I lay on the ground panting. On top of me was a dirty red piece of fabric. I grabbed it. As I did so a new screen popped up.

Captain’s Band

The identifying band looted from ‘Goblin Captain’

Due to being worn by one the goblins are familiar with

Captain’s Band cloaks the wearer in ‘Goblin’s Stench’

What is ‘Goblin’s Stench’?  I wondered. After tapping the underlined words a new screen popped up.

Goblins Stench

Due to smelling like one of their own kind. Goblin’s

Stench reduces the likelihood of you being noticed

by Goblins.

Ok so by wearing this I can avoid detection by the goblins. I suppose that’s useful. 

There was just one problem with that. It stank. It was really terrible. I just couldn’t bring myself to put that on me. Not that there was a need at the time anyway. I had already taken care of all the monsters here. So what else was there to do? 

If I missed the evacuation notice then how do I meet with everyone? Where would everyone go? If it were me in this situation a big open field would be best to deal with just a few of these. But if there are many of them then it's best to go to a place with few entrances to make it easy to bottleneck them. So far I’ve encountered a fair few of the monsters so it’s best to assume the latter option was the one chosen.

That’s when it hit me. The subway. It can fit a large number of people and is easily defensible. That’s where they must've gone. I recalled that there was a subway station just a few blocks down from here so I set off. 

Cautiously, now more than ever, I moved through the streets. Occasionally I would catch sight of a group of goblins, whenever that happened I always tried another path or back alley to avoid them. On the few occasions there was no escape I would wrap the Band around my arm and hide under a car or any other terrain that would provide decent cover. Eventually I was only one street away from the station. The only problem was that this one also just so happened to have a group of goblins wandering around it with the captain lounging on top of one of the abandoned cars. Luckily there was an alley that led off to the side that hopefully wouldn’t have a dead end. But to get there I needed to sneak past one of the goblins. 

The stench of Goblin filled my nose as I wrapped the band around my arm, it was really aptly named because it truly was a stench. After crouching low I moved behind one of the cars. The goblin was pacing back and forth a bit but didn’t leave the entrance to the alleyway.

Does it know that I can get past it there? Are goblins even that smart? Has someone else done this before?

No matter the reason for the goblins pacing, I needed to get past and for that I would need to create a distraction. I searched the ground around me. Fortunately someone had decided this was a good place to leave their empty water bottle. It wouldn’t be the best of distractions but hopefully it would work. I picked it up and threw it as hard as I could. I intended for the bottle to land a little off to the left of the alley in hopes of drawing the goblins attention that way. Yet my aim was not great so it seemed and the bottle landed just a few feet behind the goblin inside the alley. The goblin quickly scurried into the alley. No doubt searching for its perceived next prey. It was then that I realized that this was a golden opportunity. This goblin just isolated itself from the view of the rest of its group. I could kill it without consequence and for whatever reason that felt great.

I moved out from behind the car and into the alley that the goblin had just disappeared into, catching sight of the goblin I stayed low and moved towards it. I had the club in my hands ready and waiting.  When the goblin turned around all it saw was the wood of the club rushing forward to meet its face. It didn’t even have a chance to scream as its face was smashed by the first hit. I didn’t stop there though. I brought the club down on its face once more before crushing its neck. 

Congratulations! You have defeated 1 ‘Goblin’.

-15 EXP has been awarded to you.

-3 Gold has been awarded to you.

Congratulations! You have met the necessary EXP requirement!

You are now Level 2!

I waited, listening out for if any of the other goblins were going to come for me. When they didn’t, I looked back at the screen. Level 2? I noticed that it said level 1 the last time I checked. Had anything else on the system screen? I thought about it and the screen appeared before me.