Goblins

"You're finally here chief! Welcome!" Her voice was sweet and pleasing to the ear. And seeing her cute and beautiful face so up close, he could not help but blush.

"Let us get to business quickly!" The lady said excitedly. Then, keeping a hand to her bosom, she held up the hem of her dress and did a curt bow. "My name is Elda. I am the head of the villagers and your personal assistant!"

Elda reached into her bag and pulled out a thick leather notebook accompanied by a quill. Without haste, she opened it up and looked at him expectantly.

"How would you be known in our history?" She asked.

The man was surprised but he broke out of his reverie. Clearing his throat, he spoke, "Ethan Steele." He said.

Elda wrote it down and closed the notebook with a satisfying pop.

Then she motioned over to the village.

"Come! Let me give y-"

Before she could continue her speech, a rambunctious laughter sounded in their ears. Ethan's eyes widened a bit, knowing the cause of this.

Goblins! He thought grimly, looking towards the source of the sound. He remembered the tutorial every Clash player had to follow. It was the goblins that would attack the village to get their gold and a cannon was the solution. After which, some wizards from the 'Ivory Tower' would show up to help.

And sure enough, as the laughter ceased, out came a humanoid creature from the far treeline. How his voice had managed to get so far eluded him.

The green humanoid was short and stout, almost blending in with the vegetation. His teeth were crooked like a vampire bat with eyes that were yellow and bulging as if any moment they would pop out of his sockets and roll to the ground. Snot and saliva covered his chin and he had pointed ears and a pointed nose. Around his neck was a skull helmet, and atop his head was a red mark.

His groin and legs were covered by leather pants and his feet were covered by leather boots. And finally, in his hands rested a stone mace.

The goblin laughted again as more eyes lit up in the darkened trees behind him.

"A new village so close to our home? Guahahaha! The gold is ours!" The goblin bellowed throwing saliva and snot on the grass below.

Ethan reeled back in digust. But that emotion didn't last long before it was interrupted by Elda.

"Chief! It's the goblins! Quick, we must build a canon to protect ourselves!" She exclaimed.

Having already experienced this in the game didn't make it any easier for Ethan, for in the distance, he saw 4 goblins leap out of the trees and onto the sod. Their speed and finesse made him doubt his eyes.

This is crazy! Ethan exclaimed silently. But without wasting a single second, he hurriedly opened the shop and went into the defenses tab. His finger expertly tapped onto the cannon and placed it right before the gold mine, right in the way to intercept the goblins.

While this was happening, he noticed Elda rummaging through her bag and take out a notebook. "We must hurry chief! Here! Let us build a cannon!" She extended the book to him which displayed the same shop Manu as it did in game.

"Tap whatever you want to build and point to the place on the field you want it to be!" She said, getting a little too close for comfort.

"I've already built it!" Ethan pointed behind her, to the cannon that had the builder working on it.

It was strange how the builder had immediately sensed that a building was in progress and rushed straight out of his shack.

But there was no time to contemplate about it. As the 10 seconds of the first level cannon ended, a green hue emanated from the building and a fully formed cannon appeared. The hole of the cannon was as large as Ethan's torso. Even though it was a level one, Ethan did not think any human could survive a shot from that.

At that point, the Goblins had already reached the village. Instantly, Elda reached for his hand and pulled him with her, right to the town hall. Ethan noticed the builder running to his shack in a panic, even dropping his hammer momentarily before going right back and picking it up.

And as they descended into the town hall and closed the doors behind them, Ethan immediately noticed the various villager woman that were standing inside. They all collectively turned to look at him, all in pure elation and excitement.

"It's the chief!"

"The chief is finally here!"

"Our village will prosper!" Were the comments thrown all about the room as they all ran towards him.

Is... is this heaven? Ethan thought, standing in shock yet again.

However, before he could be embraced by the villagers, Elda stood before him and stopped them all with a glare.

"Everyone stop! We are currently under attack by Goblins!"

Instantly, a wave of shock and foreboding travelled through the dozens of villager women in the hall. And with that, a large sound of an explosive shot rang out from outside.

Boom!

It was a shot from the cannon.

Hearing that, Ethan opened up the holographic screen, seeing the cannon getting attacked by the goblins.

What followed were various other shots for the next 15 seconds, killing the goblins and leaving 4 gravestone in their place.

As the voices ceased, unrest amongst the villagers calmed down and Elda opened the doors to peer outside.

After which she nodded the others.

Without warning, Ethan was instantly squashed under a mountain of bodies. The villagers all swarmed around him, wrapping their arms around his figure and squeezing him. Dozens of them all at the same time.

This... this is heaven...

The villagers collectively cheered and let him go.

After which Elda was the first one to speak.

"That was great chief! But we must show those goblins the consequences of their actions!" She yelled. The surrounding villagers also expressed their agreement, all of them exclaiming at the same time.

"Okay... how do we do that?"

"Why of course, we build a Barracks!" Elda exclaimed and flexed her left bicep.

Then, she ran up to him and opened up the same book. She flipped some pages and pushed the book towards him.

"The Barracks will allow us to train troops for attacks! For a level 1 Barracks, you can train Barbarians which are more than enough to deal with those pesky goblins!"

Ethan stopped for a second, before he pursed his lips thoughtfully.

"Is there a place called the Ivory Tower nearby?" He asked with intrigue.

Elda tilted her head and pinched her chin in puzzlement.

"Ivory Tower? I've heard of it, yes. It lies somewhere south-west from here towards the far edges of the ocean. It is inhabited by Wizards who extensively devout themselves to magical research. But they're really rude and brutish in their ways. They are hostile to everyone that ventures too close."

Ethan nodded in acknowledgement.

He had thought the entire sequence would be the same as the tutorial, but it seemed not so. The Ivory Tower as he remembered in game was something that was only mentioned once and never again. In the tutorial, the Wizards from the Ivory Tower would send 5 of their ranks to help the newly formed village. But here, it seemed that it was nowhere close to the village and the Wizards there were infamous for being rude and hostile.

Elda gazed at him expectantly, "Why do you ask Chief? Have you been there?!"

Ethan shook his head and decided to focus on the task at hand. He would make sense of everything later when he had dealt with the "tutorial" of the game turned reality.

He tapped the inky picture of the barracks that seemed to be handmade and the pages magical turned to display a large clearing. It was the same overhead view of the village. Only this one was on slightly yellowish paper and was embossed in ink.

Without too much thought, Ethan placed the barracks beside the army camp.

Elda took the book from him and opened up the door to the Town Hall.

The villagers and Ethan walked out and watched as the builder rushed out of his small hut and built the entire Barracks in a couple of seconds!

A couple of swings from the smiling man's hammer had already done the job! The Elixir and some gold coins mingled in the air, transforming into the iron and wood needed for the building. And as the Barracks was built, he was bombarded with a notification, both on the screen and from Elda.

"Now that the Barracks is done, you can personally train some Barbarians! More types of troops will be unlocked as you progress through the Barracks' levels!" Elda exclaimed happily. Her excitement was palpable and made Ethan smile, even though he was falling a bit behind in the entire situation.

"How do I train the troops?" He asked, feeling curious about the way the troops would be trained.

"You can either ask me and I'll provide you with the corresponding book page. Or you can personally go to the barracks and get the troops."

Nodding in acknowledgement, Ethan walked over to the Barracks with Elda.

"Let's see." Observing the large building that was 10 feet tall and the same distance across on each side, Ethan looked inside and found a cauldron.

The cauldron was stirring and under it were bottles of Elixir.

"Elixir?"

"Elixir is used to kickstart the troop training." She said.

"Kickstart? It doesn't fuel it?"

This was something that had always bugged him about the game logic. In the later stages of the Clash update, the troops had been made free to train. He wasn't too satisfied with the change but was nonetheless happy about it since he didn't have to spend half of his Elixir storages every time he wanted to attempt an attack, but there was also the fact that it just made sense for the troops to be born out of Elixir and for the resource to fuel their training.

Elda's eyes widened in surprise as she smiled toothily.

"You know a lot chief! Yes, that would be the case. Elixir is the magical energy of the world coalesced into a liquid form. It forms the basis of all life and new life can arise easily from it." Elda crossed her arms below her bosom and nodded sagely. "But our village is interesting! Because it is situated above a leyline, the magical density here is far far higher than other areas! In such a case, even if a single drop of Elixir is left, as long as it is used as a catalyst, the magical energy in the air will undergo a chain reaction! It will instead use itself as the fuel, with only a single drop of Elixir being used!"

There... feels like a lot of loopholes in that explanation... Ethan wasn't fully convinced by the explanation but magic was foreign to him in the first place. There was nothing he could understand by simply comparing his own knowledge to it.

Magic, as he had always understood it, was beyond the limitations of understanding. At least it was so in the real world. It was the reason it didn't exist too.

Anything that happened in the world could inherently be understood. But was that the case here?

Maybe I'll ask a wizard someday...

Ethan shook his head clear of the wandering thoughts and focused on the task.

The cauldron before him, it was large. Almost taking up the entire structure.

"How do I operate this?"

"Just say the name of the troop followed by the number." Elda replied.

"And what's the troop capacity for the army camp?"

"20 right now."

Ethan turned back to the Barracks and cleared his throat.

"I need Barbarians. 20 in number."

The cauldron stirred with magical dust, flashing a hundred different colours at once and began to stir rapidly.

The Elixir below the cauldron decreased a bit and in the space inside the cauldron, a magical shimmer began to glint incessantly!

Before long, out from the magical glow appeared a gigantic hulking man with yellow hair and a yellow beard; holding a sword in hand!

His entire upper body was naked, revealing a giant torso that was rippling with muscles and there were little garments he wore under. In the eyes of the man was such a barbaric rage that Ethan felt he might jump upon him and split his head open with the large steel sword he carrier!

A Barbarian!

A Barbarian had successfully been trained!

~~~