It was almost eerie, how they made the same mistakes that started the first ambush. But they used different tactics this time.
We ducked down, and just four arrows shot over our heads, then another four a moment later.
When I popped up I saw the four archers standing far back, and the remaining six goblins were closing in a lot faster, not pausing to shoot while sprinting from tree to tree for cover.
I released a spell at one of the archers, and Lyre’s arrow shot out and burst into flames as it followed to the same target. It was a good strategy to rush us faster, but at the same time with less enemy arrows in the air I didn’t feel the need to duck down if they weren’t aiming at me. Rather than duck down, I took a step to the side as I cast another Fire blast at a second archer.
The last two aimed their bows in our direction, and Lyre released an arrow smoothly to follow my blast as we both ducked down.
While that was going on, Wynn’s and Gwen’s arrows, as well as Anlyth’s earth magic strike had taken down two of the chargers. The last four were too close though, and charged around the fortification.
Wynn said, “Hold!” and I heard swords drawn.
I poked up my head. There were four goblins, two on each side, rushing Gwen, Wynn, and Anlyth, the first two of which were wielding swords, and the latter a staff. Even three to four odds sounded good for me, I had faith in them plus both Anlyth and Gwen had magic.
The archers though had their bows pointed toward the first fortification, and planned to support with arrows, which would skew the odds quite a bit.
My mind snapped over to the water sphere, and I cast Ice wall. The top of the stone wall grew another four feet high in ice, a foot thick, along the length of the short wall. That effectively gave them cover for their four verse three melee fight, the archers had no shot anymore.
Lyre whispered, “Nice.”
Of course, the archers just adjusted their aim at the last second, and released arrows at me and Lyre.
We ducked down behind the wall. We had to trust in our group to handle the last four alone, while we took care of the archers. Two more arrows passed over our heads, and we both popped up to send a fire spell and arrow at the one on the right. My fire spell exploded against his chest, and Lyre’s arrow disappeared into the explosion and impaled the bastard.
The last archer shot one more arrow that didn’t even come close to us, and then beat a retreat. Lyre and I let him run, we didn’t have a good shot anyway, and turned to the melee fight.
The goblin fighting Gwen was hacking at her like a four-year-old having a temper tantrum with a whiffle ball bat. All rage and no coordination, and he had a few bleeding cuts on his body. Gwen handled him with ease because of him being cursed, her agility and grace allowed her to dance out of the way of his clumsy attacks, or parry them, and then she ran him through the chest when he overextended.
Anlyth’s staff seemed to blur as he batted away his enemy’s sword time and time again. The staff glowed with brown Earth magic as he punched the tip into the goblin’s chest, which sent him flying back several feet to land on his back. Anlyth lunged forward and swung his staff with all his power at the stunned goblin’s head, and the loud crack of shattering skull reverberated through the forest.
Wynn was fighting with a sword and dagger, and had been keeping two attackers at bay the whole time. He did have a few shallow wounds, but nothing life threatening, and his opponents were bleeding as well. I was about to take one out, or assist anyway, but it wasn’t necessary.
Gwen darted in from the side, and ran one of the goblins through from the side making him freeze in shock.
Wynn’s sword darted out and sliced the goblin’s throat. Hit points, damage, were all a moot point for things like heart, brain, or severing a major artery. Critical strikes like that meant certain death without immediate healing, and the goblin collapsed to the ground.
The second goblin he’d been fighting screamed and swung his sword with all his strength at Wynn’s temporarily unprotected back, only to have it parried by Wynn’s staff. Three on one, the goblin didn’t have a chance.
Congratulations! Twenty-two goblins are dead or have quit the field. You have earned four thousand four hundred Experience Points!
You have leveled!
Congratulations! You defended the forest glade from the first wave of goblins without setting it on fire! You have earned a thousand Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Fire sphere to level four. You have earned ten Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Water sphere to initiate level four. You have earned ten Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Life sphere to initiate level four. You have earned ten Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Meditation skill to initiate level four. You have earned ten Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Sneak skill to initiate level four. You have earned ten Experience Points!
Congratulations! You’ve advanced the Builder skill to initiate level four. You have earned ten Experience Points!
My mind was overloaded for a minute. Concepts and ideas on how to sneak better, new concepts for building and meditation flooded my mind. The magical concepts for the three spheres also came in a rush. I’d have to meditate on each sphere later to really absorb them and integrate them into my spellcasting, in addition to true meditation and emptying my mind. They were subtle, as several concepts I’d understood split. I also came to the understanding of why damage included intelligence, mana, and the skill level. With tweaks to the spell, and deeper understanding of the concepts, I could make the fire hotter and more effective.
The true gains were in the non-combat arena, combat would always be a KISS principle thing, there were so many possibilities and combinations, and I was still just an initiate. I wondered what apprentice would bring, but suspected it would add new major concepts on top of the six per sphere. Initiate at a guess, was just mastering the basics of thermodynamics, for the Fire sphere anyway. Apprentice would bring me the concepts of enchantment and perhaps other things, and somehow would double my damage, which I was looking forward to. But… I was less than halfway there, so I pushed that all out of my head. Time would reveal it, and I probably wasn’t ready to understand it anyway.
I could only guess, but the second experience notification was probably part of the whole quest to defeat the goblin tribe. There was no menu system, or quest log, but my hunch about how this was important made it a quest, or it was the system feeding it to me subconsciously. Gaia had put some game concepts into this world, but in a lot of ways it was real. There was no quest log, or friends list, or messaging system. That would all have to be done with two feet and our mouths, or we’d have to set up some kind of system ourselves to keep in touch if we got separated. Perhaps enchanted communicators, for all I knew this world had something like that already, after all I’d never been to a town or store yet. Point was, it was a real world, or at least it felt that way. Save the status screens, and popups, and of course the magic which wasn’t real or based in science. Though, I could see most of the concepts were based in science, it was the manipulation of those concepts that was the magical part.
That first wave comment had me worried, I wondered how many times we’d have to defend before the outpost was up and we could switch to offensive tactics. The fact we got two hundred experience for each one, told me these goblins had been tougher. Level three or higher, instead of the level one goblins we’d been fighting earlier.
Experience seemed to be on a sliding scale, and not set. I imagined experience for the kill was both dependent on the creature’s level, but also on how that level compared to my own.
Status.
Name:
Jason
Classes:
None.
HP:
99
Regeneration 1.5%/sec.
Race:
&
nbsp; Half-Elven / Half Human
Mana:
125
Regeneration 1.8%/sec.
Platinum:
0
Stamina:
109
Regeneration 1.3%/sec
Gold:
0
Level:
4
TNL: 4290
Silver:
4
Strength:
15
Bronze:
36
Agility:
14
Intelligence:
18
Willpower
13
Wisdom:
16
Magical Spheres:
Fire:
Initiate level 4
Water:
Initiate level 4
Air:
Initiate level 0
Earth:
Initiate level 0
Light:
Initiate level 0
Darkness:
Initiate level 0
Life:
Initiate level 4
Death:
Initiate level 0
Skills (Combat)
Combat Skill Name
Description
Level
N/A
Skills (Non-Combat)
Skill name
Description
Level
Sneak
Allows you to move silently.
Initiate Level 4
Builder
You can build a fire and create crude shelters and buildings.
Initiate Level 4
Hunter
Your ability to track and hunt animals.
Initiate Level 2
Meditation
Calm and focus your mind.
Initiate Level 4
Anlyth and I healed everyone up, and we started to loot. In the end, we split everything five ways. I didn’t think the goblin armor or weapons would sell for much, but between before and that battle we all had five sets of goblin armor, swords, bows, and daggers. Given that there were more waves coming, I imagined I’d have ten or more to sell by the time the outpost was set up. It wouldn’t make me rich, but maybe I’d be able to afford one or two decent things, on top of the free item reward for the rescue.
We also expected the next wave to be harder, the goblin that got away would report our tactics. They’d be ready next time.
Chapter Eleven
“Do you like it?”
We’d just got done eating lunch, and I’d done a little building after the battle, before we’d eaten.
Gwen smiled, as she opened up the doors to the wardrobe. There was a wood pole across the top, with ten wooden hangars. There was also a shelf a few inches over the pole, as well as three small drawers on the bottom for small accessories or valuables.
“It’s perfect, thanks. Any idea what you’re going to buy?”
I shrugged, “Simple clothes for under my robes. Then robes, better boots, and anything enchanted that will raise my wisdom and intelligence. You?”
She bit her lip, “Not sure yet, I’ll see how expensive everything is. I want a good sword, bow, and armor at the least. And clothes for under it. Anything else I can afford will be a bonus.”
Yeah, I imagined it would be more expensive to outfit a warrior, though I didn’t imagine enchantments were cheap, even on simple robes or boots.
“Hunting?” she asked.
I nodded, “Now my hunting is two levels down, and it wouldn’t hurt to have more to sell or trade.”
She smirked, “Are they the only reasons? I mean… hunting doesn’t seem all that important to your magical path’s development.”
I suppressed a self-conscious shrug in an attempt to show a confidence I didn’t feel, and decided I needed to stop being a wuss, especially when that moment was the second time that day she’d given me an opportunity to express my interest in her. My stomach flipped as I looked into her eyes, and saw the challenge and desire in them. I hoped the spiking sexual tension wasn’t just me, or that I wasn’t projecting and interpreting things wrong.
“I did miss you yesterday, our skill sets send us in different directions when we aren’t fighting together. Hunting is a challenge of sorts I enjoy, so it seems like something that maybe we can share?”
She blushed, and hesitated a moment before saying, “I missed you too, though I did enjoy my training and sparring with Wynn, there was something missing, you know.”
I nodded, “I like building too. With Anlyth’s help we have a home.”
The atmosphere hung there awkwardly for a moment, until I took a step forward and closed the short distance between us. Her green eyes had me mesmerized, and I couldn’t look away as I slowly bent my neck and tilted my head in a gesture that couldn’t be mistaken, our lips and bodies mere inches apart. She had plenty of time to abort, I’d given her plenty of warning of my intentions and paused.
Her eyes widened slightly, and sparkled up at me as she licked her lips and started to close the distance between us. She also looked a little nervous, but at the same time didn’t hesitate as our lips met and my eyes closed. Hers were soft, like silk, and my hands found her hips below the leather armor as our first kiss faltered for a moment until it found its rhythm and then steadied as we synced up. It was soft, sweet, and full of emotion.
Passion rose up in me at the taste of her lips, and her scent along with the warmth of her supple lissome body so close to mine. Warm emotions mixed with hot ones enveloped my chest, as her hands went against it, and ran up my body to my neck and face. I ended the kiss with a teasing nip of her bottom lip when she released a needy breathy sigh into my mouth between our slightly parted lips. There’d been passion in that kiss, an expression of our shared sexual tension that I was now sure we had in common, but it was also so much more than mere shallow lust and chemistry. There’d been caring, and trust, along with the beginnings of true affection.
I’d needed to end it, before my body got too far ahead of my brain. My heart raced, and my rapid breath was short as I opened my eyes to look into hers. I saw my own poorly concealed desire reflected in her eyes, and the sensual tension in the room had skyrocketed, but I also spied caution.
She smiled slightly, “We should go,” she said in a tentative tone of voice.
I waggled my eyebrows exaggeratedly, “Was that a question?”
She giggled nervously, “No, it was not,” she said in a much firmer tone of voice.
I winked. It was progress, hell, it was a big leap forward and at least I knew we were both interested in more. But… we’d just met a few days ago. Granted, we’d spent most of that time constantly together, outside of the building effort yesterday, and I was quite satisfied with the progress. At least in my head, my body had other ideas, but I suppressed that.
She wasn’t ready for any more than that. Not for more than an intimately physical declaration of intent to pursue a relationship, and in truth neither was I. We didn’t discuss it, the kiss had plainly stated our feelings. Neither of us were looking for empty sex, we both wanted more. Declaring our intentions past that would be premature, and quite possibly insane.
We needed to take it slow, I didn’t want to blow it. Gwen was a special woman, cute, sexy, and lissome on the outside, and beautiful on the inside. So far at least. A part of me knew it was easy to get along with someone, when you depended on them for your survival it was instinctual to put your best foot forward. It was very early days, and time would tell if we were truly as compatible as I hoped and thought we were.
There were also all the doubts I could see in her eyes, along with the attraction. We were thrown together into a high-pressure situation, alone together with deadly obstacles to overcome. It was only natural for an attraction to grow out of that between us, artificial or not. No other men or women were around us that were available to either of us, although I supposed she could choose Wynn, he was available. Point was, it was a natural doubt for us to have. I was
sure I’d have chosen her, even if I’d woken up in a town surrounded by far more possibilities, but how could she be sure I would have, or how could I be sure she’d have chosen me?
It was complicated, to say the least. Not taking it slow to be sure, would be foolish, and would be ultimately empty if our bodies joined before our hearts. I supposed that was one very good sign, I didn’t want empty pleasure with her, I wanted more, wanted to do it right. Maybe part of that wanting was artificial due to circumstances, but time would allow us to put down a real foundation to replace that. I could feel it being built already.
We turned and left the cabin. I wasn’t sure where the elves were, training maybe, or working on something else, but hunting was our time. We moved into the forest, and I did my best to move quietly as I set up a detect life spell for bears and wolves only, and tied it into growth for entanglement. That should help, if we wound up becoming the hunted instead.
Still, I was level four now, and with Lyre’s advice my spells were much deadlier without blowing all my mana. I didn’t think we’d have a problem. Still, I’d have to stick to ice spike during hunting. A pelt would be worthless if I burned off all the hair with a fire blast...
We didn’t discuss the change to our relationship, and our conversation, what little of it we had while hunting, didn’t really change. Our banter and ease of conversation didn’t really change at all. What did change was our body language, glances, and she touched me lingeringly at every opportunity with a simple affection that affected me quite a bit.
Gaia's Gambit: Evolution Online I (A LitRPG) Page 10
