Christopher felt his Soul lurching in a discomforting manner. His Soul seemed to fight the [Bookmark] skill for a moment, fighting for control. He managed to stop struggling against the feeling and he suddenly lost all of his senses. Before he could panic, he felt his sensations return only a fraction of a second later. His brain once again panicked at the sudden change of scenery.

‘Well, that was weird.’ He was right back to where it had all begun. He was hit with the strongest sense of déjà vu that he had ever experienced. These were the same sounds, the same smells, and the same lightly colored red Sternel leaves that he had seen on his first arrival. It was very strange to be in the middle of such a peaceful scene after he had been in a warzone only seconds earlier. All he could hear was the gentle breeze moving through the forest and the melodious calls of birds.

Christopher wanted nothing more than to rest, but there was no time to waste. It was finally time to fix one of his regrets from the first turn. There was a caravan out there that had many men, women, and children, that would be attacked by the Goblins soon. He did not precisely remember how long he had explored the interface after arriving last time, but he was confident that it had been at least several minutes. He hoped he had more time than that. The image of all those bodies had regularly plagued his dreams, and maybe saving them would stop some of those nightmares. He also needed to make sure that nothing would happen to Tamas and her family.

Christopher decided to start with fixing his current naked state, the wind chilling his bones. He could only hope that [Soul Mark] had worked as advertised. He started with summoning the tailored black robe on his body. He was very pleased to see the blue mist forming before the clothing coalesced on his person. Excellent, [Soul Mark] worked just fine. He had expected it to work since the items were bound to his Soul, but he had been nervous regardless. He would have to do without any boots, but it did not bother him that much. He now had some clothing to appear somewhat credible when he encountered the caravan. He certainly did not want to be mistaken for a raving madman. He then summoned the Adeline Dagger into his hand, the craftmanship just a fine as ever. He quickly summoned and dispersed the small bar of silver, glad that his income was also secure. With that, he had everything he needed.

Time to set his plan in motion, which was admittedly pretty simple. He needed to organize the caravan into a proper defense. They should do better if all the non-combatants were not as scattered over the road. And Christopher hoped that he could make his own presence another beneficial factor. He would also need to be careful more than ever. [Bookmark] would be on a cooldown for twenty-four hours, which would make his next action quite dangerous. However, the first step was to find his way to the Caravan, this time without the distressed screams to lead his way.

He recognized the large tree under which he had sat hugging his knees after his first arrival, allowing him to orient himself. He also remembered the general direction that should take him to the dirt path winding through the forest. He started running through the detritus, his bare feet painfully hitting some of the branches on his way.

While running, he noticed that his body seemed a bit scrawnier than he believed it had been. When he willed up his interface, he was relieved to see that his attributes at least remained in their increased state. Still his scrawnier body was worrying, he could only hope that his body would be able to catch up with his attributes. He was also feeling an incredibly hunger, which was certainly strange as well. He expected that they might be related.

It did not take him all that long, he managed to run into the dirt road after only a minute and a half. ‘Yes, found them!’ just a mere fifty meters further up he saw the people and wagons traveling on the road, calmly moving in his direction, no awareness of the danger. Christopher ran up to them, immediately eliciting the firs startled shout. Christopher waved his hands above his head to get their attention, a look of distress on his face. The people leading the caravan look battered and tired but with his approach, they had quickly drawn their weapons, giving him a wary but determined look.

As soon as he could make himself heard, Christopher yelled out to the group “Goblins are tracking you and will be here in moments. Get into a defensive position now, Hurry!.”

Maybe it was his distressed facial expressions, or maybe it was just that they had little reason not to believe him, but they immediately took his warning seriously.

The apparent leader of the group, a tall blond-haired man with some thick leather armor took charge of the caravan and started yelling.

“Everyone, Goblins are coming, seek shelter around the middle Horrol wagon so that we can protect you. And please get into a defensive formation by circling the wagon if you are still able to fight. Kata, go inside the circle and get ready to heal anyone that gets wounded and pulled in. Willox, get on top of the wagon and defend as you see fit.”

Christopher felt immense relief since he had been somewhat worried that they would not take him seriously. He was not foolish and arrogant enough to think that he could hold out against the Goblins himself, he would need the help of the rest of the caravan. None of the people questioned the orders from the tall and blonde leader.

He was pleased that all the non-combatants, including the children, quickly collected themselves around the middle Horrol wagon. It must have only taken a minute or two. His heart welled up with emotions when he saw Tamas and Tinos carrying the twins towards the wagon in the middle, Menos following behind. This was confirmation that he was really back in the past, all the events of the last month erased. It was very surreal to see them again like this.

He did not really recognize any of the other people around him. He had mostly tried to ignore the dead bodies of the others during the last turn, trying to block out the bodies of the children and the blood and gore. To see these people back among the living felt somewhat strange. It also raised some questions with him on how his ability actually worked, but that was a different can of worms.

He also did a double take when he saw the young man from whom he had looted the hunting knife and leather armor. It was very strange to see the now intact leather armor on someone else. What would have happened if he had put a Soul Mark on the knife or one of the individual pieces of that armor? Would that have just created a duplicate, or would the other man suddenly be without his dagger? It all depended on how [Bookmark] actually worked. He was hardly an expert in the magical abilities of the interface and of this world, but he hoped that he could gain more knowledge by enrolling in the Academy.

The whole situation felt incredibly surreal but he drew his Adeline dagger and made himself part of the circle of defenders, being forcibly placed beside the apparent leader of the refugees from Stonehill. They might be heeding his warning for now, but the man clearly wanted to keep a close eye on him. Christopher was only wearing the black full-body robe, so his armor was nonexistent. He would need to be careful not to get hit, but at least there was apparently a healer here. Their circle seemed to have fourteen total fighters, with about three times that number inside of the circle. It would hopefully be enough.

The blond-haired leader spoke to him after they had all gotten in position. “You… how many are coming? And what creatures can we expect?”

“There should be a lot, I expect that there must be close to a hundred Goblin’s. At least there should be no creatures more dangerous than that.” His estimate elicited some gasps, they had spoken loudly so everyone had heard them.

“I hope you are wrong about this; That many might certainly be able to overwhelm us.”

The leader kept probing him with more questions about the composition of the malignity of Goblins. And Christopher tried his best to answer him, wishing that he had the foresight to count them back then. He informed the blond leader of the shoddy armor and weapons that some of the Goblins carried. After another minute they still had not seen a single Goblin, and the doubt about his statement was starting to build among some of the people. Christopher was also starting to wonder whether the Goblins were actually going to show up this time. But then they had their first glimpse of something green between the trees. The trees were spaced widely and thus they could spot it relatively quickly now that they were nervously peering through the thick trunks. All the defenders tightly gripped their weapons. The defenders shifted their position slightly now that they knew the right direction, The formation now tighter at the direction of the green creature moving their way.

The first that came within their view held no weapon but did not seem perturbed by their defensive formation, it started running for them at full speed. Soon another group of four came running as well. The goblins started screaming, clearly out for blood.

As soon as they came within range, Willox, the archer, shot an arrow in the group of four, killing the one that was armed with a jagged sword instantly. The single leading Goblin had now arrived and was easily cut down by the blond leader. The three remaining from the small malignity were also killed soon after reaching them, these ones having only clubs and a blunt dagger. He was even able to slash one open himself by plunging his Adeline dagger straight through its heart. They had an overwhelming advantage against these small malignities. He got the notification.

[You have defeated a minion of entropy; 120 soul points have been acquired]

The Goblins kept running at them as soon as they were spotted, usually in malignities of no more than ten, which was a significant amount, but still less than the stronger defenders. Willox, was able to thin the groups from atop the wagon, which was also very helpful in keeping them from being overwhelmed. He was sure to hit the ones that were bigger or the ones that had sharp weapons. They were able meet every single Goblin with at least two people if needed.

There was no real strategy or direction in the way that the Goblins proceeded to attack. They did not attack all at once but came running in a snakelike procession, easily managed by their tight defense. Christopher considered the differences. The last time the caravan had been caught off guard by the attack, forcing the combatants to go on the defensive. It had given the Goblins the opportunity to pool together, thereby eventually overwhelming the defenders with sheer numbers. And even in that scenario, the goblins had still lost twice as many as they had killed of the humans.

The attack from the Goblins suddenly seemed very ineffective compared to the Blight storming Lumen. Maybe things would be different if the Goblins had coordinated. Christopher had the thought that for him the attack on Lumen had only been minutes ago.

It was clear that his warning had been very effective in turning the odds on the humanoid monstrosities. They had gathered all the non-combatants safely within the circle and were properly able to support each other. Every next group was not able to reach them before they dispatched the previous malignity, which kept them from being overwhelmed. He was starting to think that they might make it out of this without any casualties. It would require him to pick up the slack though, since the battlefield got increasingly more chaotic. The ground turning slippery from the Goblin blood.

An expression of determination formed on Christopher’s face; it was time to make a difference!