"Turn down the setting for smell, if you are finding it hard to tolerate," said Shadow as he was examining the room. There was a door at the far end of the room. It would clearly lead into the fort, but they had no idea what they might find there.
"Keep dynamites and fireworks ready on hand. We might need to use them," said Shadow as he slowly went to the door without making a sound. It was locked from the outside and from the shadows He couldn't open it from this end of the door.
"I think we are stuck here. We better find some other way out or make a commotion and attract their attention and fight our way out," said Merlin in the team chat. At such situations when they were in unknown territory, it was always common for most players who played games to use team chats. Speaking directly or making noises would bring them to the notice of the guards.
"Who has pet?" asked Shadow. "If we make any metallic sounds or something they might be on guard, but if sounds of an animal comes from within, they would be worried about the food being consumed and rush in a hurry."
"You think that would work?" asked Tang. She was extremely impressed by the hawk that Rudra bought from the pet store. Once, she saw Rudra's post on the forum, she immediately went to buy a ferret from the pet store. It was not really a pet that would be useful in fight and just to be something to be played with and enjoyed.
"Ya. Probably one of the very few uses of ferrets. Make it squeal when I give the signal," said Shadow as he placed himself beside the door ready to attack. Tetsujin, Rudra and Merlin also placed themselves beside the door ready for the goblins. Slaine and Quiet Fire went into the dark to attack from a distance in case they failed to restrain the guards outside.
With the preparation done, Shadow signalled for Tang to start it. Once, the ferret started to squeak, the guards outside immediately noticed. They started grunting in their own language and in a couple of seconds, the click of a lock being opened was heard tensing all the players in the room.
As the door opened two goblin guards rushed into the room. Each were about 4 feet, wearing animal skin for armor and a pike made of wood in their hands. When they passed by both Shadow and Tetsujin immediately reacted and held one down each. Shadow as usual went for the neck and slit it open before he continued attacking. He couldn't take a chance. Though the game made the fights and mechanics realistic, it also introduced a certain amount of regeneration to the magical beasts and monsters, so that it wouldn't become boring. Tang and Blinding White joined him in finishing it off.
Tetsujin was also quite efficient in controlling a goblin guard. He had bought a pair of wooden tonfas at the city which had a hook like blade at the end of it handles. He pushed an end of the wooden part into the throat of the goblin shutting it up. Following that he immediately threw it down on the floor after which Rudra and Merlin joined him in the attack.
At the same time, Duck 'n' Roll got out of the room in stealth to check if there were any other sentries close by. With 13 players attacking 2 goblins, it hardly took a minute before the goblins died.
The spectre gave them a location to meet, but it told them to kill all the goblins and trolls before contacting it. So, Shadow had planned on killing all the monsters in the fort first. The rest of the members also wanted to do the same as they wanted to capture the fort and had no idea of Shadow's original intentions.
The storage room that they were in, was inside the fort and quite a distance from the outer wall, where the two towers were. The archers and personnel posted on such towers usually served the warnings. With them past the range of the tower and inside the fort, they escaped a major hurdle.
"We are inside the fort and hold the element of surprise," said Shadow turning towards the rest of the team. "Both I and Roll will move out to scout for the goblins and trolls. We need to quickly kill any goblins we come across without letting them alert others to maintain our advantage. We will observe their patterns and attack only groups with less than 5 members each time, so that we can quickly kill them. If you find trolls, avoid them and try to get away from them. Provide the location in team chat so that we can all avoid it. We can kill trolls quickly. They are tough and they shout alerting nearby reinforcements."
"I also got 4 scopes here. Though you can't mount it without a bow, it can still be used to check for enemies at a distance. Be careful," said Rudra as he handed them out to Merlin, Quiet Fire, Roll and Harry.
"Yes. That would be helpful. Power take this and spray it at the goblins, in case you can't stun it quickly. It puts them in a daze," said Shadow as handed him a sprinkler filled with alva's tincture. "It won't be for longer duration though, but enough for you to injure the monsters."
"One last thing. Don't use torches and flashy attacks. In this darkness, it is a dead give-away. Goblins tend to live in dark places and a light will attract them," said Shadow as he went into stealth.
"No flashy attacks? What am I supposed to do? Hit it with my staff?" asked Quiet Fire. His conditions made her next to useless.
"Don't worry and follow me. We will go along with Shadow," said Merlin as he took hold of them. He had extensive experience and knew how to use magic classes without alerting others. He just needs a few physical classes to pull the targets into a dark corner to attack them. He obviously chose Tetsujin and Shadow for this.
"Stay in the dark. He will give the proper sign for us to attack and we will quickly kill it. Remember stay as close to Shadow and attack using your skills at close range, so that the visual effects would be seen for longer durations," advised Merlin.
"Dude, I am trying my best, but your orders do make us almost useless. You need to determine if we can use our attack and order us," said Merlin to Shadow privately in chat.
"Ok. I understand. Just attack when I ask to. I will handle the responsibility. I have the highest perception attribute among us and I am the best for checking this," replied Shadow in the private chat.
"Roll move out. We will scout out the area before, we get them out of the room," said Shadow as he went into stealth. The fort inside the hill seemed to be in the shape of a semicircle and the storage room where his team was at one of the ends.
There were a few goblins in the pathway outside the room. Most were in other rooms playing or screeching and arguing with one another. One could consider them to be extremely lively beings. They almost fought on a regular basis and noises were always there. Other goblins would only be alerted on sounding horns.
This was both an advantage and disadvantage for anyone who infiltrated a goblin encampment. The disadvantage is an obvious one. With the goblins always awake and active, it was hard to find single goblin. So, at the very least one would find a pair of goblins patrolling.
The advantage was that as long as they prevented the goblins from sounding horn or themselves using flashy attacks or lights, the other goblins wouldn't usually care for the noises and sound of weapons. They would assume that it was a fight between two or more goblins.
Shadow and Roll went ahead checking a bunch of rooms. It was the same in most rooms. Two or three goblins playing or eating some stinking meat. They had checked close to twenty room after which Shadow signalled for the rest of the team to come out.
They had roll on lookout while Shadow took the lead in attacking them. It was already a habit for Shadow to pickpocket the goblins once before he attacked. Being humanoids, they had proper pockets in their wear and it always gave him something decent like armor or bones or other resources he could use.
He always started with cheap shot stunning one goblin and immediately attacking other while Rudra used Alva's tincture at the same time. This was immediately followed by the rest of the team running into the room to attack and kill the goblins.
This was a simple and efficient way to kill the goblins as long as no unexpected scenario occurs. A few times, a goblin came out of the room to check the walkway, but Roll was always on the lookout and managed to inform in time for them to get back into an already cleared room. Apart from Roll, Slain or someone else with a scope was also put on look out after the first time this occurred.
By the time, they cleared about twenty rooms, everyone in the team managed to reach level 12. During this time, they also found a few locked rooms. Shadow who had a lot of experience in opening locks could easily open these rooms. These were usually filled with nothing but everyday necessities of the goblins. Occasionally, they found a leather armor or so. These were also level 12 equipment which were very useful to them right now.
As they neared the central part of the semi-circular passageway, they found a pair of 8 foot large and 4 feet wide doors made of black stone. Looking at it, they immediately realized that it would be used to store something valuable. Shadow immediately set to picking the lock open. Once, it opened five of them together focused on pushing a door and the managed to open it enough to allow only a pair of them to go through beside one another. Still it was more than enough.
As soon as they entered it, they were giddy looking at the various bows, crossbows, swords and other armaments in it. These were all scattered down near their racks. It looked like time has worn down the wooden stands and racks, but the armaments made of metal were in decent shape. There was even a small hand cannon inside which could be moved around be a pair of players and held in place using a small fastener that held it on place on the ground. It was about 4 feet long and a foot wide and could shoot metal balls of about half a foot in diameter. Though it was a small one, Balthazar knew that these were quite effective and could cause shock and burn effects on even a troll.
But as soon as they went inside, an alarm sounded in the fort. It wasn't the horns that the goblins usually used but some kind of ringing sound that was probably from the fort itself.
"Shit! After all that careful movements, we still got discovered," said Slaine as the alarm sounded.
"Get into the room and lock it. There are bound to be a horde coming in. Get those crossbows and load them. Rudra help me with the cannon. We shall see what we can do," said Shadow as he ran towards the cannon.
Luckily there were no other traps or dangers in the room, and they were all quickly able to equip the crossbows. The rest were all put into their bags.
"This is a great score. Even if we fail to capture this fort, as long as we get this equipment it is worth the trip," said Rudra. "Everyone first let Harry fill up his inventory. Harry you get to the corner of the vault and stay out of the fight. If we fail, at the very least we will try to buy enough time that you will be put out of the battle state."
With the alarms, goblins had been alerted and they were in a state of battle. They can't channel their hearthstone to teleport back to the city and if they die there is a high chance that all the loot, they collected in this state would be left behind. This was a common feature in many games, and it persisted even in vita-nova. Harry was the best option to stay back and out of the fight at this time as he was a druid and he didn't presently have any good skills for fighting. It was unexpected how a person who most thought would be dragging them down would be quite useful when they wanted to transport their loot. If the loot was lost, everyone would feel very miserable.
"Get ready. Fire the crossbows and use magic attacks. You guys haven't used them much and have a lot of mana stored up. Use it all now," said Shadow as he lifted the hand cannon and was moving it with Rudra's help. By this time, small groups of goblins already reached door and were getting into the room through the space opened by Shadow and others.
All those who had long range attacks, immediately started attacking the goblins. Slaine used a firework which put them in shock due to the light. The nearby groups of goblins themselves numbered around 20. But as they were squeezing through a gap enough for only three of them, they made easy targets.
Once they positioned, the cannon, Shadow called Little White Feet back to man the cannon. Being a cleric, she had little attack capabilities and was the best choice to use the cannon as the damage from cannon was independent of the player using it. He went and started attacking the goblins along with Rudra.
"Use the cannon, only if, we are unable to stop it. I will give you the signal. Just be ready and continue with your heals," said Shadow.
Though the goblins were in large numbers, they had little space to get in and were unable to move the doors due to their smaller weaker physiques. Shadow also used the dead bodies to block the door. The bodies wouldn't disappear for sometime before they were looted. He used this to block the door.
This situation of frenzied attacks continued for about ten minutes, almost depleting the mana from the bars of the players. Some of them already used their potions. Luckily during this time, Shadow, Rudra and the close combat classes pushed the door close little by little to reduce gap, so that it would reduce the number of goblins entering at a time. This reduced the advance of the goblin hoard.
"We better refill our stocks as soon as possible," said Merlin as the attacks reduced. He sat down and began to make more mana and health potions. This was the biggest advantage on having an alchemist or a cook in the team. They could always bring their equipment and create consumables in small periods or reprieve between the fights.