Rook jogged towards Reina and Mara. A shiver sent ice down his spine once again. On the path to his right, he looked for an entrance, then cut into the woods. It took around two minutes to sneak back to her. She was surrounded by four goblins, and these ones meant harm. Their curved blades waved back and forth through empty air as they circled around her. Mara was surrounded by two enforcers and two spear-wielding goblins. Reina held a defensive stance. Skill or not, she was clearly outnumbered. He instinctively was able to tell their ill intent based on how ugly they were. The three lackeys were no prized hogs, dressed in mismatched hide armor, one with an eyepatch, and the others plain horrible and young. The leader Rook noticed was a treat. He looked like, at one point, as a baby, a donkey kicked him to get him to stop crying. He was what Rook liked to call, big head, small face.

  The ones surrounding Mara were similar; the spearmen pulled out dart weapons and stitched her up the back with blow darts. She wobbled for a second before falling to the ground. They didn’t seem to feel the need to do the same to Reina.

  How do I do this? His analytical side was running through all possible scenarios, but the only thing that seemed to fit was a rush. One of the goblins lunged forward and was immediately caught by the thrust of her blade in the throat, dropping him, clutching a bubbling wound.

  Another took the opportunity to seize her blade with metal gauntlets. Reina’s face was a twisted mass of concentration. She desperately tried to pry the sword free, yanking back and essentially playing tug of war with the goblin. She let go and turned to run into the woodline, but tripped over a loose root, falling forward to her hands and feet. Still holding her reclaimed blade, the eyepatch goblin kicked her in the side of the head like he was Andre the Giant.

  Rook’s body went cold, and the world went silent. He crouched at the precipice of the forest, still unnoticed thanks to his sneak skill. He rushed out of the tree line to meet them. A stupid idea, but his thoughts weren’t there; his command presence seemed to calm to a suggestion to his mounting rage.

  He gritted his teeth, gripping the crude club tight. Legs pumping, he let his anger free and savagely struck the back of one goblin, whose head all but exploded like a watermelon. The second strike was aimed at the side of another’s head, sending it toppling forward, into another goblin. He surged his Attramancy and hurled a fist-sized stone towards the eyepatch goblin, striking it in the chest. He swung his crude club at the closest goblin, and it ducked. Fuck. An enforcer wide as a wrestler and only around a foot shorter, picked him up by his throat, squeezing the life out of him. Three distinct pricks nicked him in the shoulder. Looking down, three feathered darts stuck from his arm. Moments later, his world went hazy. The last thing Rook saw was ugly’s toothy grin, then the sky, then air rushed past his ears as he was slammed down into the ground. His world went black.

  Some days I’d rather be free as a bird. Free from this life.

  Something dripped, methodical, slow, and insanity inducing. What is that noise? He slowly opened his eyes and saw he was suspended a few feet from the ground, and there was a growing puddle of blood from a wound on his head, so he guessed. His vision swam, hazy and blurry, making it hard to think in this new upside-down world. Ahead of him, Reina was being carried on the goblin enforcer’s massive shoulder. Two others dragged Mara and her greatsword into the cave. Rook tried to move, but his body just wanted to sleep. Wanted to lie still and let oblivion take over. The back of my head feels wet and gritty.

  * * *

  He closed his eyes and passed out again. His body was floating through the orange sky once again. This time, he was being lowered onto a grey pillar, and the motion sickness subsided when his feet met the rough stone of a watch tower. Knox must have summoned me to the castle. He was seated at a table, carved from the same steel-colored wood. The watchtower overlooked a black river that wound through the dead lands, like ants in a colony. Behind him, a trap door opened, and Knox came through, dressed in different colored robes. These were gold, with black designs that swirled throughout the fabric.

  “Rook, buddy. Good to see you.” Knox fist bumped Rook, then sat on a barrel across from him. “I come up here to think sometimes. It’s peaceful and nobody expects anything from me.”

  “Say, you have any spell books for Attramancy around here?”

  “I would have to check the library, but most likely. Let me see what I can bring you next time I can get you here,” Knox answered, then stood up to look at the river. “It’s named the black river of death. We place those who die on boats and let them ride the water until they hit the waterfall.”

  Rook must have made a face, because Knox put his hands up defensively.

  “Yeah, man, I know it’s fucked up. However, watch this.”

  Knox’s face strained with concentration. He slowly waved his hands in a circle until they shimmered with a purple hue. “Rise now!” Knox forced his palms out towards the riverbank.

  Several shambling corpses with grey, mottled skin rose from the dirt, as if they were just getting out of bed. They wailed in pain as they stumbled around. A handful of them fell into the river and were sucked into the rushing current.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “It’s a basic raise dead skill that I got when I ranked my skills at bronze max. I think I can summon bigger dead things when I hit level 25.”

  “How did you level so quickly? Is there some type of glitch you’re using?”

  “Well, it’s a conjured passive skill that allows me to replenish mana from the earth. The infernal are pretty powerful in magic over the other races because of it. That exploit, mixed with high-level spells and mana replenishment, allows me to raise my necromancy to a very high level. Depending on the races, we mix classes as well, through mixing skills.”

  Rook stared at the rest of the corpses stumble into the black river and get swept away. He snickered. “What is this place?” Rook asked, sweeping his hand around the watchtower.

  “Well, it’s my overlord father’s, and soon, when the old demon croaks, it’ll be mine,” Knox replied, leaning on the watchtower wall.

  Rook let out a low whistle, then got up, walked over to Knox, and swiped at his knees.

  “The hell are you doing, dude?” Knox said, trying to push Rook away with his foot.

  “I just have to check your knees, because they must be dirty and bruised for you to get promoted so fast to second in command. Your throat okay?” Rook asked with a laugh. “Seriously, though, how? I’ve been having a hell of a time lately trying to level up and get stronger.”

  “This place is weird, man. The old demon man was a lich lord, and he treats all the necromancers like his children. He held a competition to see who could summon the biggest army in the shortest amount of time. I won, therefore I am taking over.”

  “How many did you summon?” Rook asked.

  “One. It was an undead dragon, using my mana exploit, I ate and ate from the Earth until the being came to life. I had it fly around a few times, kill a few of the competition, and presto, just like that, Bob’s your uncle.”

  “Yeah, yeah, Roberts, your father’s brother,” Rook responded.

  They both laughed.

  “I was just telling my friend Reina that there are more exploits. We found one about sneaking, but I don’t really know how yet,” Rook said, trailing off.

  “Are you going to leave me at that? I like sneaking too.”

  Rook’s cheeks flushed, and the pang of despair sat like a stone on his chest. “I need to get back, man, I’m tied up right now.”

  “Ok, if you were busy, you could’ve just said so,” Knox replied.

  “As in literally tied up, hanging upside down. I’m sorry but there’s people counting on me right now. Short version, we are captured by goblins.”

  Knox smiled. “I understand. Hopefully, I can summon you during a better time. Maybe you’ll be in the Bloodstone Circuits.” Knox chuckled, sending Rook back to his place in Yorthon. “Those fucks have been trying to come over and conquer the Infernal Kingdom for a while, it seems.” Knox waved as Rook faded into nothing.

  “Wake, Gork!” A gruff voice barked. “Human Wake!?”

  Rook’s face was being jabbed by something sharp, spiky, and painful. Like he was being prodded by a nail, the hardened edge jabbed into his cheek, sending waves of agony through him. I could really go for anything but this. He peeled his face free from the painful metal and tried to yell out for Reina. His mouth was dry as cotton. What did they do to me? He thrashed desperately before his stamina ran out, but his hands and feet were bound together. Where am I? Did OPFOR capture me? Rook’s eyes widened as realization hit him.

  Reina’s piercing scream slapped him back to reality and straight out of the funk. Think. Think. We got captured, now there’s a good chance we die if we don’t get out of this. Rook checked through his inventory. They took his Mace of Doublestrike, however, his skinning blade, the goblin blade, and his potions were still in his inventory. Good news, I have my stuff. Bad news, I’m upside down, bound, and probably going to die in this dungeon. It was just his luck, managing to get captured by goblins, even if they did outnumber them, even with poison. There goes the Sentinel trial, there goes my dreams of winning this thing against the Bloodstone. It’s not looking good, ladies and gentlemen, Rook thought. His body was racked with fatigue, and the familiar cloud that sometimes fogged his brain was there. The feelings of being a burden that usually plagued him in the cloudy funk were back in full force.

  Wait, Jody’s not here playing pinball through the crowd. Then we still have a chance. Rook looked around at the goblins. If I can convince them of this with my Silver Tongued Bastard, maybe I can convince them to let me go. Maybe they have jealousy in the goblin world? Who has the most warts, or who has the best-smelling crotch rot, the usual.

  “Ahem.” Rook cleared his throat. “I don’t suppose you would be willing to give me water?” He smiled. “I didn’t mean-”

  Command presence- Silver Tongued Bastard Activated.

  The goblins looked at him with pure confusion. “Wa-ta.” The goblin turned towards his companions. “Wata?”

  That was easy. They repeated the word over and over again. Rook inhaled a short choppy breath that caught in his chest. Damn, these ropes are tight. Fairly soon, the blood rushing to his head would make him delirious. Hopefully, they had somewhere else to take us. The goblin enforcer said something in their hacking and rock gargling language before ambling over to Rook.

  “Only water. Nothing else. Will die.” The goblin’s rumbling voice muttered.

  The enforcer let him down easily. The dizziness took a minute to subside while his world righted itself. The goblin pulled out a water skin and placed it on Rook’s lips. Thank God for Nectar of the Gods because he had zero idea of what was actually in that waterskin. For all he knew, it was fire ants and piss. He was happy to find out it was water; the liquid cooled his dry throat. The enforcer began to raise him up once again when another goblin ran into the cavern. Hissing and hacking, obviously distressed by the sound of it. Rook craned his head to see Raccoon babbling something to the goblins.

  What a sight for newly repaired eyes. The enforcer waved a dismissive hand in the air. But Raccoon was adamant, jumping up and down to get his point across. The goblins argued in their language; several times during the conversation, they pointed at Rook and an unconscious Reina. The enforcer eventually nodded and grabbed Rook, cutting the rope that bound his torso and those around his ankles.

  “Go. To sacrifice,” the enforcer said, leading Rook out of the cavern.

  In his last fleeting glance, Raccoon winked at him.