“Is there a way to kill him? A way that we could use our brains rather than brawn?”
Grimy thought for a moment and then, snapping his fingers in the air, he said, “Food! That big oaf can’t get enough! Why, that was mostly our jobs as his henchmen was just to fetch him lots and lots.”
“What did he eat?”
Grimy turned away instantly. He slapped himself hard in the face. “Stupid, stupid! I’ve said too much.”
“What is it, Grimy? What does he eat?”
Grimy wouldn’t look at me and then, I knew. Hondren ate goblins.
“So that’s why you worked for him. You had a deal with him! He wouldn’t eat you on account that you would bring him goblin meat.”
“Yeah, well, I ain’t too proud of it. But, I got to survive! Like you said, it’s a violent world. Not sayin’ there’s something wrong with some good violence every now ‘n then but not when you’re on the other side.”
“Well… how could we go about getting goblin meat?”
Grimy’s eyes widened and his hand went to his hip, a vain attempt because he no longer had his dagger.
I put a calming hand up. “Don’t worry, I’m not talking about you. But is there some other way?”
Grimy looked at me through squinted eyes, unsure whether or not to trust me. Then, he put his hands on his lap and we thought a moment. Simultaneously, we look at the slimy loot bag of the Grottopus. We hadn’t looted it yet.
“That thing ate goblins, right?”
“Yeah, it did.”
“There’s probably a good chance that thing has some goblin meat or something in it, huh?”
“Yeah,” Grimy agreed. “Good chance.”
“Jeez… it must have sucked to live in a place where the two biggest beasts wanted nothing better than to eat you.”
“Yeah,” Grimy agreed. “Sucked major balls.”
We both walked over to the bag and looted it.
“Yes!” I cried, waking up Bataar from his sleep. He mumbled something about not wanting to go to the circus.
“What’s with all the ruckus! Can’t an old Archean get any sleep around here?”
“Come loot this thing!” I cried over to him. “We need goblin meat!”
“What in the hell are you talking about?”
“Hondren eats goblin meat,” Grimy said. “There, you’re caught up now.”
I opened my bag and looked at what I had just acquired.
Two Slabs of Goblin Meat
Helm of the Grottopus
I checked the stats of the helmet and they were lower than mine. So I traded it to Bataar who also walked over and looted the beast. Now that all three of us had taken from it, the bag disappeared into smoke. I wondered if part of that smoke had been Guud. I shook the thought out of my head. I had work to do.
“What did you get?” I asked Bataar.
“Well, I got two slabs of meat, and these.”
Bataar equipped two white vambraces that looked to have been made with the fleshy carcass of the Grottopus. Then, he equipped the helm and Grimy and I fell to the floor laughing. I laughed so hard that my stomach began to ache.
The helmet was basically the very top arrow shape of the Grottopus with two eye holes crudely cut out. He looked ridiculous.
“Well, I’m not taking it off! Its stats are way too good! Plus, I didn’t have a helm to begin with.”
I rubbed the tears out of my eyes and stood. “Sorry about that,” I said. “Wait until you see yourself!”
“Yeah, whatever. Grimy, what did you get?” asked Bataar. That was the first time he had used the goblin’s name.
Grimy, noticing this as well, said, “I got two of my brethren’s meat slabs.” Then, after a pause, he said, “That was the first time I’d looted anything. Didn’t know that was possible for a non-player character like me.”
I hadn’t thought of that. Grimy wasn’t a player but an NPC. One that players could kill and gain experience from if they wanted to. How had he been able to loot? Did it have something to do with being around us? Being around those who were Enlightened? Anyways, I pressed away the thought until later.
“Now, what should we do with this meat?” I asked out loud to anyone who had an idea.
“Poison,” Bataar and Grimy said at once.
“Ok, and does anyone know anything about poison?”
Grimy shrugged. “I know a bit of herbology. You got to when you live primarily in the swamp. We use some of the plants to treat our bug bites, wounds, and sometimes we make food from it. Betcha I could whip something up.”
“What would you need?” I asked. “Hopefully, nothing too hard to get. We’ve come this far already.”
“Well, I need the blood from Moss-Quitos that live outside. After that, all I need is crushed Luminmoss which will be easy enough.”
“I could go get the Moss-Quito blood,” said Bataar. I turned to him and had to almost use a bit of my stamina to hold back my laughter. He looked utterly hideous in the helm of his. “But, let me go by myself. Take me out of the party, too. That way you don’t take all my XP. I need to level up a bit more before we take this Orc on. I’ll be useless in there now with my current level.”
“He’s right,” Grimy said. “He could be one shotted very easily.”
“What’s one shotted?” I asked.
“Means I could get killed with one hit,” answered Bataar. “Well, I ain’t asking permission.” He took himself out of the party and I watched his face disappear out of my UI. “I’ll see you guys soon. I won’t die, that’s a promise.”
“But wait,” I called after him. “Aren’t you afraid of insects?”
“You have to be tough in this world, Tharis,” he called over his shoulder. Then, he stopped and turned. “You have to take risks in order to level and live. That means me conquering my bug fear.”
I wanted to protest but thought better of it and just let him leave. He was right. If we were going to survive in this world we were definitely going to need to take risks. There was no way we would survive at our current levels, Bataar was right about that. We both needed to do some leveling.
I sat down and decided now would be a good time to check out the traits system, whatever that was. There was a small flashing exclamation point in the top left of my vision and I concentrated on it. About a million windows popped up and I figured it was time to do some reading.
32
The first pop up read:
Congratulations on hitting Level 21! You have been given 3 points to place into the skill tree of your choosing. Pay close attention and make sure the skill you are choosing is the one you truly want, for once chosen there is no going back.
“Oh, that’s lame,” I said to myself, catching Grimy’s attention.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Well, I just got my first skill points and I’m guessing I’m going to have a lot of options to choose from, right?”
“Yeah, that would make sense.”
“Ok, well it says my choice is permanent.”
Grimy scoffed. “That isn’t true. I’ve heard of some skilled people in the capital city who can change it.” His smile broadened a bit. “That’s, of course, if you have the right amount of gold.”
“What’s the capital city in the Kingdom of Ashvell?”
Grimy raised an eyebrow, “You’re telling me you’ve never even checked your map?”
“If you were listening to my story, goblin, then you’d know I’ve been a bit busy.”
Calling him by goblin didn’t faze him. “Just check your map then, why don’t you?”
Grimy was right. I couldn’t rely on everybody’s help all the time. I needed to figure all of this stuff out on my own. And so I opened my map. I saw my triangle hovering over the tan-colored Hondren’s Cavern. I zoomed the image out too far and saw the entirety of the Ashvell Kingdom which was in the shape of a sideways oval. The other side had darker shading and it merely said Dark Faction over it. Guess I wasn’t all
owed to know what was over there until I actually arrived there.
I zoomed in a little more and was able to spot the plains in which I had done a lot of my training. Until now, I didn’t know it had a name. Neophyte Plains. I traced my vision upwards, skipping over a bunch of smaller villages like Ashvell, and other objects that looked like mountains, rivers, and… cemeteries? Then, I found it. The capital city, which was ridiculously easy to spot due to its size on the map as compared to the other markers. There were three large towers with small details of stone, and a tall wall that encircled them. Inside the walls were tiny buildings which I guessed to be shops and houses.
Its name was Titania.
I closed the map and brought up my notifications again. I closed the initial prompt and opened the next which was a lot wider. At the top read:
Choose your Specification!
Shield of the People: Tank
Warrior of the People: DPS/Tank Hybrid
Zealous Crusader: Tank/Healer Hybrid
I concentrated on Shield of the People and a tiny description appeared:
The Shield of the People is just what the title says. You are the one who stands in the way of those who would harm those you love. You take the hits so others don’t have to.
I chose Warrior of the People next.
You are a mighty Warrior and foes think twice before they engage you. Not only can you take a decent amount of damage but you can deal it as well.
The next option was Zealous Crusader which didn’t sound anything like the other two which gained my attention. Its description read:
You understand that there is a chance that one of your comrades or loved one will fall during a fight. You are not only their shield but the one who can bring them back from the brink of death.
It didn’t even take me half a second before I chose Zealous Crusader as my specification. After the prompt disappeared, I felt pretty confident in my decision. I was getting tired of those I cared about falling in front of my eyes. Now, at least, maybe I could do something about it.
The next screen was the same size but showed four upside down trees of different orbs that were blacked out from my vision. It was impossible to plan for the future and I would have to guess which was the proper option based on the description of the tree. Now that Grimy had told me that there were ways to undo these selections, I was a little less afraid of choosing the wrong one.
The first tree read:
Protect the Pride: This skill tree offers you the most protection with a mid-sized selection of skills to healing.
The next tree was:
Heal the Pride: This skill tree offers you the most healing options with a mid-sized selection of skills towards protection.
The third tree, called Alpha Male, was a hybrid between the first two classes.
And once again, it was the last selection, the one with the strange name that grabbed my attention. It, too, was a hybrid of the first two which didn’t make sense being that the third class already catered to that. The tree was called:
Scar: This tree of skills is not for the feint hearted. You are a hybrid of healer and protector and will do whatever it takes to protect those in your party.
Being that the skill below was shaded out and impossible to read, I went with my gut and chose the Scar option. I focused on the selection and was given the quick small prompt:
This skill takes three skill points. Do you confirm?
I didn’t have much of a choice, even though that sucked up my entire amount of skill points, which made me wonder… would I be able to unlock the other three skill trees? I guess that I probably could but refused to ask the damned goblin. He’d most likely give me a snotty remark.
I confirmed the Scar selection.
Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill: Feed Level 1. This ability allows you to consume parts of your dead enemy in order to gain health from it. You can keep this health for yourself or give it to another player or NPC.
I closed out the window and instantly felt and knew how to use the Feed ability. It was like second nature. This seemed like a pretty dark ability for a Lionheart but I’ll be damned if that ability didn’t sound pretty useful.
I closed the class tree window and was left with one last one.
Congratulations! You have gained the specification: Zealous Crusader. You have selected the skill tree: Scar. You will gain another 3 skill points at Level 25 and will then gain a skill point each level after that. Good luck!
I rested my head on the cold stone, relieved that all of that was taken care of. I hoped I had picked all the best selections for my style of fighting. However, this wasn’t the time to start second guessing myself. I’d made my decision and that was final. I was a Lionheart, a Zealous Crusader, and now a Scar.
Bataar gently shook me awake from a dreamless sleep. I targeted him and clapped my hands a few times. He’d made it to Level 19.
“Didn’t have it in you to make it to Level 20?” I asked him. “Or were the Moss-Quitos too much for you to bear?”
“You bastard,” he said, sitting down next to me. “It took a lot just to get this far! Those damn bugs don’t give off a whole lot of experience like you’d think.”
I checked his health and saw that it was at 19%.
“Looks like you played it pretty close.”
He shrugged. “Yeah, a bit. I probably should have come back earlier but… well, I just wouldn’t have been much of a help. A burden more like it.”
“Sure, but you could have died,” I said, sitting up. “This world isn’t a place to gamble health points.”
These words angered him and he put a red-scaled finger in my face. “Don’t you go telling me how to live. You may have saved my life multiple times but you have to remember, I made it into the Ashvellian Kingdom all by myself. I don’t need you, Tharis. I can handle myself.”
I raised my eyebrows and looked away. The tension between us felt awkward. I wasn’t mad at him or anything and he was probably right. I was acting like a mother cow caring for her babe. Maybe I needed to back off.
“Sorry, Bataar. It’s just-”
“Yeah, I know. We’ve all lost players, Tharis. My Enlightened mentor was like a father to me, even though it wasn’t a long time that I knew him.” He paused and thought a moment. “I don’t think it takes long to start to care for someone in this world. This damned cutthroat world.” He looked at me now and I mean he really looked at me. His gaze tore into mine. “You’re going to have to take risks if you want to survive here.” He punched me in the arm and I knew then that it was okay between us.
Grimy was staring at us from across the dying fire. He rubbed a finger across his eye and pretended to flick away a tear. “That was real beautiful guys, but did you forget? We have a four hundred pound gorilla of an Orc in there that is getting hungry.”
“He’s right. Let’s get in there and kill us an Orc.” Bataar stood and gave me his hand. I grabbed it and he hoisted me up.
“Yeah, let’s do this!” I smacked my fist into my palm. “For Guud!”
Bataar mimicked my battle cry, raising his greataxe into the air.
“Shhh! He’ll hear you two fools!” hissed Grimy.
The goblin stood next to a smoking, black cauldron. I walked over to it and peeked inside, instantly wishing I hadn’t. The brown goo popped and bubbled as it dissolved the bones of Grimy’s past comrades. And the smell! It was like a mixture of dead animals and bad gas.
“Now,” said Grimy, rubbing his hands together. “All we do is add the final touch and…” He looked over at Bataar who returned his gaze with a dumb look.
“Oh! Oh yeah. Here you go.”
Bataar traded Grimy the Moss-Quito blood and the goblin chucked it into Hondren’s soup without a drop of delicateness. The liquid inside, if you could call it that, turned a shade of light pink and the smell… actually smelled okay, maybe even edible.
“All right. Now, all’s we have to do,” Grimy said, turning to the large, woode
n door across the Grottopus’ lair.
All three of us gulped.
“Come on, guys,” I said. “It’s now or never. We can do this.”
“Yuh-yeah! Yeah, we can!” Bataar said, his words not seeming very confident.
We walked towards the door. Grimy, with a surprising amount of strength, carried the large cauldron all the way. I was just about to reach out and grab the bronze, circular door handle when Grimy slapped my hand out of the way.
“Were you born yesterday?”
Well, almost I thought to myself.
“You two have to stay out here! He can’t know any dragon people or pointy-eared humans are in his lair! Come on now! Use your head!”
“Tharis, if this green guy doesn’t stop talking to me like this I’m going to have to-”
“Bataar, take that side of the door and I’ll take this one.” I walked to the left side and put my back to it. Bataar’s face went serious. He shut his mouth and put his back against the opposite wall.
Grimy took a deep breath through his nose and let it out of his mouth. “All righty, show time!”
This time, I did reach out, grab the door, and open it for him. The massive, wooden plank on hinges was easier than I thought and opened without a single creak. Grimy walked in, taking the air of a nasty goblin henchman but he was actually a nasty goblin who was about to kill his master.
Without knowing what else I could do, I let the weight of the door shut itself.
33
Bataar and I put our ears to the door, trying without success to hear anything that may be going on in there. We couldn’t hear a thing.
Bataar: You don’t think that green bastard is ratting on us, do you?
Tharis: I sure hope not. Either way, it’s the same. We just kill both.
Bataar: Why are we doing this again? I’m not scared or anything. Just forgot.
Tharis: This quest is going to get us a step closer to seeking out Muzuhlan. I think this may be the only way he will talk to us.
Bataar: You mean talk to you.
The Lionheart: a LitRPG Novel (No Respawn Book 1) Page 16
