It was like magic. As soon as the grey humanoid stopped moving, its body turned into small dust particles and then vanished into the air. The same thing happened to the monster's machete as well.
What was that? He questioned.
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You have slain a goblin.
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You have gained 5 exp.
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To mute these notifications, please give the mute command.
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Goblin huh? He shrugged and was about to move on when he remembered the bow and arrow that he saw. And sure enough, they were still lying safely under the tree.
That goblin's bow was a very small thing, hardly the size of his hand. But it was very sturdy. Arun checked its string's strength and was quite surprised to realize that he could use his full strength to pull the bow, and its material of strong and flexible. While the arrows on the other hand were one different thing. The arrowheads in the quiver were covered in green color liquid, which he didnt dare to touch.
I have the bow with me; I might as well try it.
He knocked an arrow onto the bow and pulled the string. The arrow zoomed out of the bow and lodged itself on the tree which he aimed for. Although his aim was about 12 inches away from the target, he realized it was not something that he couldnt make up for with practice.
The strap of the quiver was made to be strapped at the back of the goblin, but due to Arun's size, he instead tied it around his waist and started moving on.
The deeper he went, the denser the forest got, and the more he started seeing signs of a tribal civilization ahead of him. It started off with with wind chime on a tree. Then he started seeing cut marks on the tree, clearly made by blades. As he got closer, he started seeing heads of ape-like creatures hanging from trees. These heads had color powder on them, and their mouth were sewn shut.
Seeing those heads, he exercised caution, crouched down, and went for a puddle nearby. Taking the wet mud from the puddle, he covered his body and clothes with mud, giving him some camouflage. Then he started moving forward, very slowly.
Sure enough, he soon spotted another goblin. That thing was moving east, towards his right. But this one was a little bit different from the goblin that he killed before. This one was bigger, around 4 and a half feet tall. As well as this one an array of tattoos on its back and its shoulders.
The tattoos on the monster made him rethink the decision to engage that monster. That is why he hid himself behind a tree stump and waited for the monster to just pass him by.
But faith had some different plan for him…
While hiding Arun could hear the sound of the monster moving, but as that thing was just a few feet away from him, it stopped. It made a clattering noise as if trying to communicate with someone. Getting a bad feeling, he quickly knocked an arrow in the bow and waited. The creature made the clattering noise once again, but as it got still no answer.
He heard the sound of a blade being unsheathed.
The creature started moving towards him, he could hear the sounds of twigs and leaves being crushed by its feet. He knew that if the creature spotted him, it could potentially scream or make noise and then he would be in deep trouble. So he could only rely on the element of surprise.
Arun then slowly pulled the string of the bow and came out, as quickly as he could. The goblin seemed surprised to see him there. The good thing was, that there was not a lot of distance between him and the goblin, so he knew that he would be able to hit the creature at this distance.
He let go of the arrow, and it struck the goblin straight in the chest.
In order to eliminate the threat quickly, he was aiming for its head.
The goblin started screaming, but Arun was fast. He quickly took out his knife and jumped on the thing. Without beating around the bush, pushed the knife into the creature's throat. Goblin's screaming stopped as it started choking on its blood. Arun knew that the creature would die soon, so he started looking around, to see whether any of its screams got the attention of any of its friends.
What he didnt notice was the bamboo pipe that the goblin took out as it was choking its own blood. The bamboo pipe had a small rope on its other end. Goblin pulled it and fired a red flair in the sky. By the time Arun turned around and looked at the creepy smile on the goblin's face, it was too late. The flair was fired and goblin's body was vanquished with it.
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You have slain a Scout Goblin.
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You have gained 8 exp.
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Fuck me! Also, mute the fucking notifications!
The calm and serene jungle became restless, and he started hearing the sounds of drums and the screams of goblins. Immediately he turned around and started running. Arun knew that running outside the territory would be a suicide, logically those things would go there in search of him. But there was a high chance that those little things would not predict that he would return to their territory. So after running outside of their territory, he then took a long route from the east and maneuvered his way back again.
He didnt stop in between and kept moving his lege while making sure that nothing was following him. He only came to an abrupt stop, when he saw something every peculiar in the middle of the jungle.
Arun saw a lamp post. It had a dark greyish color and was covered in dirt and vines, it didnt look like something that belonged there. The strange part was the light of the lamp, it was producing this golden haze around it, which looked very mystical. Curious about what it was, he approached the lamp and touched its cold metal pole.
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Where do you wish to travel?
1. Limeborn
2. Flosina
3. Sleetrest
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Ah.. What? I can travel.. To these places? What are these anyway?
He didnt know what to do, but as he was curious about the functions of the pole, he clicked Sleetrest.
As soon as he input his destination, he felt as if someone had grabbed his belly button and pulled him into a very small and thin tube. In the tube, he was twisted and turned inside out and then thrown onto the ground.
The stones embedded in the ground did a number on his ass. When he got his bearing back and looked around, he found himself sitting alongside a large goblet of fire. The goblet was made of granite pedestal which was about 7 feet tall. The most interesting thing to notice there was the wooden barricades erected all around the goblet. And from the gaps of the barricades, he could see a bustling city. It was then did he realized that the locations in the system message were cities.
So does that mean that there are three cities here? On this floor?
"Oi!" came a yell, he looked to his right to see a knight wearing dark greyish armor coming towards him. The knight had its visor on and had a flying bird insignia on its chest.
"What the hell are you doing here?" the knight asked.
"Ah.." He didnt know what to say.
The knight stood in front of him and asked, "You an adventurer?" Although Arun didnt know what that meant, still he nodded his head. The knight looked at him from up to down, "Get the fuck out of here before anyone sees you. Lord Nornorin's guard will have your head if they know that you went to hunt, today,"
He nodded and quickly made his way outside the barricade…
Sleetrest was a bustling city. The houses and streets looked something out of as Victorian Era England, but everything else looked medieval.
While walking around the city, he garnered a lot of attention due to him being covered in mud and all. But it was nothing that a well on the outskirts of the city, and some stolen clothes couldnt fix.
Arun knew the language of the world, which made it easier for him to understand the common prices of the market, and how the things around the city worked. It also made him understand that he didnt have a lot of money on him. The 20 coins that he had would only be able to feed him two meals and maybe get him a roof to spend the night.
He needed to earn some money.
As the evening sun came to the horizon, Arun started getting hungry. Luckily he found one road-style stall that was selling meat wrapped around some soft bread. Which looked appetizing.
"Can I have one please?" He said. The shopkeeper who an old man nodded and started cutting up the meat the cooked meat.
"You an adventurer?" the old man asked. He simply nodded. "You must be a new one."
He passed the old man a sly smile, "Is it that obvious?" he was curious about what made the old man come to such a conclusion.
"Hell yeah," the old man said, "Every adventurer knows that today is the barbarian hunting day. No one in their right mind would even think about roaming around with bow and arrow,"
Barbarian hunting? Do these people hunt some tribal communities for sport?
Arun acted embarrassed, "Well yeah… I kind of forgot what day it was."
"Happens to the best of us," the old man said. But then the old man stopped, and stared him straight into his eyes, "You are not planning on doing something.. To the captured.. Barbarians.. Are you?"
He scoffed, "No no no no… I am just a newbie adventurer. That is all."
"Good," The shopkeeper said. And then Arun took off towards the center of the city, towards the goblet of fire.
The goblet intrigued him. When he found himself alongside it, the knight wasn't surprised that he was just transported there. He also realized from the way those barricades were placed, that they were meant to keep things in, rather than stop people from approaching the goblet. And he wanted to know more about it. If that goblet was the way from which he could get to other cities, he wanted to know about it.
When he came to the center, he saw that there were several people already there. None of them looked like people who were just there for an evening walk. He came to the entrance of a closed shop and sat down in front of it. He realized that something major was happening that day. When he came to the city in the morning, the shops around the goblet were closed. Which was weird considering all the other shops around the city were open. And now in the evening, the shops were still closed, but a lot of knights were roaming around the goblet, along with the well-dressed crowd.
Didnt the knight I met say that Lord Nornorin's men would have my head if they saw me? This means, that maybe today the goblet is off-limits because of this so-called barbarian hunt. That would explain why the shops around the place are closed.
And he didnt have to wait for long, there was a flash of golden light and one by one people started being transported inside the barricade. All the people around the center went closer to have a look, and he did as well.
He went through the crowd and came to the front. He saw a bunch of knights and other warriors, dragging a lot of prisoners behind them. And looking at the familiar clothing or prisoners, it didnt take him long to realize that those were people who were Earthlings. Seeing some familiar faces of the prioners he realized that these were the people with whom he woke up.
Wait, we are the barbarians? And why are they being captured like this?
He didnt dare to ask any questions there, with his head down he walked out of the crowd and went deeper into the city…
That particular night, Arun was lucky enough to have a roof over his head. A tavern offered him a blanket and a place to sleep in the corner of the shop if he helped him clean up the mess that the tavern's patrons would leave. Apparently, he was not the only one the tavern owner asked. With Arun, there was one boy and a girl, both in their late teens who cleaned the whole place up with him, while the tavern owner kept a stern eye on them.
It is only after the owner was satisfied, that were they able to finally rest. As the three of them were alone in such a big restaurant, they decided to hurdle together. They exchanged names and started telling each other about themselves…
"I figured I would be able to make more money in the big city you know," the boy named Calux said, "My grandfather had taught me about swords. I think I will be able to make a decent living here,"
"Same here. My mother taught me bow, she was a silver star Adventurer in her golden days." The girl, Nora said.
"I am just an orphan," Arun said, "Taught myself how to fight."
"Dont worry, you will be able to do something," Nora said in a sweet yet condescending way.
"Yeah. There are plenty of adventurers who make a name for themselves even while being never taught properly," The boy said, he sounded genuine. ".. Like old man Adam. He is one hell of a Warlock. And he is self-taught." Arun nodded.
He didnt know what a Warlock meant, but he was sure that he would soon find out. He was in the presence of two people who seem to know a lot about this world, as well as, they are eager to boast about their knowledge. And he was determined to squeeze every ounce of information out of them.