Chapter 25 Goblins
Day 1
We left Essex from the Adventurer's Guild along with many others joining the Caravan back to Derby. We had spent the previous night and early morning saying goodbye to our friends and fellow Adventurers. It was a very salty goodbye. Suffice to say Felix and I didn't get much sleep as we made the rounds and made sure to leave behind a favourable impression.
Michael and Kered ended up in Alec's bedroom, having a relatively quiet night, Kered cuddled up between the two, when Felix and I stumbled in to find them in the morning.
Essex served as a kind of pit stop for most in their pursuit for adventure and coin, while to others like Stan, Ygos, Randall and Uffron it marked the beginning of a world of possibilities within it's walls. This time the Caravan was joined by many new Adventurers, those from Essex and from across the ocean.
There were even a few non human Adventurers that joined the caravan, all of them in a party named the Twisted Spires, which included a Lizardman, Dwarf, Elf and a Leonid. The Dwarf was a friendly acquaintance of Michael from his time spent at the Essex Mage Tower, whereas he didn't know the others. Sadly for me they stayed elsewhere overnight before joining the Caravan so I didn't have a chance to have a taste of any of them. The Leonid and the Elf looked particularly tasty, the Leonid with his big furry muscles and the elf with his pointed ears and slim build.
After we exited out of outer city gate we split up from the Caravan, they continued westward while we started northwards towards the mountains, destination the small village of Talon's Peak.
Our party named the Silver Storm, included Felix, Kered, Michael and myself. Through our semi frequent visits to the Essex dungeon we've grown into an efficient if mismatched group. Felix is our party's most powerful damage dealer and defender and our leader. Kered is our scout, trap disarmer and dagger wielding thief/assassin. Michael is our Mage, specialising in stalling techniques and I'm the jack of all trades master of none.
I don't really have a dedicated role as my expertise is shallow in most fields. I can provide limited combat support since I can stab enemies with daggers, or pierce them with a short spear. Mostly I provide assistance after battle by applying salves and ointments. I also provide the group with potions (recovery, stamina, mana and berserk) before raids, that they can use as necessary. During our raids, I've spent the majority of time harvesting materials and cleaning and bandaging minor wounds.
I'm a level 15 Alchemist. Michael the isekai protagonist (his words not mine) is level 20 Mage, sub class spatial mage level 10 Kered is a level 15 Thief, sub class Assassin level 5 Felix is a level 25 Warrior, his sub classes Spearman and Guard, levels unknown (he refuses to talk about it for some reason)
With a horse it'd be a 2 day journey, on foot it could take up to a week. Since we don't have the money to buy or hire four horses for the journey we go on foot. It's not an urgent journey, they're just goblins after all and I just want to do some experiments on them.
Not long after setting out Michael starts irritating me.
"You guys you should check out the latest spell I've learned." He disappears and reappears a second later a step away.
"Nice, that should give you some more mobility in combat." Felix said.
"Yeah now you don't have to hide in the back so much." Kered said.
"Without me you'd all die, my powers over the forces of gravity and momentum have saved your lives countless times. You should all bow down and worship my greatness." Michael boasted.
I simply rolled my eyes at Michael's antics, despite the fact that he looked like a high level Mage with his Enchanted blue mage robe complete with a Mage staff with a Rune Word, I knew the truth. He had little combat experience in his world and without me bankrolling his magical training, he'd have a much harder time staying out of the grasp of greedy nobles. Then again... Well...
Fuck, sometimes I get the impression of the threads of Godly intervention around him, twisting the world around him to better serve him and it FUCKING ENRAGES ME and yet I can't say anything. It's not really his fault, he landed here through the machinations of the Gods and now he's just another player in the Grand Game, what bugs me is his piece on the board is of higher value than mine.
I can't hold it against him, partly because the Gods won't allow it, they unnaturally amplify his charisma making it very hard to hold a grudge against him. There's other reasons that I cant, like I know that most of his gear, was enchanted by Michael using his rune knowledge gained from his [Translation] ability and that underneath all the fancy mage gear, he's wearing thick trousers and a chain mail shirt to protect his relatively fragile body. There's also the many pleasant memories of his naked body pressed against mine thrusting into me and the nights spent talking about golems and golem crafting.
"I'll worship you later." I said glancing at Michael behind me with a practised smile.
"Yeah you will." He said, appearing right next to me to squeeze my ass.
As Michael and I spent a lot of time in the rear and middle respectively during combat situations, we had become a mini team of our own. Neither of us were the most combat oriented, preferring to spend our time reading and thinking of new ways of using our minds and magic to advance our Classes. We got along well for the most part, though some times his talk of his world grated at me as did his ease in advancing his Classes. I reached over to squeeze his cock in retaliation. "Mmm yeah I will." I only got a brief feel of hard man flesh before he disappeared a couple of steps away.
"Can't touch this, du, du, du can't touch this." He sang off key, waving his hands about and shaking his butt about. It looked like he was having a fit, he called it dancing, I called it spasms. We bickered a lot about a lot of stupid things during our down time. We spent far too much time together. "Hail the mighty Flash step, behold it's wondrous power." He said, disappearing and reappearing again a second later, a few steps away.
Felix remarkably less amused said "Get back into position. We could be attacked at any moment."
"UGH. But we're going to kill goblins, my first proper quest in the wilds, time to be a murder hobo at long last. Soon enough I will kill a dragon and become immortal."
"Back in line." Felix said glaring at the Mage, all levity gone.
"Spoil sport, see if I make you my Royal Guard when I conquer the world." Michael turned around and used [Flash Step] to take a few invisible steps back in my direction.
Kered meanwhile was still in the front, scanning the area for potential threats, we were off the main road and there was the increased possibility of monster attacks. Kered and Felix alternated positions in the front, Kered was a better scout, while Felix was better at fending off a frontal assault. They formed their own little team during potential combat situations. Felix using overwhelming strength and vitality for offence and defence while Kered attacked stealthily while enemies were distracted. If they were overwhelmed or outnumbered Michael and I would step in for additional support.
"I wouldn't recommend conquering the world, it's a lot of work," I said.
"It sucks that I can't go backward, I'm stuck with line of sight, like fucking Nightcrawler when he was introduced in the first movie, so lame and I can't even do acrobatics." Michael said.
As per usual I ignored Michael's nonsense, from time to time he'd forget that we weren't of his world and talk about things we didn't understand. The worst part was if we pointed it out, he would try and explain by talking about other things that supposedly explained the first thing and then it would just get worse and worse. So I chose to ignore most of the things he said that I didn't understand to save myself the headache.
I ignored the occasional power struggle for leadership of our party between the two for the same reason, avoiding a headache. Michael thought he should be in charge because he was a Champion, Felix countered with the fact that he had years of experience in combat and party management. Felix remained as our leader, yet Michael had a point, he would be stronger than Felix soon enough, possibly stronger than all three of us together at some point soon, if he wasn't already.
"I'm sure you'll figure it out." I said.
"Thanks bud." He said, Flash Stepping into my path and hugging me. I grabbed his ass, pressing my hard bulge into his crotch, the monstrous silk outfit not only had a boost to agility, it was also thin enough that it felt great on my cock, especially when I ground it against another hard cock...
"Come on, we're wasting daylight." Felix said grumpily, trying to get us back in order.
Michael squeezed my ass with both hands and whispered into my ear. "Later, my cock, your butt." Then he disappeared behind me.
[Flash Step] made Michael much more slippery than before.
Things settled into a quiet monotony as Kered continued to check the path ahead and Felix forged the path through lower tier beasts that sought to stop us. The horned rabbits and thorned snakes stood no chance against Felix's spear.
We stopped at mid day for a meal break and to rest our legs within a clearing in the forest.
There was a fire pit and some fallen logs conveniently near it, that served as a useful resting spot. Others must have cleared the way for fellow Adventurers. Despite my time doing dungeon delves, I still didn't really know much about how Adventurers worked in the wilds.
I would have asked Felix about how he knew there'd be such a useful place to stop but Michael had distracted me. He had stripped off his robe, dropped his mage staff and trousers and I had somehow ended up on my knees in front of him sucking his hard cock, while stroking my own hard cock. Strange how that happened, totally unexpectedly.
Felix not a man to miss an opportunity slipped in behind me while I was distracted and my pants were down and penetrated me with his spear, the meaty one, not the sharp one. It hurt so good as I hadn't been fucked in like five hours but Felix knew how to stab me in a way pleasure quickly overwhelmed the pain of a rough entry. Not that I minded the pain that much, I even liked it but the pleasure was more pleasurable...
Michael pulled his cock out of my grasp and made the gesture I'd come to know so well, he twirled his finger and Felix pulled out of me too. Not a second later, Felix was seated on the dirt floor, face to face with me, while I straddled his lap, impaled on his big hard cock. Michael knelt on the ground behind me and shoved his hard cock into me as well. They felt great and all previous aggression had been channelled into a healthier direction, fucking me hard, together, like good team mates should. They clutched at each other as Felix kissed me, his tongue caressing mine within my mouth as Michael suckled at my neck and ear. He knew how I liked that.
Kered not to be left out, interposed himself in between Felix and me and I took his temporary interruption in stride, submerging the entirety of his hard cock in my hungry mouth while Felix worked his tongue into Kered's backside. I grabbed onto Kered's narrow hips, my fingers rubbing up against his firm but soft buttocks as the three men thrust their cocks into me with mounting speed.
Kered was the first to blow, his salty goodness filling the back of my throat, washing down the taste of Horned Rabbit meat from the earlier midday meal.
Kered stepped away and I watched as Felix pulled three fingers out of Kered's butt, before grabbing my chin and kissing me harder, his mouth tasted of Kered's ass, a musky flavor. Felix became more demanding with his mouth and cock, plundering my mouth and ass more fervently. He wasn't the only one getting more intense, Michael picked up the pace as well, fucking faster, thrusting harder, more erratically, breath hot and heavy in my ear. The both of them kept railing away at my insides until Michael groaned, clutching at my chest as his seed pumped into my rear end.
Michael pulled out of me and stepped aside. Felix lifted me up, bouncing me up and down on his cock as he walked forward then he leaned down with me clinging onto him, until my back was on the log that we had been sitting on before things got sexual. He placed my ankles over his shoulders and starting fucking me hard, hands on my legs as he long dicked me. He'd pull almost all the way out before slamming his way back in over and over again.
Felix is wonderful, continuing to fuck me slowly but rigorously, sure I had my head on the dirt and I couldn't quite see my man as he fucked me but his cock felt amazing. Then things changed and Felix started fucking me differently, short sharp fuck strokes as Kered straddled my waist and sat on my cock. I could hear the sounds of Michael's heavy breathing as Kered rode my cock and Felix fucked me. I had my hands on Kered's waist as I fucked up into him as Felix fucked into me, faster and harder. I came in Kered, Felix came in me and Michael dumped another load into Felix's hole. Afterwards I felt sleepy and wanted a nap and cuddled up to Felix while Michael entertained Kered with some more fucking around.
After my little nap Felix got cranky that we wasted so much time on our meal break and were behind schedule so we picked up the pace. Everyone else was fine but I suffered, my ass feeling itchy and leaky from the double fucking. Michael kept using [Flash Step] while Felix and Kered roamed ahead easily.
The rest of the day's journey was a boring trek through the forest, finally stopping near a small lake to break for the night.
We set up a proper camp. Thanks to Michael we all had spatial bags of one sort or another. I kept my mother's spatial bag for sentimental reasons while everyone else had upgraded versions that Michael had made. I had a lot of random stuff in my bag, a little bit of everything for all sorts of possibilities. Michael used his to store all his mana batteries and various amenities. Felix used his spatial backpack to store changes of clothes, armour and other equipment. Kered used his to store clothes, knives and more knives.
Felix set up a tent and went into it followed by Kered so they could `sleep' after assigning Michael and I the task of first watch, in case of monsters or bandits or whatever.
It took less than a couple than minutes before I heard the first moan and the sound of slurping. By the sounds of it Felix was getting sucked on by Kered. I glanced at Michael who smiled and started stripping off his layers of clothing to reveal a toned body and a rapidly hardening cock.
We had already set up a fire for the night so it was nice and toasty. I dropped my trousers and got to my knees in front of Michael and started sucking on his cock.
I heard the sounds of muffled whimpers, signalling that Felix had already started fucking Kered. Hell I could see their shadows moving in the tent bathed in the firelight as Felix moved on top of Kered. I could imagine what they were doing even if their shadows just merged to become one big blob of darkness rising and falling in a rhythm.
I pulled off from Michael's cock and got into position on my hands and knees in front of him. I didn't need to say anything, Michael knew exactly what I wanted. Michael knelt behind me, shoving his saliva soaked cock into my ass. I moaned as he sunk in deep and I dug my fingernails deeper into the loose soil as he started fucking me properly.
Before I could really get into it, Felix stormed out of the tent, naked and furious, the fact he was hard and his cock was moving around erratically as he strode forth towards us, undercut the intimidation factor significantly, making the situation seem slightly comical. "What in the nine hells do you think you're doing?"
"What does it look like? I'm fucking your boyfriend again and he loves it. Don't ya?." He replied, yanking me upright by the neck. He previously had his hands on my shoulders during fucking so it was easy for him to wrap a hand around my throat and tug upwards.
"When you're on watch you keep watch and keep your pants on do you hear me?" Felix demanded.
As for me, Michael was sort of choking me as he fucked me so I couldn't really talk.
"You're not the boss of me." Michael protested, still fucking me, hell he was fucking me harder as he argued with Felix.
"Do you want me to put my foot up your ass to show you whose in charge?" Felix asked, moving closer, his hard cock looking so big and hard and juicy, the closer he got. I wanted him to shove it in my mouth already, so that I could be filled up in both ends.
"Like you could catch me!" Michael disappeared, his ass appearing right in front of me a second later. It was very disorienting, or maybe that was the sudden rush of air into my lungs again. Either way, I was somewhat distracted when Michael's pale hairy ass got tackled to the ground right in front of me.
"What's going on?" Kered asked coming out of the tent, his hands covering his crotch.
"They're fighting again. Come sit on my lap." I said having moved onto a nearby rock to watch the show.
Kered eyed the two men rolling about on the dirt, Felix had the advantage of strength but Michael would pull out some weird moves at random moments, something he called wrestling holds in order to squirm and struggle out of his grasp.
I didn't like when they fought but I couldn't help but enjoy the view of two hard horny men grinding on each fighting for dominance. Felix remained on top of Michael, pinning his hands above him.
He looked at them then at my hard cock and shrugged "Sure, why not?" Then he sat on my lap, facing away from me, my hard cock sinking in easily after Felix opened him up. I reached around and stroked his hard cock as we watched Felix make use of his superior position to sit on Michael's cock.
Michael had some weird issues, something to do with homosexuality being a sign of weakness in his world, or at least if you were the one taking it up the ass, undermining his respect for Felix's leadership or some such nonsense. Honestly Kered's cock in hand and ass squeezing mine, made me not worry about the two of them and their weird power struggles. Frankly all I cared about was enjoying the warmth of Kered's hole and how great it felt to be pumping my cock into him.
I came a little too quickly this time around, the combination of no release for seven hours and the view of Felix riding Michael's cock in front of me making it too hard to hold back.
Kered got off my cock with a sigh and said to Felix, "Come on back to the tent with me and let's finish what we started."
Felix grinned evilly and said, "The two of you keep your pants on during watch or I'll stick my cock up your ass Michael and Lucius you'll get none from me."
"Wait where are you going? I haven't finished yet!" Michael said getting to his feet.
"You can finish when your watch is over. Don't make me tell you again or you won't like it. Or maybe you would, one way to find out." Felix said, as he walked away, his ass gaping just a little after the recent ride on Michael's cock.
Felix disappeared from sight along with a naked Kered within the tent. The familiar sound of Felix slurping a wet hole echoed through the air as Michael grumbled and said. "Leaving me with blue balls is just cold. Lucius you'll help me out right?"
"Nope." I said pulling my pants up, despite me doubting that Felix would follow on the threat of withholding his cock from me, I didn't want to risk it, or that Felix would be angry at me. Also I had just orgasmed and I felt sufficiently satisfied for the moment. Michael getting all flustered and agitated after a naked tussle with Felix made my day complete. I put on my discarded pants and shirt without complaint or concern.
"Fuck, fine I'll take care of it myself then, wouldn't be the first time, won't be the last." Michael said stroking his hard slick cock.
The sound of Felix slurping had ended and a second later I could hear Kered's muffled "Oh."
Felix's voice was not muffled at all as he shouted. "PANTS ON OR I'M COMING OUT THERE AND FUCKING YOU UP THE ASS!"
"Fucking bastard hypocrite, fucking asshole, fucking fuck I can't believe this, magical world and I'm being fucking cock blocked, so unfair. Next time you won't catch me off guard so easily and then I'll -" Michael ranted as he shoved on clothes angrily, stuffing himself back into his pants, grumbling and complaining and cursing the entire time.
"I'll let you fuck me as much as you want when it's their turn on watch and we'll be extra loud and obnoxious about it too."
The sound of Felix's cock slamming into Kered's hole had been the constant background noise during Michael's rant and honestly it was getting me in the mood again. Still had to behave, it was probably good to think of this as another exercise to get Furtado under control. I had to keep the monster within under control or it'd far too easy to just take too much from my friends and team mates one day and leave them dried out husks.
Michael looked over at me and my own obscene bulge trapped with silken confines "I guess I can wait a few more hours to pound your ass. What do you want to do while we wait for those two to fucking finish?"
"Golem practice."
Michael groaned. "You're relentless. Can't we just play a card game or something. God I miss internet porn and computers and fucking taps."
I moved over to wrap my arms around him, looking deep into his eyes "Please I need this."
"Fine, fine, fine, I'll do the golem thing but you'll owe me, you'll owe me a lot." He said, grabbing onto my ass with both hands, so that it was obvious as to what I'd owe him.
I smiled running my hands over the soft cloth of his Mage's robe. "You know I'm good for it, now give me what I want."
He sighed and submitted, tapping my forehead with his and I felt the cool refreshing flow of his mana enter me and help to fill the gaping void in my soul...
I turned around in his grasp so that his hands were on my waist, then sliding up and under my shirt, his hard bulge pressing against my rear end as I brought my hands together and focused his mana and mine into creating a raw mana core.
In truth it was less of a mana core and more of a mana battery as it was incapable of generating mana or even drawing in mana itself.
The tiers are;
Mana battery – stores a limited charge of mana, used for various purposes, artificially created. Mana/magic core – harvested off a dead magical creature – limited charge of mana. Mana heart – lives inside a magical creature allowing for the storing and absorption of mana. mana generator – a mana core that can generate mana itself (Dragon specific).
In this way, using [Mana Drain] while Michael used [Mana Manipulation] I could channel our combined mana pools & mana regeneration into [Core Creation]. Then once a mana battery was created I could use [Core Command] to program it.
[Core Command] was the resulting Skill from using [Infusion] on a mana battery while willing it to react in a certain way. I imposed my will on the mana as it flowed out of me and into the battery to perform a specific function. It was a complicated and strenuous process for the both of us as it was a high grade enchanting technique and we still needed lots of practice before we mastered it.
My mana pool was deeper but Michael's mana regeneration was faster due to his higher wisdom. Together we made a very powerful mage.
According to Michael's time at the Mage Towers, it is considered the best practice for a Mage to empty out his entire mana pool as often as possible before sleeping at night in order to improve their mana pools. Which I had incidentally been doing since birth, all day long in fact due to my incubus nature.
This way we both improved, I developed multiple skills and abilities, while Michael improved his Mana Manipulation Skill and mana pool and potentially his mana regeneration rates. I paid him in sex afterwards or maybe I just rewarded his helpfulness with sex, it's unclear, which is more accurate some days.
We had a very weird relationship. He was the only one in our party that knew my secret. I kept putting off telling Felix and Kered, afraid that they might think less of me if they knew the truth about me or even worse hate me for it. I was demon spawn after all. Michael didn't really care about my lineage other than making use of my mouth and ass for his sexual gratification. Not that I minded too much, as our sexual trysts felt particularly relaxed and uncomplicated as I wasn't too worried about draining him dry due to his high mana regeneration.
After completely draining both our mana pools, we took a break and separated from each other, to let us both recover. I laid down on the ground looking up at the stars above and listening to my lover fucking my friend not that far away. Michael sat cross legged on the floor, head in hands meditating in order to refill his mana pool faster.
I tried to restrain the urge to burst into the tent and shove my aching cock into Felix's ass, but I couldn't fuck around while on watch, Felix would get cranky. I missed Michael's hands on my body, which made the [Mana Drain] & [Mana Manipulation] easier. The more of our bodies were in contact the easier it was to drain his mana, especially since he knew about my incubus nature and used Mana Manipulation to deliberately pump his mana into me.
As I was part incubus, my drain skills were entirely touch based, normally people naturally retained their mana without thought but if they were sufficiently distracted say by an orgasm or sleep, their natural defences would lower and they could be drained of a portion of their life/mana/stamina.
Normally when we did this in Essex, I would use mana potions to speed up the process, so that I could create multiple cores quickly. However since we were on the road and I had a limited supply of Mana potions, we had to do it the slow tedious way. We might need the mana potions later in case of a prolonged battle or an unexpectedly powerful monster. I didn't have that much Mage's bounty to make more.
I had two types of `Enchanted' Mana Batteries and a third speciality type using a specific natural magic core.
The two types of Enchanted Mana Batteries were a Spear type and a Sword type, where I channelled all my admittedly limited knowledge of the use of the sword or spear into each core through [Infusion] & [Core Command]. Then when I wanted to make use of it I'd have it Fuse with the necessary amount of dirt, mud or rock in order to move into action.
I had spent the last month working on a combat version with limited success.
The most combat capable version was technically the worst version of them all, the third version, the slime core version. It used the inherent trait of slime core to bond with inorganic material along with a little bit of Core command, Infusion and Fusion to create an instant meat shield.
It's not ideal as it's not very agile or clever but it requires far less preparation. It also doesn't last nearly as long as the other versions. It's still useful as a temporary diversion, shield and defender. The slime core gathered the necessary rock into a shape not too dissimilar to mine, except made of earth of one sort or another, tasked only to obey my will.
The more impressive versions required Michael and I to pool our collective power together. Michael would use his control over `space' or more accurately matter to speed up and better control the shaping of earth around the Enchanted Mana Battery (EMB for short) into a sleek combat capable golem. I would sacrifice a portion of my intelligence temporarily to give it purpose through infusion and Core command.
Michael called it pokeball golems which he found very amusing, none of understood the joke, something to do with Asian Animes and childhood and collecting them all. Suffice to say I stopped listening a couple of minutes into his explanation.
Still I wanted a version that I could summon in a moment that could do all the things I dreamed of. I was leaning more and more to the Mecha Master pathway after seeing how Deva used her golems for everything. She was on a different pathway than me, but it had similar aspects, she could simply create new golems with a wave of her hand.
As an Alchemist I'd have to work much harder to do something even half as good. Still there was something about creating minions to obey my commands that appealed to me. Maybe it was the demonic half, maybe it was the human half, maybe it was the both of them. We wanted a loyal army to work for us, to protect us from those who wanted to hurt us, which could be an entire nation if things went badly enough and the wrong person found out about me.
I marked this EMB with a P for Spear Golem and cajoled a refilled Michael into helping me make another. This time a EMB, that I'd mark with a W for Sword Golem.
After a few hours of effort I had ten new EMB's, five of each of the two types of advanced Golems. The slime cores I could work on by myself later.
Then it was our turn in the tent and Michael was very vigorous in taking what was due to him, pounding my ass for several minutes before pumping the first of several loads into me.
That night I dreamt of metal, metal boxes, metal buildings, people in metal carriages and even metal things flying in the air.
The following morning Felix and kissed and made up over our morning meal and a good morning fucking.
More walking, more boring walking and even more boring walking before midday meal then the three of them fucked me one after another up against a tree. First Felix, then Michael, then Kered, pinning me against the tree bark and fucking me hard and fast.
I said afterwards that they should have done it in the opposite order in order of ascending size.
They laughed and Michael said I was the weirdest slut he'd ever met... then he pushed me to the ground lifted my legs up and slammed into my recently fucked hole and fucked me again, while I wrapped my arms and legs around him. Then Felix licked out all the loads out of my butt then fucked me again.
More walking, more boring walking followed by more interminable walking. Admittedly there were a few horned rabbits that got in the way for a moment but they didn't slow Felix down much. A few quick stabs and they were added to his spatial backpack to serve as rations.
Then finally it was time for an evening meal and setting up camp for the night.
During the evening meal as we gathered around the campfire to share our meal Michael told us a story from his world about vampires that sparkled. It was ludicrous and dumb; why would a vampire sparkle? Predators don't sparkle, they blend into their surroundings in order to better hunt. I made use of the moment to share with Michael a story & a lesson from this world.
Duggan had shown me the way of a bard, when he wasn't singing and seducing women with his music, he told/sung tales of adventures to instil men with bravery to fight evil monsters and men.
One of the lessons Duggan taught me was how to resonate more with Sound, which allowed me to do more than before with my inscriptions of the Sound rune. Instead of simply lowering the sounds around me so that I was stealthier, I could increase the sound and adjust it to appeal to certain people. This way I could use sound as a lure, a distraction and a way to elicit respect from people. Duggan told me that words had power, that if I used the right words on the right person at the right time, I could change their mind and bend them to my will more easily.
Combining and mixing my natural abilities of [Demomic Whispers] and [Siren's Call], I gained the Skill [Compelling Voice]. It helps to increase my charisma and get people to listen to me more, gives me more presence during storytelling and while commanding others. It requires concerted effort though and a little bit of mana.
I tell the story of the God of Chaos and that of the God of Order.
"Before the beginning of time as we knew it there existed two forces, Chaos and Order, now known as the God of Order & the God of Chaos. Some believe that they are two brothers, while others believe they are male and female; father and mother of the universe. Beliefs vary based on kingdoms and nations. The truth of the matter is unknown. I prefer the bickering brothers interpretation personally.
The God of Order seldom speaks to his followers, having passed down his edict a long time ago, which was simply to build, grow and learn. The God of Chaos on the other hand speaks to his followers often, through whispers, demands and entreaties. His requests are varied and random and seek pleasure and madness.
The God of Order is considered to be a strict individual looking to bring everything into a perfect alignment. The God of Chaos by his very nature is unpredictable, wanting to only cause chaos and enjoys mischief making and could be considered a mischievous younger brother if he didn't have god like powers and wasn't considered the patron God of Demons.
Both gods are powerful, though the God of Chaos power rises and falls like the tides, rising high only to inevitably leave a trail of wreckage behind in his passage. The God of Order remains stable and predictable and his power is meted out in small doses to his strongest supporters.
They are the two oldest and arguably the most powerful Gods, with all the other Gods working on their behalf in one form or another. They are complete opposites, in constant opposition, as they fight it out throughout multiple worlds.
This struggle is called the Great Game and we are all pieces on the board, with the younger Gods considered players in charge of moving the pieces to advance the Great God's goals."
"What is your point?" Michael asked, looking unimpressed, charisma had a limited effect against those with high wisdom and intelligence, as did many forms of mind control.
"Just reminding you that even Kings are merely larger pieces in the hands of Gods and they are merely middle men to the Great Gods."
"Pfft. Then I'll just have to become a God then." Michael said, completely ignoring my point.
Duggan had given me some instructions throughout our brief times together but Duggan was a very strange man and his lessons were as erratic as he was. That and while my heritage may be charisma based, I still need a lot of more practice dealing with people with my clothes on.
Duggan taught me a lot of things, a lot of it very confusing and unwelcome, like how to pleasure four women at a time. That was a very odd night, watching him pump away into one woman while humming into another woman's nethers while his fingers strummed on two other women. It created a symphony of pleasure and lust, that resonated with me even if I didn't quite favour the melody myself. The rhythm spoke to me. Or maybe the relentless thrusting of Duggan's ass appealed to me. Who's to know?
Duggan when dressed worked with me on the mastery of sound magic, old magic from the time before the System became a common tool, arcane magic that could twist the world.
While Mages laboured knowingly or unknowingly under the Gods of Order & Knowledge to structure magic into orderly predictable spells; Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks learned & used the old magic, the wild magic, channelling desire into action. Wild magic was potent but unpredictable, it was more of an art than a science.
Bards in particular could channel more of the wild magic than others of their ilk, though their versatility came at a cost. They were often able to cast magic from multiple fields of study but they didn't specialise in anything.
After eating and swapping tales, Felix and I took first watch where he instructed me more on spear techniques. Spears had longer reach than swords so they had an advantage over a certain distance but suffered at close range so good spear technique relied a lot on good timing, foot work and thrusting accuracy.
He had me drill the technique over and over again, while I could hear Michael pounding Kered's butt. It was very frustrating as I wanted to drop the increasingly heavy spear and thrust into Felix as we listened. Instead Felix commanded me to continue thrusting with the wooden spear rather than my hard meaty one into his butt.
When it was finally our turn to make use of the tent while Michael and Kered took over the night watch, I pounced on Felix and he responded with open mouth, legs and hole.
Yet still he lectured me about technique, telling me to adjust my stance to better fuck him. He's so bossy, even during fucking. I love it, I hate it, I love him. I fucked him hard and he returned the favour as soon as I'm done, pinning me down and showing me how a veteran spearman fucks.
That night I dreamed of endless hallways and Ogres chasing me through them.
After a morning meal and fuck, we continued walking through the increasingly rocky terrain, the trees becoming less common as we climbed upwards through a lesser mountain peak.
At midday we stopped and they took turns fucking me again, this time while bathing in a cool refreshing mountain stream. This time they did it in the correct order, smallest to biggest.
Then once we were clean and sexually satisfied, more interminable walking till the evening meal and camping. This time I had first watch with Kered, who practised his assassin skills using his daggers against me as I sought to defend myself with my sword. All the while we listened to Michael working out his frustrations by fucking Felix's ass until we all heard Michael groan out a "Fuck yes!" and roll off him. Followed shortly after by the sounds of his light snoring as he took a well earned 3 hour long nap, along with a hard working Felix.
That night when we switched roles I cuddle fucked Kered into bliss.
That night I dreamt of alleyways and gold.
In that way another few days went by as the journey alternated between the tedium of walking and the fulfilment of food and fucking, punctuated by bouts of spear, sword and magic training.
We finally arrived at the mountain village of Talon's Peak after an hour of hiking up one last mountain. The village was decidedly unimpressive, with a piles of stones stacked up around the small village to serve as a sort of defensive wall and ammo dump. The thatched huts could be seen through the gaps, with no indication that anyone lived within them, though they wouldn't last a minute under a serious assault.
We were greeted outside the village entryway by the Village Elder and five armed men. The armed men had a white knuckled grip on their weapons, mostly spears, with only one man armed with a sword.
"Well met, we're Adventurers from Essex, we've come about your goblin problem. What can you tell us about them." Felix said, back straight, tags on display.
"Oh thank the Gods, we were worried you were raiders for a moment, our village has fallen onto hard times as of late." One of the men said, he looked young, maybe sixteen.
"Quiet". An older men said, nudging the younger man with an elbow, they looked similar around the face and eyes, maybe father and son. The younger man closed his mouth, yet pouted quite adorably, he was kind of cute, I wondered idly what he looked like naked and hard.
The Elder whose name I didn't catch due to my idle fantasies said, "There was a party of Adventurers that left a few days ago to investigate the last place the goblins were sighted but they haven't returned. We weren't sure what happened to them but we can't afford to go searching for them either. We don't have the men."
Felix asked the man where the goblins were last spotted and he pointed to a neighbouring mountain.
I groaned in frustration at the thought of having to walk down the mountain and go hiking up yet another mountain. Felix side eyed me and I clamped my mouth shut and lowered my head contritely, hoping he wouldn't get too mad. Or if he did, that he'd take it out on my ass later that night, the cute village boy had gotten me horny again.
"We should head out." Felix said.
"Won't you stay and take a meal first before you head out?" Elder asked.
"No we won't impose, we'll come back after clearing out the goblins." Felix said.
As we walked away from the village Michael asked "Why didn't we stay for a meal?"
"Didn't you notice how wary and underfed they looked, I doubt they've been able to leave their village unless they're in groups. They don't have enough men to hold off goblins and protect the women and children at the same time. The sooner we do this, the sooner they can return to their lives and rebuilding."
"It's just goblins." Michael said.
"Have you ever fought a goblin before?"
"Well no but they're like this high" slapping his hand against his waist "and they're cannon fodder monsters."
Felix sighed. "Goblins can be considered the work of beginner Adventurers, since they're the size of small children (around 3 feet tall) and about as strong but they can be dangerous in large groups. Unlike other monsters like kobolds that take time to multiply, goblins can go from dozens to hundreds in a couple of weeks given the right environment and enough females to breed. Their ability to use weapons and underhanded tactics make them dangerous. The most likely reason those other Adventurers didn't come back is that they were overwhelmed by large goblin numbers or simply decided the low pay wasn't worth the risk of getting swarmed by the nasty green buggers."
"So what are you saying? That we should just go back and tell the Adventurer's guild to send more people because we couldn't handle some 3 foot high monsters?"
Felix said. "No, just we should be careful and make sure to be alert, we can't be complacent about the threat."
Michael said, "I'm sure between the four of us we can take on goblins, we've dealt with enough Kobolds and their traps to know what we're doing."
"I hope you're right but we should discuss it, we shouldn't proceed unless we all agree. Lucius what do you think?"
I shrugged "The more of them there are, the more I can experiment with them, our golems should help counter their number advantages. So I'm willing to fight them, also if we leave it for another couple of weeks there will be even more of them and the villagers will just be swarmed and overrun."
"Kered?"
"If we gave up at the first sign of danger, how could we call ourselves adventurers? This would be the perfect chance for me to level up my Assassin class, lots of low level targets to kill."
A little wary but determined to see for ourselves the situation we set off into the area where the goblins were last spotted.
A few hours later of hiking down one mountain and up another we arrived at the location where the goblins were last spotted. It's a glade of sorts where several large fruit growing trees abound, a discarded woven basket on the ground telling a stark and grim tale about the threat of monsters. Especially goblins. I had read the Guild brief about a missing village girl and felt compelled to try and help and admittedly to profit a little off the misfortune of others.
Kered follows the tracks left behind in the direction that they lead, there appears to be overlapping footprints.
"I don't have the right skills for tracking in the woods, I can't tell how many there are, there could be five of them or fifty, I'm not a ranger." Kered said.
"Either way, we should continue on, just be alert and keep your eyes open for ambush. Goblins are notorious for ambushing travellers so we should move slowly and prepare to get attacked at any moment." Felix said.
Felix walked in the front a few steps ahead of Kered, while Kered scanned the woods for the green bastards.
Michael and I took our positions in the rear. I strapped my short spear to my back, and double handed the cross bow, with my bag open ready to pull out potions as needed. Everyone else had a small selection of potions with them too. Each of them having a couple of Beserk potions just in case, along with recovery and stamina potions. The mana potions were divided between Michael and me.
A long ten minute walk of us carefully traversing the forested path and we are still taken by surprise by the first volley of spears and rocks hurled our way.
There's at least a dozen goblins hiding in the tree tops and even more of the blighted bastards rushing towards us armed with wooden spears, clubs and even large rocks.
I got hit in the shoulder by a shit smeared spear. Disgusting and painful.
I lose it and succumb to the Red Rage, the Berserker state that I picked up from Badrick. The more damage done to me, the more damage I can inflict on my enemies, the downside is that it's nearly impossible to control.
I fire a bolt through one goblin's eye, killing it instantly. I dropped the cross bow and reach behind me in one smooth motion and throw my short spear like it was a javelin into one goblin who had jumped out of the tree it was in previously. The spear struck true, piercing the filthy goblin through the heart and pinning it against the tree trunk.
I grabbed a recovery potion from my spatial bag and quickly swig it and throw the empty vial into another charging goblin's face, disrupting it's forward progress as it clutched at it's ruined face with both hands. I pull a dagger from my bag and pounce upon the maimed goblin and tear out it's throat with my teeth, while stabbing it in the chest repeatedly until it stills. The coppery flow of blood into my mouth and a new notification breaks my battle frenzy.
I gained [Accelerated Growth]. I don't have the time to look at it's description as the sounds of fighting can be heard, the sound of metal piercing flesh, the shrill cries of goblins fighting and dying and the grunts of exertion from battling superior numbers. The others are being swarmed by superior goblin numbers. Red Rage makes me a powerful fighter (temporarily) but it makes me even more single minded than normal and oblivious to anything other than killing my enemies.
Once the Red rage subsides and I deal with the sudden loss of power from the heightened state and the many negative side effects, I can look around at my allies and how they're doing.
Michael is busy fending off the projectiles (spears and rocks) of the goblins while swinging his staff at any goblin who gets too close. His runeword staff increases the potency of spatial magic, allowing him to use it to cast stronger spells and as a secondary benefit amplifies the power of damage done when used as a melee weapons. His wild swings do heavy damage on goblin skulls when he lands a blow.
His [Slow] spell combined with the Perk Spatial Awareness allows him to essentially halt or avoid projectiles while producing a slowing field on nearby goblins, making them sluggish and ineffective. The downside is that when he cranks up the potency, the range drops dramatically, so he can only help himself.
Kered and Felix are getting swamped by a dozen goblins each, they're barely holding on, Kered relying on his superior size, agility and dexterity to slash goblins in the eyes and throats, while gradually moving to Felix's side. Felix on the other hand is spinning around at random, dodging rocks and short spears, using the butt of the spear to bash goblins in the head, while using the tip of the spear to slash at throats.
Despite how bad it looks for Felix and Kered, I still move to reinforce Michael. I grabbed a slime core and pumped it full of mana throwing it just past Felix to help him out a little. Then I swig a mana potion and grab both daggers and wade into battle against the goblins bothering Michael.
I stab one goblin in the back at the base of the spine, paralysing it and as I draw attention from the other goblins, they try and rush me. I respond by stabbing them through the eyes and throat as they stab, scratch and strike me.
From the corner of my eye I can see that the slime core is drawing attention away from Felix as it coalesces into a blocky golem near Felix. The goblins rush the newest combatant, five to one, easing the pressure on the others just a little bit more.
I reached out to Michael, dropping a dagger to place a hand on his back, while dropping my other dagger to pull out a EMB. Michael understands what I want and pumps some mana my way and I pump it into the EMB and lob it behind the goblins, who ignore it and continue to stab me with my own daggers. I embrace the pain, channeling it into desire for their deaths. The pain continues to mount with more and more wounds on my body.
A Spear golem forms behind the goblins attacking us and with my hands free, I draw out another recovery potion and my sword, swig potion, stab goblin with my sword.
The goblins screech and die when the 7 foot tall stone spear wielding join Felix in slaughtering goblins. The twenty or so remaining goblins break and scatter, running from us. We're too tired from the battle to chase after them.
I collapsed onto my back, panting and bleeding from multiple wounds, still with a shit smeared spear in me. I pulled the spear out of me and wash out the wound as best as I could, then bandage the wound and swig a recovery potion. I'm exhausted, due to the blood loss and from the after effects of Red Rage. I swig a stamina potion and nibble on one of the last stag legs in my spatial bag.
While I wait for the potions to kick in I check the description for Accelerated Growth. Accelerated growth – increased physical and mental growth at the cost of a reduced life span.
That is not a great ability for most people but I'm not most people, [Accelerated Growth] would save me a lot of time in the long run. Demons are essentially immortal presuming they're not murdered, they are natural shapeshifters after all and they can simply avoid death from old age by repairing injured parts. Demons are also subject to periods of rapid growth and long plateaus, one of the many reasons they invade mortal realms to grow from chaos and destruction.
I'm not sure how it will work with my half human half demon physiology but the faster I can get stronger the better it will be for me. I focus on the description and burrow deeper into the maths, something I don't like to do as there is so much information on some skills and abilities that it becomes headache inducing and frustrating. What with all the potential figures such as mana conversion rates, range of effect, physical damage, magical damage, resistances, duration times and so many other things. I prefer to just learn how things work by testing it myself instead of focusing my mind on the skill/ability and having the System spell it all out in tedious and often confusing detail.
Anyway the only thing I want to know isn't easily found out through experimentation so I break long standing tradition (couple of months) and get the information. Five times growth rate. Success. Finally, maybe this way I'll be able to catch up to Michael's frustrating speed of improvement.
Felix and Kered having swigged down more recovery potions and after cleaning their own wounds as best they could, carve up the goblins in case they have magic cores, which they don't and simply collect their left ears for future payment from the Guild. Both golems had long fallen to the ground immobile from lack of mana, leaving Michael and I low on stamina and mana.
After I recovered somewhat, I went around the place picking up all the weapons that I dropped during the heat of battle. It was a shame that I lost a few vials and one of my daggers in the fighting but it was a small price to pay considering what could have been lost.
We make camp, resting up for our next engagement, despite what the stories saying about goblins being `easy' opponents, I don't share that sentiment at all. Sure they died easily enough, when you can grab hold of them and stab them but they were annoyingly good at hiding in unexpected places and attacking before you realise they're there.
They're dangerous ambush predators, deceptively weak, making it easy for them to lure overconfident Adventurers to their doom.
I take first watch with Felix, who is concerned with my injury but I brush it off, it's unlikely I'll get an infection, despite the goblin's shitty attempt to poison me. While Michael and Kered take second watch, Felix cuddles me, hand tight on his spear throughout.
The next morning we follow the trail to a cave.
I get a bad feeling when I recognise the energy signature coming from the cave.
FUCK. It's a wild dungeon out in the middle of nowhere...
And there's a horde of goblins pouring out from deeper in the cave, all of them heading towards us, all of which I can see through the use of [Hawk Eye]. Kered notices them heading our way too.
There's only one way to fight off their superior numbers, use of proper tactics. There's at least a hundred of them, if they get out of the cave, they'll surround and kill us. Or injure us just enough to drag us into the dungeon and feed our souls to the dungeon. Felix and Kered move to block off the narrow cave entrance, I glance at Michael and he nods and I prepare myself for a tough battle.
What's worse than their numbers is that the closer they get, the more details I can pick up from those in the back. It's bad, real bad, there's at least one hobgoblin, a dirt brown coloured thing about 5 feet tall at the back coming towards us and a goblin carrying a staff and chanting in whatever excuse of a language goblins have. It sounds like the rhythmic chanting of a goblin shaman.
Fuck fuck and double fuck. There are way too many goblins.
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Author's Note: Infusion & Core Command are different aspects of a similar pathway. Infusion is merely pumping personal mana into something to increase it's potency in some way or another. Core command is using willpower over something infused with personal mana to have it obey a certain `command'.
Infusion is a USB inserted into a computer, Core command is an executable file on the USB.
I don't know, I'm struggling to explain it well. Infusion is the gas/fuel for the car, Core command is the steering wheel?
Next chapter: Dungeon Madness; where the Silver Storm struggle to fight back against overwhelming odds, Lucius makes some problematic decisions and unfortunate truths are exposed.