Chapter 4: New Weapons and Loots
The party's destination takes about 1 hour of walk from Greenhill. While on the road, Jones kept his eyes aware as his sight was better than anyone else (except for William). Halfway to the destination, the party encountered a large group of 35 goblins and 5 hobgoblins. William and Sam's party prepared to fight as there is no way they can escape. William position himself in front of the party to act as a tank while Sam and Kol stay close to Jones and Andrew covers the party's rear.
The first to act was 10 goblins with throwing spears, but unfortunately, they all aimed at William as he's the biggest target and most threatening enemy. All 10 spears bounced back from armor and in response, William threw a frag grenade right at the center of 10 spear goblins. With a large explosion, all 10 spear goblins and 3 hobgoblins in the back caught on the explosion and died instantly.
With the entire front group of goblins obliterated, 20 goblins and 2 hobgoblins on the right side of the party started to panic. It was this moment when Sam, Kol and Andrew rushed toward the remaining goblins. Sam, who is the most experienced adventurer, rushed towards 10 goblins in the middle and Andrew went right side against 5 goblins, meanwhile, Jones tried to use his bow to take down goblins one at a time.
After blowing up entire groups of enemies, William pulls out his chainsword and bolter pistol at 5 goblins on the right side, with a battle cry of "Die, Green Skin!" The loud roar of chain swords cleave 2 goblins and blast 3 remaining enemies with pistol fire. By the time William finished 5 goblins, Sam and Andrew were holding the line while Kol and Jones were attacking in the range, so William decided to flank the enemy on the right side and confront the 2 hobgoblins.
The first hobgoblin tries to block William's chainsword with its iron buckler, but it buzzes through and hits the hobgoblin's shoulder. The second hobgoblin tried to attack William but instantly died from the punch in the head by William's left hook. With two hobgoblins dead and an open opportunity to attack in the rear, William decided to wipe out entire goblins by unleashing his remaining 7 rounds from a bolter pistol. Because of the angle, he shot from he managed to take down two or more targets with one bullet, the remaining 3 goblins were finished by Sam and Andrew.
The clean up was messy since most of the dead enemy turns into a puddle, the party manages to loot a few coins but there were no items worth looting, meanwhile Kol inspected the bodies and found something interesting.
"They were in the battle not that long ago before ambushing us, it is unusual for this large group to come out this far away," Kol said
"Maybe they got greedy and decided to take a chance with us", Andrew replied. Sam agrees with Kol's theory, but it doesn't explain why goblins had a prior injury or move this far from their territory.
William didn't say as he was focused on what he saw, vast in-game loots on top of the monster's bodies with information floating just like in the game. William didn't believe what he saw but they are indeed items related to fantasy and Warhammer 40K. William decided to pick all the items and put them into his inventory as Sam and others aren't able to see or grab them.
'This is why I have an appraisal. Only I can obtain these items just like in the video game.' William thought as he finished grabbing the last item into his inventory.
After a few minutes of discussion, the party decided to continue as they still need to complete their quest. One hour later, the party made it to the lumberjack site, Sam and others decided to talk to the camp manager, while William gave an excuse of him being too large for a tent and decided to wait outside. While waiting, William checks his inventory to organize and see what he obtained.
[Inventory: Bolter rifle with 210 rifle ammo (Comes as 7 magazines each hold 30 rounds), 4 Prometheus grenades (Used by Space Marine called Salamanders. Burns large areas after it explodes)]
By the time William completed inventory, party members came outside to brief him.
"So, it turns out a small group of goblins is attacking more often than usual, according to the camp manager. Our job is to eliminate those goblins for the next 5 days, the lumberjack camp will be our base camp until work is done." Sam said as William now understood why the party had 7 days' worth of food before leaving Greenhill, Sam instructed everyone to rest so they can hunt tomorrow in full strength.
Since it was late afternoon, William decided to test his new weapons to get familiar, after a few adjustments of the bolter rifle, William patrolled the camp to see if there were any potential enemies in the area.
After 20 minutes of patrolling around the camp, William found 7 goblins wandering around without purpose or sign of intelligence, it is as if they lost a reason to do anything. With no concern, William fired 7 shots from his bolter rifle, all of which are headshots. After checking there isn't any more enemies, he went to the nearest goblin corpse to search for any loot. What William found was no loots but the realization that goblin body was already rotten beyond for normal, 'These goblins were undead before I killed them'.
William stood up after finishing his appraisal loot, grabbed one of the dead goblins and started running back to the lumber camp. A few minutes later, William arrived at lumberjack camp, to find people either cooking for dinner, cleaning equipment, or playing cards to entertain themselves, finally William found the party and reported what he found.
At first, they didn't believe his story about undead goblins until the body of the rotten goblin was presented but suddenly screams and panic spread all over the camp. Large numbers of goblins and hobgoblins are approaching the main tent and they don't look alive.
"We are under attack by the undead, Sam we need the guild's full force, this is beyond our ability to handle," Kol advises Sam while everyone else including William holds their ground as hordes of zombies approach the main tent.
"We need to pull back with many survivors and go back to town, we need to warn everyone about the army of the undead," Sam told the camp leader, and the camp leader informed Sam that there is a warehouse with 5 wagons, enough to take everyone else to the town.
"We will hold back the approaching undead while everyone else prepares the wagons for the departure." Sam gave instructions to his party while surviving camp labors retreat to the warehouse, William pulled his rifle back into his inventory and pulled out his pistol and chain sword for both range and melee to hold the line.
The horde of undead goblins and undead hobgoblins slowly approach the defending line while Sam's party slowly pulls back from the main tent to the warehouse, when undead comes to the main tent, William pulls out his new hand grenade and tosses it at the center of the undead. When the Prometheus grenade exploded, it was spectacular and beyond what William expected as undead and tents caught on flaming explosions leading into small firestorms.
'Holy crap, Salamanders do not joke around with their weapons.' It wasn't just him, but everyone was alarmed as the small metal ball caused so much damage. The explosion of the grenade made a breathing room for the rest of the party to pull back to the warehouse where the rest of the survivors ready the wagons.
"We are ready to depart but there is a problem." The camp leader informed the party as he looks William,
"He is just too big and there is only enough room to carry everyone, he has to follow us on foot." The camp leader said as Sam protest but William stop him,
"You guys need someone to hold back the undead while leaving the warehouse, I can follow you guys on foot after you all leave," William said to everyone, after checking the road, William opened the warehouse doors as all 5 wagons with survivors left the camp at full speed.
While wagons disappear into the darkness toward Greenhill, William checks his weapons as he turns around to face countless hordes of undead in front of him. William attacks the undead army with a smile as he knows his armor is impenetrable, within one hour all his standard pistol ammo was depleted (all 106), and he was fighting only with a chain sword. William ran toward the lumber processing area to look for any makeshift weapons, but unfortunately, there weren't any, so he starts throwing logs toward a group of undead as they approach. Since there were plenty of logs, William felt he could handle the rest of the undead until he was struck by 12 bolts of magic missile and fireball in the chest.
William hasn't injured thanks to the armor, but he was shocked by the magic attack, the magic missile didn't do any damage, but fireball managed to push him off from the pile of logs he was standing on top of.
The helmet's life sensor indicates there are 5 life forms behind an army of undead, as William stands up, he pulls out his bolter rifle and frag grenade to face the new enemy in the battlefield. The explosion of the frag grenade gave enough distraction for him to run toward new enemies and fires his bolter rifle. The rounds hit 3 hooded men and at the same time, a large number of undead crumbled. Two remaining hooded men took cover behind the remaining undead, but it was useless as William can hear a chanting voice, this didn't stop him from continuing his attack, so this time he used his second frag grenade and tossed it at the center of the undead army.
With a large explosion, William charged with his rifle and tackled anything standing in his way like a truck. When he saw his target in front of him, William tackled him with full force, killing the 4th man. At that moment a second target who is wearing fancy robes and cloths opens his palm and blasts William with flames which engulf William.