It turned out Rayne had to wait more for his new armour, and unfortunately, he had orders to follow.

  “Rayne, to your left!”

  Bran's voice alerted him and he turned to see a goblin charging right at him. He didn't panic and put his shield forward.

  The goblin hit it with all its strength, but it barely pushed him back. Giving it a scowl, Rayne swung his sword in an overhead strike.

  The monster shrieked as steel tore through his shoulder. Rayne slammed his shield right in its face to send the goblin sprawling through the dirt. The familiar feeling of a kill notification was enough for him to know that the goblin was dead.

  Another one was already upon him.

  He twisted his body out of the way as the goblin jumped with a crude dagger in its hand. To his credit, it didn't stumble on the ground and instead turned back to continue its feeble attack.

  Rayne kicked the goblin in the gut, even if the dagger touched the chausses. He brought his sword down on the goblin's throat and ended it in one strike. Blood sputtered out to shower its grey skin.

  He didn't keep watching and turned around. All around him, the chaos of a battle was well displayed.

  Shrieks and snarks echoed through the forest alongside grunts of the soldiers slicing through the ranks of goblins that kept coming out of their nest. The goblins had dug out two pits for their nests near the river.

  Now, flames burned them, forcing the grey goblins out to meet their blades.

  The smoke hurt his eyes through the visor, but Rayne didn't give it much thought as he charged right at a goblin trying to jump at John's back.

  He grabbed the goblin's leg as it jumped before smashing it right on the ground. The creatures were light, especially after he had levelled up and he finished it with a stomp of its feet.

  “Thanks,” said John before swinging his axe towards another goblin.

  More and more of the distasteful creatures came running up at him, but Rayne had become so accustomed to them, he didn't feel overwhelmed at all.

  On the contrary, he reveled in the feeling of being in the middle of the battle, knowing the goblins were no match for him and his shield.

  None of them was able to get past it, and if they came from behind, he would turn, his blade slicing their heads off in no time.

  By now, he had realised the grey goblins' neck was a good area to strike. They died fast with a stab and he used it to his full advantage.

  Two of the taller ones came from the left, one of them holding a club that felt far too big for it. It still managed to slam it right in the centre of Rayne's shield, pushing him back a step.

  The second goblin took the opportunity to slash at his sides with the claws. But he had already anticipated it.

  He sidestepped the swing and retaliated with a slash to the goblin's ribs. It cried out as blood flowed out of the wound. It jumped back, trying to run but Rayne dropped his shield briefly, taking out a dagger and threw it right at the goblin.

  It hit the creature right in the throat.

  Rayne didn't keep looking at it as the first one again swung its club. But it was too slow.

  He rolled out of the way as the club slammed the ground. And the goblin failed to lift it back up again. Taking the opportunity, Rayne slammed his sword right in the goblin's spine.

  The brute spasmed and went down with a groan.

  “Clubs are too big for you,” he said, looking at the goblin corpse before he looked around.

  The battle was almost over.

  Bran was the main cause of that. He stood in the very back, giving instructions from time to time, and kept firing arrows at the goblins that stuck their heads out of their burning nests.

  Around the pits, dozens of bodies had already piled up. Each of his arrows hit the mark and Rayne wondered if it was a special skill or title. And if it was the former, what level was it?

  The ones that escaped his arrows were dealt by Nate and Kesh who banded together, their shields up as they stabbed at the monsters.

  The others did their job as well, killing any goblin that came charging at them.

  In just ten minutes, they had killed almost two dozen goblins, and it was only the first nest of the day.

  As Rayne watched, Bran launched another arrow straight at a goblin that jumped out of the nest. It hit its ankle and the monster went down hard on the ground.

  Kesh moved towards it, his sword coming down right at its throat. In a matter of seconds, it was dead and Rayne could see no more goblins around.

  “It's over,” he muttered, taking a sigh of relief as he felt all his excitement and adrenaline leaving him.

  He coughed as the smoke hit him, but quickly got out of the way and made his way towards Bran while checking his notifications. He had gotten an additional strength, but no levels.

  It was disappointing, but he guessed that the goblins were only Level 5 on average. They were just too weak to give good experience.

  “Good job, everyone,” Bran said after everyone gathered around him. “Check the nest once and see if there's anything we can carry. We will take a short break and leave to find the next nest.”

  They all nodded and moved to either sit or search. Rayne saw Bran moving to collect any arrows that were still in a good condition to use and moved towards him.

  “So you believe what I found now?” he asked, looking around the nests. It had been one of the four ones he had heard from the red goblin.

  After their break was over, they had gotten the orders to burn more nests as expected, and Rayne had insisted on trying out the ones he had gotten from the red goblin.

  Bran crouched to slowly take out an arrow from a goblin's throat. “I did believe you even back then. I wouldn't have agreed to come as far as the river otherwise.”

  “You said nothing to Captain Edran,” Rayne replied. “Why was that?”

  “Let's talk about it on the move to the cliff. I believe you said another nest is there,” said Bran.

  He put down the chipped arrowhead with a shake of his head before moving onto the next. Rayne saw him inspecting each arrow with precision to see whether any of them could be used.

  He didn't move to help him. Not because he didn't want to, but because he had something else in mind.

  He looked around for the goblins he had killed and walked towards the one that he had stabbed through the throat. He looked down at it, already feeling nauseous at the thought of what he was going to do.

  It was good that he skipped breakfast.

  He crouched down, taking out a knife and hovered it over its ribcage for a few seconds before slicing it up. The grey goblin's skin felt leathery, but easy to cut through.

  He peeled the skin back, looking over at the organs with disgust.

  He noted everything down. The placement of the organs, how big they were and although he wanted to take them out to inspect further, he already felt strange eyes from the others.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  So, he simply stopped after cutting through the head and back. Even that was too much as by the end of it, his hands were covered in more blood than he had gotten in the battle. And a bad stink clung to his armour.

  When he turned around, Kesh looked at him in disgust. “What are you even doing?”

  Nate put a hand on his shoulder. “Don't ask. Everyone has their own… fetishes. You won't even believe what I have heard on nobles and their—”

  Rayne cut through his words. “It's not a fetish. I'm studying them.”

  “By slicing the dead goblin's body apart?” Nate raised an eyebrow.

  Rayne sighed and shrugged, not wanting to waste energy to explain. He himself didn't like dissecting monster bodies, but he had found so little information on them, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

  The others would understand when he showed them the results.

  Bran clapped his hands to take everyone's attention away from him. “We should move. If we could find two more nests by evening, I'm pretty sure Axel will be happy enough to give us some of his ale.”

  Everyone cheered and soon, they were on the way towards the cliff. They had passed it by during one of their earlier forays into the forests, so everyone mostly knew their way.

  Heins, Kesh and Nate discussed whether they should have gotten more levels out of clearing the nests. Unlike him, they didn't have the blessing of seeing their status at will.

  Apparently, soldiers needed to either ask their superior for a soul shard to see it or go to the churches in one of the cities.

  From what he recalled, even Edran didn't have one on himself despite being a noble. That just proved how valuable they were.

  Rayne didn't keep listening to them, making his way at the front where Bran led them. He always put a good distance between himself and the others to scout the path ahead. He had to walk quite a bit faster to match pace with the veteran.

  “Are you going to speak now?” he asked, coming straight to the topic.

  Bran nodded, eyes looking through the treeline before stopping at him. “Like I said, I did believe you. It's just unlike me, Captain Edran won't let you keep your secrets, Rayne. He's not a bad warband captain, but he would make you speak them out if he felt like you could help his standing.”

  Rayne almost stumbled into a fallen log before moving through the side, stunned by the words.

  “I was protecting you there,” he continued. “I know you want more merits. I was like that, but you are already in a precarious situation. Your background is something you didn't choose, but you need to tread carefully in the army.”

  “What secret?” he asked, hoping Bran hadn't realised who he was. He couldn't have unless he had skills to detect lies.

  If that was the case, he would be a truthsayer back in the capital. Not in the army.

  “Everyone has secrets,” said Bran. “I have a few. And I know you have some. At least one. I didn't believe you got all that information out of the goblin through drawing in the mud. I know because I have killed them for decades. If it was so easy, I would have figured it out long back. Whatever your way is to get information out of them, I don't have to know it. If it was something you can share, I believe you would have told it to Axel or me already.”

  Rayne maintained his silence.

  He had been an idiot, thinking he could fool others. Maybe the new recruits, but Bran had seen through him instantly. He spoke with no doubt in his words.

  Fortunately, he seemed to have no idea about what it was. If that was truly the case, then Rayne was safe for now.

  “What do you think it is?” Rayne asked, probing a bit. There was no point denying it at this point.

  Bran raised an eyebrow. “I'm guessing an ancestral skill.”

  Rayne kept silent, letting Bran speak further.

  “You know the skills you nobles get taught by your parents. Guarded by your families. I have heard of a few that could do things no normal class provides. If that's the case, then you can keep it to yourself. I have no desire to learn of it.”

  After saying that, Bran moved ahead to scout, leaving Rayne to his thoughts.

  If there was any consolation, then it was the fact that Bran was as far as he could be to knowing his true skill. Or could he be saying that just to have him lower his guard?

  It was really hard to say, and Rayne felt a headache already. Though, some of his words kept swirling in his mind.

  Captain Edran would make him spill his secrets if he even got a whiff of it. He couldn't let that be. He had already shown a lot of excellence by finding goblin nests, and taking on a troll alone.

  He had gotten looks of more than disgust and hatred after the battle. Soldiers had started to take note of him, and it just meant more attention on him. More chances of him spilling his own secrets.

  He needed to be more careful.

  Rayne kept silent through the trek to the cliff and once they found it, they headed north, walking a step slower, eyes looking around for a nest. He could see that all of them were tense.

  Their shoulders stiffened and nervousness clearly showed on their faces. He couldn't blame them after what they had seen when the squads had come back yesterday.

  The goblins were setting traps. It wasn't a one time thing, and they needed to be more careful.

  After searching for half an hour, they finally spotted the nest. It was in between two massive trees on the side of the cliff, surrounded by grass and undergrowth. A pitch black hole in the ground.

  They didn't rush in to burn it and searched around for any traps and ambushes, but there was nothing. Like the last nests, these goblins didn't seem to be led by a goblin leader.

  Once they had confirmed everything, they moved to burn it.

  As the fire started right above the hole with twigs and branches burning, all of them took their positions.

  Kesh, Nate and a few others made a formation right in front of the nest while Bran stood on the back, already having nocked an arrow on the string. Rayne and John flanked it from the side, holding their weapons.

  Rayne kept checking up his gear, making sure nothing was wrong with his armour, weapon and shield. But even after ten minutes of the fire burning, no goblin had come out. Smoke had already taken to the skies, and they would normally come out in the first two minutes itself.

  They still waited, thinking it might be another trick, but it was the same even after half an hour.

  The flames had started to extinguish on their own, having burned the twigs and branches.

  Rayne glanced at the others. “Do you think all of them just suffocated?”

  Bran shook his head. “Couldn't be. The goblins do have a sense of preservation. There's something wrong.”

  All of them moved towards the nest, peering down the pitch black pit that was at least twenty feet deep. Rayne saw not even a hint of a goblin coming out of it.

  “I believe some of us should head inside,” said Kesh.

  Nate looked at Kesh as if he had talked about stabbing each other. “In a goblin nest? After all the proof of them laying traps. Yeah, wouldn't be me.”

  “I will do it,” said Bran. He gestured towards Heins who carried supplies on his back. “Get out the rope. You and I would head in.”

  Heins paled. He was another of the new recruits, a kid from the western of Valeria. “Me?”

  “Yes, you are short. Others would have a hard time crawling other than us two. Don't worry. I will be in the front,” Bran replied, looking at the others. “If we don't come back in the next ten minutes, assume we are dead.”

  That didn't seem to help Heins. The poor guy took out the rope with trembling hands and Bran fixed it to a tree before dropping it in the pit.

  He waited a minute before he and Heins made their journey inside the nests.

  Rayne sat down with the others near the tree as they kept watch over the nest.

  “Anyone going to make bets whether they would come out or not? 10 coppers on coming out,” Nate said, taking out a copper coin.

  Kesh frowned at him. “You are betting on someone's life? That's despicable.”

  “I don't know what that word means.” Nate grinned. “And I'm betting on them coming back. Not for them to die.”

  Before Kesh could have any more objections, Marco and John had already placed their bets. So did two more. The general consensus was that they weren't going to come out alive.

  Rayne simply kept watching, having no money on himself to bet.

  Seconds bled into minutes, but there was no sign of any movements in the nest. He grew a little impatient, so did the others. If it was a trap, then it was something they hadn't seen before.

  If something happened to Bran and Heins, it would be a—

  “It's a chore to climb up the nest,” Bran's hoarse voice came out suddenly, taking everyone's attention.

  All of them got up as the veteran pushed himself out of the nest, dirt all over his armour and face. Heins came out the next second, immediately kneeling on the ground and praying to Henrexa.

  He ignored him and turned to Bran who scratched the dirt out of his cheeks. “What did you find?”

  Bran frowned. “That's the thing. We found nothing. There was only an empty hole back underground. No goblins, no weapons, nothing.”

  Kesh looked back at the nest. “Do you think someone cleared this?”

  “No, there's no signs pertaining to that. When we burn a nest, some goblins choke on smoke and die inside. There were no corpses there. There's not even a single sign of battle happening around here, and have you seen any footsteps nearby?”

  Everyone shook their heads.

  “So, it means the goblins abandoned their own nests?” Rayne said.

  Bran nodded, a dark expression covering his face. “Yes. But the question is why? Goblins never abandon their nests. Even if a stronger predator is around, they simply hide in it by digging deeper. They also don't make new nests until one is destroyed.”

  He kicked a pebble with a grunt.

  Rayne's gaze fell back to the nest and the same question echoed inside his mind. Why did the goblins abandon their nest?

  ***