Timothy and Gustav continued to explore the forest of sorts that they were surrounded with. The both of them were quiet as they walked, because since they couldn’t see the creatures around them, who were typically camouflaged, they wanted to try and hear them instead. This was their best course of action, and they were willing to burn the whole forest down if it came up to that point, because this place held wildlife that were very hostile to the goblin kind, after all. If beetles went through the portal, so can every other insect in here, and they took that into consideration.
The two of them were quiet, and the further they walked, the more accepting they became of something that they noticed. This forest had a single, straight path between it, and this path led back to the portal that they’ve left behind. There were sections where the red grass was trimmed, as if someone tried to make this path more walkable, and this was very difficult to miss! They couldn’t miss it, because as explorers, they were very appreciative of the fact that they didn’t have to barge through a bunch of trees right now. They were avoiding the itchy sensation that trees and bushes would cause, and they were happy about that, as on top of other benefits, they could also observe their surroundings better!
Tim decided to abuse this current sense of peace, as he wanted to be a bit more prepared to face whatever else was to come. He pressured the system for any, and all quick upgrades!
“What upgrade can you give me, system? I want something painless, something that won’t make me faint this time.” He requested, through a thought.
[There are two upgrades of that type to your disposal.] She beeped, [One allows you to upgrade your bodily strength and durability to level three, in exchange for 800 system points. The other is a densification process, which would include any and all kinds of fireballs that you can summon, and this one costs 1,200 system points to buy. Both of them are virtually painless, and they can be implemented quickly.]
“That’s what I’m talking about…” He celebrated as quietly as he could, as this was one of the rare times where the system came in handy in specific, horrid situations. “I want them both, 2,000 points is a steal!”
[Confirmed,] The system beeped, and within seconds, he felt something weird happening to him.
Timothy wasn’t in any pain, but he did feel his armor tightening around his body a little bit. It took little thinking to figure out that he just became a little bit buffer, and stronger! This was a fine primitive trait that anyone could use in certain points, so he was happy about it. Now he couldn’t remember if an upgrade like this had put him through pain in the past, but neither did he care to know right now.
The latter densification process of the fireballs he could cast, felt even more insignificant. He didn’t feel any pain so far, in fact he didn't feel anything, and yet the process was already done, which meant that each fireball of his would cost twenty-five-percent less mana to cast from now on, and this was the greatest upgrade he could get! He was excited about it, because he was known to spam fireballs against his enemies, so at least it won't be as expensive from now on!
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[The upgrades are complete, and you just spent 2,000 system points in exchange. A total of 8,000 points remain in your sum.] The system specified.
“Worth it,” Tim grinned, quietly.
Anyway, the two of them continued following the straight path in front of them. They walked slowly so as to not rush into any unnecessary trouble, and ended up walking about a quarter of a kilometer in that manner. At the half-kilometer mark, they noticed something that was hard to miss even within this world where almost everything was camouflaged!
They saw a castle, a big one. The reason why they were able to spot it, was because it was really difficult to paint stones red, so the castle was very visible, it was gray. Bricks were red, sure, but they were not used to build castles, at least, this specific castle that they spotted couldn’t be made of bricks!
“Is that supposed to be there?” Tim asked, as he was dumbfounded, and so he added. “That's a damn castle, and it's bigger than the church back in Letazix!”
“I don't know anything about this place, man, we came here together.” Gustav reminded.
The two of them were frustrated, but at this point they were excited to see something that wasn't a tree or a plant. They started rushing towards the castle a little bit, because it was a solid, two-hundred meters away from them, and they wanted to get to it as quickly as they could.
“I doubt that there are any beetles in there, but we could use it as shelter. We can relax for a couple of minutes.” Gustav pitched, and rightfully so, because it wasn’t easy to carry seven kilos of armor at all times.
Timothy just nodded along, but he also had this weird gut feeling that danger awaited them within that castle. He wasn't stupid enough to walk in there while defenseless, so he summoned the Bone Multiplier ability, and had it scan the perimeter for any, and all bones.
It took little effort to find a bunch of them, because this place was bigger than one would assume. There were plenty of bones buried within the ground, and this was a bit concerning when he thought about it more, because insects didn't have any bones! He was a bit spooked, but decided to play along with things nonetheless, because he could really use these skeletons right now.
After forcing the bones out of the ground, and then through the bushes, he discovered that a couple of them were femur bones, and they used to belong to humans! Finding more human skeletons was one of the worst things he could find here, because even though he was desperate to meet another human, he’d hate to guess what could've been strong enough to kill them. These skeletons were not buried in appropriate places, so it was safe to assume that something had killed them!
“Let’s hope we're stronger than humans,” Tim said, as he showed the bones to the guard.
Afterwards, he multiplied the bones he had, into several pieces, until he got a total of twenty, floating bones. He then shaped those bones into sharp, foot-long crossbow bolts, in order to have them at his quick disposal.
Since the bolts were very physical, he stashed them in a small leather bag, and held the bag between his left armpit. He didn’t have to supply the bolts with mana anymore for now, but when he needed to, he could launch all bolts in a single second, and he figured that most creatures wouldn't be able to withstand being hit twenty times in a single second, because at least a quarter of the bolts were destined to pierce them!
The gray-colored castle was about a hundred more meters away, and inwardly, Tim hoped that he wouldn't have to use his bolts.