They were ten uneventful minutes down the path, and Rook had grown used to the faint smell of decay on Mara’s fur. It wasn’t as if she could help it; the Torokin was covered in hair. Mana wipes were bound to miss something.

  “Slimes can be opened, and as long as someone reaches in to pull the core free, then we can kill them fairly easily. Maybe I can distract them from now on,” he said, looking at the pair.

  “And I reach into the cesspit and pull out the gem?” Reina shook her head. “Well, you are party leader,” she said sarcastically.

  “Until I can grab a hold of its heart, Kali ma style, we’re going to have to do things the old-fashioned way.”

  “Depending on the type, I may be able to reach in and pull it free without aid,” Mara added.

  “That’d be a great help. How do you feel about me doing the distracting and you swooping in like William Wallace every now and again?” Rook asked, reaching his arm across his body for a quick stretch.

  “Wallace, who? Forget it, I need to be within touch distance to buff you anyway, so it’s probably fine.” Reina yawned. “I wonder if I can sap it,” Reina muttered to herself.

  Rook snot rocketed some slime matter out and gagged. I’m going to need some serious TLC after this. I smell like trash juice.

  He pulled his map up for the nth time. “We’re close to the entrance. How do you feel about going the rest of the way?”

  They continued down the forest path. Rook fully expected a band of merry men to jump out and start dancing.

  “I never did ask you. Those bandits, they said you are an enhancer and can fetch a high price.” He idly kicked at some high grass. “Is it because of your class or your name?”

  “Most likely both. People have always looked at me differently due to my Jax name. Oh, look, it’s the Jax girl. Oh, look, it’s the councilman’s daughter. Bet she gets anything she wants, eww, no, don’t invite Reina. She’s a slug who doesn’t wear makeup or would even look good in it.” Her face grew serious. “My class has always been an enhancer, which is considered a top-tier class for an adventuring party. But my name has made me alone and incapable of making friends with anyone but my father.

  Mara nodded in agreement, seeming to regard Reina with a curious look.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” Rook felt like he had just poked a hole in a dam, and the tears would flood at any time. “If it’s any sick consolation, I really only had one true friend, and I didn’t meet him until I was in the military.” He smiled at her. “Thankfully, now I have four. And I promise if you can deal with me, then you both have a friend in Knox as well.” He looked up. “That’s right, Jody. If you’re listening, I consider you a friend.”

  “Seconded, for all you both did for me and the torokin, you have a faithful friend in me.”

  Reina wiped her eyes with the back of her clean sleeve and swallowed. “There’s the entrance.”

  “I did want to ask something, why is your father still out and about, mushroom farming?” Rook asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t he be sitting pretty in a cushy office and going to meetings?”

  “He hates the dog and pony show of it all. He normally is in the office and going to meetings, but a few times a month, he goes out and picks mushrooms and searches for his diamond-ranked ingredients,” Reina said, with a smile.

  Rook put his hand up in a fist, then took another knee. SLLS time. This go around, the check was chock full of activity. He saw the entrance of the mine. It was a dark hole cut into the side of a mountain, extending out like 2x4s stacked and formed into a tunnel. Two goblin sentries dressed in light brown deer-like hides dragged a goblin dressed in a loincloth with a quarterstaff in front of the tunnel. The two goblins spat on the shirtless one and left him to guard the door. How fucking weird.

  “What now? Is there usually a goblin guard at the entrance to the mine of struggle?” Rook asked, peering at the sentry.

  “Not that I’m aware, but you heard Jody. This place got reports of a monster infestation. I wouldn’t be surprised about anything we see in there.” Reina responded.

  “I haven’t heard about the mine of struggle being occupied for over thirty years. We should be careful,” Mara added.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Mara shifted uncomfortably on one knee, the weight of the greatsword no doubt digging her kneecap into the hard mud. For a second, he met the goblin’s gaze and felt like the biggest idiot in the world. A good rule of thumb was that if you could see the enemy, then they could see you, unless you had cover and concealment. Which Mara, Reina, and he did not. They were caught naked out in the forest path. Here they were staring at the goblin sentry, who luckily seemed oblivious to their presence.

  He checked his map. Yeah, we’re here at the mine. However, short, green, and ugly is digging one clawed pinky into its pointy ear. Goblins always travel in packs since they are social creatures; if they were especially unlucky, a tribe would be just nearby. We need a detour.

  “I’m going to try and find an alternate way in, stay here and keep your eyes peeled,” he said.

  “Be safe. They aren’t all that strong alone, but together they can easily overwhelm,” Mara said, with a frown.

  He nodded, crouched, and walked toward the mine. The detour Rook took was to wagon wheel around in a wide berth and see if there was an alternate entrance at the top. In video games, these places always have a second place to infiltrate from the top. He was a sneaky Rook now, so maybe it would be worth it to creep to the top.

  “I don’t think the guard in the boxers is an eagle eye. It may be worth using my sneak to see if there’s another entrance at the top.”

  Rook crept to the summit of the mine via a side path created by natural runoff. Standing in front of a wooden door with an iron latch was a sentry in that mismatched hide armor. That must be it. Rook smiled, then realized that along with his goal of finding an alternate entrance, he shouldn’t die as well. It was as if both he and the goblin spotted each other at once. Rook froze, hand in the cookie jar, and all that. He was ready; it had to be now.

  The goblin raised his feathered spear towards Rook. “Intruder. Intruder, Gwick Glaw!” it screeched.

  “Whoa, whoa. I don’t suppose you will take the excuse that I took a wrong turn?” Rook asked.

  The goblin marched towards him. I’m not getting my ass kicked for a second time this week. He took a one-handed stance and swung his crude club towards the goblin’s dome. The wide arc of his club hit empty air as the goblin easily ducked it. Rook was waiting for it. He shot a projectile directly into the goblin’s face, dropping him like a log.

  “All you had to do was pretend you didn’t see me and go away,” he said towards the little green corpse.

  Padding footsteps from behind sent an ice-cold shiver up his spine. He whirled around to see another goblin thrusting a spear towards him. Rook dodged the first two thrusts and took the third spear into his shoulder armor, deflecting off. Think. Think. Rook kicked the goblin away, free of the spear, sending it piling into a nearby stack of crates, and its spear clattering away a short distance away.

  “This is gonna hurt bad,” Rook said, willing the spear into the air and shooting it towards the goblin, landing in his chest. “Focus.” Rook’s breath hissed out of his nostrils. He stayed until the death rattles stopped emanating from the goblin’s yawning mouth. Sorry, but it was you or me. Rook bent down to loot the corpses.

  Atromancy 92/500

  +2 experience gained

  You have slain Thunderfist goblin sentry x2

  20 experience gained

  25 out of 900 experience until level 16

  He pulled open the hatch that the goblin was guarding. “Well fuck me sideways.” Rook peered inside the obvious store room. “So much for an alternate entrance.”

  Would you like to loot storeroom?

  Yes/ No?

  Hell yes.

  You have obtained one goblin blade (copper)

  You have obtained three health potion (copper)

  You have obtained three mana potion (copper)

  Obtained rune lantern (blue)

  They still needed to find a place to enter the mine without being detected. He crept back down the eroded pathway that led into the woods. My stealth doesn’t seem to increase despite there being an enemy nearby. Maybe Jinxor’s way really was an exploit. But how? The gnome’s way of leveling stealth didn’t register with Rook. In all the games he’s played in his life, stealth increases gradually through the use of sneaking near enemies. However, Brianna’s wasn’t full of enemies; it was full of adventurers. I wonder if maybe- Rook’s train of thought was interrupted as his foot caught in a gopher hole, sending him tumbling off the side of the hill.

  He half-slid, half-tumbled down the steep decline. Glances of sky, then ground, rapidly shifted as his world turned over and over. He collided with someone who grunted in pain. It was the goblin sentry.

  Rook’s health bar ticked 5% away. “Damn, that freakin hurt.”

  The green bastard didn’t die; in fact, he seemed to relish the fact that he was lying down. As if this were nap time. Rook fell on top of him and seemed to be the only one who took damage. Looking closer at this goblin, he was elderly, with wild, greying hair that stuck out in all directions, but was bald at the liver-spotted top. Shit, gramps, I’m sorry. He grabbed the spiked mace and placed it on the goblin’s neck. The goblin was unarmored and dressed like a primitive caveman. It gave him a weak smile, and he actually nodded. There was an intelligence behind its eyes, one of relief as if the pain was ending. Rook empathized with it, and an aching tremor of sadness twisted in his chest, and he grimaced. The old goblin smiled through rounded teeth. He’s telling me to do it.

  “No.” Rook pulled the goblin to his feet and dusted off his shoulder. “I think if all goblins were like you, there would be an agreement of some kind,” Rook said, offering the goblin an edible mushroom Roran gave him long ago. At least the inventory kept it fresh.

  The goblin gramps gave Rook a chittering nod, as he gratefully took the mushroom from his hands. Although there was no change really to the goblin’s face, Rook could tell he was grateful for the food. This goblin was far from sentry-worthy; his spindly arms could barely hold up the quarterstaff he had. If it even was that, from this distance, it looked more like a walking stick.

  The old goblin waved his hand in front of Rook’s face and chattered like a raccoon. Rook’s health bar grew to full once again, and the cut on his thigh stitched closed. “Heal. Gok”

  “Did you just heal me?” Rook pointed down at his leg and interlaced his fingers to imitate the stitching. “Thank you.” Rook stroked his chin. “I’m going to call you Raccoon, because that’s what you remind me of with all that chittering.”

  Raccoon nodded, hobbling back to his place at the front of the ruined mine entrance. If there was one thing Rook prided himself on, it was being nice to the wildlife.

  “Rook!” Reina called out. “If you could leave your new friend, we could use some help!”

  Rook patted Raccoon. “You gotta lay low, if not those goblins come back they will kill you for helping me.”