The Treasure
As Orion got closer he was noticed by the green goblins and they started to attack him. Orion avoided the attacks with ease and entered the cave. Inside the cave on the walls were some crystals that were used as a light source. The walls were made of solid rock and on the ground there was only mud. The mud made it harder for Orion to move and after a few minutes of avoiding the goblin attacks he ran into some spiders.
The spiders were the size of the goblins and they were jet black. They also had the same collars as the goblins. Unfortunately Orion couldn’t continue going deeper into the cave since the spiders sealed the cave with their webs. As he kept avoiding the attacks, the spiders joined in and helped the goblins. They were somewhat stronger than the goblins but the problem was that they kept spreading their cobweb to trap him.
‘I can’t go on. I must retreat and come back better prepared.’
Orion headed towards the direction he came from but as he tried to move he noticed that his right leg was trapped. He pulled as hard as he could but the web that trapped his leg was strong. Thankfully he still had a sword in his inventory and with it he cut the web and retreated. He didn’t have any problems with the goblins and when the spiders gave up following him he could breathe relieved.
As he exited the cave he ran as fast as he could towards the city. He arrived in minutes to the city. He headed towards the market and brought some torches. As he pondered what else he would need he remembered.
‘Spiders and goblins wouldn’t work together…The merchant probably ordered them to not attack each other. Then if I were to remove the collar what would happen?’
He looked around and saw that there was paper for sale. He brought enough to write a book. Orion then sat down on a bench under a tree. He took out the papers and put them next to him. He took them one at a time and started using mana paint. Orion painted on the papers the opposite of the curse that he saw on the collars. It was quite easy. After making about 50 of them he got notified that his mana paint received a new property.
After reading the description he touched the paper on the right corner and mana started flowing out of his finger and the paint moved like it was alive into the final shape.
‘So all I need is to touch the surface I want to paint and the paint will move at my will? Cool. This will speed up the process.’
He took the stack of papers and touching them on the side he used mana paint. Seconds later he checked all the papers he tried the skill on and they were exactly the same. He put everything back into his inventory and since he was in town he decided to visit Arno and Brock.
Orion visited Brock first since he was closest. He looked for him in the same spot but couldn’t find him. As he looked around he saw that he was nowhere to be found so he headed to the bladesmith.
-“Hey Arno. How are you?”
-“Ooh…Orion good to see you safe. I’m good. I don’t have many customers these days…”
-“What happened?”
-“Well the nobles of the city brought some blacksmiths that create items cheaper…but the quality is also poorer. Most people are poor so they go there. My only customers now are my friends.”
-“Don’t worry. They will realize the truth soon.”
-“Yeah….i know”
-“Before I forget I need a dagger. The simplest you have.”
-“Why do you need such a dagger?”
-“Just in case I run into trouble. A sword is a bit too big to get out of tight situations.”
Arno reached into a cabinet and got out a very simple dagger. It had no decorations or anything else. The damage was also very small since it was a common rank.
-“Take this. It is an old dagger that no one wanted to buy so I put it away since I didn’t want to melt it down.”
-“How much?”
-“Hoho….free for you.”
-“I don’t want to take it for free so…. I will do something for you”
-“I don’t need anything”
-“Don’t worry. You will see some results soon”
They said goodbye to each other and Orion on the way out of the city entered the inn. He sat down at one of the tables and ordered a drink. There were many people around drinking and eating. He approached the inn keeper that looked like a huge dwarf. She was human but she had the muscles and face similar to Arno.
-“Do you know a good place to buy a weapon?”
-“Of course. Head straight from the inn and you will see a shop owned by two blacksmiths. They have very cheap and good items.”
-“Arghhhh”
He made a grumble angry noise.
-“Wha….what’s wrong?”
-“I don’t want to hear about them.”
-“Why?”
-“Thanks to them and their items I almost died while hunting. Their sword broke in half the moment I hit a wolfs fur. I almost died because of them. I don’t want to ever see them again.”
-“Really?”
-“I hear that there is another place but I want to know what you know about it”
-“You mean the dwarfs shop?”
-“Yes”
-“Well he has some very expensive items. I didn’t hear anything else about him”
-“One of my friends told me that a sword made by that dwarf lasted him 10 years before needing repair. But don’t tell anyone. I don’t want the items to get more expensive.”
-“Of course”
-“Well see you later”
As he left he heard the inn keeper already spreading the rumor of Arno and the sword that lasted 10 years. ‘This should help Arno get some customers’
He ran back to the cave of the merchant. However this time instead of entering he decided to test if he the curse removal worked. He swiftly approached a goblin and with one hand he pressed one of the papers to the collar. In an instant the paper disintegrated and Orion ran back into the forest far enough to see what happens but not enough to be followed.
He noticed that the goblin that he released from slavery looked confused around. The other goblins started attacking him mercilessly. They killed him in an instant even though he fought back.
‘Hmmm……So the merchant probably gave some orders, that included attacking anyone or anything that doesn’t wear that curse except for himself. I could use this’
He shut down all notifications since he didn’t want to get disturbed while focusing on avoiding attacks.
He headed deep into the cave until he reached the spiders. He removed the curse from some spiders and let them attack each other while avoiding his attackers. The spiders killed a lot of goblins and even some spiders but they were ultimately defeated. Orion then repeated this process until all the spiders were dead. In the process of killing the spiders a lot of goblins died. Then Orion removed the curse from about half of the goblins. This time they even avoided Orion and just attacked each other. Then when only a few goblins remained Orion used the dagger and instead of pushing the paper to the collar he stabbed them in the neck killing them.
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When he was safe and nothing moved he took out the torches and started burning the cobwebs. They were highly flammable and from just a little flame they burst into flames. The fire lasted only a few seconds before dying out. On the other side of the place where the cobwebs were there were no creatures. So Orion carefully headed deeper into the cave until he heard a noise. He stopped.
He put away the torch since the crystals gave enough light to see and took out some papers in one hand and a dagger in the other. He moved slowly ahead and saw more goblins ahead. This time the goblins were brown and very rarely some were red. Orion ran past them avoiding the attacks. Not long after he reached a large circular room.
The ceiling was very high, about 30 meters high. On the walls there were many crystals that made the room as bright as if it were day. In the middle of the room there was something similar to a goblin only 3 meters tall and with huge muscles. He wasn’t wearing anything except some pants that seemed to be made from green goblin skin. In his hand he had a large club made from stone. The club was larger even than Orion. He was sitting on a large rock with his eyes closed. He was surrounded by red and brown goblins. Some where a bit larger almost as tall as Orion.
As Orion got into the room the big goblin opened his eyes and just stared. He didn’t move. However all the other goblins ran towards Orion. Some of them even had daggers and swords. As Orion avoided them he unconsciously approached the big goblin. A soon as he reached a distance of 3 meters from the boss, he noticed the big club made from rock approaching him. He avoided it but the club instantly killed 6 goblins.
Knowing he had no chance in a one vs. one he jumped up and with a pressed a paper to the big goblins collar. The goblin froze for a second and then roared. He swung the club trying to hit Orion but they young elf avoided it with ease. He was large but slow and not very smart. All the goblins perceived him the bigger threat and stopped attacking Orion, instead focusing their attacks on the big goblin.
Orion ran to one of the corners of the room and climbed up on some rocks and when he finally reached a height where goblins couldn’t reach him he sat down in a small crack in the wall and enjoyed the show. The large goblin was strong but he was alone. The brown and red goblins couldn’t reach only his knees so they attacked what they could. The huge goblin every time he used his club he killed about 10 goblins in one strike. The smaller goblins kept attacking his legs until the large one fell on one knee. The smaller ones took this opportunity and some climbed on his back and some attacked the face.
The large goblin screamed in pain making the cave vibrate for a few seconds. He stood up and using one of hands he grabbed some of the goblins from his back and threw them to the ground. Some he couldn’t reach so he rammed his back into the wall squashing them. However he also got hurt since some of the swords remained stuck in his back and now they went deeper into his flesh.
The battle took about half an hour when finally it was over. The big goblin won but he was severely injured. He was full of injuries and had severe blood loss. His eyes kept loosing focus. Orion jumped down from the crack in the wall and lured him around. As the goblin moved he lost more and more blood. When finally he fell on his face, it seemed like he was dead. Orion approached carefully. He took out his sword and seeing that the monster was still breathing he approached it.
-“Do you give up?”
-“….”
It didn’t say anything and just stared at Orion.
-“I could use you help and if you wish to live I can heal you.”
-“….”
-“Don’t worry I won’t make you a slave… We will be friends. I will help you and you will help me”
-“mumble…..mumble”
-“I wish to make a pact with you. You will help me. You will not betray me. You will not hurt the innocent. And in exchange I will heal you and be your friend. Do you accept? If you do grab my hand”
He took his hand close to the goblins one. As he looked into his eyes they goblin reached his hand and grabbed it. A white light covered them. Orion didn’t see the window since he muted all windows but he knew that the goblin accepted. So he used his healing skill on the goblin. He put both his hands on the goblin and a light started to spread over the goblins body. His wounds started to close and all the blood went back into the wound. He finally finished healing him as his mana reached 0.5 %. The goblin had no wounds left but still didn’t move. Orion looked worried and checked to see if he was still breathing. The goblin was alive and well, he just fainted. Using the dagger he took down the collar from the goblins neck.
Feeling relived he got up and started to look around the room to see if there is a door or something.
‘There must be a door or something. That merchant couldn’t have used so much money just to guard this room. There must be something here’
He started checking the walls to see if there is a secret passage or something similar. After 10 minutes he didn’t find anything suspicious. While searching he dragged all the goblin bodies into a big pile in a corner.
‘The walls are all normal walls. The only thing out of the ordinary is that big rock on which the big goblin sat on.’
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