40 Abandoned Goblin Settlements (1/2)
Jack did his best to contain his excitement and not draw attention. He smiled briefly and moved forward with the party. Under Rydel's guidance, they went deeper into the dark caverns. Troni, Slivia, and Jack all held up torches, bathing the cave wall in warm light.
Rydel was especially sharp, making full use of his eagle eye ability. ”We're nearing the first goblin settlement. Be careful, just in case some goblins were left behind.”
Everyone followed closely, peeking around every corner they passed. Just like Rydel had said, it didn't take long for them to see the settlement in the distance.
It was abandoned. There was a short, spiked fence surrounding the settlement, yet parts had been trampled and destroyed. The goblins homes were made of hardened mud and had dark red highlights across the surface; Jack knew from the lore that cave goblins made their concrete-like mud from a mixture of monster blood and ground stone from the cave walls.
”Search for anything unusual and bring what you find here, be it items, weapons, remains, or anything,” Rydel commanded, getting everyone to split up and search the small settlement, no larger than one hundred meters in diameter.
Everyone combed through the short, square-shaped huts and found ashes covering the floors as if everything inside had been burned and destroyed. In the entire settlement, they only found burnt knife blades and small bones amidst the ashes.
Jack sighed, disappointed in their findings. The goblins were more careful than they had anticipated, eliminating everything that might have helped prospective invaders and leaving nothing behind.
'Cheer up, we'll find something for ya soon enough.' Maynard tried to raise Jack's spirits.
Rydel quietly nodded. 'There are three more settlements on this level, let's hurry up and investigate them.'
When Rydel ordered the party towards the next settlement, Brunar complained about them wasting too much time and effort. Even Slivia was against the thought, wanting to find her old party as soon as possible. Jack and Troni both spoke up and defended Rydel's orders, swaying Slivia and forcing Brunar to participate in the settlement searches.
It took the entire day to explore the first level and rummage through the remains of each settlement. Like the first, the fence was trampled and everything inside the mud huts was burned to ash. Also, like the first, there was nothing of value in any of the settlements.
”We'll camp in this settlement for the night. Clear out a hut and feel free to have a fire for the night, cause once we enter the second level, we won't even light a torch.” Rydel's emotionless statement let the party relax until they heard the final piece of information.
”What do you mean?” asked Brunar.
”Exactly that, there will be no fires on the second or third levels,” repeated Rydel, looking down on Brunar for talking back.
Maynard explained, ”Cave goblins are very strange creatures, they're about half our size yet are equal to us in strength. They're eyesight in impeccable, sensing heat and not light. On the first floor, it doesn't matter too much because the first level doesn't have any real threats. But every level deeper contains stronger and more threatening monsters, many of which sense heat light the cave goblins.”
Brunar was silent as he started to piece everything together. ”But if we're way stronger than them, we shouldn't have to—”
”You must've leveled up from basic rescue and escort quests. You can't even understand this much?” Jack chimed in, putting a frown of Brunar's face. ”Not every monster is going to walk up to us and wait for us to kill it. Many are secretive, sometimes waiting to poison you while you sleep. Maynard and Rydel have sharp enough senses to avoid this, but what about the rest of us? We'd be on death's door by the time either of them killed the monster responsible. And that's just one possibility.”
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Not knowing how to respond, Brunar coughed, ”Then what do you suggest we use to light the way?”
A small gem was thrown to each member of the party and Maynard answered, ”That's a kari crystal, it'll light up when you equip it to ya. They can be worn as necklaces, bracelets, anything.”
Jack was speechless; kari crystals were only found in lv. 30 mines and were very expensive. Maynard having so many showed Jack two things. First, Maynard had spent a lot of time grinding after reaching level thirty and wasn't like the average adventurer that slows down after lv. 30. Second, it showed that Maynard wasn't an avid trader or interested in money like Rydel; otherwise, he would have sold the surplus and made a killing. Smiling, Jack was pleased to better understand his new follower's personality.
”If there's nothing else, then I'm off to bed. Night everyone,” said Jack, ducking his head to enter the nearest mud hut.