A chamber full of dead bodies and hovering Resonant Cards made sense considering Lionel and Daisy had teamed up, the two Abyssal summons making easy work of the dungeon’s first floor monsters.
“Whoa,” Juno said as he lowered his wand. “That was the best plan ever sending them ahead. For real.”
Noctarii, who had been hovering above the scattering of dead monster bodies, turned to the students as Fiera’s the blazekitsune’s light filled the chamber. “Bah! Too bright.” He shielded his face. “Enough, fox!”
“You are supposed to be going ahead and returning to let us know how they are doing,” Fiera reminded the shadow fae, “not scolding Fiera.”
“Isn’t it clear how they’re doing?” Noctarii fluttered over the bodies. “It looks like a warzone in here. I’d call it a bloodbath, but there doesn’t seem to be much of that. But fine. I’ll go ahead. Bye,” he said before buzzing away.
Alistair scanned the bodies, starting with a pile of kobalds.
Kobald Yurei, Level 12
Kobald Yurei, Level 7
Kobald Yurei, Level 11
Kobald Yurei, Level 13
His eyes jumped from the numerous kobalds to some of the other monsters.
Valkyrie Kappa, Level 14
Huldra Kitsune, Level 9
Noppera-bo Goblin, Level 15
Noppera-bo Goblin, Level 11
“Wait,” Zola said, the silver haired girl directly beside Alistair now. “That last one. That’s not good.”
“Explain,” Kanda told her, who had increasingly pushed herself into the role of the leader of the group.
“Ummm…” Zola clenched her eyes shut and furrowed her brow. She tilted her head toward the ceiling of the chamber. “I read about various goblins. Sort of went on a deep dive.”
“A deep dive?” Juno asked as he approached the first hovering card. “Hey! Another DEX card. Can I have it?”
“Sure,” Kanda and Alistair said together while Zola continued to comb the things she had read.
She bent her head forward and massaged her temple. “It’s right there,” she whispered.
Juno pressed the Attribute Card into his chest. “What about the goblin, Zolski? You’re not old enough to be losing your memory.”
“I’m trying to remember what I read. It was messed up, I know that.”
Juno laughed. “Want to hear messed up? Have you all ever heard the song about the faceless goblin? He steals a prostitute’s face and ends up—”
“Juno!” Zola jumped at him and placed both hands on his shoulder. “That’s it!”
“What?” he asked. “I was going to say that the goblin ends up sucking—”
Kanda cut him off. “We don’t need to hear some vulgar story that rich schoolboys share in Solaria. Zola. What do you know?”
Tarnis’ voice grew louder as Zola approached one of the dead noppera-bo goblin. A card hovered over its body and the goblin’s back was currently to the four students. She gingerly turned it over with her foot.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Holy crap,” Juno said. “Holy friggin’ crap!”
“Yep,” Zola said as she gestured her wand at the faceless goblin. Rather than a face, the goblin had a stretch of skin that had indentions where a face should have them, like over the eyes and beneath the cheeks.
[And now you play with the corpses? What the hell is wrong with the four of you? Do you know how many dungeons I’ve explored? Do you realize that—]
“Shut up, Tarnis,” Kanda told the dungeon architect. “I’m not familiar with this kind of goblin,” she told Zola.
Zola touched the Arcane Card that hovered over the faceless goblin. “They are said to be able to steal a person’s expression.” She examined the card. “A point in Strength. Who wants it?”
“You take it,” Kanda told her.
“Wait, so that’s what the song is about?” Juno asked. “I thought it was just a song about sucking fingers.”
Ghost’s message came so quickly it nearly caused Alistair to jump back.
Ghost: Sucking fingers? Does Juno not know what a blow job is? Ask him if he knows what that term means.
Alistair: This is not a conversation I want to be having with you or him.
Ghost: Too late for that. Your friend started it.
Kanda turned back to Juno, the older girl not able to hide the grin on her face. “You think that is what that song is about? Sucking fingers?”
Juno returned fire with an incredulous look. “Yeah. What else could it be about?”
“Moving on.” Kanda returned her focus to the other girl. “Why is a faceless goblin a problem, Zola?”
“It’s a problem because they can steal our faces, our expressions.”
“In what way? Explain it to me like I’m Juno.”
“Hey!”
Zola gestured to the goblin. “Your face would look like this. Just a blank mass of skin. The goblin would then have your face.”
“And if we kill it?” Kanda asked. “I mean after it takes our face. What happens then? Also, I’m not even going to tap into how that is possible, and how it would be possible to breathe without at least a pair of nostrils.”
“It has nostrils,” Zola said. “They are along the sides of its skull. This creature in particular is one that academics hope to study further, but the problem remains that it can fully steal a person’s expression, and from what I’ve read about these goblins, it won’t return if you kill it. I’d need to look it up in the Tome of the Wild to know more.”
“Fascinating and terrifying. Tarnis,” Kanda called up to the ceiling.
[Good, you’re ready to hear about some of the dungeons I’ve cleared without cheating.]
“No, I don’t care about that. I want to know what we need to do to preserve these goblins for study. I also need a bestiary explanation about them. Tarnis, a summary, please.”
[It is not my job to double as a historian at the Wraithen Archives.]
“True, but I am a skyward, and now that I am officially declaring myself as a chaperone, it is now your job to provide a description when requested.”
[You can’t!]
“I just did,” Kanda told him. “Find the information, and read it to us. Juno, Zola, Alistair—I’m officially taking charge of our little expedition here. Get the cards, because as a chaperone, I’m not able to partake. I can fight and get levels, though.”
“Weren’t you already in charge?” Juno asked her.
“Sort of, but not officially. Now, collect the rest of the cards.”
While Kanda argued with Tarnis over the noppera-bo goblin’s bestiary description, Juno, Alistair, and Zola rummaged through the bodies. Alistair received STR and CON Attribute Cards. The kobalds provided four cards, three of which were known as Moonlight Eyes.
[A common attribute of kobalds that used to mine for resonant mana crystals, Moonlight Eyes of the Assassin allows you to see in low-light conditions, removing the barrier of complete darkness.]
Ghost: Now that is the skill I can get behind.
“I’m totally going to be an assassin,” Juno said as he slid the card into his chest. He went for his best Ghost voice. “Call me Wraith.”
Ghost took over Alistair’s vocal chords. “And call me Ghost. Check those bodies over there, Wraith.”
“Will fucking do!”
Zola turned to Alistair. “Why must you encourage him?”
Ghost relinquished control of Alistair’s body, allowing him to place the Moonlight Eyes of the Assassin Card into his chest. “Sorry. What’s the final card?”
“It’s another DEX.” Juno placed it into his chest. “Not bad, right? Argh!” Juno jumped back, hit the ground, and a goblin scrambled away, the creature dragging its right leg.
Ghost: Get it or I will!
Alistair aimed his wand and killed the goblin with Resonance Pulse.
It was only when Juno turned back to him, the boy’s face a swath of blank flesh, that Alistair realized what he had just done.
“Guys?” Juno asked with a blank expression, his voice muffled like he’d stuff a rag in his mouth. “There’s a problem.”