Chapter 196. Goblin Gathering.

From my previous visit to the dungeon, I knew there weren’t any threats until we went further down to the spot where my minions had defeated the goblins. I didn’t have much information after that. Things fell apart quickly after the first encounter as the kids using the summoned beings as characters in their game fought amongst themselves. I was killed and sent back to my personal space before we went any further in the dungeon. What I did know was that my minions had no trouble handling that first encounter, so it was time to summon them.

Grulnok, Lillia, and Rupert were all summoned, and I passed my magic dagger to Rupert to use. After using Empower Minion on Grulnok, I cast Duplicate, giving me two of my most powerful minions. Mana was prevalent in the area, and my pool regenerated quickly.

Before continuing, I took time to build up mana and cast Empower Minion on both Rupert and Lillia. With the team as powerful as they were going to get, it was time to begin clearing this dungeon. The duplicate Grulnok led the way, followed by Rupert, me, the real Grulnok, and Lillia bringing up the rear.

The dungeon looked like the underground basement of the ruins above, with stone blocks making up the floors and walls. For the twelve-foot-high ceilings, it looked like it was constructed of smooth stone, or maybe some type of primitive concrete. Every twenty or so yards, a series of pillars were placed against the wall to help support the ceiling.

Dim lighting was generated by lanterns placed on every stone pillar. There were plenty of shadows for things to lurk and hide, but I doubted my team would miss any threats that close to us. In my right hand, I drew the Commander’s Blade, and in my left, I held the magic missile wand, choosing to keep my javelin in storage for now.

Up ahead, the duplicate Grulnok held up his hand as a signal for us to stop before he waved me forward. The tunnel we were in curved slightly, and as I stepped next to the duplicate, I could see what he was looking at. It was the same room where our party had wiped itself out due to infighting before. Inside, were a half dozen goblins who loitered about arguing with each other.

It seemed like the dungeon had regenerated quickly, but then again, you never knew how much time passed between the different worlds. I could have been gone an hour, or a decade. However long it was, it had been enough time for the dungeon to reset and rebuild its minions.

I wasn’t too concerned about this fight; my team had easily dealt with the goblins without any help from me or the other party earlier. “Go get em,” I ordered the team as I fired a magic missile at the closest enemy. My target looked up at me just in time to take the magic missile to the face.

I’d been running into more powerful foes, and it was oddly satisfying to have an opponent I could down with a single shot of the wand. The rest of my team charged into the room, and the goblins scrambled for their weapons. Half were down before they could draw steel, and the others didn’t last much longer. I did notice that Rupert got a kill this time, the Mind Render dagger seeming to slay its target with mental intrusion damage before the blood from the cut had even hit the ground.

“Look for anything valuable, we’ll get to keep whatever we can find in here,” I ordered, and the team began to scour the area for loot. Other than the way we had come in, there was only one other exit to the room. I had Lillia cover that exit while the rest of us worked.

I hadn’t expected a fortune, these were just a half dozen goblins after all, so I wasn’t disappointed when all we found was a dozen copper coins. Their crude weapons were not worth taking with us, I doubted we’d even get scrap value out of the poorly forged, and rather rusted steel of the weapons. With the first obstacle handled, it was time to head out into the unknown parts of the dungeon.

Keeping the same formation as before we pressed further down the tunnel. Before long, the tunnel began to widen, and we could hear the guttural sounds of goblins talking with each other. I crept ahead with the duplicate Grulnok until we were able to see where the sounds were coming from. The slight bend in the corridor allowed us to get within twenty feet of the next room before we spotted the goblins.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

This wasn’t a simple patrol of six goblins lounging about this time. The passageway emptied into a huge room filled with goblins. Cookfires and ratty-looking tents were strewn about haphazardly, and the goblins seemed to be just going about their daily business. Weapons were haphazardly scattered about, and I had no doubt that once the alarm was raised, they’d fill their hands with one deadly implement or another in just seconds.

I tried to get a count, but with them all milling about, it was hard to nail down an exact total. If I had to guess, there were probably close to a hundred of the things in there. It was far more than I thought our little band could handle at once if we charged into the room. There was no other way forward, so we had to deal with the goblins one way or another.

The passageway we were in was wider than it had been near the entrance, but it was still only enough for two people to fight beside each other at a time. Maybe that was how we dealt with this, plug up the hallway and we’d only be fighting two or three goblins at a time. With the two Grulnoks holding the line, we could tear through the goblins with little trouble.

“Are you seeing any ranged weapons?” I asked the duplicate Grulnok. He grunted and pointed to a couple different places in the goblin camp. Looking where he was pointing, I spotted a few goblins with quivers of crude arrows strapped to their backs. They didn’t have any bows on them, but the weapons were undoubtedly scattered around somewhere nearby.

My fear was that even if we held back the horde of goblins, the archers would stay back and turn us into pincushions. We did have one thing going our way, the ceiling in the passageway wasn’t all that tall, maybe ten or twelve feet. That didn’t leave much room for the arrows to arc over the heads of the goblins in front of them, and still hit my team. If the ranged goblins got close enough for a clear shot, I had a good chance at picking them off with magic missiles.

“Here’s what we’re going to do,” I said waving the rest of the team forward. “I’ll draw their attention with a magic missile, then fall back into the corridor, The two Grulnoks will hold the line with Rupert and Lillia as backup. I’ll take the rear of the formation, ready to deal with any ranged attackers, or to cast healing magic as needed. Get formed up, we’ll start as soon as you’re ready,” I explained.

I had fired one missile out of the wand, and wanted to make sure it was topped off before we began. It took most of my mana pool to regenerate the missing shot, and I waited for it to refill before I began my attack. I still had my javelin to use, but wanted to save it for a deadlier target, it would do better against the dungeon boss instead of being wasted on a single goblin.

“Get ready,” I said to the team as I stepped around the corner. “Hey, I got something for you guys!” I shouted at the goblins as I triggered a magic missile. My target was one of the goblins with a quiver strapped over his shoulder. Taking a ranged fighter out with my opening shot was better than just dealing with one of their melee goons.

Magic missiles didn’t need much in the way of aiming, and the bolt of bright mana shot forth, piercing completely through the hapless goblin archer that I’d targeted. Things in their camp got quiet for a moment, and then the place exploded with high pitched goblin war cries as they charged toward me. I used another missile to hit the lead goblin, its fall causing several other goblins to tumble over.

I turned and ran back down the corridor to where my team waited. It was only about twenty yards from where I had attacked from, but curve of the passageway meant that it was far enough back for my team to be hidden from the goblins inside the room. They were hot on my heels as I squeezed past the Grulnoks and then Lillia and Rupert, taking up position behind everyone.

The lead pair of goblins were easily cut down, and the rest of the mob seemed to falter as they saw not just the one annoying human they expected, but also a pair of orc warriors and my other minions ready for a fight. Pressure from the horde behind them pushed the goblins forward, the two in the lead turning their backs on us and trying to flee through their allies.

Without mercy, the Grulnoks killed the panicking goblins, tearing through the cowardly pair before engaging the ones behind them. The process continued for a few minutes. The lead goblins would see what they were up against and try to flee, with their fellows refusing to let them through. Eventually, they must have figured there was no other option for them, and the goblins began to try and fight back instead of fleeing.

My orc minions had reach and strength on their side, but there were so many goblins, and after a few minutes of fighting, the goblins began to sneak small hits in here and there. I dropped a Health Bloom on top of us, and the magic seemed to be keeping pace with the occasional damage that goblins were dishing out.

Eventually, the pile of dead goblins began to become a problem, so I ordered the team to take five steps back. I didn’t want some enterprising goblin to take a chance at climbing up the bodies and leaping down onto my minions. We had carved our way through a good thirty or forty of the brutes, when I heard a booming voice call from down the passageway.

“Move over runts, let Ebbiq deal with these troublemakers.”