Now that things have calmed down I don’t think I can kill them. They’re clearly not armed since they haven’t pulled weapons out of their inventory yet. They aren’t making any noise currently. I know at least one of the goblins I landed on had screamed, but at least so far no one else has come to the boss room. I don’t hear anything outside either.

I decide I’ll see if I can reason with these two any more than I could reason with the Quartermaster. I use Identify and see: Midge - Level 20 Goblin Crafter and Iptaz - Level 20 Goblin Scavenger.

“Alright let’s try this again. Can either of you understand me?”

Midge nods and Iptaz scowls even harder, so I take that as an affirmative.

“Okay, listen if you two will promise not to scream I can let you live if you’ll agree to be locked into the Dungeon Boss’ room.”

Midge answers me. “Why? Why no kill us?”

I think for a second and decide to tell her I just don’t really want to if I don’t have to. I have a bunch of food and water, so I throw 6 rations and 4 waters onto the ground in front of them and tell them to take them into their inventory. They do it and I tell them they need to grab the bodies of the three who I killed and drag them next to the Boss’ door.

They both grumble about this but do as they’re told and once the three bodies are close I unlock the door and have them pull the bodies inside. I decide to lock the door behind us and I make them stack all the bodies that are in the room over in one corner.

I know this isn’t ideal. The bodies currently don’t smell any worse than they already did, but I know they’ll start rotting soon enough. I also don’t want them taking up space in my inventory and I don’t want the bodies out in one of the other rooms where someone could easily find them.

It’s right at this moment that I wonder if I could just take a body into my inventory and then loot their gear and then kick them back out. I try it but I get a system error message. This doesn’t make sense to me since the inventory description just says i can’t put anything living into my inventory.

“Scarlett, why can’t I drag the goblin bodies into my inventory?”

You cannot put the bodies of once Sentient beings into your inventory.

“But Scarlett,” I say in a slightly mocking tone. “You said that the System doesn’t

recognize goblins as a member of a sentient race”.

Yes.

I wait for her to say something else, but all I get is silence.

“Yes? Is that all? No other explanation?”

Yes, that is all.

Well then. It seems like this System isn’t exactly fair and consistent. The two female goblins have food and water, and even a bed, so they’ll be fine in here for at least a day.

“Midge and Iptaz, Will either of you answer any questions?”

Iptaz just growls at me, but Midge gives me a funny look and asks me, “We talk, you no kill?”

I tell her I promise if she tells me what to expect outside of these walls, I won’t hurt either of them. Iptaz still looks pissed, but she doesn’t say anything or attempt to intervene.

“Midge, I promise I won’t hurt you. I’ll be back to feed you if I’m still here in a day. If I can make it up to the 9th floor and it is safe I’ll come back and unlock the door. If it isn’t safe I’ll leave the key on the throne out there and when I sneak out I’m sure that someone else can come unlock the door.”

Iptaz looks doubtful, but I can see Midge at least wants to believe me. I haven’t taken any hostile actions since I stopped them from running, so she is willing to give me the benefit of the doubt right now.

“Midge, how many goblins are out there? How many females and males and children?”

Midge appears to be counting and tells me. Three double handfuls of males. Four double handfuls of females and a handful of children.”

I notice that she only has three fingers and a thumb, so that means maybe twenty-four males and thirty-two or so females and then four kids.

That’s still a lot of goblins if they all attack, but maybe some will be reasonable like Midge has been.

“Midge, would they be willing to let me go up to the 9th floor without fighting them?”

“No, male goblins fight. Some females, ones with young, maybe some crafters won’t fight if not need to.”

That’s probably as good as I can realistically hope for. “I won’t kill anyone who doesn’t fight me. Midge what does the dungeon look like outside of these rooms? How large is it?”

Midge spreads her arms wide and says, “Big, many double handfuls of rooms.”

“Midge, can you tell me exactly how many, how they’re set up and how big they are?”

She looks down and starts counting. “Long hallway. Cut in half, another long hallway on sides. Then big big room at end. Door up to 9th floor there.”

I grab a bunch of ash from the fireplace and give her a stick that has been used as the fire poker and she starts drawing a crude map for me. From what I can see, there is a hallway right on the other side of the door. The hallway is at least five hundred feet long and there are five doors on either side of that part of the hallway. Halfway down, there is another hallway that bisects it and is just as long. Five more doors line either side of the hallway. That puts the total dungeon at around forty doors along this long hallway before we get to that big room.

“Midge, are the goblins spread all over or just in a few rooms?”

“Not spread. Only in rooms on this side of hallway. Use far rooms on sides as bathrooms. Holes there.”

“Will you five be missed? If you’re not spread out normally then you being missing will be an issue at some point right? Also what about the goblins who are normally in this room? What does everyone think happened to them?”

Midge looks a little bit confused and I realize I went on one of my rambling sessions that my friends always gave me a hard time about. I decided to break down the questions and ask them one at a time.

“Will you be missed by the next dark cycle?”

Midge shakes her head. “No, everyone mixes. Will think we with others.”

Hopefully that solves that issue, so I ask my next question. “Do people wonder what happened to the goblins who were in this room?”

Midge shakes her head again and says, “confused why they not give us food when it got light. But we got food so that fine. Sometimes Retainers and Boss take Consort and other female goblins in room and all have sex.”

I feel more dirty knowing I was wrapped up in those sheets, but honestly, if I was just locked in a dungeon for forever, I can’t think of many ways I’d enjoy myself more than some sexy time.

Midge is being downright helpful at this point. She seems to have decided she really has a chance to live. Maybe me telling her I won’t try to kill those who don’t fight has helped too.

Iptar still looks pissed, but Midge’s body language is much more open. I haven’t really had much of a chance to really look at the goblins while they’re still alive, and I can’t help but stare at both of them a bit as we talk.

Just like the Consort, both goblin females are maybe 4’6” and probably 50ish pounds. They have greenish skin. I can see quite a lot of skin since they’re both only wearing loincloths. They’ve got smallish breasts with darker green nipples. I’m doing my best not to stare there. I have no idea if this would be considered rude since no one I’ve seen so far is wearing a top, but I certainly don’t need to develop any ideas about goblins…

They actually both have hair on their heads. It’s black with purplish hues. Roughly hacked off about shoulder length. They have red eyes and a pointy nose with a longish chin and sharp teeth. They also have pointy ears. Just like the boss and Consort, they aren’t unattractive, just alien looking to my human sensibilities.

I can’t think of anything else I’d need to ask, so I tell them I’m going to leave and I’ll check back up on them once it gets dark and then gets light again. I lock the door behind me and I decide to climb back up onto the beam until nightfall.

Brandon, this is a terrible idea. You need to kill all the goblins in order to unlock the dungeon.

“Do I? Scarlett, when I got in here you told me that I needed to kill the remaining nine floor bosses in order to get out. You never told me that I had to kill every monster in the dungeon. Did you tell me incorrectly then or now?”

Technically, you are correct but you are leaving behind potential XP. Once the dungeon fully activates, they will know you are coming, and you will have to fight. If you leave as many goblins behind as it appears you wish, then you are leaving at least two levels worth of XP behind. You are only a few kills away from level 9, but you definitely won’t be above level 11 when you make it to the 9th floor if you leave 30 or more female goblins alive down here. If you kill them as well, you will be level 13 when you are ready to move to floor 9.

“Scarlett, I feel like you’re being a lot more helpful and talkative than you appeared to be when I first landed here overnight. I’m not imagining that you’re being more helpful than at first, am I?”

I am not providing you with any information I am not authorized to provide you with. You have allowed me to be more informal, so I am reacting in the appropriate manner.

“I’m not so sure I believe you Scarlett. Well, either way I suppose I had better check my notifications and see where I’m at while I wait for it to get dark.”

I look at my UI and see notifications for each of the three kills I made when I fell off of the beam and see that I’m about two-thirds of the way to level 9. I think I’ve killed five goblins since I leveled up, so around three more should do the trick. If it takes ten to get me to level 10 and maybe fifteen-ish to get to level 11, then I think I’m getting a hang of how XP works even if I don’t see an actual total when I get a kill.

I even have one Achievement, so I look at that as well.

Congratulations! You have a new Achievement: Killing from Above! You have now killed your second mob by accidentally falling on their head! Surprisingly, you are also the third person to manage this feat! This mob was not a Dungeon Boss, so you have not been awarded a trait, but you have been given a pair of Lucky Dice. The Lucky Dice have a high likelihood of rolling the numbers that you wish. Just don’t get caught!

I see a pair of dice enter my inventory and tell myself I will never use them. If I’m already lucky then I sure as hell don’t need to have someone think I’m also using weighted dice. That’s probably a good way to find my throat slit in an alley.

I decide to go over my stats while I wait for nightfall.

Brandon Rawlings, Level 8 Human Medium Warrior.

My Stats:

52 Strength, 51 Constitution, 49 Endurance, 46 Dextirity, 16 Intelligence, and 14 Wisdom.. I now have 510 HP, 490 Stamina and 150 Mana.

My Trait:

Lucky Bastard - Exactly what it sounds like, you’re more likely to get lucky in a 50/50 situation and more often than not the dice will fall your way. You will be a great gambler.

My General skills are:

Identify Item Basic - this enables you to see the item stats of any item within 50 levels of your own highest level class. It also shows you a suggested value of the item.

Universal Translation - this skill is chosen by every person and monster capable of speech within the System. It allows you to understand anything that is capable of speech.

Basic Pathfinding - This skill lets you see a mini map on your UI that fills in as you explore a location.

My Combat Skills are:

Unnoticed - If an enemy is not actively looking for you they are likely to miss you on first glance. This is not invisibility and if an enemy has a search skill active then they will see you. The skill must be activated. It does not cost any stamina or mana to activate but will prevent Stamina regeneration while active.

Unerring Strike - Your attack will not miss where you target. It can still be blocked or countered by someone or something with a defensive skill but will not be dodged unless their skill level is higher than your level with Unerring Strike. Skill Costs 100 Stamina and has a 1 minute cooldown

Dual Wield - You no longer suffer a Dexterity penalty for wielding two 1H weapons.

Shield - Activating Shield gives you a protective barrier that will absorb 100 points of physical or magical damage for the cost of 100 mana.

Magical Gear

1. cuirass of the Adventurer Tier 4 level 100. Part of a set of 7 pieces of armor. Stats, 30 Constitution, 20 Endurance, 20 Strength,10 Dexterity . The item is self repairing as long as it is not completely destroyed.

Item set bonuses(you can mix light, medium, and heavy to achieve set bonuses):

3 pieces - Armor stat bonuses will be increased by 10% and your armor will be self cleaning.

5 pieces - The armor will regulate your body temperature as long as you are wearing at least 5 pieces of the set. You will feel comfortable in heat up to 130 degrees fahrenheit and cold of zero degrees fahrenheit. You will also receive a 10% reduction in heat and cold magical damage.

7 pieces - You will receive a 10% reduction to all damage types and a 20% reduction in heat and cold magical damage.

Jewelry - Can wear up to 4 pieces

1. Ring of Dexterity +25 Dexterity
2. Ring of Wisdom +25 Wisdom
3. Necklace of Holding - 20’x20’x20’ adds to inventory space

Magical Weapons

1. Unbreakable Flanged Mace - This flanged mace will not break nor will the flanges dull when striking any item below Tier 5. It has a 10% chance of stunning anything level 100 or below, 20% if they are below level 25. It causes crushing damage on armored opponents but is capable of cutting anything that is unarmored. It also gives the following stats; 15 Strength, 15 Endurance, 10 Constitution,10 Dexterity . It is a 1H weapon and must be in your primary hand. The item will be soulbound.
2. Unbreaking Falcata Tier 4 level 100. 20 Dexterity, 10 Constitution, 10 Strength, 10 Endurance. This weapon will remain sharp and will not be damaged by items below Tier 5.