Chapter 13: Conflict
Looking at the descriptions for his abilities, Carmen felt as if he was invincible. Technically he was invincible, but that did not matter.
As Carmen thought about his powers, he was zapped by a sudden stroke of genius, either that or it was another lightning bolt. Turning around, Carmen began walking towards the goblin village.
*Goblin Warrior - level 4
Goblin Archer - level 3
Goblin Tracker - level 3
Goblin Shaman (Elite Boss) - level 8
*
Observing the goblins wandering around the village with Inspect, Carmen started planning his route. After some quick thinking, Carmen decided it would be best to just charge straight in. Although, before he could do that, he would have to kill the Goblin Shaman. Luckily, he had Silence of The Dead, thus he was quite possibly the world's best assassin in regards to stealth.
Paying no amount of attention towards the goblins' pathing through the village, Carmen charged headlong into the village. Carmen's main goal was to make sure that the goblins didn't get within a 5-foot radius of himself. This distance would ensure him the most safety from detection, or that's what he thought.
After entering the village he was spotted by a goblin who was 6 feet away. This dumbfounded Carmen wasn't he supposed to be super stealthy? Why was he spotted from such a far distance? While a six-foot-tall person was considered tall, a person who was only six feet away was considered to be within two steps of another. Carmen was just unfortunate in this endeavor, hopefully, he'll learn from his mistakes.
Despite being spotted by a goblin, Carmen was able to get away fairly easily. The other goblins had failed to notice him due to being too far away. While the goblins were busy gathering around the goblin that saw him, Carmen had run back into the forest to rethink his strategy.
Meanwhile, the Goblin Shaman was informed of the reappearance of the immortal skeleton giant. After thinking of the issue, he decided it would be best to appease the immortal. The Goblin Shaman proceeded to walk out of his shack and approached the firepit in the village center.
After poking around within the ashes of the firepit, the shaman found what he was looking for. He grabbed the still warm and ash-covered hammer and brandished it under the moonlight. Looking at the hammer he called out to the goblins surrounding him, hearing the words of their shaman, they began gathering wood and other materials. The shaman watched as everything was swiftly put together.
Eventually, the goblins had put together a small shrine with various materials hobbled on it. To a passerby, the shrine just looked like a low-sitting table with a pedestal on top, to the goblins, however, it was a masterpiece of their combined efforts.
The shaman walked around the shrine and adjusted the occasional rock or flower until he was satisfied. With trembling hands he placed the hammer on the pedestal with the shaft pointing towards the sky.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the shaman brandished a small knife and cut his palm. With the leaking blood, he began writing with strange symbols on the surface of the shrine. The goblins in the surroundings began calling the rest to gather. Eventually, all of the goblins had gathered into the center of the village and began prostrating towards the shrine. Once the shaman finished the writing, the shrine began glowing and the goblins began chanting. As the final act, the shaman waved his cane and then slammed the end of it into the ground.
Following the acts of the shaman, blood-colored shadows rose from behind the surrounding goblins. The Life Essence from the goblins began to pool around the hammer on the shrine, seeping into the writing in blood. The goblins' whose Life Essence was extracted from began passing out onto the ground inflicted with a Severely Injured status.
The shaman, after checking that things were proceeding correctly, kneeled on the ground and prostrated like the other goblins. As the Life Essence finished being absorbed into the writing, a light began pulsing out, getting brighter and brighter.
Meanwhile, Carmen stood up with one last glance at the doodle on the ground. He had been sketching out a route in the village, and he was hoping to get to the center undetected. Looking towards the village, Carmen was tickled by a small amount of confusion and curiosity. The once flourishing village now seemed barren. The roaming goblins had disappeared along with the sounds of activity.
Cautiously, Carmen began walking into the village to inspect. Thanks to his enormous height, he could see above the goblins' little shacks. When he looked towards the center of the village, he saw a pulsating red light. Thinking back to the ritual they did for him, Carmen lightly jogged in the direction of the light.
When Carmen arrived at the perimeter of the village center, he saw a hundred passed out goblins surrounding a strange shrine. Looking at the shrine, Carmen saw his hammer and began sneakily tip-toeing through the sleeping goblins. Approaching his hammer, he reached out to grab it.
RIght as Carmen's hand reached for the hammer, all of the pulsing red light was sucked into the head of the hammer. Following the absorption, a pulse of energy was released and mowed down the shacks along the edge of the village center. Similarly, Carmen was launched into a pile of rubble and was covered in bodies of goblins. Pushing them away, Carmen was able to catch a glimpse of an eerie silhouette setting the hammer back onto the shrine.
"Hey! Don't touch my hammer, you shitty foreshadowing character!" (Carmen)
As Carmen charged towards the figure, the entity in question observed with interest. When was the last time someone had dared to curse this great being?
As Carmen stepped within 10 feet of the figure, he jumped and kicked towards it with both feet. If Carmen managed to hit the figure, surely he'd be able to knock him out of the way to grab the hammer. Unfortunately, Carmen froze in the air with a light wave of the figure's hand.
"Quite the feisty little skeleton, aren't you?" (???)
"Unhand me! At least let me do something cool, I still have yet to show off my greatness!" (Carmen)
"I have no idea what you are speaking of, but it should have some significance if you dare attack this Great One." (???)
"Shut up, side-character. My matters are of no concern to you." (Carmen)
"You're quite a funny creation, who's your creator? I'd love to meet them." (???)
"Who's asking?" (Carmen)
"Erebus, the Primordial God of Darkness." (Erebus)
"What's with that overly exaggerated title?" (Carmen)
"You dare speak ill of the title I've received from Father?!" (Erebus)
"I've no knowledge of this 'Father' you speak of. He couldn't possibly be a match for my greatness." (Carmen)
"That is blasphemy! Father is the Origin of Gods, Creator of All, and his abilities are far grander than anything you could ever hope for." (Erebus)
"Oh really? Is he immortal? Can he kill an immortal being such as myself? If not, he isn't worth my time." (Carmen)
"Father is the Creator of All, if he brought you into this world, he can take you out." (Erebus)
"Oh really? Bet!" (Carmen)
...
Meanwhile, several parties from a nearby town were sprinting towards the goblin village. Since the start of the game, this was the most eventful thing that they had seen. First, a massive bolt of lightning struck, and then an eerie red glow had rose up above the forest. While these two events weren't significant when happening by themselves, but they both happened within a half-hour of each other and in the same place no less. Obviously, the players would investigate, thus several parties gathered and set off on an expedition.
The organizer of this event, [Forge A Wall], a relatively normal-looking fellow if he wasn't absurdly short. While average visually, his race was quite different from the Undead that Carmen had started around. This fellow was a Dwarf. Although not quite special at all, it was a rare sight.
Within the game of LOTE, for the first 10 levels, all the players would start on a continent separate from the main continents. This was for several reasons; nothing too special could be gained, thus if players wished to start over there'd be no worries, another reason was that the main continents are just too expansive. The main continents in LOTE were free to explore, such that there is nothing stopping someone from venturing off and getting benefits before a substantial amount of the player-base.
One might wonder if the hardware was capable of supporting so many players in one place, but such things don't matter in fiction!
The parties that had joined together were quite high level at this stage of the game. Each member was at least level 7 and had several pieces of higher quality equipment.
"We're almost there. If you can't keep up I'm going to snatch all of the drops!" (Forge A Wall)
"Brother Forge, save something nice for me." (???)
"No-can-do darling, we're rolling for the equips." (Forge A Wall)
"I told you to stop calling me that!" (Darkling)
"No use trying to convince the boss, he does whatever he feels." (???)
"No one asked for your input, Cleve." (Darkling)
"True, but the readers want to know our names so things are less confusing later." (Cleveland Gooch)
"Can we just focus on the task at hand?" (Forge A Wall)
"Got it!" (Darkling & Cleveland Gooch)
Despite being an expedition involving several parties, there was no communication between them. The other three parties were mostly silent throughout the journey, as well as when [Forge A Wall] was looking for people to join him.
These three parties were all higher-ups from different soon-to-be guilds. They had decided to start recruiting ahead of time, so as to prepare for any future events that may come about. While it would be safer with more people, it could also be dangerous. If the parties are unable to cope with working together, it could have disastrous effects should they come across a boss monster.
As the parties were nearing the goal of their expedition, a large black and white object came flying towards them. One of the guild members was quite unfortunate and died from the impact of the object. When they saw the object, the parties all stopped in their tracks and observed the small dust cloud that rose from the impact.
As the dust cleared, they saw a 7-foot-tall skeleton with black tree branch-like markings across its bones (A.N. Lichtenberg Figures) holding a wine red sledgehammer. The party that was the closest to the figure felt their bodies tingle, in a slight numbing way.
After getting thrown so far, Carmen struggled to stand back up. While normally he'd have no problem getting back up, his body seemed to be fighting with an unknown power that attached itself to his body. Other than that, there was also a fellow that managed to end up on top of him during the collision.
Seeing a skeleton tossing their party member's body off to the side, the guild party decisively struck first. The first to move was the Guild Leader [Fortify], he dashed forward trying to smash his shield into Carmen to knock him over. The others in his party followed after him, three sword wielders, a two-handed sword wielder, and a dual-wielding dagger player.
Carmen looked up in confusion at these fellows, what could he have done to anger them? Carmen wasn't one to dwell on simple matters for too long, thus he raised the hammer and swung it toward [Fortify].
[Fortify], who was charging while hiding behind his shield, expected to knock the skeleton over. Sadly, the impact he received was significantly more violent than what he was expecting. As the hammer approached his shield, the head of the hammer began to show strange symbols that emanated an eerie light. When the hammer made contact, the symbols flashed and a burst of energy was released.
In a very comedic way, [Fortify] was sent flying similarly to how Carmen ended up in this situation. Carmen who witnessed this was dumbfounded. After the effect sunk in, he couldn't help but let an evil chuckle skip out of his mouth.
"That was quite refreshing." (Carmen)
The other members of the party froze as they witnessed their party leader being launched off into the forest. One of the sword wielders went off in search of their captain, although, it was more of an excuse to get away from that monster.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
iappo
iappo Extra-long chapter for no reason at all.
Also, do you guys prefer the larger paragraphs, or should I cut them up so there isn't a wall of text for the mobile users?
Hope you enjoyed!
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