Lurk had finished his work on pouch he made from the rabbit skin, making sure he had a place to hang his knife on around his waist along with it. Afterwards he asked Aurk if he could help with any of the tasks he was doing, Aurk gave him some of the arrow materials he had, showing him what to do with them.
[Crafting Primitive] Raised to 0.5
[You have created - Rabbit Pouch Small - Normal]
Aurk was reclaiming arrow heads from broken arrows of various types, Sala calmed down also and went out to get water from the main room. Vorm did his usual and just sat hidden in his area, he had picked that large root to sleep behind of out of sight.
Frel was in the other part of their "room", it was actually a twisting corridor cave that tilted to the side over at Frel's side so he remained out of sight. His part of the cave was more than fifty percent, another sign of his dominance.
Lurk had felt angry and humiliated, when he was being forced down under his foot. He knew if he was gonna survive he had to be either standing behind someone, or push someone down to take the front. Submitting to Frel was the only choice for now, as he could feel both the regular fear of being bullied but also he felt that odd goblin instinct behind his thoughts pushing him to submit.
Right now though he was not strong enough he felt, he might know magic but he had seen another goblin also know magic. Frel might have a lot of tricks and strengths, Lurk did not feel confident that his spells would be able to force Frel down or to kill him even. So for now, live and learn and try to get along with Frel and avoid angering him. Sadly he did not manage to touch Frel skin, whilst being held down to see his Menu, that would have been a good way to see his skills and of course steal them for himself. He would have to try harder next time the chance showed it self.
Lurk seemed to get along well with Aurk, Sala was well... Sala with all her quirks and Vorm.. Vorm was tricky, he would not say anything. He also did not look comfortable if Lurk looked or moved close. So Lurk had to wait to try and get his Menu info of him, Sala came back in with some water from a bucket, looking slightly perplexed.
"Hmpf.. Sala expected a lot more from the drawings you told about, what is it anyway."
Lurk tilted a eyebrow as Sala asked him, it was after all just a circle with lines waving out of it. When Lurk told her it was suns he drew on either side, Sala tsk'ed, she had hoped it was something more impressive like a dragon or a giant goblin stomping smaller goblins.
"I was not gone that long Sala...."
Lurk sighed, though he did not spent alot of time on the drawing. It did not even raise in skill, it was still at a comfortable 0 in the menu.
"Well i think dragons would be scarier!." Sala huffed, putting the bucket with water down.
"Hm. Well it works for now, it might give some goblins a urge to come challenge you Lurk, but it was a good idea to show strength" Aurk said as he managed to finished a arrow and after looking it over, putting it back into his quiver.
"Oh? Why would they challenge me? I just made clear this is our cave?" Lurk stated, trying to think of what Aurk could mean, as he tried to put himself into a goblin outsides position. Lurk a new goblin would show up, kill three goblins and then lay claim to a part of the cave in a show of power and defiance.
"..Ah.. Someone will feel like they need to show they are the bigger goblin towards the young upstart.." Lurk nodded.
"Hmhm, you put down a line and tell no one to cross it, the urge to cross it will build. Until they are shown again it was not a fluke and accept the strength" Aurk nodded as he said.
After finishing helping Aurk, they rested and slept. Lurk was slightly nervous as tomorrow he was gonna go outside, what kind of world would it be. All he had seen was caves and a brief glimpse of a star filled sky through his limited view from the basket he was carried in. Drifting off to sleep as he thought about Mercia hoping she was safe.
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[Crafting Primitive] Raised to 0.6
[You have crafted 3 primitive arrow shafts]
...
The next day they crawled out of their part of the cave, Lurk stepped into the main room. Most goblins were all sleeping, though some were awake giving evil stares to the group as they left. Lurk sighed as he saw a woman lying over near the area with the "throne" goblins lying around the area.
It was not Emily, but Lurk had seen she was brought along with this group. He wondered if she was still secluded and "off limits", since he recalled that once a goblin tried to go for her it was instantly killed. Lurk felt bad for her as he could see her despair when Mercia was saved and she was left behind.
The group ventured out of the main room, Aurk walked with Lurk showing him were the traps were the goblins had placed in this main cave corridor. Right at the entry point into the main room was a slab of rock, Aurk informed Lurk that the Shaman of their group had placed a magical rune underneath it that would incapacitate anyone stepping on it. Further down the cave corridor, sinister little sharp spikes with poison on them hidden in loose dirt, more than enough to pierce soft leather footwear.
When they made it outside, two goblins were hiding near the entrance in cracks that seemed to have been dug/mined out by the goblins. If he not for his enhanced senses he would not have noticed them.
Stepping outside, sunlight hit Lurk and he saw a rocky pathway leading up in a curve, large trees hanging over the deep hole this cave was situated in, the sun piercing through enough to illuminate the entire opening in the ground.
Following behind the others they left the deep hole up the path and began trekking into the forest.
He now knew he was green as expected, Aurk was a deep green with traces of various darker lines crisscrossing his body, Vorm was pale green and looked even more feeble in the light than he could imagine. Frel was a very dark green the contract between Frel and the others were apparent - Frel had gear, boots furs and daggers and bow. Only Aurk had a bow too.
Sala was the same shade of green as Lurk and she too seemed more pleased outside in the sun. She closed her eyes and smiled happily, making Lurk stare at her briefly until she noticed and Lurk quickly looked away. She had a spear now and a club, and two hefty leather gloves that were slightly to big for her, with metal studs on it. Lurk had never seen those before, if she had worn those while fighting him, he was sure he would have been dead.
"Today we are scouting for any trace of enemies, also finding food as we see fit. So a regular patrol" Aurk said to Lurk
"what kind of enemies are we talking about?" Lurk quizzed as he was looking around at all the trees and nature around him, this was endlessly more interesting than being inside the caves. The trees were massive! many different birds were chirping and making noise. The group stepping inside the canopy of the forest.
"Dangerous beasts we cannot handle ourselves, humans, elves or kobolds are the ones we most expect. Normally elves would not be a thing to look for, but since we fled from our last cave, we have been told to keep a eye out for signs of elves." (Aurk)
("Elves huh... Yep i could see why they would come here..") Lurk thought to himself.
"But there are also places we need to check for activity, there are roads nearby and a destroyed human nest nearby we also check up on for any changes." (Aurk)
"Destroyed? how long ago? would humans be looking for the ones that did it? was it us?" Lurk asked quickly.
"Oh it was not us specifically, but goblins of old did it. No one is coming to check on that nest, they are all long dead. This place is the human wastelands. We are right on the edge of it near a large passageway in the mountains where the humans pass through to venture into our lands and beyond."
"Humans and others come here trying to destroy us and hunt for the monsters that roam in this land, we destroyed them all long ago. But now they are beginning to push back inside here in smaller groups." (Aurk)
"Oh. Adventures searching for fame and glory or revenge ... or captured friends." Lurk thought
The group separated as Frel went of on his own, Sala and Vorm went one route and Aurk took Lurk with him to check out the destroyed human "nest" for activity.
It was a uneventful trip for a good while, Aurk and Lurk sneaking and listening intently as they traversed the forest. Finally they reached a slightly raising hill that they climbed up. Once at the top lurk could look out over the forest, and out in front of them was the human nest.
".. That looks like a ruin of a city..." Lurk looked at what he thought was a city, a broken stone wall around it, covered in nature as it had begun reclaiming it all back. Inside only stone structures were visible and they were collapsed. Unsure how people would live but it looked to be more than just a peasant village.
Aurk nodded as he looked at Lurk "..yes they do call it cities.." Aurk looked out over the city along with Lurk, when he suddenly pulled him gently down by his shoulder to lie on the ground.
"Look..." Aurk pointed at something down in the city, Lurk managed to see something small like a child suddenly skip past between two crumbled stone buildings.
"..What was that?.. It looked..." Lurk had never seen that before...
"...Kobolds.." Aurk said calmly..