We sunk our first log into the ground, that was the first step in our journey to contain and kill all these goblins at once, but something very- very! Unfortunate happened.

A hobgoblin spawned.

The hobgoblin stood tall and proud, upon spawning it raised its longsword in the air and let out a battle cry, I went out of sight immediately, backing up against a thick tree trunk, maybe that was just what the hobgoblin did, it wasn’t trying to attack us, right?

So if I say here, don’t make a sound, I should be able to get out of here alright, I don’t wanna risk anything, all my blades were dull and he had a longsword. But if Jeremy - someone familiar with this world - was ready to retaliate instead of running, I would consider hopping in.

Let's hope he is hidden too.

“GRAAGH!” It screamed again, this time followed by the sound of a sword crashing into a tree and chips flying all willy-nilly

He ain’t hidden

I looked over at what happened and saw that Jeremy managed to duck under a large swing, but the hobgoblin managed to cut halfway into the tree, he was definitely out of our league.

I got the hell out of there, I looked back and saw Jeremy was doing the same, I did not know if he could survive, but I just had to trust him.

I only knew one safe spot, I had to trust that he would go there too if he survived. It was the bear’s den, it was only one set of tracks, right? If we killed that bear that means it is vacant, I can hide in there, if it gets dark I can use the light bulb from that loot box.

-

No bears here, luckily enough, it was hard to pinpoint the exact location but I managed, I figure that I could reach the border of this dome and then circle around to the area I got thrown in, and then luck my way towards the tree with marked initials, and then to the rough area of the now faded bear tracks.

“James, ya’ in here? I managed to survive somehow, the guy tripped, could you imagine?” He said, crawling in here.

“Hey! You’re back.” I said, fist-bumping him.

“Yeah, how’d you know to come here?” Jeremy asked.

“How did you?” He shrugged and just laid back, looking up at the ceiling of this den.

“I think we can just wait it out here, we know the rough location of this place, I can get us some food and we can try and look out for the mole, we just need to stay away from the hobgoblin.”

“Molemolemolemolemolemolemolemolemolemolemolemolemolemolemoleomole”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“What is that sound? Do you hear that?”

“No, what are you talking about?”

“Molemolemolemolemolemolemolemolemolemolemolemole”

“Wait? I do, what is that? I think it’s coming from under us.”

“MOLEMOLEMOLEMOLEMOLEMOLEMOLEMOLE”

“Get the fuck out of here, I think it’s climbing up, is this how worms are in this world?”

“What world are you from?”

“I don’t care, let’s just get out,” I said, crawling out as fast as I could, Jeremy following close behind.

“MOLE!”

A 3-foot humanoid mole popped out of the bear's den, for someone who had just popped out of some dirt, his clothes looked impeccable, his pinstripe suit and fedora had no stains, no creases, nothing, not a speck.

“Is this your mole?” I asked.

“I can’t say it isn’t, I thought the guy who gave me my info was fibbing in all honesty, but I think we got 'em.”

“Amazing mate.” I peered down the bear’s den entrance. “Hey, can we get a ride out of here, we hear you smuggle us types.”

“Where the fuck did Jason go?”

“Excuse me?”

“Where!?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I think this guy was slightly unhinged.

“He was protecting this den, you didn’t see a bear around, Is it alright?”

“Oh, I saw a bear not too far off, please, just get us out of-”

[LIAR]

“LIE DETECTION ABILITY SAYS NOT BITCH!” He screamed. “Where is he?”

“Okay! Okay! We killed him, please don’t hurt us.” I pleaded

[HONEST]

“Oh well, I didn’t think he was up to the task anyway.” His very sad and aggressive tone shifted quite drastically, he was now real casual, I didn’t trust it.

“But, you still have to pay off a debt to me for doing that, he was supposed to help guide people here and now fewer people are gonna get out and go do whatever bullshit is over there, what is it? I think there were scrapping and forging camps nearby.”

“Right right, what do you need us to do?” Jeremy crawled down and looked through the den’s entrance as well.

“Ah, yes, you need to work for me, I’ll give it to you straight, I’m part of the rebels-”

“We’re in,” I said, immediately upon hearing that.

“Oh, very well then, come down this hole, and you’ll zip over to our base of operations, I can tell you all about it there.” I looked over to Jeremy and he looked over to me, we both nodded and crawled in, ready to slide down.

-

I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, that was the most fun I’ve ever had in my life or the most fear, I couldn’t really tell when I was going what felt like hundreds of miles per hour down some very smooth tube which was somehow still comprised of dirt even if it glistened with the light of my light bulb.

I now understood why the mole had no blemishes or even a speck of dirt on his clothes, when I came out, I was as clean as I was before, which wasn’t really any achievement as I hadn’t showered in days and I was essentially rolling in the mud.

The tube had led straight to a speakeasy full of people who were undoubtedly high-level, they were all drinking and partying and having fun, something I haven’t seen ever since I came here.