Noble in danger
Sanryu grabs the bag where he had deposited all the ears of the mice he killed, and heads to the guild hall, saying goodbye to Lurue.
'Based on the position of the sun, it will be around four in the afternoon.' Sanryu manages to understand the time based on the height of the sun, it was always his father who taught him this method, even if Deria has a tower with a large clock in the center of it. 'If I'm not mistaken the reward for this mission is twenty silver coins, one coin for each rat killed...I'd say that's fair.'
Sanryu arrives at the guild and goes through the front door, then heads towards the counter. "Hello Mr. Adventurer, does he need anything?" He asks the employee behind the counter.
"I brought this evidence to show that I completed the rats' mission." Sanryu places the bag on the counter, showing it to the clerk.
"Of course, let me check." The employee takes the bag and takes it into a room, and then comes out of it. "His evidence is valid, and this is the reward of the mission, thank you very much for his work." The clerk gives Sanryu a bag with twenty silver coins inside.
"Thanks to you." Sanryu grabs the bag. 'And with these, I paid for the room at the inn for another two days. Soon, however, I will also have to worry about food, since I'm about to run out of the supplies that mother gave me, but thinking about it now, I still have those furs to sell, those of the direwolves.' Sanryu still has to sell the furs of the beasts he encountered on the forest path.
But before leaving the guild, he goes to the bulletin board to see if there are any missions he can take on. 'Let's see what the house offers us.' Sanryu's eyes dart between the various flyers, until he spots a certain mission.
The mission Sanryu has set his sights on here concerns the extermination of a band of goblins, who have settled in a cave quite close to the path that merchants use to come to Deria. 'These goblins could be a problem for these merchants, I understand.' Sanryu takes the flyer and brings it to the counter, so that it will be accepted.
Sanryu returns to the inn and asks Lurue if she wants to come and accompany him, the goddess accepts, also driven by the fact that she is getting bored being closed in that room.
And the couple leaves the inn, heading towards the exit of the city, and then goes towards the cave where the mission will take place.
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Meanwhile, in the sewers a clash is taking place between a group of adventurers and a pack of giant rats.
"The boy was right, there's something wrong in these sewers." The warrior is on the front lines, with sword and shield, while attracting the attention of most of the rats.
"It doesn't matter! These rats are nothing to us." The hunter shoots more and more arrows, hitting more and more rats.
"Be careful guys, I won't be able to heal you forever, I know it's difficult, but try to mitigate your damage." Ted treats the wounds of the two companions, but warns his group to be careful not to get hit by the morbid creatures.
The group kills more and more rats, but the latter seem to never end.
'How can there be all these rats?! Their numbers have grown too crazily.' Ted can't explain the reason for the absurd number of these rats. 'We have already exceeded twenty rats killed, we will have reached thirty... but we cannot turn our backs and flee, we will be easy prey.' Ted tries to think of a way to escape from this situation.
"What the hell is that?!" Ted's thoughts are interrupted by the surprised voice of the hunter, the priest follows the direction of his companion's gaze, until he finds the target of his friend's amazement.
"I've never seen anything like it." Ted doesn't know what he's looking at right now.
The group is joined by a creature that looks like a mix between a gorilla and a rat, a cabinet of muscles twice as tall as a normal human being. It moves like a primade, but its front legs were amputated from the elbow to the hands. On one paw there was a metal rod, with two iron claws at the end, on the other paw there was always a metal rod but instead of having claws, there was a nailed iron club. But the thing that makes this creature most disturbing is that those pieces of metal radiate electric discharges of a strange green color. Part of this creature's body also has pieces of metal scattered throughout much of it, like tubes and plates, as if they were used to keep the flaps of skin attached that would otherwise tear.
"It is not a creature born from nature...but an artificial creation, mixed with the organic." Ted makes a wild guess. "Prepare for combat-COUGH!" Ted's voice is interrupted by a fatal accident, from behind the priest's back, a humanoid rat has thrust its spear into the poor man's heart.
""TED!"" The two friends shout the name of the priest, who is now dead on the ground.
"Sniff sniff kill these other two." The rat places a paw on Ted's body, extracts the spear from his chest, and orders a group of its peers to massacre the last two. From the shadows of the corners, many humanoid rats emerge armed with any weapon, it's like hungry hyenas, they throw themselves against the two unfortunates.
"NOOOOO!" The hunter is the first to succumb, with these rats skewering him with daggers, swords, spears and other weapons, filling his body with deep wounds.
"No...how could this happen...?" The warrior, who should be the one with the most combative spirit, is left without the will to fight anymore, causing his sword and shield to fall to the ground. The brute twice his height approaches without any mercy and stabs the man's abdomen with his iron claws. He lifts him from the ground with the nailed club, slams it on the man's skull, crushing it, creating a paste of flesh, and then throwing his lifeless body towards the pack of giant rats, the latter feasting on the body of the muscular man.
"The first prey of our invasions in these lands, sniff sniff the first of many ehehehe." The rat with the spear laughs mischievously as he imagines his race invading the possessions of these human beings.
In one corner the feline eyes observe this scene with concern. 'I must warn the others.' The tabaxi runs towards their hideout in the sewers, but the poor boy doesn't know how treacherous and cunning this race of humanoid rats is.
"Follow the scent of that sniff sniff dog, he will take us to his companions." The rat with the spear orders his subordinates to follow the tabaxi who has gone to warn his companions.
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Sanryu and Lurue I reach the vicinity of this cave, and they are convinced that it is the right one since there are some shabby banners at the entrance of the cave, typical of goblins.
"Found it, but I don't see any sentry guarding the entrance... have they not thought of that?" Sanryu speculates that the goblins didn't want to think about posting guards outside the cave.
"Probably because it would be useless, they would be killed immediately without even realizing it. They would have wanted to spare as many men as possible." Lurue explains to Sanryu with a yawn. "I've met goblins in the forests before, they're amazed but not clueless, they can be a pain for you humans to deal with, be careful." Lurue lies down on the cool grass, telling the boy to watch out for those green hominids.
"Okay, I'll try to do it as quickly as possible." Sanryu draws his sword and heads for the cave entrance. 'My two-handed sword isn't exactly the best in such a low cave, but I can't do otherwise, I'll try to move it with as much precision as possible.' Sanryu must be careful not to launch senseless sword blows.
Sanryu is forced to hold the sword with two hands, with only one, since he must hold the torch with the other, otherwise he does not have a light source. 'How I wish I had eyes suited to the darkness.' Sanryu complains to his genetics, as it would have been convenient to have dark mink for these moments.
After a few steps, Sanryu begins to hear giggles and annoying voices at the end of the cave tunnel. 'What are these goblins up to? They seem to have neglected the safety of the cave.' Sanryu finds it strange that he hasn't met any goblins yet.
But just as doubts began to arise in Sanryu's mind, from the ceiling, a trio of goblins crash down on Sanryu, catching him by surprise. "Damnation!" The boy exclaims loudly, because of this ambush.
But Sanryu's reflexes are superhuman, and he manages to escape this surprise assault, dodging the goblins' daggers. Without wasting any more time, he lunges at the stunned goblins and slices them one by one, causing green ichor to splatter into the rock walls. "I'm nothing compared to that beastkin." Sanryu hasn't forgotten the striking figure of that woman in the sewers, who left an indelible mark on the boy's mind.
'They can be cunning...is that what Lurue meant?' Sanryu thinks back to the goddess' warnings. 'You have to be more careful Sanryu.' The boy doesn't let fear take over and continues his journey.
Sanryu walks through almost the entire cave, colliding with goblins several times, and having reached a certain point in this cave, he begins to hear screams.
"Don't you dare touch me, you filthy creatures! Do you know who I am?! I am Zaria Flogan, daughter of the Marquis Berdo, if you even touch me with a finger, you will be exterminated immediately and without mercy, by my family." The voice seems to belong to a girl, who is probably in trouble. "HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!" Let's remove the probably.
'It's like being in one of those fairy tales about the hero who has to save the princess.' Sanryu lets out a sarcastic smile, but doesn't waste any more time, immediately hurrying to reach the source of the voice.
Having arrived at his destination, Sanryu sees a girl with scarlet red hair, tied by an iron chain, to a post stuck in the wall, with her clothes, apparently made of precious materials, torn here and there. 'Damn, she has red underwear... focus Sanryu! You don't have to think about that right now.' Sanryu shakes her thoughts and begins to look at the big picture.
There are only five goblins guarding this girl, and they are all focused on the girl's figure, so it's the perfect time to take them by surprise. "Hey, you! What are you doing standing there?! Help me, quick!" Sanryu almost trips on the spot.
'Goodbye surprise attack.' The goblins all turn towards Sanryu, and immediately point their weapons at the boy. 'Okay, let's do it the old fashioned way.' Sanryu runs towards the goblins and engages in a fight with them.
After ten minutes of battle, Sanryu kills the last goblin and goes towards the girl. "It took you some time, now free me." Zaria doesn't even thank Sanryu.
"Maybe I'll leave you tied up here, what do you think?" Sanryu doesn't like this daddy's girl attitude, she just doesn't want to save her. 'Other than a princess, she's a spoiled child.' Sanryu takes advantage of this moment to get a better look at the girl.
Zaria is a very beautiful girl, as you would expect from the daughter of a noble, she has scarlet red hair, tied in a side ponytail. Lovely orange eyes, two very large breasts, although not at Lurue's level, wide hips, but not fat, she has a round, well defined ass.
"What?! You don't mean it! I'm the daughter of the Marquis, you can't treat me like that." Zaria is outraged by Sanryu's attitude.
"You may be the king's daughter, but that doesn't change anything, usually when a person saves you from a bad situation, they thank you." Sanryu tries to instill good manners in this noble girl.
"I...I don't see how a noble should thank a plebeian like you." Zaria doesn't seem to want to give in.
"You know, there are still some goblins around here, I could leave you with them, after all they don't have a good education either, you would make a nice couple." Sanryu was about to turn around, and leave the girl there.
"WAIT! Okay...I thank you for saving me, now please release me, I don't want to stay in this dark place." Zaria gives in, to Sanryu's satisfaction, and the latter does not waste any more time, the girl is freed from the chains.
"Cover yourself with this, you can't go into town looking like that." Sanryu gives the brown cloak to the girl, the same cloak that Lurue wore before her.
"Mh…" Zaria grabs the cloak in a meek manner it is her if she wraps it around her.
"Now we can leave, in the meantime can you tell me what happened?" Sanryu accompanies the girl to the exit, but in the meantime, she would like to know what happened to him, to end up in that situation.
"Okay, then…" Zaria begins to tell what happened to her.