The Mayor of Noobtown

by Ryan Rimmel

  Handing her a dagger, I said, “Wake your children and cut them free. We have a bit of time, but we will need to leave very soon, I have a safe place outside of this camp, but we have to be very careful walking there.”

  She nodded and began to wake her children. They were both exhausted, but neither complained. When they saw the dagger and felt their bonds get cut, they quickly gathered themselves up for the great escape. I was relieved to see that both the children, a little girl and a slightly older boy, both still had their eyes. I glanced at Shart, pointing first at my own eyes and then at the children.

  Shart, still invisible on my shoulder, whispered, “The goblins were still using them as pack mules. Blind kids would have been less useful and slowed them down.”

  Gripping my daggers and giving one last look through the tent flap, I snuck out through the slit in the back. I had to be ready for anything. Alas, nothing was there. The goblins still hadn’t noticed my movement through their camp. I stuck my hand through the slit and gestured for the now former hostages to follow.

  The little boy, scrawny but determined, came out first. He looked around in all directions, as if satisfying himself that it was safe. Only then did he wave for his little sister and then mother to follow him out. In the darkness, it was difficult, but I managed to catch just enough of the moon’s illuminating light to direct them to the exit point.

  “There is a hole. I’ll crawl through, and then your mother will push you up to it. You’ll have to jump down, but I’ll catch you.” This was my entire plan. I didn’t mention that if the goblins spotted us on the way to the hole things would end poorly. The trio nodded, for they could see the goblins at both entrances well enough and we moved quietly through the gully.

  Suddenly my stealth icon flashed to ‘‘open and I spun around, weapons at the ready. The children both dove to the ground and AvaSophia’s face changed from nearly pretty to fury. With my Perception skill, my senses were heightened to a superhuman degree and the hairs on the back of my neck were all standing on end. However, nothing was there.

  For three heartbeats, I stood ready for murder. When none came, AvaSophia started hustling her children towards the exit. I followed lamely behind them, the feeling of being watched never quite leaving me, even though my icon indicated I was under stealth.

  We made it to just under the hole when the goblins sounded the alarm. A loud call rose up through their entire camp, loud voices calling danger as the camp roused. Guards at the entrances began looking for threats both inside and out. Of course, we were right in a shaft of moonlight.

  “Ava, go through,” I called as the guards from the nearby entrance started running towards us.

  She yelled something but started climbing, getting through before any of the guards could get their bows strung. That left the two goblins that knew where the humans were escaping. Suddenly, I found myself with a partner, as the boy stood next to me with a dagger in his hand. His sister, being wiser, was climbing her way to safety as the inner wall was just rough enough for her small hands and feet to find purchase.

  ‘

  The boy was the size of a small goblin. He might have honestly had a chance in a straight up fight against one of the common goblins, but the guards were much larger customers. Each was the size of the larger one I had fought in the village. I didn’t want to see the child almost escape just to die here, so I moved forward.

  There was a patch of darkness where the light of the fire ended but before the light of the moon began. It lasted for maybe the space of two goblin paces. Inside that pool of darkness, I clashed with both goblins.

  The first didn't realize that I was engaging both. He was going for the smaller human, the easier target, I supposed. I cut to his side, getting past his guard and driving my dagger into his eye. In the darkness, it was a critical sneak attack; my combat log showed it instantly killing him.

  The second goblin was going after me, however, and thrust with his short sword in a strike that should have driven straight through my chest. I activated my Dodge skill, avoiding the strike, and drove my other dagger into his gut. It was the magic dagger. It pierced his armor easily, tearing into his intestines. He screamed, dropping to his knees. His agony was cut short, as the child jammed his own dagger into the creature’s mouth, silencing it. The look of malice from that boy was not healthy.

  I glanced backwards. The girl had gotten over the hump and jumped down even as arrows struck the stone egress. Turning back, I saw that nearly a dozen goblins had gotten bows out and another 6 were charging towards us. Time to go, I thought.

  Grabbing the boy, I rushed to the hole, even as more arrows smashed against the rocks. I had to use the Dodge skill several times, which was much harder when one was carrying a boy not entirely sold on being carried. I didn’t have time for this, so I did something I had been trying to avoid.

  I didn’t really know how high I could jump after I increased my Dexterity and Strength. I’d unlocked the unskilled rank with Jumping and, if ever there was a case to try, this was it. The sensation was odd. I felt my Stamina pouring into my legs for a moment and then I jumped with more power than I’d ever jumped before in my life. It was high enough to clear the 70 or so inches from the ground to the hole, front flip around, and land on my feet despite the sudden hot pain from my side. I landed just outside the gully, next to a wide eyed AvaSophia, who had been trying to scramble back in to save her boy.

  Sitting the now very wobbly boy down, I turned to her, “Let’s go. Follow me exactly.”

  The three of them nodded numbly and followed, just happy to be free of the goblins for the first time in however long it had been. With my Perception skill and the moonlight, I was able to track to the single point in my network of traps that it was safe to enter.

  Whispering a word of warning, I ushered the family past me and then we all went into the small safe area I’d found in a rotted tree stump. It turned out to be just big enough for the three to fit, which sounds far more impressive than it was, because I was supposed to fit in there, too. The initial plan was to all hide in there until the goblins were savaged by the traps.

  “You’re hurt,” stated AvaSophia.

  I brought up my character sheet without thinking.

  Name: Jim

  Hit Points: 63/65

  Stamina: 70

  Mana: 20

  Class: Warrior 2

  Class: Rogue 1

  Class: Woodsman 1

  Strength: Above Average

  Dexterity: Good

  Endurance: Above Average

  Willpower: Average

  Spirit: Average

  Charisma: Average

  Perks:

  Dual Weapon Wielding: You are able to wield 2 weapons perfectly

  Skills:

  Demon Lore amateur

  Goblin Lore unskilled

  Unarmored Amateur

  Light Armor Amateur

  Medium Armor Amateur

  Armor Skills:

  Dodge Unskilled

  Mitigate Novice

  Shields amateur

  Martial Weapons amateur

  Swords: Amateur

  Bows: Amateur

  Simple Weapons amateur

  Staff (60 SP) Rank 1

  Powerful Blow Rank 0

  Dagger Rank 1

  Puncture Rank 1: Your attacks ignore 2 points of armor

  Wounding Rank 1: Your attacks cause 1 point of bleed damage over 6 seconds.

  Two Weapon Fighting Novice: You gain +2 points of damage on your primary weapon

  Twin Weapon Amateur: You gain +2 points of damage when fighting with the same weapon type.

  Hiking (21 sp) Amateur: You travel further and suffer less Stamina loss from long travel

  Jumping Unskilled:

  Stealth Amateur

  Skinning Amateur

  Cooking unskilled

  Perception Amateur

  Crafting: Amateur

  Leatherworking Unskilled

  Woodworki
ng Unskilled

  I checked the Combat Tracker. A goblin arrow had hit me and my Mitigate skill had automatically activated. This reduced the damage from 6 to 2. I checked my Mitigate skill and found it had increased to Novice; now, I could mitigate up to 4 points of damage instead of up to 2. The Stamina cost was still 2 per point of damage resisted, but 8 points of Stamina was much easier to replace than 4 points of Health.

  I guess nearly getting killed all the time has its advantages. I considered looking at the Mitigate skill. My Dodge skill was up to 89SP, so it had to level at 100 or something. The goblins were about to start shooting at me, again. Maybe I should just stand up and dodge arrows for a bit.

  Looking through my screen at AvaSophia, I noticed that despite the time I’d spent on the menu, she seemed stationary. Unmoving. She was still talking, or at least her mouth was open to talk, but she wasn’t saying anything. Focusing behind her, which was tricky due to the menus, I could see the first goblin exiting the gully. He was hovering in midair.

  Time must slow down when I get into these menus, I realized. I closed them.

  “It’s a minor wound. Just stay safe with your children while I deal with these creatures,” I stated, reaching into the cubby to grab my Simple Bow. I hoped I looked heroic, because if my traps didn’t work it would be the last time she saw me alive.

  I strung the bow while the goblins got themselves together. Several of the greenskins did shoot arrows at me, so I ended up using my Dodge skill repeatedly. With the range, and the cover, and the lighting, the goblins just didn’t have any real good shots. The handful of them that got close were luckier than anything. The range reduced the cost of the dodge to almost nothing. However, they also didn’t do much for the old skill point level. Ultimately, the attacks were more an annoyance than anything.

  On the other hand, with my Bows skill from Woodsman and my Perception skill, I was able to drop 2 of the goblins before they finally stopped shooting. I waited patiently for a moment, figuring that they were going to rush me at any second. I knew that too many Goblins were going to be an issue. I needed an advantage, so I checked my prompts for gold coins and was not disappointed.

  Level UP, Rogue 2

  You have gained one Perk. Please select it from the Rogue menu.

  Your Hit point Total is increased by 10. Your Stamina is increased by 10.

  Level UP, Woodsman 2

  You have gained one Perk. Please select it from the Woodsman menu.

  Your Hit point Total is increased by 10. Your Stamina is increased by 10.

  I flipped over to the Rogue menu, looking for a special kind of skill. One that prevented me from getting murdered, mostly. There were Stealth skills and Stealing skills that all looked useful, but not in this situation. There were some Damaging skills that improved my sneak attack or made it more broadly useful but killing them hadn’t been all that challenging; more damage didn’t seem better. There was one called Mobility, and jumping through things had been useful once before.

  Mobility: Grants you improved movement, increasing the speed that you can travel as well as the height of your jumps. Improves the Dodge skill.

  Well that was easy enough. I’d been using the Dodge skill religiously, so improving it seemed wise.

  Next, I looked into my Woodsman perks. One was already selected, it seemed. Dual Weapon wielding was the same Perk in both Warrior and Woodsman. Good to know, I supposed. The placement on it was strange though. It was up higher on the tree, under the branch with two of the larger icons attached to it.

  Checking to see if the goblins had moved, I was relieved to see they hadn’t. I poked one of the icons.

  Ranger: Woodsman specialization, you seek out the enemies of the wilderness and destroy them, +1 Perk, +10 Stamina, +20 Health, +10 Mana.

  Nice, but clicking it revealed that I didn’t have a specialization token, which was apparently like a Perk point but awarded at a higher level. That was another effect of my Unbound. I could learn any skill I had access to or take any class perk that I had point for. Additionally, I could take any sub-class, if I had a sub-class token.

  Well, that couldn’t help me. Closer to the bottom of the perk list was a largish icon for Lore.

  Woodsman’s Lore: You gain access to the core skill Lore, which reveals information about enemies. Improved Lore also grants you improvements to your Tracking, and bonus damage against enemies that you are have at least amateur skill with. You can sense targets’ Health, Mana and Stamina if you are equal in level, adjusted by Lore skill and monster specific skills. Additional information can be learned at a higher level.

  That was intriguing. It might be nice to know what I was aiming at. Bonus damage was nice, and maybe if I knew what I was shooting at, I might come up with few more tricks.

  I selected Lore and my world changed again. I watched my character sheet adjust, the Lore skill appearing and moving my Demon and Goblin Lore beneath it. I could instantly sense more general knowledge about demons and the goblins facing me.

  Even while looking at the sheet, I could see through it and to the goblins beyond. Each now had a Health, Mana, and Stamina ring on their chest. Closing the sheet, I saw that one in more detail

  Goblin: Level 2

  Health: 10

  Stamina: 20

  Mana: 5

  Skills: Bow: Amateur

  Sword Amateur

  Goblins are small humanoid creatures that expand their population wherever they can find food. They are a wretched race that frequently inhabits the ruins of other races. They hate all races, including goblins, and will attempt to kill or enslave anything they meet. No goblin can be trusted to keep his word. Sometimes goblins can be controlled by a Warboss. Goblin gangs can be deadly to the unprepared.

  Casting my eyes over the rest of them, they were all similar, with the larger 6 in front having 25 hit points and the Shield skill. I didn’t see anything about Trap Detection, so I suddenly got quite a bit more confident.

  I looked into my quiver. Eight more arrows, which wasn’t enough for all of them. I drew one arrow and fired it at one of the larger goblins standing outside the gully entrance. He brought up his shield and the arrow shattered into it. He laughed and started pounding his sword into his shield. The other goblins followed suit, and then the goblins behind them started filing out of the gully.

  Setting my bow aside, the lead goblin barked out in his garbled tongue out, “He’s out of arrows. Kill him!” I could perfectly understand him now. That was also part of Lore I guessed, which was turning out to be handy.

  The goblins waited a few more moments, gathering their nerve, while calling out and barking at me. Finally, I stood again, gripping my daggers defiantly. The goblins decided that I actually really must be out of arrows and charged me.

  Trapmaking is a fun skill. This, combined with the generally short construction times in this realm, plus a love of the original Predator movie, allowed me to construct a significant number of traps in considerably less time than one would expect. Or hope, in the goblins case.

  They actually ran right past my outside line of traps. Whether because the goblins decided to charge at an angle, or because one of the outer line didn’t go off properly, I couldn’t tell. In any case, they got about 30 feet in front of me before the first snare hit. Weighted for a human, because that’s the trap I could make, it tried to lift a full sized human male into the air.

  Instead, it lifted a goblin. Said goblin kept right on going, slamming into the trunk of the tree I’d built the trap on with a very audible crack. I noticed a ding from my Trap skill at that point, but it got so much worse.

  Several goblins found what amounted to buried sticks that, when they stepped on them, shot up like a rake. Except, instead of a pole to the face, it was a spike to the gut. Others tripped a trap where a wasp nest smacked into their leader’s chest. Wasps hate everyone everywhere, but especially when their nest smashes into him.

  There were spikes, a pit trap, and several logs falling logs.
One slipped on the guts of his friend and managed to strangle himself on a vine. By the time everything was said and done, only 7 of the goblins that had entered into the traps left on their own 2 feet. Well, some of them left on their own two feet. A few were missing one or, in one sad case, both of their feet.

  There were lots of traps. Dutch would have been proud of me. As I reached down to pick my bow back up and shoot the survivors, I heard a slow clapping from behind me.

  I was fast, with all my upgrades. When I turned around, it was with blinding speed. I had the arrow nocked before I even faced my opponent. A single goblin was standing not 10 feet from me, past all of my traps. His swords still in their sheaths, he clapped with a terrible smirk on his face. At point blank range, I loosed a perfectly aimed arrow at his chest.

  His dodge was so fast, he blurred. The arrow slid through the air, slicing through a tree and causing another snare to fly off into the darkness.

  “My, you are fast for level 2,” he stated, watching me with casual indifference. His swords were in his hands now, but he made no move towards me.

  “Who are you?” I yelled. I considered drawing another arrow, but that looked good and pointless. His Stamina bar was totally full again.