CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
NO TURNING BACK
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Theo
“Ty for the car, Seok. They took Rio. Goin’ down. Car is in the driveway. Come pick up whnevr. Pls call police. G2 get her out. If you could... please look after the dog?”
The text was gibberish, but hopefully, Seok would get the gist of it. I’d already been armed when I made it back to the house, so getting ready didn't take as long as it could've.
I hadn’t fashioned a belt or anything that could more easily hold the potions, but I didn’t have any time to worry about that. I threw them in a bag, alongside all the dried jerky in the cabinet, trail mix, granola bars, and anything else I thought might store for a while. I didn’t know how long I would be down there but I knew I would need water. Fortunately, I had a Camelback that I could wear on my back, underneath the backpack. I hoped the two bulky sacks wouldn’t get me killed.
Not for the first time I wished there was some sort of inventory system, but if there was, I couldn’t find it. I could see the qualities of items listed but if I didn’t have a bag big enough to hold that breastplate, I wasn’t going to be taking it anywhere.
The glowing morning star was definitely coming, as well as a few lighters, and a pack of D batteries in case the flashlights all ran out. By the time I was done, I felt like a camel. Fortunately, either due to the additional strength from the morning star or just a natural result of my slowly increasing strength, none of it seemed to hinder me much.
I was as ready to go as I could be on such short notice.
Genji was apoplectic. She was certain something had gone wrong, and she actually seemed to be limping just a bit but was otherwise fine. I petted her and tried to reassure her as best I could before I up-ended our entire bag of dog food on the floor for her. I filled a five-gallon bucket of water as well, unable to trust that Seok would feel safe feeding the big mutt. She could be scary to people she didn't know.
Part of me considered waiting for the police, but that would just take too long. I had no idea what the goblins might be planning to do with my wife, but I was certain I didn’t want it to happen.
“Why didn’t I just fucking tell her what was going on? God dammit,” I thought for the millionth time as I sprinted down the mountainside in the fading afternoon light. Maybe if I’d left more traps in the house, or maybe if I hadn’t tried to trap the cave entrance at all none of this would’ve happened.
I was certain I’d forgotten half the things I would need and brought way too many things that I wouldn’t, but it would have to do.
I reached the cave in record time. The gory mess of body parts and blood still littered the area. At this point, I could probably just take a video to prove this was all real.
No… even then cops would just think it was the setup for an elaborate tik-tok video or something. They’d need to be here. So I did the only thing I could think of. I set the phone on the ground and broadcast my location. I didn’t think Narea’s phone was sophisticated enough to use that to find the cave, but surely the police would be able to.
I took the time to find the breastplate and put it on again. This time, with the added strength of the Morning Star, it felt just fine. I took half a moment to experiment. If I dropped the morning star for any reason the armor, and consequently my bags, all immediately grew heavier, their weight pressing painfully into my shoulders.
I picked the weapon back up and the pain faded immediately.
Strange, but I still didn’t have time to ruminate on how a weapon could just… make me stronger. Finally feeling like I had adequate armor, I headed down into the cave.
I was hoping to find a trail of breadcrumbs or something. In the movies, the victim dropped clues. Bits of clothing, necklaces, ribbons, or something that would indicate I was on the right track. There was nothing like that as I walked. Fortunately, my morning star lit the area before me with a golden glow. I still kept a flashlight ready in the pocket of my Good Looking Trousers, but in retrospect, I didn’t think I’d need it unless I lost the weapon.
I came upon the waypoint right where I’d left it without encountering any zombies or goblins. It was blue once more, indicating it was claimed by the goblins. I touched it, reclaiming it again as I felt that solemn knowledge slot once more into my mind, while my own blood suffused it.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Worst case scenario, I could teleport back to this spot if I was in a bind. I’d confirmed that the teleportation took a little longer the further I was from the actual spot. It probably took more mana too, but I hadn’t been able to confirm that yet.
Still, it was one more safety net. Getting hopelessly lost was a real worry, and it would be just my luck to find and save Rio, only to have no idea how to get out of this place.
I really hoped I’d be able to use the waypoint to teleport Rio back up here, but I doubted it would be that easy.
I had no idea where to go from here. All I knew for sure was that they’d come to my home and kidnapped my wife. I was going to find her and slaughter every one of the little fuckers who dared try to get in my way. No more fucking around. No more half-assing this. I was a murderous druid with a mission, a full mana pool, and a glow-in-the-dark mace.
The demons had some level of intelligence to them. After all, they had managed to set up an ambush for me, and one of them had come running when I’d first taken the waypoint. I wondered if there was some way for me to interrogate one.
I took the time to gather about half of my inert totems around the area before I finally descended.
As I predicted, I felt relatively lost within the first few turns. The caves split off in multiple directions more than once, so I decided to just always turn left. The more I walked though, the more I realized that I couldn’t possibly be just… under my mountain. The cave system was enormous, but it also occasionally showed signs of habitation.
The floor would randomly be cobblestone for a few steps before reverting back to the dank series of tunnels. I’d see a darkened window frame perplexingly situated against a wall of rock as if it were the hallway of some ancient castle that had once been above ground, and had been buried for centuries.
I saw the occasional goblin, but I found them easy to kill alone. They seemed to be scouts, though the sheer number of them I found just sleeping in a random hallway indicated that they probably weren’t trusted with any responsibility.
My morning star was like a whirlwind, usually killing the single goblins before they even had a chance to scream. The biggest difficulty I had for a while was dealing with the stench of the viscera left between the weapon’s spikes.
Left, left, ever left, the caves descended into the Earth like an endless Labyrinth. It boggled my mind to believe that this place had always been here right under my feet. I hadn’t come into any massive underground rooms yet, but I was becoming more and more certain that there was some sort of dimensional bullshit happening. The cave entrance wasn’t just going underground. It was going in the “Caves.” Capital C as if they were their own separate plane of reality.
Then again, I’d only ever been inside the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. This… didn’t feel like that though.
According to my watch, I’d been walking for an hour, and I’d been attacked by three goblins. I’d killed four more in their sleep, collecting only a few gold coins and another mana potion for my trouble, when I finally ran upon something unusual.
I heard the sound of goblin voices up ahead long before I saw them. There were many voices though. Far too many. When I got closer, I saw that there was a red glow lighting up the cave in the distance. Unlike the waypoint though, this glow felt much more familiar. It was coming from fires. Just regular fires.
I decided to cover the morning star’s glow by stuffing the head of the weapon in my bag. These things hadn’t needed light before, but I thought the risk was worth it as I drew one of the guns and crept further down the cave.
Around one more turn, I could see the cave open into a much larger space. It was getting a bit warmer, so I assumed there must either be a very large fire or, quite a few of them in that cave. Fortunately, there were no goblins present in the tunnel, so I was able to creep a rather long way towards the chamber.
Once I got close enough to gaze out, I could hear what had to be fifteen or twenty goblin voices. Most were just making that passive “Burrr,” sound that almost seemed like a nervous tick more than any form of actual communication. When I got further in though, I discovered something straight out of a nightmare.
There was a shackled girl up on a raised dias where two of the goblin Shamans were arguing. Worse still was a cookpot the size of a small shed, sitting atop a huge flame. There was actually a small ladder leading up the side of it, which would’ve been almost comical if not for the food. Dressed in a torn pair of blue jeans and a shirt that had been ripped and covered in mud, the girl was sobbing as she stared at the cookpot in horror.
How many damn people could they have gotten down here? I refused to believe they'd been wandering for a long period of time. Someone would've noticed!
I recalled hearing something about kidnappings on the TV but I actively tuned out the news most of the time. For me to find another person down here, one that I was certain I'd never seen before... could that mean that there were multiple exits?
The hells awaken... somehow a single cave opening in my backyard felt far too small for such an ominous statement. This was the second time I'd gotten the feeling that this whole thing might be much bigger than just my backyard. Maybe it was happening all across the Ozarks, or even the entire state?
I shook myself. I didn't have time to be worrying about maybes and gut feelings.
No less than twenty goblins meandered about the large cave, picking their noses, brawling with one another, and generally being disgusting. There was a large exit on the far end of the cavern as well, which looked much more heavily trafficked than my own smaller tunnel.
Fear gripped me as I stared at that pot and the steam bubbling up out of the top.
Rio had only been taken a few hours ago. Could…?
No. I refused to even entertain the thought that she might be dead. For now, I had to come up with a way to kill twenty goblins and save a girl from being boiled alive like a fucking lobster.
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