The huge goblin stared at me with predatory eyes and a vicious smile plastered on his lips.

“So then, adventurer, what made you think you could get away with attending the goblin king coronation?” He asked.

I’d have to think quickly if I wanted to avoid their ire. I was pretty certain that the safe zone rules would still be in effect, but our plan would be ruined if we were ousted as adventurers.

The entire quest hinged on our being able to field Sally in the competition. If we couldn’t do that then we had no way to attack them without the punishment affecting us. A punishment that we still didn’t understand.

“I want his bow. That is what I meant by looting. The spoils should rightfully belong to the victor after all.” I replied with faux confidence. “To be perfectly clear, I plan to take it by hand. As you said, goblins don’t have looting abilities. Everyone knows that.” I folded my arms and raised my eyebrows at the big goblin, pretending to be offended.

“Ah… I see.” The muscular goblin replied slowly, furrowing his brow.

My gambit was a long shot. Hell, the entire ruse of pretending to be goblins in the first place was completely absurd. I was pretty sure it had only worked so far because of Panda’s charisma and their innate stupidity.

He’d told us that he had a high affinity for charisma and he even had a special skill that allowed him to convince others of pretty much anything, providing they were stupid enough.

It worked by pitting his charisma against theirs, if his was higher he’d win. It seemed pretty overpowered to me but it had worked in our favour so far.

I, however, didn’t even have a charisma stat, so perhaps it was included with intelligence, which I also had very little points in.

“Very well then.” He replied. “However, I have a request. You will participate in the tournament instead of your friend.” He smiled evilly as he looked me up and down.

“Out of the question!” Sally roared as she came marching over. “I will be your opponent in the tournament and that is final!”

The huge goblin turned to her and the two squared off. I didn’t have mana sense, but I could still sense their postulating as their auras battled against each other.

It was a faint and intangible presence. I barely registered its existence. Still, it was there.

The two locked eyes for an uneasy moment before the huge goblin let out a deep, rumbling laugh.

“Fine.” Was all he said before walking away.

That was close. I thought, wiping the back of my hand over my sweaty forehead.

Sally gave me a subtle nod that said she wanted to talk to me in private. I followed her.

“Wait, I thought you wanted Gile’s bow?” Gerald called after me.

“You keep. All this pointless chatter has soured it for me.” I replied, lazily waving a hand over my shoulder.

There was no point in taking it. His bow was a common piece of shit bow like the one I’d been using before. I’d recognised it when he pulled it out during the duel.

I did want to loot him, for the gold if nothing else. But after that interaction I decided it wasn’t worth the risk, as frustrating as that was.

I followed Sally into a dark corner, away from prying ears.

“We need to be careful around him.” She said in a hushed tone, clearly meaning the muscular goblin. “He’s much more powerful than the other two.”

“Yeah, he seems more cunning too.” I replied. “Something about him really sets off my Spidey senses.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s the sixth sense one gets after being bitten by a radioactive spider.” I replied nonchalantly.

“Is this a skill you have? I haven’t heard about it before.” She asked, a look of confusion on her face.

“Yes, but from before my time here. You see I was on a school science trip to this big corporation that researched DNA and genetics.

“To cut a long story short, a spider bit me and I got all these awesome powers like shooting web and the ability to kiss girls whilst hanging upside down in the rain.” I smirked and she gave me a deadpan glare.

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“You’re speaking nonsense aren’t you. This really isn’t the time for idiocy.” She said, folding her huge arms. “Gobtta has informed me that we have a few hours before the tournament starts. I think we should return to the room for now.

“That last encounter and your duel were too reckless. We can’t be found out before I enter the tournament. Besides, you’re low on health and stamina and we’re low on potions.”

“I don’t heal very much without potions; my regeneration is really slow.” I replied.

“It will improve as your level increases. In the meantime, I’ll teach you meditation. That should get you back to full HP before we need to come back down. If you can pick it up quickly that is.”

With that she marched out of the hall and I followed her, grabbing Panda from a table by the scruff of the neck as I went.

He was stuffing his face with bread, earning some nasty looks from the goblins. They cheered as I carried him away.

So much for charisma.

We retired to our room and Sally sat down, cross legged on the bed with her palms resting on her knees and facing upwards.

Her middle finger and thumb were connected, making a circle on each hand.

“Sit on the other bed like I am.” She commanded.

I sat on my bed and crossed my legs, placing my palms face up over my knees and connecting my middle finger and thumb.

“Good, now straighten your back.” Sally said and I complied. “Meditation is about delving into your inner soul. Being completely at one with yourself. You need to feel the connection between your soul and the natural auras that surround you.”

That was easier said than done, how was I supposed to delve into my soul? I wasn’t even sure if souls were a real thing!

“How exactly do I do that? I don’t even know what a soul really is. It was always a bit of an arbitrary term back on earth.” I asked.

“The soul is the vital energy that makes up your very being. It is everything you truly are, not necessarily the mask you show to the world.

“To delve into your soul you have to be honest about who you are. You can’t lie to your own soul as most people do to themselves and others.” She said, closing her eyes as she spoke to me.

I still wasn’t sure what she was getting at. Had I been lying to myself? If so, what had I lied about? It was all a bit confusing and spiritual to me.

“Listen kid, there are some breathing exercises to help with sensing your soul.” Panda said from the side of me. “First off close your eyes and imagine your body. As you breathe in, visualise the air being taken in through your mouth.

“Then visualise it as it circulates throughout your entire body. That’s the first step. After that I want you to visualise that flow changing into energy. Try seeing it as vitality first, so maybe think of it as being red like blood?”

I nodded and took his advice. As I closed my eyes, took in a deep breath, and visualised the energy. I began to feel a strange tingling in my hands.

It wasn’t much, but I could feel it. It was like I could see the energy circulating around my body. It was like there was a single piece of intangible red rope that spread throughout my limbs, my organs and even my brain.

The rope was cut though, it was shredded in certain places. As I breathed in, small amounts of red, vital energy entered my body and I visualised them filling in the shredded gaps.

It was quite therapeutic and I felt calmer than I had in days. There was something beautiful in the simplicity of fixing the small tears on the rope.

As I did this, the tingling in my hands became more pronounced and spread to other parts of my body. It was a strange sensation. I wondered what it meant. As I continued to work on fixing the rope by bringing in new energy from my breathing and twisting it together in the gaps of the rope, I started to sense something else.

It was like there was a ball of circulating energy deep within my core. I couldn’t quite see it, but I had this slight feeling that it was there, lying dormant.

It was frustratingly out of reach. I could almost see it, but if I reached out with my mind to grab it, my metaphorical hands seemed to slip right through it.

Deciding to leave it for now, I continued fixing the rope until it was completely mended and then, with a smile, I opened my eyes.

Sally was sat watching me, her sword laid across her lap as she cleaned and polished it with weird cotton balls on a stick.

Panda was laid next to me and he looked up as my eyes opened. He smiled and nodded his head slightly.

“Well done kid, looks like you worked out how to heal yourself without much help. You must be a natural, just look at your HP.”

I did and it was full. It’d been just below the quarter mark when we’d started.

I grinned in satisfaction as it dawned on me that the broken red rope in my mind was my hit points. I’d replenished them myself and it had only been a few minutes!

“You finished just in time; I was about to grab you. It’s almost time for the tournament.” Sally said distractedly as she continued concentrating on her sword.

Almost time for the tournament? That wasn’t for another four hours. There was no way I’d been meditating for that long.

“Time flies when you’re in a deep trance kid.” Panda said, sitting up and patting me on the arm with his soft paw. “Some people have been known to meditate for weeks at a time. Some of the strongest in the world have meditated for years, even decades at a time.” He continued.

“Time distorts when you’re in there. That’s why you’ve got to do it in a safe place, ideally with someone to watch over you. There are some people who make a living out of killing people during meditation and looting their stuff.

“It’s actually quite a lucrative trade or so I’m told… not that you should do that.”

Well, at least I’d spent that time productively. I felt like I’d barely even scratched the surface of meditation. I wanted to know what that weird core energy was. I wanted to touch it.

That would have to wait for now though. With my HP full, I chugged a stamina potion, filling it up to halfway.

Sally added a small coat of liquid to her sword then stowed it on her back.

“What does that do?” I asked, standing up and stretching both my arms out.

“You’ll see.” She replied with a playful, yet deadly, grin.

We returned to the hall and saw the last of the goblins piling through the arena door in single file. We moved to join them just as Gobtta appeared.

“Miss Sally, if you’ll come with me I’ll show you to the arena. Your party is welcome to watch from the stands through there.” He pointed towards the door that goblins were queuing to get through.

“Good luck.” I said to Sally as he turned to leave. “Not that you’ll need it.”