Chapter 9

They returned to Ridgehill with little fanfare. The battle had already ended by the time they arrived. It was a resounding victory for the people of Alta and residents of Ridgehill. The Coalition army showed up marching out of the Corpsewood having made a deal with the Elves that he and Rayner knew to be fairies. Also, one of the country’s leaders used the invasion to rally enough political support from the regional governors to become head of state. The first thing on his to-do list was mobilizing an army. This army joined with the militia.

The Inimi, being outnumbered and attacked from all sides, retreated. Causalities were minimal; the leader of the Inimi army had executed a brilliant retreat leaving their goblin allies behind to distract the enemy while the rest escaped. Sucks to be a goblin.

Kevia told Axel people would forget their deeds in time, and he wanted them to, but it jarred him to see it happen. The handsome guard at the gate who had seen them off didn’t even recognize them.

All the attention shifted to another hero, Evans. He and his men were hunting worms the goblins were using to attack towns by surprise when they came into possession of the Inimi battle plans. After sending the plans to Ridgehill he found out where the goblins bred the worms and killed them all. The attack would have been much worse if not for his actions. He took all the praise with steely stoicism.

He and Evans now drank together, chatting in the brothel he and Rayner called home. “You have been busy while I have been gone. When you said you wanted to step up, I did not think you meant stopping an invasion,” Axel teased.

“You jest. Though it was your advice that allowed us to prevail.” Seeing Axel’s confusion Evans clarified. “Not needing combat skills to fight. I chose to worship a love god.”

“Sounds like a fine choice.” He gave the man a lewd grin.

“It bestows a blessing that rejects those I am not romantically interested in. I use it in a fashion that makes monsters want to run from me or I use it to feel the presence of enemies.”

“You use it like an intimidation or sensory skill.” Axel was impressed.

“It is not perfect; it is a blessing from a minor god after all.”

“Hey man whatever works.”

They talked for a little while longer until Evans left to check on his party. Evans now led the outer town guard who would hunt threats for Ridgehill.

The madam joined Axel after Evans departed. “Can we talk?”

“Have a seat, you own the place.”

“I would like for you to give me the unfiltered version of events after you left on your quest for Fred Copper.”

“Why would I do that?” He would rather avoid talking of Fred Copper whose wife he used as a human shield. Worse, he left it to the villagers to send her and her daughter back to Ridgehill. He and Rayner agreed to refuse payment for the quest as an apology.

“It’s part of your contract, third page. Nothing is written in fine print. If I am to supply useful information to you, I need information as well or else I will be searching blind.”

He could not deny the truth of this, so he told her everything, leaving out the detail about he and Rayner being from another world.

“That is quite the tale young man. Do you not know how to keep a quest simple?”

“Guess not. It comes with traveling with a heroic friend.”

“Oh, I think you have plenty of heroism in you as well.”

“Look where it has gotten me, alone in a brothel, while my buddy had an orgy.”

“That experience can be offered if only you asked. For some reason, you have avoided our establishment’s services.”

“Not in the mood I guess.” He took another drink of devil’s water.

“I have seen this before. It is more common than you think. What you want is a relationship that is more organic. Rayner’s sexual encounters happened during his journey; it was natural. Here it is just sex.”

“I never had a problem with that before.”

“You have never continuously fought in life or death battles before,” Grace pointed out.

He didn’t want to think about this anymore. “You came to talk about information, right?”

Grace let him change the subject. “Yes, I looked into other people with high levels like yours. What I found is that it gives one the ability to manipulate mana.”

“Plenty of people already do that.”

“Yes, and it is controlled by what class a person has. For most people, they just have a skill and feed mana into it, and that is only if the skill doesn’t do so automatically.”

“Skill creation.” But he and Rayner had been doing that from the start and Rayner did not have a high level. “I have seen people do something similar at low levels.”

“Again, this information is hard to get. The high-level worshipers guard it jealously. But I think with most skills if one pushes its limits, the skill breaks. It can only change so much without being a new skill...” She paused, waiting for him to fill in the blanks.

“But with mana manipulation, I could successfully create a new skill or push a current one beyond its limits,” Axel said, finishing her point. “Thank you, this is useful information.” Grace gave him her notes on her findings.

With soldiers from the new army and the militia camped around the town, business would be good for the madam. Later in his room, a girl waited for him ready to offer her services. Like he told the madam, he was not in the mood. He wondered where the first girl he met was, he had to thank her for the advice she gave him. He just hoped he could get some sleep tonight, true peaceful sleep.

Rayner skipped drinks with Axel. Instead, he went to check up on the refugees, specifically Tessa. He half expected the shacks to have become proper homes, but that was naive. This part of the town was as poor and desperate as ever. At least Tessa looked well.

Tessa greeted him with a demure smile. “I heard that you went to save a farmer’s daughter.”

“I did. The quest went a little sideways.” She did not understand his phrase. “It did not go as planned.”

“Sorry to hear that ... would you like to talk about it.”

That was the real reason he was here. Not to make sure a passing acquittance was safe. He felt guilty because he knew she understood this as well. He could not bring himself to apologize.

“I would like that, thanks.”

He told her everything they had been through leaving some details out, unable to reveal everything about himself, but what he did tell her made him feel better somehow. Axel was having problems of his own, and he could not dump his issues on him now. Instead, he saddled a poor refugee mother with his problems.

Her kids interrupted his brooding. They were so loud, they could have given that dragon a run for its money in terms of volume. After playing with the kids who seemed to like him, he left the mother to tend to her children.

He stopped by the weapons shop to thank Dian for the weapon. It was good advice, giving him the hammer with the pick got him out of a bind quite a few times and Dian had more advice for him.

“This is about to break; it should have broken already.” Dian decided this with a quick glance at Rayner’s weapon.

“It looks fine to me,” he said, taking it back from Dian and inspecting the hammer himself.

“That’s just how it looks on the outside. The smith made it well. On the inside, the durability is going down. If your friend used his knife the same way, it should have broken already.”

“I have been pretty rough on it.” And by rough, he meant using it to bludgeon dragons to death.

“What you need is a weapon made for skill use. Something that can handle mana flow.”

“So, people with skills don’t use weapons like this?”

Dian thought for a moment on how best to answer him. “I see what’s confusing you. The skills you have used work through the hammer, other people’s skills would work on the hammer.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” It did not make sense. Another thing to put on his to-do list.

With three armies camped around the city, he had a hard time finding any monsters. He knew he should not go out alone but this was something Axel could not see. Eventually, he found a large spider in a tree, skittering along its branches to avoid a drill bird. Killing them was easy ... and fun.

He spent the rest of the night with Rampage active, beating every monster he could find into bloody paste. Nausea built up in his stomach but not enough for him to stop; he abandoned thought, giving in to the bloodlust, and smiled.

For 20 years the goblin Vix had been trapped in the miasma. Two decades as a mindless slave to the misty purple mana. Vix was not one to pay back a favor. In fact, he hated owing others to the point he would rather kill them. Somehow it felt wrong to kill the two humans who had saved him.

Even worse was the state of the goblin world since he left. The stupid elders had got them worshipping some no-good gods and working for the humans and every other creature that threatened them or offered protection. It was in a goblin’s base instincts to submit to those stronger than itself. Vix had figured out long ago such deals never worked in their favor. If they failed in the tasks given to them, and they often did, they were punished. If they ran, they were punished. If they succeeded, still they were punished as their so-called benefactors were unwilling to share the spoils.

Yet the shaman elders, lords, and hobgoblins submitted again to powerful masters. He should have known. That was why they sent him on the mission into the miasma. Vix’s shaman told him the route would be safe; instead, it was a trap. His entire raiding party ended up dead or enslaved. Attacking human lands was a bad idea in the first place, humans always brought trouble. Even weak countries like Alta could chase them off if they had to.

Nobody believed in his vision of building a proper goblin society, with rules that went beyond who got to eat first and who got breeding rights. If they were strong, the humans would have to work with them. They could make the small villages pay tribute. Vix realized talking about it would do nothing. First, there would have to be bloodshed.

After all the time he spent in the miasma all the goblins who knew him were dead; he could use that to his advantage. The goblins had joined the Inimi army in many attacks against Alta and failed. Their masters would punish them. He could take advantage of this to rise in rank among his fellow goblins. For now, he had to see how strong he was or how weak. He had handled those humans with ease. They were inexperienced in combat but had plenty of potential.

Unlike a human who looked at tattoos on their palms, monsters like him didn’t need it; he focused on himself until he could see the words in his mind.

Name: Vix, Level: 10, Class: Goblin, Mana: 100, Skills: Poison Resistance(0) Mental Resistance(0) Slow Aging(0) Short Step(4) Hop Step(6) Stealth Step(8) Double Step(10), EXP: 22.

He’d gained many innate skills; his skills were a part of him. It must have been the result of living in the miasma for so long. Monsters gained levels faster than humans, still, level 10 was high for a goblin, and his mana amount must be because of the miasma as well. Most of his mana must lean toward his speed unless he had the talent to be a shaman.

Vix barged into the prayer room of the shamans. “I am Vix!” he declared.

The shamans were leading a prayer to one of the Inimi gods, goblin lords and hobgoblins kneeling behind them. The shamans and lords ignored him while the other goblins turned to look at the commotion he’d made. The hobgoblins moved to get rid of the small fry.

Good, he needed to make a statement. Not wasting any time, he used Short Step to close the distance between him and the closest hobgoblin. The fool was too shocked to react. Vix opened its throat with his knife. The other hobgoblin was faster to react, bringing its club down where Vix stood. Vix jumped toward him and when the hobgoblin swung its club at the airborne Vix, he used Hop Step, jumping on the air, and stabbing the hobgoblin in the eye.

“I am Vix!” Now the big shots were paying attention.

The goblin lords drew their swords. Using Double Step Vix appeared in front of the first lord with his first step, then as the Lord brought down his sword on Vix he used the second step to appear in the middle of the shamans. Vix made quick bloody work of them. He had enough mana to use his skills for quite some time, but the lords were agile enough to react to him. He was counting on goblin nature to prevail.

When the other lords moved forward to attack, they found themselves mobbed by the other goblins. Vix counted on this knowing that because of the recent failures the weak goblins feared punishment. A good way to avoid punishment is to kill the punishers. The goblins were already at their breaking point and he gave them a needed push.