As we begin moving we all split back into our designated groups.
"So what was it like? Is the town nice? Did you see player housing?" Roy begins grilling me, I can sense his excitement.
Laughing I say to him "Wheres the fun in me telling you we're going to be there soon! I did notice they have all the crafting in one central area so we don't have to go running all over the place. I know at least two people who will be happy about that."
As the town draws near, people start to quiet down. None of us have been in a fight in this game before so no one is sure what to expect. When we are about 20 yards from the edge of town Malthiel calls for us to stop.
"As we are rather out numbered I suggest we send in the rangers to pull some back to us. Let's see how fights play out before we decide to just charge in. I'd rather not see what death looks like in this game on our first night here." Malthiel says. I see several people nodding their heads and hear a few chuckles. "Ranged, go invite a few friends for us to introduce ourselves to."
Three players step forward each holding a different weapon. Agatha from our party has her bow out with an arrow knocked already. From the other parties I see a shorter man with a crossbow and a tiny girl with a boomerang. It's going to be interesting to watch her fight. They meet up and head off together to fish us some monsters. Several moments later we hear screeching from the direction they went and see them coming back.
"Incoming!" I hear Agatha say.
"We also learned they link so we're bringing 5 or 6. Be ready" comes a gruff voice that I assume is from the crossbow user.
As I hear this I unsheathe my daggers and crouch into the taller grass the best I can. I just hope that this is enough to count for stealth.
As Agatha draws near I see a ball of ice land right behind her on the ground. Immediately the ground starts freezing causing the goblins chasing her to start sliding instead of their run.
"HEY YOU! FACE ME!" I hear Malthiel shout and both goblins instantly look in his direction, must be a taunt ability. As he noticed me slip off into the grass he starts circling around to be opposite where I'm standing and I give a nod in appreciation and then immediately realize I don't know if he can see me. No time to figure it out though as the goblins regain their footing and focus on Malthiel. "Oh hey that tickles" I hear him say as one of the goblins swing the weapon and I watch it bounce harmlessly off his armor. I sneak up behind the one that swung and drive my daggers as hard as I can inside the goblins back. Immediately the goblin falls down and stops moving.
"Maybe that was a bit too much" I say. Malthiel just shakes his head. I look towards the other one just to see a streak of fire hit it and it dies with a feeble cry.
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Gained Skill: Sneak Attack lv MAX
Surprise!
As long as you opponent doesn't know you're there,
your first attack of the combat deals double damage.
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Gained Skill: Daggers lv 0
Stick them with the pointy end!
+0% Accuracy when using a dagger.
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Goblin Defeated! x2 Exp: 4 GP: 2
"So the experience isn't great but at least they're easy enough to take down." I say "How were you able to pull them if you shot at them with your bow, did you miss?"
"No I killed the first one I hit. These guys just noticed their friend die." Agatha says.
"OK Folks, new strategy. These goblins aren't worth taking on in small pulls like this. So we're all going in. Try not to aggro the guards, let's clear out the rabble first." Malthiel Says.
I hear shouts of approval as people start charging into the town. Not one to be left behind I run in after them.
As I get to the edge of the buildings though I reenter stealth. Lets see if I can put this new skill to use. I slip up to one of the goblins watching the mayhem that is the town and attack from behind. I aim for the neck and his head goes rolling across the ground.
Critical Hit! Goblin Defeated! Exp: 2 GP: 1
"Well that works" I think as I move back to the shadows.
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Upgraded Skill: Stealth lv 1
Well you feel hidden.
-50% movement speed
-12% chance of being noticed by beings unaware you're in the area.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
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Upgraded Skill: Daggers lv 1
Stick them with the pointy end!
+5% Accuracy when using a dagger.
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As I kill another goblin I am finally rewarded with some skill level ups. Seemed to take about 10 enemies to gain a skill level, or at least level 1. Looking around I notice that there aren't many goblins left, and the ones that are around are being finished up by the rest of the members of our group. I move back over to them so we can begin the next stage of the assault.
"Hey where'd the guards go?" I hear someone say. I don't recognize the voice so I assume it was said in raid chat. Several others are looking over at the central building which upon closer inspection seems to be closer to an officials house or something along those lines.
"I noticed them all running inside when we pulled." Came a high voice. Looking around I notice its the boomerang girl who's talking. "They all ran inside as we pulled the first group, though they were watching from the doorway when we left them. Seems they closed the door since then though."
Looking over I did notice that as she said the door in the front of the building that was open when we scouted out the town was closed now.
"Anyone have any ideas about getting that door open?" Malthiel asked.
"I could fire bolt the door." Roy says.
"Lets keep that in reserve, we don't know if the town will be repaired after we liberate it or if we will then have to repair the damage ourselves. Additionally we don't know why they're guarding that door, for all we know the residents of this town are in there and if you accidentally burn the building down we might fail the quest." says Francis.
As they're talking I notice one of the other tanks walking over towards the building. When he gets to the door he reaches out and tries to turn the handle. Surprisingly the door swings open without issue.
"Hey guys" I hear him say "They maybe be more disciplined, but they're still goblins. They didn't lock the door."
As he swings the door all the way open I hear several other players laughing and start heading towards the house. He starts to walk into the house but as his foot touches the floor inside there's an explosion. The tank is lifted from his feet and blown back towards the group where he lands groaning and still smoking slightly.
"Healers!" several people shout at once. A green light envelopes the smoldering man as several heals hit him at the same time.
"Perhaps I spoke too soon" He groans. "I felt the floor shift as I put my foot down, the buggers must have booby trapped the entrance. So much for 'just goblins'."
While they're working on getting him back to his feet I carefully make my way over to the door.
"Hey Styx, what are you doing over there? He almost died and I'm sure he has more life than you, you wanna test the respawn feature?" I hear Malthiel ask.
"I'll be careful, I'm wondering if I can get a detect traps skill." I say back
As I get to the edge of the door I notice the floor where the tank stepped is depressed slightly. Using my knife I carefully pry the tile off the floor and sure enough there is a pressure plate underneath it. Since the tile is removed its also fairly easy to notice that the tile next to it also as a pressure plate, and this one hasn't activated yet. Carefully I remove the tile from this one as well and sure enough as I do I get the notification I was hoping for.
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Gained Skill: Detect Traps lv 0
If you find them before they activate they're less deadly!
+20% Chance to spot a trap.
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Gained Skill: Disarm Traps lv 0
If you take them apart they're not deadly at all!
+35% Chance to disarm a trap without activating it.
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That was more than I expected, two skills from this.
"Got it!" I say "Though the base level of this skill is rather low but I should be able to hopefully safely find and disarm the traps in the hallway, maybe."
"Well as long as your confident." Malthiel laughs. "Do you want a healer, just in case?"
"I'll go" says Will. Malthiel nods to him and turns back to the other tank.
"Thanks" I say "Hey Agatha mind coming over here. I want some sort of covering fire if one of these goblins decides to pop out of one of these doors."
"We'll both come, ranged and magic damage should keep you sufficiently covered" says Roy quickly.
And with that I begin looking around the hallways for any more traps. There's a stairway at the end of the hall as well as a door leading in both directions about half way down the hall. As I slowly work up the hall I don't find anything between the entrance and the doors and checking the door on each side of the hall finds them locked unlike the entrance. Approaching the stairs I find a trip wire though I am unable to determine what it activates and I don't see any way to disarm it so I leave it and carefully step over it. Reaching the stairs safely I notice that while they go up, there is a path to the side with a third door. Opening the door I find another set of stairs heading down. I decide to report what I've found to those waiting outside and carefully make my way back out, avoiding the trip wire again.
"So a trip wire and two sets of stairs? That doesn't seem too bad. Which set of stairs has the trap?" Asks Malthiel.
"The ones leading up."
"And you didn't disarm it because…?"
"Because with my level 0 skills I couldn't see how to and wasn't about to Indiana Jones myself."
"Alright that's fair. Any idea where the goblins went?"
"Not at all, I didn't hear sounds from up or down stairs."
"Hmmm…" muses Malthiel "Alright ladies and gentlemen" he says speaking in raid chat "we have two directions we can take and no indication of which is the right one. Furthermore, the stairs are too small to fit everyone anyway so we're going to split the group."
"Are you mad?" Asks an unknown voice in raid chat "Splitting up is the best way to get killed!"
A few heads nod in agreement.
"While that may be true in horror movies and games it's likely not the case here. Besides we have raid chat and we will be setting the rogues in the back of the group to relay messages in case the raid chat fails. Now gather up we will split the groups I have a plan for how to form up."
About ten minutes later we had everyone roughly formed up. We were set up as tanks in front followed by melee fighters, ranged, casters and healers then the rogue. This was roughly the same in both groups with just a small deviation depending on which group got more of each class.
"A team will be going with me up the stairs, we need to be careful about a trip wire that wasn't able to be disarmed on the way up so mind your step. B team will go with Maxmillion into the basement, keep your eyes open, we have no idea what is waiting for you. Any questions?"
“What should we do if we find our prey?” Asked one of the members. He was a tall blonde male with short spiky hair and pointed ears.
“Rhyus, right?” asked Malthiel, to which the tall man nodded. “Things will be going kind of quick so I will leave the minute to minute details to Maxmillion, but the plan is to attempt to send a message via raid chat and if there is no reply to have the rogues relay messages and we regroup before the assault. However, things don’t go as planned and we’re not sure what we’ll find so stay flexible. Anyone else?” Noone spoke up and everyone was looking around at each other waiting in silence. “Alright then, let’s save our town”