He quickly sealed the entrance and I lit a flame on my finger.
An underground passage. Rather crudely made, barely holding on.
And the thing?
Purple.
One eyed.
Goblin.
I sighed in relief. "I thought you were one of them."
He almost drooled at my sight. "Friendo, can I have an arm, for helping?" Heavy accent.
"Sure, but I'll take your head as a replacement," I said.
He smiled awkwardly. "This way Friendo, they will find us."
I didn't see anyone else here though. He motioned me to lit a pyre on the wall, and I did. He took the pyre.
"Just so you know, I'm grateful but if I notice you or your other friends trying to eat me, I will blast this whole place to smithereens."
He chuckled rather loudly. "I'm the only one left Friendo."
We walked for about half an hour.
Rather carefully. I heard plenty of sounds from above. Mostly just buzz. This passage was linked to various other paths but all of them had some sort of wooden door like structures. I couldn't call them doors, because they weren't doors. What sort of doors had eyes? Luckily, they didn't move.
"They won't come at us, right?"
I still randomly saw colors and my loins were kind of odd… but it was starting to fade. Phew.
"No worries Friendo, we good."
At the very end of the passage, we reached a room.
No, it was bigger than a room. A culmination of three rooms. Kind of similar to the stuff I'd seen in the Sea Goblin village.
Furniture here, bones there… bones.
"What is this place?"
"My home."
"No, I mean, the stuff above. What are those?"
"The master. The master of this nation."
"Nation? This is a nation?"
"Yes Friendo. You came here without knowing?"
"Yeah," I said. "I need to get somewhere. But… is this the forbidden continent?"
"Well, it's certainly forbidden. Where do you need to go Friendo?"
"I don't know."
He laughed rather loud. "Me neither!" he laughed some more.
"I wanted to find my parents. But they're probably dead."
"Friendo…" he came closer and put a hand on my back. We were about the same height. No, he might have been a bit larger. I could feel his breath on my neck.
"Bite me once and I'll cleave your head off."
"I won't, I won't."
Yeah, I wasn't buying it. He hadn't stopped salivating even once. He offered me some of his premade soup but I was reluctant to try that and opted to make myself some floating drinking water. I sipped it all in like astronauts in space!
"Oh Friendo! You know magic!"
"Yeah," I said. "Somewhat."
My skill with mana manipulation had increased a fair bit. I also had a larger mana pool. It was still worse than the average human though, so the progress wasn't ground shattering. The only reason I could still use magic to this extend and not pass out was because of the bracelet… and the thought alone made me want to protect this thing at all costs. My life depended on it.
"Amazing!"
"How do I get out of here?"
"You can't Friendo. The jungle is treacherous. The sea… deadly."
"Does the Sea trace the jungle on all sides? Maybe I could dive into the sea and travel underwater?"
"Are you crazy Friendo? The Sirens would chew you up!"
"Sirens… so, this is the forbidden continent." Interesting. Then I was in the right place after all. But, but if Den and Mom really ended up here. Could they surv- ahem… "You said this place was forbidden. Then that means there are places that aren't forbidden? How do I get to there?"
He went and got a stick. And then carefully drew on the ground.
A map.
A bit crude, and the lines were all over the place but I could make out five provinces. No names.
The first one was where we were at. It was sealed off with the rest of the world by sea and riffs. Basically, the forbidden zone of the forbidden continent. The rest of the four provinces were country sized islands interconnected via the sea.
"There is no way to escape Friendo. Sooner or later, you must cross the sea. The sea, bad."
"Are Sirens Mermaids?"
"Oh? No, no! Not mermaids. Mermaids good! Taste very good! Siren bad! Taste awful! Very Awful!"
Uh-huh.
So apparently, he was judging them based on taste?
I shook my head. "Tell me more about the island above. I think they were trying to drug me and then eat me or something?"
"Yes Friendo. They lather Aphrodisiac on you, make you go crazy… they made my friend Gobbo lose all control and continuously climax from just standing. Poor Gobbo pumped his hips in the air again and again and became one of them; he made out with anything that moved, even things that didn't move; he did it so much, his thing just fell of, Friendo… and he died today."
More like I killed him. But I didn't need to tell him that. "I'm Sol. Soler."
"Goribo," The goblin said. "Nice to meet you Friendo. But if I were you, I'd give up on leaving. You can't… you can't survive up there without losing it."
I sighed. "I will stop for now, and try to figure out what I can do. But no, I won't stop Goribo. I won't. I have somewhere to go. I have someone to find."
Goribo stared at me. He stared at me for quite a few seconds. "I see Friendo… can I eat your corpse in case you-"
"No."
[A/N]
FC's new proposed title: Reincarnated With No Shortcuts
New Syn:
Allen's life came to an abrupt end thanks to train-kun hugging him too tightly.
But death was only the beginning. Reborn into a world of magic and adventure, Allen expected to live out his second chance as some kind of hero. Unfortunately, his reality is far less glamorous: no overpowered abilities, no destined quests, and no clue what he's supposed to do next. Yet, he was content. He never had a decent family, so when an elf took him in... it was like magic.
Allen or rather Sol decides to give this life a decent shot; finding friends, training a bit, and relaxing. But when a twist of fate sends him tumbling into the path of something far bigger than himself, Allen begins to realize that even the slowest of starts can lead to something unexpected.
I''m genuinely not sure what do with this XD (Ps. You can see a crude map of this on my discord server if you want to)