A Priest in needs
Back in the training hall they took some wooden hammers and he received his first training in the art of the warhammer. Not sure if it would fit his tastes, he learned fast and really came to like the heavy weapon.
The adventurers had arrived in the training hall halfway through. After Yrel was content with his stance and main moves, she ended the training. She would leave the abbey the next morning for different matters and invited him to come by when he visited the capital in the future.
As he was about to leave, Aman walked over to him. He wanted a spar with him after he had seen him being adept in melee combat.
The glances towards J. from the women of his group seemed to have bothered him. Now he clearly wanted to show his dominance, what J. thought to have to do something with the beastkins pride.
Contrary to Amans hopes, it had the opposite effect. As J. was accustomed to hand-to-hand combat and had his absurd stats he was dealing with him just fine. As he dodged the slow but heavy punched of the coloss, he circled around and got himself some jabs in.
As the fight went on the girls of the adventurers group kept watching with more and more feverent eyes as the time went on.
After five minutes Aman had gotten himself some nice bruises while J. had not received a single punch. Though he was sure a single direct hit from this giant would be enough to end the fight.
Even Yrel had halted herself from leaving and watched the fight intently as the boy she had just met downed the more experienced opponent.
When Aman had tried to grab him, J. had ducked down and spun to the right. With his left leg he kicked Amans right knee to the front so that he stumbled forwards. With the hit knee and his own weight he had tilted to the front and passed J. leftwards. J. himself kept the spin but switched his leg and with spun heel drop to his opponents neck ended the fight.
He didn't have to hold back as he had seen how little damage his opponent had received from his bare handed attacks. But with this the fight had concluded as Asher went on the stage and declared the winner. With the earnest promise of a spar they said their go nights and left the hall. Not without the gils throwing him a last glance, especially Shanti.
Before he went to bed, Yrel congratulated him and said her goodbye again.
What followed was a well deserved rest.
Awoken by the morning bells even before sunrise, he had a early breakfast with all the other adventurers staying in the abbey. Glad he had been assigned a single room he looked with pity at all those who had to stay in the group dorms. He had passed those rooms on his way to the restrooms and wasn't sure if he could've slept even a single minute in there.
With the promise too look into the Goblin sighting and the missing priest cases, he had received his obligatory quests. After he talked to Willet when he was leaving the abbey through the main entrance in the south, he had been asked to handle one more task, making it three quests.
***
Quest:
brother Dorian
Object:
find out brother Dorian's whereabouts.
***
***
Quest:
Inspecting the fields
Object:
search for traces of Goblins
on the abbeys fields.
***
***
Quest:
Missing Wolves
Object:
talk to Osworth about the
thinning wolf population.
***
Stepping out of the giant doorway he met Asher and his team. They told him that Eagan had left with three other priests for the shrine this morning.
Not wanting to idle around they took up some low level quests to thin out the Kobold cave in the north a little. Asher took the task to inspect the Goblin sighting on the fields as well so they decided to split up, letting Asher and J. go for the information gathering while they left to the north. The women had been reluctant to part with him but Aman showed his rather demanding side.
On their way to the fields Ahser guided him to Osworth as he knew the Region. He had started his career at the abbey after he became an adventurer nearly ten years in the past.
Millie Osworth was a middle aged huntress who worked for the abbey, overlooking the fields and working as ranger in the proximity of Northvale. She had noticed a drastically declining number of wolves roaming this zone. Their tracks had been confirmed but the beasts themselves had been missing. Millie asked them to follow the tracks as she had to stay on her post.
***
Quest:
'Missing Wolves' cleared!
400 XP
***
***
Quest:
Missing Wolves 2
Object:
track down the wolves.
***
This was where J's [Hunting] skill shone. After searching for a little while they came to a track that couldn't be older than a day. Following that track to its origin they had walked a couple of miles. What they found had irritated them so much they had to go back and report.
Three young wolves had been slayed in a pretty gruesome way, but the blood found there had been way to much for the small beasts. In between lay a dead Goblin with bite wounds. Additional tracks of something having been drawn led from their position towards the mountains in eastern direction.
After reporting and updating his quest to find the Goblins the two had learned that the group of priest still had not returned. The pilgrimage should have normally only taken about 4 to five hours and they had left even before breakfast.
The tracking had taken some time and they had wandered quite far towards the mountains. The rest of Ashers party had returned more than an hour ago and cleared their petty quest. Aman and the women were having lunch already, though they had have breakfast not even five hours ago.
When they heard what J. reported to them, they canceled their lunch. Something was off, that much had been clear to everyone present.
Together they left the abbey after telling Willet what they found out and asking the way to the shrine. They simply had to follow the path through the fields until it forked. The left way would lead them up into the mountains while the right one would lead them to the small chapel after about half an hour.
Feeling like they had missed something out they jogged the miles through the fields. They could have run even faster, but if really something happened and they would be out of breath when they arrived the situation could become dire.
At the end of the fields their feelings proved right. Three goblins with wounds from blunt weapons lay dead by the treeline. Traces of blood, countless footprints and even paw prints were to be found in the surroundings.
Nodding after eye contact the group rushed following the tracks leading towards the mountains. After some minutes the halted as they heard some voices.
Sneaking forward and peeking through the shrubbery, they spotted a group of Goblins. Five Goblins riding on wolves were guarding a Cave. Another six Goblins armed with weapons stood in the entrance while three more of the green humanoids sat lazy at the side and seemed to hold a conversation.
Not a moment later the wolves peeked up. They had noticed J. and the adventurers the moment they closed in. At the same time the quest for the wolves updated to part 3, having him free or kill the beasts. He went for the latter.
A barrage of stone pebbles riddled the first beast and its rider when they closed in, stupefying the group of adventurers. This power was way over their expectancy.
While Aman rushed forwards with his giant shield and a hammer, Shanti threw some hidden knives
clearing his path.
Asher stood back and guarded Jeany, who had summoned a small water sprite. She was told to take over Eagans position of a healer with it. That was how J. learned that water element had healing properties but lower than light magic. He had no intention to reveal him being more than adept in healing as Mia and Alexis had warned him.
Alternating between fire and eart magic, J. followed after the beastkin siblings.
After some mashed goblin-wolf pastes and running torches, the three Goblin mages had been dispatched. Analyzing them beforehand he saw them having only [Fire magic lvl.1] so it wasn't worth revealing his magic reflection. They all went down with a single knife sticking in their forehead.
As they neared the cave, they heard an ear shattering scream. The others rushed forward stating to J. the voice was Eagans.
Fighting their way in through a pretty long tunnel, they arrived at a big cave room. The ceiling was open, showing the high risen sun and treetops. Around a fireplace sat the next pack of Goblins. Two mages and a shaman were devouring roasted meat and gnawing at bones. Next to them six soldiers had been cutting their meal in portions. Only after analyzing did J. find out the flesh they were eating was brother Dorian.
***
Quest:
'brother Dorian' cleared!
2000 XP
***
Cursing the systems formulation as the Goblins consumed the last pieces of meat he peeked at his fellow fighters. They all looked horrified.
Without a chance to get themselves together, two shamans they had overlooked attacked from a indentation to the right side behind them. Asher blocked the lighning from Jeany but got some burns. As the rest of the goblins now also attacked, Aman and shanti went for them. J. dispatched of the pair of shamans and followed after them.
The fight only took a short while longer as reinforcements jumped down through the light hole. Collecting the robes from Dorian and the two field helpers that had been missing they went on.
Just before entering the next tunnel Asher halted.
"You know, without proper healer I'm pretty useless. I'll stay here as guard. Aman, you take over!" They all knew too well that a rearguard was needed in a goblins den. The reinforcements just then had proven that. Asher being a brawler was in the most danger without a healer, so he tapped out for their safety.
With one worry lessened, the rest of the group went on. There was not much resistance as they went deeper into the den. Shanti even stated there to be too less soldiers compared to the relatively rare casters.
Another scream urged the to hasten their advance. It sounded even shriller than the last.
The reason for that greeted them in the next cave room.
Fifteen soldiers and a group of mages stood in the room, surrounding Eagan whose clothes had been ripped off. The priest had gotten strapped onto a wooden plank which was mounted upright to the back of the cave. A big goblin stood in front of him, pointing a knife towards the priest.
Not wasting a second Aman and Shanti dashed into the crowd, trashing and stabbing the defenseless creatures respectively. J. stood back an guarded Jeany while casting his spells. Fire magic had really ranked up to level two.
It was then he saw a mean glint in the big goblins eyes before the ugly monster turned around and faced Eagan.