Back to the Training Grounds

Robin stopped as he reached the exit of the tunnel leading into the training ground. He put an earbud in and pressed play on his phone. He nodded his head as Monster by Skillet started playing.

Seeing a bunch of tiny goblin creatures, he checked the Information app to find out they were the lowest point value, or at least that’s what he assumed for one point.

Using magic he made himself lighter and then set off running. As he neared his first target, he used magic to make it heavier which stopped it in its tracks. Scooping it up he pulled out the tagging gun and held it against the thing's ear while singing, “So stay away from me, the beast is ugly,” then tagged the creature causing it to vanish.

By the time the song had ended, Robin had managed to find and clip every gremlin running around the training yard. He stopped for a second and took a deep breath in order to get his second wind. “I wonder how the others are doing right about now?” he thought out loud.

As he did, a small screen appeared in front of him.

Score board:

Robin: 23
John: 18
Ellie: 18

Robin let out a laugh. “So much for the boasting, she’s only doing as well as John is,” Robin muttered to himself.

After his moment of rest, Robin turned back and walked towards the barracks, which was when he spotted something in one of the three towers.

He decided to take the shortcut by stepping up on air, and climbed up to the first level of the closest tower. He was a little disappointed when he only found more one-point gremlins, but thought to himself, ’Points are points, I suppose.’ The room was cleared in no time at all, and then he made himself lighter once again, building up energy in his legs before dashing to the opening facing one of the other towers and leaping towards it.

On the first floor of the towers, Robin gained eight points; the second level, he gained another ten. Robin had cleared every floor of the smaller towers but still had one last floor of the larger one. Again he ran towards the large opening and lept towards the larger tower, gaining height in order to ascend to the next level.

He all but flew through the air, landing in a large round room. Unlike the others, this one had several crates and barrels with two larger creatures rifling through one of the crates. Hearing the noise both turned to face Robin.

They were more than double the size of the gremlins he’d been dealing with, standing at maybe eighty or eighty-five centimetres. The smell hit Robin’s nose first, they stank of sweat, piss and raw meat.

The ugly things had short legs but their bodies were large enough to make up for them. They stood with their long arms in front of them, knuckles pressed against the floor, holding them mostly upright, reminding Robin of a gorilla or chimp.

The yellow-grey skin made them seem sickly, but their faces made them look terrifying. Sharp and blunt mismatched teeth jutted out of their wide thin-lipped mouths. Pin-pricked irises peered at him from green eyes on either side of an almost bat-like nose which was carved into their skulls.

Ripped and ragged pointed ears were held low on their heads, almost connecting to their short fat necks, and finally the hair, both sported sparse patches of wiry hair, like an animal with mange.

Luckily they wore coverings, though they were in tatters and Robin was sure he accidentally got a glimpse of a low hanging ball sack on the right one.

Both had stopped, alert and staring at Robin as he stared at them. Robin decided to take advantage of their stillness and pulled out his phone, which caused both creatures to alter their posture, taking a step back. Pausing for a moment, neither moved more, so he opened the app Hemet was kind enough to provide.

Thernan Goblin

Thernan goblins live underground and rely heavily on their sense of smell, hearing and taste to observe their surroundings. They are completely colourblind but they do have vision, however bad it may be.

Due to threats in their native habitat, Thernan goblins are usually cautious when deciding to run or attack, as injury could result in a bigger threat catching their scent and all Thernan goblins fear the great **** worm.

Food can be quite scarce underground, so when presented with food, especially food they don’t have to take risks to obtain, they will indulge.

Level 6
3 Points

Robin smiled to himself; the two goblins stared at him, not making a move at all. _’Okay, so I have two options. If I use Mirage and Gravity Step, I can be invisible to both their vision and hearing, and if I combine that with a Black Singularity at the opening of the tower where I came in, that would make it so that I’d be up wind from them, blinding them from smell and taste.

’The other option could possibly be easier, though just because the app says that they’re ravenous for food, doesn’t mean they’d allow me to get close. In fact, they might become even more aggressive… though if they’re smart enough to weigh their options, they might be smart enough to realise I’m the one giving them the food and that I wouldn’t be trying to take it away from them…’ Robin internalised.

“Gonna probably do both and maybe some others if I run into more of these eventually anyway, let's go with option A,” he mumbled and paused the song Eye of the Storm by Disturbed before it transitioned into Immortalized, not wanting that to be the cause of his detection.

He focused on the energy around him and in his body, he imagined his magic condensing, getting heavier and pulling things into it like a powerful magnet that works on everything, and then he pushed it out of his body. Robin could see the dark energy forming a ball which he guided to the opening of the tower. Some of the splintered wood from the crate the two goblins had all but smashed began to inch towards the singularity.

Both goblins tilted their heads, their thick tongues lashing out of their mouths as they loudly inhaled through their noses.

Their ears twitched and they stared at what Robin might be doing. All at once, Robin caused himself to vanish while jumping up and landing on air.

The two snapped into high alert, looking in all directions in confusion, while Robin stood there holding his breath.

Not wanting to waste time, he hastily and silently dashed in their direction. He clipped the first one’s ear before letting out a breath and inhaling once again. That caused the other goblin to snap its head in Robin’s direction and lurch forward. Unfortunately for the goblin by the time it reached where Robin had been, he had moved, and as the goblin tried to find him once again, a tag was clipped onto its ear, causing it to vanish, at which point Robin dispelled everything he was concentrating on, allowing him to drop maybe ten centimetres and walk on the floor.

Now alone in the room, the barrels and crates seemed a little odd to him. No other room he’d been in had any. He began opening and searching through each of them but there wasn’t really anything in them other than shredded paper. Almost giving up, he opened the last of the crates, this one was smaller and narrower but longer.

Inside was a rope ladder with hooks on one end. He pulled them out and groaned, thinking he’d just wasted time. “Wait, why is there a rope ladder here? Each floor has its own set of stairs leading further and further up, it doesn’t make sense… especially since these are only about long enough for a single floor…”

Robin looked over the edge, down at the floors he’d jumped between before looking up. The top of the tower was mostly open with rafters but he couldn’t see the top properly. With only a small amount of time to lose, Robin climbed through the air until he stood inside the ornate wooden carved roof. Looking around he noticed a few things that seemed out of place. On several of the beams were pillows, one with a deck of cards placed next to it, and at the centre of the roof was a small platform where three crates sat with their opening on the side, forming a box shelf.

The first shelf had several empty wine bottles, a set of matches and what looked like an empty tobacco case and the middle shelf was empty save for a pitcher of water.
Finally, the last and most interesting shelf had a slight glow and a shimmer coming from it. Robin walked over to it and peered at what caused the glow.

Eight grey pebbles with the same blue rune carved into them sat in a pile. Curious, Robin reached for one to inspect it before a window appeared in front of him, making him jump out of his skin and drop almost half a metre before he could catch himself.

Secret Location Discovered! Royal Guard’s Hidden Breakroom.
Reward: 8 Runestones of returning, + 10 points

“Okay… cool… What do they do?” Robin asked himself, looking at the lone pebble in his palm. “The stones could be useful, I guess, but ten points doesn’t really seem worth my time to go hunting for these secret spots.”

Robin climbed back up, putting the rest of the runestones in his pocket, grabbed the pitcher of water, and sat on the rafter for a short break.

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