I'm no Hero

Teyo hugged the wall close to him. Not much here could provide cover without jumping into the stalagmites wall, surrounding the excrement alcove, and possibly getting shish kabobed. The only other option was to run passed where they seemed to be coming from. With a quick thought he quickly jumped and grabbed onto the stone spears above his head and climbed up into the darkness.

Mere seconds after spreading himself into a spider climb between the stone hanging above, a pack of five goblins came bumbling out of the passageway. Two of them were holding torches. They stopped in front of the entrance to the path towards the cave. One of them started waving his fingers and pointing at each of them speaking in a series of sharp sounds with a mix of grumble like phlegm gurgle noises. "Goblin speech is strange" Teyo thought. Being that they were fairly close, Teyo finally got a good look at them.

Similar to himself the goblin's we're wearing attire made of bat skin. The main difference being that his clothes were made with higher quality, as their's seemed to be crudely made and far more worn and tattered. None of them were completely clothed except the smaller more aged looking one that was barking some sort of orders at the bunch.

After a few seconds two smaller goblin's wearing just tattered loin cloths were separated from the pack, one with torch in one hand and a small blade in the other, the other with a gourd of some kind and a makeshift spear. The other three held crude short swords made of a rusty old metal and wore more clothes being actually head to toe in leathers. The leader barked another few words and the group split. The pack of three out into the cave, the other two towards Teyo.

A few seconds passed as they walked towards him passing the gourd back and forth taking large swigs of it and giggling to each other. They ended up right underneath teyo at which point one moves it's loin cloth and began to pee, the other just a couple steps away squatting presumably to poop. " Great.. this is nothing I wanted to witness.." Teyo was thinking before he was caught off guard by a shift in the stone he was clung between. *cr.. crack*

Quickly Teyo gave a quick shove and hopped to the otherside he was wedging between. The two goblins looked up and in unison and screamed. "Aaaaa" *thudd....

The goblin's watched as the stone fell from above. The goblin who was mid stream was skewered from shoulder to ground dropping the torch dead instantly. Watching his companion die instantly the other goblin plopped out a turd and hurriedly shuffled his feet to try and move out of the way as the stone fell his direction and onto his back squishing him into the fetid ground. Just like that two goblins dead.

Teyo didn't bother dismissing the notifications that popped up.

" Level 1 Goblin killed"

" Level 1 Goblin killed loot drop available - Praise tier"

" Achievement unlocked - Natural Predator- Use the environment as a weapon" - Tavern Quest available.

Looking on at the notifications Teyo felt a struggle to be happy. One one hand it felt undeserved and rather unfortunately beneficial which hurt his pride, and as much as he would have liked to kill the goblin's he now had to loot them... in filth. On the other hand he was certain he should buy a scratcher when he logged off luck was on his side. He hopped down to inspect the two of them.

The faint torch light was beginning to fade. Without needing the torch light Teyo simply picked it up and snuffed it out rolling it's side against the wall. He bent over and looked at the goblin's now with a close and Discern Ingredients eye. He neither wanted to harbor the idea to eat the filthy little thing's, but he had to come to terms that it may be fruitful. The stone spitted goblin almost looked like it was ready to throw on a fire anyway. Teyo noticed immediately that the goblin ears had a faint purple tint to them, still uncertain about the colored meanings to the ability, he continued to examine it. The goblins eye were faint but red as well as the flesh of the creature. It's spilled and smashed brain and innards were a mix of gray and red as if most of its insides had no purpose. Outside of the the only thing that had a deep red aura to it was the tongue. Immediately Teyo pondering what it meant came to the conclusion it had to allow him a use. Considering one of them was smashed he decided to take it's tongue, a swift cut and he left it be. He grabbed the small knife, it's rusty metallic blade seemed to be crudely hammered and unfortunately it was bent under the weight of the rock, same for the spear as it was cracked in half next to the unlucky pooper. What was available was the small gourd in front of his outstretched hand. He picked it up and gave it a whiff. His nostrils filled with a deep smell of fermentation and acrid florals. Alcohol. The strongest he had ever come across. Teyo may be young but he had been to a party or two, this stuff trumped anything else. Likely the use could fuel a vehicle. Teyo let out small cough and then popped the small rock cork back onto it and put it away.

Rather than dally any longer Teyo decided it better to leave before the others came back. He would have to wait on his rewards, and the inquiry to the Tavern Quest was as well. Seeing since the path the other group took was his only means of return he made a hard decision and decided to head from whence they came. He turned into the corridor and crept up it's path through the darkness.

After a short few bends and winds teyo began to see torch light from a exit close to him. He slowed himself and made his way towards it. Clinging to a wall he peeked into the next area towards the fire light. What he saw left him confused and in awe. There in front of him lay a goblin. No Something more, it was easily twice or three times the size of the others he had seen bigger then even himself, and Teyo was quite a bean pole himself. In a large sack of bat furs a sleeping fat man sized goblin lie there drooling down his shirt. A gourd in one hand and a large cleaver in the other. The room was adorned with random crates and boxes stuffed with hay, some seemed to be made into small beds. Around the fire we're sticks with bat meat just a distance away to jerky. Small overhang hammocks, randomly sharpened spears and clubs were strewn about. If anything it looked like a disgustingly dirty male dormatory for goblins. Counting the beds certainly left Teyo with the assumption that not all of the goblins had been accounted for. There were eight. And the craziest thing of all. Behind all the mess a large door. above it in a strange almost ancient but legible writing. Level 2. The problem, the large Goblin thing was no more than ten feet away.

Teyo closed his jaw and tucked back against the wall. His mind racing with confusion. " Level 2, it's just a door right? is that how you get there a door? that's simple but it's not at the same time.... what is that big guy he's gotta be more than a goblin.. an orc? ogre? I don't understand. Did I find a checkpoint? How do I know?... Shiiiiit... That damn manual.. I really should learn to read the fine print."

Teyo looked at his remaining time. 2:06.

" No way. No Way dude. This can't be right.. did.. did I skip the whole floor? That other route.. But imagine fighting all those goblins.. I still have so long.. Should I just run into there? Can he follow me I wonder.." Teyo's thoughts were cut off by the distant sounds of screaming goblins from behind him, the goblins must have come back to see what was taking them so long. The sounds of scampering feet and yelling coming from behind. Teyo knew he couldn't get stuck here. He looked out towards the door, The beastly goblin still lay dormant seemingly in a drunkest stupor. But in the other direction another passageway. Teyo felt foolish but rather than run ahead to the next level he ran there. " Preparedness, preparedness. Now I know the big bad now I gotta defeat him." Down the corridor and into the darkness of the cave beyond.

Shortly afterwards a pack of three goblins entered the room Teyo just ran through. One of which held in his hands a half a goblin, sobbing the three of them walked forward and towards the fire. The elder goblin stepped forward to the large sleeping goblin and smacked him on the face. " Goda Buda nah!!! Sobba gugg ak !"

The large one awoke and look at the goblin then sat up straight after a second he got off the bed and cowtowed to him. The the Elder goblin hopped into the bed, which was actually more of a throne. Smacking the back of his head and taking his cleaver like sword from him the elder goblin seemed to bark more orders. The three in front of him all began to shed tears and after they all gave the torso of the goblin a hug they all began to devour him. The elder goblin look on at them, with the fire dancing in his eyes the shadows danced of the feast. He began to grin and using his sword started to sharpen the cleaver edge he licked his lips.

....

" Oh my God finally! I see it the checkpoint it's just ahead!" Dorian let out happily to his companions behind.

" Good job guys we're almost ther. Looks like we should use this last hour to rest up and stop here for today. Are you guys playing tomorrow? Maybe we should add each other we have a good dynamic I think." Jack said as the group now leisurely pressed forward. with the torch light in hand in front of them nor more than a hundred yards down the path they could see the blue flame torches on the walls and the stone circle which signified the checkpoint. A small safe rest stop that would save there progress.

" I can't believe we made it to the second checkpoint in our time window, the bats, the spiders and the slimes really aren't that difficult when we work together. Also Jack your blade rush skill is so cool!" Sadira said bumping his shoulder.

"Hey guys add my user name I'd be totally interested in partying up. Buff_D." Dorian said now blushing and inwardly scolding himself.

Jack let out a simple chuckle. " You know what ... Nevermind. Yeah add me to CaptainJackPharaoh.... What the name I wanted was chosen alright!"

Dorian and Sadira let out another boastful laugh. " SadJewel.. is mine.." Sadira said.

The trio fell silent. " Well anyways it sucks we lost two of our party members but it seems like were gonna be fine. When we re-que tomorrow we can party up before hand and since they're dead we will get fills of others who made it to checkpoint two." Jack said trying to cheer up the just silent atmosphere.

" I still can't believe there's even goblins on this floor, how did you know they would take a trade?" Dorian said.

" Honestly I didn't but, they had clothes on which meant the were smart enough.. a mage with no magic seemed like a good deal no? It's the first level surely they had to understand the sacrifices would need to be made. I'm glad we all saw eye to eye" Jack said indifferently with a shrug.

Sadira bit her lip and just looked behind her. Trying to forget the screams of Reilly as the goblins dragged her away after Jack pushed her in front of them and made a hand gesture deal for passage. The trio then reached the center of the checkpoint and the torches changed from a blue tint to red. The three of them then sat down and went over the spoils they had.

.... An hour previous elsewhere.....

Teyo had be running for some distance. Almost out of breath he finally came to another large cavernous section of the level. " Phew..."

Out in the distance in front of him he saw torch light and in front of it he noticed the silhouette of Reilly stepping towards him, for a second he was about to call out to her but then noticed that behind her were three goblins, and she had her head down sobbing. Teyo turned to leave on instinct then he paused. He could hear Reilly's muffled sobbing, his heart dropped to his stomach.

He turned back. "Shit. I'm no hero..... But I'm not like them!"