Pebble stormed down the right hallway in the cave. His footsteps were quick as his figure outlined in a red glow due to the effects of his Sprint skill. His stone armor around him made him heavy, causing each step to crack the cave floor. The noise of his stomps sounded like a machine gun firing wildly as he flew down the hall. The hall itself had many twists and turns, making it impossible for Pebble to see beyond a short distance in front of him.
The cave has been remarkably empty so far. Pebble hasn't seen a single door, decoration, locker, sign or anything. He began to wonder if this tunnel was just created by an obnoxiously large earthworm. He even noticed oddly symmetrical grooves on the walls.
Suddenly, a couple screams could be heard around the corner ahead of Pebble. He slowed down and turned the corner to see a gang of men standing with their weapons ready.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down, Golem! You made us think we were under siege!" Said the man in the front of the pack. The man adorned a red hood that was attached to a cape that flowed down his back. The others around him had a mixed assortment of robes and cloaks in muted tones, but no distinct uniform or identifiers could be seen.
Pebble halted and slowly pointed at his own chest in confusion, "Yes you, you rockhead! You damn near scared the shit out of Yurtle." Said the red hooded man.
Another man in gray behind the red hood looked offended, "We all just about shat ourselves, don't pretend like you're any better than us!"
The red hooded man looked annoyed, but waved his hand, "It matters not anyways. These Golems aren't fully conscious, they just obey orders." He dismissed them.
Pebble breathed a sigh of relief as it seems he could pass himself off as a Golem for now, 'But what do I do about Puffy and Larry?' He thought for a moment.
"Golem, can you please knock on the door for us? It seems that we've been denied entry for now." The red hooded man requested politely and gestured to the stone door behind him.
Pebble just noticed that the hall had come to an end and the only way forward would be to get through that stone door.
*PING*
Pebble's system played a bell sound and Larry's voice followed.
"Like this? He can hear me now? Oh really? That's AMAZING!" Larry's voice boomed in Pebble's head. "Hey boss, can you hear me!"
Pebble wanted to say yes, but he wasn't sure how to respond.
"Puffy is telling me that you should be able to use a squire ability to speak with me. That's what I'm using! It says we have up to 2 minutes a day to speak!" Larry informed Pebble.
Pebble remembered acquiring the ability and he quickly activated it. 'Can you hear me?' He thought.
"Hello? Boss?" Larry's voice boomed through Pebble's head again.
Pebble whispered as quietly as he could, "I hear you, stop heading my way for now and stop using telepathy. If we only have 2 minutes, we need to save it."
"Uhh, are you…" Larry began to reply but Pebble interrupted him.
"Shh, no questions, got to go!" Pebble canceled the ability and was greeted with a tone and a system message.
*PING*
*1 Minute and 12 seconds remaining on Telepathy Calls*
"Golem?" The red hood man questioned and snapped Pebble back into attention, "The door please?"
Pebble slowly nodded and began walking through the crowd to get to the door.
The red hooded man wiped sweat from his brow, "Sheesh, I'm glad that worked. For a moment I questioned if the Golem's orders were to…" He gulped and his voice quivered, "... remove us."
One man grabbed Pebble's arm. Pebble stopped in his tracks and slowly looked at the man. He was wearing black pants with a great tattered robe. The man peered at Pebble's stone helmet through greasy hair that covered his face.
"Everything okay, Hash?" The red hooded man inquired.
"Had a feeling, but…" The man looked deep into Pebble's mask holes with scrutiny, but ultimately he couldn't see anything but shadows behind the mask, "... I don't know. Perhaps I'm on edge."
"That's understandable, I'm on edge as well." The red hooded man walked over and put a hand on Hash's shoulder, "But, let's not upset the scary Golem. We'd be dead before you even realized what you did."
Pebble wondered if he should have just attacked considering the palpable fear in the room, but ultimately, that wasn't how he wanted to operate as a Hero if he could avoid it. He knew he was more than capable of ending everyone here, and a part of him wanted to. He fought his berserker instinct and reached the stone door.
Pebble raised his hand and knocked his stone covered fist against the door 3 firm times. The pounds reverberated down the hall and the group of men went silent as they waited with baited breath.
Pebble stood as still as he could to keep up his facade as a Golem. As far as he could tell, he was still free of suspicion in the groups' eye. He waited with them in silence as they all stared at the door.
—
"He hung up on me." Larry shrugged at Puffy.
"Well that's rude. Did he say what's going on?" Puffy scratched his head.
"He just said to stop heading his way for now and mentioned that we need to save our telepathy time." Larry said.
"Oh fuck. This could be bad." Puffy sighed and opened his inventory and looked through it.
"Any ideas?" Larry asked as he looked around. They were in a small bend in the hallway. Everything was dark gray and there wasn't much character or detail anywhere, "These halls seem pretty bland for a goblin cave. Don't you think?"
"I'm looking for something to scout ahead. I wish Matilda were here. I know she has a spell for invisibility." Puffy looked up for a moment to take in the cave surroundings. There really were no real details to this cave aside from the cracks in the ground from Pebble's earlier dash. "Huh, you're right. Goblins like to decorate." Puffy rubbed his brow.
"Never seen a minimalist goblin." Larry laughed. Puffy ignored him and pulled out a magnifying glass. He proceeded to inspect the wall as he let out a series of hums. "Are you an investigator of sorts?" Larry inquired.
"Not really, I'm just looking for…" Puffy stopped frozen and gasped, "my god…"
"What?" Larry looked alarmed.
"These are not Goblin caves." Puffy's eyes were wide. He made eye contact with Larry and pointed at the wall, "This hallway was dug out in a matter of minutes. This technology belongs to the Jul-Zakarian Army."
Larry looked at Puffy blankly, "And?"
"What is a rival of Aegis doing just a stone's throw away from their capital city?" Puffy eyed him seriously.
"Oh shit, that's a good point!" Larry grabbed his head, "What should we do?"
"We wait for Pebble. He said to wait, we have to trust him." Puffy said pointedly, but fear could be heard in his voice.
—
Bard and Fred were rolling down the left hallway at breakneck speeds.
"Watch out! We don't want to run into any of these statues or dead bodies!" Bard said to Fred as he dangled behind the wheelchair like a ragdoll. "Also, feel free to slow down! It's hard as fuck to hold on to this thing!"
"What are these statues anyways?" Fred asked as he passed a wooden totem that looked like an owl.
"Why ask me? I didn't expect to find an antique shop down here." Bard replied. The wheel chair skidded a little as they passed through a puddle of blood.
"This is kind of gross. Can we please stop, I'll walk now." Bard pleaded.
"What about Phil?" Fred kept going.
"I'm sure he's okay. Let me walk." Bard demanded.
"Okay, as you wish." Fred pointed his wand in front of him and cast his Gust of Wind spell, bringing them to an abrupt stop. Bard flew over the wheelchair and landed on a dead hobgoblin. He looked up and saw that the thing was missing of its head.
"Ugh, what the hell." Bard strained himself to keep his lunch down for a moment. When the wave of nausea passed, he gathered himself and stood on his feet. "At least we haven't stumbled upon a dead Phil, yet." He mused.
Fred rolled over and punched him on the arm, "Don't say that."
Bard nodded, "You're right, sorry. This is kind of a lot right now. I'm just trying to get through it." He looked down at the hobgoblin again and gagged.
Fred felt a lot of sympathy for Bard, "Yeah, I feel you. Everything's kind of a blur. Just a moment ago, we were chillin' in Florida, ya know?"
Bard chuckled, "Yeah, and now we're playing Heros in a world with magic and goblins!"
Fred laughed with him, "Life comes at you fast, huh?"
Bard offered Fred a hand, "Are you good to walk? If we turn the corner and get into a fight, you'll be in a wheelchair. Are you prepared to fight like that?"
"Yeah, that's a really good point." Fred accepted Bard's help and stood up. His chair buzzed with excitement and began to float again. Fred shook his head, "Jesus, why didn't I think about this sooner? Can you scout ahead and look for our slippery friend, Phil?" He asked the sentient wheelchair and it vibrated joyfully. It almost sounded like it said 'With pleasure!'
Bard watched as Fred's wheelchair flew ahead, "Huh, that's handy!"
"Sure is!" Fred beamed, "Just wait until I level up a bit. Puffy tells me that I can eventually have my own army of tools!" His mouth was practically drooling.
Bard smiled, "Heh, an army you say?" He kneeled down and scrunched his face for a moment, "Look, this might be slightly disgusting for a moment, so feel free to not watch."
"What are you doing?" Fred asked in a surprised tone.
"I picked up an ability called Blood Fungus." He chucked again, "I know it sounds useless, but it allows me to transmute blood into actual fungus."
Fred looked bewildered, "Why in the world would you want to turn blood into fungus?" Just then, blood flooded out of the gaping wound on what was left of the hobgoblin's head. As the blood pooled, it quickly became a red mushroom that grew in size until it reached Fred's navel.
"Well, I don't know if there's a point to this skill by itself, but…" Bard stood up and summoned his guitar. He strummed it to insure it was in tune. "I did unlock this other ability called Fungal Army and it allows me to charm fungus!"
"Oh yeah, you did mention something about that." Fred nodded.
Bard began playing a soulful melody with his guitar. It was slow and emotional and it built up to an intricate solo. About halfway through his solo, the fungus he'd just summoned sprouted arms and began waving them to Bard's melody. It then sprouted legs and stood with them as it swayed to the music.
Bard stopped playing, but the music could still be heard. It was coming out of the fungus itself as it literally carried his tune.
"Wow! This is super sick!" Bard said as he circled his fungus. It stood proudly and even puffed out its stem as if it were a chest as its master examined it.
"Not going to lie, this is pretty cool! You and I can both create beings." Fred said and Bard met his gaze. "We can create sentient life, you and I. Who would have thought?" Fred smiled.
"When you say it that way…" Bard blushed.
Fred's eyes shot wide open as he readied his stance, "Something's wrong!"
"What?" Bard wasn't following, but Fred's chair returned into view and it carried a limp reptile in its seat.
Phil had cuts all over him and was bleeding profusely. Blood trailed behind the chair as he wheeled urgently back to its master. It buzzed in a panicked manner. Phil looked up at his friends. Their faces were blurry through his bloodied vision. He coughed, "Hey guys…" Blood trickled down from his mouth and his HP bar was flashing.
<5/32 HP>
"Phil!" They both shouted, but Phil's health continued to plummet.
<4/32 HP>
<3/32 HP>