The spider reached out to touch them with a bristled claw-

  [Wall Climb], Theo released the skill that helped him cling to Violet and submerged under water.

  'Throom!', 'throom!', the spiders claws raked through the water- deflecting off his leather armor barely not able to get a hold of him.

  He swam through the water- his eyes saw surprisingly well in the muddy water! Perhaps it was a [Changeling] thing?

  [Displace]! A rock appeared in his grasp.

  He had practiced that earlier- the skill even worked on things he couldn't see! If he didn't specify a target- it would transport the nearest object to him, though only up to a certain size and distance. Which is also convenient in this case.

  The rock was smooth but hefty- the spider turned towards him as Theo surfaced out of the water behind it. "Violet- throw this!" he hefted it into the air and as it flew-

  [Displace]

  It disappeared and reappeared near her. He could also control where it appeared, so long as he could see it.

  Violet was surprised- but reacted swiftly. She clutched the coconut sized rock in both hands, "[Quick-Throw]!" the rock blurred from her hands!

  It shot like a cannon, as Violet had intended. A row of it's legs disappeared from beneath the spider as the blur passed! It roared a fierce chirp- flailing with it's remaining legs and mouth-feelers... It was actually a bit sad.

  'DOOSH!' the rock splashed into the water a distance away.

  Theo's mouth was agape. But then he looked back towards the wounded spider.

  It was wading towards him- it's head half-submerged being pulled along by a four legs on one side. It wouldn't give up!

  [Displace]

  ...[Displace]

  Nothing. There must be no more rocks! That was a big object though, maybe that counted towards the charges of the skill he had left.

  Violet was splashing towards a tree- likely to find some kind of stick to beat it with. But Theo was out of time, the spider lifted one arm- partly submerging itself more just to reach for his shoulder- even with half the legs it was nearly as fast in desperation.

  The cold claw racked across the back of his neck, pulling him closer. Closer.

  The mandibles parted and extended revealing a horrific circular mouth lined with razor-teeth.

  'Splat'

  Theo wiped his face. 'ew' the white chunks fell into the water. Tiny tadpoles swam up and nibbled at them.

  Then he saw.

  The spiders head had exploded. Off-white flesh revealed, it's internal organs sloughing off into the water as the rest of the body sunk. Only the feet holding to the surface of the water.

  [Level Up!]

  [Intercepted Evidence]x1

  [True Grit]x3

  [Double Agent]x1

  [Escape Prison]x1

  [Accessory to Murder!]x1

  [Doppleganger Level 6!]

  [Danger Boppler] + 1 Strength!

  [Sticky Jump Unlocked!]

  Theo felt at the back of his neck. A bit of red came back in his hands. "How bad is it?" he asked Violet.

  "Just a scratch. Here." she offered him a small vial, a quarter full of red healing potion.

  "Thanks... You have this but not a dagger?" he asked, splashing it on. "It's far less suspicious to carry a healing potion around..." she spoke in a whisper. She was looking around carefully.

  The pain receded as the healing potion did it's work. It wasn't enough- the wound was still raw and irritated. But it wasn't bleeding anymore. They quickly swam away from the corpse. Catfish were swarming it- drawn from the smell of the blood.

  "Did you level up too?" he asked- at that- she looked at him. "You did? Congratulations... I believe I know how it died." she said as they kept wading away from the corpse teeming with fish.

  "Me too. It's probably Rose, it'd make sense. She didn't take us out here to die.", "Likely not, still... I've heard of such things."

  Theo felt a sharp pain in the side of his knee. "Youch!" he reached down an plucked a tiny fish from the water. Tiny, the size of a billiard ball. Shaped like a poker chip with fins- it's mouth was lined with many teeth. It chittered rapidly, looking for something to bite.

  He crushed it.

  "Where are you going?" Violet asked him. "I'm climbing a tree.", "How there are no handholds- these branches are way to thin-"

  He placed an open palm against the trunk of a weeping willow tree and lifted himself out of the water.

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  "Did you get that ability just now?" Violet asked, seemingly irritated. "No. I got [Wall Climb] the night we found that body. This is the skill I got just now-" He said as he got half way up the tree. He had tied his shoes together and strung them over his shoulder. In order to use [Wall Climb] with his feet, he had to be barefoot.

  [Sticky Jump]

  "HUP!" he grunted as he flew a dozen feet to another tree gracefully. Not quickly- his momentum was controlled like a flying squirrels, his small body weightlessly landed on another tree.

  Violet hurried after him- forcing herself through the heavy water. "Typical." she grimaced, pulling a tiny fish from the water and crushing it. She poked through the water ahead of her with the branch she had gotten earlier.

  "Hey Violet! Land ho!" he shouted. He had made some distance and had a better angle to see. Not far he could see land. Or at least grass.

  Theo was sweating. Using [Sticky Jump] made his arms and legs burn. He jumped to one final tree, breathing heavily as he clambered down. Carefully looking through the grass a moment first- it was dense. There could be snakes, alligators- anything.

  Violet stepped onto the bank. "Finally." a little yellow fish was flopping from her chest plate, it's teeth embedded in the leather. A leech the size of a cucumber was trying to work it's way through one of her vambraces.

  Theo put his boots back on.

  Violet pulled the tubular leech off and dashed it against a rock. "Peeeeeeh!!" it made a loud high-pitched noise.

  She wacked it again and it went quiet. "Disgusting."

  Then she tossed the piranha over her shoulder. It flopped about in the grass.

  "I get dangerous monsters. Sure, Adun has some. But these? These are disgusting and dangerous." she tied her hair into a bundle on her head.

  "Are you sure this is the right way?" Theo asked as they began walking again. Violet stopped.

  "-I thought you were keeping track of direction.", "-You should know me better by now." he responded flatly.

  ---

  'TopG' awoke in the cave. He had fashioned a mattress of thatch and palm leaves. The dusty sandy cave was maze like and often narrow in places. A regular sized human would have a difficult time moving through it at anything more than walking speed. Which was the intention.

  Goblins owned this cave.

  His tribe, the one he spawned with- owned it.

  TopG's foot was kicked. His typical alarm clock.

  "Topeegee! Wakeses! We hunt dwarfses." a raspy voice said, the accent was reminiscent of a certain gollum.

  He groaned. "Five more minutes...", this wasn't the first time they repeated this process.

  So the goblin threw a scorpion on him. That always worked. "Fuck! Oh shit!" he swatted himself as he shot to his feet- shivering. "Ugh! Fine! But I only shoot arrows!"

  "Is fine. Good arrowses." the goblin nodded.

  TopG adjusted his loincloth and strapped a bow and arrow over his shoulder. He was a level 12 [Archer], a high level for a goblin! He got it because it was how he fed himself, shooting these bright birds out of the sky. It was like they had no natural predators, how they were all over the place.

  He had a [Fletcher] skill where he could make bows from rocks, a few sticks and some feathers. His bow was easy enough to repair. It was a living, though he didn't always appreciate the company he kept. But [Goblin]'s weren't that bad all the time.

  They knew how to party for one.

  The coconut wine they made wasn't half bad, they knew where to find salt and the cave was always a moderate temperature at all times of day. And the ambience! A crystal blue ocean, beaches, palm trees. -There's been a tropical storm that was pretty scary. But besides that, the weather's been ideal.

  The white-lime stone walls of the cave were porous from years of floods. His room was all his own, though it was just a mattress and a basket weaving project he was working on. It's hard to figure these things out without the internet.

  After his morning pee, he ate some bird he had saved and met the other goblins when they called for him. No, the goblins weren't so bad. Until they were. Like now.

  They were going on a hunt.

  This was an aspect about his monster class that he didn't expect. They were evil, they attacked innocent people and tried to rob them or worse. Goblins were known for being... Rapey.

  There's just no other way to define it.

  This was a game. It was supposed to be a game. But these goblins didn't act like pg-13 goblins. They were sick fucks. But, they were his sick fucks. And he had to survive among them until he found an opportunity to go elsewhere.

  He walked after them, kicking up sand as he went. It was warm and comfortable to push his toes through. "Who are we robbing?" Topg asked.

  "Dwarfses, sailorses, is beach. Shipses.", a burly goblin in the front replied- the chieftan. "Informative." TopG sighed. He'd pretend to shoot arrows and hang towards the back, same as usual.

  ---

  They snuck along the treeline down the length of the shore the dwarves were camped on, they sat around a bone fire. For being shipwrecked- they didn't seem all that upset.

  Some laughed and jeered as they drank and made merry. Cooking and singing songs in a typical dwarvish fashion.

  'Sorry' TopG thought, but the fact was, he had no control. He couldn't convince the goblins not to steal- they didn't know enough words, let alone ideas about ethics. Not that they weren't clever. They had a goblins wit.

  Which they employed now- stalking along the foliage. Their small forms and green skin blended in well with the foliage that was already rustling in the wind.

  "Yarh! By Gregons Squall! It was destiny I say!", a broad-shouldered dwarf sailor [Swashbuckler] toasted proudly. Two dozen or so dwarves surrounded the fire, some others moved about setting up camp and hauling things from the shipwreck.

  "Without question! Gregon must want Dwarven kind to claim this place!" their distance voices sounded without fear. They couldn't of been further than fifty yards now. A stretch of sand was all that separated the goblins from the camp.

  The goblin chieftain raised a hand- signaling all of them to stop and prepare. TopG took a deep breath, and drew a arrow.

  "Oooh~ through etched iron Gregon blew his mighty squuuuaall~ The savage siren fight its call- because it's we who sing of the one who stood tallest of aaaall~" they sang.

  He hung on the last note- then changed to a upbeat jaunty tune, a flute and drums joined him as he did; "Gregon the legend washed ashore foreign lands he's landed-"

  'Thud!'

  The drunken dwarf looked to the arrow that landed next to him. Then towards the forest.

  The goblins looked at TopG.

  "Oops."

  "Goblins!" a dwarvish woman shouted out in fright. And at that- the camp scrambled for weapons and for the safety of whatever remained of the ship.

  And the goblins charged.

  The chieftain lingered, watching TopG for a moment longer. He narrowed his gaze. "Next time, not miss. I see." he grunted at walked down the beach towards the frey.

  "Crossbows!" they were tossing the weapons to other dwarves, who took aim in a sort of battle-line towards the goblins. They slashed through their tents with their jagged unmaintained blades.

  Five goblins died to the first wave of arrows. Double that amount the second. But the swarm grew and grew, flooding endlessly from the forest.

  Dwarves began dying as the firing line was over-taken. They fought back with their sidearms they powerful stout peoples cleaved goblins in two. Bisecting even the larger of goblins easily. The Goblins weren't half as well-fed nor half as strong.

  "9!" a dwarf cried out, throwing a hand axe through the air. It collided with a goblins face. "11!" another voice near him called out.

  A dwarfs spirit was hard to crush- TopG had to give them that. But eventually even the few higher leveled [Swashbucklers] were cornered and routed out. Falling only when covered in goblin corpses.

  TopG felt his shoulder get smacked gently. The chieftain was watching him, and he nodded past him. TopG turned and saw a bronzed Dwarf man running down the beach- he was escaping.

  TopG sighed. He had to.

  He drew his bow back. [Precision Shot], he activated the skill and automatically 'knew' where to place his shot.

  The dwarf clutched their calve as the arrow buried into it.

  The chieftain swung his warhammer into his hands and walked by him but TopG stopped him, grabbing the bulky goblins wrist.

  "C-capture..." he stammered. The chieftain cocked their head sideways; "Not female?", TopG shook his head. "..Talk... Dwarf tell us best loot. Why come. Where.."

  He only looked at him cynically. But goblins weren't known for debating.

  "-Fine." they threw a net over the surviving dwarf. The goblins snickered as they corralled the new captives back towards the caves. TopG remained behind with others to sort through the loot.

  Goblin rules when it came to loot were simple. Finders keepers, and trade. If a person who preferred axes found a sword, he'd trade it with someone who found an axe, and so on. Besides that, the toughest goblin would decide who got what.

  A goblin 'friend' of his- Dahl- pawed through a crate that had been carried from the shipwreck. She lifted a emerald from it. "Much shiny. Such preciouses. Wow." then she tossed it aside and grabbed a wineskin.

  TopG found one of the crossbows. It was fairly well-made. The wood was polished black, with a silver metal plating in places that was engraved with a leafy design. It had multiple strings so it could fire more than one shot- a repeater bow. He didn't like the idea that he'd be more lethal- but it could come in handy if he ever made a break for it.

  Dahl inched closer to where he was looting.

  "Is bow?" she asked. "Yeah, but you just crank it back like this- then load in these bolts."

  Dahl smiled and put a hand on his arm. "Many words. Smart goblin."

  TopG cringed and shuffled away; "It'd be nice if you stopped hitting on me, Dahl.", "Wut? No hit? Is good?"

  TopG was about to call goblin HR when the chieftain approached.

  "You. Toe-peegee. Show crowbow- other." he pointed to a goblin that was starring down the barrel of a half-loaded crossbow, kicking the string down until it clicked.

  'Thunk!'

  The goblin fell over.

  TopG deflated.

  He had no choice- so he went over and began showing the goblins how to load them properly.

  Meanwhile... He planned.

  'If nothing else... He could probably free the dwarf survivors later that night. It'd make up for some of this.', he clutched his chest in shame, which some goblins just gave him odd looks in return.

  Then clutched their chests as well. They wondered how it was involved in the process of loading the crossbows, but if it worked it worked.