his jeans with bright blue viscera. The mangled form of the goblin twitched slightly before going still causing a voice to whisper in his ear:
[Congratulations! You have slain a Goblin Peon]
Hearing the robotic whisper of the System he quickly forgot about the gore covering his clothes as he realized he had something much more important to deal with. Killing the goblin had confirmed the voice he’d heard previously was real, the goblin did as well but he’d rather not think about it currently, and so he focused and willed a screen to appear.
And was swiftly disappointed as nothing happened while he stared at the empty air in front of him. Ignoring the failure he attempted to will the system into view as he thrust a hand forward as once again nothing happened. Annoyed he decided to change strategies and spoke:
“System”
Carter stood with bated breath as he waited but yet again there was no change. Kicking the goblins corpse he ignored the new gore covering his shoes as he tried again.
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“Inventory”
Again nothing happened leading to a cycle of Carter shouting, waiting, kicking the dead goblin and repeating. He quickly became so focused on this process he failed to notice a group of scared residents who came down the stairs and wisely decided to not draw the attention of the man holding a gun as he shouted indecipherably and kicked a corpse.
Eventually, after Rizh-Nek was entirely unrecognizable as a goblin or even a once living being and Carter was running out of breath he kicked the body one last time before speaking breathlessly.
“Status”
As he closed his mouth Carter’s eyes lit up as saw a translucent gray screen with scarlet writing appear before him and he saw himself displayed in numerical form
Name: Carter Kingsbrook
Race: Human
Class: Unearned
Soul: Unawakened
HP: 30
MP: 20
STM: 30
STR: 7 (+3)
AGI: 5
VIT: 6
CON: 7(+2)
INT: 6
MNT: 4
LCK: 1(+1)
Renown:
—- Titles —-
[Champion Select]
—- Skills —-
[Brick of Babel]
— Archetype —
Sun of Pride: Your arrogance is suffocating
You radiate a sense of superiority
— Evaluation —
[HAHAHAHAHA OH MY GOD IT TOOK YOU THAT LONG?]
Carter’s face twisted as he read the mention of his previous attempts to summon the screen, but was otherwise happy with what he saw. He had no metric to judge how strong he was compared to others but he was pretty much as in shape as you could get without becoming some kind of professional athlete. Which meant that a five was probably average for any given stat, it also meant that the bonuses which he assumed came from the title were a major head start to killing monsters efficiently.
He also interestingly enough already had a skill, he guessed it either had to be something innate to him or it was also a byproduct of his title. He vaguely remembered the system saying something about him being ‘deemed worthy’ so it stood to reason worthiness would warrant rewarding. As he contemplated the skills origin his gaze lingered on the name causing a second screen to manifest in front of the first.
[Brick of Babel]
Skill Type: Racial
Activation: Passive
Description: A Fragment of man’s folly
Taking a moment to organize his thoughts Carter sighed as looked at the carnage filling the lobby before once more taking a shooting position with the rifle, pointing the barrel towards the front door he repeatedly pulled the trigger eliciting nothing more than the clicking noise that had alerted the goblin. As expected the gun was out of commission for seemingly no reason, and since his first skill was passive and vague as hell it looked like the machete would be his only real asset.
‘Well first things first let’s go wait for Warren at the station’
His path decided Carter began walking towards the door only to pause as he heard a popping sound, much clearer this time, causing him to spin around. Standing proudly among the bodies littering the lobby a short distance from where the first had appeared was a second goblin, it was dressed much the same as the first one but wielded a crude club instead of a dagger.
Noticing that it had appeared facing away from him Carter took the most natural course of action. Once more raising the gun by its barrel, he took a few quick steps to close the distance before clubbing the goblin across the head as it began to turn. Instantly, it fell over stiffly as the rifle’s butt made contact leaving it face down on the bloodstained tiles of the lobby. Looking down on the goblins still form, Carter grinned as he pulled out his machete and plunged it into the creature's skull.
[Congratulations! You have slain a Goblin Peon]
He yanked the blade free as he heard the system speak into his mind before looking around to see where the goblins were coming from. He didn’t really care about removing the threat for others, he’d probably never step foot in the building after he left, but if he went by the books his brother used to make him read there was probably some kind of reward if he could shut it down.
Glancing around nothing seemed out of place, but as he scanned the lobby Carter noticed a slight warping of the air, like heat rising from the road on a summer day. The distortion didn’t have an exact shape but he noticed it was roughly halfway between where the goblins had showed up which was enough for him.
Staring at it intently he tossed the gun through the patch of warped air only for nothing to happen much to his disappointment. Unwilling to risk touching the thing himself, Carter contented himself with waiting to see if another goblin would show up. And sure enough after going through the pockets of the first goblins victims for about five minutes he heard a third *pop* and looked up to see a third goblin.
Slowly picking his way across the bodies Carter approached the goblins rear before roundhouse kicking its head as hard as he could, causing a loud *SNAP* as its head bent unnaturally. A smile that could only be called evil spread across his face as he ignored the system's voice in favor of a single thought that resounded through his entire being.
‘This is gonna be fun’