"I can already feel it. It's here.""Mizik!" A familiar voice shouted from behind.I turned to see one of my comrades. One of the protectors of this world that I've come to know as home."What is it, Carlos? Can you feel its presence?" I asked.He nodded with a grim expression."Tell me, Mizik. Can we win this battle?" Carlos asked.I gave him a weak smile."Leiso, Michael, and Dante are all dead. That just leaves me, you, and-""Can you kill the one controlling it? That's what I want to know," Carlos said."What do you think? That plague destroyed my home. It killed my fiance, my family, and all my friends. It devoured everyone I knew. I was powerless to stop it. I might be stronger now, but look at what he did to our world. We've lost, Carlos. Torantis is the last stronghold we have.""At least promise that you'll give it everything you have. For her..." Carlos said."Which one? My dead fiance or Leiso? You know I loved them both.""It doesn't matter, does it? Whatever motivates you

I followed my father to the edge of town towards the entrance to the mines. He was wearing his full arcane silver plate armor with the family crest emblazoned on the front. Two crossed swords with an emerald flame in the center. He had his longsword sheathed at his side with a kite shield hooked on his left arm. I was wearing light chainmail with a steel plate over my chest. I had a pair of plated leather chaps and steel boots. On my head was a helmet that covered all but my face. I had a small buckler shield on my arm and a shortsword at my side. My father had taught me enough about combat to where I could fight fairly well with a sword and shield. I was barely strong enough to kill a goblin, however. I was only thirteen, after all, and level 10.He had also taught me a few basic spells I could learn at my level. Many years ago, the concept of converting strength into a numerical system would have seemed completely insane, but some crazy court wizard in the north made it happen. H

I burst through the open entrance to the mines and collapsed on the ground.Some of the guards and miners were looking at me. There was a half-circle of magicians wearing long armored robes standing in front and chanting. The magicians stopped chanting as I fell and stared at me. I slowly stood up while panting harder than ever. My tears wouldn't stop flowing. "Well look at that. You saw something horrible, didn't you, kid? I told you that he-""SHUT UP, YOU ROTTEN BASTARD!" I screamed at the knight captain. "He was still alive! The dragon had retreated temporarily but my father lost one of his legs! He would have lived if you had just helped!!"The knight captain looked genuinely surprised to hear this. But not enough to show that he cared about my father's fate.He sighed. "Just get out of here. Go home. We have work to do," he spoke casually.The mages had resumed chanting and I was definitely standing in their line of fire. I walked between them to the lift that had originally

While I slept, I dreamt of that same scenario in the mines again. Fighting as hard as I could only to be eaten or stomped on as if I were little more than an insect.Other times, I saw myself being killed by the knight captain, too.Both he and that dragon were far stronger than I was.I slowly opened my eyes and rolled out of bed. Today, I decided not to bother with a morning workout or stretches. I have something important to take care of.After getting my armor on, strapping my sword to my side, and fastening my shield to my arm, I was ready to make my way to the adventurers guild.I made sure to lock the door behind me on my way out and walked through the main cafeteria of the inn.Before I even made it halfway to the door, I heard a cheerful voice behind me."Mizik! Good morning! Did you sleep well?"It was my newly discovered Aunt Aria. When I thought about it, my mother was named Karia. It seemed like grandpa Maul didn't have a very creative naming sense."Hey Aunt Aria, I sl

A few hours (and a few dozen goblin corpses) after leaving the huge cistern, I managed to find a much smaller cistern tucked away behind several pipes and supporting pillars. I made myself a small base camp here and sorted through my inventory.I had picked up many random items dropped by the dead goblins and decided to make use of them. Many of them were small stone tools such as shivs and axes. There were a few metal daggers, a couple of spears, the crossbow with bolts, and several scraps of armor with leather.Among these things were several sinewy strings used for tying things together.Goblins were dumb. Like really dumb.But even they had craftsmen, I guess.A goblin, as stupid as it may be, was still slightly more intelligent than a dog. As such, they had likely no concept of tactics other than 'rush the enemy and overwhelm them with numbers'.I wanted to put together several tools and traps for executing goblins even when I'm not around.And while my traps are in effect, I