Ascending the tower

The large goblin roared at Joseph when it noticed Joseph's charge. It then picked up its club and swung it hard in a horizontal motion, attempting to splatter Joseph across the opposite wall.

Fortunately Joseph was rather nimble, allowing him to slide under the swing on his knees. He then swung his own sword outward towards his left as he passed the goblins left leg, severing its Achilles tendon.

A loud screech echoed through the cavern as the goblin cried in pain. It could no longer support itself on that leg and stumbled to the ground. Disoriented by the fall the goblin didn't notice Joseph sneak up behind it. Joseph wasted no time in plunging his blade deep into the neck of the goblin, severing most of its major blood vessels.

Joseph then stood well away from the monster allowing it to bleed itself out as it thrashed on the ground. Watching this he felt no sense of remorse or shame, it was kill or be killed and only a fool would willingly risk his life in a frontal assault when there was a better way available.

It took several moments for the beast to tire itself out, it continued to gag and choke on its own foul blood until eventually it stopped moving altogether.

Even though the goblin looked like it was dead Joseph didn't trust it. He maintained a safe distance as he rested and waited for anything that might happen.

This proved very wise as just a few moments later the beast started thrashing around again, wildly swinging its large club in a desperate attempt to hit anyone that might be nearby. This time when the beast stoped it was well and truly dead. Joseph could tell due to the fact that no more blood was flowing from its neck. Indicating that either the beast ran out or it's heart stopped. Either way the beast was dead.

Taking his time he cleaned himself up and got himself oriented towards his purpose. He had cleared the first floor challenge and now had to face one more floor before he could reach the boss room and clear the tower.

It was only when he defeated the boss that he would obtain the awakening stone, it was literally the only thing that dropped on a new delvers first boss kill. No one really knew why they weren't just a random drop, but then again no one really understood the towers themselves either. So many questions so few answers, and even less people looking for them.

He waited long enough to fully recover his stamina before ascending the stairs too the new floor. Upon arriving he found himself at the edge of a forest, he knew it was the edge because he could clearly see a small village set up in the distance. It was surrounded by wooden palisades about 3 meters tall, with a wide opening in its north side to allow people to come and go.

Joseph stood still at the edge of the trees taking in all the information he could. From what he could see there were two goblin guards standing at the gate, with a few more of them sporadically placed upon the top of the palisades. There were obvious gaps in their patrol which he could take advantage of, and he planned to take the whole village out if he could.

Now this thought may seem rather opposed to his usual "only a fool risks himself when there are better options," attitude. But he had a feeling that wouldn't go away, that if he wanted to succeed in using the catalyst, then he would need to exude attributes that aligned with its nature. Thinking along this line he came to one conclusion that would shape the rest of his life, and the lives of billions of others.

"I will wreak vengeance upon them."

His plan was rather simple but devious and cruel. He knew that the goblins structural builders used a highly flammable compound to bind their buildings together. They lacked the normal iron tools that others use and so their homes and buildings were extremely susceptible to flames. He also happened to know that within the particular type of forest he was in, were several large fruits to be found the juice of which was not unlike a form of alcohol.

He then busied himself scouring the forest for these fruits finding several of them after only about an hour or so. Using some vines that he found he fastened the fruits to individual vines creating a total of five throwable fruits.

He then returned to the edge of the forest to observe the village, noting that nothing had changed he nestled down to rest for a while, making a light snack of some of the edible things he found during his earlier search. He was waiting for a particular time of day, near dusk, when the light was dimming but the angle of the sun would be shining almost directly into the eyes of the patrols on the western palisades.

He didn't have to wait long as he had been inside for several hours already, as the sun began to set he made his move. Keeping as low as he could he snuck towards the blind spot on the west wall. Then taking out one of the fruits he made a small cut in its flesh letting the juice begin to flow, he then struck a flint casting sparks at the fruit igniting it. Quickly picking up one end of the vine he swung it round and hurled it over the wall, where it landed on top of one of the shacks that were packed inside setting it ablaze.

He then ran down the length of the wall towards the north gate to repeat the process. Meanwhile the goblins had noticed a fire starting to spread in the south west part of their village. They had to act quickly if they wanted to stop it as their buildings were packed so close together it was beyond easy for the flame to jump from one shack to the other.

They scrambled as many of them as they could, calling the guards from all over the village. What they didn't know was that Joseph had planned for them to act in this exact way, because if the guards left their posts to fight the fire in one location, who would be their to fight the next fire he set?

He continued to repeat his process until he had set five separate fires in the village, by now it was clear that they were incapable of combating the fire and so they made the only logical choice they could, the ran towards the gate trying to escape.

Joseph, however, had plans for this eventuality. He knew that the goblins would flee, and counting on their poor workmanship he devised a way to block them inside. He did this by tying a vine to one side of the gate they made and pulling it down towards the middle of the road. He then repeated this process on the other side creating a large road block. It didn't take long for the fire to spread and catch literally every wooden structure, including the gate he just pulled down, on fire. Effectively sealing the goblins inside.

He returned to the edge of the forest to watch the village burn and take not of anything that escaped. Fortunately for him the fire spread to fast for most of them to even get out of their homes, the ones who did were suffocated by the smoke and heat. The flames burned for hours casting bright shadows all through the night, and filling it with the screams of the dying. Then finally a couple hours before midnight the screaming stopped, and all that could be heard was the roar and crackling of the fire.

Joseph waited until we'll into the morning before all the flames had died down and the village was safe to approach. He did so cautiously, well aware that despite the odds a few of them may have lived.

He walked through the ash filled streets looking at the burnt corpses of his prey. He felt no remorse, or shame in what he had done. It was monsters like these that had ravaged his planet for nearly 100 years, and he was NOT going to show them mercy.

He walked through the village for a while, never finding a survivor until just before he reached the stairs that led to the final floor.

There he saw a badly burned goblin lying on its back struggling for breath. Upon approaching the goblin he saw the fierce hatred that burned in its eyes, as though it wanted nothing more than to inflict upon him the same horror it had just experienced.

There was no hesitation in Joseph's blade as he pierced the goblins heart while saying,

"Vengeance is mine, and I shall repay."