Eliminate it? Aldrich didn't like the sound of that, this was an information quest, shouldn't they prioritize escaping first?
Ayemon did emphasize on avoiding any encounters and just getting the bare minimum of information needed to satisfy the requirements of the quest.
"I know what you guys must be thinking but we can't be cowards! Think about it when is the next party going to get this quest and when will they arrive?
What if that thing preyed on the villagers during that time? Should we, as adventurers abandon them for a measly quest.
Wouldn't we be to blame if we just let things be, we can turn back now and do the minimum… But we can keep going and do what adventurers do, save lives!"
Aldrich wanted to revolt right away but the rest of the party were going with the flow created by Sam's words. Which to some idiots might make sense.
Actually Sam's words made sense, he addressed the main concerns of the party and the points he made could not be refuted by Aldrich without sounding like a heartless asshole at which point he would be ostracized by the party.
Aldrich could care less about the opinions of these strangers but…
The biggest issue is that if he insisted to withdraw and Sam chose to write something bad about him in the quest report, he might get failed and then the whole exam would be over in one quest.
So, Aldrich decided to hold it in for now. It wouldn't make sense for him to throw the test for something like this.
"Liam what can you tell us about what did this to him?
"It looks like he was harshly beaten to death, with a blunt object maybe? These here are bite marks, not too big, whatever left these wasn't a big creature that's for sure. But…"
"What?" Kip asked.
"I can't seem to find the creature's tracks. There's nothing to indicate a struggle either, which doesn't make any sense."
Sam gave the area a closer look and nodded, "if he was beaten to death, he ought to have at least struggled a bit. But this could be explained by the tracks fading over time."
"Let's advance, slowly and keep a lookout for any suspicious tracks."
'Are you even looking for the second body?' Aldrich mocked inwardly. Sam was talking as of that monster was their goal all along, the second body was no longer even an after thought.
This contradicted his earlier conjunction, he thought that he understood Sam and Liam's motives up-to this point but it would seem like he might have jumped the gun.
After moving forward for short while they heard a sound, the sound of water droplets hitting the dry rocky ground. This made them tense up for a moment.
Though the had lanterns these were the cheapest kind and the light didn't reach very far. They moved to the source of the noise.
Drip.
Drip.
Drop.
They approached it and under the light of the lanterns it turned out to be nothing. It was just condensed water from the roof of the cave hitting the ground, this allowed them a sigh of relief.
It was then that a loud thud echoed in the quiet cave and Kip fell down face first and struck the rocky ground like a puppet with it's strings cut. Liam who was the closest to Kip slashed to the darkness to his right.
But his sword only grazed the air.
"Kip! Hang on."
Kate knelt besides Kip and tried to wake him up, the rest surrounded the two and took a look at Kip. His head was thumped badly and blood oozed out but he was still alive and breathing.
Aldrich could have caught or prevented that thing from withdrawing but didn't. Because he felt that something was not right.
"Oh, my god! Look at him. Come on lets go, lets take him out of here quickly help me carry him." Kate pleaded with Sam.
But Sam was unmoved, instead he asked Liam, "did you see it? Is it…?"
Liam smiled joyfully, "I didn't get a good look at it but it definitely wasn't a grade one."
Sam's face broke into a smile of his own, "jackpot!"
"Wha- what are you two talking about right now?! We need to take him out or he'll die!" Kate pleaded, this time louder and more desperate.
"Shut the FUCK up!" Sam yelled at Kate, to which she responded with stunned silence. Perhaps to her, this came as a shock since Sam has been reliable, generous, patient and charming up to this point.
"This is still the quest, you WILL obey my orders!" When Kate looked like she was going to cry Sam's tone softened, "hey, hey, look we'll get out as soon as we get that thing. It's just a grade zero, it's and easy job."
Suddenly they heard another thud, this one was only a few steps away, the group of four approached. It was another body that looked much worse than the first one they've found.
Suddenly Sam spun around and flung a throwing knife at the close by wall of the cave. They heard a hit, a strange guttural cry and then Liam dashed there and stabbed through the creature, finishing it off.
The creature looked like a mix between a slug and a goblin, it had dark skin, long wild hair and even longed pointed nose, the creature had a snake-like underside and held a wooden club.
"It's a Moji." Aldrich knew this creature which is why he still stuck with the group, if he separated he would have made himself a target. It was one of the weakest monsters ever.
"We got it. I told you it's just a weakling. Now we can take Kip and get the hell out of here as heroes. Godamn heroes!" Sam declared wildly, completely unlike his usual self.
"Yeah we got it. This is more than enough…" Kate said weakly as if she was exhausted for some reason.
"It's not over yet." Aldrich said.
"What are you talking about? Look, does this thing look like it has some fight left in it?" Liam asked by way of mockery.
But Aldrich just shook his head. This was because while this monster was one of the weakest it… lived in groups.
Suddenly many, many more Moji crawled all over the cave walls and the roof, they were all angry and releasing some sort of war cry.
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