by A P Gore
“No one can. The only way out is to prove yourself battleworthy and get selected by some noble working in the security department. If he is impressed by my skills, he might put me in the security troops. Which is not much better than being a slave, but at least I wouldn’t be raped by nobles and their guards every night!” A tear rolled down her cheek.
The way she used the word rape… Noah’s whole body shuddered. The horror of their society was visible on her face. “Rape is quite a strong word, dear.”
“Not if you see it every other day. Leave it. We’d better get to clearing that dungeon and leveling up so I’ll get a chance to join the troops. I might even get married to a high-slave soldier and live a peaceful life thereafter.” She wiped her face.
She was composed after that emotional burst, but she’d left a mark on Noah’s heart. A mark that wouldn’t go away until he freed her.
“Don’t worry, Rihala. I promise that I’ll find a way to save you.” He spoke with determination.
“Would you buy me?” A gleam of hope rose in her eyes. But the next moment it was gone, replaced by dread. “You won’t be able to. They won’t allow a human to buy a demon, and it would cost thousands of gold for an outsider. I doubt you have that.”
“I said I’ll find a way to free you up, not buy you and make you my slave. I’d never do anything like that. Never.”
Her hand wrapped around his arm, and her tail wrapped around his waist. “I don’t care if you manage to do that or not, but even this moment in my life, when a free citizen promises me my freedom, it’s not less than actually being free. Thanks for that, Noah.” She raised on the balls of her feet and planted a kiss on his cheek.
That kiss did nothing but fuel his determination to save the girl.
Congratulations! You have gained 10000 reputation with, Rihala. New Reputation level: Interested.
Congratulations! +1 to chance. Who thought a random human like you would score a kiss from hot demon chick?
19. Past
The taut ass in the gray pants walking next to him pulled him inside a memory.
A black crystal lay on a metal container made up of magic-resistant material. The crystal pulsed with energy so dark that it even threatened to consume the container that resisted it. But the tiny camera hooked inside the container couldn’t resist it. A tendril of darkness flicked out of the container and devoured the glass and metal of the camera. Before the display vanished, Noah grabbed the first artificial screenshot of the darkness energy inside the fourth dimension.
“Wow boss, that was amazing!” Sara, his assistant, wrapped her arms around his shoulder, pressing her large breasts against his arms, invading his personal space, and overwhelming him with the strong scent of sandalwood perfume.
He tried to slip out of her bear hug, but she pulled him closer. His hand was practically trapped between her breasts, which was uncomfortable and filled him with longing at the same time. But it was wrong. He hadn’t touched any woman’s breasts since his wife Serena died.
“Cheer up, boss.” Her eyes glimmered.
“Yes, it was amazing, Sara.” He wrapped a hand around her shoulder. It was a breakthrough in his research. They had analyzed the darkness on the camera for the first time. No one, not even the mage emperor, had done this before. He was the first one to actually capture the darkness. So, a tight hug after months of tiring work was okay. Better than okay. Her scent, her soft breasts, her warm body was better than anything else at that moment.
Noah was pulled back from that memory. Rihala was shaking him violently. Her beautiful eyes were full of worry.
“I’m all right.”
She stared at him in disbelief. She touched his cheeks and traced her hand over his neck, then rested it on his heart. Though he doubted she could feel his heartbeat through the inch-thick leather armor. But having someone care for you was a welcome thought. This kiss to his cheek that followed, however, was more sensual.
He unintentionally touched his own cheek where her lips had touched him. Rihala looked away, red blossoming on her cheeks.
He stared at the beauty, comparing her to Sara, his lab assistant. After seeing his own past, and the closeness of Sara, he wondered if he’d really lacked a woman in his past life. The primal attraction in his heart, the jerk of his cock when Sara pressed her breasts against his hand told him something else.
Damn! What am I getting myself into?
Rihala stepped away from him, her cheeks still pink. She was avoiding his gaze, blushing, and that meant she was attracted to him.
Damn! I can’t have two females in my virtual life.
Something terribly wrong had happened in his real life. The memory fragments he gained were telling him a sad story, a story he wouldn’t want to live. He shouldn’t have eased into Sara’s hug, and he should have spent more time with Tia, but the reality was different. And now, here in this virtual life, he was still doing things wrong.
Or was he?
Rihala attracted him more than anything else at that moment.
Thia loved him like her real dad, and he loved her back too. As much as he would have loved Tia.
Yet he had a goal to accomplish. He needed to win the respect of a human king so he would get a chance to meet Tia.
He had to choose a direction soon, or he would get into real trouble. Right now, he had to level up. Without levels he couldn’t do anything. He needed levels.
“Are you coming or not? My mom always says, ‘don’t stay away from friends.’” The lavender eyes blinked at him.
“Yes, let’s go.” He smiled at her and quickened his pace. Leveling up along with Rihala was better than doing it alone, and he wouldn’t want to miss the chance of the millennia.
20. Goblin Commander
The shadow of a huge nut tree hung over them, softening the sun’s rays as they illuminated Rihala’s round face. She was saying something, but Noah was stuck in her big, beautiful lavender eyes. They were speaking to his heart separately. Her cherry red lips were parting to say a word, but to him they were parting to raise sexual tension in his blood. He took a piece of food off his plate and put it in his mouth, but the taste of the chicken was thin compared to the exotic scent radiating from her body. He wanted to taste those enticing red lips of hers, and not some stupid chicken.
He was so mesmerized that he didn’t notice her grow silent. Suddenly, she moved closer to him, pressing her palm to his face and whispering.
“Incoming, six goblins.” Her voice so soft that Noah could only make out the meaning by seeing the fear on her face. “We should go back.”
But they were too late. One two-foot-tall goblin scout had snuck up on them from the branches of the nut tree. Noah spotted the goblin, an ugly golden colored one-eyed goblin, staring at them from the branches. The bastard swung sneakily from one tree branch to another like a monkey.
Noah wiped his hands on the clean brown cloth Rihala handed him. The girl was great. She had plates in her bag of holding, and some seasoning to put on meat too—something he never bothered with. He wouldn’t waste space in his bag of holding with some plates and a seasoning bottle.
There was a rustle in the surrounding bushes, and a seven goblin party stepped into view. Including the one-eyed scout, there were eight goblins total, and the bad part was a level 8 goblin commander was among them. He looked like a brute, a heavy hitter with a thick metal spear held in one hand and a wooden buckler with metal plating held in the other. He also had heavy, metal-plated armor on his body and multiple battle scars on his face. Somehow, Noah knew that goblin wasn’t going down easily.
First came the goblin scout, which Noah quickly killed and converted into a zombie. Then come a goblin warrior, who became another zombie and gave him a total of 400 experience each. Both goblins were level 6, so they were easy to kill and convert, and they didn’t even manage to hit him or Rihala, saving all the health potions Noah had bought from Mathial.
The party of goblin warriors became cautious now. T
hey formed a half circle around Noah and Rihala.
Noah had his poison orb ready in one hand, and Rihala had nocked her new rare bow with two arrows.
When did she learn to shoot two arrows at once?
Noah restrained his zombies from attacking the opponent mindlessly. He needed them to work at his command rather than senselessly attack. They obeyed his order and stayed back.
The level 8 commander was studying them. Maybe he was inspecting them? A moment later, he waved his spear and pointed it at Noah. The warrior had one expression in his eyes: kill.
Four goblin warriors, each level six, charged at them with their spears raised high.
Easy peasy, right? Noah hit them with his dual cast poison orb. If he could finish the warriors before their commander jumped in, it would be much easier.
How wrong he was.
The damage he and Rihala did was healed instantly this time, by the sixth member of the group holding a small staff in her hand.
Noah locked his eyes on the female goblin mage. She held a wooden staff. It glowed with a red color.
“Damn! Rihala, can you target that woman first?” he asked, stepping backward.
Noah signaled his two goblin zombies to jump in. He couldn’t keep them for the commander anymore.
“I don’t think it will work like that. She must have a shield or something. My mom…”
“Please, no mom.”
Rihala gave him an annoyed look and shot a goblin coming at them.
“Do you have anything that will work on her?” Noah asked.
“Ice shot should work on the shield.” She shot another arrow at the mage. The arrow was stopped a few inches before hitting her. “I need ten seconds preparation time for that.”
“I think I can give you that. Stay behind me.”
Noah chanted a curse of boiling blood on the commander. It should at least give the commander some uneasiness.
He hit the nearest goblin warrior with a Curse of Fire Ball, then dual cast Poison Orb. And then his one-eyed scout zombie slashed across his target’s chest.
The warrior’s life dropped to 40 points, but the healer brought it back to 200 in a fraction of a second.
Noah glanced at his other zombie. He was fighting with three goblin warriors, but he somehow managed not to die.
Noah repeated his previous combo to kill the goblin warrior in front of him, but that left him with only 10 spirit. He wanted to convert the killed goblin to a zombie. But with his current 17.25 spirit generation speed, he needed 3 more seconds to regain the required spirit.
Damn! This is getting suicidal. He cursed as the next goblin’s slash took ten life from his pool. The remaining damage was mitigated by his battered armor.
Noah jumped back, avoiding the next attack, but he was stabbed by the spear of another goblin. His life instantly dropped by 50 points, leaving him at 440 life.
It wasn’t working. Whatever damage he or his zombies managed to do was healed back by the mage.
He shoved the frustration away. He had to protect Rihala and fight at the same time. Thankfully, the commander was standing back, enjoying the show. Good for Noah.
Noah raised another zombie and directed all three to attack one enemy. He started sparring with another goblin warrior with his dagger.
That left one goblin free to do whatever he wanted, and he was slashing his spear at the three zombies wildly. The red bar on top of his zombies’ heads was decaying rapidly.
“How much longer?” he shouted.
“Here it goes.” The whoosh sound of an arrow echoed in the surroundings as it zipped through the air toward the mage. Noah could only see a blue blur. The arrow pierced the healer’s shield, shattering it pieces, and stuck inside her neck.
The mage’s life dropped to 50 points, and she squealed in pain. She tried to heal herself, but Noah’s poison orb finished her off before she could even raise her hand.
Noah cast a quick glance at the level 8 goblin commander and found a smirk on his face. Good for him. “Good shot, Rihala. Now let’s take these remaining three out.”
It didn’t take them too long to finish the remaining three without the healer’s support. Noah lost two zombies in the fight, but gained three more.
With the four zombies at his side, Noah stood with Rihala in front of the goblin commander.
“This is going to be tough. He is wearing plate mail armor,” Rihala whispered. Her tail was touching Noah’s lower back.
“Don’t worry. We got this,” Noah commanded his army of zombies to charge ahead.
The goblin commander laughed when he saw the zombies charging him. He chanted something, boosting his 600 life pool to double. He dashed forward with his shield hand and wiped out two of the Noah’s zombies like they were insects.
Noah gulped the bile rising in his throat. Fear, along with the taste of chicken surfaced in his mouth. If the commander’s one skill wiped out two 200 life zombies at once, that meant he was too tough for them.
“Rihala do you have anything on you?”
“I’m preparing the ice shot once more. Please buy me ten seconds.” She moved behind him, a safe distance from the goblin commander.
Noah gulped a healing potion and dashed forward. It was his time to be a tank for Rihala. Their only chance was her big damage spell.
He extended his hand, shooting his Curse of Fire Ball at the goblin commander. The spell only did 50 damage. Noah changed to his poison orb while he parried the warrior’s shield dash. Yet the attack took 100 points from his life, bringing it to 350.
Noah shot a poison orb at point black range, but it only damaged the goblin for 60 damage. It was a crit, but a notification told him that he did reduced crit damage due to the warrior’s defensive bonus. No, it wasn’t working. He needed something else, something strong to take down the commander.
Rihala’s shout signaled him to jump out of the way. Her arrow hit the goblin commander in the face, but it only took 300 points out of his gargantuan life pool, reducing it to 750. A little more of it was reduced by Noah’s remaining two zombies.
Annoyed, the commander hit the remaining zombies with his shield bash and wiped them out.
Nothing was working on the commander. Even the barrage of Rihala’s arrows was useless against him.
This wasn’t going to end well for them. “Rihala, run away! You’ve got to survive this. I’ll come back tomorrow, don’t worry.”
“I’m not leaving you behind.” Rihala jumped next to him and pulled out a normal plain wooden arrow, but the moment she put it on her bow, black tendrils came out of her hand and fused with the bow. They reminded Noah of the darkness he had seen in his last memory. The woody brown color of the arrow turned dark black. Power thrummed through the arrow as the moments passed by.
At the same time, Rihala’s life pool drooped to two third of her original level.
Noah tried to stop her. She was somehow fusing her life with the arrow. “Wait...”
She released the arrow with a twang. The arrow zipped through the air and hit the surprised goblin commander’s shoulder. Black tendrils shot out of the arrow, reaching for his shoulder and hands.
The goblin commander tried to pull the arrow from his shoulder, but the arrow itself decayed and vanished with a puff of smoke.
The commander squealed and stared at his hand. It was decaying in the same way the arrow had decayed. The infection was spreading over his arm. The commander shifted his shield to his right hand and performed a shield bash on his left hand, slicing it apart from his arm.
He freaking tore off his own hand, dropping his life to 500.
“You demon bitch! You’ll pay for this.” The commander chanted something, and tiny drops of blood rose out of the goblin mage’s body. It was like a cloud of blood hovered above the mage. But now the mage was just a pile of bones; all the flesh on her body was gone. It left the nasty smell of a rotten corpse behind.
Noah received a red notification.
Debuff Added:
-10% to life generation for 2 hours.
Damn!
The cloud of blood flew to the commander and merged with his body. His life bar shot up, stopping at 900. He was still missing a hand, but now his eyes were blood red. Whatever spell he’d used, it had provided him a new life.
This was bad.
The commander charged Rihala.
Noah couldn’t let that happen, so he pushed her out of the way and interrupted commander’s charge with his own body. The dash took 200 life, reducing his pool to a bare 150. One more dash like that, and he would be done.
The commander grabbed Noah and lifted him in the air. The commander’s fingers were wrapped around his throat like it was a tomato. The world blurred, but before his sight faded, he spotted a corpse. The goblin mage’s corpse.
“Rihala, you have to ru—” He used the last of his spirit to raise another zombie. If nothing else, he could at least buy her some time.
A yellow notification popped up. He thought maybe it was a new way for the game to mock his death, but it wasn’t.
You have raised a Zombie Mage. 1/1000 chance for doing so. You seem to be fortunate enough that your chance applied to the spell. Enjoy it while you can.
Warmth spread across his back, and his life rose steadily. The commander’s grip tightened around his throat, but the decline in his health was easily matched by the healing effort from his zombie mage. By the time he got back to half of his life, he had enough spirit for a couple of poison orbs.
Noah shot the poison orbs at the commander, one at his face and one at his wound. Both did crit damage and lowered the warrior’s health to 750.
He then cursed the commander with his boiling blood curse.
The commander dropped him and held his wound with his right hand. He was screaming with all his might. The poison from Noah’s spell was spreading through the warrior’s body. Blood sprayed out of the wound.
