The goods that came from the Goblins included a halberd, two-headed axe, a great sword, 3 sets of armor that were far too small for Jason to use, 3 bags of gold, silver, and jewels, and set of cards and dice. He also took the lighter he found earlier, but instead of placing it in his inventory he carried it in his hoodie pocket. He wondered what would happen if he tried to put the Goblin bodies in the inventory as well, but decided to not test it out at the moment.
There was still more to this dungeon. Jason continued on down the path that the Goblin’s were guarding. Not to long afterwards he came across another room. It had no other tunnels out of the room and all that was there was a pedestal. On it there were 3 ARMS units and 3 ARMS unit crystals. Without thinking Jason grabbed one of the ARMS units causing the other 2 suddenly vanish. The crystals were still there though. He decided to study them before choosing one. They all looked alike. Not a single distinguishing feature could be seen. It was as if they wanted him to choose, but not have any clue what his choice was. That wasn’t really fair, but then, what about any of this was really fair. He sighed and then grabbed a random crystal. The others stayed where they were. So he grabbed the other two. Jason shrugged and scanned the crystals into his storage. He had forgotten that the last time he did this the crystals activated instantly, but luckily they had not been activated instantly. It must have been something like a first time thing and mental control that caused that to happen previously, but now he had wanted to just put them in storage so that’s what happened. The ARMS unit he stuffed in his hoodie pocket not wanting to figure out whether the storage would accept it or not.
Jason went back to the room he fought the guards in. To the right the room was full of several straw beds, but nothing else. To the left he found path downward. Eventually he came to a T crossing in the tunnels. To his right it looked like it went back up towards the exit. The other way went deeper into the mines. It didn’t take long for Jason to decide to continue down and into the dark world. As he went he began to hear the noises of Goblins once more, but it sounded life many more taking part in much more activity. Eventually, the tunnels began to brighten and he once again put out and hid the torch in a small alcove in the tunnel. He continued on cautiously towards the light, looking out for any that were approaching.
When he reached the end of the tunnel he found himself looking down on a village of Goblins. He was on a balcony with a long walkway around the edge of the village heading into the village and another walkway around the outside of the village at a slight angle that ended on the other side of the cavern with a manor house that was sized to the Goblins. On either side of this pathway were rope bridges to a central hanging brazier lighting the village. The village itself was divided into 4 major areas. Directly beneath him and taking up most of the cavern were animals packed, mostly, tightly together with a few being given their own areas, while on the far side of the cavern beneath the manor house was a building that looked remarkably like a Christian church. On his left was what looked to be mining equipment and several tunnels and in the center of all this was where several houses could be spotted.
He couldn’t count all the Goblins that he saw, but guessed that that it was a few hundred. Deciding that he didn’t want to attempt to massacre a village, Goblin or not, he took the path towards the manor which was more likely had things to aid him in his goals. Jason moved along the wall as closely as he could while moving as fast as he could. The last thing he wanted was for all of those Goblins to see him. He realized that he had been Goblins this entire time, but that couldn’t be what they were. If they were here they had come from some other planet that the Sil`phane had invaded, or at least that is what he thought was the case based on what he had found out thus far. It thought it was weird that any aliens had set up a village in a dungeon. Maybe they didn’t know. Maybe Hanshi was lying to him and using him to get something. He didn’t know the answer to his doubts, but it didn’t really matter. He was here to accomplish a goal and be damned these nasty creatures if he could do that by slaughtering them.
Jason reached the manor. In front of it there was a small fountain and he noticed that the church’s roof’s highest point could be jumped to without getting killed if one had to and made a mental note. There was no door on the manor and all the glassless windows were on the second floor. He peeked into the door to see if there were any guards, but he found none. Jason entered the manor. He found that he could stand up straight, but just barely, finding that his hair brushed against the ceiling. He hoped that he would not get into any fights while in here. The cramped rooms and halls would leave him little or no room to maneuver. The Goblins on the other hand would have a clear advantage. It was so bad that he doubted whether he would even be able to draw his sword.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The search through the manor’s first floor proved to be a lost cause. There was nothing that Jason would consider valuable, nor that could be used for materials. It didn’t take long to go through the floor, but it was exhausting to duck and squeeze through the hallways and door frames and doubly so while having to keep on the lookout for any Goblin encounters. He would have to dispatch them quickly or catch and silence them before they raised the alarm for the other Goblins. He took a rest before moving on up the stairs to the second floor.
After some time passed, Jason made his way up the stairs where found more of the same. However, one of the rooms was much more decorated. He decided to give this room a more thorough look over. In the corner he found a small chest. He brought it out into the open center of the room. It was sealed with a simple lock. Jason broke it easily. Just as the chest popped open a young female Goblin walked into the room and shrieked loudly. Jason’s eyes shot from the chest to the girl. He grabbed what was in the chest and bolted out the window.
He hadn’t thought about what he was going to do once he went out the window. He’d forgotten he was on the second floor and he’d need to jump down. Luckily, the drop wasn’t that far. As he landed he saw that many of the villagers were coming up the ramps. They were armed and some of them were armored. His path out of the cavern was blocked. Looking around the area he could find no way out or around, but he did remember that he noticed the church’s roof was within safe jumping distance, but did he want to risk it. The Goblins were fast approaching and once they saw him they redoubled their pace. Were all the villagers necessary just to deal with him?
Jason threw what he had grabbed into his pocket, took a running start, and jumped for the highest point of the church. His feet missed and he was on his way to the ground where he would sure break several bones if not die outright. If he lived there was no way that he could outrun the Goblins. This was it. His story would be coming to an… his fingers caught hold of the steeple and tightened, pulling himself to the roof, swinging himself to safety. He descended down the steeple to the roof. He slid to the edge, dropped off it side, and hung down trying to keep from picking up too much speed so that he could drop safely. Stopping himself for just a moment he let go and dropped to the ground.
Several of the Goblins tried to copy his actions but their shortness had them falling to their death, being knocked out from hitting the steeple too hard, or falling to the church’s roof breaking several of their bones. Meanwhile, many of the Goblins started moving back towards the down ramp. Jason sprinted across the village and up the ramp, his legs carrying them faster than any of the Goblins could to keep up with him. While they couldn’t keep up with him, they could throw stones at him. Several of them hit him, but he knew that if he stopped he’d die. All he could do is pull up his hood to protect him and run for it.
When Jason got into the tunnel he continued to run. The Goblins were quick on his heels and now in the tunnels they were strangely gaining ground. He could turn and attack them, but he had only won against the earlier Goblins out of luck. These ones would likely overwhelm him easily with their numbers and even if they didn’t they seemed to be at home in the tunnels. At most he’d be able to kill a few of them, but after that he would certainly by over ran and even if he wasn’t he’d likely lose his weapons and things that he’d picked up while there. There wouldn’t be much of a point of doing this if he were to lose his gear. It wasn’t long before Jason was back at the inner entrance chamber. He looked and he hoped to have remember it right. The Goblins were all but on top of him now.
Jason ran up the path that he believed lead to the outside. He was right. He could see the light of the outside world. As soon as he believed that she might be able to hear him he started yelling for Hanshi to run. When he crossed the border between inside the dungeon and outside he was surprised to find that she hadn’t moved an inch. Of course, this was noticed as he ran past her. He stopped and turned around. “What are you doing? We need to get out of here!” he insisted.
The Goblins charged towards the entrance. Hanshi stood up and turned towards the Goblins. She held 2 ARMS units in her hands, taking on a stance ready to fight. Jason thought that she had lost her mind… lost it more than he had thought she had already. He could only make the decision to either run, leaving her to die, or fight and die with her. There wasn’t a real choice for him. He drew his sword and stood prepared for what was to come. The Goblins were just about to cross the threshold when Hanshi dropped her guard and started laughing.
“I got you good. You think they’re able to get out of the dungeon. Don’t be nuts. That’s not how this all works,” she said as she turned to Jason and mocking.
“Why didn’t you tell me that, before I entered, and thought I didn’t have any way of saving myself?” he angrily shouted at her.
“And ruin your first time? Some things you just need to experience for yourself. You should be thankful a beautiful experienced lady like me is showing you the ropes,” she grinned at him.