Smiles

Before we get into our story, I have a short announcement. A friend of mine just started writing here on SH, and I'm recommending their story. They did not ask me to do this either, this is just me being a friend.

Feel free to check it out: Celeste: Dawn of New Beginnings

As we set out to kill more monsters, I told our group about the strange dream from the previous night. They were shocked, to say the least. They, like everyone, knew of the gods of this world, of which there were many. There were rumors (some credible and others not) of the ruler of the gods, the God of Chaos.

Now that was confirmed. Even Violet didn't know whether they were real or not before; her mother had refused to tell her.

But now we were following the tracks of a small band of goblins. Silva was floating ahead to check signs while Vaide tried to spot them from the air. Together, Violet and I barely managed to communicate a tiny bit with the plants around us.

Finally, Vaide had spotted their camp. Silva went ahead to confirm, and now we were slowly creeping up on them.

It looked more like a tiny little village than a temporary camp. Crudely built buildings made of sticks, mud, moss, and other bits of plants were scattered around. A small fire was in the center with wooden benches around. There were no lookouts.

First, Rhian would sneak in a smoke grenade to confuse them. If they tried to run, there was one of us in each direction. Vaide would take them from the north, Windell to the west, Violet to the south, and me to the east. Calo would run in with Silva to cause as much destruction as possible while Nakura would be ready with her healing.

I waited patiently, watching the tiny green men wander around. They were either eating some disgusting-looking meat or talking in some weird garbled language. All were somewhere between 5 and 9 in level.

Then a small round object burst out of the trees and rolled up to them. They stopped and peered at the object, clearly confused.

Then it exploded outward into a massive plume of smoke that obscured everything. The goblins let out shrieks of fear and the sounds of things falling over came from the encampment.

Several goblins burst from the smoke, headed right toward me. When they saw me, they brandished their crappy weapons before charging.

All but two were struck down by thorny vines that burst from the ground and stabbed them while the last ones I stabbed right in their tiny little crotches with my thorns.

They all died, although not from the toxins lacing the thorns. After a quick look at their statuses, I realized why. Each goblin had the same skill under [Racial Skills].

[Toxin Immunity IX]

• Gain immunity to all but the most powerful toxins.

Apparently, my poison wasn't the most powerful. But even still, the thorns killed them easily.

I heard a few squeals from other directions, telling me that my teammates were doing their job well.

Then there was a loud boom sound. At first, I assumed that Calo or Silva had attacked, but then I saw the smoke gone. A taller goblin wearing a furred cloak and holding a stick with a tiny skull at the end was standing in the doorway of one of the tiny houses.

[Name: Gidbluk]

[Level: 10]

[Race: Hobgoblin]

[Age: 4]

[Sex: Male]

[Stats]

[Attack: 60] [Magic attack: 40]

[Defense: 40] [Magic Defense: 30]

[Agility: 30] [Resistance: 90]

HP: [500/500]

SP: [197/200]

MP: [195/200]

It raised its staff and magic began to gather around the end. It was winding up a spell.

Then Calo came out of nowhere. His fist hit the staff, shattering the skull. Then his other fist punched the hobgoblin, sending it flying into a tree. It died. Then Silva appeared above Calo and shot a powerful beam of energy into the ground. An explosion occurred, destroying everything.

When the smoke cleared, Calo was standing in a crater.

"Nice job!" Vaide called from above. All of us gathered in the center, picking up the goblin fangs as we did. We put them in a bag that Rhian carried so we could sell them later.

"That was interesting," Windell said, sheathing his sword. "I haven't seen a hobgoblin in a while."

Then there was a low whistling noise. We all looked up at something hurtling down at us at high speed. It hit the ground, narrowly missing us.

It was an arrow with a piece of paper tied to the end.

"What the heck?" Rhian asked, taking the paper. He read it aloud to us.

                                  "I thank you for defeating that hobgoblin. It was a monster that escaped from                          

                                    my dungeon, and I was trying to hunt it down before it created a mess. As a gift, you may                                             

                                     enter my dungeon and skip the first floor, if you wish.                                                                                                               

                                            - Natari, Dungeon of Mischief"

"Wow," Calo said. "A free skip-the-first-floor ticket to a dungeon? Sounds great!"

"It is," Windell agreed. "Dungeons are a great way to level up, too."

"I think we should try it," Vaide informed us. "Where is this dungeon, though?"

"It's just north of Ginelse," Windell said. "So we can go tomorrow, if we want."

"That sounds fun!" Silva exclaimed. "I wanna go!"

"It does sound fun," Violet agreed. "I'm in."

"Me too," I added.

We all agreed to go the following day. After that, we went back to Ginelse so we could prepare.