return to the goblin lair

By the time he woke up the following morning, the guild's expedition had already left, and while not present, only the team of four adventurers was in the surrounding. As everything had been taken care off, he knows that it would be unpolite to impose himself in the casern any longer.

Exiting the place, he found himself facing Josh. The young captain mod was still down, given the circumstance, an evident state of mind.

"So, you have packed, I take it." Say him, seeing the backpack on Alex's shoulder, his only possession they seen him arrive with. "Any plan for the foreseeable future?" Asked the man tentatively, clearly having his own intention.

"I was thinking of staying here for a few months, maybe? As Miss Eina say, It too early for me to leave for Orario. I don't have the funds anyway. I was hoping to construct a shed or something for myself while hunting in the surrounding."

Alex could see Josh's shoulders relax, and the relief in his eyes. It was evident that he was about to attempt to keep him here for a while. After seeing his prowess, his presence could be a life-saving one.

"I think the settlement will be more than happy to count you among us." Say him with a smile. "As for hunting, if you think of monsters, you will be disappointed."

"Why?"

"The goblins. After their death, they not just left cores and ashes behind. Their death had released a kind of lingering feeling only other monsters can feel. With so much death in such a short time, no monster would approach the settlement for at least two or three years. If one of the few boons an attack brings, it would ward off others for a time with sufficient death. Another is the ashes. We don't know why, but they are magical, literally. Mixed with earth, it will boost the growth of anything planted in. With the number of ashes we obtain, the paths they had made would vanish by this time in two years. This is another added protection."

"Really? Such a miraculous thing exist?!" Half-shooted Alex, captivated by the prospect it could bring, before being stopped by Josh.

"It not that miraculous, it had a devasting effect when used on corps and magical plants, but it contributes to erase the ravage done by the monsters, or help reforest areas rapidly."

Even with just this, Alex thought that the ashes of the monster had a good effect.

"Does the adventurers sell the ashes of the monster they collect?" Asked Alex curious of such pratic.

"I wish they didn't, but the ashes are not worth more than 250 Valis for each kilogram. No adventurer would waste time making sure the bodies burn for a messy penny. No, they left the corpses in 'pits', holes in the dungeon ground. The dungeon is alive and would swallow anything dead and unmoving with half an hour, or under ten minutes in those pits.

If you wish to stay, I would advise hunt for wild beasts; the settlement will be happy to trade any meats they can with their product. It how thing work here, due to the low chance of earning money, people exchange one commodity to another. If you really what to hunt monsters, though, start by tracking the trail left. I doubt all goblins had taken part in the attack; they must have left young and female behind, just in case. It would also save us time.

While I can't gift you much, you can keep anything you brought here, come."

~~~

Josh led him to the weapon storage of the casern. There he gave Alex the bow he used, along with ninety arrows.

"Take this as a gift for everything you have done for us. If you want to stay here, look around and find yourself a place. You will have to construct your house on your own, but men are ready to help you with anything for meat. I don't think you will need the ninety now, so I will keep sixty here, ask me when you want them back." Say, Josh, passing him the bow and fully loaded quiver.

"I will keep it in mind." Responded Alex, securing the bow on his shoulder, along with the tightly packed quiver.

~~~

Now fully equipped, Alex exited the settlement, returning to the trail, direction, the goblin lair. Knowing it was a four hours trip at full speed, he immediatly set off.

When he arrived two hours later, he was momently startled.

"Right, straight, flat path." Facepalming, he shook his head, before jumping at the top of the rock, happy to see that the two left backpacks were still present.

Another half-hour of foraging in the wood brought his back to the stream, he hastily takes off his clothes and enters the water.

"That another thing to take care off, I need bathing facilities... and soap." Say him cringing at the smell of his tail' matted fur. "I may need to go to Orario to found the ingredient."

-You don't want to buy them directly?-

'No, not only I don't know what they put in, but making my own will allow me to exchange them for other things in the surrounding settlements, plus it would be cheaper. I don't roll on gold for the moment.'

-True, from what you told me, the city should have what you need, I don't think there would be no progress with all those gods around.-

~~~

Bathing as much as he can, Alex passed the rest of the morning between hunting, cooking and gathering, securing him with enough prepared food for the three following days.

After eating a filling meal, Alex emptied his storage once again and processed to make a rapid inventory.

"Alright, I have my old clothes, along those I wore this morning folded in the backpack. I will need to make some lye to wash them. The twenty cores I gathered before Tiris are in too. Twenty-three hatchets that filled my storage, my blankets and my grimoire." Alex immediatly but the last back in, with another pant and shirt, a paddled coat and travelling coat following, the blanket too.

Everything else, still packed in the backpacks, were left in the stone chamber before he sealed it.

"Now that my storage is nearly empty, time to look at this lair." Say him, putting the two remaining knives in the storage, equipping the bow, quiver and shield. He only needs a small modification on the shoulder harness and belt to house the longer blades.

The second he stepped in the cavern, a translucent window appears.

{[Hidden objective: side. "Catch'em all!"]

The raid and death of the horde had left their lair to weaken and ripe for looting. Without the mature male, the lair is deprived of security, until the young mature, in a month. Protect Tiris, and it's surrounding by cleansing them thoroughly.

Condition: Exterminate all remaining goblins in the five lairs around Tiris. 0/5.

Rewards: overloaded cores, ???, ???.}

-Alex? What do you think they are?-

'From the name, something that must facilitate the lair, or a reaction at the goblins' presence in high concentration. We will need to treading carefully with those. Any unknown items could bring unwelcome attention to us. Until I develop a strong relationship with someone in the trade, I will keep it in storage.'

-Good for me. Be careful; there don't seem to be much light here.-

'Good for me. I'm a therianthrope.'

~~~

After receiving the startling mission, Alex immediatly took a knife out, while progressing as silently as possible. Even knowing that there were only immature goblin and female, he wasn't going to take any risks.

The cave's structure was similar to what he thought the dungeon setting would be, narrows and wides corridors of stones leading to differently sized chambers. None seems carved from the walls structures, all naturals, and until then, a single path. The cavern ground was so slightly slanted, that it looks completely flat.

-We don't seem to be much underground, they may be further, just in case wild beasts enter.-

'Possible.'

The first chamber them found was tiny, not wider than twenty or so square metres. What was worrying was the seven entrance on the walls.

'The pack must have come from all of them, to gather so rapidly.'Sniffing the air, his theory was proven correct as all reck of the goblins who passed through them. Among the seven, the one on his right attracted his attention.

He could smell the particular odour of variants coming exclusively from it. AS they represent the largest threat and have been a small group, he started with this one.

~~~

The roof height was enough for him to stand without touching it, and the corridor was wide enough for him to move freely, without allowing sufficient place for two. Another difference was the heavily slanted, making him rapidly going underground.

Alex didn't cross another chamber for five good minutes, while the tunnel twist and turn at varying degree every so often. Due to the lack of straight path and low luminosity, he couldn't judge how much he dived but know that it must be quite a few metres already through mosses of glowing stones.

His mussing came to an abrupt end when he caught the faint sound of activity further, along a brighter light coming from the tunnel section's end.

Advancing carefully, before sticking to the walls surface, he glimpses at the chamber.

'It must be around forty times larger than the one above!' Say him at CS, surprised.

-Yes, around thousand-metre squares, look at is configuration, it can't be natural.-

Looking around, Alex immediatly understands what he was saying. First, the cavern had a suspiciously oval form, too regular to be natural even with rough walls. The celling was abnormally high, around thirty metres. This, added to the strange layering-like structure, formed by concentric rings, running all around the walls, smaller on each layer. It was as if someone had used the cavern as a child toy, with the ground being the larger rings, and the top the smallest, all stacked on the previous larger one.

From the structure, he could make a ring every three meters, making ten, before the roof was put on the hole of the last one, barely a third of the surface on the ground. The entire cavern was filled with suspicious stout, short stalactites. The narrow pathways running between the different level only added to the suspiciousness of the place.

But what was the more strange in this place was the single stalactite suspended on the roof. Unlike the other, the concretion was slim and long, with a particular shining rock at its end.