More Than A Game (Epic LitRPG adventure)

Chapter 2: A Brave New World Part 3

Once everyone had gotten the quest, we once again assured the old lady that the goblins were about to meet their maker and left.

"There are other quests here, but they suck," observed Frori. "Go here, go there. Deliver a letter, fill a barrel of water, make a spit handle. Nothing you need a club for, and certainly nothing that will get a good shot of adrenaline running through your veins. Beating up goblins, though—much better. Experience and some fun at the same time!"

"And the loot isn't bad," I said, taking his thought to its logical conclusion.

By the time we finished chatting, we had gotten to the edge of the lake infested with antsy goblins. A few other players scurried around the shore waving weapons.

"Listen up!" Frori waved his stubby shovel of a hand. "This is the lake with the goblins. We'll lure them over here one by one and take them down together."

"Why one by one?" asked Oygolinn. "Why don't we just get a group up here and be done with it?"

"That won't work," Frori disagreed. "They only come up out of the lake one at a time, first of all, and once they do, they're a lot for you to handle. You're still just Level 1, and they're Level 3. We have to gang up on them, so we'll need a kill queue."

"Well, isn't that a nice way of putting it," I said to myself. "A kill queue. That would be a great title for a detective story."

"Hey, guys!" yelled Frori to the other players who, like us, were anxious to kill some of the watery interlopers. "Who's last in line for the goblins?"

"I am," answered an elf with the proud and hard-to-pronounce name of Euardenalil. "Wait, the five of you are all going to kill just one of them?"

"Yup," answered Frori. "Though not just one. There are five of us, and we want to take out five of the goblins one by one. Fair's fair. Then we'll get back in line to complete the rest of the challenge."

"Ha! Fair!" a dwarf named Forin was outraged. He had arrived after us looking for goblin blood. "And how long do the rest of us have to wait while you five have your fun?"

"No longer than it will take you to kill one of them," Frori said. "We're sitting here yammering on and on, and that moron over there still isn't done."

The whole time we'd been talking, a human named Zubiloff had been trying unsuccessfully to finish off one of Auntie Doris' whiskered and toothy antagonists. Zubiloff wielded a knotty stick that he used to occasionally run up to the goblin and take off some of his hit points. The goblin, in turn, spun like a whirligig, grimaced, and tried to sink his needle-sharp teeth into Zubiloff. A couple times, he landed a bite.

"Anyone want to bet on the winner?" grunted Oygolinn.

Frori looked at him thoughtfully, coins glinting in his eyes. Our enterprising dwarf seemed to have taken what I thought was Oygolinn's joke seriously. Oygolinn was equally thoughtful as he watched the ongoing battle, explaining that there were three types of goblins: lake, forest, and mountain.

Lake goblins posed the least danger to players. They were the least aggressive, so they'd stick to harmless tricks like throwing dirt at you and spitting on your back as long as you left them alone. They ate leaves, snails, and anything else found in a lake, and they only lived in settled bodies of water. Shiny things were irresistible to them, and that's exactly how we planned to lure them over to where we were.

Forest goblins were different. They were much more dangerous and evil, especially in groups, and they were even insatiable cannibals. Humans and dwarves taste equally good to them. Some people said they'd eat anything they could get their hands on—even rocks. They lived in the woods, and you could find them everywhere in Fayroll.

Mountain goblins were the rarest and smartest of all. They preferred to stay away from humans, though they loved sending avalanches of rocks or snow down on anyone they saw walking anywhere near a slope.

"How do you know so much?" I asked Oygolinn with respect in my voice.

"I read through a lot of forums before I joined the game," was his dignified reply. "You need to understand the game if you want to get anywhere."

Just then, Zubiloff made one last valiant lunge, hacked at the goblin, and landed a fatal blow. The goblin squealed, twitched a few times, and gave up the ghost. His body splayed over the grass.

"Let's go, ear boy, cast away." Frori pointed Euardenalil toward a fishing pole lying on the shore. A large coin was tied to it. "Come on, you're holding up the line."

"And next it's your turn," said Frori, glancing at us. "Remember that we're not using the last strike rule, so experience is distributed evenly between us no matter who gets the kill. I'll rile up the goblins, so they only attack me. I have a higher level and more combat experience, so the rest of you need to wait for me and then jump in with everything you've got. With five clubs, we'll crack them like nuts. And remember, I get the loot we collect from them.

A message popped up:

The group leader set a new loot distribution rule: Only the group leader.

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