"No, I am. Which is why I figured I should grab some food before it goes bad. I won't take anything you guys need obviously, just a handful of stuff to get me started," Ashton pointed out, "Do you think it's easy to get food out there otherwise?"
"You're... you're planning on going back out there?" the second of the pair asked, even more confused by this, "It's a miracle that you survived as long as you have, but you want to go back out there? You're completely insane!"
Well, it's not like Ashton hadn't been called insane before, but it still hurt to be told so by a fellow earthling, "I guess I just prefer acting on my own. But don't worry, I can handle myself."
Not just these two, but everyone else that was close enough to overhear Ashton seemed to grow nervous, staring at him. Even those cops seemed anxious. Why though? Weren't they basically trained for emergency situations?
'Cowards', Ashton thought to himself, right as someone came up to him. It was an older man, wearing a uniform of the grocery store below. The small name plate on his chest said he was the store manager.
"You can't go back out there. Something terrible, absolutely horrible is lurking around Market Street," he explained, trying to speak quietly so that not everyone in this place would overhear him, "Just stay here and wait out this disaster."
Ashton's smile weakened. It didn't fully disappear, but instead just changed into a slightly bitter, sad smile. Like the kind you wore when trying to give someone bad news, "We all know that this isn't the kind of thing you can wait out."
This was something they must have realised by now as well, though they simply didn't want to admit it. The room grew completely silent once more, with just the sniffling of scared kids staying audible. Hopefully, 'those guys' would come along soon and at least make it easier for those kids to make it through this world a little longer.
"But... there is a way to get through this," Ashton started, swinging his staff over his shoulder, "I can take care of the hidden boss around here."
The manager stared at Ashton, "Hidden... hidden boss? What are you..?"
"The hobgoblin. Should've been about my height? Maybe a little smaller I guess. That muddy green skin tone like the regular goblins. Commanding them, telling them to collect things and steal from here. I can take care of it for you. Maybe watch a little while as everyone hiding out in this street builds some more barricades or whatever, to turn this street into a safe haven."
"And what... what would you want in return?" the man in front of Ashton could feel the pressure being exuded by him. But Ashton was glad. He liked people that got the gist fast enough.
"Not much. Just as much stuff from this store that I can carry, I guess."
"What'cha doin'?" a kid walked up to Ashton from behind. He turned around and stared at the young girl.
"What's it look like?"
"You're cooking!"
"There's your answer," Ashton smiled a bit, turning back to the pot. He was using a small camping stove to cook a bit of food. Nothing much, just a couple simple dishes that he could keep in Tupperware for the wisp. He was able to convince the store manager to let him at least do that much before he headed out. Clearly, everyone believed that Ashton was just going to run away with the food he was making right now, but he had only picked out things that were going to go bad before all these people could eat them anyway. Meats, cheeses, those sorts of things. With the power having gone out, all of the refrigerated stuff was on a timer that was quickly ticking down.
"Why are you making so much food? My mommy said you're just wasting it."
Ashton slowly looked around, trying to see who else was looking. People were staring at him from all over. Of course, he was sitting on a small plastic crate in the middle of the store, so it was like he invited them all to do so, anyway.
But even so, he just smiled for a moment. Though people were clearly suspicious of him, that was nothing he was particularly worried about, "Don't worry, I've got a friend that gets really hungry."
"Oh? Where are they? Are they out there alone? Everyone says it's really scary out there."
Trying to hold himself back from vomiting out of guilt for kids being dragged into all this, Ashton continued to smile, "Don't worry, they're right here with me, all the time. Want me to tell you a secret?"
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The girl's eyes went wide in excitement, "A secret?"
Again, Ashton looked around, and then leaned forward, whispering to the girl, "My friend is magic."
Doubtful, the girl frowned, "But magic isn't real."
"Oh, but it is. It's more real now than it's ever been. Want me to show you?" Ashton put a portion of the food into a box before snuffing out the camping stove. He held onto the pan with the rest of the food in it, and slowly waved his hand over it. Before the girl's eyes, all of the food in the pan, including all the bits that were supposed to be stuck to the metal after cooking that would need to be scrubbed off, disappeared into glitter and dust.
She grew a smile from ear to ear, to the point where Ashton was worried she would hurt herself. It had been a while since he had seen someone this happy. But before she could say anything, her mother seemed to come along, pulling the girl away, "There you are! Come, stay with me!"
"Mommy! That mister is magic! Really real magic!"
"Oh, be quiet, you!" the incredibly stressed woman said, holding onto her daughter's hand. The girl turned around at Ashton, who just smiled and waved at her.
Technically, this wasn't magic. He had just fed the lesser wisp to increase the contract time. If he did it while it was still around, he wouldn't need to re-summon it later and waste more paper. Though, it looked like he could get a few more stacks from here anyway.
With that taken care of, Ashton put the hot pan back onto the camping stove for now, and approached the front of the store. A few people were waiting for him there, ready to briefly pull open the barricade.
"What... did you just do? You didn't even eat, did you?" one of them asked, looking at the boxes of food in his hand, "What are you going to do with that?"
"Trade secret," Ashton replied, "Now, just open that up and let me outside. I want to get this done before it's dark out."
The store manager looked at everyone, nodding at them. The group of men pulled away at the barricade, opening a small hole that Ashton could squeeze through, something he very quickly did.
"I'll come back here when I'm done. I'll need everyone to come out here to build the barricades by then. Oh, and while I'm gone, make sure to prepare as many weapons as you possibly can, since you'll need to defend yourselves later on and all," Ashton explained. Of course, the people inside were confused and startled by what he said, but he didn't really care. Things were going to go this route anyway, so having this place be properly established as a proto-camp wasn't a bad idea.
Frankly, Market Street was probably the best place imaginable to have as a base of operations to keep as many people safe as possible. There was a massive amount of supplies gathered here, after all. Anything you could need. There was even a sports supply shop further down the road that could be used for basic weapons. Plus, with there being so many service industry workers around here, finding a few people that could act as interim leaders should be easy enough.
It wasn't like Ashton would stay here after today, but it was great to have bit of a safe haven to turn back to. It definitely didn't have anything to do with the fact that he needed someone to protect a potentially massive mana well, not at all.
Anyway, that being the case, Ashton walked down the street and gave the boxes of food to the Backpacker, so that he could put it away. He would come back later for some more supplies. After all, he had asked for 'as much as he can carry', and since the Backpacker counted as an extension of himself... well, he wouldn't waste the chance to stock up a little.
Ashton got to a fairly central place in Market Street, and slammed down his staff on the ground. He took a deep breath, and made a very clear statement that echoed through the empty street. But he wasn't trying to say anything in english, not at all.
"Kcharrarratta!" his voice sounded out throughout the street. Another word he had picked up, just in a goblinoid dialect this time. He knew that it was something that fellow goblin tribes would yell out at each other when trying to provoke each other. From what he gathered, it translated roughly to... 'Shitfucker'?
If juvenile insults worked on orcs, why wouldn't they work on hobgoblins?
Almost immediately, Ashton could hear the sound of angry goblins yelling back at him as a few stormed out of nearby shops. Perfect for a little stretch before killing their leader.
Ashton summoned the wisp, who now had about an hour and a half of active time thanks to the quick food he had made for it, and flicked his wrist to take out the first few of them. He swung and stabbed his staff at the other monsters, taking them out quite fast and without much trouble. Sure, sometimes, one or two of them managed to break through Ashton's defence and came close to stabbing or clubbing him, but Ashton could have the wisp come through and smash their face in with ease.
While walking through the street, Ashton continued to yell out as loud as he could, "Come out, come out, my dear little kcharrarrattas!"
On his way to the mana well, he kept luring out as many goblins as he could out of the shops. There would still be some stragglers, but Ashton could take care of them later.
[Contract | Lesser Wisp - Level 3 -> Lesser Wisp - Level 4]
The wisp grew in size for a moment as its power continued to increase. Its body was almost large enough for an 'engraving'. With just another level-up, Ashton should be able to get to that and boost the elemental's combat power quite a bit.
Things were going pretty well. Ashton continued through the street, soon finding something that wasn't really supposed to be there. The beginnings of a wall of shelves from the stores, and wood and random cardboard boxes stacked up against each other. This was the start of a 'Goblin Camp'. Very rudimentary as of now, but if the hobgoblin inside got the opportunity to keep on making this place grow, it could have turned into a considerable, powerful force by the time Quest 5 turned around. It could have even turned into a 'regional boss'.
"Not that it matters all too much now."
Ashton stepped up to the entrance to the small camp. In its center, on top of the water fountain, sat the monster that he was looking for. And around it, dozens and dozens of goblins were gathered together, far more than Ashton would have thought. It must have been clever enough to go around collecting the straggling goblins from this area.
The hobgoblin held forward the hands and said something that Ashton couldn't understand. As the monsters around it started flooding out at Ashton all at once, a hail of bent, splintered arrows shot down at him.
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