Just like the slime lair, the transition between the normal world and the subterranean was palpable, like being suddenly underwater, that pressure on the skin.
Mana coated us, thick and sticky, like the foul breath of a beast. The light changed from the bright sun light to the dim ever-present source less light of the lairs.
We landed after dropping just a few feet, the shock going through my knees and into my spine. Dropping without knowing how big the drop is hurts. You can’t prepare for it, so all the force goes through you. But we were intact, and in an empty room.
It was small, only a few metres square, although not exactly square. Its walls were pressed dirt, not a stone could be seen, and the floor was dry. It could be worse. The hole we entered through had moved though. It was in the wall behind us, and the outside was visible through it, just a sheet of blue sky. It was weird, and unnerving how much lairs and the like could distort reality. Enough to set my hair on end, and give me shivers.
“Where are they?” Ilsa said, as she looked around the room.
“Not here, obviously, but I’ll bet they are about. There are two exits to this room, there and there,” I said, pointing at the tunnel entrances. They were darker blots of shadow in the dimness.
“Then we should pick one. Which one?”
“Does it matter? We have no information on this lair; we only know there is one and that goblins came out of it.”
“Pick one. I made us jump, the least you can do is choose one.”
“Fine, the left one.”
I don’t know why I picked it; she put me on the spot, and maybe the lack of information just made me choose randomly.
“Good, you go first, I will cover you.”
It was a good formation for a close combat fighter and a ranged, even if it felt like being a canary.
I edged closer, my steps slow but measured. Nothing could be heard through the opening and the light didn’t change, I had no clues as to what could be there. I tightened my grip on my sword, shifting my fingers and letting the sweat dry a touch.
I should be used to this by now, the mana fuelling a shift in my emotions, making me hungry for combat but it still heated my blood and lent urgency to my movements.
The tunnel was narrow, and short, more like a thick doorway than a tunnel, but it did break up the lair in to rooms.
I kept my eyes wide to allow them to adjust to the light as I went from the tunnel to the next room. It occurred to me briefly that it was more than I managed in the slime lair, before I saw a goblin sleeping against the wall.
But it was the only one, in a room that should be filled with them. It was right next to me, its breath disturbing the air enough to move my hair slightly with every inhalation. A C rank monster within range of my blade and defenceless. It had a club, a short lump of wood, next to it, but not in its hand.
I took my chance, it was the best I could have hoped for, and drew my sword across the green throat, cutting deep enough to sever the windpipe. Blood gushed out coating my hand in gore, and the goblin woke up, flailing.
It tried to scream but only gurgling could be heard, which set my mind at rest. I could feel its fear in the frantic movements, and put it out of its misery with a swift stab to the chest, twisting the blade to completely destroy the heart.
Motes exploded from the body and quickly removed any evidence that I had slain a C grade monster with two strokes of my sword. The same music from the other lair played in my head, and I could feel the sudden boost from the beast’s mana being absorbed into my system. I felt stronger and faster, which made sense, as speed and strength were the main stats I used. If I understood them correctly, which I may not.
“That was quick and bloody lucky. It shouldn’t have been that easy.”
“No, it shouldn’t. There is something wrong here.”
“Why would there only be a single sleeping guard?”
“I don’t know. But I don’t think we came in the front entrance. That hole was too small to let many goblins through, and I didn’t see any footprints. It was just a hole.”
“You might be right. Its close enough to set off the wards, and if there are goblins coming out of another entrance, it would explain why all the higher grades went further out.”
“If we go in any further, we are going to run into things we can’t handle. We aren’t strong enough for it.”
“You might not be, but I can snipe from a distance.”
“We are in a lair, and its cramped, you aren’t going to be able to get far enough away before they are on you.”
“That’s why I have you. You can distract them while I pepper them with arrows.”
“We didn’t set up how to share the loot.”
“This was all your kill, you take it.”
The loot in this case was more than the slime gave: a single green pointy ear and something small and metallic. I bent down to examine it, and found it was an etched disc, smaller than a copper coin, made of something that looked like silver.
“Have you ever seen anything like this?”
“It’s a, huh, normally they are rougher and copper, but that’s a warding. The mages will buy it off you right quick.”
“Is it useful to me?”
“Could be, you will have to get it assayed first, and then learn how to use it. Mages build their spells off their research on them, that’s why they buy them.”
I put away the disc and the ear, ignoring the squishiness of it in my hand, and turned back to the room.
“Where now? We could leave and report back rather than go further.”
“Where is your sense of adventure, Graey? We have to keep going till we can’t; otherwise we may as well stay at home. I’ve not even let off a shot yet.”
“Fine, onwards it is.”
I went ahead just as agreed, looking for anything more to kill, goblins were known to be sneaky but stupid, they could be hiding round the corner for all we knew. The next room lay ahead, almost directly straight. The same sort of tunnel led to it, and I crept through, trying to be as quiet as possible.
The first thing I noticed was the stench, quickly followed by the noise. Two goblins stood grunting at each other in front of a small hide covered hut built into the side of the room. These ones were clearly awake, and unhappy by the tone of their grunts. Small beady eyes glared at each other, and both had their clubs drawn. Leather armour, if it could be called that, covered their torsos, it was tatty, and ill fitting, looking like it had been patched together.
Facing two at a time, awake, would be too much. I slowed my step and tried to back up, when an arrow whooshed over my shoulder, and hit the left goblin in the eye. It was dead before it hit the ground, and his friend looked angry.
“That was not a good move,” I said as I ran forward, sword up, to engage the green monster.
“Pft, it was fine, and now there is just one.”
I swung to catch the raised club, and hit, my blade taking a chunk out of the wood. Instead the goblin punched me in the face, and I fell back disorientated. It hit hard, like being smashed in the face with a brick.
I heard the twang of the bow, as shot after shot was launched, distracting the beast and letting me pull it together. Another fist was incoming, and I dogged, sliding round to cut at its side. The sharp blade went through the armour as if it wasn’t even there, although the flesh was tougher.
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More arrows flew, and I found myself flinching as one brushed my face. The distraction gave me plenty of openings, and I took advantage, cutting at joints to impair moment. Within moment the goblin was bleeding from a dozen cuts and several more arrows stood out from its body.
If anything, it got fiercer, lashing out at me with the club, that I blocked, the blow sending shivers of pain through my wrist and elbow.
Another arrow took it in the eye, like its friend. It was dead before it even knew.
I stood panting, waiting for the bodies to disappear. The music swelling and more mana poured into my body, less powerful than the first goblin but lasting longer, probably because there were two.
Ilsa came forwards ready to collect her reward. And the motes exploded into green energy, whirling around us for a moment blotting out sight of the room.
“Why is this happening?” I asked between gasps.
She shrugged.
It was different from before, but then I had never killed two in a row before. The motes flickered away, burning themselves out and leaving loot, a single ear, a copper warding, and a pouch.
“Huh, that is different. There isn’t normally much usable stuff in loot. Beasts drop ingredients, and humanoids sometimes drop coins or resources, like metals and gems. Two wardings in a row...” Ilsa scratched her head before scooping it all up and securing it in her bag.
“We can split it later. I won’t screw you, I can’t. The party blessing doesn’t allow me too. If I tried the gods would reward you and punish me.”
“Are the gods actually involved?”
“Sure, but they don’t watch everything. My father taught me that the gods have servants that administer it all.”
“Hmm, makes sense. I need to visit the temple.”
“This really isn’t the time to talk about it. We have to keep going.”
“It’s getting harder, first one, then two, we don’t know what is next.”
“Will you pull it together? We can’t just run back as soon as it gets hard. The town is counting on us to do this. You must be feeling better already, the mana is pretty thick down here, should get some stat increases out of this too.”
Now that she mentioned it the difference between the first room and this was obvious, the mana was stronger, easily three times thicker. I could feel it on my skin, like a layer of spider webs, pulling, and in my body. My lungs felt stronger, and it was like breathing through tar.
“One more, that is far as I’m going. We aren’t equipped or ready for this. I’ve only ever gone to the first room of a lair.”
“I’ve been to the second room, fought a bunch of rats, which didn’t work too well with my bow, but that got me my skill. We have to push ourselves to get the results we want; doing the same thing over and over isn’t going to get us a rank up. Anyway, we are going as far as we can. If we decide its more than we can handle, we can bail.”
“Okay, at least we are agreed on bailing on things if it gets too much.”
I decided to check out the hut for anything lootable, I'd never seen a structure in a lair, although my experience was limited to slimes, and they didn’t build anything, even if they did it wouldn’t be in the first room which may as well be an entry hall. You don’t put important things by the door, anyone could steal them. Even lairs followed that logic. The flap that served as the door was easily lifted out of the way. A fire pit sat in the middle of the small hut, illuminating in natural seeming light, which was a nice change to the lair-light. A small chest rested against the dirt wall.
“Ilsa, get in here. There is a chest.” I stepped out of the doorway to let her through.
“Huh, that’s weird. Chests shouldn’t be on the first floor.”
“Neither should goblins. Nor should an entrance be in so close to the town. We are collecting weird at the moment.”
“Chest mean they have been growing for a long time. There must have been contact before. We have to be careful here. Lairs with chests are bad news for G grades.”
“You do realise that I’ve been saying this all along?” I pointed out.
“Shush, can you open it?”
“I don’t know. I’m not a thief, so I have no lock picking skills.”
“Smash it, but be careful.”
Careful smashing, right. I’m sure that’s a thing. Not a thing that I had much experience with, but yeah, a thing.
I walked over and examined the chest. It was wood with metal banding to reinforce it, the lock looked sturdy enough, but it wasn’t an integral part of it. Sliding out a dagger, I reversed it and tapped on the lock. It buckled but held. I hit it harder, sparks flaring from the metal. It broke.
“Yes!”
“Can you wait for me to open it before cheering?”
“It was encouragement. Don’t be such a sour puss.”
I ignored her as best I could and continued working on untangling the padlock from the chest. Hitting it mangled the loop, but I persevered and was rewarded as it clunked to the ground. Flicking the tab that secured the lid, I then lifted it.
Inside was a murky blue crystal about the size of my fist, some bronze mail armour, and a bow. Scattered underneath this was a collection of coins and wardings, in silver and copper.
“Awesome. I want the bow and the mail; you can keep the rest if I can have them. What do you say?”
“They don’t do me any good, so sure. But don’t you want some coin too?”
“I don’t think the blessing is going to let me, we have to keep the loot fair, and the mail alone is probably worth more than the coins. With the bow as well, it’s too much.”
“Oh, right. We can always see when we get back to town. Never know, these warding could be worth a fortune.”
“Even if they are, unassessed items don’t count. I can judge the bow and the armour and think they are worth more. That’s what counts unless we have an expert in the party. Don’t you know anything?”
“Not been at this long, and don’t really know anyone in the game.”
“That explains that then. My father and uncle were both adventurers, grade C. They taught me all sorts of things that seem useless, but right now are screaming at me.”
We collected our spoils, the crystal giving me trouble as it was on the large side to go through the opening on my pouch.
“Last room, if things are too hot,” I reminded Ilsa as we got to the next tunnel.
“Yeah, I’m with you on that. Like last time, you first, I will cover you.”
I nodded, and set forwards, fear starting to crawl further up from my belly sending shivers of ice through me. There was nothing to prompt the fear. Other than the sick breath of mana pouring from the tunnel. It was thicker, and more, I couldn’t put my finger on it, but this was even more different than the first two rooms.
My feet slid over dirt, and my fingers tightened on my sword, and dagger. Sounds drifted through the opening, grunts and metallic screeching.
That made me worried, more so than before. It sounded like a full scale battle was going on.
Something wasn’t right.
“Ilsa, we have a problem,” I whispered back.
“What? You are supposed to be sneaking, not talking.”
“There sounds like a war is going on in there.”
“Slip in and see, I’ll back you up. If it all goes pear shaped, we hightail it out of here.”
I nodded, and stepped forwards, far enough in that I could see what was going on.
It was a mess; goblins ran around screaming, fighting adventurers. Spells clashed. Fire and ice struggling against each other. Walking into that wasn’t happening; I was all ready to pull back when I was spotted.
A single goblin, different to the others. He was slimmer, where the others were kind of stocky. Green skin, but paled to a green-grey and he carried a staff, and robes. His yellow eyes locked on to me, and he chanted.
In goblin or whatever it was.
A harsh, guttural language, that managed to sound kind of musical. In a very odd way. The chant built, even over the clash of fighting, into a song. He waved his staff around, and at the top a ball of energy formed.
“We have a mage here, Ilsa. Shoot him.”
The twang of a bow fired behind me, and I ran forwards. No time to escape when an enemy had me in their sights.
My legs pumped and the moment crystallised around me, as if everything froze. I saw the moment that the arrow sunk into flesh and the slow realisation of pain on the shaman’s face.
My blade was a fraction behind, cutting at the neck. I could feel the air thicken around me, resistance growing as my movement got faster. And then my sword bit into flesh, the strength behind it slicing clean through the shaman.
The goblin didn’t have a chance, and the world caught up. Everything sharpened and the sound rocked me. The shaman’s body slid apart, top falling with a soft thud and the legs standing for a short moment longer.
The motes came quickly this time, green and white, drifting up before evaporating. The energy flowed into me with a force that made me grit my teeth, every muscle tensing, and then fading to slightly less savage buzz.
“What was that?” Ilsa asked.
“What was what?” I said slowly. Talking felt hard as if my mouth was stuffed with fabric.
“That move, you suddenly went into super speed.”
“I don’t know, never happened before.”
“Might want to get your card updated when we get back, that looked like a skill to me.”
“Huh.”
If it was, someone had some explaining to do. I'd never heard of skills manifesting like that.
“Why are you an adventurer? You don’t know anything.”
“Something I wanted to do. It’s hard getting information when no one thinks you can afford the card fee. Most thought I would give up before I saved enough, so they didn’t tell me anything.”
“I’ll explain later, but we have to pay attention to the battle. Collect the loot.”
The motes revealed a larger collection of items. A pair of boots, the staff, and robe, and the now familiar, and expected, goblin ear.
The larger items wouldn’t fit in my pouch. I cast around while I recovered from whatever that was, before striking upon an idea. The robe quickly made a make shift bag tied to the end of the staff. It wasn’t perfect but it would do for now.
“Gods, they are going for it. Look over there, more huts and fire pits. This is a goblin village. This shouldn’t be on the first floor. This is fourth level stuff, at least. Most lairs never get deep enough for sapient humanoids. We clear them out before that. What is going on here?”
I looked but only saw magic and fighting. Few of the goblins could put up a decent fight, and were cut down or burnt, or frozen and shattered. Mages chanted. Fighters fought, and archers shot. The gulf between their skills and mine yawned between us, but they kept the focus on them. I gripped my weapons hard, just in case, but it wasn’t needed. The adventurers took out all resistance. For them to take this long they must have faced hundreds of goblins, or been really slow in finding the other entrance.
The last goblin, a warrior larger than any of the others, died with a scream from a deep spear wound to the belly. The motes came, went, and the whole lair shivered.
“Out now, its vanquished. Gather your loot quick,” shouted the obvious leader of the adventurers. Even in the lair light his armour shone with blue and silver highlights. His spear was larger than him, and he wasn’t small, standing head and shoulders above me.
“Kids, you wanna come with?” He called over the room.
“Sure,” Ilsa answered before I realised kids was addressed to us.
I followed along, keeping an eye out, but one hand was holding the make shift bag and the other was on my sword. The party of adventurers, made a quick lap around the room, grabbing their drops and then all moved towards the distant tunnel. Not the one we came in.
“Graey, don’t mention our loot. They might want a share,” Ilsa whispered to me as we got closer.
“Um, okay.”
We tagged along through crumbling tunnels, and empty rooms, even the lair light was fading by the time we reached the exit portal. Stepping through brought relieve, the intense pressure of all the mana for so long made me feel sick. I hadn’t while under but now, it was like shrugging off the winter, the first rays of sun on that day of spring when the snow melts.