The sounds of the nearby brawl were still audible even as the goblin I had captured stopped screaming and gazed up at my party members fearfully. I gazed at the tiny green humanoid and shook my head, before motioning for my allies to go ahead and tie him up. 

The members of my party wordlessly accepted my command and obeyed it without attempting to stop me when I walked in the direction of the woods where we could hear the sounds of combat. Goblin grunts were coming from the woods and as I stalked towards the sounds my companions shuddered, wondering what was going on over there. 

“Perverts…” I muttered, quietly. I knew what they were thinking, because I walked past them and laid my eyes on them as I walked by. Their thoughts were laid bare before me, thanks to the powerful psychic abilities I possessed even just from the nature of my weird existence as a Force Conduit. 

I stepped off of the dusty trail and onto cold grass that I was able to feel as readily as if I weren’t wearing shoes. I had boots on, thick things meant to protect my feet as if I were an ordinary mortal and not a positively eldritch being thanks to my multifaceted soul. 

I quickly made my way into the shrouded area created by a dense group of tree tops blocking out the sunlight. As I stepped into the shade caused by the trees I felt a strange and new current of energy flowing into me, filling me with a newfound sense of power. This was a manifestation of the effects of the “Darkness” power many Sanguinarchs had. 

The power of darkness was flowing into me and coursing through my veins. The knowledge that this was my new reality felt… weird, and like I was having a quarter-life crisis of sorts, but that was the truth. I was empowered because I was no longer standing in the light of the sun. 

I paused for a second to allow myself to grow used to this passive energy that was slowly circulating my body. I knew that so long as I was in the dark I would be stronger and more effective than I would otherwise be. Heck even my senses were slightly sharper now than they had been before, and that was really something given how exact my senses had been following my ascension. 

I continued my walk a second later and vanished from the view of my companions by walking behind a tree. When I was behind the tree and out of line of sight from my companions I could see the tiny creatures I had come here to find. 

They were behind a number of trees close to where I was, and they laid panting on the ground. Two of them were now thoroughly infuriated but also tired so they merely glared at each other rather than trying to finish each other off. The third one who was supposed to be here had run off, scared by the sudden rampage of his former comrade. He was making his way back to the goblin’s lair deeper in the wooded area. 

I planned to follow him to their lair quite soon, though I wanted to have a few surprises in store to unleash on the goblin and his friends before I did that.

The goblins were small humanoids who wore tattered and dirty clothing. They smelled quite strong, and the smell was an unpleasant one. Their blood oozed out of their noses, mouths, and seeped onto the ground from their tired and battered bodies. 

I was silent as I studied the figures, and as I approached them. They didn’t notice me until I was right over them because of how focused they were on each other. When they noticed me I heard their hearts jump in their chests and begin to beat rapidly, and I smiled savagely at them. 

“Hello little ones. You’re going to be very helpful.” I warned them, speaking confidently. I had a number of essences that helped me with this as I wasn’t an exceedingly confident person naturally. 

I needed to figure out who I wanted to be, and this was the perfect chance for me to begin to walk towards making that choice. I was as safe here as I could be anywhere, since this was a simulation’s simulation, freeing me of any sort of serious consequences of my actions, and I had the physiology of a powerful divinity. But that didn’t change the fact that I was changing in real and noticeable ways.

There was a big difference between who I had been before I drank the essences and who I could be now that I was a bizarrely empowered being. Some of the essences were better suited for acting and charisma than others, with the ones that were the best suited for this sort of thing being the “Essence of the Memetic Bard”, the “Essence of the Statesman”, and the “Essence of the Manipulator”. 

Before today I had been what I believed to be an average guy. Someone who got up, worked hard at a job I didn’t really like, went home after a long day of work, and spent a few hours watching T.V. before going to bed. But now… Now everything was different. 

Within me I could feel the Phoenix Force beginning to stir. I could sense its cosmic light and power imbuing my cells with radiant energy and conceptual might. I knew that in time the thing would be fully active and would allow me to use its might however I wished. 

I stepped over the goblin closest to me and chuckled as I stared at the creature. I knelt down and placed my hand on the tiny beast-like humanoid. As I did I placed one finger on the creature’s forehead. 

“You’re mine, little one.” I uttered as I forced the creature’s will to square off against mine. The tiny bandit was an average member of his species and so possessed only average willpower. I felt the little creature cry out mentally, but his terror only lasted a second while my powers washed over him. 

I was activating the dark powers of one of the more brutal essences I had consumed; the “Essence of the Hivemind”. That wicked essence gave those who imbibed it the ability to absorb the minds of those who willingly joined with them or who they could mentally overpower. Sadly, for the goblin anyway, he was not a bright member of his kind and succumbed to my mental assault. 

I continued to kneel over the tiny creature as I took a second to absorb and internalize the contents of his mind. He was not especially intelligent but he was a capable scout and he had known everything about the lair of the goblins, which I realized upon consciously sifting through his knowledge of the area was an exact copy of its depiction in the adventure that had inspired this simulation. 

“How boring…” I muttered as I realized what that implied. Until now I had been conscious of the possibility that this was only loosely inspired by that adventure… If it was an exact copy of it, it’d be up to me to make it a bit more interesting. 

I slowly got to my feet, and offered the goblin I had converted into my ally my hand so that the small creature could get up. He gazed at me, awestruck, and slowly took my hand so that he could get back on his feet as well. 

Because of the fact that I had forcibly recruited one of the goblins I didn’t need the other one. I studied the other fallen figure for a second and wondered what to do about the tiny creature. 

“So many options…” I muttered, well aware of my destructive capabilities. My companions were busy questioning the other goblin, though that was no longer necessary. Nevertheless I was happy to let them have their fun while I wondered what to do with the leftover goblin. 

The creature was beaten as thoroughly as his peers had been, aside from the one that was even now heading to his companions to warn them of impending visit. He laid in a puddle of his own blood and sweat and I silently walked over to him before kneeling down and placing my finger in a puddle of the creature’s blood. 

I wordlessly absorbed the fluid and as I did I felt the goblin’s memories flow into me. This strange, repeated occurrence was not normal for vampires, even if they were sanguinarchs, and was actually a consequence of me selecting a specific power when I had been... customizing myself in my context as a sanguinarch. This was a manifestation of a greed-based ability that I had chosen because it fit me thematically.

With this particular power whenever I absorbed essence from another person, which I could do by causing them to experience consensual pleasure, forcing them to be in debt to me, drinking their blood, or consuming even parts of their soul, I gained fragments of what made them, them. This included things like memories, knowledge, skills, and even any powers they possessed. 

This ability came with a clause that if I sacrificed some of the essence I’d have earned I could opt to only create copies of whatever I absorbed, but I wasn’t doing that at the moment. The knowledge I was stealing from the goblin was well and truly leaving his mind and entering my own, stolen as readily from him as if I had made him a victim of my “Essence of the Thief”. 

I knew what both goblins knew, which wasn’t all that much but, thankfully for me, was quite relevant. Among other things, both of the goblins knew where their comrades were holed up; a cavern filled with goblins, a hobgoblin, and even a few wild animals. 

As I drank the goblin’s blood the creature’s eyes grew softer. They were losing some of the darkness that came with having wisdom, and indeed with things such as memories. I watched as the little man’s eyes lightened and as I rid it of the burden of having knowledge. The goblin had lost a decent amount of blood, but not enough for me to drain it of quite all of its knowledge through this somewhat brutal ability. 

The thing’s blood lacked some of the same refined spiciness that I could taste on the blood of the human whose blood I had drunken earlier. It didn’t taste bad, but it wasn’t particularly appetizing and a small part of me quietly hoped that if I got to drink more blood from other creatures in the future they would taste better than these goblins had. 

I gazed at the almost innocent-eyed goblin and quickly came to the conclusion that I could have some fun and engage in some mischief if I was clever right now. The goblin looked back at me, curiously, and had a naive smile on his face as I decided to experiment and make him a new kind of minion of mine. 

“I am having too much fun with you to really just give you up this fast!” I told the naive goblin, who simply smiled back at me with a slightly confused look on his face. It was true, I was enjoying this little play-period that I was having. This was the perfect time for me to adjust to my powers, and I was determined to do that. 

I wanted to fully appreciate the breadth of my abilities and make maximally effective usage of them. If that meant that I transformed some goblins, tamed some animals, and became a strange patron to bizarre beings, I was willing to do all of that. But the thing that I could use right now was someone who went places I wasn’t going too quite yet and began to pave the way. 

I could use a scout. And I had the means to ensure that the wide-eyed goblin in front of me was transformed into a truly spectacular scout and servant of mine; slime.