Harkell and his two underlings, Ikar and Greese march out of the village. Harkell’s steps are loud, his heavy metal armor is poorly fitted and it clunks against itself and his bones as he moves. Ikar scouts out ahead, around 3 and half feet tall he’s barely large enough for Harkell, a man obsessed with power to let him join him, but his perception abilities far in a way make up for it. His light leather like armor is so caked in filth and muck it blends right into the dark making Ikar practically disappear to the less observant dou as he works.

  “Hey, boss, why don't we just go to the portal ourselves. We strong, more fighting is good right?” Grease starts his normal voice strained into a deep gruff sound to appeal to Harkell.

  The knife wound on Harkell’s thigh throbs, likely opening back up as he moves through the difficult terrain of the outer cave. “Simple as this” Harkell responds “I ain’t never fought one of them kobolds until yesterday, but they came in a big group. I’m not getting surrounded again and worse case we can throw one of Grimwoli’s twerps at the hoard to distract them.” The two men laugh boisterously, letting their voices echo through the cave system. After another hour of walking they arrive at a massive blue orb flashing in and out of existence. It’s rich blue light flickering on and off at a steady interval.

  The soft fabric of Grimwoli’s near pristine wizard robes gently rustle around as shifts around the orb trying to gleam as much information as he possibly can. He has 3 apprentices with him, but since the lot are too new with magic to help with his research they stand back. Without looking up to the approaching group of goblins Grimwoli says “You absolute troglodytes. Have you all no ability to think of stealth, of preserving what little advantage we have. What if you were followed, what if they kobolds hear. What if…” Grimwoli is interrupted before he can finish.

  Harkell laughs deeply with his fully belly exaggerating to make as much noise as possible “Of course you’d be scared, you fucking pussy.”

  Harkell positions himself next to the smaller goblin and leans down to place a hand on his shoulder “We big boys can take care of ourselves, so I didn’t bother thinking about all that lame stuff” Grimwoli quickly responds, staring Harkell in the eye “Didn’t bother, or were incapable. It often seems as though even the most basic thoughts allude you”

  Suddenly Ikar and Grimwoli turn to their left, in the direction they came from towards their village. A light friendly voice calls out “Woah woah woah. We come in peace” A roughly 4 foot tall lanky goblin says as he steps out behind a rock. He appears to be wearing a roughed up burlap sack for a shirt and nothing else except a dagger at his hip. 5 more similarly dressed and sized goblins step out into the open. Apart from their lighter lime green skin and slight difference in height the two goblin groups are nearly indistinguishable from each other. Grimwoli prepares himself to speak as the village chief and steps forward to welcome and great the group of six

  “Fuck out of here” Harkell barks before the rest can speak up “No fucking lima beans allowed in our territory”. He makes a show of grabbing his axe and his two underlings quickly follow. “Unless you were looking for a fight” Harkell growls instinctively activating his bloodlust skill.

  ******

  Kyle looks at the screen in front of him, it doesn’t take him long to parse through what little information is on the screen. “I’m pathetic”. He sighs, reaching down into his pocket ensuring his trusty vape is still there. He pulls it out, the screen still blocking view in front of him.

  With a deep inhale his lungs are filled with a milky vapor. He starts to choke, but keeps dragging until his device blinks at him turning off. He casually inhales, pulling the toxic substance further into his lungs burning them deeply. He exhales with a cough, struggling for a moment to catch his breath. He doesn't notice while coughing, but with the erratic movements his head and parts of his body faze through the screen as if it's a hologram.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Kyle refuses to explore this any further and turns around hoping to find that strange glowing white rift again. To his surprise it's there, the color isn’t pure white, rather it emanates a deep blood red aura. partially in shock Kyle muses “huh I thought for sure I was gonna die here” His hand delicately reaches out to the portal again and with a flash he's back in his basement.

  “Fuck I just wanted some ice cream” Kyle looks to his freezer the door only a foot behind the crack wouldnt have enough room to open“Why the fuck does my life have to suck why does stupid shit keep happening to me.” Kyle sighs, giving up on ever using his freezer again as he goes back up to his room.

  Back to his desk to ruminate in his thoughts, while he gets high and plays mindless idle browser games with some video on in the background. The white noise of content is interrupted with deep gurgle and growl from Kyle’s stomach. “You fucking disgusting pig” he murmurs aloud to himself almost like a mantra.

  Kyle checks the time, seeing it’s past 3:00am and he has to start working at 7 he starts getting ready for bed. “Forgetting” to brush his teeth and shower, he puts on a long video about some topic he hardly cares about. He needs the ambient sounds, after his previous session of loathing, being along with his thoughts still frightens him. Every day he feels the same. Another motto escapes his lips almost passively “every day’s the same every day is hell”

  ******

  Jisseppi crouched as low as he could behind a rock. The sound of his heart beating in his ears and the taste of blood staining his mouth making it hard for him to focus. He never ran that much in his 7 long years of life, but as the hulking troglodyte, an evolution of the already dangerous troglodyte, ran after him he had no other choice.

  He stays there as silent as he can for what feels like hours, but is likely only 15, or so minutes. Slowly he stands up, his knees loudly popping. Checking to see if he lost any health from the beast as he ran, the small goblin decides to check his basic information. “Stats”

  “What the.” Jisseppi stops. Confused, he re-scans the screen. The class and the skill are both new. He looks it over several times in sheer disbelief he screams “LET”S FUCKING GOOOO”. His hands slap his mouth covering it. *Shit, that thing could still be close by. I can’t lose my life right after getting a unique class with a skill*