First Quest

"So, What is this quest?"

"A hunting-type quest. A small village of goblins has just been in the Bloodstar Woods up north. The objective is to kill as many as possible." One of them said, looking at Daniel. "Have you got the numbers?" Daniel asked him. "No. But a group of adventurers went there before us, three of them and they have not returned yet. It's been two days since."

"Alright. Let's move. The earlier we get there the quicker we finish it." Daniel suggested before standing up from his chair. Seeing him, everyone else stood up. "Wait!" he paused and turned looked back, "We haven't got your name!" One of the girls asked him. "Neither have I."

"Call me Daniel" he said before walking out of the cafe area, followed by the other four.

The Awakening Ceremony was a two-day-long event. 'Staying there would just be a waste of time' Daniel thought to himself. He didn't want to waste his time sitting there and watching rich kids getting all excited upon learning about their magical potency.

Daniel walked out of the Guild followed by the other four. John was a Barbarian, Jack a Fighter, Maria a Healer, and Ava a Ranger.

"Has someone ever told you how good-looking you are?" John said to Daniel, wrapping his arm around his shoulder as they continued walking down the street. "Never" he replied. "Wait... what?!... Really?!" John exclaimed. "I have already told you, Glory is all you need!" Jack butted into his blabbing. "Nah, Man! If I was this good-looking, I would never have worked my entire life!"

"And how's is that?"

"I don't know... maybe... marry a rich girl or something"

"Yeah. Like any girl would marry you"

"Hey. girls are flocking over me"

"Those are female orcs, you dork"

"Yeah... but they are still girls, alright"

"Aagh... shut up"

Jack groaned a little before telling him to shut up. 'Idiots' a voice rang inside Daniel's head. Daniel chuckled a little, hearing Asmodeus say that.

Hearing them talk Daniel did not notice that he had entered the Third Ring of the city. His body froze as his past started coming back to him. He went into a stasis as images flashed before him...

The same broken-down houses, the same poverty, the same slave traders on one side of the street... keeping people locked in cages like dogs. He glanced towards them and saw a little kid riled up inside a small cage, images flashed before his eyes as he remembered himself in that cage, being sold like an object.

He remembered just after the orphanage fire how he was taken by those soldiers and sold to one of these slave traders in the Third ring. Molested and abused nearly every day by those traders, his spirit was broken. He wasn't fed, wasn't bathed, and wasn't cared at all. He wanted to go back to his family, he wanted to go back home, but he didn't have the courage, he was scared and... there was no home now, no place he could feel... safe.

"Daniel?!" "Daniel?!" "You in there?!". He came back to his senses and saw all four of them staring at him. "You alright bro?" John asked with a worried tone. "Yeah... yeah. I am just...fine" he said before asking them to continue moving.

After crossing the Third ring, they reached the North Gate. "Identification Please" the guard standing on patrol asked them. Daniel showed him his school id, after which he was allowed to exit through the gate.

"The forest is not far from here. Follow me." Jack said and started moving in a direction of a huge patch of trees. All of them entered the forest, "Now they should be in the North-West direction, so we should go... there!" he said pointing his finger towards Northwest and moving.

"Is this the right way?!" Ava asked John in a very moody way. "Yup. As far as I know-"

"Ssshhh..." he was shushed by Jack. "You hear that?"

A very delicate sound of rattling could be heard in a distance, everyone crouched and followed in that direction. After a few meters of silently moving forward, the sounds became louder and more fierce.

They all hid behind the trees and started reckoning the area. "This doesn't look like a small village to me." Ava said.

This was much more than what Daniel thought, Straw huts were lined along with each other, goblins were swarming like bees. It felt as if there was no end to them.

"Ava take the high ground. Maria stays behind. Jack and Daniel follow me. We are gonna head-on these suckers." John said before standing up and walking forward. Jack tried stopping him but there was no use, he already had gone ahead. Ava quickly climbed a tree to take the high ground and Maria kept low.

Daniel and Jack just followed John. *Stab* John stabbed the first goblin he saw right in his head. *Scream* The goblin let out a high-pitched scream before dying. Every goblin's attention was now on them.

*Snarl* All of them snarled at the loss of their kinsman, they all picked up their weapons and ran right at them.

*Slash* *Stab* *Slash* Sound of weapons clashing could be heard all along the vicinity.

*Slash* Daniel slashed two of the goblins that came at him. He kept cutting these little creatures but still they kept coming, there was no end to them.

*Swoosh* Arrows started raining down at them from above. Daniel deployed his shield for protection, John lifted up his and Jack crawled behind a huge rock near him. "FUCK!" John cursed. They were all pinned.

Just then suddenly the arrows stopped along with the hoardes and hoardes of goblins. Daniel retracted his shield and heard a loud blast of a horn.

All the goblins started beating the rear end of their weapons on the ground, as if performing a ritual. Jack and John looked at each other.

*Thud* *Thud* *Thud* *Thud*

Continuous sounds of banging were made.

Everything started to make sense when Daniel saw a huge figure appear from the forest. The banging stopped. The creature was huge, around the height of 7 feet, nearly thrice the size of a normal goblin.

"It's a HOBGOBLIN!"