While I waited for the other two to join me at the bottom of the slide, I took in my surroundings. The sun was almost directly overhead, beating down with warm rays of sunshine. The grass in the field was knee high and wild, with some flowers spotting the landscape here and there. I could hear the sound of birds chirping and feel a soft breeze running through my hair.

  A kilometer or so away straight ahead of me started the hills that took up about a third of the field. Behind me and to the other side of the plane rose the mountain in the distance. It was enormous taking up the entire sky when looking in that direction. To my left was the forest that the goblins had come from, and to my right was more field stretching several kilometers until it met the forest that wrapped around it.

  Greg climbed off the slide behind me. "Where do you want to look first? We're in a wide open field so we should be able to see a threat coming from a distance."

  I shaded my eyes, panning around my surroundings. "I was thinking the same thing and we can use that to our advantage, but I'd like to check out the closest tree line where the goblins came from and make sure there aren't any more over there."

  Akira walked up to Greg and I. "If you would like I can track the goblins for you. I was thinking and I did not see any female or children goblins. That makes me think that there may be more."

  I starting to walk in the direction the goblins came from. "Good idea. If you can track and we can bring the fight to them let's take out the threat before it comes for us."

  After a while of walking towards the woods, I glanced back over my shoulders to see that most of the passengers had already been evacuated from the plane and were in a large group in the field.

  What's my next step? I Need to get home as soon as possible, but I can't just abandon these people. I'll have to get them set up for success before I can leave. That could take months... And I'm fairly sure no one's gonna come looking for us. Maybe we could find a...

  "These goblins must have been in quite the hurry to come get us" Akira said pulling me from my thoughts and crouching down to look at the ground.

  "I could have told you that" Greg scoffed "it wasn't 10 minutes after we touched down, they were lobbing fireballs at us, the damn things."

  She nodded. "Yes agreed. But I have been looking at the tracks as we have walked, and they were in a full-on frenzy tripping over each other the entire time. You can see here."

  She pointed to a patch of dirt.

  "Look at the way that this track is placed. It looks as though they sprinted the entire way from the woods to our plane."

  "Maybe Greg was on to something when he said they were feral earlier." I shrugged.. "After all the system did say that we need to level in order to survive. Maybe it's simply giving us a means to do that. I mean, they did go down pretty easily."

  "That may be." Akira stood back up. " but it is still unsettling"

  Before long we reached the wood line and were able to follow the tracks deeper into the woods, thanks to Akira. Eventually she found more that became more dense as we walked along.

  "I believe that we are close to their camp now." Akira said "judging by the tracks, I would say there is at least 100. Do you think it's wise for us to try and take them on by ourselves?"

  I looked over at Greg. "What do you think? We faced about half that many when they attacked us the first time and we were out of their reach then. Now it may be closer to a fair fight with us on the ground. However we do have the element of surprise here. If we were to come up and attack we could take out a good portion of them before they even knew what hit them."

  He thought for a moment before answering. "Hmm... I mean we were able to handle the first attack fairly easily, and I'm sure that we've all gained at least a few levels since then. I think as long as we give ourselves a good exit strategy we should be okay. Let's find out where they are and then plan at least a kilometer back. That way we can run and peg them off on the back foot if we have to."

  "Are you okay with that Akira?" I nodded her way. "I won't make you do anything that you're not comfortable with. If you don't like it then we can head back and get some help."

  She tilted her head to one side and then the other thinking. "I suppose as long as they're all level one's like the first group was, Then it should be doable. But if there are some who are more powerful it might not be our best move."

  "Wait." I stopped walking and faced her. "How would we know what level they are? I only knew that they were level one after the system told me how many I had slain and labeled them."

  She looked almost baffled "did you seriously not try to inspect them? You didn't feel like trying to get anymore information on your enemy and decided to fight them blind?"

  "Well... I mean now that you mention it I probably should have. But in my defense this is the first time that I've had magical powers and the ability to inspect things apparently."

  I decided to try it out and looked at the closest tree. Willing myself to gleam more information from it.

  A system message popped up and the familiar female robotic voice said

  Then I tried it on Akira.

  My eyebrows rose. "I'll be damned, it worked. I suppose it doesn't really give all that much info though. Just your name race and level."

  "Some information is better than none." She smiled "would you prefer that it told you my whole life story? You could simply ask if you wanted that, you know."

  I laughed "I was thinking more along the lines of knowing how much Health, Mana and Stamina you have left so we could look out for eachother in combat"

  "Ah. Yes, I do believe those populated when we were fighting earlier. I was able to see your friends resource pools."

  "You could see Mike's resource pools while we were fighting? That must mean that it's somehow combat driven. Interesting." I mused a loud as I made my way through some of the thicker underbrush blocking our path.

  Akira had started leading us into some thinker brush away from the obvious tracks a while back. She slowed down and crouched "Im fairly certain the camp is over this next ridge. Let us be very careful and quiet.

  Greg and I nodded as we followed close behind her. Once she got just below the crest of the ridge, she layed down and motioned for us to do the same.

  "We crawl the rest" she whispered as she slowly started making her way to the top.

  After a couple minutes of slow crawling on the ground we could finally see over the crest. What greeted us was rather imposing.

  Almost 100 goblins walked about with their weapons in hand like they refused to set them down. Even the smaller goblins, I assumed were children, carried daggers and the few goblins that were asleep used whatever weapon they held as a pillow. One thing was apparent though, 'camp' was a rather strong word to describe the area Infront of us.

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  There were no shelters to be seen. Just a few places where you could see the vegetation flattened to the dirt were they had been sleeping. Their wasn't even a fire or anything else useful to a group of people trying to rough it in the woods. It looked as though they had simply walked up and decided it was fine the way it was.

  I took a moment to inspect them. All level one except a sole goblin on the far side of the camp who was level 2.

  "Looks promising" I whispered. "There's just the one on the other side of camp and he's only a level 2. I'll make sure I attack him first. What do you guys think?"

  Akira silently gave me a thumbs up, and Greg nodded.

  I summoned my staff to my hand "Alright then. Let's take these ass holes by surprise. Ready?"

  "Ready." They whispered as one.

  I stood up channeling my Arcane Squadron aiming for the Level two and those around him. The power surged forth into my staff, launching a dozen planes that rocketed towards the unaware enemies.

  The level two turned his head a heartbeat before 3 arcane planes made contact with his torso, simultaneously bursting through flesh and bone with sickening ease. Green light flared as they buried themselves inside him, before his ribcage shattered outward in a wet spray. The blast hollowed him from the inside leaving nothing but mangled remains falling to the dirt.

  I kept the spells flying, amazed and a bit sickened by the carnage we reaped on the goblins. There was viscera and gore flying about as though we unleashed a magical meat grinder on the unsuspecting victims. It didn't take long before they found the source of the barrage. But by the time the first goblins made it to us over half of them were already dispatched. We started running back, kiting them as we cast spells on the run. I realized that I was running faster than I had ever ran in my life, while feeling like it was about as difficult as a light jog.

  "This is amazing! I feel like I could run all... ahh!" I tripped over a root that came out of nowhere catching myself and trying to get back up.

  But before I could react, a goblin was on me, it's crude blade raking across my back. White hot pain flared up my spine with every strike, forcing a cry through clenched teeth. Then as soon as it began it was over, the goblins head exploding in a blast of black shadow.

  It only took me a couple heart beats to grab my staff and be on the move again. Pain threatening to steel my breath as I caught up to the others and cast another Arcane Squadron at those closest to us.

  Greg lobed another attack. "Were you saying something? I couldn't hear you over the sound of you getting your ass kicked."

  "Oh that? I was just testing my durability. I let him wallop on me for a bit to see what I could take. Still have 147 of 170 HP. So I'd say it was a successful test"

  Greg laughed. "Whatever helps you sleep at night Dean."

  "Speaking of sleep" Akira added "I will sleep alot better tonight knowing we killed all of these threats. Only a handful left. Let's make our stand here."

  She stopped and started pelting the remaining goblins with arrows as they tried to reach us. Greg and I joined in and in short order they were all but a bad memory.

  I got Akira's attention. "Thanks for the assist back there. I may be harder to murder now but that doesn't mean the experience is any more pleasant."

  She shrugged. "I was actually aiming for you. I was tired of hearing your screaming but the goblin got in the way."

  "That's harsh. I'd be heartbroken right now if I didn't have some sweet level notifications to go through."

  The system energy washed over me, clouding my thoughts as I tried to handle the sensations flowing through my body. It became so intense I had to take a knee to stop from falling over. At last it faded and I realized I still had 14 Free points.

  Well it looks like my plan to put extra points in vitality and constitution paid off last time. I can hardly feel my wounds moments after getting them. It's insane that I just passively regenerate health. I wonder what the limits to that are... could I grow back a limb? I suppose I'd better not test that theory unless I have to. I guess I'll split my free points between those two again. Having realized getting too many stats at one time was no bueno, I decided to apply the points a few at a time. Doing so over a couple minutes. Now what was this about a new skill selection? Don't mind if I do.

  Well they all seam pretty useful. Arcane Windshear would have been nice to have a minute ago to make that goblin go flying. Arcane Napalm sounds like another powerful attack. Radar Sweep seams like its more of a stealth skill. I'm thinking Cabin Pressurization sounds like my best move. Not only does it negate damage but it looks like a useful utility spell as well. I selected Cabin Pressurization and then pulled up my stat sheet.

  Wow. So if a normal human has 10's in everything I wonder how the stats translate as they increase. My strength and dexterity are more than double what they were. Maybe that means I'm roughly twice as strong and twice as fast?

  I stood back up brushing myself off. "Did you guys consolidate your levels and apply your points?"

  Akira blushed from her seated position. "Yes and it is quite the sensation."

  Greg extricated himself from the ground, standing back up from where he had fell down. "Yea, no kidding. That was more intense than that time I took Molly in college."

  I started doing some stretches. "Well if you guys are down what do you say we race back to the edge of the field, and see what these new stats can do?. I feel like super man right now."

  "Knowing our limits does sound like a good idea." Akira said.

  Greg starting a light jog steadily getting faster "If you think you can keep up, give it your best shot."

  Then all three of us were racing through the trees at top speed. I realized that I was about twice as fast as I ever was before. I definitely wasn't close to my best fitness before today. But now I felt like a super hero speeding along through the forest.

  Akira obviously had the upper hand as she pulled away from us early on. Greg and I were were pretty close though dodging the trees as they raced into our vision. That's when I realized I was able to perceive things at a much faster pace. Things that would have been a blur before, now seamed to play out at a relaxed pace for me, and before I new it we were standing back at the tree line. None of us so much as breathing heavil.

  Greg looked at me and grinned. "We just ran like five kilometers and we're barely sweating."

  I glanced at my recourses. " Yea, and I've still got more than half my stamina left."

  Akira nodded. "Our bodies have changed much today. If this is what the goblins would have been capable of I am even more glad we eliminated them before they leveled up"

  I started back towards the plane. "I agree. And at least, now, when the next threat does come we'll be ready."

  Greg put his hand on my shoulder and pointed to the tree line facing the mountain. "Now why did you have to go and say a thing like that?"

  I looked where Greg was pointing and there were 5 figures making their way through the grass towards the plane. After studying them a moment they had an easy gait about themselves, taking their time. As if enjoying the sunny day.

  I took off at a run. "Let's make sure we beat them there then."

  When we got back the passengers had already noticed the newcomers and were pointing and making a fuss about them.

  I held my hands up. "Everyone please calm down. We are going to protect you. We just got back from taking out the rest of the goblin camp. Let us go meet these people and see what they want."

  Without waiting for a response I turned to make my way towards the figures, Akira and Greg following. I Made sure to keep the same calm stride that they did. I didn't want to turn something into a conflict if I didn't have to.

  Now that they were closer, I could make out more detail. They looked human at first glance except their skin carried a pale violet hue, and their hair was white as freshly fallen snow. You could see long pointed ears prominent on their heads. Two were clearly feminine with hair spilling past their shoulders. The other three were masculine with short military style cuts. The one leading them was one of the females. She was wearing a blue dress that flowed down to knee length with heavy embroidery. Curiositty won out, so I inspected her to see what I was dealing with.