Alzark had been an adventurer for 3 weeks now. His desire for adventure barely held back by his incompetence and lack of levels. He hadn't even slain a goblin yet, and he was already dreaming of slaying dragons and saving kingdoms.
Today's mission was simple, gather some spore-puff mushrooms that grew next to his village and deliver them to the alchemist. As he walked down the improper path to the woods, daydreaming of meeting an elf in need of rescue, he noticed something weird.
In one of the trees next to the path, something aking to a door had appeared. He approached to take a closer look and confirmed his suspicion. A small arch topped carving of a door adorned the tree's bark.
Wondering who in the village had the skill to carve a tree with such finesse he lightly pushed the door which suddenly opened on a dark tunnel leading down.
Such a visage immediately lit his adventurous spirit and after lighting a torch he conveniently had in his backpack he began his descent into the earth's bowels. With his eyes set on fame, fortune, and power he actually missed a step and ingloriously rolled down the tunnel.
When he regained consciousness he found himself in almost jet black darkness. The only thing he could see was a line of light lazily trickling out from the gaps in a door. Trying to quiet down his breath as much as he could, he slowly approached the door and peeked through the gaps.
On the other side of the door, he could see three black skinned men playing some kind of card game while smoking, suddenly a fourth person came in from another door.
"Gosh, it's been one day already! twenty-four hours stuck here without anything to do!" said the fourth person in an exasperated tone while throwing his hands in the air.
"Boss, wanna play?" one of the three black men waved to the newcomer to sit down. At that point Alzark, who had been leaning against the door, lost the balance and fell forward, slamming the door open.
When the young boy fell inside the room, everybody turned towards him. A look of elation appeared on the tall person who in a few steps was already in front of the young adventurer, and before Alzark could do anything he suddenly found himself in a hug.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" said the person before separating himself. "Frank, Luigi, Joe. Your time to shine has come, don't let our guest wait too much."
Alzark looked up. The three men he had seen before were coming towards him, however, there was something weird about them. Flat nose, pointy ears, yellow eyes, and just a few hairs... 'they are goblins, not men!' the sudden realization dawned on him together with a sense of fear he had never felt before.
The closest goblin took a few steps in his direction, a polished and well-maintained sword in his hands. Alzark immediately stood up and backed away, however, the door he had come in from had disappeared. Finding himself trapped his survival instinct suddenly kicked in and he unsheathed his short sword.
He couldn't consider himself a master, his only lessons came in from a retired adventurer who had taken home in his village, however from what he knew goblins were the weakest among the weakest. Even a kid such as him was slightly stronger.
Charging forward with his sword he remembered his teacher's words, 'take the lead and hit first.'. He did as taught and swung his sword first, however, the goblin in front of him evidently had more experience than him and, with just a casual swing, Alzark found himself unarmed.
Shocked, Alzark looked at the goblin's sword that was going to descend on his head and closed his eyes. He waited for the hug of Alyssa, goddess of the otherworld, however, it never came. When he opened back his eyes he saw the tall man with his hand on the goblin's shoulder.
"Hello little one, I'm Adriano, may I know your name?" the man who had just saved his life had suddenly approached him and with a smile, introduced himself.
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"I-I'm Alzark." He introduced himself as well, least he made the man who had spared him mad.
"Nice to meet you, since you look like a polite boy I'll be short. Do you have any family Alzark?" the man's smile remained bright like a half moon, yet the words that came out of it sounded icy and dangerous.
"Y-yes, one sick mother and two sisters. I beg you to let me go, without me, they will have anyone else to take care of them." he decided to tell the truth, maybe if he could move the man in front of him he would let him go. However, unlike his expectations, the goblins behind the man started laughing and licking their lips. He now realized his mistake.
"Then I'm sure you don't want anything bad to happen to them." Alzark nodded in fear. "wonderful, then I'll offer you a deal. Leave everything you have behind, then go back home, grab anything of value and deliver it to us. Do it and tonight I and my goblins will sleep in our beds. Refuse..." the man caressed Alzark's cheek with the back of his hand. "and tonight my goblin will keep company to your family... three goblins for three sweet ladies."
The door behind him reappeared, so Alzark immediately emptied his pockets, dropped his knife and even the old leather jacket he had on him, before running from where he had come from.
----------------------------------------------------
Adriano looked at his goblins and smiled. "Well, that was a fine work, fine work I say!"
the goblins smile as well looking at their master. "so, we wait for the kid to come back and then we follow him home, no?" Joe takes the word and asks Adriano while scratching his pants. "those ladies he spoke of must be feeling pretty alone at night hurhurhur."
the other two goblins join Joe in his obscene laugh while fantasizing about their prize.
"Hmm? and how exactly are you planning to follow him? did you forget monsters can't leave the dungeon?" pouring a bucket of cold water on those perverse goblins Adriano thought at all the items he had wanted to embezzle.
One of them, the wave stabilizer, would allow the dungeon to create a fixed portal that would allow the monster to leave the dungeon and have some fun in the outside world. Thankfully such device could still be bought from the core market with a few million credits.
"But... what you said to the boy..." asked Luigi with a sliver of hope in his eyes.
"I was just threatening him a little to make sure he came back. Unfortunately, a human corpse is not worth much in the market. However, I hope he'll be back with something valuable to give us, otherwise, we will just sell him alive." his words extinguished all hope from the goblins who went back playing cards.
"Core, would you mind selling everything the kid has dropped, and tell me how much we salvaged?" Adriano spoke to the air knowing the core could hear and see everything in the dungeon. He waited a minute, yet nothing happened. "Please?" he added and suddenly the items disappeared with a flash.
[items: leather jacket(shoddy quality), leather pouch(shoddy quality), iron shortsword (mediocre quality) and other four items have been sold for two hundred and thirty credits.] her robotic female voice spoke directly to Adriano's mind.
"Thanks, would you mind purchasing the cheapest torch for the goblin-hall? make it self-replenishable while you are at it, sweety." Adriano would have gladly spent his new found money otherwise, unfortunately, he had to give up his own room's torch. It was difficult to play cards in darkness, especially for him that didn't have any kind of night vision.
A brand new old looking candelabra suddenly appeared above the table with four already lit candles. Adriano looked at it and frowned.
"Core, what is that," he asked in an annoyed tone.
[that's a candelabra.] she replied.
"I can see that. Didn't I ask you for a torch?" the annoyance in his voice only grew.
[Yes you did, however, I analyzed the reason you were asking for lighting, the cost to effectiveness ratio and concluded a candelabra was a better choice.] her neutral voice, fitting of an IA, didn't betray any emotion.
While Adriano wanted to fight with her, and tell her who the master was, he also realized she was right so he just shut his mouth and played cards with the goblins while petting Xiao Bai in his bosom.
Hours passed and finally, they could hear the sound of steps, the boy had come back. He timidly entered the room with a big rustling sack on his shoulders. Clearly afraid he dropped the sack on the ground and kneeled down, tears threatening to come out.
"good boy, I knew you would have made the right choice." Adriano didn't even got up as he had a very good hand of poker and didn't want to lose. "Luigi, alive." he continued, stressing the word alive.
Luigi looked at his hand and placed it down on the table before getting up. As he walked towards the boy he kept throwing glances at the table afraid of the others checking his hand and discovering he had a royal flush. The moment he was finally in front of the boy, Alzark cried out in surprise.
"Adriano, sir! you said that..." interrupting him, a goblin punch knocked him out and on the ground. "I never said anything," replied Adriano.
"Core, sell the boy and whatever is in that sack." he hesitated a moment before adding, "please." the boy and his sack disappeared in a shower of pretty sparkles and quietness once again returned to the room.
Luigi came back to the table and with his best poker face said, "I raise by two potatoes." in reply all the others folded immediately. Tears almost fell down his eyes as he realized they had checked out his hand.
"You cheaters!"