Another day, another quest. Walking in to the guild, I notice a lot of adventurers looking at the quest board. I walk up to them to see what they are looking at. Apparently, there's a request for help to prevent the orc invasion. Seems to me like its a large scale event. I probably won't be able to go since my combat power isn't that high. Scanning at the other quests, I notice that the goblins have successfully bred a hobgoblin. If my memory is correct, hobgoblins are a variant form of goblins. They are stronger, faster, and more intelligent than the average goblin. Man...I want to make a hobgoblin mask. Evil fumu-fumus can be heard from my vicinity...everyone looked at me and backed away slowly. Realizing my habit is showing again, I took a copy of the "Slay 5 hobgoblins" quest and embarrassingly ran out the guild.

Walking back into the forest where I slain those goblins yesterday, I placed on my Werewolf mask. Once I transformed into a werewolf, I sniffed my surroundings trying to sniff out some goblins. After a few minutes, I smelled a little more than 100 goblins clustered in a group some distance away. Silently and quickly, I rushed over towards the goblins. By the time I reached the goblin group, it was almost noon. The goblins are currently cooking some sort of stew. By their side, I see 10 hobgoblins lazing about. Switching off my Werewolf mask with my Ghost mask, I quietly and transparently floated towards the goblins. Luckily because of the ghost's innate ability to phase out and avoid detection, I was able to approach the goblin's stew pot without being noticed. I reached into my backpack and pulled out a vial of poison that I recently traded with a goblin mask. When the goblin cook wasn't looking, I poured the entire vial into the pot...hopefully, there's enough stew in the pot to dilute the poison.

Next, I waited for the goblins to finish cooking. In the meantime, I observed the hobgoblins. Two of the hobgoblins are red while the rest were black. I remember that different colored hobgoblins meant different innate abilities. For instance, black hobgoblins are the most common with no special abilities...just a stronger version of goblin. However, red hobgoblins have a fire affinity and can do some form of fire magic/ability. I couldn't help but daydream about what I can get with a red hobgoblin mask...a permanent mask can be considered a C-rank magic item, while black masks can be considered as D-rank.

While I was daydreaming, the goblin cook finally finished cooking. Because the hobgoblins were stronger, they were able to eat first. Seeing the hobgoblins eat huge amounts of the stew, I worried that the hobgoblins might take in too much of the poison and die instead of the intended paralysis. While the hobgoblins were eating, the poison took effect (wow that was way too fast...the goblins haven't started yet). Struggling in pain, the hobgoblins went berserk. Thinking that the goblins poisoned them because of their previous abusive treatment, they started slaughtering the goblins. Some goblins ran and some tried to fight back. More than 90 goblins died before the hobgoblins collapsed with foam from their mouths. The remaining ten or so goblins walked up to the collapsed hobgoblins and poked them to see if they were alive or not. While the goblins were prodding, I immediately sprang into action. Switching to my Orc mask, I attacked the goblins and killed them. Looking at the hobgoblins, I knelt beside each one of them and checked their pulse...what? They're dead?! Did...was the poison too strong? I cursed at myself for wasting such good material. However, luckily I knew a method to make masks with limited uses from corpses. In other words, they don't have to be alive before face removal. However, limited use masks are a rank lower than permanent masks...in other words, what could have been a C-rank magic item can only be a D-rank and what could have been a D-rank can only be an E-rank item.

With a sigh, I switched back to human form and took out my Skinning knife. I expertly removed the faces of the red hobgoblins and three of the black hobgoblins. Then, I removed the ears of the other 5 hobgoblins to be used as proof of quest completion. Afterwards, I hurried back to the guild to report my success. After reporting, I headed to the Tavern to see if I can trade my hobgoblin masks.