Defender Light Online Four

by Larcombe, Tom

  “Well, I did kind of want to do the tier three with our group, but we can probably skip it and just keep going,” Eddie said.

  Once Eddie got in sight he recognized the man staying near the entry to the village. It was Bob, the healer of Coop's group.

  “Heh, I know these guys. I don't think they'll have a problem,” Eddie said. “They're the group that suggested that the melee fighters camouflage and hide in the field outside the walls. Showed them all how to do it too.”

  “Well, it does look like they're not having a problem, but that wizard they've got gives me the heebie-jeebies,” Dominic said. “Hell, I can hear him cackling from over here.”

  Dominic was pointing towards a point on the outskirts of the village and when Eddie looked over he saw a man levitating in the air, turning this way and that to hurl glowing green balls of energy at any of the goblins he saw.

  “I don't know, maybe it's psychological warfare?” Eddie said. “I sure as hell wouldn't want that guy attacking me with those balls and that cackle.”

  Dominic shook his head.

  “To me, it just sounds like he cracked, but in a functional manner,” he said. “With the magic he's tossing around, that just makes me nervous.”

  About then a voice shouted.

  “Light 'em up!”

  A moment later several of the buildings burst into flames. The few that hadn't became the levitating mage's new targets and he hurled tiny bolts of flame towards them until they ignited as well.

  Bob sank down to the ground, trying to regen mana faster if Eddie was any judge of things. As he watched, the rest of Coop's group showed up next to Bob. Eddie raised a hand in greeting as they moved closer to the village. The mage they'd seen tensed up, the glimmers of a spell beginning in his hand until he recognized them.

  “Hey Coop, Eddie's here,” the mage called out.

  Cooper looked up and took a couple of loping strides towards Eddie.

  “How's it going? Didn't expect to see you out here. I figured you'd still be celebrating your achievement from yesterday.”

  “Well, that's why we're out here. Forest Elves? What's the biggest forest around the area?” Eddie said.

  “Makes sense. We won't be the ones to find it though. This is about as far as we can get without a party wipe. Well, that's my guess anyhow, this one stretches our abilities some. A couple more levels though and who knows.”

  “We thought we'd kill two birds with one stone, go do the higher tier goblin villages and then maybe hunt around the woods for anything that might indicate the Elven Town. Thanks, by the way, we thought we'd take longer having to clear out these lower tier villages first. You saved us some time.”

  “Hey, no problem. You can repay the favor though, if you like. Do you mind if we tag along and watch you take out the next tier village? If I know what we're up against, we can plan and know just how much stronger we need to be to do it.”

  Eddie look around his group and didn't see anyone who had a problem with that.

  “Sure, no problem. You guys need a bit to loot and regen first?”

  “Ten minutes?” Cooper said. “Anything else we can regen on the way to the next one.”

  “Done, we'll just take a ten minute break also and then we'll head out.”

  ~ ~ ~

  The tier four village was a disappointment. Eddie remembered the hair-raising, adrenaline pumping episode that had been the tier two village attack, quite a ways back, and realized the significant difference the levels they'd gotten since then had made. Although they took a little damage, the group essentially walked through the village, killing all comers as quickly as they arrived.

  Allie had decided to tank, since Jern by himself simply couldn't tank the numbers they'd seen in the village. The hairiest part was when she was surrounded by about eight goblins. Dominic and Eddie had noticed the problem and focused their efforts on her opponents, breaking her free in under a minute. Eddie had pointed out her wounds to Tiana and a moment later Allie was back at full health, focusing on the two remaining goblins in front of her, which had then gone down quickly.

  Karl and Lucky had pulled their favorite trick with the goblin shaman and he hadn't survived the combined efforts of their initial attacks. There were a couple of goblin warriors that had lasted longer than the rest but even they were no match for either of the group's tanks.

  When they were finished, Cooper was just staring at Eddie.

  “What level are you now?” Cooper asked.

  “Seventeen, although if this village has the same bonus for burning it down as the others that's about to go up to eighteen.”

  Eddie watched as Dominic started igniting buildings. The loot had been okay, nothing impressive, nothing to replace any of their existing equipment, but good enough that they'd put it in the general store and it would probably sell.

  Hidden Quest (repeatable):

  One little, no little, dead little goblins

  Numerous goblin villages are located in the Forest of Fools. Destroy one to help hold back the goblins.

  Reward: 4000xp

  Success:

  You have completed the quest: One little, no little, dead little goblins

  Experience awarded: 4000 (+400 well-rested, +1000 blessing)

  Eddie saw his notification light flashing and pulled up the message.

  Success:

  You have obtained enough experience to advance to Level 18

  Do you wish to advance?

  (Y/N)

  Yes, he thought.

  You have advanced to Level 18.

  You have 3 stat points to distribute.

  You may choose a skill.

  You have received one stat point in: Wisdom .

  Your Health has increased.

  Your Mana has increased.

  Your Stamina has increased.

  You have gained access to: Nature Magic – Tier 6 spells

  With his stat progression planned out for a while, he went ahead and added them the way he'd planned.

  Add one point to Agility, one point to Wisdom, and one point to Strength, he thought.

  The added random point that went to wisdom is a bonus I didn't expect, Eddie thought. That means I can just get my new level spells instead of having to add a wisdom point first. Although if what Charles told me is right, I'll only get one more level of spells, then I'll start getting additional spells from lower levels instead of a new spell level. Charles said caster sub-classes get up to level eight, non-caster sub-classes with spells get up to seven, casters themselves get up to level nine. Then they all get different stuff after, new lower level spells, more effectiveness on existing spells, stuff like that. Not that I have to worry about that for another six levels or so though, so no big deal.

  Eddie called out loudly.

  “Ding, ding, ding!”

  “Bastard,” Karl muttered. “What's that, level eighteen? I'm only almost to sixteen still.”

  Dominic had raised his hand and pointed at himself, indicating that he'd leveled also.

  “Don't feel too bad,” Allie said. “He just passed my level and you guys were way under us on levels when we first met.”

  “I'm with Eddie,” Tiana said. “Level eighteen here. New spells and all that too. Give me a few minutes, would you?”

  Jern was grinning as well.

  “I got a level and a half out of this village. Can't wait for the next,” the dwarf said. “Not only that, but I increased my shield bash and my hammer skill as well. Couldn't ask for much more than that.”

  “He's got a point,” Allie said. “I'm only a couple of thousand experience away from eighteen myself so I'll probably get it on the tier five village.”

  “Same here,” Karl said. “Seven hundred and twenty-three experience to go for level sixteen. So what are we waiting for?”

  Allie elbowed him.

  “For those three to figure out their new spells and all of us to regen. Have a seat why don't you?”

  A half hour later th
ey prepared to continue to the tier five village. Cooper and his crew had left a few minutes after Eddie's group had settled in to regenerate so they were alone again. They headed out with Karl scouting the way. Eddie hadn't gone through his new stats yet though, he and Karl had wanted to explore the tier four village, or at least what was left of it, for future reference. By the time they'd finished that everyone else was ready to go.

  ~ ~ ~

  Karl came trotting back, chuckling.

  “Hey Allie,” he said, once he was close. “You remember that goblin village we burned down just to see if you could do it that way?”

  “You mean the one where we got shafted on experience?” she asked.

  “Yeah, that one,” Karl said, the smile slipping off his face.

  “What about it?”

  “Oh, remember how I bought too much oil for that? We might finally have a use for it.”

  “On a village? Let's not, I'd rather get full experience so I can level, you know?” she said.

  “Oh no, not on the village. On the wooden palisade around it.”

  “The what?” Allie asked.

  “Palisade, you know, village walls? Made of big tree trunks sunk in the ground? They've got one,” Karl said.

  “I know what a palisade is, I just didn't know that they had one,” Allie snapped.

  “Well, they do, and I happen to have two casks of oil still in my inventory. Been carrying that crap around forever, and now I'm glad I didn't move it out into the house to free up space.”

  Eddie's eyes had been flicking back and forth between the two as they spoke. Now he interrupted.

  “Um, they didn't see you, right?” he asked.

  “I don't think so, at least the goblin archers on top of the walls didn't shoot at me at all, so I'm pretty sure they didn't.”

  “Well, I think we're going to need to get off the trail. Karl, did you happen to notice if they'd trimmed the forest back from the walls?”

  “Only for about ten or twenty feet, so yeah, a little, but not really enough to be effective.”

  “Good, then, here's what we'll do...”

  A few minutes later Allie and Eddie were over at one front corner of the fort. Dominic was at the other front corner. Tiana, Karl, and Jern were just off the trail a few hundred feet back from the entrance to the fort. Eddie was going to be setting off the attack along with Allie. He wasn't surprised when he found that her strength was significantly higher than his own, since he'd focused in agility and wisdom. As a result she held the small barrel of oil in her hands.

  “Ready?” she asked.

  He nodded. There was a burning torch stuck in the ground next to him and an oil soaked rag fluttered from the arrow he had nocked.

  “Just make sure it breaks on the wall, we need the oil leaking out,” he said.

  She grunted in reply as she drew back the small oil barrel and then hurled it forward with all her strength. The sound of the wooden staves of the barrel smashing against the logs of the palisade was loud, loud enough that it might have drawn the goblins' attention all on its own, but he wanted to make sure that they were distracted so he dipped the arrow to the torch and once the cloth was burning drew back and released it.

  The flaming arrow struck immediately adjacent to the smashed oil barrel and a moment later flames began to lick up the walls, the oil on the palisade igniting.

  Eddie heard an explosion on the far side of the front of the palisade.

  “Looks like Dominic heard the signal,” he said. “Time to rejoin the others.”

  They made their way through the forest as quickly as they could, back to where the group waited. When they returned Dominic still hadn't made it back, but they heard him coming.

  “Stage two,” Eddie said.

  “You sure about this?” Karl asked.

  Eddie nodded.

  “They're on fire at two different spots. They won't be watching the gate, but if they are you'll be stealthed and they won't see you anyhow. Go, Karl.”

  Karl's job was to climb over the wall and open the gate. With the walls they had, Eddie was sure that the gate would be barred from the inside, so he'd planned on Karl taking care of that while the goblins were in disarray.

  There were panicked cries coming from inside the palisade now so Eddie motioned Karl on his way just as Dominic broke out of the forest, panting.

  “Need to... put some... more stats... into my physical... one of these days,” Dominic panted.

  Karl started up the path, shimmering and disappearing as he went. Eddie settled in to just wait, listening to the panicked cries from within the palisade.

  The goblin voices were heading towards the first area ignited, but then he heard some from the other area that was burning as well.

  Good, that should keep them busy and away from the gate while Karl opens it, I hope. Even if they leave one goblin guarding the gate he can probably take care of them with a back attack from stealth. If there's more than that? Well, hopefully he just comes back and we'll see what we can do, Eddie thought.

  His worries were in vain. About three minutes later Jern called out that the gate was opening. The party moved up the path as quickly as possible, slipping in through the gate and shutting it again, although they left the bar off this time. There was indeed a single goblin guard, lying on the ground, inside the gate.

  “They left one, so I had to take care of him,” Karl said. “Sorry it took so long, but that's why.”

  Once they were in, the job became much easier. More so because there were goblins lined up in a bucket brigade from the well in the center of the compound out to the two areas that were burning. They passed leather buckets of water along the line, trying to put out the fires. There were several goblin warriors that spotted the group, but when they called for reinforcements, many of the goblins didn't answer since they were still trying to put the fires out.

  In the end, the only challenges with the tier five village were the two shamans, more powerful than those in the lower tier villages, and the village chief, an Elite Goblin Warrior. The group was really overleveled for the tier five village though and the biggest problem, in the end, was when the fire leapt to some of the structures inside of the village and they had to avoid that area. They burned down the rest as well, seeing if there was a quest on the tier five villages like there were on the others.

  The notification came up like normal once the last of the buildings in the village had collapsed.

  Hidden Quest (repeatable):

  No little, dead little, gone little goblins.

  Numerous goblin villages are located in the Forest of Fools. Destroy one to help hold back the goblins.

  Reward: 5000 exp

  Success:

  You have completed the quest: One little, no little, dead little goblins

  Experience awarded: 5000 (+500 well-rested, +1250 blessing)

  “Ding, ding, ding,” Allie said, obviously mocking Eddie's earlier announcement.

  “Me too,” Karl said.

  “That's great guys, congratulations, but that's that?” Eddie said. “It's a little anti-climactic to find out that they were this easy, especially with the expanded level range for the Forest of Fools. I wonder why that was extended? I'm pretty sure it wasn't due to these villages.”

  “Maybe that other gate leads to even more villages?” Karl said.

  “Other gate?”

  “Yeah, the one on the opposite side of the compound from the one we came in.”

  “I didn't even notice it, let's go check it out. We've also got to keep an eye out for the Elves, not that I think they'll be very close to any of these villages,” Eddie said.

  The gate opened easily and revealed a well-trodden path continuing deeper into the forest. Eddie stepped off, keeping an eye out.

  “Karl, up here and scout, would you?”

  “Sure, send the scout out all alone to scout why don't you?” Karl said.

  “Did you even hear what you just said?” Eddie asked.
r />   Karl looked confused so Eddie just laughed.

  “Yeah, I'm going to send the scout out, on their own, to scout. You know, like the class name implies.”

  Karl flipped him off, but trotted off down the pathway. It was a half hour later when he returned.

  “Something weird up there. There's all kinds of smoke trails, but not like a forest fire or something, more like a bunch of cook fires or smithies or something. Think it's our Elves?”

  “Along this trail? Not very likely,” Eddie said. “Here, let me go up with you and check it out.”

  It was another half hour before they got close enough to see what was producing the smoke. Down in a small valley was a huge cluster of houses that looked like they could've come out of a shanty town anywhere in real life. They must've been thrown together with whatever materials were handy while they were built because there was no uniformity to them and they were scattered with apparently no plan as to where they went.

  “Karl, Stealth and check that out a little closer, would you?” Eddie said, dropping back into a bush to conceal himself.

  “Sure thing.”

  The scout was back less than a minute later.

  “Eddie, I really think you need to walk up this path another hundred yards,” Karl said.

  “Why?”

  “Just do it, you'll see. I don't think I could do it justice.”

  Eddie wondered what it was that had Karl in such a state, but moved up the road a ways. When his notification light started flashing he pulled it up, and blanched.

  System Notification:

  Further movement along this path will trigger a Raid Level Event. A 24 hour timer will start counting down before the raid commences and a global announcement of the raid will be sent to all characters of appropriate level.

  Raid: Goblin City (Forest of Fools)

  Level: 10-30

  24 hour countdown

  24 hour time limit to succeed or fail with the raid.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Twenty-Eight