It had been a couple weeks since I first met Jenna and Lily. Since then we have trained every day before we went hunting. Jenna showed great progress in not only her aim but made tremendous strides in facing her fear of causing pain.
She still disliked it but she was not holding back anymore. She was actively participating in combat, being a vital part of the team, and improving her maneuverability while shooting.
On the other side we had Lily who fully embraced her role as a front line disruptor. She had been sparring with me to hone her fighting instincts. She was actually very gifted when it came to hand to hand combat, she was just a little awkward at first, but she adapted quickly.
Jenna and Lily made a good team together. Lily's aggressive nature pushed Jenna out of her comfort zone to capitalize on openings, while Jenna reigned Lily's reckless side back. They complimented each other very well, and I was able to gain a better understanding of how to control a battle.
The biggest thing I had realized was that being a leader was more than charisma and a willingness to lead.
Stories tell you someone was just made to be a leader, but they never talked about what you needed to do to be a good one. Knowing your party members' limits, how they think and covering their weaknesses with the strengths of others.
Then there was how you had to be active yourself. It was a lot to juggle in the middle of a fight, but I thought the role fit me a lot. I wasn't a control freak but I felt a peace of mind knowing what was going on in a fight.
I had bought a couple skills to help me. The [Throw] skill was one I used a lot recently. It was another simple skill that had a wide range of applications. Whether it was my dagger, or a [Blood Spear], everything was easier to accurately throw now. Of course if they were moving or were too fast I couldn't keep up with them but it helped.
My second skill, which was a bit of a surprise, was [Acrobatic]. I didn't get it because I wanted to jump around and swing through the trees. Instead I decided to get it because the word 'acrobatic' was a bit all encompassing.
I thought it might have unpredictable effects, and I was right. My balance had improved, my use of [Dash] got better, and I felt more connected with my movements. I focused mainly on exploiting openings in the enemy's movements to land attacks of opportunity.
We had finished training in the Kobold Forest, and we were meeting today to talk to a couple new party members so that we could take on the Goblin Caves dungeon. There was a magician and a swordsman.
They were old classmates of Jenna and Lily, who were one year older than me, but not from the same guild.
I walked into the burger joint we had been going to often and quickly found four people sitting in a booth. Ordering a meal I paid and sat down next to Lily. On her other side was Jenna, and on the opposite side of the booth were two people I hadn't met before.
It was a young man and a young woman. The man looked timid and the woman was a bit rough looking. Immediately I knew who was who.
I held out my hand to the man first.
"You must be the mage, and she must be the swordsman?"
Everyone looked at me with weird looks. Realizing my mistake I corrected myself.
"Sorry, swords-woman."
Lily punched me in the shoulder.
"You idiot! He's the swordsman and she's the mage."
I turned back to the two confused. I found out quickly who's friends was whose.
"You shit stain. How do you get off assuming who were are and what we do?!"
My jaw dropped as I listened to this woman who was less than 20 cursing like a sailor. I looked at the only other person who I knew who acted like this just to find Lily struggling to hold her laughter in.
The timid man finally spoke up, even though he was trembling visibly and stuttering.
"I-I'm sorry my girlfriend can be a-a little abrasive.."
'GIRLFRIEND??'
I stayed silent waiting for someone to start laughing like it was a joke but after a few minutes I realized that it wasn't a joke.
"I-Its okay... I assumed so I guess that's on me.. Have we already gone over what skills you two have?"
Jenna chimed in.
"No, we were waiting for you since you're kind of..."
I leaned over to look past Lily and at Jenna. Her sentence trailed off so I didn't know what she was trying to say.
"I'm kind of what?"
Blushing she turned her face downwards and muttered.
"You're like... our leader?"
'Leader? They think of me as their leader?'
Oddly I felt a sense of pride welling up inside me. I had never tried to be a party leader before, and I wasn't sure if I was doing a good job so far.
I unknowingly smiled a bit and replied in a timid voice.
"I-I guess if you guys think of me as such... Haha... I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Desmond Caine."
I turned back to the other side of the table.
"A-ah yes! Nice to meet you Desmond, my name is Ethan Declan, I have a Talent that improves my wind magic. This is my girlfriend, Tina Scholtz, she's a mage who's talent increases her destructive power with fire magic."
I closed my eyes for a moment and played out an imaginary fight in my head.
If Ethan was a timid person, I think he would be more fit to play the role of a defender for our back line fighters, while I could also see Tina being an aggressive mage. She can create so much space and chaos with her spells that Lily could capitalize further.
I opened my eyes and looked at the two people in front of me. With a smile I held out my hand.
"I look forward to working with you both."
****
"Gosh there are so many people here..."
Jenna was looking nervously at the large crowd outside of the Goblin Caves dungeon while we approached with our party.
"It's because there are more enemies in the Goblin Caves than any other F or E-Rank dungeon. More enemies means more chances to get a Mana Crystal or Skill Books. They also sometimes had natural gems in their caves, so people often bring pick axes just in case."
"Is that why you brought one?"
"Yes. Its better to have it and not need it. However I think you'll thank me if we come across a ruby vein."
As we were walking a man from another group bumped into Ethan, knocking him over.
"Watch where you're walking, punk."
Tina immediately stepped forward with a fireball already prepared in her hand.
"What'd you say?!"
Instantly the two groups faced off with each other. The man who bumped into Ethan was surrounded by four other men who all had the same insignia on their uniforms. I walked over to Jenna and asked her in a low voice.
"That light blue turtle... Isn't that the Lapis guild emblem?"
With a look of realization she turned to look closer at the men, when one of them met her gaze and whispered something to their friends.
"Huh? Her? Oh yeah! There's little Lily. Hahaha we ran into the losers of the guild."
The men all started laughing loudly amongst themselves, causing Tina and Lily to both get incredibly mad. A fight was on the brink of breaking out so I stepped forward and put my hand on Lily's shoulder. The two of us had gotten a lot closer over the past two weeks so she trusted my judgement.
Tina didn't know me but when she saw Lily backing off she decided she should to.
'It's good Tina is aggressive but able to use her own judgement.'
I stepped forward and stared down at the man who bumped into Ethan. Ethan was smaller than this guy, but that was only because Ethan was 5 foot 5. I was a solid five inches taller than the guy, since he was only about 5 foot 7.
He tried staring back at me but when I began to exude killing intent he started to falter. The killing intent most people nurture is one derived from killing monsters or animals.
However when I looked at this man, and he looked back, he understood I was thinking of genuinely killing him. Killing another human being wasn't an easy thing to do, and most have not done it.
He didn't move so I applied more pressure.
I pulled my dagger out from the sheath. Immediately everyone started pulling out their weapons and the situation began escalating tremendously. My party members didn't say a word, simply preparing for a fight and trusting me.
However their side was different. They began to panic and hurl questions at the leader. However the leader was at a loss and was still trying to deal with my heavy killing intent.
After a few more moments, just as everyone thought one side would randomly attack and the fighting would begin, the leader shouted.
"B-Back off! Let's go!"
Surprised by their leader's sudden call for retreat the group didn't move right away, however with another shout they began to move.
The man who bumped into Ethan began to turn away when I grabbed his shoulder roughly. Squeezing it I walked forward.
"You didn't apologize yet."
With a look of injustice he looked down angrily while gritting his teeth.
"Sorry."
He tried pulling his shoulder away but I gripped it tightly for just a second more.
[Contact with potential host. Would you like to plant an egg?]
Smiling coldly I gave him a tight squeeze one more time.
[Parasite 2 has successfully planted.]
[30 Days until egg hatches.]
"Ow!"
Immediately the guy covered his mouth in embarrassment before turning around angrily and stomping off. The rest of my party walked forward, putting their weapons away and started talking animatedly.
"Whoa! That was kinda badass! I thought you were kinda a pussy but the way you stood up for Ethan turned that around."
"Look at our fearless leader! Did you pick up a skill book to make you stronger? All I saw was you touch that guys shoulder and he cried out like a baby."
I closed my hand into a fist to hide the closing hole and gave a fake bicep flex.
"Maybe I've been working out?"
This managed to lighten the mood and we continued towards the dungeon. I looked back at the departing man and then back at my fully healed palm.
[Ambidextrous][F-Rank]
I wondered how it would feel to be ambidextrous, but I guess I would find out in a month. I hadn't planted any other eggs in anyone since I still didn't know the side effects... But people like that, I was willing to take the risk for.
Once inside the dungeon the air became incredibly still and stuffy. I looked around for a moment. We decided to travel in a tight formation instead of our usual spread out pattern. As I said before, Goblins were a total different enemy, fights were not going to be so straight forward anymore.
We could get hit with hidden ambushes or ranged attacks. Jenna and I both took the lead as we walked through the tunnels that ran through this cave like veins.
Some where large enough we could walk comfortably, while others had us walking single file. There were also tunnels that were too small that we would have to get on our hands and knees to go into. These were often referred to as Rat Holes by the community.
We obviously didn't enter any of the rat holes, since it would make defending ourselves impossible, so we continued to wander around.
As we were walking I happened to see a small glint from the ground ahead of us. I quickly pulled Jenna's arm back. She stopped to look at where I was pointing. I crouched down and found a crossbow bolt sticking out from the dirt wall, right where the wall met the ground.
Carefully I looked around for the trap's trigger. After a minute I almost wanted to give up when I noticed a small patch of dirt on the ground that was a different color than the dirt around it. It looked... Disturbed? As if you were to take a potted plant and plant it in some soil. It looked like someone planted it there.
Motioning for everyone to take another step back I took the pick axe I was carrying and tapped the ground.
I already knew where the crossbow bolt was pointing so I simply watched as it was fired and shot into the opposite wall.
"I wonder how this works? They must have created these walls and the floor even to place these traps. Lily, can you see if you can smash that wall?"
I pointed where the crossbow was hidden. She shrugged before walking over and doing a front kick. Her heel smashed through into the hollow opening behind the wall and I walked over to look inside. That was when I discovered there was indeed a false wall behind the tunnels.
"They're literally in the walls..."
I muttered to myself. The crossbow trap was activated by the plate covered in dirt on the ground, which released a string that went all the to the wall and could be set up again with ease.
It was unsettling to think that the place was filled with traps like this.
After showing the others what I saw, and one of the possible traps we would see in the future I asked that everyone look for anything that looked weird. Even a false alarm was preferable to one of us dying.
With everyone now paying close attention we continued walking forward. We were came to an opening to a large underground cavern. The side we were on was flat with a bridge going over a large a long pitch black pit.
The bridge was an old wooden bridge with thick ropes holding it together. We stood at the edge and looked around.
"Jenna, can you see anything on the other side?"
She squinted her eyes for a moment before shaking her head at me.
"Sorry, I can't see that far. I can see that there is another flat area like this one, but I can only see the edge of it. Are you thinking of crossing the bridge?"
I nodded.
"We just got out of that maze of tunnels. I think if we don't keep going forward we would just find ourselves wasting out time searching for goblins. I'm just worried this bridge is also a trap."
I decided to explore the area while the group rested, to see if there was a natural way over the chasm further down the way but either direction I went led to a curved wall.
'The room seems to be shaped like a giant circle... Goblins are known to travel in large groups, working together like a collective and even almost like their own civilizations when they were under a leader. There is no way they're able to bring heavy things across that bridge. I have to be missing something."
I walked towards the wall and touched it softly with my hand. I walked along the wall while feeling for any changes when I finally realized the truth of this room.
"Hey! Guys come here!"
Everyone soon came jogging over with confused looks on their faces.
"What's wrong? Did you find something?"
I nodded.
They were still looking at me from a distance. I stepped over the edge, immediately causing them to shout.
"Desmond no!"
Jenna ran forward, not hesitating at all, only to find that I was standing in the air. She stopped in place before walking carefully along the edge of the chasm before she finally saw what was going on.
"A hidden walkway?"
I smiled and nodded.
I had found that wall of the room didn't match the floor. Instead there was a well hidden rock ledge along the wall, painted to look like just an empty abyss, and was impossible to see from a distance.
Even up close you might miss it.
Using the pickaxe I carefully began walking across while tapping ahead of myself with the handle to make sure there was indeed a step ahead of me. After a minute walk we were back on solid ground. Walking towards where the bridge was we could see there was a trap set at the end of the bridge.
It was an axe set up to cut the ropes if a group stepped onto the bridge. The others shuddered looking at how they might have lost their lives without even knowing how if they had gotten on the bridge.
While I was silently admiring the trap, I heard a soft whizzing sound from my right. Trusting my instincts I threw my body backwards just in time to see an arrow impale the wooden bridge support I was standing in front of.
Quickly the party reacted with Tina summoning a fireball and sending it in the direction the arrow came from. We then saw our first goblin.
It was a small green creature, roughly 4 foot tall and had the body of a child. It was incredibly lanky and lacked muscle almost looking malnourished.
However it wasn't alone. As the fireball continued past the archer, we caught sight of five more goblins coming in from a tunnel leading deeper into the caves.
"One archer, the rest have shields and swords."
Jenna called out. She had quickly counted their numbers before the fireball died out as it hit the wall. The visibility in the cave was extremely limited, with only the nearby ten to fifteen feet visible. Extremely dim light was being emitted by torch posts nearby.
I grabbed a torch, throwing it to Lily while I took another one for myself.
"Lily and I will move forward so that they'll be in the light for you guys to hit them. Ethan, keep your ears peeled for goblins who try to sneak up on you guys with the shadows. After every fireball spell, move immediately so they can't easily pin point where you guys are."
"Okay."
Surprised I raised an eyebrow at how composed Ethan was now that we were in actual combat. Maybe he had social anxiety, but felt comfortable on a battlefield where things were simple.
Noting that trait of his Lily and I nodded to each other before splitting off in two different directions, circling around the sides to where we saw the goblins originally.
While running another arrow streaked through the dark air before bouncing off of Lily's arms. Perhaps realizing that Lily was impervious to it's arrows, the next arrow flew towards me from the dark. I had to turn my head to barely avoid a fatal attack, leaving me with a long wound across my cheek.
However I knew my limits with my F-Rank [Regeneration], and this much was nothing. Continuing forward I threw my torch directly at where the arrow came from.
Four goblins with swords and shield were protecting the archer in a circle. However that was pointless. Soon I saw a fireball streaking through the air before slamming into one of the goblins that wasn't looking if Tina's direction.
Erupting into flames the formation was quickly broken down. That was when an arrow flew through the air, but this time it came from our side.
Accurately piercing the archer's shooting shoulder, Lily arrived at the encirclement and started wreaking havoc. Dodging the simple sword strikes from the goblins, she kicked one into the group causing them to fall over each other. They quickly got back up to face her, but she stood with a smirk on her face.
They had forgotten about my approach under the dark. With a quick slash I killed one of the sword wielding goblins before dashing back out of the range of the light.
Quickly remembering something, I turned to shout a warning to my other part members, although I didn't know where they were.
"There was another goblin that is missing! Be careful Ethan!"
As if on cue, a green light slashed out from the darkness followed by the sound of something falling to the ground.
"It's handled."
Smiling I turned back to help Lily finish the rest of the goblins.
"Phew... Little buggers put up a bit of resistance."
"Haha, as if Lily, we saw you using one as a club while we were walking over."
"Ahaha! You saw that? Yeah that's a move I came up with myself."
Lily was standing next to Tina and Ethan bragging while I took a torch to check the bodies. Standing up while holding two mana crystals I smiled towards Jenna, who looked at me weird.
"I think this will be very lucrative for us."
I didn't notice it then, but Jenna had shivered from how creepy I looked holding a torch in the dark.