After I was done, I was about to leave when Thorn stopped me.

“Wait! Savas! Hold up man!”, he shouted in my direction.

Panting he said, “Man, do you ever walk fast. In and out. Got what you need and no more to think about.”

Smiling, I said, “Hey Thorn. What’s up? Did you need something?”

After catching his breath, he said, “Actually yeah. I could use your help on a hunt. You see the thing is most of us don’t use magic. Only magic infused items. I’ve been ordered by the hunt master to go and clear out a goblin den. Now normally he would send all 3 of us in or he would go himself but one of the hunters was hurt recently and is unable to participate and the other is escorting one of the council members to one of the big cities. That leaves me and him. He can’t go because the elder has tasked him with another job leaving me to do this one. Alone! Goblins are F ranked creatures alone and I’m an E ranked hunter. That means one on one in a fight the goblin should win and I have to go and hunt a whole den of the dam things. I’ll surely die if I go alone. Could you please accompany me? It would make me feel a lot safer with you there. I’ll even pay you a fair wage. I don’t have much, but I’ll make sure you get your due.”

I thought about his request for a moment. I didn’t really have a need for money and if I did need it I could always hunt for meat and pelts and trade it for what I needed. However, if what he was saying was true the goblins could grow to a population large enough to threaten the entire village’s safety. In addition to that I liked Thorn. He was a nice guy. Always sticking his neck out for those around him.

Taking a deep breath I said, “Sure, but no need to break yourself paying me. Just pay me a small portion of what you receive from the mission and let me take a few things I might find useful from the den.”

With a sigh of relief he said, “Thanks man. You don’t know what this means to me. And you can take whatever you like from the goblins. Any loot found on a hunt is yours to keep unless you were sent specifically to find that item. I’ll be preparing for the rest of the day and heading out in the morning. Wanna meet up at the gate at sunrise and head out from there?”

I let him know that would be fine and set off for home to prepare for the hunt. When I got home, I made myself a meal and put my new bedding together and fell right asleep. I woke up near midnight, packed my potions, and set off for the village. Thorn was waiting for me at the gate pacing back and forth nervously awaiting my arrival. Chuckling, I raised my arm and let him know I was here.

He ran over to me and said, “Man I was worried you’d change your mind or at the least oversleep. Thanks for coming, it means a lot.”

“No problem.”, I said to him., “Now let’s get this over with.”

With no more complaints Thorn led me into the forest to begin our hunt.

During our walk Thorn told me what goblins were like and how they fought. I vaguely remember creating a creature like them at one point but wasn’t too sure. Maybe they evolved from something else. Apparently, they are child sized, green skinned, bipedal creatures that hunt using crude weapons fashioned from sticks and stones most of the time. Sometimes though you’ll find a crafter among them capable of forging steel. Raising the level of danger by leagues and bounds. They are also cunning and rogue- like. Employing traps, shadows, and poisons to hamper and disable their prey. That means that they are quite intelligent with the capability to learn and could be extremely dangerous given the proper environment or enough time. The more he talked the more worried I became and started double-checking my equipment to be sure I had brought everything. I only owned 2 potions for the moment, and I had both of those. I also had my emerald tipped staff and hunting knife. Unfortunately, that was the entirety of my equipment. Thorn was loaded with arrows. He’d managed to get some kind of backpack sized quiver filled to the brim with arrows. He also had a belt with numerous net bags. Each containing a potion of some kind. He also had two short swords strapped to each side of his waist and a dagger in each of his boots. In addition to all of that I could see the glint of metal under his shirt. Indicating that he had some kind of armor on. Seeing how prepared he was made me feel inadequate and a bit more worried about the outcome of all this.

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Pushing my nerves down we slowly approached the location where the goblins were said to be. I could see signs of something living here right away. Branches were broken and trampled over. Refuse was scattered all around. Traces of half-eaten and rotten food could be spotted no matter which direction you looked. We were definitely in the right place. Then there was the smell. It was truly awful. Indescribably horrid, the smell made me gag and nearly throw up on the spot. Eventually I did the closer we got to the cave we believed the goblins were using as a base.

Once my stomach settled, we moved forward until we spotted some sentries standing guard near the entrance. Two were standing right in front of the opening while a few more were patrolling around the area looking for trespassers and possible sources of food, I presumed. Thorn knocked two arrows and aimed them at the guards at the cave entrance. Picking up on his que I began to cast my spells, holding them until it was time to release them. With stealth on our side Thorn released his arrows and scored a clean hit on each of their heads and I released my earth spike spell impaling one of the goblins. We picked off all the stragglers outside until none remained. Looking at their soul motes they were much larger than those of the wild animals I found in the forest. Shaking the thought from my head we made our way inside the cave.

Before we made our way 10 paces in, I regretted my decision to help Thorn. The ground was caked in wet, slippery, slimy feces. Causing me to stumble and slide around the ground. Not having shoes made the experience that much worse. As I could feel it pushing its way in between my toes. It took about 10 minutes to make our way down the tunnels and to an opening of some sort. There were a few goblins along the way. I was tasked with dealing with them using my wind scythe to lop them in half not having to worry about the sound of metal clanking in the event of a miss or over extension and hitting the wall.

Covered in blood and shit I looked down at the small gathering of goblins huddled around a fire eating rotten food and spoiled meat. Laughing and joking while they danced around and filled their bellies. For some reason this enraged me even more and I began to cast a spell. Targeting the middle of their little party. Without a word the air started to twist and swirl near the fire in the middle of the room, snuffing it out. Darkness overcame them as a tornado formed right in front of them. Howling violently, it started moving around the room picking up everything in the area, turning it into a weapon. I wasn’t done though. With another completed spell I cast poison wind on the tornado turning causing all the little cuts and scratches to bleed profusely. Tables lifted into the air crashing into the walls and smashing into pieces. Plates, knives, and other cooking utensils became deadly projectiles among the raging winds. Goblins poured from the other tunnels to see what was happening. Only to get sucked into the vortex of death and destruction. I gazed coldly at the creatures as I watched their utter destruction. It only took 5 minutes for all of the goblins to investigate the scene and die. Once my spell finished, I could see bodies thrown about in all directions. Some, thrown so hard that they stuck to the walls and ceiling.

Behind me I could hear Thorn’s voice, “Holy shit dude. I didn’t know you were that powerful.”

I replied to him while countless motes of light shot towards me, “Yeah, I didn’t think it would be that effective. I guess an indoor tornado is a really bad situation for anyone near it. Also, I’m nearly out of mana after that.”

With that I walked down the small pathway towards the bloody mess and started searching the place for anything I could use.