9.7

  Nine. Point. Seven.

  That was the number. The number was nine point seven. Not ten–never eleven. Nine point seven Essence. A mere three-tenths from the mark.

  Argh! Why must this world torture me so!

  My demesne shenanigans and the door trap had actually been a great success. One dwarf and four goblins gave up their ghosts to me. And the battle wasn’t over yet, so there were still some chances to complete my quest.

  The lull in the fighting meant the two sides were in a tense standoff, the dwarves in the lobby and the Goblins outside. Neither side relaxed completely.

  The dwarves piled the dead bodies onto the makeshift wall of rocks in the doorway. Then the brewer dumped another vial of alcoholic explosive (how many did this guy have?) and lit the bodies on fire. But this time I paid attention and looked at the potion using Sigilmancy.

  The brew had a similar lesser-version of a sigil array as the enchanted coin did. I wasn’t able to identify anything until the dwarves stepped back from the fire and, free gain, I quickly absorbed a little bit of the magic alcohol that wasn’t on fire yet. The CCB was getting better and the dwarves called it “volatile draught,” but they were probably referencing the potion. Interface gave the lesser sigil array of the liquid the name “Volatile Brew.”

  It seemed to me rather arrogant of the dwarves to bring something like that into a dungeon, but thank you very much for such a nice gift!

  The dwarves clearly were concerned with denying dead bodies of their brethren to the goblins. I think that must be due to the goblin’s final racial ability, [Sapiophagia]. The skill said ‘consuming’ and the way the two sides acted was making me think that it was quite literal. Ew.

  The dwarves kept two on watch near the fire while the others stayed inside. The goblins regularly shouted and screamed and even threw or slung rocks at the dwarves to keep them from resting easily. The dwarves remained vigilant, with only two sleeping at a time for short periods then rotating.

  The dwarves that were awake talked to each other; it was a useful way to stave off the boredom and relieve the stress of the situation. In doing so, they were unwittingly feeding me information–about their plans, tidbits about the outside world, and about the goblins.

  The conversation of the dwarves reinforced my conviction that the dark goblins were specifically after my core. Unfortunately, I didn’t trust the dwarves either: they seemed just as likely to be after my core too.

  It made sense for the goblins to attack before the sun came up. They had a natural advantage fighting in the dark due to [Darkvision]. By the wee hours of the morning, the pyre of bodies had been reduced to ash, bones, and little more than embers. It was the perfect time to strike.

  But the goblins didn’t attack. The sun came up.

  The dwarves debated going on the offensive, but still they too waited.

  I had heard the common aphorism that war is long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. The goblins waited; the dwarves waited; I waited.

  At mid-day, my mana ticked over and the final payment for the Holding’s regeneration was made.

  The dwarves quickly realized something had changed with the portal and they all rousted and prepared themselves. The commander gave marching orders.

  The CCB was still giving gibberish for their names–

  Now that I thought about it, the goblins, nasty as they were, had done me something of a solid. By not attacking the dwarves in the night, the dwarves’ expedition still counted six members–one too many.

  The dwarves entered the dungeon one at a time. The scout came in first and immediately moved to the side while assessing the room. The others came in and they all bunched around the entrance, tense and wary. These guys acted more like proper delvers.

  The brewer was the last one to enter; the dwarf fighter with the big shield was the last one, now stuck on the outside.

  Seconds ticked by. A body crossed the demesne of the doorway, then another came too. The goblins were attacking.

  The dwarves in the dungeon realized easily that they had reached the limit when their friend didn’t come through after about ten seconds. They didn’t prevaricate or waste any time, but immediately began to evacuate.

  The brewer–the last one to enter the dungeon–came out first and found his compatriot fighting off two goblins.

  More goblins, lagging behind the first two, were charging through the entryway now in ones and twos.

  The disorganized nature of the goblins’ attack was likely what saved the dwarves from an ambush that could have been far deadlier. Plus, another explosion blew up near the entrance, catching a couple goblins. The brewer had thrown his last Volatile Brew, making the goblins still outside to pause and buying the dwarves precious few seconds.

  I wanted to say the fight was interesting to watch, but I couldn’t see inside the lobby. In fifteen minutes, the goblins’ attack had been rebuffed. Of the fifteen goblins that had passed across my threshold, only five fled back out.

  The big leader goblin had not shown himself.

  The dwarves didn’t waste time. They filed out of the lobby and into the greater outside. None of them had died in the attack, but their armor and equipment were battered and several sported serious injuries.

  When the last of the dwarves’ had left, I flooded the lobby with demesne and greedily absorbed all of the dead bodies and debris from the fight. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much new from it.

  But–but! When the brewer threw his last Volatile Brew and the explosion knocked those goblins back. One of them, level three, had been thrown against the door frame where he promptly expired from blunt trauma wall. The location was important because I had caught his essence.

  10.3

  Finally!

  I had enough Essence to make my companion. Of course, I still had to figure out the other part, but with the Holding having been reset (and for all that the dwarves basically had the same intent as the goblins, they had benefited me greatly) I had several days to figure out how to complete the quest. Also, I was going to get a bunch more mana, so I could also make some more changes to the dungeon.

  I was feeling pretty good!

  Even so, I wanted to make sure the companion I made was absolutely the best that I could. I wanted to be careful. So I opened up a new notepad and wrote my ideas and notes on how to proceed.

  My ruminations were interrupted when I felt myself locked-out of my dungeon. Someone had returned.

  It was the big goblin.

  He was dragging a corpse behind him.

  It was one of the dwarves. The dwarf healer, to be specific.

  The goblin sauntered to the middle of the room. There he stood as he looked around the walls and the ceiling before unceremoniously dropping the dead healer’s body in front of him.

  He then took out a big knife and knelt down next to the body. He stabbed the knife hard right into the chest and started cutting. Again and again he cut and sliced and I could sense through the body every cut as he went.

  When he was done cutting, he reached into the chest with his hands and slowly pulled out the heart of the dwarf. He brought it up towards his face and looked at it with a vicious smile.

  Then he chomped down on it and tore a large piece off. He chewed it slowly, deliberately. Like that, he ate the entire heart.

  If that was all that happened, I would have merely been disturbed by Mr. Crazypants. But as he ate the heart, I also saw what was happening through Sigilmancy. The dead dwarf didn’t give off a sigil array anymore, but as the goblin consumed the heart, wisps of magic–pieces of the dwarf’s sigil array–were pulled and entered into the goblin. They swirled around the goblin’s own sigil array before falling into the black mass that was his overgrown [Sapiophagia] like it was a black hole. As the pieces were absorbed, the tumorous sigil twisted, morphed, and grew a new boil-like mass. As the goblin finished eating and all of the magic was absorbed, the new growth settled into place.

  It was the healer’s skill![1] The goblin had consumed the healer’s skill, corrupting and morphing it in the process.

  The goblin stood back up and looked around, smiling a bloody smile. He then said a short phrase in his language before marching back outside.

  “See you soon.”