(EVE)

It hadn’t taken long for the three of us to arrive at the area marked on the makeshift map for the goblin cave and began to unpack our gear for the descent.

“Amelia, why are you so against him?” I whispered as I shot a look back at the man we’d recently partied up with.

She looked back and paused in hesitation, almost as if looking for the words to describe what she wanted to say before finally speaking. “Eve, I’m more curious about why you were so quick to let him join us. Have you already forgotten about everything we’ve had to deal with? The reason we are even out here in the Borderlands instead of going back to the capital? Satanists already infiltrated high up in the Church and who knows where else. This guy is the one who came to join us too. It’s suspicious.” She shot back.

Anger flared inside me when she started but was instantly snuffed out as she continued. She was right, of course, I had been so enamored by the idea of being an adventurer at the time, my head full of the righteous heroics of my parents’ stories, that I had not even considered the possibility that he could have been targeting us.

I rested my forehead on the side of her horse while she was still rummaging through the sacks it carried and groaned. “I’m an idiot.”

Amelia chuckled and patted my head. “Yup, but at least you’re cute.”

“Hey!” I said with a mock offended expression.

She laughed again then her face became serious. “It’s fine, this time. Just, maybe, run it by me first next time. You and I both still have a great deal to learn before we can begin to truly say that we’re on a steady path to our dreams, but this is an opportunity we can use to grow ourselves even more. So let’s use this opportunity to help each other grow as much as possible.”

“With you and I together, we can do anything.” I said and put my fist out towards her.

She smirked and met my fist with her own.

“Sorry to break up the romance session over here, but we should probably get moving.” Our new acquaintance called from the opening of the cave.

“Yeah, sorry! We’re on our way over now!” I quickly responded, catching an annoyed expression on Amelia’s face as she walked past.

‘I wish she would at least act like she’s trying to get along with him.’ I thought with a huff before quickly following behind her.

“Alright, now that we’ve gathered here let’s discuss this further. First off, while this is a low level quest and the three of us should be able to handle this no problem, let’s remember this is still the Borderlands and we’re definitely not the only thing out here. Secondly, our main objective is to clear this cave, but killing every goblin isn’t as easy as one would think. They always attack in groups, there’s always lots of them throughout the cave, evolved goblins are always a possibility, and every cave has a goblin king that needs to be killed. Thirdly, once the quest is completed the reward money from the guild is split evenly between all of us and any gear or valuables found in the cave belong to the one who found them. That covers pretty much everything, do either of you have any questions?”

“How strong on average would you say every goblin king is?” I asked

“They can vary to quite a lot of ranks, there’s even been one that was reported to be immortal. However it was slain a few decades ago, but on average I’d say most are around C rank.”

“Do you know who managed to take that one down? Is it normal for there to be immortal slayers registered as adventurers?” Amelia asked without even looking at Nikolai.

“Truthfully, it’s not certain who did it, the person who killed that goblin king never officially registered for the guild. They just came and killed it, then disappeared. Besides this person, I’ve never heard of any immortals registering here, in fact the strongest currently registered here is at S rank.”

“So an immortal just randomly showed up, killed the monster, and left? That’s quite the story you’ve got there.” Amelia quickly said, not hiding her disbelief in him.

“I understand why you wouldn’t believe me, even I didn't believe it at first. If you really trust me so little you can always check with the guild when we get back to see whether my word is as good as spoiled milk or not.”

“Hey, so I don’t know about the two of you, but standing outside a goblin cave in the borderlands isn’t exactly what I’d call a dream of mine. So do you think we could go inside already so we can go back?” I quickly interjected before the two could continue.

“You’re right, we need to stay on task.” Nikolai said as he flashed me a smile that seemed to thank me. “I’ll take the lead, Eve you should stay in the middle and your friend should watch our back. I’m sorry to stick you in the middle, but it’s the most advantageous position in this group for your weapon choice.” He said as he already started heading towards the interest.

“I still don’t like him at all.” Amelia whispered beside me before walking off to follow him.

Despite the clear tension between them, I couldn’t bring myself to be bothered by it. I knew I had to stay focused and keep in mind what Amelia had just told me but, this was my very first mission as an adventurer, just like my parents had been.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It hadn’t been long since we entered the cave, but the atmosphere was completely different than anywhere I’d been before.

Everything was quiet, so quiet I could hear the consistent drops of water hitting the cave floor as we walked through.

The smell was something I wanted nothing more than to be away from. I had smelled carcasses before during all my treks into the forest around my home but never anything this concentrated or seeped into the very stone around me.

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Amelia and Nikolai took off as soon as we entered an opened-up cavern. She went right, jumping between what looked like roofless huts, while he charged straight at the mob of goblins scrambling to react to our arrival.

The goblins had washed-out green flesh, hairless scraggly bodies a little over half my height, and wore rudimentary coverings of animal hides and stained cloth over their bodies. There were a few variants in their group, the most obvious being the pair of human-sized goblins that remained near the back of the pack. They seemed to be in charge of the larger group, wearing more elaborate hides and grunting commands at the others. Those must have been what is known as evolved goblins, those with higher intelligence, more developed bodies, and an innate ability to control the lesser goblins.

Nikolai reached them first.

The ground beneath his feet warped like he was standing on thin rubber, then he leaped, nearly hitting the high ceiling. He hefted his lance with both hands, his shield still on his back, and flew down like an arrow. His lance struck the earth sinking nearly the entire length of his weapon into the ground between a small group of goblins firing spikes of darkened earth out in all directions.

The unlucky goblins he landed beside were blown away like leaves in the wind while his earthen spikes tore through flesh and bone until exploding against the cavern wall. Chaos ensued. Then Amelia made her move.

Thinly chained kunai tore through a cloth wall anchoring within the groups of panicking goblins. The chains went taut pulling Amelia out of the shadows and taking her right into the center of the pack. Mana swelled within her as she landed. She planted her hands on the stony ground and chanted her spell with a voice as cold as her ice.

"Black Frost Domain."

Ice as clear as glass erupted from her palms and surged outward like a river for several meters. The goblins within range had their feet frozen over by the torrent of ice, their flesh blackening. They started to howl in pain but she wasn't done.

The ice chains glowed slightly as the ice it was made of expanded out into gnarly sharpened edges along the entire length. Amelia spun with such force that it ripped the kunai from the earth and spiraled around her, savagely ripping through the trapped goblins in a cyclone of glittering blood.

I didn’t let their distraction go to waste. I dashed backward to gain higher ground, in the same motion I drew an arrow from my quiver, nocked, and pulled the string back, taking aim at one of the evolved goblins. Wind spiraled around the arrow in a way I had learned that increased accuracy and I pulled back my fingers, releasing the arrow. With a trail of green light, the arrow shot straight toward and then through the goblin’s neck. Startled by the sudden attack the goblin could do nothing but gurgle in pain before its life was extinguished. I moved on to the next target.

My newly enhanced abilities directly augmented my archery skills in a way I couldn’t appreciate while I was only sparring against Amelia. I could process everything quicker, draw at full strength faster, and with my wind sight, I could jump around without taking my eyes off the target. Fighting teams of goblins turned into a fun little experience rather than the life-or-death battle that I was honestly expecting.

That had been the largest group thus far, around two dozen, making me glad we found them all separate. Despite how relatively easy these had been, I know we would have had issues had we been forced to take them all on at once. I was a little worried about that possibility the further into their cave we went yet at the same time I felt a yearning for just that.

Well, hopefully, the goblin king is at least somewhat of a challenge.

“Hey, look at this.” Nikolai’s voice stopped me just in time before I ran into him. “It’s a nursery for the goblins, look at how many babies are in there.” Letting my eyes go to where he was pointing, I could make out a bunch of little green figures moving around in a little hole.

“What are we going to do about them?” I quickly asked, not noticing Nikolai’s expression.

“This.”

Before I could answer, I watched him put his hand over the hole, and not a second later the hole was filled with fire and I could hear all the goblin children scream.

“I know you may have some feelings about this at first, but as an adventurer, you must always remember that your life is on the line in every encounter. And if you die, that just means that monster will go on to live and hunt other people.” Nikolai said as Amelia covered the hole in ice.

I stared at the ice-covered entrance for a long moment. Their muffled screams still reached my ears but I felt… nothing? I was bothered more by that fact than the horrors they were experiencing inside.

“It doesn’t bother me, we knew what we were getting signed up for,” I said finally, steeling myself.

“Then you’re already better off than most, let’s keep going, the goblin king shouldn’t be too much farther.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The cave continued to be more of the same. A few groups of goblins here and there, but they were all so weak that one strike from Nikolai or Amelia, or one arrow from me and any goblin was dead.

It also seemed like the goblins had recently moved into this cave as there weren't any valuables to speak of. Although I figured there’d definitely be some nice prizes in the goblin king’s room.

And as we rounded yet another corner, and were met with two large wooden doors that stood around fifteen feet tall each. We had finally reached our destination.

“Before we go in, here’s the plan. I’ll distract it and block their attacks. Eve, you stay at a distance and aim for its eye, your friend can focus on flanking and hitting it when it’s not looking. Are you ready?” He asked to which Amelia and I both quickly nodded.

“Good, then let’s go.” Watching as he reinforced his body with magic and began pushing the doors open.

As the doors loudly creaked open, Amelia and I quickly rushed into the room.

“Jump back!” Nikolai yelled out.

Quickly imbuing mana into my body as I jumped back, I pushed my arms forward and fired my wind mana out like an explosion to create distance and as I flipped around I saw a spike trap crash into the stone floor.

Stopping myself on the wall, I lept down to the ground, immediately looking to make sure Amelia was okay.

“You alright Eve?” I heard Amelia call out.

“Yeah I’m okay, are you?”

“Yeah, nothing too serious at least.”

“You two get ready! It’s coming.” Nikolai yelled.

As soon as he said that, I began to feel the ground shake a little as large footsteps came barreling toward us. Then I watched as a goblin that stood around nine feet tall came into view, a large spiked mace in its hand, and scars covering its body.

Immediately drawing my bow, I pulled an arrow from my quiver, nocking it without a second thought, and letting the arrow go.

I watched as the arrow traveled through the sky, toward the goblin king’s eye. And just as it was about to reach he noticed it and quickly moved just in time as the arrow landed in his upper cheek.

The monster let out a ferocious bellow as a response and quickly began his charge toward us.

I could hear the echoes of stomps throughout the cave grow louder to match the rate at which he closed the distance between us.

Not letting myself become distracted, I began to fire more and more arrows. Narrowly missing the Goblin’s eyes as Nikolai charged forward to meet the monster.

I couldn't help but notice the closer Nikolai got, the more the goblin was attracted to him even though I was the only one currently attacking it.

“He must have a taunt spell, and a good one at that.” Amelia postulated from behind me. “It’s a spell most defensive adventures use to draw a monster's attention away from the rest of their party.”

“Well that’s quite useful for us isn’t it?” I said while nocking another arrow.

“You’re right, plus he did just save our lives from that trap. I suppose I can trust him at least a little bit.” Amelia said as she began to go down and join him.

‘Now what will Nikolai do when the monster reaches him?’ I thought to myself as the monster began to swing down his first attack.

I watched as Nikolai raised his shield, and just as the swing was about to connect a flame barrier suddenly appeared around the shield. Then when the mace made contact the attack was blown back with a whirlwind of fire and ash throwing the goblin off balance.

Realizing this was my chance, I imbued my arrow with as much mana as I could until it started to crackle with power and glow brightly and fired. The arrow zipped through the cave like a fireball and quickly met its target.

Blood shot out from the goblin's face as both eyes exploded from the single arrow, causing it to lose balance and fall on its back.

As soon as it was on its back Amelia made her move, sending up spikes of ice from the ground underneath its skull. Nikolai, seeming to have predicted this, was already falling onto the goblin’s head forcing the ice spikes through the rest of the way.

“Good job everyone and congratulations on your first successful adventure,” Nikolai called out with a beaming smile half covered with blood on his face.

I didn’t even realize that I was smiling as well, joy bubbling up inside my heart. It finally felt like I was on a path where I knew what I was doing. I could do all the things adventurers do, and it would still count as training. And one for one of the first times in a long time as I watched Amelia smile I could honestly say I was happy.