22 Footsteps

"Status"

____________________________________________

Status:

Name: Mennok

Race: Ghoul

Gender: Male

Level: 17

Attributes:

Strength: 25

Vitality:22

Agility:23

Intellect:23

Will:25

Stats:

Health: 300(+100)

Mana:200(+25)

Stamina: 325(+50)

Skills:<Mental Resistance III> <Appraisal> <Grapple> <Stealth II> <Durable Body I> <Iron Fists I> <Dagger Mastery II>

Racial Ability: <???>

Achievements: (Dungeon Escapee) (Kinslayer)

Attribute points: 0

Items:

(+50 Health, Basic Self Repair)

(+25 mana)

(+50 Health, Basic Self Repair)

(+50 stamina, Basic Self Repair)

___________________________________________

[Evolution complete. You are now a Ghoul.]

[ Racial Ability unlocked under certain circumstances.]

[Level up]

[ Integumentary system unlocked]

The onslaught of messages woke Mennok from his slumber. He immediately noticed that he felt something weird covering his muscles. He rolled up his left sleeve, finding out he had a new layer of something. It looked similar to what Jenny had, yet incredibly pale and quite patchy and incomplete. He also had weird shell like layers covering his fingers now, wide at the start but curving inward to end at a sharp point which resembled the nails of the imps he had killed before. Without even noticing his status had also appeared right after. Surely enough, he was no longer a muscular skeleton, but now a Ghoul. A level 17 one at that. Weird. Despite killing many creatures after reaching the evolution requirement his level had only increased by 2. He had expected more but was clearly wrong.

Could it be that earning levels gets harder and harder? He would have to ask Jenny when she was awake. Speaking of Jenny, he had to go check on her immediately. He didn't know how long he had been asleep for, so god knows what happened during that time. He quickly untied himself from the branch, noticing that it was slightly swaying now under his increased weight. Despite the increased weight he climbed down quicker than ever before and landed on the hard ground with a thud, leaving footprints on the soil. What scared him was that his was not the only set of footprints near the tree.

Dozens of varying sizes of footprints littered the ground, majority small, some large and one elongated. Mennok turned around and ran towards the hole in the tree while taking out his sword, walking over the already trampled bushes he had set up before. To his dismay, his human friend was gone. Without delay he left the hole and began sweeping the bushes with his arms, hoping that despite her being unable to move she would have somehow been able to hide from whatever things came here. After sweeping through the entire area surrounding the hollow tree he confirmed that she was indeed taken. Anger began building up inside of him and the drive to kill whoever took his only friend burned strongly.

Through his anger something had appeared at the back of his mind, weak but there, something that beckoned him to unleash his wrath upon the things that took his friend. Mennok was tempted to do so, but then remembered that if he was to have even the slightest chance of finding his friend, he would need to be calm and collected. After a little effort he managed to push the urge to the back of his mind. After making sure that nothing was nearby Mennok walked towards the closest footprint and knelt down. From the shape and depth of the footprint Mennok could tell that this creature had to be small and light, immediately ruling out Harpies as an option.

Whatever this thing was, it had to be a Goblin or something similar in size. He moved on to the larger footprint and inspected it, noticing that it was pretty much the same shape as the last one but slightly larger and heavier by the looks of it. Their shape and size reminded him of the time when he had been looking at the footsteps of the Hobgoblin in order to safely pass the slightly obvious traps. The fact there was more than one set of Hobgoblin footprints worried him into thinking that this scene was surprisingly organized and coordinated, so he moved on to the final footprints which he assumed to belong to the leader of this group. It had the same depth of the smallest footprints yet was more elongated. This thing either has to be something of a different race or of a goblin evolution he isn't aware of. Wherever these tracks would take him, he would have to be cautious upon his arrival. For now he would have to pick up the pace.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jenny awoke to the sudden shriek of women nearby. She was in a 6 by 5 meter wooden cage coupled with a large group of women cowering at the back of the cage. She wondered how she was in this situation and why the women were whimpering when a green creature opened the cage door. The sudden appearance of this weird creature activated her adventurer instinct to try and keep a safe distance so she attempted to back away when she was stopped by strong rope. She hadn't realized up until now that she was tied to a chair, making her vulnerable to this dangerous thing. After further inspection of the creature she noticed that the creature was in fact a goblin from the bestiary that she had learnt from back when she was a new adventurer. Either she stared too hard to notice or the goblin had read her mind, because it suddenly started approaching her with a salivating mouth. In a desperate attempt to flee Jenny toppled the chair over, only to be struck by the pain of her injuries that had yet to recover. She grunted in pain, something that the goblin apparently enjoyed by the widening smile on its face.

The goblin was approaching step by step and got so close to the point that she could smell its rank breath when she heard a shriek from behind the goblin which prompted it to turn around in terror. The source of the shriek was a large hobgoblin holding a wooden club.

"Toko rak! Diki ro tah ma rak! (Stupid! Chieftain say leave hurt female!)

The Hobgoblin approached its smaller and weaker counterpart, anger clear in its eyes. The smaller Goblins previous smile turned into a look of fear which was followed by it lying down in a fetal position in an attempt to be spared by one of the higher ups. Unfortunately for this Goblin, its life was soon to end, as the larger Hobgoblin lifted its club and slammed it on the Goblins skull, snuffing out the light in its eyes. The Hobgoblin then turned around nonchalantly like nothing had happened and then motioned for two wandering goblins to clear up the mess. Soon the lifeless body was dragged outside and the door closed, leaving Jenny and the other Women by themselves. They all sighed in relief, now stepping away from the corner of the cage yet still spooked. Jenny wanted to desperately get out of the chair so she tried to call over one of the women.

"Hey you, can you please untie this rope?" she beckoned to the closest woman. The woman turned around and walked over slowly, eyeing her surroundings to make sure that no one was watching.

"I-I'm sorry, I would but I cant. Even if I had the strength to do it, i cant. All of us aren't being fed properly so that we don't have the strength to escape, I'm not supposed to even be talking with you right now." The woman quickly hurried away before Jenny was able to continue talking to her. She tried to call to the next woman, only to notice that she was unmoving and her eyes looked hollow.

"If you're wondering what happened to her, she was one of the few women who managed to survive the encounter with the chieftain." said a woman kneeling on the left side of the cage. She was the only one here who looked completely unfazed, something that invoked curiosity within Jenny.

"Why aren't you scared?" she said. The woman snorted at her words.

"Scared? I've seen worse. I'm a bandit, this is nothing compared to what i have been through. I saw my family die in front of me, I've been raped and taken advantage of many times, betrayed by people who I thought were friends. You might wonder, despite my defying attitude, how am I still here? The only reason I haven't been taken out to be the chieftains plaything is because he doesn't like playing with things that aren't scared of him."

To be continued

Rate this book