6. Hobgoblin Camp

That evening, after Est woke back up with her Injury fully healed, everyone was called out again to the lobby. The buff man made another announcement.

"Everyone! I hope you've all been able to level up to Level 10 by now. If anyone hasn't, we will help you so just come up and ask! Anyway, while we know you are tired, we suggest trying to stay up until midnight to receive the next message for the next Main Quest! Thank you everyone, good work today, you may all return to your rooms."

My parents, Est, and I all shuffled back to our rooms and sat on the floor.

"Hey, Est... thanks for that thing earlier."

"Huh? What?"

"You know, how you ran up to save my parents from the Peryton..."

"Oh, that... It's no big deal. You did all the work anyway."

"No, not really, plus you even got yourself hurt saving them, I'm really grateful and sorry."

"Agh this is really weird, you're being really weird man... It's all fine. I'm fine now, it's all good."

We sat there for a while, then I had a thought.

"Hey, Est, are you sure you should be here? What about your family?"

"Oh, so you finally ask."

"Sorry, it's been kinda crazy and I was distracted by a bunch of stuff..."

There was a short pause, after which she sat up and started talking again.

"So, the deal with my family is... I don't really have one at this point."

"What?"

"Well, my parents got divorced, and I ended up living with my dad and older brother. My dad was a good guy, except when he drank. He always drank, but it got worse after the divorce, to the point where he couldn't even keep a job and my brother had to do all the work.

"My older brother would get into fights with my dad all the time, then one day it got pretty violent... afterwards, he just left the house."

"Your brother? And he just left you?"

"Yeah. Sort of. I thought he'd come back, but he never did."

"Oh... I'm sorry."

"As for my dad... he hasn't come home for the past week, probably just drunk in the street or something. Who knows. Probably eaten by a Gorgon or something at this point. Serves him right, I guess."

"You were home alone, with all that going on? How old are you?"

"Dude, I'm not that young. I'm sixteen."

"What do you mean?? You're literally a baby! I'm nineteen and I still live with my parents!"

"Proud of that, are you?"

"Damn, dude, I didn't know anything. We talked online for a long time, but you never told me anything about that."

"You're the weird one for telling me so much about your real self, man."

"Well, yeah, but you were just easy to talk to, you know? Especially compared to all those… other people out there."

Est suddenly buried her head between her arms.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, you dumb freeloader freak."

"Alright, that's it. You're younger than me but you always talk me down like this. What's the deal with that?"

"You're just easy to make fun of, I guess?"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

The rest of the conversation was just more nonsensical bickering, which went on until we got tired and fell asleep.

—

Next morning, my dad shook me awake.

"Soren! Didn't you see the quest thing from last night? We gotta go!"

I rubbed my eyes and glanced at the clock in the other side of the room... 5:30 am?

"Dad, why're you already awake?"

"No time, we gotta go!"

I opened up the menu and checked the notifications.

[]

Congratulations on completing the first Main Quest! 200 Silver will be distributed as a reward.

The next Main Quest is as follows:

Defeat 3 Level 10 or higher Monsters within the next 48 hours. Players who fail this quest will be eliminated from the game.

[]

You're kidding... This means my parents will actually have to go and fight. This game is trying to kill everyone.

"Alright, dad, let's go. Where's mom and Est?"

"They're already out there waiting for us. Come on!"

I really didn't expect my parents to be more excited about slaying monsters and completing quests than myself, but... here we are.

Soon, we were out and about, looking for monsters again. I needed to find a way to face them and reduce them to low health without finishing them so my parents could get the kills.

"Hey, what are those people doing over there?"

Est pointed towards a large group of people, presumably from the same motel we were at, near the clinic just ahead. The group was too big to be a single party, around a dozen people.

"What's going on?" my dad called to them.

"I think there's some kind of camp of monsters here!" one of the people shouted.

A monster camp? I didn't see any of those yesterday. Perhaps a new one spawned here today.

Once we got closer, we saw the camp from a distance, inhabited by bulky, reddish creatures, each wielding some kind of club.

"Hobgoblins, aren't they?" asked Est.

"Yeah, how convenient that a hobgoblin camp spawned just today."

Suspiciously convenient.

The group of people soon began to approach the camp further, ready to fight.

"Wait," I called, "everyone, wait a minute, I need to tell you guys something."

"What? We don't have time. We're going."

The group proceeded, ignoring my call. I have to tell them about how the camp works...

"We should go too. Hobgoblins even at early game were at least Level 15 in Orpheon, so this camp should be an easy way to rack up some kills for today's quest," I said.

"Sure, but there's one thing that bothers me..." Est muttered.

"Yeah. The leader of the camp that should appear once enough of the monsters are slain... I don't think we'll be able to handle it yet, so we should just get our kills and dip."

"Agreed."

Monster camps are like mini-dungeons, in a way. Unlike dungeons where the boss waits in the boss chamber at the deepest area, the camp leader, usually a miniboss of some sort, appears once a certain amount of the monsters inhabiting the camps are defeated.

These camp leaders are far more powerful than the monsters inhabiting the camp, and aren't really meant to be fought by the lower-leveled players farming the camp monsters to begin with.

If the hobgoblins in this camp are around Level 15, the camp leader would likely be around Level 30 to 40.

Tons of noobs on Orpheon would get destroyed while cluelessly trying to challenge these leaders. When that happened, some of the high-level players would come over and save them, then get treated like heroes. I used to do that too when I was bored until the game stopped getting new players.

Anyway, since this is real life now, we ought to be very cautious and make sure we don't summon it.

We need the others to know about this too, so we better go now...

"Alright. Mom, dad, we are going to whittle down the hobgoblins to low health, and all you need to do is land the final hit with your swords. You don't have to do much, just try to hit them and the damage will be dealt," I explained.

"I'm still not sure I can do this, but we still have to, I suppose..." said my mom.

"Don't worry," said my dad, "let's just quickly get it over with. It'll be fine, Soren's helping us... which isn't that assuring, but look at this strong lady! She's helping us!"

"Uhm, that's right! We're here to help!" added Est, who looked a bit surprised by the compliment.

We made our way to the camp, and joined in on slaying the hobgoblins.

It does take quite a lot of kills to trigger the leader's summon, so I'll prioritize getting my parents the required amount of kills first. Parents come first, after all.

If I recall correctly, camp leaders usually spawn after around 100 kills... since it's just a little over about a dozen people getting 3 kills, we should be fine.

We started to aggro some hobgoblins and whittled them down, then held back their arms so my parents could get the final hits. After around just an hour of two, we were all finished.

"That's great! We got it all done, just like that!" my dad exclaimed.

"Yes! But... do you suppose we'll have to do this every day?" my mom asked, "we're done for today, but... if we have to keep killing and fighting to avoid dying... I don't know if I could do that."

My dad couldn't say anything. I couldn't either, and neither could Est. We didn't know if we would have to do it all again tomorrow, or when all this would end.

After a brief period of silence, Est walked over to my mom, resting her hand on her shoulder.

"Mrs. Card... I don't know, I can say for sure... But I'm sure it'll be over soon. And if it won't be, we will always be here to help you and make sure you get through it all, so you shouldn't worry."

"Thank you, Est... Thank you," my mom replied quietly.

I felt like I had to say something.

"Don't worry, mom! I won't let you or dad die!" I declared.

My mom looked at me with a sullen face, and Est covered her face with her hand.

Perhaps saying I won't let them die was the best thing to say here.

Suddenly, a commotion was heard from deeper in the camp, and a man began to run towards us.

"What's going on?" Est asked one of them.

"We need to get out! People are... people are dying!" the man said with a panicked face.

"What? By what?"

"A... monster... it was different from others, we were having such an easy time with these hobgoblins..."

What? Already?

"Wait, how many hobgoblins did you kill?" I asked.

"Three, like the quest said. Why does that matter? We have to run!"

"Wait, wait," I grabbed the man so he couldn't leave. "What about others? Did anyone kill more?"

"Well, no... actually, there was one guy who seemed to be killing a ton of them really quickly."

"Do you know who that was?"

"No, I don't think he's in a party, either... He was just alone, slashing them all down... We didn't know him, so we mostly ignored him... But we have no time! We really gotta run, man, you gotta let me go!"

"One last question! What did he look like?"

"I don't fucking know! Wore like a black hood or something - NOW LET ME GO!"

I let go of him, and he scurried to the exit of the camp.

From one of the large tents in the center of the camp came grotesque noises and ear-splitting shrieks. People were dying.

"Est, you need to take my parents and get out of here," I said as I stood up.

"Not so fast, buddy. You're not going in there," my dad said firmly.

"He's right. I won't let you go," said Est.

"Don't worry! I'll be fine. I have a plan. And I'll run if I think I can't handle it."

"No, you can't—"

"Just let me do this. I can do it. Please, just believe in me. This is the first and last time I'm going to ask for anyone to believe in me."

Everyone fell quiet for a moment, then mom spoke up.

"Soren, you're not a child anymore... Sometimes I forget it, and before all this... I think I still thought you were, I just wanted you to be happy and thought the best thing we could do for you was to keep protecting you and letting you do what you wanted.

"But in the past few days, I've been seeing a part of you I never saw before. My baby, my son, who almost never left his basement... he was out fighting, helping people, helping your dad and I, who were helpless... and - talking to girls, my! - I really had no idea who my son really was this whole time.

"And looking back, I think maybe I hadn't believed in you, which is why you, who could do all these things, were held back because I didn't trust you to go out and do everything, face the world, all on your own.

"But now, after everything I've seen... I really think you've grown to be a great person, a great man. And I'm proud. And... and..."

She seemed to hesitate for a bit, holding back tears.

"I believe in you, Soren. I'm going to believe in you, because I know my son is capable. I'm really, really, worried you'll get hurt, but... I've seen you out here, doing all these things I couldn't imagine you doing... and now, I think I'll trust you so you can go out and face the world..."

I was left speechless. All this time, I hardly even knew what my mom thought about me. Sometimes I even blamed my problems on her and dad, that they were part of why I was a NEET with a miserable life, that maybe if they raised me better, everything could've been different.

I hate myself for who I was, and I'm glad I've changed, at least in my mother's eyes. That moment, I swore that I would live to repay all that I owe to my parents who just wanted me to be happy and did all they could for it. It was my turn to do it.

"Thanks, mom. Really, thanks. For everything, and for believing in me. I'll be back soon."

I equipped Ascalon, and checked my gear. I was going to be the hero to save them, and someone who could make my parents proud, for once.

I prepared to run for the tent at the center of the camp where the leader seemed to be, I heard screaming coming from behind me. When I turned, the man who ran off earlier was visible in the distance, screaming and scurrying back towards us.

"What are you doing here? Didn't you yell at me to let you go?" I shouted.

The man looked at me with an even more panic-stricken face than before.

"I-I can't get out!"

"What?"

"I DON'T KNOW! IT WON'T LET ME OUT! I-WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"

"I'll check what's happening," said Est.

She dashed towards the exit and returned in a few seconds.

"There's some kind of barrier. It looks like we can't get out... probably until we take down the leader."

Oh, great. I was going to have to face it either way.