I walked out of Alex's office holding a bronze card and excited to get started. I'd decided to go ahead and tell Alex my identity, he's the one the most likely to be able to help me search for Spirits so I decided to leverage the name of Storm's Refuge. As soon as he heard sweat beaded his brow's and he looked scared. I could just hear him whispering, "I can't believe we offended one of those monsters..." I guess Storm's Refuge has quite the reputation.
After that, Alex was completely accommodating, almost too much so. The man went from a powerful young cultivator with a bright future to a wounded animal trying to lick its wounds as he begged for scraps. His reaction to my status told me more than anything just how lucky I was to have joined a major power so early on.
Deciding not to care about it, I had instead pumped him for as much information as I could get. Ironmarsh is considered a 2nd level special zone, third level zones designed for those in the Energy Gathering Realm (which I was technically in now that I'd begun refining my brain) were currently under construction. In 1st level special zones anyone can join the Adventurer's Guild, while in 2nd level you are required to be in the Body Refining Realm, and so on. I wasn't entirely sure what comes after the Energy Gathering Realm, it doesn't really apply to mindscape users because our strengths' are measured by how much of our mind's we've unlocked.
The Adventurer's Guild currently has three ranks, representing the strength of it's members. Black, Copper, and Silver. I probably could've gotten a Silver card, but while I may technically be in the Energy Gathering Realm, I wasn't anywhere near strong enough to fight one yet.
The most important piece of information was that he hadn't heard of any Spirits in the zone, however a dungeon with a maximum of 5th level body refining could be found here.
Now that I am an official member of the Adventurer's Guild, I decided that I might as well check out the missions. Walking over to where I'd seen a couple of people looking at missions earlier, I read them.
"Goblins are breeding like none other, thin out their population. 10 Coppers per pair of goblin ear's turned in."
'Coppers? I thought that cultivator's traded in Energy Stones.' Looking through the offers, the most any of them offered was a single silver for escorting an apprentice alchemist to pick herbs. To me, Copper, Silver, and Gold was just a waste of time. Anything that could be bought with that would just be given to me for free, what I had to worry about is gathering Energy Stones. Aside from the one High-Quality Energy Stone I had left in my villa at Storm's Refuge, I didn't have anything.
Wondering through the room, I finally came to a section with rewards in Energy Stones. A sign was hanging above it, "Minimum level 5 Body Refining". Looking at the missions, they had moved on from chores to more interesting choices.
"The Blacksmith's Guild needs rare ores only found in the dungeon, prices negotiable dependent on rarity and amount."
"Rare Herbs can be found in the Dungeon, the Alchemist's Guild will trade for them with foundation pills. Amount and level of pills dependent on rarity and amount of herbs found."
"A caravan has gone missing along the high road, investigate it's disappearance. 2 Energy Stones."
"A Goblin Lord has been born, take it out before it becomes a major problem! 10 Energy Stones."
"Kobolds have been seen sacrificing animals and people to their gods, kill them before they can summon a Minor Drake. 10 Energy Stones."
"The Dungeon hasn't been cleared in nearly a month, clear it to prevent an outbreak. 2 Energy Stones."
Looking through the list, I couldn't help but get excited. Opening up my group chat, I sent out a message to everyone. "Hey guys, come to the Ironmarsh special zone when you get a chance. They've got an Adventurer's Guild and a dungeon, plus we can make Energy Stones here!"
Grabbing the mission about the missing caravan, I walked up to Monica the receptionist. Despite the earlier incident, she was completely professional as she took the mission script from me. Frowning, she looked at me and said, "Do you have anyone else to go with you? This is a really dangerous mission."
"Why so?" I asked
"The Caravan disappeared not far from a Goblin's Nest, my guess is that they've killed all the men and taken the goods. Thankfully that one didn't have any women in it, but that nest has been a pest for months now. I don't think one person could take it out by themselves, it's why the reward for this mission is so high."
I grinned as she spoke, remembering my time in the tunnels of Storm's Refuge. Since then, I've always dreamed of killing more of the little buggers. "Don't worry, if it's too much for me to handle I'll call in some back up."
She looked at me dubiously, but still took my Bronze Card and swiped it through the machine giving me the mission. "You have 48 hours to complete the mission before it gets put back up on the board."
Nodding, I took the card back along with a map marking the last known whereabouts of the the caravan. Thinking for a moment, I went over to Alex's door and knocked on it. "Alex, would it be possible to borrow a bag? I'm going to go kill some goblins and need something for the loot, I'll return it to you or pay for it when I'm done."
Alex jumped to his feet, excited to do something to curry favor with me. "Of course" he said, opening up a safe on the wall behind him and pulling out a coin purse with engravings on it, "These cost 1 energy stone, I'm sure you'll be able to pay me back quickly!"
"Sure thing," I said, taking it from his hands. Opening it, I put some Elemental Energy into the runes and found that it was a space 10 feet by 10 feet. More then enough room for a goblin killing spree.
"I'll be back in a couple days, I'll pay you back with interest then."
Walking through town, I was once again struck by how many people were here. Multiple training halls had been opened, but they were almost empty. It seemed that no no one wanted to spend the time and energy to cultivate, instead they were spending their time partying and making fools out of themselves. It was truly depressing to me, if it were up to me I'd kick them all out of the village until they'd died a couple of times.
Deciding to just ignore the situation, I flashed my Adventurer's Card at the gate guards and they let me pass without incident. Thankfully, my implant had already grabbed all the information from the map, and a mini-map had popped up in the top left corner of my vision.
A couple hours later, I'd reached the spot where the Caravan supposedly disappeared. Looking around, bloodstains where still evident despite nearly a week having gone by. Following them into the woods on the side of the road, I deployed my barrier and took out my staff. Such an obvious trail, it screamed trap to me.
As I walked, I tried to extend my senses and somehow felt more than heard the rustling of some bushes to my left. Deciding to pretend I hadn't noticed it, I bent low to examine the blood and realized that it'd been refreshed recently. It was actually still wet to the touch!
That's when they struck, 5 goblins surrounded me while screaming their warbling war cry. I could've just let my barrier deal with all of them, but I didn't want to get into the habit of assuming it'd block everything and then die when something actually broke through. Twirling my staff around, I blocked two attacks and dodged the rest. Compared to the first time I fought goblins, these guys were stronger. They'd obviously been eating well, and their weapons were new instead of rusted. 'Maybe from the caravan guards?' I thought to myself as I dispatched four of them easily. I let the last one get away on purpose. Goblins are notoriously stupid, after taking a moment to grab all the weapons and cut off 8 ears I followed it without even trying to hide.
Half an hour later, I came to a stop as I saw a massive wooden wall. Nearly 15 feet tall, hobgoblins guarded the gate, while two archer's towers stood behind it. More goblins could be seen patrolling the exterior of the walls. Observing for a moment, I backed off a few feet and climbed a tree so that I could see into the encampment. Compared to the shanty town I'd found in the tunnels, the place was well built. Wooden buildings with thatch roofs covered the space, a stone temple being built by the low ranking goblins in the middle. A group of a hundred Hob's were training while wearing heavy armor and carrying around maces.
I took a moment, trying to decide what the right course of action to take would be. As I watched, the goblin I'd followed here pointed back towards the path he'd ran down while gabbing away excitedly to the Hobgoblins guarding the gate. Before I knew what'd happened, the Hob cuffed the goblin, nearly killing it. Then, with a roar he pulled a horn from his back and blew it.
Within moments, a group of nearly 50 goblins had appeared with a shaman leading them while riding a wolf. Without pause, they took off down the path to the High Road.