Chapter 18: High Goblin

Mother and I were going to go inside, but she quickly stopped me before I could. "Stay here, adults only."

I figured I already knew what she was talking about. I've seen enough old western movies to know what it was like in an old-time tavern. But at the same time, I come from a world of overstimulation in abundance. Anything in there will be child's play.

It's not like I could tell her that, so instead, I just brushed it off and waited outside. While I was waiting, I watched an old man across the street speaking to a statue. It's sweet that they can get their message to the deceased, but it seems a bit cruel to not let them move on. As for who should move on… I don't know, I guess both of them.

I waited for a few minutes until he finally walked away, and I just stared at the statue for a minute while waiting for my mother.

"I'm done." After a while of waiting, I continued sitting on the bench that was placed outside the tavern. I wanted to get up, but something in me was curious about something. "Does dad have a statue?"

She looked at me slightly confused that I was asking her that. She had never told me the whole story, but it wasn't hard to figure out. I know that her soldiers have statues everywhere, but what about his father?

"It's in the jungle, far away outside. I thought it would be cruel to have them here." She looked away in another direction and seemed a bit somber, but she quickly got over it soon. "I think I know where they are. Tonight we'll head out."

We stayed at an inn and relaxed for a while until the sun began to set and night approached. Mother got up from bed, and we both left the village soon after.

We walked for an hour until we finally saw something. Fortunately, I was carried most of the way. When we finally found something, we saw a small camp, about the size of a village. Right in the middle of this village stood a stone watchtower hidden in the trees.

"Is that a watchtower? Why would they build something like that in this foliage? They shouldn't be able to see anything." She was right; this tower was a bit short. It could barely reach the top of the highest tree.

"Something isn't right. I sense a few dozen people here but no supers." So it was true, they didn't bring anyone with some kind of power.

"It's possible they managed to get their hands on some advanced tech they found in some old ruins. Must be a cold weapon; I don't sense any energy coming from this place." This seems a bit strange. Why would they go all the way out here on the unpopulated side of the island just to build a tower? Unless…

"Remember, they don't know that we know. To them, this side of the island was supposed to be unpopulated."

She looked at me in astonishment. Somehow I feel like she might've forgotten that.

"You're right, we'll watch for a few hours until everyone gets tired. Jess, use the whistle."

I start blowing the whistle and I keep at it for a few minutes until I get tired. Honestly, I thought my Sleep skill would level up by now, but it seems harder than I thought it would. I couldn't figure it out, so I asked the only person who might know.

"Hey, I have a question." My mother looked at me curious about what I wanted to ask. "Why hasn't my Sleep skill leveled up?"

"Lord Father hasn't explained it to you? Some skills are based on enlightenment. The sleep skill falls under that category. Just imagine what direction you want to take that skill and try to tune into itl. When was the first time you used it?"

"When I got the whistle." I told her the truth, but she looked a bit shocked. "When we get home we'll try to work on that. For now, I think it's time we get started."

I didn't know what she meant until I realized where she was looking. By now, everyone in there should be completely asleep. "I'm going to go in; you wait here until I give you the signal."

I nod at her and watch her walk into the camp. She didn't try sneaking in; she just walked right through. I laughed a little about the absurdity of the situation until I heard an alarm go off. What's the point in going in at night if we aren't going to sneak in? When I looked over to her, she placed her hand over her mouth and started blowing.

I think she wanted me to use the whistle again. I immediately grab it and start blowing as hard as I can. Just then, I almost felt like I heard a slight ringing sound in my ear. It was faint, but it was there. I looked over at my mother, and she waved me forward. I think that's the signal.

I got out of the bushes and started walking over until I saw something on the ground. It almost looked like a corpse, but I could tell they were still breathing. When I stepped closer, they looked almost human. They had smooth pale green skin, and they were fitted with some pretty nice armor and weapons.

"I thought they would look uglier."

"These are high goblins. Centuries ago, a bunch of goblins captured a couple of thousand elves and… did what goblins do, and now you have them. Obviously, the story is far more complicated than that, but I don't really care."

I wanted to know more about the history between our two countries, but she didn't seem to want to get into it. I stayed silent about it until I asked her the obvious, "What do we do with them?"

"These guys are knocked out cold, so for now, we'll go to that tower and see if we can find the leader. I don't see any bigger tents, so I can only assume he's in there."

Just in case, I start blowing into the whistle again, just to be safe. As we start walking to the tower, I keep seeing more and more high goblins around the place. I'm a bit confused as to why we aren't trying to kill them, though. They clearly didn't come with good intentions.

"Why aren't we just killing them?" I looked back at my mother, only to realize that what I said was a bit out of character for a child to say, but she didn't seem to mind all that much.

"High goblins worship dark gods. If we kill them, there's no telling what could happen. If we find out what religious sect they belong to, then we can kill them… That's probably why you were sent here to help."

When we walked up to the door, my mother opened the knob and stepped inside first to check for traps. After finding nothing wrong, she called me in, and we started searching around for anything that could lead to incriminating evidence.

After a few minutes on the first floor, we couldn't find anything. So we moved up, hoping to find someone. Once again, I stayed behind. I crept up the stairs, trying to stay as silent as possible when I heard a loud noise that sent shivers down my spine.

[DING: YOU HAVE LEARNED STEALTH LVL 1]

Really?! Don't scare me like that! I looked up and saw my mother looking back at me like I was crazy when I saw something quickly approach her from behind.

"BEHIND YOU!"

I warned her as quickly as I could, but soon a blade was already on her neck. Due to my screw up, she was going to die because of me. I thought that, but as soon as I saw the blade touch her, it quickly turned into sand.

I looked at the scene and saw an exhausted high goblin holding the handle of a sword with no blade. As soon as I saw this, I pulled out my whistle and began to blow into it. As soon as that happened, the goblin fell asleep facing the stairs. I dodged out of the way and watched him fall to the first floor, where he slowly began to rise up.

"So pain is its weakness. Figured as much."

My mother said behind me as she slowly descended the stairs. "Don't use the whistle. There's no need. Not for vermin like this."

She reached the bottom of the stairs, where she was face to face with the nameless goblin leader. He was about to speak until he was struck in the throat before he could. "Don't speak. Anything you have to say isn't worth as much as the stain on my shoe."

Before he could protect his throat, he was struck again on the right side of his face. This time, his eye popped out, and he was struggling to put it back in until he had his fingers crushed by my mother's bare hands. I was shocked at the difference between a super and a normie. I've never seen a super fight before, and I can tell even now she isn't going all out.

That's obvious considering she isn't using the metal sand orbiting around her.

"Whenever I see your kind, I hate the fact that I don't have the ability to just control salt instead. I'd use it on you every day."