A conundrum

"BOOM!"

It feels as if there is a small earthquake as the bomb explodes underground. The sewer grate flies into the sky from the explosion and Mike is sent flying once more. Mike's ears are ringing and his head is dizzy from hitting the ground to hard.

Mike slowly gets up and as he does the pain starts to hit him as from the explosion and jumping out of the attic window. 'Ding'

...

Mike has taken 5 damage from falling

Mike has taken 6 damage from being in close proximity to an explosion

User 'Mike' is the confused [1 min] and deaf state [5 min]

Second task has been completed

...

"Ugh... my body hurts everywhere," Mike says to himself as slowly gets to his feet. As he does so he feels a pair of hands grasp his shoulders and pull him over to a bench on the side of the road. Looking up Mike sees a man speaking to him but with him being momentarily deaf coupled with confusion Mike cannot hear a thing.

"I CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING!" Mike shouts to the man who just nods his head and hands, Mike, a tankard with water in it. While taking a drink a man walks up to Mike. He was dressed in leather armor and had a bushy beard which made Mike think of a lumberjack. The man places a hand on Mike's shoulder and soon Mike feels a feeling of warmth like going into a warm bath soak through his body.

'Ding'

...

Mike's health has been restored to full and all negative effects have been removed

...

The man removes his hand from Mike's shoulder and Mike can hear once more.

"Thank you, sir," Mike says as he gets up and off the chair

"It is I who should be thanking you, sir, you were able to save us all from being blown from kingdom come" the man responds while bowing in front of Mike

Looking around Mike sees that there are more people who are also bowing at Mile in the middle of the street. Mike can't help but feel pride in his actions and risking his life for saving these strangers from the bomb.

'Wait a bomb and a... goblin?' When Mike realizes this he immediately runs back into the tavern drawing confused looks from the people on the street. When Mike gets up the ladder he sees that the goblin is still up there passed out. Mike grabs the goblin and carries him down the ladder. The man from before and a few others had gone back into the tavern after Mike to make sure everything was still alright. Upon seeing the goblin they look at it with surprise.

"Um... who is that," The man from before says

"I don't know but he has something to do with the bomb"

When Mike says that the men take the goblin from him and walk outside the tavern. By now the guards had shown up and were keeping people away from the tavern and the sewer that Mike through the bomb in. As everyone exits the tavern a guard dressed in better armor and wearing decorated adornments approaches the group. He was flanked by six other guards who surrounded the group.

"Alright what is going on here?" The decorated guard says

The man who healed Mike speaks

"Captain Daniel this man here saved everyone in the tavern from this crazy goblin"

The other people in the group back up what the man said to the captain. The captain looks at Mike and motions the guards to close in and surround Mike.

Another guard takes the unconscious goblin from a man who was holding onto it.

"Now then you are going in to be questioned about these events. Do not resist us," Captain Daniel says as a guard produces manicals and binds Daniel's hands.

Knowing that he is innocent and that resistance is suicide Mike just allows himself to be pulled along by the guards. They all walk through the streets and end up at a three-story building that is connected to the wall. Going inside Mike is led down into a holding area for criminals of the city. Mike and the goblin are thrown into the same cell and the guards leave.

Now that Mike is alone he feels elated because now he can get the rewards of his first quest.

"System open the quest board, please"

Without fail, a holographic screen appears in front of Mike. The screen shows two sections with the words active on the left and completed on the right. Currently, there was one quest on each side. The active quest was the return home quest and the completed quest was the random encounter. There was an option to claim the rewards now that the bomb blew up.

"Accept rewards for 'Random Encounter Quest'"

'Ding'

...

The user has completed their first quest and received 1,250 exp and 150 favorability with the owner of the 'Drunken Knight' inn

...

"Wait only that much I was promised more?!"

'Ding'

"Eh"

...

The user did not complete all the required tasks and only received extra rewards from the completed tasks stated before

...

"Wait I thought I completed all the required tasks"

...

No

...

Slightly surprised that the system was kinda having a conversation with him, Mike was still too stumped on what he did not do to complete all the tasks.

"System which of the tasks for the last mission did I not complete"

'Ding'

...

[Find the culprit] was not completed by the user

...

"Wait... what the culprit is right here"

As Mike says this he points at the goblin. However, the system does not respond or react to this prompting him to question what is going on. Now that Mike was thinking about it the entire thing did seem suspicious. From the fact that the goblin was unconscious probably from the very beginning and he had no way to get the bomb going unless awake. The problem is now he and the goblin are probably the prime suspects of the bombing.

Now Mike was probably gonna have to defend himself in court from allegations of someone saying that he was an accomplice of the people responsible for the bomb in the tavern. So, for now, he and the goblin could be considered to be in the same boat. Now the cell was definitely not five-star quality but it could be considered better than what Mike had read in his previous life with torture chambers and dank decrepit jail cell of the old ages. Now that Mike is stuck in the cell with a goblin with nothing to do Mike just went to sleep on an old mat in the corner of the cell.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Waking up to the sound of metal on metal is usually something that would be heard in a concert. The sound made Mike wake up with a groan and there was another groan that accompanied his own.

"Urg... wh-where am I?" The voice said.

Looking over from the mat Mike saw that the goblin who was on the floor was now waking up from the endeavor last night. He was wobbly on his feet but steadily getting up. Mike helps him get up by lending a hand to him.

"Um who are you and where am I?"

"My name is Michael and-"

"Hey you two shut your traps or I will shut it for you," A guard says as he walks by banging a rod of metal on the cell bars.

After he walks off Mike looks at the goblin who now had an idea of where he was right now and was looking kind of scared.

"Erm... why am I in the city jail?" he asks

"Well the 'Knights Tankard' was almost blown up and when I found you well you were next to the bomb and are probably going to found guilty of trying to bomb the place unless..."

"Un-unless what?"

"Unless I can prove you're innocent to whoever wants your head and make it known that I had nothing to do with it"

"Well thanks, I guess... but why are you in here with me shouldn't you be up there and free?"

Mike shakes his head and sits down on the mat in the corner.

"The reason I am in here is that it looks really suspicious that I stopped the bomb from going off when no one else knew about it except me"

The goblin sits down in the middle of the cell and looks at Mike.

"Well, how did you know about the bomb then?"

"Um well, I... I have a special skill that detects danger and it went off last night so that is how I knew about it"

3

The goblin looks at Mike for a bit before saying.

"Well if you didn't want to say anything then you didn't to jeez"

The goblin looks out into the hall for a bit for bright orange torchlight can be seen reflecting on the walls coming towards their cell.