The white light surrounding my body began to dissipate, the shouts, and pattering footsteps of the horde of goblins fading with it. My eyes cleared, and I found myself looking up at the familiar ceiling of Mariam's shop. I was slightly confused about the angle of my surroundings it was if I was suspended in the air my head tilted upwards; however, as I heard the rush of air around my ears I realized it was no illusion. My body tensed up as it descended, taking a less-than-graceful arc through the air before crashing into the wooden floor.
My vision spun as I cursed my luck. Didn’t I deserve a little break? Feeling the pouch by my side bouncing along the ground reminding me of the events that had transpired. After those three punks were killed by the goblins (huh, it was my fault? So what If I paralyzed them first the goblins finished them, ok?) the rest of my time in the goblin area was a blur. It was like I was possessed as I ran through the ranks of the goblins, before facing that magic goblin. Thinking back to that fight sent a shiver down my spine. That thing wasn’t even comparable to the others of its kind. It honestly reminded me of the way the ant lord had been. They both stood apart from their own species, and had incredible abilities that didn't conform to the rules of common sense.
More than that though they were both targets the system specifically asked me to kill. It had almost made sense in the ant cave where I was tasked to kill every ant that crossed my path, but this time the system didn’t seem to even notice the lesser goblins. Why it wanted those specific creatures dead was beyond me. All I could say for certain is that it wasn’t making my life any easier.
Despite my inward grumbling, at the crappy “protection" given to me by the goddess, I was relieved to be in a familiar place, even if I was currently bouncing along the floor of that familiar place. Rolling to a stop, a thud echoed out as my back hit something hard, leaving lying on my side with my head awkwardly pointing upwards.
I let out a somewhat motivation -ess sigh as I stared at the ceiling. Opening up the system, I checked to ensure that the goblin mage's poisons (what kind of mage uses poisons in the first place?) were gone. Not seeing any warning messages, I breathed a sigh of relief, my face relaxing slightly as I pushed myself up from the ground.
While flipping through the rest of the messages, my movements suddenly stopped as a new message appeared in my vision.
System>
. . . { Evaluating Special Quest modifier Complete rank B reward assigned,
(+1000gp)
. . . processing
*ding* [congratulations!]
{New active skill
[Kleee Kleee Clone]
[ A magic gleaned from the most profound goblin minds] - The Splitter Of Paper, Glim, allows for the creation of fake replicas that follow the user's actions for two minutes.)
. . . . calculating additional rewards
[Bonus reward from Quest "survive"]
New active skill “Wlee Wee Warp” (Space and time are nothing before the might of the goblin spirit! Allows the user to change their location to any position within a 20-meter sphere around them.)
I sounded out the names of the skills in my head, and as I repeated each word, my eyebrows twitched a little, and my lips formed an expression on the verge of laughter. Was the system trying to be funny? I shook my head, cursing the system's nature a little more than usual.
"Nobody can rest in peace with you around, can they? So what if I killed them? At least I didn’t make fun of them while I was doing it. Huh, one of those is worse than the others, umm, well...?"
Despite their names and questionable descriptions, they actually seemed pretty useful, at least the system could be competent when it came to skills. Smiling to myself I started to fantasize helplessly, I could already imagine the mayhem as three copies of me teleported around. As my fantasies continued, my mood dampened like cold water had been poured over it. It's true that back in my old life, I had always wanted superpowers, but I can’t say I ever wanted to need them to survive. Still, as much as I hated to admit it, I had begun to accept that I would have to adapt in order to live in this new world.
Steeling myself, I thought about which of the two skills to test first, settling on “Wlee Wee Warp.” When I thought about the skill I heard a small ding from the system as the skill icon lit up, In the next instance I sensed an invisible sphere radiating out from me, clearly delineating the skill's usage. My eyes scanned around the room before settling on a spot. My vision began to spin like it was focusing on a single point in space; as I started to lose the feeling of the ground beneath me, I heard the sound of rapid footsteps coming from the back of the shop.
The sounds reverberating in my head. My mind whirled as I tried to think of something to break the skill; too late to do anything the skill activated. In a flash of a moment, I felt the ground disappear beneath me as my vision began to spin in the opposite direction. As the skill activated my body went from being knocked heavily against the ground, to standing upright nearly 3 meters away, in the very next moment, just as I managed to steady myself, the door to the back of the shop burst open, revealing a familiar sight of a girl. Her lips curved in a downtrodden expression that invoked a sense of pity.
As though the girl had expected this outcome, she was facing backward, looking out curiously at three sets of flashing red and blue lights outside, I hadn’t noticed them until now, the rain outside only barely refracting their glow through the glass of the shop. Sluggishly, she pushed the door the rest of the way closed. Her legs trembled a bit at the exertion, while faint murmurs reached my ears as I felt the feeling of the floor against my feet and the air on my skin grow clearer.
[Mariam] “Ahhh I told those damn wardens I don’t know anything! Look, how could I, only the most respectable of citizens be involved in anything like that! *sighs* I hope they just give it a rest .” She rubbed her fingers over the door's broken joint, indignation creeping into her voice.
[Mariam] “Don’t they see that I’m the victim here? Why the hell did they only ask me questions about the right, and whether those three goons were safe? If they heard that an innocent girl was caught up in their world, would they even care...” Her words got lower before they eventually trailed off, almost inaudibly slipping out between a low breath. Her head turned away from the door.
[Mariam] (“Iris... it’s my fault”)
Having fully materialized, I stumbled awkwardly in her direction, my mind apparently having trouble adjusting to the sudden change in location. I don’t know why I thought that teleportation would be so easy to use; I guess that goblin must have had some serious skill to be able to do this so freely, huh? Having gotten enough of my bearings back to a state where I didn’t feel like I was standing on a rocking ship, I no longer had anything to distract me from the quickly approaching confrontation with Mariam. My thoughts raced for an explanation that wouldn’t sound ridiculous. Maybe I could say that the punk trio had “fought bravely to defend me but had ended up passing away in the process, hmm, what a shame, huh.” Unfortunately, remembering the way they had impulsively tried to kill me, the narrative didn’t really fit their personalities. There was a part of me that was hoping she had hit her head when escaping and had forgotten about me. Seeing that Mariam was turning my way, I put away my idle thoughts and tried to steady my slightly shaking form as naturally as possible. I spent a moment deciding what expression would be best before giving up and reverting back to this body's preferred cold stare, to meet the face of the girl whose jaw looked like it was about to touch the floor and whose eyes were shining with emotions I couldn’t know.
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