Chapter 21: Goblin Camp
Arthur was already used to the familiar pull by the time he muttered the word Zenith.
And moments later, he was back in that same narrow alley beside ’Bottle and Flame’. Well, he didn’t know the exact name the insectoid shopkeeper had given to his shop, but he figured it was probably something along those lines.
He let out a breath and let the noise of the city wash over him, before he stepped out on the street and began to make his way toward the city gates.
...
The plaza was still as crowded as yesterday, and so were the rest of the streets Arthur passed by.
Players still clustered together in groups, some of them casually chatting, others comparing items, and some were even arguing loudly with their teammates. The occasional alien creature strode past every now and then, sparing the humans a single glance before ignoring their chatter entirely.
It was strange how quickly Arthur had gotten used to the city’s soundscape.
By the time he reached the city gates, John was already waiting there, leaning his back against one of the giant pillars with his arms crossed in front of him, and the familiar chunk of wood lying on the ground beside him.
"Hey! Am I late?" Arthur asked as he approached. There should still be half an hour left before they were supposed to meet up.
John shrugged. "Nah. I just finished my workout faster than usual. Guess I was eager to get back to farming." His eyes then flicked toward the plains outside the city, and he grinned as he continued, "So, ready to go?"
Arthur looked at the excited expression on John’s face and felt a bit bad, but he still shook his head and said,
"Not yet. I’m waiting for a friend. He might be in the same city, so we thought we’d try meeting up if he is. You wanna hang around for a bit?"
John waved a hand and grinned, "No problem. I can wait. Gives me time to tell you what I found out, too. So, I checked the forums while I was eating, and apparently there’s supposed to be a mountain range past the forest we’ve been hunting in... way past it. Someone scouted it last night and found some level 6 monsters over there. That guy even got a skillbook from one of them."
Arthur nodded. It was probably the same post he’d seen. Honestly, he was tempted to scout that mountain range, as well. He figured he and John had a decent shot against a level 6 monster. But there was one thing he wanted to deal with before that.
He glanced at the treeline past the city gates and nodded as he said, "Yeah, I saw that post too."
"Right? Sounds interesting!" John’s grin widened.
Arthur couldn’t help but smile, too. He could tell John was just as excited as he was.
"Before that, there’s something else I want to tell you. When I was hunting yesterday, before I ran into you, I found a goblin camp." Arthur said.
John’s back straightened almost immediately. "A camp?"
Arthur nodded. "Two level 3 Spear-Guards were guarding its entrance. I killed them, but I didn’t go in. I don’t know how many goblins are inside, but I’m sure it’s more than a few dozen. And I doubt the Spear-Guards are the strongest things in there."
John’s eyes widened. "You think there’s a goblin boss?"
"I don’t know for sure," Arthur said after a moment of hesitation.
John fell quiet, too
Arthur could probably guess what the burly man was thinking. Yesterday, they’d fought a level 5 Spear-Guard, and that thing hadn’t gone down nearly as easy as the others of its kind. Its strength and speed were both a clear cut above every other goblin they’d faced.
So if the camp had level 6 or even level 7 Spear-Guards, could they really take them down?
...Yes. It would be harder, but it was still doable.
Goblins were far too simple an opponent to walk away from, and Arthur and John already had their fighting style and movements memorized by now. It would be a waste to move on and leave such a big source of EXP behind.
John’s hand flexed, like he was already picturing his log sweeping through a whole camp of goblins.
"Sounds like we’re going!" he said excitedly.
Arthur nodded.
The truth was, he didn’t mind hunting alone. He’d have gone to the camp even if he and John ended up splitting up. But John pulled his own weight and then some, and the two of them made a pretty good duo. John drew the aggro like a tank while Arthur cut the imps down from the flank, and since they were in a party, the EXP they gained was shared regardless of who landed the final blow.
So, being in a party had its benefits too.
...
The two of them waited at the gates for over an hour, leaning against the stone pillars while the city’s endless noise drifted around them.
Arthur kept scanning the crowd for a familiar blond head, but it never appeared.
Finally, when another thirty minutes went by, he pushed himself off the pillar and muttered, "Guess he’s in another city, huh?"
John shrugged. "Happens. This place is massive. My little brother’s in another city too, and so are my two cousins. I don’t even know how many different cities this damn tutorial has. But still... if you think about it, it makes sense. You can’t fit 8 billion people in one place, no matter what. In the end, it’s all down to luck."
Arthur nodded. He wasn’t surprised, exactly, but he’d hoped he and Leonard could meet up. Still, he’d already come to the same conclusion as John, so he wasn’t overly disappointed.
He shook his head and pushed the thought aside as he said, "Alright. Let’s head out, then"
John grinned, before picking up his makeshift wooden club and resting it on his shoulder. "Thought you’d never ask."
...
The two of them stepped through the gates together, following the packed-dirt road that wound toward the forest. The battlefield outside the city was as crowded as ever, but Arthur and John ignored the level 1 mobs and players alike and headed straight for the looming treeline.
The forest greeted them with its usual chorus. Distant chittering, rustling leaves, and the faint hum of unseen insects.
They hadn’t gone more than a few steps past the trees’ shade before the first goblin patrol appeared. Three imps in total, two level 2s and a single level 3. None of them worth slowing down for.
Arthur moved first, swinging his [Goblin’s Fang] and taking the nearest goblin’s head before its body hit the dirt. A level 3, dead before it understood what was happening. At the same time, John’s log swept through the other two in a single wide arc, and the imps burst apart into motes of light.
Another small patrol went down not long after. And then another.
The deeper they went into the forest, the thicker the air around them felt. The trees seemed denser here, as if their trunks were packed closer together.
And then, through a gap in the foliage, Arthur eventually spotted it: that crude, jagged palisade of the goblin camp.
A pair of Goblin Spear-Guards stood guard outside, but it wasn’t the level 3s Arthur had cut down yesterday.
No, these ones were level 4s, their crude armor strapped haphazardly over their wiry frames.
It seemed the camp had posted stronger replacements after losing its first pair of guards yesterday. The two goblins shifted restlessly, gripping their spears as they looked around.
John let out a low whistle. "Level four, huh? Not bad."
Arthur’s eyes narrowed. "One each?"
John grinned. "One each."
The two of them split without another word.
Arthur’s fight was basically over before it even began. He stepped out in the open, dodged the guard’s first spear thrust, turned the second aside with the fang, and stepped inside to bury the white tooth in its throat before it could recover.
It all lasted two or three seconds at most!
[Goblin Spear-Guard defeated. +12 EXP]
John’s battle was louder. He caught the first spear jab on the shaft of his wooden log and shoved it aside before he brought the wood down in a single brutal swing that folded the Spear-Guard against the fence behind it. And then, the familiar system notification popped in Arthur’s vision.
[Goblin Spear-Guard defeated. +12 EXP]
"Not bad for a warmup, huh?" John said, putting the log back onto his shoulder. "Let’s see what they’ve been hiding in there."
Arthur nodded, his gaze already on the camp’s entrance. He’d already invested his two free points from hitting level 4 into his strength and agility, so there was no reason to hesitate now.
So the two of them stepped past the crude wooden gate and into the heart of the goblin camp.
...
A shrill cry cut through the camp the instant the two humans walked past the gates.
A level 3 goblin stood near a cooking fire, its wide yellow eyes staring them.
Its chest swelled, and it let out a high-pitched shriek before running toward the nearest cluster of tents. Though Arthur had to admit, even the term ’tents’ was actually quite generous for the things he was looking at; they were really just heaps of hay thrown together.
A few seconds later, green-mottled figures spilled out from every direction. Dozens of level 1 and 2 goblins, with a few level 3s mixed in, swarming the two intruders and swinging their weapons.
But the weaker imps never even reached them.
John swung his log in wide, sweeping arcs that caught two or three imps at a time. A level 3 goblin burst into what was basically red mist; its body exploding on impact, while the level 1s and 2s suffered similarly tragic fates.
Arthur barely had to move. Every time a goblin closed into striking range, the massive wooden log was already there to blot it out of existence.
Within seconds, system notifications began to flood his vision again.
[Goblin defeated. +3 EXP]
[Goblin defeated. +2 EXP]
[Goblin defeated. +4 EXP]
The bodies kept coming, but not one of them stood a chance against John. It was less of a fight than a slaughter.
It wasn’t until a pair of armored-shaped figures shouldered their way through the chaos that Arthur’s eyes finally narrowed.
