Noel uncharacteristically tsked.

“I can handle a few goblins, but a tribe? Who the fuck do they think we are? Are Awakened and Chosen humans supposed to be fucking superheroes?”

Superheroes…?

Cain felt as if the Blood Crystal was burning a hole in his pocket.

“We’re not superheroes, but if it’s just investigating…” Cain hesitated.

“Maybe we can do it?” Noel snorted. “Look, I teamed up with you to be safe, not go on a suicide mission.”

“Look, how about we just scout the area before deciding anything? It seems that the goblins have a pretty sharp sense of smell, so…”

Cain looked at the corpses of the goblins, and walked over. He dipped his hand into the pool of blood that had gathered on the ground, and began smearing some over his clothes.

Noel tilted her head.

“Are you really smearing yourself in goblin shit?”

“It’s blood, not shit,” Cain replied. “If there were any blood-borne diseases that came with the monsters, it would’ve caught on by now.”

Cain conjectured, continuing to douse his clothes and his hair for good measure.

“If there were any diseases that came with the portals, I’d say we’re all fucked anyways. Besides, this will cover our scent.”

Noel merely scrunched her nose.

“I’ve had to walk away from a few situations in the past month, but with the System and our blessings, I feel like I have to at least try.” Cain continued, trying to keep a creep of emotion out of his voice.

For days on end, Cain had just been scraping by, with no end in sight to the miserable existence of subsisting on canned foods and candy bars that were bound to run out.

Now, with the System, they had a chance.

Noel hesitated, but eventually knelt down beside him and began to dip her hands in the blood as well, muttering darkly under her breath.

Cain smiled and ignored her.

_

Once they smelled sufficiently of dried gore more than anything else, Cain and Noel began walking back the way that the goblin scouting party had come from.

Cain figured they had about half a day before the sun set completely, and would turn back if they hadn’t found the goblin camp in a few hours.

The area seemed to be devoid of other monsters. Which made sense, if the goblins had settled nearby.

They would have either cleared the area of other monsters, or chosen one unclaimed by them in the first place.

They ran into one more goblin scouting party, but this one consisted only of three lightly armed goblins. 

Cain easily took care of one with [True Sight] while Noel butchered the other two.

This time he got a better look at her combat style.

Noel simply let the goblins charge her, and stepped forward when they reached a certain range, sweeping her ax in a powerful arc.

It sounded simple, but Noel did this with deceptive speed and obvious power.

She literally bisected the first goblin at its waist, then quickly stepped back out of range while positioning her ax for a strike again.

The second goblin didn’t know it, but it stood no chance. As it rushed forward to its death with a squawk, Cain almost felt sorry for it.

Noel swung her ax again, and the goblin was no more.

The girl gave a satisfied heave of a sigh and took out a rag to wipe the blade of the ax.

No notifications informed them of any growth this time.

After the encounter, Cain and Noel decided to adjust direction slightly, aiming for the center of the directions that the two goblin parties they had encountered were coming from.

It wasn’t more than an hour until Noel began to hear something again.

“I think I hear goblins ahead. A lot of them this time, and they are not trying to be quiet.” She said,

It was also the first time Cain heard fear in her voice.

Looking around, Cain eyed the tallest building that had remained standing.

He nudged his chin at it after catching Noel’s eyes, and though she sighed, they carefully made their way into the building and up to the roof.

Once they got there, they didn’t have to look far to discover the source of the noise.

Only about 6 or 8 blocks off was the ruins of a small city park that was crawling with goblins.

They had cleared the area of trees, using them and rubble to build a rather solid wall with the spiked logs. They were definitely intelligent, and were beginning to form a real settlement.

Many small fires were cooking…

Cain had to look away to steady his breath.

He took a closer look after steeling himself.

There were a couple entrances, which seemed to have dedicated sentries in addition to a steady stream of small goblin scouting parties that were returning with various things.

Within its walls was a hodgepodge of wooden structures and tipi-like structures made of beast skins that were obviously not from Earth.

Cain wasn’t sure if the goblins had brought them over from their dimension, which seemed to be called ‘Heloth’, or if they had hunted down other demonic beasts that had also crossed over to Earth.

Bones littered the grounds of the encampment. Some were from animals, but many seemed human.

But what caught Cain and Noel’s attention was the dozen or so humans who were next to them.

There, a wooden fence built around a fallen wall, were a dozen people that looked… defeated.

Few of the goblins seemed to be paying attention to them, but none of captured humans looked to be in a state to plot an escape, much less carry one out.

Before he could see much else, the door flap to the central tipi fluttered open.

The goblin that came out was nothing like Cain had seen before. It was as tall as about three goblins combined, putting its height well over even humans and on par with orcs.

Where the orcs looked like bull-dozers built of bulging muscle and tusks, however, this goblin looked wiry thin.

Its striated muscles stood out like thick metal cords and writhed under its still leathery red skin like snakes.

[True Sight] allowed him to see what it was.

[Status: Hobgoblin]

Class: Shaman

Level: 13

Body: D (32%)

Mind: D (23%)

Soul: D (28%)

Active Skill: ???

Passive Skill: ???

Traits: ???

The hobgoblin had seemed to notice his gaze, its body freezing up as it quickly began to look around.

Cain dropped like a rock and Noel, quick to notice, followed.

Thankfully it didn’t seem to be able to locate where the gaze had been coming from.

After a long while, Noel quietly whispered under her breath.

“How many goblins do you think there are?”

“...At least a hundred,” Cain replied. “The scouting parties seem to be returning, too, so they’re probably not that active once night falls.”

Noel fell silent yet again, before speaking heavily with deliberation, more serious than he’d ever heard her before.

“I don’t know about you Cain, but I didn’t team up with you so I could die for other people. If that’s what you want to do, this is where we part ways.”

Cain grit his teeth. She was right. He had thought, just for a second, that maybe if the encampment was smaller, or the prisoners weren’t obviously malnourished and probably injured… The thoughts he hated the most began to rear their head. The ‘what if’ and the ‘if onlys’.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and breathed out, letting the action wash over his mind and blow away the thoughts.

“We’ll have to sleep here for the night. Regardless of what we do, it’s not like I’m going to attack the camp by myself, and stumble back to my hideout at night even less.”

Cain threw Noel a couple of candy bars and a bottle of water from his travel pack and trudged back down the stairs, very carefully.

--------

Cain quietly settled in one of the rooms after they made it back safely to his house.

He’d become well-acquainted with being alone and the silence that came with it in the past month, and he almost reveled in its embrace now that he was alone.

It had been an insane day, almost as insane as the day that the first rifts had opened.

He felt the emotions he had kept disciplined and locked away rise bitterly to the surface of his mind.

He thought he’d be able to help. Do something, now that the System had been activated and he had been even seemingly chosen by a being whose power was beyond his comprehension.

He sat down on a dilapidated bed, running his hands through his hair, dirty and matted with sweat and blood. Water didn’t run through the city anymore. As silly as it was, it was the last thought that sent a burst of determination through his mind.

Humanity had fallen far and lost so, so much. Cain didn’t want to just live, or survive off of Twinkies for the rest of his life.

He wanted power.

Power to change the world around him, the power to protect whoever the hell he wanted to protect, and the power to thrive even in this new world that was quickly beginning to resemble Hell itself.

He took out the Blood Crystal from his pocket, considering its deep red color. Before he could overthink it, he swallowed the Blood Crystal and felt it travel down his throat and into his stomach, where it dispersed into a searing energy.

He felt a strange vitality enter his body and wash away the fatigue that had accumulated over the past month.

He felt good. Actually, he felt great.

It was a lot more than the ‘slight’ improvement that had come from the ‘hunt’ earlier.

Hell, he might even have increased his stats. He’d check right now! If the Blood Crystals could give him a boost in-

His world exploded into a deep-red color and the overwhelming scent of iron and blood.

Cain managed one thought through the pain as he passed out.

Not again. ----

Cain came to in Hell.

Or at least, it seemed like Hell to him.

He was in some desiccated land, ground cracked and three burning suns above, each redder than the other. There were no signs of life, with only a few withered and twisted remnants of plants in sight.

He hadn’t ‘woken up’, more gradually blinked into being.

He thought he saw dark mountains in the distance, but soon realized it was a mass of roiling shadows. It was quickly closing the distance between them, crashing towards Cain like a tsunami.

He stared, jaw slackening in surprise.

Red lightning flashed in between the clouds as a will thundered into his mind.

YOU WILL MAKE GOOD NOURISHMENT FOR MY CHILDREN.

PUNISHMENT FOR STEALING WHAT IS MINE, MORTAL.

The voice hadn’t spoken in a language Cain knew, but he still understood it crystal clear.

Choking, Cain stumbled as the being’s very voice ripped apart his mind and seemed to set his brain on fire. 

He- what- was he- going to- die-

A soft chuckle echoed from behind him, and he suddenly found himself in a pure white space, soft golden light infusing the space.

He turned back slowly, so extremely lost and desperately not wishing to feel so confused.

Behind him was a large stone, surrounded only by white space. A figure sat upon it, cross-legged and somehow radiating leisure. 

It seemed to be a cross between a monkey and a human, and was clad in golden armor that was decorated with beautiful splashes of runic engravings. Playfulness was evident in its face as it gazed down at Cain and smiled conspiratorially. The beings' eyes seemed to bore into Cain’s very soul.

It suddenly let out a cackle and called out. 

“Close call, Cain. You’ve really pissed off the goblin god.”

Cain choked back a ‘Huh?’. He didn’t want to sound stupid in front of the being that was likely his patron. 

“I’m Wukong!!”

The being suddenly disappeared, reappearing in front of Cain with its hand reaching out for a shake.

The shiny monkey god grinned and continued.

“I am the patron that offered you [True Sight], one of my signature powers. Hehe.”

Cain gulped and extended his own hand, feeling numb.

Wukong? The monkey from Chinese legends had noticed him, and offered him a Skill?

Wukong accepted Cain’s handshake and shook vigorously while smiling.

He had very sharp teeth.

“Hi. Er- I’m Cain,” Cain managed to stutter out.

“I know! I didn’t expect to meet you so soon, but the being from Heloth would have torn your soul to shreds if I hadn’t intervened,” Wukong cackled with what seemed like an inappropriate amount of joy.

“Uh… Thanks,” Cain replied.

“Ok, do you want the good news or bad news first?” Wukong wiggled his eyebrows mischievously.

Cain gulped. Good news seemed like a better option, somehow.

“Good news, please.”

“Bad news it is. Ok, so Hekamuth is dead set on killing you now,” Wukong said, somehow managing to seem bored while delivering news that dropped Cain’s stomach.

“He can’t really do much until more of his people are over on Earth and this dimension has a higher density of manna,” the monkey god continued. “But he’ll likely send goblins to hunt you like a dog. Never really liked dogs, myself.”

“...And the good news?” Cain asked, trying to tell himself that it would be ok, there was a magic monkey to watch over him now. 

Wukong—he who had been born from a mountain, lived for a millennia, challenged the heavens and won (sort of)---giggled. 

“Sorry, I lied about the good news. The other bad news is that the Spirit Realm is kind of in deep shit too! Earth has been slowly losing its essence and manna over the past millennia, limiting the amount of things we can do from our Realm. And a month ago, the manna of Earth finally fell to a low enough level for the gods of Heloth to rip rifts into our dimension.”

Cain had to resist the urge to shout at a god.