“Oh, I’ll smash his stupid face in.” I whispered to Mark. I stood up, walking forward before anyone could stop me. This dumb thief would not get away from me this time.

  “Wait. Is that the Marten that stole gold from us?” Mark seemed as shocked to see him as I was.

  “Yeah.”

  “Oookay. I’ll go hide. We don’t want him to alert everyone here to the fact you’re a player.” Oh right, he would be able to see Mark. Just like before, Martin’s guide was nowhere to be seen. “Don’t go picking a fight with him yet. I know you have a score to settle, but we want information. I don’t think we’ll find a better source than that guy.”

  I wanted to protest, to tell Mark to fuck off. But I knew he was right. And I promised that I’d listen to him. Calming myself as much as I could, I walked forward.

  Skirting around the goblins who didn’t even care about my unusual height was harder than one would expect, but I was there in just a minute.

  “Hey there.” I said, doing my damn best to suppress the simmering rage in my voice.

  I watched his eyes go from one of the goblins to meet mine. There was no recognition in them, no shock or fear. Just the same haughtiness I remembered from a few days ago.

  “Oh wow, you’re a large one, aren’t you?” He smiled, still wiping a cup. “What will it be? Some grot? For the four of you?”

  Still simmering, I went over what I wanted to say in my head. “Three for them, please, duh. Also, I’d like to speak to you. Alone, if possible. Duh”

  His eyes widened, obviously not expecting my proposition. “Alone? What for, if I may ask?”

  What for indeed. I didn’t think that part over. No matter. I could always go with something general. “Have some info that you’ll like, duh.”

  A glimmer in his eye, no doubt because of a chance for profit served right in front of him, answered me before his voice did. “Info, eh? What about? Gold? Alcohol? Some opp… you know what? Don’t answer. Give me a few minutes to bring this grot to everyone, and then I’ll come.” He pointed to a small door behind the bar, a room visible inside through the too-wide door gap. “Wait there, eh?”

  Nodding, I strode toward the door, hoping that he wasn’t onto me already. I hadn’t seen his eyes glazing over in that way that [Analyze] made us players look like idiots. Hopefully he was just too dumb to realize. Thinking of that, I took a glance behind, analyzing Martin. The system showed me the same thing as before, but the difference in level was there. Martin was level 22 now, not 17 as I remembered.

  The small room behind the bar served as storage, of course. There were all kinds of cured meats hanging from metal hooks that were attached to the ceiling. Barrels of alcohol, most of them with the nasty color of Grot. And there was also a blue guide, sitting on top of them. Martin’s guide, undoubtedly.

  She was a girl, older than Timmy but definitely younger than Mark. Maybe around 17 or 18 years old? She was wearing a hoodie, not too dissimilar to mark, but had her eyes defined by a thick layer of black and she wore her hair in a short bun. She was looking at a small rectangle held in both of her hands, some sort of console that she was playing with. How did that work? I averted my eyes, not to draw attention. I could show that I was a player once one of my shields was pressed to Martin’s stupid neck.

  “Oh, this one is kinda tall for a goblin.” The girl suddenly said, finally done with her game. I did my damn best not to look her way but also not to look frozen. That meant I just looked at the damn cured meats and used [Analyze] on one of them after another.

  “Holy shit, he’s handsome too. Kinda looks like a K-pop model. Which goblin spat this one out?” She appeared in front of me suddenly, inspecting my face, looking at my earrings. Her voice became loud, almost so loud that I panicked.

  “Hey Martin! Why is this goblin so pretty? Can we keep him?”

  If Martin heard, though, he didn’t answer. The girl remained staring at me, hovering all around, trying to lift my pants with her hands for some reason. I didn’t use to have some weird feelings about showing my body before. I was naked for most of my life, after all. But now? In this human body? Why’d Martin’s guide have to be a damn teenager?

  The three minutes until Martin came were the longest of my life. I knew I was hot. So the teenage girl’s fascination was somewhat excusable. But her hovering in front of me the whole time, combined with the fact that I had to pretend I did not see her, was just so awkward that I wanted to die.

  Martin burst through the door, putting an empty tray on one of the barrels and turning toward me. “So, what’s this proposition of yours, eh?” He licked his lips after finishing.

  The damn guide phased through me, appearing in front of the Marten. “Hey, Martin! Why is he so handsome? Can we keep him?”

  Martin ignored her, probably to keep the fact he had a guide at all. Sadly for him, I was done playing pretend. I punched, already summoning my shield mid swing, stopping the shield just as it touched Martin’s neck.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  His eyes widened with fear, but his guide spoke before he did. “Hey, handsome! What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!”

  “Just meeting an old ‘friend’.” I grinned, still holding Martin’s gaze. He somehow still didn’t recognize me, but he must have found me responding to his guide weird. I saw his eyes glaze over as he finally used [Analyze].

  “He’s a player, Emma.” Martin sighed, his shoulders slumping. “One I stole from in the city.”

  “You stole from him? Wait, no, that doesn’t surprise me. But why is he here?” She said, pointing at me.

  “I can hear you, you know? No need to refer to me as him.” I rolled my eyes, but smiled as I remembered something else. “Thanks for all the compliments, though. What is a K-pop?”

  Her eyes widened, and she finally seemed to realize what was going on, and the things she’d said while we waited for Martin. Her reaction to that was as expected - she rolled into a ball, whispering “kill me”, repeating it constantly.

  Martin remained where he was, his hands raised in submission. “Why are you here, uhh… Shrimpie? What a weird name, by the way. Well, I can’t believe you’d chase me into here for just a thousand gold.”

  Ignoring his jab at my name, I went to reply. Where was Mark? Did he need some kind of signal? “No. Meeting you here is just a coincidence. A happy one, however. You’ve had this coming. I’ll be taking the money back as well.”

  He chuckled. “Sorry, don’t have it anymore. The goblins took all I had. Or better said, all I had and didn’t bother putting into inventory.”

  Of course. I could have expected as much. Reluctantly, I lowered my arm from his neck. “Let’s wait for Mark, and then I’ll ask you some questions. I’m not over you stealing from me, but I’ll let it go.” I grabbed him by his shirt. “But if you tell anyone that I’m a player, I will kill you. Remember that.”

  His ears were pressed close to his head, the same way Crudia’s were when she was scared. That was a good sign. I let go, watching him fall a small distance to his feet. I didn’t even realize that I lifted him off the ground.

  “I don’t know how much I can tell you, but you can count on me keeping my mouth shut.”

  I looked at him, face deadpan. “You literally stole from me. Now I should trust you?”

  He raised his hands again, the same expression like when I had my shield on his neck. “Hey dude, I didn’t promise to not steal from you, got it? I also really needed the money.”

  “Yeah, it’s not Martin’s fault, you… ugly man!” The teenager squeamed, pointing at me again.

  I chuckled. “Totally believing the insult after how much you built me up five minutes ago. Okay Martin, let’s-”

  Mark phased through the wall. “Oh, you already have him? What did I miss?”

  “Ah, a monster!” The girl screamed.

  “Jesus Christ, not another kid.” He held his head.

  “Who are you calling a kid? You look barely older than me!”

  “Shhh, Emma.” Martin cut in before she could follow on her barrage of insults. “So, you wanted questions answered?”

  God, I was already losing track of all I knew and what I still needed to ask. “Okay, Martin here promised to keep his mouth shut. That’s a good start. What was next Mark?”

  “Did he give you your money back?”

  I shook my head. “He doesn’t have it anymore.”

  A grumble. “Classic.”

  “Oh, I have a question,myself! Why are you not blue anymore?” Martin looked at my arms, inspecting the disgusting paint that was on it.

  Mark had a reply ready, not letting Martin steer the discussion.. “We had to sneak in. It’s just body paint. Back to topic, what happens to the players that are abducted by the goblins and dragged down here?”

  Martin leaned against one of the barrels, phasing through Emma while doing so, and looked at the closed door. “There’s a building at the lowest point of this enclave. A portal. They send two players every two days to the dragon the highest mages serve.”

  “Shit, the dragon? The one that’s gonna attack the city?” I looked at Mark, seeing him come to the same conclusion. This was one of those armies of his.

  “Wait, did you two decide to defend the city?” Emma asked, a hint of sadness audible in her voice.

  “Yeah, the reward is awesome!” I grinned, attempting to make eye contact. She averted her gaze the moment our eyes met. “Wait, how do you know of it?”

  “We got the quest for some reason. Right after I ro—” He stopped. “Borrowed some money from you. Saw all the info. You two are suicidal.” Martin sighed. “Not that I dislike you for your courage, though. Well, the dragon is the least of your problems. There are three mages that control the whole goblin clan, and they are well protected. I suppose you’re here to try to save someone. That’s what the last few players coming here attempted. You’ll have to get through them first.”

  I leaned against a wall. “Can’t we just find the cage he’s in?”

  A shake of his head again. “Nah. The metal they’re made of is almost undestroyable. Even the system tells me so. The mages are the ones with the master key. And they only use it during the ritual ceremony.”

  “They didn’t do a sacrifice today, I hope.” Mark asked, hopeful.

  “They did. In the morning.”

  Good. That meant Fink was probably still alive. Somewhere in the cages.

  “Hmm. I guess that’s it. Sounds right, Mark?”

  He nodded. “I think so. This seems really hard, though. I wish Crudia was here.”

  I stood up, ready to leave, but a hand caught my wrist. Martin looked scared, embarrassed even, but I saw the fear in his eyes. “Wait. Please. The reason we’re here, risking our life. There’s a friend of mine locked here too. A bunny. Let me help. I’ll get us all out in return.”

  I looked at Mark, confused as I was. Stealing the keys was definitely one of the ways to do this. And a thief just offered to help.

  I would not let this chance pass me by. “Your friend? Expand on that.”

  He shook his head. “Listen. There are about a hundred goblins out there, and soon enough, they’ll come looking where their drinks are. Go there, drink some grot, and we meet here tomorrow morning. How about it?”

  I didn’t want to let him go. But remaining here without suspicion was more important. “Tomorrow morning. You better not be lying.”

  “Well I would never.” He smiled cunningly.

  I rolled my eyes, waited for my drinks, and went back to the goblins, four grot in my hands. The grot looked disgusting, but how bad could it be? I carefully, slowly, took a sip from the wooden mug.

  That was the last thing I remembered from that evening.