Unexplored - Rise of the Crimson Kingdom Page 4

  Estelar tossed the pouch to Padwin. “Hey Padwin, look. We might be able to buy some decent weapons now.”

  Padwin’s eyes nearly bugged out. “How did you get this money, and if we may ask, what is your name?”

  “My name is Larkin, but how I come across my money is my own business.” Larkin appraised the two men that stood before him. “You gentlemen seem to be the type that enjoy a little adventure. Why don’t you join me for a drink and we can discuss a venture I have in mind.”

  Padwin and Estelar looked at each other.

  “What do you think?” Estelar whispered to his friend.

  “If that ogre is any indication of how he treats his employees, I’ll give it a pass,” Padwin said.

  “But that guy was a dick, you heard what he said. Besides, other than this purse of silver, we’re flat broke. This might actually be a chance to get some coin.”

  Padwin looked to Larkin, then back to Estelar. “Point. We can at least hear the guy out.”

  Both of them took a seat at a table with the robed man. After the serving wenches and bartender finished carrying out the fallen ogre, they brought the three men drinks.

  EIGHT

  Padwin and Estelar sat at the table for an hour sipping their ale that tasted like rainwater runoff from a garbage dump (an improvement over the last batch) and discussed their histories in the game thus far. Larkin listened attentively. His grey eyes were sharp and extremely focused. This unnerved his guests somewhat, but his calm and pleasant demeanor kept them at ease.

  “So we’re both at level three,” Padwin said, “but we still suck.”

  “We both are rather skilled in using rudimentary weapons, but it’s our hope to eventually graduate to something a bit more refined,” Estelar said.

  “If you keep hacking away like you have been, you never will,” Larkin said.

  “That’s what we're both afraid of. Our level is rising, but unfortunately our fortunes are not.”

  “Level doesn’t mean anything in this game. There was a woman that was really good with her words that claimed she was already up to level twenty. She claimed she could charm anyone into doing what she wanted.”

  “Where is she now?” Padwin said.

  “Decomposing in a field somewhere. She ran afoul of a friend of mine and he put her to the sword.”

  “I didn’t think you could actually level up with social skills,” Estelar said, “I guess in some cases the pen can be mightier than the sword, though not in that unfortunate woman’s case.”

  “This is mightier than everything,” Larkin pointed to his forehead. “You know how to use this, you can get whatever you want from this game. It’s something you can’t very well do running around randomly ganking goblins.”

  “We haven’t really had the opportunity to use our brains,” Padwin said.

  “That’s what we’re here to remedy. I have a task that I need your help with. There is a small village of goblins in the woods that is causing me trouble, and I want them eradicated.”

  “How many are there?” Estelar said.

  “Somewhere around thirty,” Larkin said.

  Padwin laughed. “Thirty goblins? How are we going to take out that many, we barely beat six and we got lucky.”

  “That’s where using our brains come in. Would you mind if I looked at the inventories you both have?”

  Elf and human showed the robed man their inventories. He scrolled through them and smiled.

  “Perfect, we almost have all we need,” Larkin said.

  “A bunch of rusted out weapons?”

  “Of course, but we’re still missing something. I’m going to the general store and getting a chest. Meet me by the city gate in an hour and we’ll go take care of my little goblin problem.”

  “Before we begin, I would like to discuss our compensation for this endeavor,” Estelar said.

  “Besides, we haven’t even said yes,” Padwin said.

  “You’ll be well compensated for your time. As far as agreeing, my assumption was that you were both smart enough to say yes.”

  “Given the danger that’s involved, we both would be smart to run away from this offer as fast as we could,” Padwin said.

  Larkin shrugged. “I have no time for cowards. I am going to purchase the chest. If you’re interested in my job offer meet me by the city gate. If not, I’ll find someone else.”

  The robed man rose, placed a few copper pieces on the table, and left.

  Padwin and Estelar quietly watched him go and turned back to their ales.

  “Creepy dude,” Padwin said.

  “Yeah, but he’s a creepy dude with coin,” Estelar said.

  “You really thinking of accepting his offer?”

  The elf looked at the shabby state of his clothes, then jiggled the four silver pieces in his pocket. He looked up to the gaggle of homely women he and Padwin approached earlier and they gave them inviting glances in return. They’d been trying to catch his attention ever since he received the silver from Larkin.

  Estelar knew that if he wanted the attention of women, he’d need money. Larkin might be the lifeline he needed to get it.

  NINE

  Together they stood by the gate for ten minutes. Estelar and Padwin both wondered how they were supposed to take out thirty goblins with only three of them. They speculated that Larkin was an extremely powerful mage, but that didn’t make much sense. The game had only been out for a couple of days; there was no way someone was going to get that powerful so quickly. He could have been an NPC, but the way NPCs behaved, both ruled this possibility out.

  It could have been a joke or maybe Larkin was crazy. The second was probably true. He had an air about him that seemed a bit “different.” Padwin wasn’t initially interested in the venture because of this. However, the argument that they were broke and had no other options of employ at this time shut down all of his objections.

  Larkin appeared walking down main street with a large, plain oak chest. He nodded toward the men and came up to where they stood.

  “I see you both decided to take me up on my offer,” Larkin said.

  “I was a bit on the fence,” Padwin said, “but we need money and you’re the first person we’ve seen that has any.”

  “Padwin,” Estelar hissed.

  Larkin laughed. “A mercenary at heart. I like that. Shows you have your priorities in order. Shall we start?”

  “Before we begin,” Estelar said, “perhaps you’d like to tell us how we’re going to kill off a village full of goblins.”

  “Sure, but let me explain on the way. I have other matters of business I need to get to and want this taken care of first.”

  Larkin walked ahead of them and out of the gates of the city. Estelar and Padwin jogged after him.

  They walked a familiar path toward the forest. As they went, Larkin explained his plan. He was going to place some of the weapons Estelar and Padwin had in a chest and cast a simple spell he knew on them to make them glow. He would then place the chest full of glowing weapons out into the open to lure the goblins in a few at a time into an ambush.

  “That sounds like a really dumb plan,” Padwin said.

  “It is, if we were trying to lure humans, elves or many of the other races with our bait, but these are goblins. Most goblins tend to not think before they act.”

  “Exactly where are we going to place the chest and how are we going to prepare our ambush,” Estelar said.

  “You leave the where and how to me. Just focus on killing goblins,” Larkin said.

  They continued on quietly for three more miles until they saw a group of huts in the distance, nestled beside the treeline. Estelar squinted his superior elven eyes and could make out Goblins going about their routine as the sun set behind them.

  Larkin put the chest down and opened it. “Okay, this should be good enough. Dump those crummy weapons in here.”

  They did so and Larkin waved his hand over them. “Nyzyll Aihora.”

  The
weapons gave off a soft blue glow and Larkin smiled. “This is a little ‘useless’ spell a friend gave me. Said I’d never find a use for it. Let’s prove him wrong tonight.”

  “What should we do now?” Padwin said.

  “We hide and wait.”

  The three took refuge in the tree line and left the chest full of glowing weapons out in the open. After an hour the sun disappeared behind the horizon. They waited patiently for something to happen. Estelar drummed his thin fingers on a tree. He occupied his mind by doing math problems, but after a while even that couldn’t sate his boredom.

  “When are they going to come?” Estelar said.

  “This is really boring,” Padwin said.

  “Just give it time gentlemen,” Larkin said.

  After a few minutes more, three goblins looked to be performing a patrol a few hundred feet away. One of the trio stopped and pointed to the chest with the strange blue glow coming from it. All of them walked toward it and peeked inside.

  When the goblins saw the cache of glowing weapons they excitedly spoke to each other. They loudly sorted through them and held them up, inspecting their beauty. The two humans and elf crept up on the goblins as they admired the treasures. One of the goblins turned around and was about to shout, but a shimmering blue bolt crashed into his chest and dropped him.

  The other two turned to see Padwin and Estelar brandishing large clubs. The goblins were felled before they had a chance to defend themselves. All goblins were killed and their bodies were drug back to the woods.

  “Very nice. We only need to do that a few more times and we can move on to the next phase of our plan,” Larkin said.

  “What is the next phase?” Estelar said.

  “Just wait and see.”

  Another patrol of three goblins came over to inspect the chest, and fell like the first. Another pair of goblins met their end in front of the chest.

  Congratulations you made it to level 4!

  Your skill with small clubs has increased to 3!

  The screen came up in front of Estelar when he killed his last goblin. He closed it and drug one of the bodies into the forest with the others.

  They waited for another hour. When no more goblins came, Larkin went out to the chest and brought it back to the treeline.

  “Now it’s time for the next phase,” Larkin said. “Soon they are going to send out search parties to look for the lost goblins. I want you to kill any goblin you see as quietly as you can. I will go to the village with our ‘magic weapons.’ While I’m there, I’ll give the weapons to them. If they do what I predict, they’ll fight over them and while their busy I’ll kill them.”

  “Won’t there still be plenty of goblins left in the village?” Padwin asked.

  “Don’t worry about me. You just do what I tell you and it’ll all work out.”

  The group waited for another hour until they saw torches coming from the village.

  “Ah, looks like they’ve started. Good luck,” Larkin said and picked up the chest.

  He carried the chest along the treeline, staying out of sight of the goblin search parties. When he was gone, Padwin and Estelar nodded to each other and waited.

  They saw four lit torches in the area. Each group had two goblins. Every few paces the goblins would stop and call out and wait for a response Padwin and Estelar knew wouldn’t come.

  One of the search parties got close to their position and stopped. Before the goblins could call out again, Padwin and Estelar leapt from the trees and tackled them to the ground. The two goblins were quickly clubbed to death.

  Estelar picked up the fallen torch and held it up. “Padwin, I have an idea. Hide in the tree line.”

  The light of understanding came into Padwin’s eyes and he did what he was told. Estelar saw another one of the torches nearby. He got on his knees to make himself look like he was as tall as a goblin, cupped a hand over his mouth and made several noises that sounded like goblin words.

  The torch came in their direction. When the goblins came into view, Estelar crawled backward toward the trees. The goblins followed. When they got close enough, the elf stood and revealed himself. The goblins drew short swords but were surprised by the human behind them.

  Padwin cracked his club over their heads, dropping them to the ground. They placed these bodies with the others, put out the two torches, and went back to their hiding spot. The torches farther away stopped moving around after a bit and came close to each other. They held still for a little while longer before moving on together.

  “Think they are getting wise to us?” Padwin said.

  “I would think. They might be dumb, but even dumb creatures would know if half their search parties went missing,” Estelar said.

  Four goblins, two wielding swords, walked a few hundred more feet away from their village. They called out what Padwin and Estelar assumed were goblin names and started talking among each other. After a quick conversation the goblins turned back to their village.

  “Looks like that’s our cue to get started,” Estelar said.

  “We’ve beaten six, four shouldn’t be much trouble,” Padwin said.

  The two crept behind the goblin party. They tried to be as quiet as they could, but as slowly as they were moving, they had no hope of catching up to the goblins. They didn’t want a direct confrontation but it didn’t look like they had much of a choice. Elf and human readied their clubs and ran at the goblins.

  The green creatures turned and saw the elf and dwarf coming at them. The two goblins without torches drew short swords, while one with a torch sprinted back toward the village.

  Estelar swung his club at the goblin and it dodged to the side. It countered with a thrust but the elf easily hopped aside. The goblin followed up with a slash and the elf dodged by swaying back.

  Padwin met one of the goblin’s short swords and furiously worked his club at his opponent. The goblin kept his sword up and parried every strike. It tried to get an attack off but it had to spend all of its time defending off the stronger human’s blows. The third goblin saw the difficulty his ally was having with the human and swung his torch at Padwin.

  Wisps of flame licked Padwin’s skin. He grimaced and backed off, giving the first goblin much needed room. The goblins then worked in tandem attacking the human with torch and sword. The human used quick footwork and pumped his club in front of him to keep his enemy’s weapons at bay, but it grew harder with each pass.

  Estelar managed to work his opponent's sword low. He moved forward to smash the end of his club against the goblin’s chin but the creature sidestepped the blow. The goblin came around with a slash but the elf managed to backpedal a safe distance away. The two combatants circled each other for a few seconds before the goblin made the first move. He feinted right then quickly whipped his sword left.

  The elf barely managed to block the blow. The goblin pulled away and quickly rushed forward to stab. Estelar knocked the blow aside with such force that it disarmed his foe. He planted his feet and with four vicious blows he left the goblin lifeless on the ground.

  Several feet away, Estelar saw his friend struggling to hold off two attacking goblins. He rushed toward the short sword wielder as fast as his feet could carry him. The goblin with the short sword turned to meet him, however he was surprised when the elf stopped and leapt sideways, swinging at the other goblin who still faced Padwin.

  The first goblin attempted to stop the strike but the elf was too quick. The blow connected with the torch wielder’s head and he fell to the ground. Padwin immediately attacked the last remaining goblin and it fell.

  They made sure to finish off the creatures. A screen popped up in front of Estelar.

  Congratulations you made it to level 5!

  Your skill with small clubs has increased to 4!

  They could see the fourth goblin’s torch approaching the village. Both of them remembered that Larkin was still there by himself and ran toward the conglomeration of huts. The magician was alone and, no
matter how good his magic was, he would probably need help.

  As they ran toward the village, a robed figure they assumed to be Larkin stepped forward. He raised a hand into the air and a blue bolt shot toward the torch bearing goblin. The torch flame wavered in the air. Another blue bolt, and the flame fell to the ground.

  TEN

  Padwin and Estelar jogged toward the robed figure. When they got close enough the figure lifted his arms and shouted, “Luminos.” Bright light revealed the crimson robes of their comrade.

  “I see you missed a goblin,” he said.

  “Sorry about that,” Padwin said.

  The magic user shrugged. “It’s to be expected. You took out the rest, which was more than I expected. You did well.”

  “Are there any more goblins left in the village?” Estelar said.

  “Yes, but they’re not breathing,” Larkin smiled.

  “Ah, well, then uh - I guess that concludes our business,” Padwin said.

  “Not quite,” Estelar said. “You still haven’t paid us.”

  “You are very right,” Larkin said.

  “So, when do we get paid?” Padwin said.

  “As soon as you follow me,” Larkin said.

  With a flourish of his robes, he walked into the village. The others followed.

  The huts were small and round, constructed with straw. Their roofs sagged and looked like they would give way at any moment. Dead goblins lay in various places. Some had divots in their bodies while others had multiple lacerations. In the center of the city eight goblins lay around the trunk full of weapons that no longer glowed. Larkin dumped the weapons out and looked at the adventurers.

  “I am not paying you yet,” Larkin said.

  His companions’ brows furrowed.

  “What do you mean?” They said in unison.

  “You are going to search the village and look for any valuables and treasure. Anything you find, you place in this trunk.”