Sitting in my perch for a while, I patiently waited for the goblin to wake up. I could have waited in a bush, but I didn't know what beasty would smell the blood and come wandering in.
Luckily, by the time my witless guide woke up, nothing came knocking. Seeing the mess laid out in front of it, the goblin screeched and scrambled to its feet in horror and began to run away.
Jumping from my perch, with as much stealth as my skills afforded me. I wasn't sure if I made little sound, or if the goblin was so terrified that it didn't even notice. Either way, I was following behind it at a distance enough to not be seen.
Ten minutes of solid panicked running later, we arrived at a place where the forest revealed an opening in the earth just under a large mound.
The goblin darted inside the dark crevice, and I stopped following. Unlike goblins, I don't have night or low-light vision, so I had to get creative. Waiting a few minutes, just in case some stragglers left or came back. But nothing stirred.
Scanning the surroundings, I found some dried grass, bark and twigs and began to stick it inside the opening.
With the hole properly stuffed, I picked up two stones I had found in my scavenging and began to set fire to the kindling I neatly placed.
With the fire now lit, I sat smiling at how stupid I must look, fanning a fire in a hole with an herbalism manual. But the effect was amazing as my eyes stung with the amount of smoke.
Stepping back for a moment to rub the smoke from my eyes, I began to hear coughing and spluttering coming from the hole. I readied myself to fire at whatever was to crawl out of the cave.
Several goblins climbed out, with tears streaming from their eyes. I waited for them to step out a few feet before shooting a hole through their heads or chest. After using it a few times, I noticed that [Force bolt] uses 10 mana per shot. So, at my current stats, I could fire 20 times before I became incapacitated. But that wasn't the main problem, my body suffered a recoil every time I used it, like I was punching steel.
The bodies of the goblins began to stack up and even blocked the crevice, making them emerge less often. Their blood put out the fire but made the smoke billow up even more. As my head pounded and my vision became spotty, the movement ceased as the bodies had almost completely covered the hole.
Catching my breath for a moment, I watched carefully, but after a full minute, I relaxed slightly and checked the notification window that had been sitting in the corner of my vision for a while.
Looking at the amount of XP I gained, I guessed that I had killed more than the 16 I shot out front. Thinking about it, I did just block an enclosed space filled with smoke. So, I must have suffocated the creatures inside. And judging by the number, it must have been something other than standard goblins.
[Name: Cain]
Level: 4
355/4687xp
Path: None
Health: 300
Mana: 40/200
Strength: 10
Vitality: 10
Agility: 10
Intellect: 10
Mind: 10
Unused stat points: 12
I had levelled up 3 times and felt terrible. Unlike other games, you don't fully restore health and mana on level-up. Not to mention, they don't rise in value unless you invest the points. Plus, with the effect of [Tempered body], my stat points doubled per level up, which was insane.
Vitality: 10 → 12
Intellect: 10 → 14
Mind: 10 → 16
Health: 300 → 380
Mana: 200 → 380
Considering that I knew of ways to increase my stats outside of levelling, I decided to focus on ones that were harder to increase with training. I was happy to see my mana rise to match my current health value. But I still had the symptoms of low mana, which actually had gotten worse since my pool had increased. But even still, the number of stats I get per level up was crazy and would make other players cry tears of blood if they were to find out.
Sitting down a moment to have a drink and a nibble on a bit of hard tack ration, was all I could think about as you recover faster when your body is looked after. Plus, certain foods and drinks help boost the recovery of certain resources like stamina or mana. Unfortunately, I don't have any of those at the moment.
Feeling a little better, I stood up and walked over to the pile of corpses and began to move them out of the way of the crevice, to start to let oxygen filter back inside. Letting the hole become more habitable, I began to craft a simple torch and used a small smouldering ember, which was still burning from the fire I set, to light it and walked over to the mouth of the cavern.
Looking inside, I saw several bodies that looked like they were trying to claw their way to the entrance before succumbing. I did feel a little guilty for killing them this way, but not enough to stop me from entering.
It was a tight fit and at times, I could feel the heat of the torches flame licking my face with how close I had to scrunch up my body.
I had already climbed tens of meters and only now it started to open up, the air was heavy and thick with smoke still. But luckily, it wasn't enough to make me feel uncomfortable or risk my health.
The tunnel opened up to a large space, littered with bodies. Three bodies caught my eye in the back, they were bigger and bulkier than your normal goblin. These were guards of the leader of the spawning pit, called simply goblin guards. They had better equipment than the other goblins, though it was still rusty and in tatters, barely useful.
Behind them was a narrow tunnel, that I assumed led to the spawning pit.
Goblins were a bit different from most monsters as they weren't full-blooded monsters. What is considered a monster is when a creature can use magic or has some magic flowing naturally in it. For goblins, this blood was so thin that it was rare for a goblin to be born who could use magic. These goblins are typically shamans and are the leaders of the spawning pits.
As for a spawning pit, it was created when a spawn seed was planted in a place with mana in the air to fuel it. When enough energy is absorbed, a goblin will be spawned from one of its many sacs.
Stepping into the tunnel, I spotted two rooms to either side. Looking into the nearby one, I saw the corpse of a taller-than-normal goblin, lying sprawled across the floor grasping the edge of a dark hole that slightly shimmered with the light.
The hole was about 10ft long and 5ft wide. As I got closer to the edge, the light of the torch lit up most of it. Inside were several 2ft sacs, moving the torch closer I could see the developing form of a goblin inside. I counted four of them in total.
Moving the light away from the fetial goblins, as it made me feel slightly queasy. I spotted a small sphere in the middle of the pit. As my eyes focused on it, I saw the green vein-like tendrils wrapping around a white surface.
That was a goblin seed and an incredibly potent ingredient for alchemy, but I didn't know what it was used for. Though I didn't enjoy the idea of stepping into the spawning pit that's filled with, God knows what. But it was too good to miss out on.
As I lowered my boot into the pit, I could feel the slimy liquid creep up my leg. Luckily, it didn't reach past the rim and fill my boot up, so I slowly leant over to pick it up and prayed that the liquid level wouldn't rise.
After a little amount of difficulty, my fingers finally found purchase on the hard surface and so I yanked. But it didn't budge, so I put in more strength and pulled. Slowly but surely, it came free until with a sucking sound, it popped out.
Pulling my boot out, making sure not to lose it. I looked over the now pulsating green veins and felt creeped out. Quickly stowing it away in my inventory, I left the spawning pit.
With only one room left to check, I headed inside, ignoring the damp feeling on my leg. My eyes were met with many reflective things as I quickly realised that this was the goblin treasure room.
Take a minute or two to survey the room. I learnt that this was a horde taken from hapless victims who were unfortunate enough to cross paths with a goblin hunting party. I found several basic weapons and armour, ripped and ransacked travel packs and finally, several coin pouches.
I couldn't fit everything into my inventory, as it only had fifty slots, and it didn't allow stacking items either. And I already have several items inside.
Luckily, the gathering tools and my dagger were on my belt, so it didn't count towards the inventory total and coins just go into the coin pouch, regardless of the amount. And that too was attached to my belt.
Without wanting to hang around for too long, I took all the coin pouches and withheld a total of 264 coppers and 12 silvers, or 14 silvers and 64 copper, if you add them all up.
I also took a leather chest piece, bracers and a spare pair of boots. I also picked a bow with a quiver of arrows, a couple of daggers and a short sword. Of course, I didn't wear any of the armour now, as I wanted to clean them first. Something about wearing something I found in a goblin lair didn't seem hygienic.
And with that final thought. I decided to make a quick retreat.