Chapter 75: Golden Trail
The mark on Arthur’s hand had been visible since they came through the fracture, and now it grew warmer. The golden lines brightened. A thin thread of light stretched through the trees ahead.
Arthur turned and confirmed he was the only one looking at it.
"I think we’re supposed to go that way," he said, pointing.
Sun looked at the direction, then at Arthur. "Based on what?" he said.
Arthur raised his glowing hand.
Sun was quiet for a moment. "I was hoping," he said, "you would say literally anything else."
Nobody else had a better idea. Arthur started walking where the thread pointed, and everyone followed, increasingly the standard response to this kind of situation.
The path wasn’t obvious, but the bushes thinned and the ground was more worn. Beasts had walked this way for a long time. The trees got older the further they went. Roots thicker than Arthur’s body twisted across the ground.
Moss covered broken stone that clearly didn’t belong in a forest.
Every few dozen meters, another piece of ancient civilization appeared before vanishing beneath the vines again.
Arthur smiled. "There’s history everywhere."
It ended at a clearing where a watchtower rose from the vines. Rose might be generous, since it was barely standing.
The upper floors had collapsed. Vines wrapped around the oldest stone. Roots split walls that had stood for centuries.
Ancient Goblin skeletons still lay where they’d fallen, rusted weapons scattered across the watchtower floor.
But they weren’t alone.
Several fresher Goblin bodies lay nearby. Torn leather armor, broken spears. Blood that hadn’t fully dried. Patches of fire still burning around the ruined entrance.
Arthur’s smile faded. "This place was attacked."
Athena walked slowly between the remains. She crouched beside one of the skeletons, then looked at the newer bodies. "This was recent."
Arthur looked over. "You can tell?"
Athena nodded. "The skeletons over there have been here for years." She looked at the fresher bodies. "...These Goblins died recently."
Mithra sighed. "Which means these guys were defending this tower until recently."
Athena stood and checked the walls, brushing moss away from ancient stone. "...Look at these carvings."
Arthur walked over. "What are they?"
"Watch rotations." She pointed at faded symbols. "And... supply records."
Sun blinked. "You can read that?"
"Not entirely; I only picked up a bit of the language from Gruk. But enough to make out some words." Her eyes widened slightly. "This wasn’t just a tower. It was an outpost."
Arthur looked around again. "So Goblins actually defended territory."
Athena nodded. "...Far more organized than modern records describe."
Before she could continue, a Razor Lizard burst through the broken wall.
Bronze-rank Razor Lizards crawled over the broken stone while Thorn Boars charged out behind them, moving through the ruins like they owned the place.
The fight ended even faster than the one against the Thorn Wolves.
Arthur stepped into the first Razor Lizard as Vedas moved beside him. Arthur slammed his shoulder into the beast, throwing it off balance. Before it could recover, Vedas’s spear shot through its exposed side, dropping it instantly. Neither of them spoke. Arthur shifted right, and Vedas was already there, reading the movement before it happened.
Another lizard lunged. Arthur ducked under its claws while Vedas swept his spear across its chest. Arthur spun behind it and drove his own spear into its back, ending it in one smooth exchange.
Across the clearing, Melo’s eyes glowed. Three Thorn Boars suddenly saw three different Mithras charging them. They split apart, each chasing an illusion.
Mithra smiled. She stepped through the confusion and cut down the nearest boar in one clean slash. Melo’s tail flashed past her shoulder, striking the second before it realized the illusion had disappeared.
Athena calmly met a Razor Lizard head-on. The moment it committed to its attack, her spear pierced straight through its chest. Above her, Athy folded her wings and dove, golden claws raking across another lizard’s eyes before soaring back into the canopy. Blinded, it stumbled exactly where Athena expected, and one final thrust ended it.
Sun and Kong finished the last two together. Sun’s staff cracked against a Thorn Boar’s jaw, launching it into the air. Kong caught it with both fists and slammed it into the ground hard enough to shake the clearing.
Kong pounded his chest once.
The ruins fell silent again.
[Level Up!]
[Goblin Commander]
[Level 14 → 15]
"There it is," Arthur said.
The sound from beneath the rubble was faint enough that only Athy, near the fallen wall section, caught it. She chirped once, pointing.
Arthur carefully moved the stones aside, one by one, until a section of collapsed wall shifted, and a Goblin woman pulled herself forward through the gap.
Dark green hair, cut short, matted with dust. Simple leather armor across her torso and one shoulder, the other shoulder wrapped in torn cloth over a cut that had been cleaned at some point but not recently.
Arthur noticed she had one blue eye and one green eye, then immediately looked at her injuries instead. Mithra was already kneeling. Melo came forward, healing light moving over the worst of the cuts before the Goblin had even processed where she was.
"It’s alright," Mithra said. "You’re safe."
The Goblin pushed herself backward. "No... No..."
Her breathing sped up. She looked wildly around the ruined watchtower.
"The fire..."
"The others..."
"They were just here..."
Her hands shook violently. "I couldn’t... I couldn’t save—"
Mithra reached forward. "It’s okay."
The Goblin flinched.
Mithra didn’t push. She rested a hand gently on her shoulder. "Look at me."
The Goblin’s eyes lifted slowly.
"Take one breath." She demonstrated it herself. "In... out."
Again.
"In..."
"...Out."
The Goblin copied her.
Slowly, the shaking eased.
Only then did she finally notice everyone standing around her.
Her eyes moved across the group.
She stopped at Vedas and froze.
"What..." she said. The word arrived before she’d decided to say it. "What are you?"
Vedas’s eyes widened, surprised. Arthur paused too, catching the briefest flash of fear cross Mara’s face. Unlike the other Goblins who’d seen Vedas.
It lasted less than a second.
But he saw it.
Arthur casually wrapped an arm around Vedas’s shoulder anyway. "This is Vedas," he said. "My partner. A Goblin Commander."
The Goblin woman made a sound that wasn’t a word.
"A Goblin Commander," she repeated, her voice dropping to nearly a whisper. "We haven’t..." She stopped. "Not for a very long time. I thought it was only in the old stories."
She lowered her head. "This changes everything," she said, very quietly.
Nobody said anything. The clearing gave the statement room.
After a moment she looked back at Arthur, composed like she’d decided to present as more recovered than she was.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
Arthur scratched his cheek. "At the moment? We’re following a mark on my hand through the ruins." He smiled. "Does that help anyone?"
She looked at his hand, then his face, deciding something.
"Do you need help?" Arthur asked, smiling. "With anything."
She hesitated, fingers pressing against her arm where Melo’s healing had already worked. "No," she said. "I’m fine. Thank you."
Arthur and Mithra noticed the hesitation. Athena frowned, Sun sighed, but none of them pushed.
"Were those beasts here for you?" Arthur said.
She shook her head. "They’re predators. They attack anything they find." A pause. "They find us often."
Arthur nodded. Us. Not "me." He filed it away without commenting.
"I hope we meet again," he said, holding out his hand.
She looked at it for a long moment. Then at Vedas once more, still adjusting to something she’d been told was impossible.
She took Arthur’s hand.
"My name," she said. "Is Mara."
"Arthur," he said.
She released his hand, looked at Vedas, bowed once, and rushed off toward the forest.
She’d almost vanished between the trees when she stopped and looked back one more time. Her blue eye and green eye lingered on Vedas, almost like she wanted to say something.
Instead, she smiled and disappeared into the forest.
A notification appeared in the quiet after she left. Arthur read it without comment.
[New Evolution Path Analyzed]
[Species: Goblin]
[Goblin Rider → Goblin Wolf Rider → Goblin Beast Cavalier]
His eyes widened, and then he read it again, then a third time. "...Another one." His eyes drifted slowly toward the direction Mara had disappeared.
Why?
Vedas had become a Commander, but Mara seemed to be walking an entirely different path.
His heart started beating faster.
He hadn’t discovered a new evolution. He’d uncovered one of Vedas’s forgotten futures. Instead of a warrior with his spear, Vedas could have been a goblin riding a beast into battle.
Arthur looked slowly toward the forest. How many more hidden paths can I find? Then another question came right behind it. Why only Goblins?
Why hadn’t this happened with Melo?
Or Kong?
Or Athy?
Was it the King’s Mark? Or the Ruins of Evolution itself?
Arthur couldn’t tell.
A grin spread across his face. Every answer just created two new questions. "This place just keeps getting more interesting."
"I knew you would say that. But it’s good to see you’re done thinking," Mithra said.
"Was it that obvious?"
"This time you were staring at where Mara went for a bit after touching Vedas. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, let’s explore some more."
He walked to the watchtower and placed his hand against the oldest section of wall, where the stone was darkest and clearly part of the original structure.
The King’s Mark responded immediately, gold spreading from the point of contact through the cracked stone in branching patterns that followed the existing cracks.
For a few seconds, the ruins were whole again.
Goblin guards stood watch with signal fires burning above them, banners flapping in the wind. A Goblin Commander walked across the battlements. Every guard saluted immediately.
Vedas stared quietly. "A Commander."
Arthur reached out slowly, and his fingers passed straight through the armored figure. He blinked and tried again.
No matter what, he couldn’t touch the Goblin Commander. They kept walking as if they hadn’t noticed him.
Arthur lowered his hand quietly. "Amazing..."
Athy stayed completely still. Melo’s ears flattened. Kong stopped fidgeting.
Nobody spoke, but they were all thinking the same thing.
For a few seconds, it truly felt like the Ancient Kingdom had returned.
Then the light faded.
Athena lowered her notebook slowly. "...This isn’t an illusion."
Sun looked at her. "It looked like one."
She shook her head. "No. I think we’re watching what the watchtower looked like before the attack."
Mithra held her chin. "That would mean we were watching the past."
Arthur smiled. "That’s exciting."
Athena nodded, still looking. "...Very."
He glanced at Vedas. "You alright?"
Vedas gave one quiet nod. "...I want to see more."
Arthur smiled. "So do I."
The light faded, and everything returned to normal. Arthur rushed around checking if more scenes would appear. Nothing came.
"Is this it?" Vedas asked, disappointed.
"No, there should be more." He crossed his arms. "This should be related to the Ancient Kingdom, but it’s only a small piece of it. Maybe if we left, the mark would act up again—"
Then the mark pulsed.
Everyone noticed this time; the golden light was visible to all, moving from Arthur’s hand outward into the clearing air in particles that traveled with direction instead of scattering.
They gathered between the trees at the western edge of the clearing.
The figure was only slightly taller than Vedas.
Golden skin. Ancient golden eyes. Black-and-gold armor, a familiar crown resting on its head.
Arthur’s eyes widened. "...The Ancient Goblin King."
Athena froze. "...That’s impossible."
Mithra blinked twice. "It’s really him."
Vedas couldn’t look away from the golden figure. "...He looks exactly the same."
Even Athy gave a surprised chirp, feathers puffing up, Melo tilting her head.
Only Sun and Kong looked between everyone, lost. "Wait... you all know him?"
"Oh." Arthur blinked. "Right. You weren’t there."
Sun pointed slowly at every one of them. "So... you all met an Ancient Goblin King and somehow forgot to tell me?"
Silence.
Arthur scratched his cheek. "I forgot."
"HOW DO YOU KEEP FORGETTING THESE THINGS?!"
"He wasn’t looking at us," Mithra chimed in, tilting her head.
Sun paused. "What do you mean?"
"It feels like what we saw was the king’s spirit." She looked toward where he’d vanished. "And he’s been waiting for us."
"Maybe it’s the mark?" Athena’s eyes went straight to the King’s Mark on Arthur’s hand.
"Probably." Arthur’s smile grew. "Regardless, we shouldn’t keep him waiting."
"Huh?" Sun blinked in disbelief while Kong trembled.
"Don’t worry, I’ll explain everything on the way, Sun." He said. "We can’t lose the spirit!"
"You said that last time."
"And?"
"You forgot halfway through."
Arthur scratched his cheek. "...That’s possible. This realm is pretty interesting."
Mithra laughed. "I’ll remind him."
Athena closed her notebook. "Better yet, we will explain it to you."
Sun sighed. "...Thank you."
"See?" Arthur smiled. "We have a system."
The golden figure was gone. Only the trail of light remained.
Arthur smiled.
"Let’s catch up."
Together, they followed the Ancient Goblin King’s trail deeper into the Ruins of Evolution.
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