Lance looked at his party members and then counted the goblins. The worst thing he could see as an obstacle for them was that each goblin held a torch. He had the idea to just kill off a few and let the timer run out. But noticing the group and realizing the number he felt stupid. As he stared at them Lance noticed that again a hierarchy seemed to take shape. One elderly goblin garbed in full bat leathers with a small sword seemed to be barking orders. Lance tried to listen but they were just beyond his hearing to understand anything clearly.

  A moment later four of them including the elder goblin head off down the path the group came from. The others stood there at the entrance to the hallway now delegating to the tallest and most equipped of the remaining. One of the goblins began to jump and wave his hand as if a child in a classroom. A second later the commanding goblin smacked his head and swiped away something from him. He then turned away and began down the path towards the group. Lance simply whispered to them " Eyes up, I'll get him, be ready."

  The goblin garbed in a small loin cloth and toad skin shoes ran down the path happily. He had been woken up by the group and really had to pee. He was finally able to go, "To the poo corner!" he said to himself smiling. He slowed down almost to its end. He pulled aside his loin cloth and grabbed a hold of his weiner and began to pee, sighing in relief. A second later he heard a large thud behind him. He turned around mid pee, and held his torch up. Standing in front of him was a tall brown leathered figure, the glow of the torch raised to show the face of a burlap sac, inside the dark eyeholes two red glaring eyes stared back at him. The goblins pee hitting the boot of the tall figure continued. The two stared at each other momentarily, and a loud gulp was heard from the little goblin. His little heart sank into his stomach. Lance bent over him slightly, " Call. Friends" he said in the roughest of goblin tongue he could muster. The goblin language being a boon he could now use, albeit barely.

  " Hehe.. Aahhhhhhhhh!" The goblin screamed like a little girl, after a second Lance thrust his spear in its gaping mouth.

  " Good enough." he said as he pulled out his spear, holding the goblin by its small tuft of hair. He then threw it backwards onto the path in front of the rocks of his two companions. He stepped on the torch sinking it into the moist soil here, extinguishing it. He jumped back up onto the stones above, the sound of scurrying feet behind him.

  The trio of goblins arrived on the scene to see the goblin laying with its mouth agape on the ground in a puddle of blood. The goblin in charge began sniffing the air a moment later he pulled out a small whistle and brought it to his lips. A shimmering glint of torchlight reflected upon the small pathway as the goblin then dropped its hands and slumped to the floor. A sword tip stuck into the side of its head retracted and a figure stood above the small side of stone.

  Lance dropped from the ceiling again, this time thrusting outward, throwing his spear directly into the chest of a goblin. The last goblin stood there cowering its head on a swivel looking at the two assailants. A second later it felt a cold trickle running down its leg and looked down. A stone dagger tip through its chest from its rear. It turned around and looked at Reilly. She stood there eyes cold with a bit of hate in them. The goblin fell over and died a second later. Valora dropped down from the rock. She turned away from the group and began to vomit. The three of them looked at her and then back to the goblins.

  " 15 minutes left already. We need to harvest and move. Finish the level? or do it again?" Lance said, already cutting pieces from the goblins.

  " Finish the level? we haven't even found a checkpoint?” Courage said, now wiping the blade off on a goblin. He sheathed it and picked up its small whistle examining it.

  " The end. Is down that tunnel. Probably one more goblin, probably a big one. But the door to level two. It's there." Lance said, now working on the third goblin. Only grabbing the ears, tongues, and gems.

  Courage shook his head dejectedly. " Ya know, I thought it was you... Now I know. Dungeon Chef. Alright. Level two."

  Reilly's cheeks began to blush. " Ah.. was it obvious? "

  Valora stood back up from her hands bent to her knees wiping her mouth clean.

  " Well. Dude had a pan, and is a badass. Plus you.. you're wearing the same clothes guys. We both kind of thought so before we even talked. Just looking at you from the entrance."

  Lance stopped cutting into the last goblin. and stood up. " Were you, you, or is this all fake? Tell me if this is an act. Are we... Friends?"

  Courage stepped forward and put his sword in the dirt. " Yeah man. We're friends. I don't think I would want anyone else on my team. Don't worry, secrets are safe with us." He extended his hand to shake.

  Lance looked at him and Valora. Then to Reilly. He shook his hand, leaving in it two small gems. " Good. Let's go then, we can talk later." Lance looked over at Reilly then stepped forward and threw everything in her Sime Crown Wardrobe. They stripped the goblins of the small leather armor. The leading goblin had a small sword, no more than two feet long. It was strangely crafted, and obviously out of balance, but it was metal. It had a crude sharpening on one side. Lance held it, turning it over for a minute as they walked up the path.

  " Goblin longsword"

  Shame+ tier

  +2 Damage

  +2 Agility

  Description: Made of crude scavenged ores, the goblin's craft these after their Guard Ceremony. Highly susceptible to breaking under stressed conditions they are mainly used to chop.

  Value: One Dull Exp Gem.

  Lance sheathed it in its small sheath. He then handed it to Courage. He went to put it on his hip but then decided against it, he then handed it to Reilly. Reilly looked at the stone dagger she had. She nodded and then strapped it to her side.

  The group continued along the path to the goblin den. Upon the close approach Lance waved them to pause. He leaned around the corner. The layout was the same as he could remember. This time however he came from the corridor that he ran towards last time. " Hmm what a maze" he thought. Once again the large Ogre looking goblin was still here. Except this time he was awake, cooking a large bat over the fire, rotating it over a spit. He was drooling. Lance observed him for a few moments. He wasn't really observing much else beyond the spit the bat was stuck on. One side held a large U shape. The other a crude handle had been affixed to. It was raised above the fire by two more U tipped poles. Lance watched as the bat torso spun, its meat sizzling and devoid of fur. He became a bit lost momentarily. Then he quickly sized up the creature. The best he could see was it was rather human sized but with the features of a goblin. It had a large cleaver on its hip.

  Lance spoke back to the group. " Okay it's here. We have one quick way to beat it. Halt him until I'm in position to kill him."

  " I can't do it like that. You will kill me... It's different from what you think. Think more defensively. Why don't we just surround it. Reilly, you have mana yet? " Valora said.

  " Not really. Just enough for one bliss. We are just going to have to fight it head on."

  " Now wait a second.. I still have one more ability. Lance... We don't have to kill it right? Look at him. He's big but he's dumb.." Courage replied.

  Lance looked out at the large goblin. It stood there picking its nose, then crumbled the flakes over the bat giddily. It then spat in its hand and grabbed a wooden plank and slowly sliced off a piece of bat meat onto it. It began to eat the strip, clearly burning its mouth, as it quickly inhaled and exhaled to cool it down. " Yea. It's dumb. But I want those rotisserie poles."

  " Hmmm Well. We have one other choice. I'm a Tamer. Remember. if this doesn't work, I'll run back and then you guys attack." Courage said as he straightened his attire.

  " Long Lost Friend! "

  Courage had a faint blue aura glaze over him briefly and then somehow seemed cleaner and well kept. He oozed calm. He then stepped out of the hallway.

  " Hey buddy, remember me? How are you?" he said as if he knew the goblin. As the Goblin turned to him, the blue glaze seemed to wash over him. Behind him the group heard a goblin affluent Courage talking to the large goblin. Everyone looked at each other dumbfounded. What Lance heard was not as detailed, but he was the only one who knew he was speaking goblin.

  " Huhh? Uhm No. Who's you ?" the large goblin responded.

  " It's me Courage? Remember? I showed you that really cool uh pond with the fish?" Courage was quickly beginning to sweat.

  " Ohh, oh yeah the fishes. The little tasty ones. Mmm, You gots fishes?" The large goblin said, waving its cleaver towards him.

  " Courage doesn't have any more fish right now.. But I do have a biiiig big troll. It's so big I can't even carry it." Courage said obviously trying to seem excited.

  " What?! A TROLLS? Where?" The goblin began to get nervous and shake it's cleaver in all the directions it began to look at. Quickly Courage responded.

  " Oh no no, it's dead! We.. I killed it! It's too big to carry but Sooo much meat is on it. You could have a feast! It's at the fishes pond!" Courage was sweating bullets.

  " It's a dead Troll??? I never ate Trolls before. At the fishes pond? "

  " Yeah it's at the fishes pond, dead right next to it. You can have it if you can bring it back here for me! "

  " Really?? For me. Oh thanks you Friend, okay I will get it."

  The large goblin turned around towards the exit across from the group. Courage wiped the sweat off his brow and looked back at the group and gave a thumbs up. The goblin got to the entrance of the hallway and then the blue haze faded. Another step later the large goblin stopped and then turned around.

  " Wait a minute, I'm not friends with Hu's! GRAAAH!" The goblin charged at Courage.

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  " Shit." Courage turned around and ran back towards the group. He drew his blade, everyone else prepared. Reilly stepped back.

  Lance shook his head. " What kind of ability is that?" He thought.

  "Valora , Halt it! " He then turned and said.

  Valora took a deep breath, " You better be careful. .... Halt!" Valora stepped out from the hallway activating her ability.

  Lance ran out and Courage stopped and turned around, It was nearly caught up to him. They split and pincered it. Wrapping behind the beastly goblin they stood ready.

  Valora fell to the ground " A few seconds before you hurt it!"

  The next moment the goblin twirled around slashing its cleaver at the two. Lance jumped backwards and Courage stepped forward dodging the attack he was ducking as it soared over his head. Lance stepped forward and brought down his spear atop its hand. The blunt force smashed the cleaver out from its grip, clearly breaking some bones.

  Valora screamed out and dropped her mace. " Agghh.... Fuckers!"

  The large goblin swung its fist at Courage who was caught off guard; he was hit square in the jaw and sent backwards to the ground. His hat fell off and then a moment later as a blur his body left after images in a swift motion placing himself back under the hat just below the goblin fist. Clearly the pain was there but he stabbed out at the Goblins' large foot. After his attack, the previous position of his body was where he lay with his hat on his chest. Lance looked at him on the ground puzzled. " Damn that's cool"

  Lance stepped forward and stabbed the Goblin again in it's side. A moment later a broken hand reared backwards now sending Lance to the side. The Goblin roared angrily. " Gonna Eats HU's!"

  Lance and Courage stood up from the ground. Valora and Reilly now surrounded the Goblin in the rear. Valora with her shield and Reilly with her Gob longsword.

  Courage looked at the clock

  " 7 minute's! Girl's go. Lance and I got this!" The girls looked over at the guys who stepped closer, shoulder to shoulder. The goblin looked back to the ladies and licked his lips. " Eyes over here Freak! We're not done! "

  Valora looked back and saw her mace on the ground and gripped her shield.

  Valora tensed up, Lance and Courage were okay but still visibly hurt. She looked over at Reilly who also gritted her teeth at the idea to leave. The two ladies locked eyes to one another briefly and nodded.

  " Bliss! "

  Reilly cast bliss and a moment later the burst of glitter like light fell over everyone, including the goblin. The hand of Valora and the goblin began to heal slightly. Valora squeezed her hand, she still felt pain but it was mobile. The boys both immediately charged.

  Lance was out front, using the length of the spear he stabbed out high from his waist. The spear danced out towards the goblins head, The goblin put his hands up and jumped back. Valora stepped forward and slammed into the goblin shield first. It lost its balance and tumbled forward where Courage was rushing in to stab. Quickly the goblin threw out both of his fists in rapid punches. Courage slid low and sliced into the side of its calf before rolling passed to the rear where the girls were. The goblin caught its footing and twirled, putting its back to the fire.

  The human sized goblin stood with its back to the flames and roared at the group. Everyone now in front of it stood closer together.

  "Reilly, Valora, why didn't you go?" Courage asked

  " Yeah right dumbass, think we can take level two alone? " Valora replied. She began to side step a bit, and then bent down grabbing the goblins cleaver. Lance gave her a side eye, then spoke.

  " We gotta end this now, you guys hear that?" Lance stared at the goblin but in the distance behind them they could hear the pitter patter of foot on stone and an excited pack of goblins yelling in tow. Lance knew that the remaining 4 goblins and this guy were going to be too much for the group. Reilly out of mana, everyone else had no cards to play. It was either stay fight and likely die, or gamble that the door to level 2 was open

  Lance stepped forward and stood in front of the large goblin who was now smiling deviously and cracking his knuckles.

  " You three just go! I'll meet in two days on level two! Go NOW!" Lance tossed his spear to Reilly who caught it wobbly, Courage back peddled a sec with the girls behind him, pushing them towards the door. Lance held out his axe taunting the Goblin in front of him. He’d grabbed it from Reilly after putting the goblin gear in the crown. A moment later the sound of grinding stone could be heard as the group opened the heavy wooden door to level two, the dark miasmic aether ebbing just beyond its birth. Lance had been deliberately stepping backwards towards the sound of the goblins coming down the long hall, enticing the big one to try and pinch him between the group and himself. Luckily it worked, Lance knew the goblin wouldn't be able to resist that tactic.

  Just as everyone made it through, Lance quickly bent down in the doorway to grab Valora's mace, and then he quickly rolled away as the goblin stepped in to close him off. He was unlucky enough to be too far from the door to level 2 to make it unscathed. The large goblin continued blocking his path. Instead Lance opted to run to his right, where the passage was to another section of the cave. He juked the goblin with a feint left then ran full speed ahead.

  Forced to retreat, Lance looked back at the fire one last time. The bat on the rotisserie was now a ball of flames and the door beyond left a dark silhouette, the alignment of the two left an image that Lance would find hard to forget. " I will have that rotisserie, and I will kill these goblins." Lance scarred the thought into his brain. He ran with the goblins in chase and just continued until he lost them in the darkness of the cave. The timer ran out and he was brought back to the Specter main menu.

  He met with Spex and she once again had a montage for him to watch. He opted out of watching it and stood there in thought. " This game is strange. I need to dig online and figure out the difficulty modifiers. Something isn't adding up. It should've been easier right?"

  " Lance, would you mind please closing your eyes and taking a deep breath, the shut down sequence is initiated." Spex said, touching Lance on the shoulder. She smiled and for a second everything seemed to slow down, Lance's peripheral vision began to gray until everything blurred and then became a dark black. He inhaled and opened his eyes to find himself in his bed once again.

  Lance sat up taking off his helmet. He stretched and put his hands on his face and neck. Feeling his skin once again he swallowed his spit, the dry feeling in his throat went away and he sighed a bit of relief. " Fuck.. I'm cursed. And what's the deal.. I play one time and people recognize me? Same clothes and a pan.. kind of stupid of me. Courage and Valora.. He's good. I wonder what her class will be when she takes her next attempt. It's one restart right? Normal mode alt, I would have at least done Normal+. Damn there's just so much to unpack.. " Lance held his hands on his temples against his bed. He wanted to sleep but he couldn't stop thinking. So much flashed back to him, choices, the fighting, technique, the secrets, the siblings, Reilly. The weight of the game's reality made Lance wonder who tailored the life he lived now. Comparison of the two made him view them as peace and war. All the money and rewards were still so far. "199 levels. I wonder how many will even make it to 100. Hoq does the difficulty scale? Is it better to do it alone?" Lance's mind flashed between the first group he was a part of, and then the last attempt. He couldn't help but feel that the cohesive nature of the siblings and Reilly, felt.. natural. Their strong suits differed but at least they were a team. Jack, Dorian, and Sadura all had something else in their agenda. "Perhaps it's just the two sides of the coin. This is a game, a contest. Some people will focus on that."

  Lance sat up and moved to his computer the overactive thoughts wouldn't let him sleep. Lance began a transfer of his footage and then checked on his social media. The first thing he noticed was that sometime earlier some new clips had been posted to Viewtube. Many people had begun their streak of popularity. Some had even put out in game tutorials although watching them Lance quickly laughed it off. The so-called tutorials were basic: how to hold a weapon, knowing your role, surviving the darkness, etc. The most fundamental survival and equipment based tutorials had begun to plague most of the categories. Many people just wanted to provide some level of input to stay relevant.

  A lot of the Specter console games began to grow wildly over the viewing sites. Honor and Duty kept a large fan base and had a new surge of military personnel ranting and raving about it's effective training. Many other puzzles and even streaming services began to make apps and shake deals with Oddnet. Lance found links to known movie studio's intent on making immersive movies exclusive to the platform; the digital editing and software development ads were the most common ads that were popping up. Lance looked at the prices of the consoles and noticed that they had tripled in value, Oddnet had put out a statement saying that new iterations and waves of consoles would be available soon. The amount of console scalpers and scammers seemed to be a huge problem. The unfortunate gatekeeping of the consoles hurt the majority of the low income families looking to get one.

  Lance became a bit proud that he had pre-ordered the console and beat the craze. Somehow the console had come to explode in popularity after its release taking the world by storm. Lance chalked it up to just naysayers who held the notion of its claim to be as immersive as reality wasn't true. Perhaps the technology seemed beyond the scope for most people, but feeling it once would be enough to change your mindset..

  Lance sifted through the buzz and hype of all the new games and news about progressive ideas regarding the console. He began to search Bluezit's blackhead /bzWishLegacy. Many people had begun to narrow down the types of details that could be shared. The most informative threads followed a more show and tell style function. With zero detail to the threads, up votes became a source for more information, the videos shared seemed to be the new methods of sharing. Some videos shown simply skipped over some sections while showing cause and reaction miming. People began to show themselves fighting bats, spiders, goblins, and slimes and slowing down certain moments to show weaknesses. Lance chuckled, the hilarity of some individuals showing off the mundane tactics and easy kills had him wishing for the worst in some videos. He realized he was being rather cynical but the novice video style had shown him what not to do, he quickly humbled himself, as he had thought some of these methods would be the way to showcase the game. He was new to this realm of entertainment as the entertainer, but he knew he hit the right way to do it. Pure action.

  After searching for a while he stumbled upon a post that caught his attention. It was a post declaring that the poster and a group of his friends had made their way to level 4 and all but one died losing their first attempt. It was very vague but the poster simply stated that the level close to the city was more difficult than it seemed. Lance committed it to memory. He then continued to watch combat videos most of which were rather boring to him. Eventually his gameplay finished transferring.

  Lance began to break down most of his moments in the game, he wondered if he should include Courage and Valora, there were many moments piled together with the group. The amount of time he had played allowed him to have a few different ideas for videos. He found that it was a good choice to separate the solo content from the group. The tavern quest seemed like a good idea to spark a new buzz, clicking through the timeline and watching him exert himself kiting the goblins around the mazes of stone gave him a good direction for the video. Eventually he cut it up showing off the kills, and using the previous encounter of the two goblins he killed on his first run as a proof of concept in the end of the video. He titled it "In Nature’s eye, a scary ally " in a way he knew that if he released the video it would eventually be known that the Appraise skill could likely be seen as a boon for those who prepared and made methodical kills. He hoped people would see it as a good rather than bad, but the flipside of it being used on players was also his silent warning for those who attempted to follow his footsteps. He found it funny that Appraise was attached to such an easy Tavern Quest to attain. A simple nod to looking and understanding your surroundings, was a tool. Yet the tool you gained was useful in so many ways, a riddle he felt he had unraveled.

  Using the footage of the group's encounters with the bats and the goblins and the troll, Lance pieced together a pretty comprehensive video. He didn't include anyone's voice or face. He clearly wanted to better hide himself in these videos but felt that doing a sense of justice by showcasing everyone in their contributions to the fights was a good enough nod to his new friends. Courage ended up becoming a rather star of his video even in Lance's eyes. The part where he lost his arm to the Troll sunk Lance back into the feeling of dread, and watching himself carelessly throwing himself in harm's way for Courage made Lance shake his head.

  " Dammit I gotta stop myself from doing that, I'm gonna get myself killed " He gave himself a pat on the back for the way he ended up finishing off the troll, but he couldn't help but feel extremely lucky. By adding in some cool metal music and adding good timing Lance made his rise with the broken arm and subsequent ending of the fight much cooler than it should have been. The gory aspect was sure to get him demonized if he put the entirety of it in so he just left it at the point where he stabbed it in the eye. He put a quick flash of him hammering in the spear with his pan as the final second to the video as a nod to their victory.

  " Phew, okay what do I call this..." Lance couldn't discredit the obvious badassery that Courage's prowess, Reilly's spotlight of healing, and Valora's battlefield control contributed to the video. It also showcased how the group grew to each other's strong suits. He kept the last large goblin fight out. One it showed too many trump cards, Courage's hat and skills, and the defeat therein, by the group splitting and Lance running away. He pondered hard for a few minutes for a name. " Bravely trolling, gets them Riled up. That's not too on the nose right? It should be fine."