Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

Lucan. Silent, Adrestia, and the Ghost King found themselves in a forest. The yellow river was nowhere in sight.

"Damn it. What were those things?" Lucan cursed.

"There are many abominations in the ethereal realm. When a soul refuses to enter the yellow river, it can take form again after many years. That was some sort of devourer, beings with an incredible desire to consume. It is all they are capable of. It won't be the last type of abomination we meet in the ethereal realm. They are considered corrupted life forms. Anything that isn't able to live off of the natural energy of this place, eventually becomes an abomination. Most start as souls but some creatures that wander into this place, if they survive long enough, can become tainted by the souls that resist the yellow river. They too will become abominations."

With Lucan's mad dash out of the fog, they had gotten turned around and didn't even know which direction they needed to head to find the yellow river again.

"It is not that bad." Said the Ghost King. "If we wander around for a bit, we will eventually notice the realm either becoming more solid, or weaker, that should give us a direction to go it."

They wandered through the forest for the rest of the day. Whenever they heard or saw something ahead, they backtracked or made a wide detour. Lucan was still on edge from his experience with the devourers and didn't want to come into contact with any of the natural inhabitants of this place. At night he set up a formation while Silent prepared her tent.

"Interesting." The Ghost King remarked.

"What is it Ghosty?" Silent asked.

"Do you see it? Up above the trees is a moon."

"Ah, now that you mention it, I do see it. Didn't you say there is no sun or moon in the ethereal realm?"

"I did, we must be heading further away from the yellow river, the moon is likely from some other realm and shining through. Most likely the moonlight is stronger than a normal moon."

"Does that mean you know which direction to go in the morning?" Lucan asked.

"That I do." The Ghost King replied.

"Good, good."

Lucan had Adrestia keep watch, the Ghost King was going to join her, its not like ghosts needed to sleep anyway.

"Umm, Lucan. It is a little cold out, you can share my tent if you want." Silent said, not looking in his direction to hide her flushed cheeks.

"Your right, it is kind of chilly." He replied as he went in after her.

The Ghost King rolled his eyes. The temperature was a comfortable level like it was for the entire day.

Since they were camping in the wilds, they kept most of there leather armor on, but that didn't stop Lucan as he pulled Silent close after they got under the blanket. He showered her with kisses, working his way from her ear, down her neck, towards her shoulder. It seemed like she wanted him to keep going further down as she showed no signs of wanting him to stop. She even pulled the drawstring lose on her leather cuirass, allowing it to be lifted up and pushed to the side.

Right as he was about to venture downwards, he was interrupted.

"Lucan, Silent, get out here." The Ghost King said in a low voice.

'AHHH! I am going to stomp that stupid ghost to death!' Lucan fumed to himself as Silent reattached her armor.

She quickly crawled out of the tent. After trying to take enjoyment of her figure crawling away from him in her tight leather pants, Lucan followed.

When he exited the tent, the warlock saw a small creature rummaging around the trees near the formation. It was a blue goblin, looking for food.

"I thought goblins were always green." Silent softly said.

"Aye, perhaps it is some variant, the moonlight in this region is particularly strong. I have encountered several lunar elves before, but this is my first time seeing a lunar goblin." Said the Ghost King.

The blue goblin turned their direction and started to inspect the area where the formation was located. He slowly circled their camp.

"Can he hear us?" Silent asked.

"No, the sound muffling spell is in place."

"Moon light strange." The goblin softly mumbled to itself.

"Your illusions probably can't mimic the essence inside the strange moonlight in this area." The Ghost King said.

The goblin circled the camp a few more times before its eyes lit up in delight.

"Hidden food." He happily mumbled to himself.

The goblin walked straight into the formation.

With a soft bang, he faceplanted into the telekinetic wall and stepped back, shaking his head.

With a frown the goblin waved his hand. "Don't hide food from me." He said as a beam of moonlight transformed into a spirt. With a human form standing half the goblins height. A warrior made of moonlight appeared. She was clad in white armor and held a white sword in her hand. "Break open secret food stash." The goblin said to the spirit before pointing towards the formation.

Parting the formation, Lucan stepped out. A black sword in hand, he pointed it towards the goblin. "Are you looking to die?" He said, still angry he missed his chance to take things further with Silent.

Like a flash of lightning, the goblin drew its bow. A miniature moon appeared over its head. The moonlight from the small moon was absorbed into the arrowhead turning it pure white.

"You hide food from me, I smell it." The goblin said.

Silent could hear the soft chanting of Lucan's shadow domain spell. She rushed forward to stop him.

"There is no need, he is only hungry." She said to Lucan before turning to the goblin. "We have food, are you hungry?" She asked the goblin in a gentle voice.

Lucan stopped his chanting but didn't drop his sword. The goblin kept his bow aimed but didn't release the arrow.

Silent disappeared back into the formation and returned with the leftover stew they had for dinner.

"Here, have some food, I made it myself." She said, setting it down in between the warlock and the goblin.

The goblin looked towards the food but then back towards Lucan's sword. He didn't move towards the pot even though drool started to drip down his chin.

"Lucan, let him go." Silent said, pushing his sword arm down. "He is only level 100, with both of us alert it should be fine."

He didn't say anything but his sword transformed back into a scepter.

The goblin slowly eased the arrow back to a passive position and let the lunar energy dissipate from its tip.

Silent pulled Lucan a few steps back and the goblin moved towards the pot. He quickly sat down with it between his legs and used his hand to scoop out mouthfuls of rabbit stew.

"MMM! Good!" He quickly turned to the lunar spirit by his side and offered her a handful. She silently shook her head and reminded him again that spirits don't eat. The goblin shrugged. "More for me."

After a few minutes, the goblin was licking the inside of the pot clean. He set it to the side and turned to Silent. "More Food." Said the goblin.

"You want more food?" Silent asked.

The goblin shook his head, then nodded, then shook his head again. "Name, More Food." He said pointing to himself.

"Oh, okay, you don't want more food, your name is More Food."

"No." The goblin said shaking his head again. "Name More Food. Want more food."

Silent laughed. "Okay, okay, I understand." She reached into her bag an pulled out a couple of premade sandwiches. She set them on a plate and placed them on the ground before the goblin.

The goblin let out a big grin, showing his misaligned teeth, and happily nodded towards Silent.

"Nice to meet you More Food, I am Silent. This is Lucan."

With a mouth full of bread, meat and cheese, More Food nodded. "Silent friend. Lupan, bad man."

Silent chuckled.

"It's Lucan." The warlock corrected.

"Lutan, mean."

"LUCAN."

"LUDAN." The goblin repeated.

Getting her laughter under control Silent directed the goblin.

"More Food, say it with me. LU-."

"LU-."

"CAN."

"CAN."

"There you go, you got it now." Said Silent, giving the goblin a reassuring smile.

The goblin pointed to her. "Silent.' Then he pointed to the warlock. "Lusan."

The rogue couldn't contain her laughter. Lucan turned around and went back into the formation to avoid strangling the goblin.

"Okay More Food, we have to rest now. Here." She said, setting down a bag filled with a bunch of dried foods. "We will leave in the morning. You stay safe in the forest." She said before following Lucan back into the formation.

Inside the tent again, Silent only wanted to talk about how cute the goblin was.

"What are you talking about, that turd was ugly as can be."

"You just don't get it, sometimes something can be so ugly it is cute."

The talked for a little while longer before eventually heading back to sleep.

In the morning Lucan didn���t see the annoying goblin hanging around anywhere. They packed up and headed away from where they saw the moon last night hoping they could find the yellow river today. What they didn't notice was the small blue goblin trailing after them while riding on a white fox.