'First-Aid, First-Aid, First-Aid'

Unlike the solo hobgoblin warrior that appeared after the first round of waves, these two carried two immense spears of elder root wood with broad and flat carved heads. With their Strength stats at an increased level of thirty-five those spears could probably take chunks out of even Papi's durability. Our leather armors, though, would be breached.

Running forward as everybody retreats halfway to the fire, I stop just outside the effective reach of their spears while they are both still in the tunnel. Turning sideways and leaning back after stepping forward to goad an attack, I evade the first spear to thrust forward at my chest and then have to jump back toward topside to evade the next. The first warrior to attack managed to steal a step forward to come back within range.

Crouching low and bending around at the waist to weave around under their ensuing attack, I jump straight to the side to keep them from gaining ground again even as the second warrior steps into a stab of their own. "Geist!" I call out once again while perform a 360 Edge on the warrior's spear so the uninterruptible skill would mostly protect me from damage despite having my spin shoved back a few feet.

As I hoped, a ghostly whirl appeared around the deep bites in the warrior's spear and finished breaking their NPC weapon. "Papi, Skooma, engage!" I call out while running to the other side, leaving the partially disarmed warrior open for them to rush forward at.

Both of them had the heaviest armor in the group right now which meant they could easily tank the warrior's reduced attacks. The second warrior, though, was still armed with a whole spear and was in the process of using it by repeatedly thrusting at me to keep me in motion while it gained ground outside of the tunnel. This one was smart.

[Agility raised by 1]

Papi and Skooma were taking turns defending and attacking, one blocking a direct attack for even more reduced damage while the other takes advantage. Now, though, I called out, "Go, bring the big ax and bring this bitch down! Everyone else, open f-" I started to say until I finally took a hit.

The warrior feinted, something I never expected to happen from their AI. They pretended to sweep down on the right so that I side hopped left and then met me at point B with a solid thrust of their spear. It tore right through my soft leather upper armor that was reduced to half durability at once and rearranged everything in my abdomen.

Even though I was stabbed for half the length of their wooden spearhead, the warrior was so strong that I was sent flying through the air. My body went lax and my once full health bar dropped straight down to forty percent while slowly ticking away bleeding damage. I cast First-Aid to stop the bleeding damage before I even hit the ground.

When I did hit the ground, though, I hit hard and flopped backward and to the side in and awkward somersault before coming to a stop, losing all the health I had saved with my quick healing. Go was already there by the time I landed, cleaving his big ax down on the back of one enormous ankle to bring the warrior down on the ground. Then, he just left it there, grabbed the back of the warrior's shoulders, and leaped up for a full-body strengthened knee that slammed up into the back of the warrior's big round head for five percent of its health.

I spent my entire time lying there groaning, "First-Aid, First-Aid, First-Aid," again and again through clenched teeth until the skill was refreshed and I could finally heal myself enough to get off the ground. Less than two seconds later before I was even off of the ground Cweeper had run over to help me up while using Soothing Hands. My health was almost full even before Agnes spent her heal.

The first warrior had been bullied to the ground where it had died to a shared beheading but Go seemed to have claimed the other for himself.

With one leg out of commission and a serious stun effect only just ending, Go was on top of the warrior on the ground pummeling its face with his fists for a rapid-fire chain of brutal but minimal damage critical hits that steadily drained away two and three percent of the warrior's health at a time.

By the time the warrior was well enough to throw Go aside and crawl toward the spear it had dropped, nearly half of its health was gone and its face had become unrecognizable. I think it was even suffering from a blinding debuff from the way it kept scrabbling in the dirt for its spear with one hand. Go was pissed that the warrior almost one-shot me.

Now, though, I was back on my feet and walking up to plant Blackened Fuller Haunting through the warrior's outstretched hand and into the ground to pin it in place. Go simply jumped onto the warriors back and started once again beating it about the head with his big and bony half-orc fists.

Two minutes later, both of the warriors were dead and everybody was regrouping at the entrance. "We're only doing this one wave to know what's next," I warn everybody, idly feeling the large tears in the abdomen of my armor and Traveler Top. "After this, we let Sir Beryl get some sleep!"

After my announcement, to which a soft cheer arose from the edge of the meadow, I received a combat alert and two seconds later fourteen large and small bodies appeared a little ways down the tunnel stepping out of the gloom. The third round of waves were a combined wave of one goblin and one hob per person. Essentially doubling, or worse, the difficulty.

However, after all of the sheer numbers that we had been dealing with, fighting a couple of goblins and hobs per front line fighter was almost refreshing. As soon as the last enemy in this first wave died, I raised my sword in the air and roared, "Sir Beryl!"

Sir Beryl himself appeared next to his sword standing before the entrance of the of the tunnel, saying, "Go set up your camp, Hack, it'll be a minute yet before these kids settle down for bed."

-

Half an hour later, the old knight was sprawled out on the ground near his fire snoring without a care in the world while some of us guarded the region against the goblins below. Papi, Skooma, Agnes, and Lil reached level twenty during thanks to the survival challenge and had all rushed back to Sierra to visit their class trainers for their next quests and skills. Go, Ivana, and I got to stay at the Elder Oak Passage and pick off all the goblins.

I myself was just a little passed level nineteen after the event, evening my once raised Agility stat to thirty. All of my other stats had gone up so that they were either thirty or over. As a classless, if I only gained stats with levels then all my stats would be at twenty-nine right now since I started with ten points everywhere but Luck as a human.

However, even the average person would think to work out in the game so this was nothing like an advantage. This was just the foundation for building a character with a slight advantage in base stats. Now that I had a feasible way to raise my Agility, though, my work at the Elder Oak became a little different.

Instead of killing off the goblins for experience I would instead beat one up and throw it off to the side before throwing a Hardened Hickory Bokuto in front of it. Naturally, the goblin's AI would equip itself with the best weapon available to it. I, though, remained unarmed and simply practiced at evading the wild and uncoordinated attacks of the goblin. After a few minutes of this agility training, though, the goblin would tire out and I would kill it to move on to the next.

Luckily, the Bokuto that I had made did not disappear with the goblins or I would have to start giving them other weapons.

Raising my Agility like this took longer than I thought it would, costing me three goblins before I got the first point. So, after wasting half of the night only gaining two points of Agility while Sir Beryl slept I joined the others in simply killing the goblins. As a half-orc, though, Agility was Go's lowest physical stat and he soon began copying my method of training.

By the time the sun had reached high enough to start shining under the branches of the Elder Oak, Sir Beryl awoke naturally with an enormous echoing yawn and stretch of his arms. Standing up and walking to his eternal campfire to start preparing a breakfast for himself, Sir Beryl tiredly calls out, "Alright, kids, you can all run along, now. Ah, Hack, I have not slept that well in months!"

[You have increased your reputation with Sir Beryl. Current Affinity: 69%. +3% positive affinity]

"Do you need anything else besides some letters delivered?" I ask curiously while gesturing for my friends to get the camp cleaned up. "We'll be gone for a little while after this, but we can bring you something back from Sierra afterward before we get busy on new gear and supplies."

"No, those letters will handle everything I need for a while as well as help your new family," Sir Beryl says before looking away as if something occurred to him. Then, placing one hand on my shoulder, Sir Beryl says, "If you choose to serve Ms. Lana and help them raise a new noble family, they might tell you what to do but you will still eat, breathe, and live their bloodline as if it were your own. Do you believe in fate?"

"To an extent I believe that there ARE things meant to happen but only if one can achieve them," I reply before I can really think about it.

Nodding his head, the old knight smiles in satisfaction and says, "From how well you push yourself and your people, I hoped you believed in a higher power or capability. I am personally inclined to believe that you and I met for a reason, now. From one man to another… please, help Ms. Lana Delai and Lady Mara. I know you won't disappoint me even if it cost you life or limb."

"I was going to say yes after I had gotten my party together and ready," I inform him with a small smile. "No matter who that person is, this is a big job for just one person. I have a group of reliable people you'll be seeing in action soon enough and I am always on the hunt for more good people. But, no, I won't let you down. You have my word as a man, Sir Beryl."

"Beryl is fine when it's just our circles," Sir Beryl assures before settling down to eat his foods as he cooked it, moving forward as if the previous conversation never happened.

[You have increased your reputation with Sir Beryl. Current Affinity: 78%. +9% positive affinity]

Taking that as the end of our conversation, I hesitate to use the old knight's name so soon and simply bow like I had done with Lady Mara before turning to help my friends pick up our camp. While writing out some brief messages to the party members reporting my new progress and decisions with Sir Beryl and my quest series.

Once everybody was back in Sierra we split up to go to our respective locations before logging out for the end of our 'day' shifts.

*