Dripping. As we entered the cave I could hear a drip. I could hear our breath, I could hear our boots crunch on the loose rocks. Ever since the combat it has been like everything has been in razor focus. Adrenaline I suppose. Probably not a bad thing right now. Bella continued in the lead. I could see her just in front of me but as we got further from the entrance that was about all I could see. I had no idea how she knew where we were going.
“Turn on your Locate skill. Both of you. It will help to guide you when it is hard to see.” Our Locate skill? Right. I kinda forgot about it. What exactly did it do again? Analyze, do your thing.
Locate: Gives greater perception of your surroundings and can help identify any nearby objects of a definition that you set.
I see. Let’s do it. Locate.
Suddenly the cavern around me lit up. I could see further out, ahead of Bella. I could hear exactly where the drip was coming from. I could smell the stench of goblins in the damp cave air. The hair on the back of arms stood up as I felt the chill more clearly. I don’t know how I hadn’t been using this before. It’s incredible.
Bella continued to move forward. With how confident her movements are, she must have a similar skill. In fact, I had never Analyzed her before. How odd. I guess I just hadn’t thought about it. Let’s see how good you are.
Name: Bella Torn
Class: Aether Swordsman
Strength: 153
Speed: 138
Durability: 97
Intelligence: 149
Charisma: 122
Luck: 87
Abilities: Analyze(B), Sixth Sense, Aether Manipulation, Aether Enhancement, Sword’s Dance, Great Equalizer
Titles: Citizen of the Fallen Kingdom, Wannabe Hero
Her stats are definitely impressive. Better than ours, but not by tons. Plus, her title interests me. Alicia had a title related to the Fallen Kingdom as well. I wonder if I should ask about it some time.
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Bella held up her hand to stop us. Looks like we found some enemies. I could see ahead there was a split in the cave. On one side, the wind blew into it, so it must head further in. The other had the air stagnating. Plus, a couple of goblins were standing nearby. Perhaps a small extra area or something to guard? Who knows, either way we have to kill them. My hand got a little sweaty at the thought, but I managed to keep myself together.
There were fewer goblins than outside. Bella pointed us forward. We would each take one, and she would take two. We had to be quiet, we couldn’t know how close by more goblins were. I quickly took a look at my target and Analyzed him. About the same as outside, no issue.
On Bella’s signal we all sprung forward. With Locate on I could see every inch of where I was targeting. It took no effort to quickly and stealthily slit his throat. Javi and Bella easily did the same. I felt the urge to regurgitate more of breakfast surface but I shoved it down. I am a hunter now. This was work. Still, I made sure to quickly clean the blood off my sword.
Moving forward into the small area, we were quick to not like what we found. Weapons. Lots of them. Some bloody, some brand new in their sheath. Some were broken, and others were rusted. “What the hell? Why do they have so many weapons? What were they preparing for?” What did they need it for?
Bella looked over a few more items before responding, “I can’t be certain. Some goblins have a tendency to hoard stuff so that could be all. On the other hand, it is common behavior among monsters to start preparing when they sense a larger threat coming. Though I certainly hope that isn’t the case. That could mean trouble for the town.”
Javi called over from nearby, “A larger threat? Isn’t everything in this forest a larger threat than goblins? Shouldn’t we take it for granted that they were readying themselves to defend against the forest?”
“No, they knew what they were surrounded by. Those monsters are not a threat to them if they leave them alone. No matter what, we should quickly get moving. The sooner the goblins are taken care of the better. We can worry about what this means later.” She grabbed a sword from a nearby pile and inspected it before taking it. “And see if there are any weapons you like. They were nice enough to gather a bunch for us, might as well make use of that.”
A new weapon huh. We had been using these shortswords that we got from Daniel for a while now. Now that we have some strength and experience we could probably get something larger. We can upgrade.
Searching around, the first thing I thought of to grab was a longsword. I quite liked Bella’s quick style with a sword and Aether and was hoping I could get a longsword to get myself a step closer to that. I’m big enough to wield it and will hopefully give myself more power behind my blows that way.
After a minute of searching, I found something I liked. A simple straight edged sword with a small guard and a handle just long enough for me to use both hands if I want. The sword was around four feet long and seemed relatively new. The blade was still sharp as well. I gave it a test swing and liked the weight behind it. This would be the one for me. And I’ll keep the shortsword as a backup, just in case. “You all good to go?” I jumped a little as I heard Javi’s voice behind me.
I turned to look and I could see he had gone a very different route than I had. On his arm he had a large round shield strapped on. Maybe three to four feet wide. Wooden, with metal supports. And in his other hand he held a spear that looked about six feet long. “What kind of style are you going for?”
“I’ve been thinking about my strengths. I’m strong, I can carry this equipment. I’m durable, I can take a hit. It makes sense for me to use a shield. And I figured that a spear and shield must be a classic combo for a reason right? Might as well go for it.”
“Alright man. We’re looking like proper fighters now. Now let’s get going. Can’t keep Bella waiting forever.” We headed out and met up with Bella. She pointed towards the other section and nodded. Looks like this will be the final push.