So we've finally started. This is my first trial session since the start of the year when I first registered halfway through this. It only took me this long because of my lack of training and all the bullshit I had to go through to learn about how the world worked. And I was only able to understand most of what I could thanks to the generosity of the Halliway family. My new family. At this point I need to just keep going. I don't want to worry them anymore than I already have. But the only problem I have now… Are the creepy trainees stalking close behind me. I can tell their curious as to why and how I got to this point in the first place. There's also the thought of them having ideas of getting me to crack under pressure.
If anything I can simply make them think I'm only here for an outside job like my paper says to do and start my "scavenger hunt."
"Hey, Tess!" Ah lord. Xyle rushes towards me and gives me this oddly giddy, "friend" smile that made me uncomfortable. "So what's your job again? I never really got to ask you."
"May I ask why you wish to know?" I have to act like a simple goblin with only noble house people skills. It'd be beyond problematic if I spoke out of turn with him around.
"Well, I figured since you're here for a lower level license you'd have something like a guild badge or something that doesn't need a lot of interaction with the hellscape like hunting or getting bad guys. You know what I mean?"
"..." He's trying to convince the others that I'm only here for a small time job. He not wrong considering what a scavenger is known for. It does pertain to dangerous surrounding but it doesn't mean I have to interact with said dangers. "I'm here to be a scavenger." I tell him. "It doesn't get a lot of attention, but it pays a good sum just from collecting materials like herbs and fur, sometimes minerals from the caves."
"Oh. So they gave you a scavenger hunt then? For what? If you don't mind me asking?"
"Uh…" That's the problem. I shouldn't tell him that since its the same item that everyone else is in for. "I don't think we're allowed to show others our missions if we're not in the same party."
"Uh… right you got a point. Haha. Ah…" he says nervously. He really is a fool for not thinking that far ahead. But I'll condone to him trying to make my mission easier for me.
"You don't need to worry too much, sir." I tell him. "It's not like I'll be in any danger doing this since I won't actually be inside the caves."
"Wait. what??"
"My map seems to be set outside the walls. See the grass patches?" I show him my map and he pulls out his to compare it. His had a tunnel system while mine seemed to have and open space.
"Huh?? Wait a minute. That doesn't make sense though? I saw the map of the valleys around here and none of them looked like this. You sure this is near here?"
"Hm?"
"Look. I even brought one with me." He opens his status box and calls a map of the region around us. It even showed where we were. "See? Here we are and here's the cave. Then the mountain here and city here… wait where is this??"
I look to where he was pointing and it was a large cluster of trees. I remembered how far the water hole was from the city and took note of the caves and tunnels around it during my first few weeks in the world. "That's my birth place." I tell him nonchalantly. "That spot is the wildcat guardians water hole at the edge of the map. Over here is another small cave that I was in before coming here."
"... But where's your map?"
I look again asking myself the same question. Then see the same small patch on top of the mountain. "... Here." I point to it and it zooms in scaring me. "Uwaa!!"
Xyle snickers at my reaction. "Pfft!! S-sorry! Sorry. I forgot it did that. Hahaha!" I hold back a growl in my throat but he still hears it. "Calm down. That was my bad. Hehe. So… they sent you to the top of the mountain huh? What's there?"
" that's what I'm supposed to find out."
"Oh. So you got a whole ARG to go through huh?"
"It seems so."
"Huh. Guess I'll have to catch you on the flip side then."
"So it seems."
"Oh yeah. What's with the stiff attitude? I don't care if you just talk to me normally, you know." Nope.
"Am I not talking normally?"
"Ah come on. You know what I mean."
I just sigh in annoyance. "... I don't think that I'm not talking like I should."
"Hm?" Take the hint, you twat. "... Ah. Well. Just talk to me like you would a friend... Or to your family! Just call me big brother Xyle."
"... Aren't you younger than me, though?"
"Ah. S-so what?"
"...pfft." Dammit. I cracked. "I don't think I should have that right, but thank you for your friendliness." I smile.
"Uh… yeah. Sure. But seriously! Go ahead and just talk to me comfortably! It's not like I'll be offended by your personality or anything."
Why you little… "... Alright but I'm not accountable for my mannerisms anymore since you said that."
"...! Alright! You're on, shrimp!" He chuckles.
"Yeah sure." I guess this is fine. But why is he pushing this friendly behavior so much? It's not like I've ever been nice to him… if anything, I should probably apologize for always giving him the cold shoulder when he did try to talk to me.
We make it to the cave and go our separate ways when he stops and asks. "Wait a moment. What about the competition?"
"... I guess we'll find out the result after. Not everyone is going inside after all. See?"
A few trainees start looking around the cave entrance to find a new path. While others head inside.
"Oh. Okay then. You be careful up there then, you hear, Tess?"
"I know that. I'm not a cluts, man."
"...!? Pfft! HAHAHAHAHA!!" He laughs as he enters the cave letting it echo inside.
"And stop scaring the bats!" I shout and he stops laughing.
"Hey!"
I start scanning the mountain side and find an unused path that zigzagged to the top awkwardly like it hasn't been used before. I get ready to follow it when I get called out from behind.
"Hey! Look! It's that goblin!" A few archers and a thief where heading in my direction.
"Well, how's that fer ya. He made it through trainin. Good on ya."
"Hey what did you sign up for to get the scenic route?"
… I… don't know how to react to that. "Uh…a scavenger."
"Oh yeah. He's got the small pack."
"Hey, ya don't mind if we join ya, do ya?"
"Not really… that's on you after all."
I continue climbing and follow trail with the trio behind me. They seem to be in a group of their own so I should be careful not to be too close to them. I start to notice some of the trial was getting cut off occasionally and it was throwing me off a little until I found the link and concluded a reason for it being the way it is. The mountain has an overhang on this side. This is gonna make it a pain in the ass to climb so I better go around to the other… Hm? I found a tunnel just at the end of the trail and follow it inside out of curiosity. It was a narrow crack in the wall so I was barely able to crawl through. It was super dark inside and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust when I heard the trio calling to me again.
"Hey goblin! Where'd you go!?"
"How the hell did he just disappear like that!? I only looked away for like 3 seconds!"
I decided to pop my head out of the hole in the wall and found them stuck on the broken ledge at the end. "Hey. There's a small spot here. I think you can all fit."
"Whoa! What the hell??"
"Are you sure this is the right way?"
"I'm just following where the rout seems to go. You don't have to follow me." I tell them and go back inside to continue. I let my eyes adjust again and move on for a long while until I felt the angle shift a bit. I started going up now and then got forced into a crawl then finally reached an opening at the end. I pop my head out to find myself above a large bowl of green where a ton of wildlife resided. From all kinds of gorgeous birds to a multitude of beasts and reptiles crawling everywhere. I'm so awe struck by how pretty it all was until I felt something tap my feet and scare me out of the hole.
"UwaAAAH!!!"
"Ah."
I tumble down the cliff into the foliage and catch a branch to stop. "Few! Jesus. That was a trip. I'm okay. I'm fine. I'm alive… let's go." I decide to climb back to the top of the trees and look around. I then look to my map and notice that a lot has changed on it. I can now see my marker on it as well as it being in more detail. So much so that it almost looked like… what is this? I move it around and see the image change ever so slightly. Is this a puzzle? I continue turning it until I could see it made a new image. One of a target. Again I change it. This time an eye. Then a stone or gem. And then a pick axe, shovel and shears on one image.
… okay so I got hints. First is target practice. I guess I can start looking for something that requires it. It doesn't take me more than a half hour to find one. Then two, then three,... then ten. Either I got options or I got to hit all of them.
Warning: projectile in range.
I drop to the ground without a second thought. And turn to find one of the archers aiming at me.
"Uh…!! S-sorry! Sorry! That's my bad! I thought you were one of those screetchers." The fuck is a screetcher!?
I don't bother with her comment and run for it. Fuck that. I am not in the mood for the hunger games. I find a spot to hide and look take the chance to look through my bag. I find a sling in it and few wood pins that looked like large tacks or tiny stakes. I look around and see the trio looking around and shouting at each other about this being a good chance to steal my map. Why? I don't know. But I can play that game of flag tag racing if you prefer.
I take aim with the sling and fire it.
¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤
The small party looks around frantically and argue when one of them hears a thunk above his head then a click. He sees a target he didn't see before knocked over and something creaking in the distance. More sounds of something hitting planks one after the other and the party watches as all of the targets get knocked down. Confused, they follow the targets untill the last one was hit, not realizing that Tessa had slipped past them and snagged their maps instead. The targets reappear and a door opens in a wall letting Tessa rush through.
"Hey!!" One calls as he rushes after her and the other two follow close behind him. The door starts to close and Tessa was long gone with their maps.
¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤
I made it inside… now it's a temple. I go deeper inside where there's more light from the glowing vines that coat the walls of a large round room with a dome on the top. It was weird when I looked up to find it holding water with varieties of fish swimming around the top. All in multitudes of color and sizes like the other animals outside and all beautiful just the same. Again I'm mesmerized for a moment, then find a pillar to sit on and check my map with the ones I took.
I should have a bit of time before they figure out how to open the door again… It doesn't look like mine has changed except the target has become something else I can't make out yet. The eye should be next. Maybe it's a symbol on something. These only have pieces of a map of some kind… looks like they belong on a wall though like etchings from a carving.
I scavenge the room thoroughly but get no luck in finding a symbol of any kind for my map, but I do find a small carving with chips missing from it that seem to match one of the maps.There must be a few more somewhere else in here. Let's look around some more.
It takes me a long while to finally find the other three carvings… three? Am I missing one? I look at the maps once more and try to figure them out … grrr. I can't think of what to do next. None of the pieces match but I can make out the… oh. Wait a minute. I put the maps together and raise them to one of the lights in the room and instantly recognized the mark as the sign for Palitoh. The god of views. Honestly, I feel like I should call him the all seeing one… OH!!! WHAT THE FUCK!? I'M SO STUPID!!
I look around once more and see that the dome had the same view mark. I look down at the ground and see the same the floor had a mossy coat over it, so I figure it's hiding something. I uncover it and find a yellow stone jammed in the center of what I now see is the same mark again. This time surrounded by other variations of crop circles. I press the stone in and it glows followed by the rest of the floor in the room until a pattern makes its way to the wall and reveals an eye shape. That was the mark on my map. I go to it and see a place to put the three pieces and place them. they turn to stone and a passage opens up for me. Sweet!!