Easing out of the hut I pause, adjusting the clothes nervously and looking around self-consciously. They say that the clothes make the man, and if so, I'm one very feminine looking man right now. On my six foot frame the clothes seem a bit long, but that's only because I'm a bit on the short side compared to most of the female goblins.
My shirt has one strap going over my right shoulder and is made of beaten leather. My kilt is studded with metal and also made of leather. The kilt has been decorated with bits of bone around the waist, and beads, roughly made, around the hem. It's a warrior's skirt, they say, and since only female goblins are warriors, it's feminine as well. Krisht says I can redo the kilt if I want, but I don't have the skills yet, so I make do. I've also been given bracers for my wrists, a sort of club sheath, sans club, and a tie for my hair since I'm not allowed to cut it as long as I stay in the village.
Suddenly, a rather loud horn call sounds out, making me wince, and goblins from all over the camp rush to the gates I had come through only hours ago. A hand claps down on my shoulder and I turn to see Krisht looking grim.
"Seems we've guests... go up to the battlements," she points to the wall beside the gate, "but keep out of sight. It's more than likely a human raid, and since you're our guest, we don't want them to think you're our prisoner. If you wish to fight, take your bow and arrows and shoot if you must, but if I find one of your arrows in one of my warriors, even the elders won't be able to protect you from my wrath." She hands me the weapons from her other hand, draws her club, and heads to the gate, organizing her soldiers into formation. At a prearranged signal, one I don't see but notice the effects of, the group opens the gate and storms out. I head up to the battlements and watch, making sure I'm not seen, only to hear the frenzied shouts of battle a moment later. Peeking out I notice arrows flying and search the battlefield, noticing the trajectory of some of them and finding archers in the trees.
While I may not be a goblin, they had taken me in, fed me, clothed me, even given me a place to sleep. That's way more than the humans of the game had done for me. Plus, I was here against my will, and what the game programmers didn't know was that I had a nasty streak when crossed; and ways to get around pvp rules. Calling out, I accessed the mainframe and disabled the restrictions of player on player combat solely for me, something small that wouldn't catch the programmers attention. Sighting an arrow, I drew it and realeased, watching it thud into the eye socket of one of the hidden archers with a grim smile. Immediately, I received a pop up message to my side that said I'd leveled up twice, a pop up I ignored.
The battle raged for maybe an hour, or so it felt to me, and by then I had killed four archers, a knight, a thief, that was a tricky one, and a mage. Kill shots in this game consisted of wounds that would be fatal in real life, and no matter what level you were, if you had the skill you could kill other opponents. Plus, you had the element of surprise to work with as well, and since the raiding party hadn't expected a human to be working with the goblins, that gave me the advantage.
Once every human had either been killed or run off, I went and helped bring the wounded goblins back into the village. Before I had stepped more than a few feet out of the village, I was slammed against the wall, a dark purple face swimming in my vision.
"Krisht... Krisht! I didn't... shoot... your warriors..." My words struggle to leave my mouth as she pushes harder and harder against my throat. Right before I black out, I drop to the ground, trying to breathe in in vain. Against all instinct, I breathe out, and the muscles in my chest loosen enough for me to catch my breath. When the darkness finally leaves my vision, I look around and notice Krisht struggling under a pile of goblin bodies.
Walking over to one of the fallen warriors, I pluck a white feathered arrow from the body. Then I move to one of the humans and pluck a black feathered arrow from their body. Struggling to my feet, I walk over to Krisht and try to point out the difference between them, but it proves to be futile as she's deep in bloodlust. Grimacing, I open my inventory and pluck an arrow coated in sleeping draft, slicing it along her arm as I explain what I'm doing to her warriors. Her warriors, all ranges of colors and classes, wait for me to make some wrong move, then finally relax as Krisht's struggles become less and less, and finally, she falls asleep.
I groan and collapse onto my backside, my tense muscles slowly relaxing a bit. A hand is shoved under my nose and it startles me, then I realize that the goblin is trying to help me up, looking slightly embarrassed but steady. I smile, exhausted but grateful, and accept their help, standing and rubbing my throat.
"Thanks. Sorry about what happened to Krisht. I tried to point the difference out, but I've found that people under bloodlust influence usually do better, after they wake up, in communicating and accepting small details. How about we get her inside? Do you have a healer in the village?"
"Yes. Let me take her. Follow me if you like, but stay out of the way." The goblin female who spoke picks Krisht up and carries her like a child, headed inside the gate and toward a nondescript hut situated in the shadows. I follow and pay attention, making note of important things related to healing, goblin anatomy, herbs, and even certain rituals the healer performs.
In bed that night, I open my stats screen with a whisper and blink, unbelieving of what I'm seeing. My stats are as follows:
Strength - 15
Stamina - 18
Charisma - 24
Dexterity - 25
Intelligence - 36
Wisdom - 30
Constitution - 28
My stats are very high, since I'm only level ten now, and I think over the days events, finally putting the higher stats together with the events that raised them. And my level had jumped higher than I thought since I'd killed higher level humans, rather than higher level monsters. I had put on the auto collect function earlier in the day since I'd planned on going into the forest to level anyway, and I decided to look at my inventory, a sudden gasp bringing the attention of a healer to my bed in concern.
I wave her off and smile placidly, trying to reassure the nurse. "I'm fine. Just startled myself out of a half dream." I lie, trying to shoot her away faster so I can go back to checking my items and the obscene amount of gold I'd acquired.
Let's see...I got a butt ton of money from the kills I made. Over thirty thousand royals! I've got a bunch of health potions I could probably sell. There's some magical artifacts that have interesting names. A few shards for magical stones that I should craft into whole ones later, and a couple of nice weapons that also have weird names. Maybe now that I'm fighting against the humans rather than with them, I should try and see if these weapons and items actually belong to any of the 'monsters'.
"I should probably get to sleep now, before the night's over, or I'll be too exhausted to do anything tomorrow..." sighing, I roll over on the fur covered bunk and try to get some sleep, deciding to give the health potions to the healer in the morning if I have time. If I have time, and Krisht doesn't immediately pull me into some crazy thing...
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