Abandoned Goblin Settlements

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."

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.

Not bothering with the rest, Rydel did the same. Slivia shrugged and examined the kari crystal, sifting through many ideas of simple accessories she could craft from it. Troni nodded, following the party captain's lead and secluding himself for the night.

Brunar hesitated before he called out to his master, stopping Maynard from escaping a conversation. "Master, please let me speak with you about some things."

"Very well, just make it fast," said Maynard, suppressing a yawn.

"Has something happened between you and that new hero?" Brunar tried his best to speak respectfully about Jack in front of Maynard, knowing that his master might discipline him if he didn't.

Maynard's face twitched, not expecting such a question. He pondered for a moment before answering, "Brunar, it's about time for you to begin journeying on your own. There's not much else I can teach you and you'll catch up to me soon enough, so I see no other reason for you to keep following me."

Baffled by Maynard's statement Brunar asked, "What does that have to do with this?"

"I'll be honest with ya. After this mission, I'll start journeying with Jack. I'm not sure how long this will last, but I'm certain it will be for a significant period," stated Maynard.

"Huh!?" Brunar shouted in response, catching Slivia's attention because she had yet to hide away in a hut.

"Like I said, I'll be journeying with him for a while." Maynard shrugged casually, not wanting to explain anything further.

"But, but…" Brunar had no way of understanding how great the benefits of following Jack were and no one was willing to tell him due to his distrust in Jack. The young samurai quietly muttered something while containing his rage, "What did he offer you? He must have some treasure you're after… If so, then why not just take it from him? He's too low leveled to stop you."

Maynard frowned deeply. Not only was he mad that his disciple wouldn't respect Jack, but his proposal of extortion was also ugly in Maynard's eyes. "Brunar…"

Setting his spite aside, Brunar started to clear his head when a hand struck his face. It wasn't strong enough to fling him through the air, but it left a pure red handprint on Brunar's right cheek and made sure that Slivia could hear it. Maynard continued, "A samurai must never act such a way, at least no samurai I call my disciple."

Hearing Maynard's words felt like being struck by lightning to Brunar. When his master had become more lenient with him after reaching lv. 20, Brunar had begun to have more freedom to act alone. While in this position and having some minor fame within the association, he had found many ways of extorting others, some instances being minor and others being major offenses to his master's humble teachings. This was the first time he had let any information about that slip in front of his master.

"Master, I apologize for such unrighteous thoughts. Please, forgive my unruliness," begged Brunar while kowtowing. He understood how straightforward his master was and his quickness in delivering judgment. Trying to retain his position as the number one disciple, he fell back into the act of playing nice.

Squinting heavily, Maynard's expression was a little ugly. "Watch your words and actions. You know better than others, so act better than others."

"Yessir!"

"I've already told you my answer, now get some sleep." Maynard didn't look back to his bowing disciple as he entered a hut. No matter how he tried, he couldn't shake the feeling that Brunar had been playing him the whole time. However, he quickly destroyed that thought, sure of that he was wrong based on all the time and experiences the two had shared as master and disciple.

Jack was in his hut with a small fire to the side near a wall. He had pushed most of the ash outside, leaving him a small space just big enough to lay down. Above the flame was some unihorn rib meat on a tall skewer, which was leaning against the wall for leverage. Bowser was gnawing on the small bones from the monster remains in the ashes, enjoying the new taste he discovered.

Sighing, Jack stared at his achievement screen and its most recent update.

[Find the tomb: in progress]

[Find the tomb of G0blin_Sl4yer within the second level of the azure mine. Reward: 18 skill points, access to his saved data.]