Matt made his way to the forest on the outskirts of town. The forest was known to be inhabited by many dangerous creatures, but most of them stayed near the center of the forest. This is what made these goblins unique, as they made a show of being near the town.
Why are there only 3 goblins? goblins were very social creatures, some consider them more social than humans, normally they would be in groups of around 7. The quest seemed weirder and weirder the more he thought this situation. and why were the goblins this close to town in the first place? despite being "savage" creatures, goblins rarely did things without reason. so what reason could 3 goblins have for going rogue and attacking anyone who comes close to the forest.
'Maybe they're trying to protect something or keep people away from something in the forest,
for some reason, the quest said they're only attacking those who come near the forest.' Emma suggested.
'that would make sense, it also explains why they're not moving from that one location. we'll figure out soon enough, we're nearing the forest's treeline.' Matt said as he got ever closer to the forest.
As soon as Matt was within the goblins' eyesight, they charged at him, no warning of any sort was given. 'Well it seems like there's no way out of this except fighting.' Matt thought as he threw out two winds blade at the goblins, hoping to catch all 3 with a single attack. all 3 dodged to the side but one of the was still caught by the attack now with deep cut in one of its arms.
The other 2 goblins continues running towards Matt from different sides while the other got pushed back by the wind attack. Matt put up an spiked earth wall in front of one and headed straight for the other, shooting white flame onto its face causing it to catch on fire. a few moments later it collapsed to the ground still burning.
| Goblin killed for the first time. 200xp |
Matt heard the screaming of the other two goblins behind him, but before he could turn around, he felt the stinging pain of claws digging into his back. The goblin he had hit in the arm with the wind attacks had caught up to him and he see could the other one, still uninjured was not too far behind. looking down at his status bar, things didn't look too promising.
|You are bleeding, 1HP lost every 10 seconds|
| HP: 17/24 | | MP: 18/26 | | S: 20/24 |
'Damn! I gotta finish this quickly, the longer this fight goes on the worse it is for me. I guess I'll have to use that.' Matt threw out two more wind blades at the sides of goblins and backed up quickly, hoping to create enough space between he and the goblins. The goblins dodged the wind blades, but that was fine, they were never meant to hit in the first place. They were meant to create space between him and the goblins and to get them to jump closer together. In the next second Matt threw out a Flame Spear at the goblins, it hit one of them in the shoulder before exploding into a ball of flames, catching the other goblin in the blast.
| Goblin killed. 100xp |
| Goblin killed. 100xp |
| Quest completed: Kill goblins outside of town.(3/3) |
With that, Matt had killed all 3 of the goblins, now he just had to cut their heads off and bring them to the guild representative. thinking of that, he looked at the 3 burning corpses. "So I guess I'm bringing him 3 burned goblin skulls." Before that, however, he had to bandage himself up, his back was still bleeding and he was still loosing HP. Fortunately, he had brought bandages with him just in case something like this happened, Emma wouldn't let him take the quest without them.
| Bleeding stopped, you will no longer lose HP. |
| HP: 14/24 | | MP: 6/26 | | S: 15/24 |
| Bonus Quest: Find out what the goblins were trying to keep people away from.
Rewards: Spatial Ring |
Suddenly, Matt saw a new screen he wasn't expecting. 'A bonus quest? and with a Spatial Ring as a reward? I didn't think I could ever afford one of these, but now I can get one free. Let's go before the system changes its mind!'
Matt stuffed what remained of the three goblin heads in a sack and went off into the spot where the goblins had come out of. There he could a bunch of belongings thrown about, probably taken from the people the goblins had assaulted over the past few days. What caught Matt's eye, however, was a path leading into the forest. the vegetation was starting to die and a natural line of dirt was beginning to form, it was as if someone or something had walked the exact same route countless times.
'looks like the goblins haven't just been staying here without moving, they did quite a bit of moving by the looks of it. We should follow the path and see where it leads' Matt said to Emma, hoping to get her opinion. 'You say "we" as if I actually have a choice in the matter, do remember that I no longer have a physical body and only exist within the system.' Emma replied.
Matt ignored her and continued to carefully follow the path into the forest. After 10 minutes or so of walking, Matt saw something that sent chills down his spine. There was a gigantic goblin encampment in the forest, it was about as big as town if not bigger. The goblins he killed must have set up some kind of outpost to make sure no humans entered the forest. Matt decided to leave as soon as he saw it, the risk of getting caught was too high. He decided that he would return to town and tell the people from the Adventurers' Guild what he had discovered.
Matt entered the tavern he went up to the man from earlier. "Hey there, did you finish the quest?" The man asked as soon as he saw Matt approach. "Yes I did, here's your heads." Matt said, placing the sack on the table. "I found something when I killed those goblins. The reason Why they were killing anyone got close to th- hmmm" suddenly the man's hand was covering Matt's mouth. The man laughed and said, "let's go talk somewhere else, follow me." He took his hand away from Matt's mouth and started to walk away.
Matt followed him into an empty room that said "Staff Only" on it. when Matt walked in, the man locked the door behind him. "Look man, you can't just say that you found a goblin camp the size of our town in front of everyone. people will freak out and we'll have mass hysteria on our hands, I'm planning on getting some strong adventurers together to go and clear out the encampment. I'd let you come as well, but this is too large scale, I have to make it an A rank quest. Here's the reward for the quest. please keep quiet about the goblins, I don't want people panicking. "Alright, I'll keep quiet about the whole situation, you don't have to worry." Matt said as he took the silver coins and put them in his pocket.
| Bonus quest completed. Reward: Spatial Ring |
A small, silver ring, with ornate, gold markings and a purple gemstone suddenly appeared in Matt's hand. Thankfully he had his hand in his pocket, he didn't think he could explain how a ring suddenly appeared in his hand. With the quest completed and nothing else to do in town, Matt headed back home once again.