It took a little time to pull the little goblin from the wheel, mostly because Pete was attempting to do so without causing further injury to the figure. Sam had given him one of her spare medkits, seeing as he’d blown through his own supply, but before he could apply the life-giving healing, he needed to free Craig from his torture.

  “He’s unconscious,” Coop reasoned. “And you’re not making it any better by dicking around like that. Just rip the Band-Aid off and hit him with a medkit.”

  Pete looked down at the little green wrist lying beneath him. He’d managed to pull Craig’s hand halfway off the metal spike that pinned him to the wheel, but the spike was thicker at the end and had a head, like a giant nail, so Pete had only made the wound worse by trying to ease the goblin’s pain.

  He shook his head, moving back a little. “Nero, if he has real bad damage to his arms—like big holes in them—will a common medkit heal that, or is he gonna be walking around with holes in his wrists from now on?”

  [Nero] A common medkit can heal anything short of a severed limb. In the case of a limb that has been entirely disconnected from the body, that part which remains will be healed, but the limb will not reattach or grow back. In this instance, it is almost certain that the goblin’s body will fully recover, provided you do not accidentally sever one of his arms or legs.

  “Alright then,” Pete said, grimacing as he grabbed Craig’s wrist. “Let’s hope you’re right.”

  He yanked the wrist free, and a spray of green blood spattered across his shirt as Pete moved quickly to the second wrist. Now that he’d decided to get this done quickly, he intended to move as swiftly as possible, especially considering the amount of blood Craig would be losing and the injuries he’d already sustained.

  The little goblin shuddered and gave a sharp cry when Pete pulled his last leg free with a resounding crack of bone, but Craig didn’t open his eyes and still remained unconscious. Without missing a beat, Pete pulled the medkit out of his inventory, slammed it against the little goblin’s chest, and pressed the button, engaging the healing magic.

  Light shone from Craig’s diminutive frame as his back arched and his arms and legs shot out to the sides. He opened his eyes, drawing in a sharp breath; vitality returned to him in a rush. The holes in his arms and legs healed over, swirls of golden light surrounding his wrists and ankles as the medkit completed its work.

  The little goblin blinked, looking left and right and finally focusing on Pete and Coop as he stared up at them, his mind still clearly somewhere else.

  “Orgies?” he muttered, blinking away the fog of unconsciousness.

  “Not on your life!” Coop said.

  The little goblin turned to face her, flinching and backing away in confusion and fear. “I…I didn’t…” He coughed, catching sight of his newly healed arm as he did so and turning his hand over as though struck by the impossible healing that had taken place.

  He looked over at Pete, the little goblin screwing up his face in confusion.

  “What… What’s going on?” He pointed a finger at Pete. “You’re the contestant! The one that killed those hobgoblins back at…”

  Pete nodded. “Yeah. Killed a bunch more since then too.”

  The little goblin patted his chest, then started flexing his fingers as though checking that everything was in place as it should be. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and surveyed the scene around them.

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  Craig looked over at the large wheel lying on one side, the metal spikes still jutting up out of the wood, covered in his blood. Blood was also smeared down the front of the wooden wheel, running in vertical lines from where his hands and ankles had been. He squinted, rubbing the wrist of his right hand with his left as he considered those bloodstains.

  Realization began to dawn as he slowly turned back to Pete, eyes wide and his vision beginning to clear.

  “You saved me.”

  Pete motioned to Coop. “We both did.” He pointed over his shoulder at Sam, who was busy looting goblin corpses a short distance away with Wolfy standing by her side, tail wagging. “They helped too.”

  Craig looked over at Sam and the hellhound, nodding but frowning as though he was still trying to come to terms with the fact. He turned back to Pete, reaching up to feel the nub where his left ear used to be. The little goblin stayed like that for a few moments, staring out at the carnage that surrounded them, rubbing a finger over the healed skin of his left ear stump.

  He shook his head, staring out at the corpses littering the area.

  “I didn’t understand,” he said, eyes glazing over. “I mean, I knew that they were given some kind of special treatment by the System, but I had no idea. If I’d known, I would have stuck with them a little longer. At least until I figured out a safer way to get out.”

  Pete frowned. “You’re gonna have to take it back a few steps there, bud. I’m only following about a third of what you’re saying.”

  Coop snorted. “I’m closer to five percent.”

  The little goblin nodded, his vision coming back into focus as he turned back to Pete. “The Pious Path of the Penniless Penitents. I was working in the Penny Mines on Artemis Prime, paying off my family debt when one of the robed bastards walked up and gave me a pamphlet. He said that they were recruiting candidates for the next season of the game, said that he could get me in if I was interested. He said I wouldn’t be joining as one of the plebs either, but as a Proselytizer, with all kinds of perks.”

  Craig shook his head. “I was desperate. So bored working in the mines every day with no hope of anything changing. You have no idea what it’s like laboring under a crushing family debt that will only get bigger and bigger no matter how hard you work or how much discretionary effort you put in.”

  Pete frowned down at the little goblin, watching as tears began to flow down Craig’s cheeks. Coop squirmed uncomfortably at his side, clearly ill at ease with the sudden display of emotion.

  “That’s how it is in the Dominion,” Craig went on, staring down at his newly healed hands. “When you’re born into debt, that’s just what life is like. Once a family falls into the red, there’s no coming back. Belch makes sure of that. You work harder and harder, beg, borrow, and steal wherever you can, but it never makes a dent in the family debt. The most you can hope for is to slow the decline a little.”

  He nodded to himself, wiping the tears from his cheeks. “The family has more kids, hoping that more labor will help make a difference, but the Belch Corporation taxes so heavily for each new child that it takes a good thirty years for each child to clear the debt of their own existence. Only once that’s done can they start working on the family debt, but life in the mines is hard and many don’t survive their first thirty years.”

  He twirled a finger in a circle.

  “On and on it goes. More children are born, sent to the mines, and for every one that dies, the debt increases. The only way to lessen the debt is to have more workers, so the family tries to have more children. And so it goes, digging deeper and deeper into a pit no one can crawl out of.”

  Craig looked up at Pete again.

  “I was offered a chance to be free of that misery, so I took it. I was promised wealth beyond my capacity to imagine, a chance to clear my family debt and…” He shook his head. “Lies. All lies.”

  Sam came walking over, hefting one of the strange clubs she’d liberated from a Dice Baron. She dropped the item down in front of Pete, nodding to him. “I think this is from one of your kills. I’m not sure, but I figure just in case you should pick it up.”

  Wolfy was trotting along beside her, its crazy demonic eyes swirling as it panted contentedly. She reached down and patted the wolf while Craig’s eyes grew wide and he started to back away a little.

  Sam looked down at the wolf. “Don’t mind him. He won’t hurt you unless I tell him to.”

  Craig seemed less than convinced, but he unclenched a little as Sam went on.

  “What’s going on here, anyway? You obviously saved him.”

  Pete nodded. “Craig here was telling us how he got involved in all of this. Turns out there’s much more to the story with these Penitent Path folks.”

  Sam clapped her hands together, suddenly animated. “I love a good story. No need to stop on my account.”

  The goblin nodded uncertainly and continued.

  “His name was Grelic Strom, and he was a bastard liar…”