Chapter 7
“Please reconsider this plan, Sebastian,” Elrin said for the hundredth time as we approached Caelia’s store. His eyes flashed in my direction every few steps, and I knew that he had so much more he wanted to say. “Even one more person would--”
“Just get in the way,” I finished with a sigh. “I get where you’re coming from, Elrin, but trust me. Mahini and I can handle this.”
“I’ll be the first to admit that your skill against the kobold horde was beyond any of our dreams,” the burly man continued to badger, “but we don’t know how many goblins there are, and you’re going to be in their territory.”
“Theirs?” I grinned. “I thought it was yours?”
The town’s leader garbled something completely unintelligible and shot me an angry glare. His heart and logic were both in the right place, but he didn’t know everything that I did. He wouldn’t have those lines creasing his forehead if he knew the truth of my powers.
There was no more arguing from Elrin after that because we reached Caelia’s storefront. The petite brunette let out a small squeak when she spotted me, but her eyes lit up when she heard why we were there.
“Supplies?” She tilted her head and furrowed her brow. “For taking out the goblins? Wouldn’t you be better off speaking with Jax?”
“Mahini’s asking him about weapons and armor now,” I said with a shrug. “But we’re gonna need some food and equipment for camping out, too, and you’re the best woman for the job.”
“O-Oh, right! Of course!”
The beautiful shopkeeper beckoned me inside and led me around the store. It was much smaller than anything back home, even the little Mom-and-Pop stores that were quickly going out of style. I counted a grand total of eight shelving units, and I had to bite my tongue when I saw the state of them. I had never really had to deal with anything vital to survival being out of stock back home. Certain foods might have been suffering a shortage, but there was always some kind of alternative available.
“This is insane,” I muttered to myself.
There was only one canvas tent available to us and blankets came from Caelia’s own home. There wasn’t a single foot of rope, no canteens, no matches, no tarps, and that was nothing to the food. It was good that we would be back for dinner the following night.
“I wish we had fresh vegetables for you,” Caelia said with wavering eyes, and I noticed that the preserves shelf was completely empty when she placed two jars into one of the packs. “But if you think you’ll be back by tomorrow night, these should be enough.”
I placed my hand over hers on the drawstring of the bag. She jolted under my touch, and her red cheeks darkened further with a blush.
“This right here will be the difference between life and death,” I assured her. “I just know it.”
“N-No, that’s not…” she stammered. “I wish I could do more…”
“You’ve done great, Caelia,” I said as I tilted her chin up to look into her eyes. “Just leave everything else to me, okay? I’m your god, and I will take care of you. Remember?”
Her mouth fell open in a light gasp, and her eyes sparkled with hope as she nodded. She was too cute to resist, so I placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.
It must have fried her brain a bit because she stammered out a sentence that didn’t make any sense before she bolted for the door leading to her home. The door slammed behind her with enough force to rattle the few bottles still left on the shelves nearby, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“She seems… enamored with you.” Elrin frowned and shook his head.
“Everyone should be,” I snickered as I walked out the door of the shop. “I’m about to save this village of yours.”
The old fart just didn’t understand the value of a cute girl.
We made our way to the northern entrance of the town, opposite from where the horde had made their stand. There was a group of men slogging away in the dirt to build a new trench. A newly-made spike barrier was also being constructed, and Elrin had other men working on some kind of temporary gates to pull across the entrances for extra protection.
Why this wasn’t done sooner, I had no idea, but after I was finished killing off all the goblins, I’d start calling the shots around here and get the town running efficiently.
Mahini met up with us at the entrance with Jax close behind. They carried what looked like a complete set of plate armor and half the weapons in the blacksmith’s shop.
“You’re gonna have to use one of my blades, Bash,” Jax growled with a twinkle in his eye. “I know you’re lookin’ forward to your own sword, but this’ll serve you better than that junk you’ve already got.”
He handed over the sword hanging off his shoulder, and I inspected it. The sheath was humbly decorated, but the blade let out a satisfying hiss as I drew it out. It was a one-handed knight’s sword, like the pathetic one from the catacombs, and its edge looked deadly since there were no dents or chips missing. The stats that popped up when I touched it were nothing to sneeze at either, which just goes to show what a real professional can do.
Durability – 100%
Weight – 2.7lbs
Quality – High
Magical Aspect – None
Magical Ability – None
“His own sword?” Elrin questioned. “What do you mean?”
“Our god here’s gonna run me outta business!” Jax roared with laughter. “He was at my shop this mornin’ forging with skills I’ve never seen before. Swords, shields, armor. This guy’s a natural! Well… I suppose he is a god.”
I shrugged at Elrin’s startled look, and I returned the sword to its sheath. The two men spoke about my amazing skills while I inspected the armor Jax had brought. The chestplate was just a smooth dome of metal, and I imagined making my own with some kind of crest on it. What would the crest of the God of Time be? Maybe I would be inspired by the fight against the goblins.
I drummed my fingers where I might have the crest made, and I nearly dropped it when a stat box popped up. I thought only weapons had stats, but it made sense for all equipment to also have stats.
Durability – 100%
Weight – 5.9lbs
Quality – High
Magical Aspect – None
Armor Tier – 4
“Let me help you,” Mahini said. Her slender fingers seemed to spark when they touched my hand, but she didn’t seem to react, so she must not have felt it. “You won’t need to wear all of the armor until the battle, but it would be best to make sure it fits while we’re still in town.”
The warrior woman started by draping a padded shirt over my head. The sleeves were a little stiff and awkward at first, but after flexing my arms a few times, I got used to it.
“This will keep the metal hinges from pinching your skin,” the dark-haired goddess explained as she wrapped the chestplate around my torso. “It also adds a bit more resistance before the blade can touch your skin.”
“I feel like I’ve become your life-sized doll, actually,” I said with a grin.
She gave me a smile, but then she focused on her work dressing me up. After the chestplate came the piece of armor that covered my thighs. Having her hands so close to the goods was very distracting, and when she spoke to me, I couldn’t hear her over the pounding of blood in my ears. I just stood there and nodded like a fool, and I tried to think of anything besides the beautiful woman caressing my thigh while she put on my armor.
“Are you alright, Great One?” She kneeled before me with her head tilted slightly.
“Yeah, I’m fine, just occupied with godly thoughts.” I blinked a few times to get rid of the haze filling my brain. “I’ve never worn armor before, since I’m a god and all.”
“It suits you,” she said with a smile. “Even gods should have protection, and you look quite handsome in the armor.”
“Well, fuck it, then,” I said. “I’m never taking this off.”
Mahini rewarded me with one of her melodic laughs. While she was busying herself with the bags from Caelia, I tapped on the different parts of the armor to check the stats.
The greaves, thigh pieces, and both the upper and forearm parts were identical, and each individual piece had its own stats:
Durability – 100%
Weight – 2.2lbs
Quality – High
Magical Aspect – None
Armor Tier – 3
The shoulder guards were fairly close to the other pieces of armor in weight:
Durability – 100%
Weight – 2.4lbs
Quality – High
Magical Aspect – None
Armor Tier – 3
The last was the helmet, but I didn’t need to put it on until we actually reached the mine. It was a single curved piece that fit snugly on my head with a long piece that came down to protect my nose. The sides came in to protect my cheekbones, but my chin and throat were exposed. Mahini assured me that goblins were too short to be able to reach and slice my throat open, and it was the best that Jax had on such short notice.
Durability – 100%
Weight – 3.8lbs
Quality – High
Magical Aspect – None
Armor Tier – 3
I wasn’t given a pair of metal boots to walk around in, and I couldn’t have been happier. Not only did it seem like they would be super uncomfortable, I was growing fond of the boots Torya had given me. The greaves fit well over the leather without making my feet feel like they were suffocating, and I knew once I broke them in that they would be just as comfortable as the sneakers I had back home.
The sun was rapidly approaching the horizon to the west by the time we were ready to set out. The men stopped their digging to see us off, and I made sure to shake the hands of every single one of them.
“You guys are gonna have to look after the place while I’m gone,” I said. “I’m trusting you with the protection of the town.”
The men smiled and nodded with the comment, and more than one of them saluted me as I walked past. I was rapidly rising to the ranks of leader of this small town, despite the fact that I had only been here a day.
“Gotta love being a god,” I said to myself.
Jax shook my hand at the gate, but he had nothing to say to me. I wondered if he knew I wouldn’t need luck, and, really, he didn’t seem like the type to make a big deal of goodbyes, anyway. It wasn’t like I was going away for more than a day. The time to really celebrate was when I came back after clearing the mine out.
“Are you absolutely sure you don’t want to bring anyone else with you, Sebastian?” Elrin asked for the final time. When I shook my head, he let out a deep sigh. “I would feel more at ease if you did, but I will not argue any further. You are the god, after all.”
The man held his hand out to me, and after I shook it, he did the same with Mahini. The woman seemed surprised, but she shook the mayor’s hand and gave him a courteous bow.
“May providence follow you on this path, O Great One, and may you return to us soon,” Elrin said as he made some kind of gesture in the air, and I figured it was kind of like a Christian drawing a cross as a blessing. I probably needed to figure out the actual religions in this world, but that all could wait until after I took care of these goblins.
After all, I had plenty of time to enjoy this new life in this new world.
We followed the established path from the town that led to the mine. It was a little over half an hour from the town when the men were slowed by mule-drawn carts, but Mahini and I were able to keep a steady pace going that ate up the distance like a contestant at a hotdog-eating contest. The brisk pace and the weight of our packs kept conversation to a minimum, and once the town disappeared, all of my senses jumped to high alert. The grass of the plains could be hiding any manner of threats, and the wildlife of this world didn’t seem as terrified of humans as they were back home. It wasn’t hard to picture a cougar or leopard or manbearpig stalking us as we trekked across the plains.
If we were suddenly attacked, my hack-and-slash methods would work after a few dozen Chimes, but I figured that actually learning how to use my weapons from an expert would probably mean a more efficient use of my time. I needed some kind of formal training, and I was walking right next to a teacher.
“I suppose this is the perfect time,” I muttered to myself as I created a new save point. I then came to a stop and put my bags on the ground. “Hey Mahini, I have a favor to ask.”
“Yes, Great One?” the desert warrior asked as she came to a stop.
“I need you to teach me how to use a sword,” I said as I drew my blade. “I’ve only used my dagger, and this new blade just feels heavy.”
“In the middle of this field?” she asked as she furrowed her brow.
“Well, we can move around easily out here,” I said.
I expected her to argue with me and say that since I was the God of Time, I would have no problem switching from a dagger to a sword. I was ready to respawn and try a different tactic, but after a long pause, the desert woman nodded.
“Yes, I will teach you,” she said. “First, it appears that you are holding the grip incorrectly.”
Mahini placed her bags beside mine and then ran me through the basics of my grip. Then she went through a few various defensive stances. The point was to remain tense enough to not get knocked over but still flexible enough so that movement was easy and almost fluid. She demonstrated her own movements several times, and it was hard to concentrate on what she was doing rather than the way her body moved, but Mahini was patient with me even when she caught me staring.
I practiced my stance for her, and after a few minor adjustments, she was satisfied with the result.
“As long as you keep your weight on the balls of your feet, you’ll be able to move quickly in any direction,” she said. “Just be sure not to lean too far forward or too far back.”
Next was the actual sword fighting, and it all boiled down to parrying and counter attacks.
“Efficiency plays a big part, but if you can hit your opponent, you can win,” Mahini instructed. “We will not fight for real, as we do not have practice blades, but let’s try a few rounds until you get the hang of it.”
“Perfect,” I said as the desert goddess got into position opposite me. I wanted to master sword fighting, not just get the hang of it.
The first round of sparring was pretty much just us hitting our swords together while she instructed me to shift positions, advance, or retreat. It was almost like dancing in a way, and I couldn’t think of a better partner to have. After a few minutes of back and forth, Mahini gave me the chance to get past her defenses and land an attack.
The woman moved like a cat and seemed to know what I was going to do even before I did. Her sword caught mine at every turn, and even though I was the one who was supposed to try to land hits, she smacked me with the flat of her blade over and over again.
“You left yourself wide open,” she said. “Without a shield, you need to protect yourself with your sword or your armor will take a beating.”
She deemed the session over after about an hour, and I pulled at my power to try again.
Chime.
“Hey, Mahini, I have a favor to ask.”
“Yes, Great One?” the desert warrior asked as she came to a stop.
“I need you to spar with me a bit,” I said as I drew my blade. “Can you look at my stances and make sure they are efficient?”
“You need my help, Great One?” she asked as she bit her lip with a bit of confusion.
“Yeah,” I snickered as I raised my blade. “Let’s go. How is my long stance?”
My stance passed her inspection, although she still gave me the same advice as before. We ran through the basics of sword fighting in a flash, and then she opened it up to a proper sparring session. I still left myself open more than I should have, but I was learning the desert woman’s moves.
The second round lasted a bit longer than the first, and I respawned again when she declared the sparring at an end.
Chime.
My repeated movements became more natural as well, and although Mahini was still able to smack me with the flat of her blade a few times, I started landing my own blows. By the time I hit attempt number twenty, the parallel to dancing became even more apparent, as we continued to lunge for one another only to leap away again. Mahini would come so close at times that I could feel her breath on my lips, and it was a wonder I didn’t drop my sword and just ravish her right there. I continued to practice with the desert woman, but I lost count somewhere around the sixtieth Chime, and then we kept going over and over, until I could easily predict her movements as soon as she gave even the tiniest hint in her shoulders or hips.
Chime.
Chime.
Chime.
“Your form is excellent,” she said with a smile. “I’m not sure why you asked me to spar with you. We should save our energy for the mine.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice,” I chuckled. “Let’s go a bit faster this time, I’ll try not to hurt you.”
“This time?” she tilted her head to the side.
“Just don’t hold back!” I laughed as I lunged forward with my blade out.
This might have been the two-hundredth time, or maybe it was the thousandth time, but I easily danced around her strikes, smacked her thighs and ass with the flat of my blade, disarmed her with a flick of my wrist, and then pulled her muscular body to me as I let out a low purr.
Mahini gasped as our chests and hips slid together, and her blue eyes glanced down at my lips with equal parts surprise and hunger.
“You are very skilled with your sword, Great One,” she whispered.
“I had a good teacher,” I whispered.
“Who?” she asked.
“You,” I whispered.
“You… You say the strangest things, Great One.” Mahini’s cheeks darkened from the compliment. “We’ve only sparred for half a minute, and it is quite clear that you outmatch me.”
“I’ve known you for longer than you can possibly imagine,” I whispered. “I’m quite in love with you, Mahini. I’ve never met anyone as wonderful, steadfast, and as beautiful as you. You’ve made every second on this world enjoyable, and I’m eager to avenge the death of your family by killing all these fucking goblins.”
Her mouth hung open, and she blinked a few times at my words.
“So, let’s get to it then,” I said as I slowly pulled my arm from around her lower back so she could slide away from me. “There are goblins to murder.”
“Y-y-yes… Great One.” The warrior-woman quickly bent down to pick up her bags, and then we continued on our walk.
Mahini walked a few steps in front of me, since she knew the area better than I did, but she kept glancing back over her shoulder at me every minute or so with a dumbfounded expression on her stoic face.
The poor girl just couldn’t figure me out, but I was okay with that. Gods should be weird and eccentric.
After about twenty or so minutes of hiking, Mahini began to angle toward the trees to the west. I glanced in the opposite direction as I followed her, since I knew the mine was situated at the base of the Great Mountain, but the path continued to cut through the tall grass for a while yet.
“Shouldn’t we be going that way?” I asked her as I pointed toward the east. “The mine is over there.”
“Yes, but goblins are nocturnal, and we should attack them at dawn,” the desert goddess said. She stopped when she realized I wasn’t following her. “That is the plan, isn’t it?”
“Let’s do it now,” I said. “Night is only just beginning, so they’ll still be tired.”
She was silent for a bit as she stared at the western forest. I wondered if she was trying to put off the fighting for as long as possible. It couldn’t be easy for her to go into the mine where the Golden Swords were slaughtered, and I could only imagine the inner turmoil she would be feeling when we crossed that threshold.
“If we wanted to attack at dawn, we could just stay in town,” I added when she remained quiet. “But that would mean we would spend all night making love, and we might not wake up in the morning.”
Mahini spun around so fast that I could almost hear the joints cracking in her neck. Her face was deep red, and her eyes were open as wide as possible.
“That’s--But--We can’t--” she stammered.
“We can,” I replied, “but I can see you’re not quite ready for that yet. Once we clear out the mine, we’ll talk some more. I am a god, but I still have needs, as do you. We belong to each other now, so we will be lovers.”
“I see…” she whispered, and she cleared her throat as she looked away from me.
God damn, the stoic warrior woman was so sexy when she blushed.
“Work before play, though. Time to kill some goblins and avenge your fallen mercenary band. Let’s get to the murdering.” I stepped back onto the path leading to the mine and continued to follow it. There was a long pause before I heard Mahini’s fast footsteps as she trotted to catch up to me.
“Forgive me for being blunt, Great One, but this idea is crazy,” the desert woman whispered, and when I glanced at her, her cheeks were still rosy with her blush. “We will have a harder time eliminating the goblins by attacking at night.”
“Yeah, but I’m a god.” I shrugged. “We’ll breeze through the place before the little assholes even know what hit them. If we are tired afterward, we can camp-- that’s why I wanted us to bring the supplies, but I’d rather just get this over with so you can I can focus on more pleasurable things.”
“Yes… Great One.” Mahini whispered and shook her head. She may not believe me now, but she was going to be quite impressed with me at the end of this.
The dirt path of the plains turned to gravel for a few yards into the grass, and it led straight to the entrance to the mine. Mahini and I followed it, but kept to the side to avoid our footsteps crunching on the gravel. We had no cover now that we were out of the tall grass, but it was easy to slip behind the trees at the edge of the path if we needed to.
The entrance to the mine was a dark hole in the side of the mountain that was held up by a pair of thick wooden columns and a crossbeam. A pair of lanterns hung from each of the columns, but neither of them were lit. A pile of picks sat to the right of the entrance, and as we had expected, a pair of goblins stood at each side of the dark hole.
They were short creatures, maybe about three feet tall, but were quite muscular for something of their sizes. Their skin was mottled green and black, and they each wore a set of leather armor. Their hands were much longer than that of a human, with most of the length accounting for their branchlike fingers, and I had to imagine their feet were the same. Their faces were kind of squashed when compared to a human’s, with large black eyes, a huge carrot-like nose, and ears that were almost as long as my dagger’s blade. Each was standing with a spear in the upright position, and a sheath at their hip concealed a blade of some sort. They were more alert than I had been expecting, and they looked like they would put up quite a fight if I had been alone.
Good thing I had a badass warrior woman on my side.
Mahini put her finger to her lips and made several hand gestures toward the goblins and the trees. It took me a minute to figure out that she wanted us to split up and attack the two of them together. Once I understood, I gave her a quick nod. She nodded back and then darted across the path, leaping over the gravel like some kind of graceful deer.
I admired her lean figure until it disappeared into the trees, and then I made a new save point.
With a deep breath, I made my way toward the entrance and did everything in my power to keep my armor from creaking. Jax must have done a fantastic job oiling the joints because the metal only clinked if I moved too quickly. It was slow going, but when I finally reached a good ambush point, I signalled to Mahini on the other side.
She nodded, and we pounced.
The goblins didn’t even know what hit them. Mahini had her sword through the goblin on the right before it had even swung its head around in her direction. I had gotten really good at moving in my armor from the sparring sessions with Mahini, and by the time my goblin raised its spear, I was already slicing my new sword across its throat. Thick black blood oozed from the wound and seeped into the goblin’s leather armor like some kind of sludge.
“Ewww, that’s gross!” I said as I kicked the dead creature away from me.
“Shh!” Mahini hissed as she rushed to my side. “There are more guards just inside, Great One!”
“Meh…” I shrugged and drew my dagger as we slipped into the entrance of the mine. The gray light of dawn faded back into darkness as we made our way in deeper. Torches should have lined the wall every few feet, but since goblins were sensitive to the flames, they had snuffed out the majority of the light sources. The entrance tunnel was completely dark, but light at the end told us that the goblins kept some of the torches burning.
This was gonna be fun.
Two more goblins were waiting for us at the end of our tunnel. They stood as alert as the two outside, and they fell just as easily as Mahini and I leaped from the shadows. I was pretty much a professional swordsman at this point, so we killed them quickly and avoided making any scuffling noises that would alert the other goblins.
That point in the tunnel acted like a junction, with a new tunnel leading off to the left and the right. A small alcove sat at the back wall, and only one of the two torches here was lit. A barrel filled with unused torches sat just inside the recess, and Mahini grabbed one and lit it with the burning torch on the wall.
As the flames filled the area with light, I was able to get a better look at our surroundings. As per the maps, there were large wooden beams acting as supports for both of the tunnels leading away. The walls were roughly carved, were made of a mixture of dirt and rock, and some kind of mineral sparkled in the cracks when the firelight hit them just right. The ground was mostly trampled earth, and it muffled even my metal-filled footsteps.
“Are you okay?” I whispered to Mahini. “I don’t know how far you and the Golden Swords got before, but--”
“Do not worry, Great One,” the desert warrior said with conviction. “I will not let you down.”
I studied her expression for a long moment. Her blue eyes were filled with determination, but they swept around the junction as if remembering the battle that had happened here only a week ago. Were her ears filled with the echoes of her companions dying? Would we come across their bodies or patches of blood soaked ground?
I hoped the goblins had disposed of the bodies if only to save the stoic goddess from having to see their corpses again.
Mahini gestured for me to take the lead down the leftmost path. I nodded and headed down the tunnel with my two weapons held at the ready. I couldn’t hear anything moving up ahead, but I wasn’t about to take any chances. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I willed it to calm down. My deaths might always be painful, but I was never in any real danger since I could just reset.
I was literally incapable of perma-death, so I had nothing to worry about.
Something glittered on the floor in the torchlight, but before I could figure out what it was, the tunnel filled with the cackling of goblins ahead. One of the creatures darted forward, just out of my reach, and when I took a step to confront it, the worst pain of my life shot up my left leg.
The bones in my ankle crunched as a pair of powerful jaws sprang up from the ground. Metal teeth dug into my flesh, and I felt the blood trickling out of the new wounds. I let out a scream as my leg collapsed beneath me, and I soon saw my attacker was a large bear trap. It must have been the glittering that I had seen.
Mahini shouted from behind me and dropped the torch she was holding, but her attack didn’t matter in the end.
Barely five minutes in and I was taken out by a freaking bear trap, but that’s okay. I expected to do this a few dozen times, maybe even a few hundred.
Chime.
I took a deep breath, and Mahini and I took care of the first set of goblins guards without any problems. I even kept my mouth shut this time when the black sludge oozed from the goblin’s throat, and the warrior woman gave me a nod when she saw how cleanly I’d murdered the green-skinned asshole.
The inner goblins went down just as easily, and I took my own torch from the barrel before heading down the left tunnel.
“Don’t you want to light it?” Mahini asked in a whisper.
“Naw,” I snickered. “I need it for the trap up ahead.”
She gave me a puzzled look, but didn’t question me as I led the way down the tunnel. When we came across the bear trap, I shoved the butt of the torch down and quickly drew my hand away as the metal teeth snapped the torch like a twig. Mahini let out a gasp, but I was already taking on the goblin that had taunted me before.
The creature must not have expected me to know where the trap was because it didn’t even try to defend itself. One minute it was sneering at me, and the next it was spraying black sludge everywhere from the open wound in its belly. A second goblin leaped out of the shadows, and I was able to parry its attack, even though I hadn’t really expected it.
It wouldn’t be long before I was breezing through my new life here and not have to chime with every fight.
Mahini came up from behind and thrust her sword through my attacker’s throat. I covered her as a third goblin appeared, and when it was parrying my sword, I drew my dagger and sliced it across the face. Mahini swung her torch at two more goblins, and when they shuffled back, I lunged forward and drove my sword into the left goblin’s chest.
The second goblin swung its dagger at me, but I parried it right into Mahini’s sword. Its arm fell off in a spray of black sludge, and its scream was cut off as I drew my dagger across its throat.
“We make a pretty good team,” I said with a smile.
Mahini answered with her own smile before touching the flame of her torch to an unlit one on the wall. She did the same on the opposite side, and the tunnel was flooded with light.
“If we do this the whole length of the tunnel, we should be able to keep our enemies from circling around us,” she pointed out.
“You are a genius,” I purred.
“Thank you, Great One,” she whispered.
“Let’s check the map.” I sheathed my dagger and pulled the map out of the small space between the armor on my forearm and the padded shirt beneath. The first room was just up ahead, and I guessed that was where this first group of goblins had come from. I led the way, and the tunnel curved off to the left after about ten steps. Mahini lit the torches at the junction before we slipped into the room.
There was nothing interesting waiting for us. The goblins had clearly been using the room as a sleeping space because the floor was littered with dried grass and animal skins, and the air was filled with the stench of what I could only assume was goblin shit.
“Ugh, let’s get outta here,” I groaned as I covered my nose with the back of my map hand.
We left the room behind and continued along the main branch. There were no other bear traps buried in the ground, and every time we came across a new set of torches, Mahini paused to light them up. Thick wooden supports held up the tunnel every ten feet or so.
Three goblins seemed to materialize after we stepped past the third set of supports. They sprang forward with evil grins on their faces, and two sets of jagged daggers came swinging at my iron-clad legs while the third goblin jabbed its spear at Mahini with a cackle.
I dodged one of the daggers, but the second skipped across my armor with a piercing tinny sound. I swung my sword up and caught the left goblin across the nose, and its black sludge blood splashed onto the ground as it screamed. I slipped my dagger into the other goblin’s side as it drew back for another attack, and while it staggered to its death, I silenced the shrieking one with my dagger to its spine.
Mahini had already finished off her spear-goblin and retrieved her torch. She had to backtrack to the last set of torches since hers went out, but the light that filled the tunnel was a warm presence.
“This seems too easy,” I muttered. Everyone had said that goblins were trickier than kobolds, but so far the battle was going really well. “If they’re supposed to be more active at night, why aren’t there more of them coming at us?”
Mahini’s face was twisted with worry, but she had no answer for me besides a shrug. My only guess was that we had attacked too early, and the beasts were still sleeping or eating their breakfasts somewhere.
It beat the alternative of them knowing we were coming somehow.
The tunnel continued to curve around as we followed the trampled path. Mahini stopped to light torches every few feet, and I kept my eyes on the ground as much as possible to detect any more bear traps. But other than the distant giggling of goblins, it seemed pretty quiet.
The closer we got to the junction where the Golden Swords had been ambushed, the more rapid Mahini’s breathing became. She may have meant the words she said at the entrance, but it was clear that returning to these tunnels was triggering her PTSD. I had never personally known anybody who had lived through trauma like that, so I didn’t really know the best way to comfort her.
Probably by killing every single goblin in this place.
“This is it,” I breathed as we reached the junction.
The torch filled the intersection with fiery light, and after Mahini lit some of the other torches, we could see for several feet in all directions. We stood back to back for a long time, and I tried to keep my heart rate down with slow deep breaths. If there was going to be an ambush, we were ready for it.
Nothing happened.
There was no sound as we stood there. No giggling goblins, no swords being drawn, not even the sound of dripping water. Only our breathing cut through the silence, and the longer we stood there without any incidents, the quieter our breathing became. Even Mahini seemed to calm down with each passing minute.
“I don’t hear anything,” I whispered. “Should we check the rooms first?”
“T-t-that might be best,” she stuttered.
I examined her face in the torchlight and could tell she was tortured by indecision. Every instinct must have been screaming at her to avenge her fallen comrades and to defend the town by killing every last goblin she could find, but the terrors she had lived through were haunting her every step in these tunnels, and I couldn’t help but think she just wanted to kill the leader and get out as quickly as possible.
“Don’t worry,” I finally said as I turned toward the room on the left. “I will protect you. You are mine, and I won’t let anything happen to you, Mahini. Do you believe in me?”
“Yes… Great One.” The desert warrior nodded and seemed to push all of her feelings behind that stoic mask of hers. She was terrified, but she was ready to fight at my side anyway.
I was absolutely in love with her, and after we killed all these goblins and avenged her family, I was sure she’d be in love with me, too.
The tunnel was barely five feet in length before it opened up into a large room. I didn’t get to look around too much because standing at the back wall of the room was a group of seven goblins with their weapons drawn. They didn’t seem to anticipate us bursting in on them, and they all wore the same startled expressions when the room filled with light from the torches.
“Hey, guys!” I called out with a little wave.
One of the goblins at the back narrowed its eyes at me and lifted its hand. It was holding some kind of pale blue ball, and I barely got a good look at it before the goblin hurled it in my direction. I ducked, and the air chilled as the ball sailed over my head and exploded against the wall behind me. Then I glanced back to see literal ice forming from the spot of impact.
That motherfucker could use magic.
“Watch out!” I yelled to Mahini.
The shaman hurled another ice ball at the desert warrior, and the magic smashed against the torch in her hand. The flame snuffed out, and I could just barely see glittering shards shatter in all directions. Several were embedded in Mahini’s beautiful face, and her shriek of agony was more than I could handle.
Chime.
I should have known that magic wasn’t solely used by humans, but I didn’t think that goblins were smart enough to be able to use it. They seemed like stupid little greedy bitches that would sooner run than fight. Of course this was the third time we would be attempting this mission, and so far none of the goblins had turned tail when they saw us.
Taking out the sorcerer had been easy enough once all of his cronies were dead, but his only magic seemed to be summoning me. He hadn’t hurled any ice balls at me or anything. It wouldn’t be too difficult to figure out how to kill the shaman, even if it took me a few dozen attempts, but he was too dangerous to let live.
We killed the two sets of guards like we had done it a thousand times already, and then, before heading down the tunnel, I created a new save point at the intersection. I probably should have done it sooner than this, but I didn’t anticipate having to deal with goblin shamans. I was ready this time, and if the bastard managed to hurt us again, I would be that much closer to taking its life.
After eliminating the bear trap and the small group of goblins, we practically flew through the tunnels until we reached the intersection. I didn’t ask Mahini about the rooms this time, but when I took a step toward the left room, she let out a gasp.
“Shouldn’t we continue on first?” she asked. Her eyes were quivering with fear, and I remember that the last time we had stood still for a while. She wasn’t mentally ready to jump in. “The large room should be just up ahead.”
“There’s a magic user in here,” I said and pointed with my sword down the left path. “We can’t let it live.”
Her brow furrowed with confusion, but she didn’t say another word. She took a deep breath before stepping to my side. Her strength in overcoming her fear was admirable, and it only made me love her more.
I made a new save point as I led the way into the room. As before, the goblins were lined up against the far wall with their weapons drawn and the stupidly surprised looks on their faces. They must have been planning to ambush us, and they didn’t think we’d just walk into the room.
“That back one with the feathers in his hair uses magic,” I told Mahini as I pointed out the shaman. “It hurls chunks of ice.”
As if to emphasize my words, the shaman threw one of its ice balls at the torch in Mahini’s hand, but I brought my armored arm up just in time to deflect the shards that had struck the beautiful woman in the last attempt.
“What--but how?” Mahini breathed.
“I’m a god, remember?” I winked before turning to my enemies, and I let out a roar as I pounced on the nearest one.
It took about a dozen attempts to clear out the left room. My main issue was that the shaman ice-user was able to maneuver better in the open space than it had in the small tunnel, and its aim was much better. Not once did it freeze its companions, but I was always able to prevent it from striking Mahini, though most of the ice balls were very close calls. I ended up killing him by picking up a rock from the tunnel before I walked in the room and then hurling it at his face as soon as he saw me. First couple of times I missed and just restarted, but the first time I hit him, the blow knocked him senseless for a few moments, and I was able to sprint across the room and murder him before he could get his first ice-ball spell off.
Fucking shamans couldn’t magic away a rock to the face.
The smaller goblins were easy to destroy once the ice-shaman was killed. Before long the floor was covered in black sludge and the air was filled with the stench of dead goblins and blood. Once we’d finished murdering them, Mahini retrieved her torch and lit it from one on the wall before we returned to the intersection so we could look at the map. It showed another pocket opposite the room with the shaman, but the tunnel ahead seemed to be caved in.
“One less thing to worry about, I guess,” I said with a shrug.
I turned and created a new save as I led the way toward the big room where we thought the leader would be. I kept my eyes peeled for any kind of glittering on the floor that might indicate another bear trap. If the leader really was this close, I would expect all kinds of nasty traps just waiting to catch us unawares.
“Oh no,” Mahini breathed from behind me. “This is bad…”
I looked up from the floor where I was watching for traps and saw what she meant. Where the next set of supports was supposed to be was a wall of rock and earth. It looked as if the goblins had forced the roof to collapse in order to block the quickest path to the large room.
“Well, it looks like we were right about the big room being where the leader is,” I said as I touched the earth wall. Some dirt and loose rocks rattled to the floor, but digging through it would be impossible. “We’ll just have to go the long way around, I guess.”
“Look out!” Mahini cried.
A small army had filled the tunnel while Mahini and I were looking at the wall of collapsed earth. I did a quick tally and counted fourteen little bastards. The creatures backed away from the firelight, but a grunt from one of the larger ones at the back kept them from fleeing altogether. The goblins sneered and giggled at us as they feinted to try to get us to make the first move.
I didn’t have to be told twice.
“Bring it on, bitches!” I laughed as I lunged at them.
The air filled with the sounds of clashing metal and the shrieks of the goblins as they scattered away from my attacks. Two fell to my sword in a shower of black sludge and agonized shrieking before I came across a new kind of goblin. This one was a bit larger than the others, and the sword in its hand was broader than my own.
When I lopped off the creature’s right arm, the black sludge oozing out of the wound didn’t seem to faze the goblin in the slightest. It merely plucked the sword from its missing arm and swung at me with its left. I managed to parry the attack, but I stumbled back in surprise.
“What the fuck?” If my arm was suddenly chopped off, I would be on the ground in agony.
“Grrrroaggh!” the beast roared as it lunged for me again, and it didn’t seem to matter that blood was oozing from the gaping hole where its arm used to be.
I dodged and parried to my best ability, but the weight of the goblin’s blows and my own armor were quickly making me tired.
I might have cheated my way through winning all these fights by reloading, and I had gotten way better at fighting by sparring with Mahini, but I still had the fitness of a call-center desk jockey that played a ton of video games in his spare time.
Mahini must have sensed my failing strength because she was suddenly there. While I kept the one-armed goblin busy with my sword, she slipped beneath my arm and thrust her own blade into the goblin’s belly. I expected a guttural cry of agony, but the beast merely roared some more and put more weight into its sword.
“Seriously, what the fuck kinda drugs is this asshole on?” I growled.
Mahini let out her own grunt and threw more of her weight against her sword. The goblin let out another growl that slowly faded to a groan of death. As the tension of its sword faded, I turned and deposited the body against the wall.
There was no time for celebration because the tunnel was still filled with enemies.
Three more of the smaller goblins fell to my sword with blood oozing all over the place. But then I came across another one of the unfeeling brutes. It reminded me of something called a berserker, which was usually a style of fighting in classic RPGs. The user would usually get so royally pissed off that it could no longer feel any pain. In some games the effect would prevent the user from dying at all. Thankfully that wasn’t the case with these assholes.
But that didn’t mean they were easy to kill.
The berserker was flanked by a pair of smaller goblins, and when I parried the big guy, the two smaller ones darted in with their daggers. The attacks bounced off of my armor with a shriek of metal on metal, but it was enough to make me stumble back a few steps.
Mahini was too busy with her own swarm to help me this time.
I swung my sword at one of the dagger goblins and blocked another blow from the berserker with my dagger. The force of the blow caused my teeth to chatter, but at least I stopped it from cleaving me in two. I threw all of my weight against my dagger arm and threw the berserker back, and then I shoved my sword through the right dagger-goblin’s face. Black sludge and grayish brain matter surged out from the wound as the goblin’s body went completely limp. I was just barely able to bring my dagger up to block the other dagger-goblin’s attack.
Which left me wide open for the berserker.
The blow landed at the base of my neck, and I barely felt the pain before I pulled at my power.
Chime.
The goblins had to have come from the tunnel that looked like it was caved in. We had already cleared out every other place they could have been hiding.
“That’s a dead end,” I told Mahini as I made my way to the tunnel opposite the room with the shaman.
“How do you know?” she questioned. “We haven’t even checked.”
“Just trust me, it’s blocked,” I assured her.
The map showed that the tunnel curved away after a set of supports, but the actual tunnel just seemed to end. As I got closer, I saw that there was a large hole hidden behind the right support beam that the goblins must have used.
“The little bastards,” I muttered as I sheathed my two weapons. “They dug out a secret passage that we never would have seen.”
“But you knew it was there,” Mahini breathed in awe. “Will you never cease to amaze me, Great One?”
“I haven’t even made love to you yet.” I winked at her and then ducked into the goblin-made tunnel before she could respond.
The narrow passage was a tight squeeze for me, and my armor scraped noisily against the sides, but it was only a short U-shaped curve that literally dug around the cave-in. Once I was out the other side, I turned to help the blushing Mahini through, and I made a new save point before we continued along the tunnel.
It led to an even larger room than the one we were just in, and I caught a glimpse of a few boxes near the back of the room before the roaring of the berserkers drew my focus away.
The group was split up with six of the little guys flanking a berserker and coming after each of us. We fought as hard as we could, but the two groups quickly overpowered us. Mahini went down first, as one of the big fuckers tore her head off with his sword, but I followed three seconds later as the smaller fucks shoved too many spears into my gut to block.
Chime.
“We need to stick together in this room,” I said to Mahini as I led the way down the longer path. She didn’t even question my orders. “There are two big guys that can’t feel pain, and they’re a bitch to take down.”
This fight was extremely difficult, and it took another fourty or so attempts before I was able to dance around Mahini, defend her at all angles from the various attacks, and yell simple orders at her mid-combat that allowed her to help me win. The goblins tried to surround us, but we stood back to back and hacked the little bastards into pieces. When their blood was soaking into the ground, we faced the two berserkers like a single unit. Mahini killed the first by just taking off its head, and when she had the second one impaled on her sword, I swooped in and sliced my dagger across its throat, spraying us both in black sludge.
“Good job,” I said after the last berserker’s body fell to the ground. “You followed my orders perfectly.”
“I can’t believe we just killed all these monsters,” she panted as she fell to her knees. “When I first saw them… I figured we would be killed instantly.”
“Naw… Remember, you are with me, and I won’t let anything hurt you.” I sheathed my dagger and stepped around the carnage to investigate the three boxes. One of them was empty, and the second was filled with rotting meat that made me gag, but the third one was filled with lumps of green rock.
“Copper ore!” Mahini gasped as she came to stand at my shoulder.
“I thought copper was orange-ish.” I picked up one of the rocks and turned it in the faint torchlight. “Not green.”
“When it is smelted it turns orange,” Mahini explained as she picked up another rock. “This room is one of the older pockets so no copper remains in the walls. As we go further, you will see the green waves.”
I shrugged and sheathed my sword and picked up the crate of green copper-rocks. It was about ten pounds or so, and probably wouldn’t amount to much once it was smelted down. But I had a feeling that even this small crate would bring tears of joy to the eyes of the townspeople.
We backtracked to the junction spot, and I placed the crate of copper ore in the tunnel leading to the exit. I then turned to face down the right path and took a deep breath as I created a new save point.
Halfway there.