Louise found himself inside a dark place. The only thing he could see were three doors in front of him. Around him was... nothing. Everything was simply shrouded in darkness. The three doors in front of him had different colors from left to right—green, yellow, and red. This color scheme gave rise to a thought inside his head.
"Easy, medium, hard?" Louise muttered as he stared at the three doors. Obviously, there ought to be a catch here. But this should be put aside. The first thing that should be answered was, just where the hell was he?
He looked around, but there was nothing around him, only the three doors. As such, the next thing he checked was his own body. He spoke a few words, moved his arms, and walked around. His five senses were working properly, and this made him let out a sigh of relief.
All these actions only took a minute or two. Now, what he had to do was think. "What's the catch?" He remembered accidentally tapping on the game notification of "Lazuli," and he ended up here. And... well, here he was, a little too confused.
"I guess I should choose a door." He pinched himself and felt pain. "This isn't a dream, so I should be careful. Green door it is."
Since he had seemingly arrived in this place after tapping on a game notification, then he ought to follow the logic of games. Everything was unknown, and the green door felt like the safest route.
Upon making a decision, he immediately walked toward the green door. Once his hand touched the handle, a few words appeared in front of him.
[The path of life.]
"There's a description?" Louise was stunned. He stopped himself from opening the door and walked back. His curiosity got ahead of him, and so he decided to check the description of the other doors. He walked toward the yellow door and touched its handle.
[The path of karma.]
"Karma? The golden rule?" Louise thought of the saying "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." His emotions were stirred. It seemed the game logic of easy, medium, or hard wasn't exactly what should be followed here.
He stepped back and moved toward the red door. He wanted to analyze things properly before heading into one of the doors. Hopefully, there wasn't a time limit. At the very least, he gave himself a limit of five minutes to decide once he checked the red door's description.
Unfortunately, man proposes, god disposes. His original plan was torn up because the moment he placed his hand on the red door's handle, the door suddenly opened and pulled him in. What he saw before he got pulled in, however, made him wince.
[The path of death.]
Bong! Bong! Bong!
Louise was jolted awake by the tolls of a bell. He found himself in yet another strange place, but this time, it wasn't shrouded in darkness. What appeared before him looked like a barracks in medieval times. He was currently in the sleeping quarters, lying in a bed made of straw mattresses. Around him were men dressed in woolen clothing, and most of them had also just woken up, confused as to what was happening.
All of a sudden, the door to the sleeping quarters was kicked open. A middle-aged man entered the room in a rush before shouting, "The goblin army is upon us! Prepare yourselves!"
Everyone else in the room was startled. All of them hurriedly stood up and rushed out. Louise, who totally had no idea what was happening, stared as things proceeded at a pace he was very unaccustomed to.
"You, what are you doing? We need to move!" A young man saw Louise staring around, as if in a daze. He went toward him, slapped him on the shoulder, and pulled him up.
Louise winced, but that slap did wake him up. He was still very perplexed, but he followed the young man out. Looking at himself and the people around him, he realized that he had to be in a fortress or castle of sorts. The setting was that he was a soldier, and they were about to defend this place against a goblin army.
Of course, there had to be a catch. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to think. Everyone else was rushing out, and he had to keep up. While they were walking out of the sleeping quarters, the young man spoke, "You're really unlucky. It's only your second day in Baltac Fortress, and yet you're already about to experience bloodshed. What's your name?"
Louise was stunned for a moment before replying, "L-Louise."
The young man stopped for a moment, patted him on the shoulder, and reached out a hand. "Don't be too nervous, otherwise, you might lose your life in battle. My name is Muya. The goblins have attacked three times since I was assigned to this fortress two months ago. They are nothing to sweat about. Relax a little."
Louise took his hand and nodded. "Alright." In truth, he wasn't nervous about anything. He was just overwhelmed. From that dark place to here, and then yet to another place... everything just seemed to be moving a little too fast. He didn't know what to expect, and he was given no opportunity to analyze things.
He had always been a person who thought things through. He wanted to compare all the possible courses of action, the consequences, and finally, the results. Now, however, he was thrown in an unknown place, and all he could do was walk forward and play it by ear. Things were hectic, and he was thinking about how stressful his current situation was. But what he didn't know was that, on his face, the expression he had was a little bit full of excitement.
Louise, Muya, and all the other foot soldiers soon arrived in a corridor leading to the armory. There was already a long, orderly line leading to the room. A lot of young men were chattering, excited by the incoming battle. The middle-aged man overseeing the armory, on the other hand, had a somber expression.
Bong! Bong! Bong!
"Muya, why do I have a feeling that things aren't looking good?" Louise observed the scene before him. It took a few minutes before they found themselves near the armory, and during this time, he finally had a bit of time to think. The bell kept tolling, and the atmosphere became a little tense. The chattering young men seemed to have quietened down, and the rowdy atmosphere slowly became heavy.
When Louise looked at Muya, he saw that he, too, had a serious expression. Things seemed to have gone in the wrong direction. He tugged at him and said, "Hey..."
Muya interrupted him with a sign of his hands. He looked around before getting closer to Louise. He whispered, "Most of the new recruits don't know, but the number of times the bell tolls describes the number of enemies and determines our course of action. One toll means at least a hundred goblins are attacking. Two tolls mean at least two hundred. Three tolls, at least 500. In my time here, the most I've heard is three tolls..."
Muya sucked in a deep breath before asking, "Now, how many tolls have you heard?"
Louise's expression also became serious. He softly spoke, "Six."
As if saying that he didn't need to speak anymore, Muya just nodded. Louise didn't have an exact number in mind, but it had to be more than a few thousand goblins. No wonder the atmosphere turned incredibly solemn.
At this time, the soldiers in the corridor started arguing. Things seemed to have become bleaker and bleaker.
"Should we run?"
"Shut up. We are soldiers of the Lancia Kingdom. We can't back down from goblins!"
"But, aren't we going to die?"
"Baltac Fortress is the strongest fortress of the Lancia Kingdom. We have five hundred elite soldiers here, and in addition to the new recruits, there are over 2,000 soldiers. We shouldn't be afraid!"
"Don't worry. General Okur is leading this fortress. They say he can fight against a hundred orcs alone! What can goblins do!"
Bong! Bong! Bong!
"Nine!" No one knew who said that, but the arguments and encouragement stopped all of a sudden.
Louise looked at Muya as the entire corridor turned silent. He wanted answers, but it wasn't Muya who gave them. The middle-aged man overseeing the armory clapped his hand. Everyone became silent and turned to him. Seeing that everyone was listening, he shouted, "We are soldiers, and our job is to protect the Lancia Kingdom. We must make sure to hold on to Baltac Fortress with our lives on the line!"
After saying that, he turned around and headed toward the battlefield. The other soldiers, on the other hand, were frantic. There was no officer overseeing the armory anymore. Some of the soldiers still entered to get armor and weapons, while some had terrified faces as they turned back and fled. The heavy atmosphere made everyone's hearts palpitate madly.
"Muya, what's happening?" Louise asked. He honestly didn't know what to do. His instincts were telling him to run. But looking back at where all the other soldiers were fleeing, he felt an even graver danger.
Muya hurriedly pulled him toward the armory and was about to speak when suddenly...
Bong!
"Baltac Fortress has fallen!" someone screamed.
The looming danger became evident. Louise understood that things had turned from worse to worst.
"Get the weapon you're most familiar with and wear light armor. We need to run!" Muya said as he rushed inside the armory. He took a sword, a quiver, and a bow. He didn't take any armor at all.
Louise mimicked his actions. He saw a leather armor that seemed to fit him and wore it. When he saw the array of weapons, he became hesitant. In truth, he had never used any of these weapons at all. He hadn't even been in a fistfight all his life. What the heck... All he wanted to do was check his messages, and yet here he was, about to choose a weapon to battle against a goblin army. Weren't things moving a little too fast?
Boom!
His hesitation popped like a bubble as a nearby explosion woke him up. He immediately picked a random sword and turned around. His instincts were screaming. Upon picking up the sword, sounds of battle echoed from outside the armory.
"Gwickkk! Hoomans! Kill!"
He turned toward the door of the armory and saw green, ugly-looking humanoids show up—they were goblins. There were about twenty people inside the armory, but twice the number of goblins were pouring in from outside. Each of the soldiers suddenly had two or more goblins attacking them. They were immediately suppressed.
Louise was in the middle of the armory, and as such, he had time to witness at least ten people in front of him getting slaughtered. They fought with their lives, but there were simply too many goblins entering the armory.
Soon, one of the goblins saw Louise. It immediately sprang into action and ran toward him. When it was about two meters away, it jumped in the air and held its dagger above its head. It wanted to perform a quick and clean kill by chopping at Louise's head! Stunned, Louise could only watch as he was about to get killed...
Tssshhk!
All of a sudden, an arrow struck that goblin on its forehead. Blood splattered on Louise's face, but fortunately, it wasn't his. That arrow gave him time to compose himself and dodge the strike. The goblin simply fell to the ground, never to move again.
But that wasn't the end, though. More goblins saw Louise, and they were also about to strike. Louise knew that if these goblins attacked him, he would certainly die. But what could he even do? He raised his sword in a futile attempt to fight for his life when...
"Over here!"
Louise turned around and saw Muya a few meters away from him holding a bow. An arrow was nocked on the bow, ready to fire at the next goblin about to attack Louise. Louise immediately turned around and retreated toward Muya. Muya, on the other hand, shot two more arrows while Louise was running. His aim was perfect, killing a goblin with every arrow. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough. The armory was getting filled with more goblins, and the fighting in and out had slowly died down. Most of the soldiers have died, and the few still alive were being pinned down and also about to die.
"There's a trap door behind us. Open it while I try to hold them back. We can use that place to hide," Muya said as he killed another goblin.
Louise turned around and immediately saw the trap door under a pile of armor. He immediately pushed all the obstacles away and attempted to pry it open. Unfortunately, the trap door seemed to be locked from the other side. Someone must have already entered it.
"It's no use, I can't open it!" Louise said as he knocked on the trap door. At the moment, his heart was beating wildly. Only now did he realize that he was in a life-or-death situation. He didn't understand, though. Just what the hell was happening? How did he find himself in this situation... And then it occurred to him, "F*cking red door!"
Louise stood up and looked around. In front of him were piles of armor. There was only one entrance to the armory, and it was already filled with goblins. There were still a few people who, along with Muya, started fighting back, but they were slowly being suppressed.
"The path of death." The words he saw on the red door's description appeared in his mind. And the moment it did, it was as if he was washed with ice-cold water. He picked up one of the armors littered on the ground and threw it at the incoming goblins. The attacking goblins were startled, and this gave breathing time for the remaining soldiers still fighting.
Louise, at the moment, had a strange smile on his face as he continued throwing anything he could find. Soon, he ran out of things to throw, so he picked up his sword. He stood up and walked toward Muya. He stabbed an incoming goblin in the head, killing it in one strike. This action was incredibly clumsy, but it was enough to help Muya kill off the other incoming goblins.
Muya was bleeding all over. He had many light wounds, but they weren't enough to hinder his movements. He was no longer holding a bow but a sword. He slashed and slashed until no other goblins were left standing.
"Ha, have we finished all of them off?" Muya asked as he stared at the corpses in front of him. He stabbed his sword into the ground to support himself. He had probably killed more than two dozen goblins alone. The other soldiers, on the other hand...
"I think so," Louise replied, exhausted. He honestly didn't know what he was doing during the entire battle. He just stabbed and slashed, and he was lucky enough to kill a few goblins with his actions. He also didn't know how he had survived, but it was probably because of Muya protecting him. Every time he was about to get hit, Muya would act, preventing Louise from suffering a grave wound. As such, Louise only had a few light wounds around his arms.
"We survived, I guess. Haha!" Muya laughed as he fell on his butt. He was utterly exhausted, and the excessive blood loss from his wounds made him a little dizzy.
Louise also fell on his butt. The sword fell to the ground as he sucked in a few mouthfuls of air. "Thank you..."
Unfortunately, before they had time to rest or talk, sounds of footsteps arrived from outside the armory. Baltac Fortress had fallen. Reinforcements wouldn't come. And so the most logical conclusion in this case was that...
"Gwickkk!!"
"More goblins... F*ck." Louise sighed as he saw the first goblin entering the room.
Muya smiled bitterly. He nodded toward Louise and pushed himself up. "A comrade in battle is a brother for a lifetime. Louise, we've only known each other for a day, but I feel like we've been brothers for decades. Let's end this with a bang, shall we?"
Louise smiled, too. He propped himself up and lifted his sword. He said, "Then let's kill as many as we can!"