Recon

Chapter 4

Recon

It took me only 1 hour to get there. I was on the road for 20 minutes when I saw a merchant riding. Fortunately, It was going in the same direction and charged just a copper for the ride. It got some protection and I got my ride. Usually, they charge extra but my protection discounted some of the cost. Well, he asked for more but I bargained him down.

Reaching there, I met with the village chief who reported the quest as the first thing on the quest is to collect all the information from the quest giver.

The chief was an elderly man who looked to be in his late 40's but was probably in his 50's. Still, he was built like a brick, though I could see that the age was sapping his strength.

The village was quite big in my opinion. There were about 100 people in total who lived in the village.

From him, I got to know that there has also been 1 raid last night too. The goblins tried to kidnap a girl but the villagers drove them off. 4 more young men got injured in the struggle. Fortunately, no one got killed.

They didn't know how many of the goblins were there exactly but after asking from everyone I suspected their numbers to be 6. Still, I wasn't fully sure as they don't remember their conditions as the goblins usually attacked in the night.

Still, I don't think that anyone was leading them. I asked them if the number of goblins has increased but they were quite clueless in that regard too.

Thankfully they knew from which direction they came from.

I was pretty sure that they had some cave for their nest. And I was right. It took me only 20 minutes to find their cave.

The cave appeared abruptly in the middle of the forest just beyond the village. How long had it been there? None of the villagers remembered. It seemed as though it had been there forever—and yet, at the same time, it was like the cave had only just recently come to be, in a flash.

'Most probably the goblin themselves dug it up' I mused.

Such an impression was common here in the world, which had not been under human development for very long.

Every part of the world was continually changing. Even among the elves, there was none who knew the exact geography of all places. And now, goblins had made a home in this cave. Were they stragglers, survivors from some battle? Or just wild creatures, nobody knew.

What people did know was that goblins had appeared out of that cave, attacked the village, stolen some livestock, and finally tried to kidnap a woman.

'A common tale' I thought. Including the part where someone came to the Adventurers Guild to file a quest. Thankfully they did it before some woman was actually kidnapped.

Now, I faced the mouth of the cave, hiding in the forest undergrowth, waiting intently for time to go by. The sun had passed its zenith and was working its way down through the sky. I spent quite some time before twilight in observation.

It was my first time seeing any goblins in person. Sure I have seen them in both my lives but only as a drawing in books or on screen.

They were small-sized ugly creatures with green skin. They truly looked evil even by their looks. No woman would willingly sleep with any of them for any price, that's for sure.

'No wonder they had to resort to rapes to get some new boys' I mused

The goblins went in and out of their nest, showing no sign of noticing me. The guards didn't take their jobs seriously, standing around almost; it seemed, out of habit. They didn't look starved to me.

'Most probably as they are feeding on the livestock and crops they stole from the village' I theorized.

The patrol changed every 2 hours. This meant there were at least 6 Goblins for sure as they had to patrol for 12 hours from dawn till dusk. I was beginning to consider that my first estimation of their numbers was in fact, correct.

I couldn't see any totem so the shaman was also out of the picture. And without shaman, there would be no hob. Or it could be – I wasn't sure. If they had hob then they would have attacked with him. Still, I was 99% sure that they were only some wanderers. I wasn't sure that they hadn't kidnapped some girl from the caravans and such. And so smoking them out wasn't an option as it could cause the death of the woman.

I briefly thought whether death will be merciful to her or not. I shook my thought from these morbid thoughts.

'I have to remember that Sword Maiden herself got up after the torture the goblins put her through. Moreover, she became a Gold Rank Adventurer which was pretty damn impressive' I reminded myself

'It seemed I will have to go into the cave to kill them' I mused.

I sighed and decided to get ready. The goblins I saw were coming and going carrying weapons, swords, and clubs mostly. I just watched them and tried to breathe as quietly as possible. They are cowards for sure. If they get some hint that I was here, they will flee.

Knowing they will be waking up in some 2 hours as it was 2 hours before the evening, I decided to attack when there was still some light. I stepped out of the bushes carefully not wanting to alert them by making noise. Just as a goblin came to change the shift; I picked up 2 heavy stones and threw them towards the goblins.

...

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