Tor was one of the world's largest countries, second only to the great swathes of desert claimed by the Lunar Dominion in the east. A bustling hub of trade thanks to its centralised location, it was quite common to spot merchants like Barion riding slowly along the land's highways.
While dotted with towns and smaller hamlets, the centrepiece of the country was Gria, the capital of humankind and the world's single-largest city. As the seat of the human emperor, and the headquarters of the Merchant's Guild, it was a location of great strategic and diplomatic importance.
Situated next to the Tor river, which terminated at the continent's southernmost point, there was also an active naval trade route with the frozen empire of Fleecia, the only member of the Holy Alliance to be separate from the main continent. During the time of the Demon King's reign, it was almost completely destroyed due to a lack of communication with the mainland.
Barion's journey from the peninsula took a month of his time in total. After seeing nothing but fields and grasslands for weeks, the sight of Gria's lofty castle peeking over the horizon brought great comfort to him, as his supply of monster-repelling herbs was starting to shrink. Entering through the city's eastern gates, the guards did not stop him for an inspection, which was quite rare.
The amount of Elven silver he had purchased from Aelf'ahlnohma would quickly flood the market and plummet its value if he sold it all at once, so he considered weaning off his supply over the course of several weeks while going on with his personal business. Purchasing a print from a hawking newsboy on a street corner, he noticed an interesting headline.
Shulm governor apprehended for corruption, participation in unregulated slave market!
The Merchant's Guild worked quickly. While they were only a body of commerce, the Holy Alliance had given them incredible power over the world's affairs, and enough capital to put kingdoms to shame. For the governor to have been arrested so soon, and for the news to have reached Gria already--he must have been apprehended only a few days after Barion departed.
"Now-" He folded up the paper and sighed, "Where could that girl be?"
The fact was that he had arrived in Gria to search for a companion of his, but the city was large indeed and simply asking around wouldn't get him the answers he was looking for.
"The Adventurer's Guild…" He muttered, "I'll find what I need there."
It was getting late, so while he had an objective in mind, first on his list was finding an inn to spend the night. Thankfully, the city was in no short supply of such establishments, as it was a popular place for adventurers to make a living. On his way to find one, Barion dropped into a fair and peddled some of his silver to local blacksmiths, who were more than happy to take it off his hands. He was careful to avoid revealing just how much of it he actually owned, only trading handfuls at a time.
When night fell, he retired to one of the city's main inns and worked out a plan of payment for a month's worth of lodgings. That would give him more than enough time to find his comrade and enjoy the city's atmosphere.
The next morning, he headed quickly for the Adventurer's Guild, marvelling at how pristine of a business it had become since last he saw it. Within the building, men and women clad in armour of all sorts and with weapons hanging from their belts shared stories with one-another over tall flasks of ale.
Next to the attendee's window, there was a wide bulletin board hastily plastered with notices and warnings of all kinds--some of them requests from local merchants and alchemists, and others official decrees from the castle of the emperor.
"Excuse me." Barion wandered over to the guild attendant's window, "Are there any raids going on today?"
"We have a report for a large goblin burrow which has suddenly appeared close to the city, but…" The mature woman behind the counter hesitated, "It's been given a 5-star threat level, and we haven't been able to organise a group together for a proper attack quite yet."
"How long has the burrow been there, and where is it, exactly?"
"A week, if reports are to be believed, and it's east of the Lefershire hamlet south of the city."
A goblin burrow. Such anomalies were quite common--goblins stuck together to increase their combat abilities, and frequently kidnapped the women of nearby villages to use as breeding slaves. But 5 stars indicated threats to the country itself, most commonly awarded to dragons and liches. It would have to be a tremendously large burrow to have garnered such worry.
"Knowing her…" Barion muttered under his breath, "Okay. Thank you for the information."
The guild receptionist bowed as he left the building. His destination had already been decided. The maps in his wagon quickly confirmed that Lefershire was only a few hours away from the city at the speed he'd be travelling. If he was lucky, he might be back in the city by the end of the day, even.
Though he would have liked to take his time enjoying the city's cuisine and atmosphere, a solid lead had already presented itself. His horses had only just been relieved from travelling across the country, and they almost seemed exasperated when Barion led them through the city gates once more. Tactfully, he retrieved his Information Tablet and made sure to update it.
"Elven Silver… 30oz… 900 gold profit…" His fingers danced over the tablet's surface, "3 pouches of toxic herbs… 6 gold…"
Once his accounts were in order, he began planning out a route for his journey as the city faded into the distance. Thankfully, he wouldn't have to take any forest roads on that occasion. Lefershire appeared to be one of the larger towns around, from how it looked on the map.
It wasn't normal for a goblin burrow to cause trouble for large communities, but if it really was a 5-star threat, it would take a group of well-prepared adventurers to deal with. Even small burrows were cramped and difficult to navigate--a 5-star burrow, Darion imagined, would be closer to an underground city than a series of tunnels and chambers.
-But at the same time, a challenge like that would have no doubt attracted the attention of a certain someone--exactly the person he was looking to track down. Delving into a 5-star threat solo was her idea of a good time.
When Barion finally carted into Lefershire two hours later, the town appeared practically abandoned from the outside. Only a few villagers had dared to leave the safety of their homes. It wouldn't have done him any good to question random people, so Barion brought the cart around to the local blacksmith, who was hammering a red-hot piece of steel in the open air of his smithy.
"A girl?" His voice was gruff and tired, "Aye, there was one here earlier, perhaps an hour ago. Seemed like a mage to me."
"Where was she headed?" Barion asked.
"Towards the burrow. Eastward." He answered, "Didn't try to stop her--had a feeling she wouldn't listen. Poor girl. She won't last a minute before they get a hold of her."
"Thank you."
"Sonny… you heading that way, too?" As he looked up from his work at Barion, the blacksmith strained his eyes against the sunlight, "I don't mean to be rude, but you look even less prepared than she was."
"That's true. I don't have any bombs or magic scrolls on me."
"You're a man, so at least they'll just kill you."
"I'm feeling quite confident despite all that." He replied, "If I return here alive, I'll gift you some of the Elven silver I've got stored in my wagon."
"Hah." The old man chuckled without any humour, "So be it, then. It's a bet."
She had almost certainly been there, standing exactly where Barion did just an hour ago. Or, at least, he hoped it was her. If it turned out to just be a random adventurer girl, there really would be no hope for her.
Goblin burrows were easy to spot. If one kept an eye out for the pillars of mud goblins created to mark their territory, one could be found in no time. Barion had barely been riding east for 15 minutes when he spotted the first of them--a foetid, oozing structure caked with faecal matter, which stood as tall as a lamppost. Another one was constructed at a crossroads just a short distance ahead, and he noticed a hastily-erected signpost that stood out among the others, pointing south.
WARNING! GOBLIN BURROW THIS WAY!
At least they were taking measures to drive people away, he thought to himself.
The pathway quickly descended into a kind of valley which sank between two grassy knolls in the landscape. The tell-tale sign of a burrow was the horrid stench that lingered in the air close by, and the lack of grass which had been covered by the refuse dug out from expansions to the burrow.
The entrance to the burrow, when Barion finally happened upon it, was more like a maw that invited one deep into the earth, as if a dragon had melded into the soil with its mouth agape. The echoed shrieks of inhumane creatures reverberated from below.