My hammer struck down at the Spear Wielding Knight. As it broke through his armor a flash of light and I knew I had awakened.
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[Training Granted]
You have been granted Insight by your class.
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I appeared to be the only person receiving these visions, which were called insights. Not that I was complaining, the opposite, really. The training didn't come with any new skills or the like but it was helpful. Also, it is really neat I not dying as many times.
As I began to sit up, rubbing my eyes I adjusted to being awake. As I their really taking in the changes that have occurred over the past 5 to 6 days of my life. I had nearly died several times, and my family home is in ashes, I was living with Old Man Welton. All the electronics I had grown up with were toast. I had killed three goblin invaders from another world and had a magical pocket watch.
I got out of bed and walked down to the first floor, where there were no longer any patients. All those that had been injured had been healed.
Soon I entered the front yard where Mrs. Smith was preparing porridge for the group. Mr. Smith was doing touch-ups on the wall and the Old Man was tuning his fiddle.
"Hey, Kien, can you come here for a Moment?" the Old Man asked, waving to me.
"Hey, sure, Old Man, what do you need?" I responded. Walking over to him and sat in a nearby chair.
"Just wanted to check up on you; from what I had heard and the way you looked, you nearly beat me to the Finishing Line," he said, and whilst his voice was jovial, his eyes bore the brunt of the worry.
"I'm okay; I got patched up by the system, remember?" I said to him but he just shook his head.
"I know that; what I'm talking about is up here, he said," tapping his finger on his temple before continuing.
"I've seen men's bodies survive, but their mind, their mind breaks, and poof, their mind ain't the same," he said morosely. I nodded along, but I didn't understand fully, at least; it was painful. Sure, I felt my organ liquidate, but it was temporary; I knew there was going to be an end.
"I'm okay there two. I did what I had to, and to make sure that the others survived too," I responded. The Old Man didn't seem certain but he let it slide as Breakfast was announced by Mrs. Smith. We ate, and as we did so, two scouts returned from a mission, they spoke low tones with Mr. Johnson. Something had changed; from the looks on the scouts, it wasn't good.
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[Update]
A detachment of [Goblin Warriors] have been despatched by a Warring Faction and are marching towards your home base. As the designated champion you are henceforth granted a Quest [Champion's Duty].
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[Quest Activated]
-[Champion's Duty]
You have been charged with defeating the enemy champion who is a Peak-Rank One Level 9 [Elite Goblin Warrior]. This is considered a regional defining moment and [Heraculean Task].
Rewards: ???
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Well, shit, a level 9. If they got as many stats as we did when we level up, then that means he would have 8 stats points, maybe more, maybe less. Locking eyes with Mr. Johnson and then Mr. Welton we nodded and first Mr. Welton entered the Manor, then me, as I began to walk up the stairs to the third floor, I began to worry, I had nearly died from a level five and now I had to fight a level 9 no fucking wonder it was considered a [Heraculean Task]. Eventually, I entered the sitting room on the third floor. Me and Old Man waited in silence until finally Mr. Johnson walked into the room and closed the door behind him.
"So I'm assuming you also got a [Heraculean Task] Quest?" I asked breaking through silence.
"Yep, there's ten of the [Goblin Warriors] marching here right now." Mr. Johnson responded he looked understandably worried by the news.
"My Notification says that Goblins are holed up in the Mammoth caves," Mr. Welton said; probably the only good news was that we now knew where they were. However, that meant two things for me personally, one, my dad was dead or captured, and I couldn't place which one was worse.
"Hey, kiddo, you're Dad's going to be fine. He's made out of Piss and vinegar," the Old Man said, trying to reassure me.
"I have an Idea," Mr. Johnson said.
"Guerrilla Tactics, Right?" Mr. Welton responded.
"Yeah, how did you know?" Mr Johnson responded sheepishly.
"Vietnam Veteran here remember, and I got to hand to you. If we do it right, we could whittle away their numbers before they even get here," he said. Honestly, we had found a few canisters of fuel and fire, so if we burnt them before they even got here, picking off even one would be great.
"We begin by laying traps; there's enough wreckage out in the streets that we can easily hide tripwires and other triggers tied to canisters of gas," Mr. Johnson said. It probably won't kill my enemy for me, but as mentioned earlier, any damage to them was priceless.
"Should I stay here and defend the Manor?" I asked them. The Old Man and Mr. Johnson locked eyes with each and then the Old Man replied.
"No, as you are right now, you would die brutally against their Champion; however, their home base is weak," Mr. Johnson said slowly before continuing.
"However my notification told me the number of warriors they had, they number 15, with these ten, marching here slowly, if you run to their base and cause enough havoc you may be able to draw them back, or depending on how strong their guards are you could possibly kill their Leader and double back catching them in the rear" he explained to me a very very risky move. However, the truth was that when you're the outgunned force, you have to take risks, and with my two agility making me faster than any human ali,ve, I could possibly kill all five of their guards using my advanced knowledge of the Caves, which I spent a significant amount of time in during my childhood. I didn't like it, and I knew that the Old Man hated it, but it was the only option that gave us a shot against a literal Herculean Task.
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[Quest Update]
You and your fellow leadership have concoted a plan to take out the invading Faction by attacking their base, with you as the sole fighter tasked with this mission. This is still considered a [Herculean Task] your target has Shifted from a Level 9 [Elite Goblin Warrior] to a Half step Rank Two [Goblin Chief].
Target: Level 10 [Goblin Chief]
Sub-Target: Goblin Guards(0/5)
Sub-Target Rewards: 1 Level Up
Main Rewards: ???
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Soon enough I was gearing up for battle once again, while Mr. Johnson told the scouts the plan. They began to prepare the design for the traps making sure all went off without a Hitch.
My task was still dangerous, and I didn't know what Half step Rank Two meant but I had a possible goal, kill the Guards which hopefully give me enough XP to kill the Champion or the Chief. No matter what the Clock was ticking I had about 4 hours before the Goblins arrived here if they didn't have delays and about 5 including delays which included traps distractions and interference. My send off was a heartfelt one.
"Come back to me kid, okay?" Old Man Welton said to me.
"I will okay? You guys do your part and survive" I said firmly. A few others including Ryan and Conner the kid I had saved yesterday, Mrs & Mr Smith, and The rest of the Johnson family too. Mrs. Gonzalez who i wasn't particularly close with also came up to me.
"You come back okay let my Husband be the only man who has to die to these foul beasts, okay?" The grieving Widow said to me.
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Then I ran at a steady pace my enhanced body caring me leaps and bounds faster than I could just a week before. I weaved along the path taking shortcuts and like as I was on a heavy time crunch.
Roughly an Hour and I reached the local dinosaur themed amusement park. Poking my head in I saw what I thought was a moving statue of one of the dinosaurs, a long feathery creature standing on two legs, looking eerily familiar it had a small tag right above it's head.
[Evolved Emu, Level: 4]
Welp, I guess I know what happened to people at the Zoo right outside of the City. I needed the XP and I was running ahead of Schedule about little more than halfway to Caves from here.
Readying my Bat I got as close as possible to the creature that was rifling through a concession stand. Raising my bat above my head I lunged at the Creature, it dodged barely in time. Twisting my body I dodged the retaliatory attack. Smacking it in the face its tail swept me by nocking the area behind my knee. Then it descended onto my leg biting it, through the pain I smiled as the creature unknowingly poisoned itself and unlike the Goblin I did not carry a Antidote on my person.
As it let go my leg in shock as It felt its self get poisoned by my blood I lunged and struck it across the face again before backing off making sure to keep my distance between men and the soon to be dead creature. It tried to get me several times but my training from the night before kicked in and I manged to keep it back from me. Until finally It collapsed dead, from the posion. I waited to near the creature until a system notification appeared.
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[Level Up]
You have Leveled up once due to killing a level 4 [Evolved Emu]. One Stat awaits to be allocated.
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I looked over my stats once more and decided to raise my Regeneration and strength by half a point each. This time it was less painful and regeneration leveling up alleviated my bite injury a bit.
I however didn't have much more time to spend resting and quickly I wrapped my bite in anti Bacterial and bandages. Then is as back on the Road again and in another hour I was at the entrance to the National Park. The trees around the destroyed ranger station seemed to have burnt down however it wasn't the dry season so only a few burnt down.
I could see blood tracks leading up a hiking trail, and soon I hiked up a nearby and lesser known trail that ran adjacent to the the trail though out of view. It was through one of the blocked off entrances to the Caves that I heard echoes of the crude goblin language. Slowly maneuvering around the fence that said do not enter, I crept in.
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[Quest Update]
The Goblins have learned of your traps after having lost two of their men. Undeterred they now stand in siege of your Base.
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Well fuck at least they didn't try and break into the Manor. Though it sped up my timeline quiet a bit as I moved through the caves creeping into the Goblins base