The rustling inside of the bush intensified as a small green humanoid clumsily exited it. Immediately after exiting the bush, it fell over. It fell right in front of a mushroom. It studied it for a second before thrusting its mouth forward into the mushroom devouring it grossly.

The party looked at this small incompetent creature and wondered how it killed some of them. It almost looked like a 4-year-old kid in size and stature. Suddenly it looked up from the remains of the mushroom still chewing it with bits flying out its mouth and saw the party. The creature almost chokes from scrambling backward. While doing so it draws a blade the length of its arm. In normal hands, this blade would be a rather large knife, however, for this small creature, it was effectively a sword.

"I am pretty sure that goblin-looking thing wants the smoke," Darius said pointing his spear at it in an attempt to intimidate it.

The goblin's bulging yellow eyes locked on to Darius. It leaned back before aggressively charging towards him swinging its knife side to side.

Darius reacted just a second too late and was about to get cut by the goblin's blade when Norman stepped up and shoulder checked the small creature causing it to be flung quickly to the ground.

"This little shit isn't so tough," Norman said before he looked down at the arm he used to shoulder check the goblin. There was a pretty serious gash on it. "This piece of trash just sliced me!" He started to charge at it but then realized that its blade was no longer in its hand.

Suddenly Elana was standing on top of it with the blade in her hands. "Pickpocket successful! Now stop trying to hurt my party!" She thrust the blade down into the goblin's chest.

The goblin thrashes around for a bit grabbing at the blade embedded in its chest. Its will to live apparent in its eyes. Quickly it fades as the black ichor flows from the wound in its chest. The goblins yellow eyes close and its breath stops.

"Elana are you okay?" Zack asks as he rushes over to her embracing her. "You may have just saved one of us from dying.

Her hands were shaking some and she couldn't stop staring at the body of the goblin she just killed.

*System Alert*

120 exp awarded evenly to party

20 XP directly to the strategist

"Did anyone bring any bandages? Norman was hit pretty good." Adriana was inspecting his wound. "That was a nice move you did there, you big doofus."

"If any of you pieces of trash would have died I would have had to carry back the pack filled with food. Even I get tired, so I just did the thing that was less work. I didn't want to get injured for you losers.

"Just take the compliment," Zack said as he walked over to inspect his injury. "This is going to need stitches. However, the only kit that had stitches in it is back at camp. For now, we can only apply pressure to it and try to keep it clean." Suddenly a thought crossed Zack's mind. What if he could use his mana to stitch this wound back together. He held his palm out towards the gash and felt the mana tingle around his fingertips.

Norman felt something strange happening on his arm and he looked back down at the cut. It looked like the skin was being pulled back into its normal shape, and once it was completely closed there was a large amount of pressure like someone was pushing on his arm. After a second of feeling the pressure, the wound started to burn causing Norman to pull away from Zack. "What the hell are you doi-" Norman stopped mid-sentence when he realized that there was no pain in his arm.

Zack's face lit up when he realized what he just accomplished. This was a marvel of modern medicine. Any doctor or paramedic would kill to have the skill he just used.

*System Alert*

New skill unlocked

Mend

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Mend: Mend allows the user to affect an injury for a number of seconds based on the int points they have. Every time this effect happens the user uses a portion of their mana proportionate to the extent of the injury they just healed. If this skill is used while the user has no mana, they must sacrifice some of their own life force in order to heal the target.

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X saw the notification pop up on his screen and also noticed that Zack used 3 mana from his pool of 20 mana. 'It is damn awesome that we have a healer in the party.' X glanced over at the goblin on the ground. The name Goblin was above its head. Below the name Goblin was a level indicator and a health bar. The level indicator showed it to be a level one creature. It has 0 health remaining out of 10 health. Overall it was a pretty weak creature.

"How did you do that? Did you get some kind of superpower?" Norman was thoroughly perplexed by this. He spent far too much time putting down on this man that may have the power to do serious damage to him. He needed to know the extent of it.

"This is something I just learned how to do. I wouldn't call this a superpower." Zack's mind was still going through all of the possibilities that could come about because of the ability to use mana.

"Did you just get a new skill?!" Adriana got extremely excited over this turn of events. She just understood that the only limits of mana are based around the mind itself and the amount of mana you have. "I am really excited to see what we are able to come up with. Mana is so useful!"

"What is mana, and how come you two can do stuff?" Norman zoned in on the conversation.

"You are curious about some-" she paused for a second to search for the word in Spanish "

Basura." She fluttered her eyelashes tauntingly. "Well since you did take the hit for us, I guess I can explain."

"Mana is the energy-" before she could finish her statement more bushes began to rustle.

Four more goblins emerge from the bushes. They were roughly the same size as the first goblin that came from the bushes. They spotted the party and drew their weapons. However, before they attacked they looked down at the felled goblin and they screamed as they ran to its side. This scream was initially high-pitched but eventually slowed to a wailing sob.

The group was on guard. Although the goblins are small they are also really aggressive and vicious. If more than three of them charged one person they would be able to deal some serious damage.

The goblin that appeared to be leading the pack pointed at the party and shouted what appeared to be threats and insults at them before walking back to the brush. The other three followed it.

"That was thankfully anti-climatic," Darius said, attaching his spear back to his backpack. "Maybe we should leave, like right now."

With that nobody wanted to stick around and see what would happen next.

After walking for roughly an hour the party made it back to camp. They were greeted by the patrol team members who were glad they returned with more food. They went and deposited it to the cooking area which seemed to have been enhanced in the time they were gone. There were also a few new structures being built from what looked like mud bricks.

"Home sweet camp," Adriana said as she started going back towards her work area. She had a lot of work to do in order to make the party fighting fit, and after the run-in with the goblins, she knew she didn't have time to waste.

"I guess that the rest of us should explain to Norman," Elana expressed dimly.

"Do we really have to? Can't we just let him stay confused?" Zack joked.

"If he didn't already prove he was useful, maybe. Sadly he took a blow for me. Even if he is really mean and kinda racist, he may be useful to have around." Darius avoided eye contact with the rest of the party knowing that Norman has caused a lot of negative feelings already.

"As much as I hate to admit it, you are right Darius." X released a depressed sigh.

The party gathered around Norman and explained everything to him in detail.

"So you want me to join your party? Will I be able to get abilities?" Norman is trying to keep his composure.

"That depends on your own capability, but more than likely yes," X says extending the party invite.

*System Alert*

Would you like to join X's party?

"I guess you punks need someone like me on your team."

With that Norman joined the party.

*System Alert*

Norman Tylers has joined the party

Class: Fighter