A Soldier's Life

Chapter 168: The Green Goblin

The chasm before us made no sense in its immense scope. I had heard a legionnaire mention the Endless Dark before. “The only thing I know about the Endless Dark is that it is where the goblin hordes come from. What is it doing inside a dungeon?”

Raelia, also in awe, stood dangerously close to the edge. She rasped softly. “It is not inside a dungeon. The dungeon is inside of it. Dungeons are part of the Endless Dark, feeding off the ley lines deep in the earth. We’re miles below the surface.”

Maveith could not resist tossing a rock into the chasm. It bounced along the wall on its descent, creating echoing sounds even over the water cascading on the other side.

“Let’s get back to the dungeon,” I said, suddenly having a bad feeling. Flickers of lightning appeared deep within the chasm below, and I felt the temperature rising. We exchanged quick glances, and that was all we needed to spur us into running back to the safety of the dungeon.

Shadows from our glowstones bounced around us as our feet scraped the stone. When we reached the end of the passage, there was no curtain of green slime lit by the glowstone. Instead, there was a solid, uneven rock. “Damn it.” I pounded on the wall, and it echoed slightly. The dungeon was trying to seal us out.

I tried to create a box to send the stone into my dimensional space, but the attempt rebounded, causing me to stumble. Disoriented, I bellowed, “Maveith! Use your hammer!” He understood and swung into the rock, breaking through a thin covering to create a small opening as the green slime tried to cover the hole. I pushed Raelia through first and followed. I did not even mind getting covered in the green slime as I pressed through the hole. Maveith crawled after us, and we all turned to watch the green slime cover the gap, breathing heavily.

Wiping and spitting the slime from my face, I was relieved to see the drake was still dead. I had been worried it would have been revived by the dungeon. It seemed like this had all been a trick by the dungeon to kick us out—or probably just me. I speculated that it really did not like how I won our fights.

Breathing heavily, Maveith asked, “What happened?”

“The dungeon tried to lock us out. I tried to create a door, but it was like when I tried to kill a creature without entering the room. My attempt backlashed on me,” I said, still sweating from the heat of the chasm and the adrenaline surging through my veins.

“Dungeons follow rules,” Raelia said, disgustedly cleaning the green slime from her hair. She had gone first and took the brunt of the slime. She whipped a glob off her hand. “No one knows why. One of those rules is that you need to enter a room to fight a creature. Once a fight begins, the creature can pursue anywhere in the dungeon.”

“What are the rest of the rules?” Maveith’s deep voice intoned as we all calmed down. It did not appear there was anything pursuing us.

“The ones I remember, you already know. Safe rooms can’t have dungeon creatures in them. Once you enter a room, a monster can pursue you out of it. There’s a reward for clearing a room…” Raelia stopped cleaning herself and thought. She held up her hand and seemed to be counting, trying to remember. “Rooms will reset after one day, and if you rest in a corridor between rooms for more than a day, the creatures in any connected rooms can pursue you.”

She had not offered any new information. “Is that all you remember?” I pressed her. Any new knowledge would be welcome.

Raelia nodded. “The dungeons I entered were not as dangerous as this one, and they were more for training us to work as a team against non-humanoids.” Raelia’s head snapped in alarm to the far entrance, and I swore as I turned. I expected company men, but instead, I saw a small green goblin sprinting frantically out of the corridor. It stumbled into a roll when it noticed the massive earth drake in the chamber’s center. The goblin child was familiar—it was the one I had released to distract the bear. How had it survived for so long?

Maveith’s rumbling voice questioned, “Do you all see a goblin too?”

Horrid screeches of feminine anger followed the goblin out of the corridor. “Harpies,” I warned my group.

“Harpies?” Raelia questioned.

“The goblin must have run through the last room. It had a pair of harpies in it,” I explained while drawing my blade and rushing to the corridor to meet them. The frail goblin wasn’t a concern. The harpy screams echoed down the corridor as they approached, and my head ached from the discordant cadence of their screams, which sounded like a mutilated song that I couldn’t ignore. My mind clouded, and it was a strain to remain focused. Claws clicked rapidly on stone as they approached. I stood at the side of the passage opening and waited.

Maveith had pursued the goblin, and I could not yell at him for help, or I would alert the harpies. The first harpy stumbled into the room, and my blade came down on the back of its neck. I mistimed my swing but managed to sever one of its leathery wings. It screeched in pain, sending a pressing migraine through my head. I pivoted to finish it with another swing when the second harpy plowed into me, talons-first.

I was pinned underneath the creature, struggling as I learned more about harpies than I ever wanted to know in those next few seconds. Their legs were massive bird legs with talons, trying to tear my armor off. It also had long claws on its hands that tried to reach my exposed face. A grotesque woman’s face with greasy black hair, wild eyes, and sharp teeth hissed and spat at me. I struggled to hold the heavy creature at bay. Its talons had a strong grip on me, and it was much heavier than it looked.

Strangely, in my struggle, I remembered a curse my comrades used—“harpies’ tits.” And yes, the torso of this creature was well-muscled and would have been attractive on any buxom human woman.

“Close your eyes!” Raelia yelled. I trusted her in that moment because I thought I knew what she was doing.

Heat erupted around me as a wave of fire enveloped me for not more than a fraction of a second, blasting the creature away and freeing me. My armor protected me from the worst of it, but my face was blistered, and I smelled burnt hair. I rolled to my feet to see both harpies struggling, their wings in shambles with embers still burning from the fireball. I slashed the one I had crippled with my black blade, ending its pained cries.

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The lone remaining harpy was hobbled, its wings shredded, and half its face burned. Its one good glossy black eye contained more malice than I could fathom. It tried to scream, but Raelia’s legacy dagger suddenly appeared in its throat, and it grasped at it as it struggled to breathe.

I glanced at Raelia, who stood twenty feet away. I nodded at her, my voice cracked from the dry heat. “Nice throw.” I stepped into the harpy’s reach and stabbed it in the chest, aiming for its heart. I backed away before it could retaliate as it died. My face burned, and I reached for the aether potion but stopped. It was best not to waste the treasure and just deal with the pain. The only threat now was the goblin.

I saw Maveith chasing the goblin around the corpse of the earth drake. The small goblin was bone-thin but incredibly fast. It definitely had a strong survival instinct. Raelia stood beside me, looking concerned. “I am sorry; it was the only thing I could think of to help you.”

“You did the right thing,” my voice creaked out. I thought I’d inhaled some of the fireball, as my lungs also burned along with my face. The harpy’s claws would have ripped out my throat if she had not helped me.

It was almost comical as we both watched the goblin avoid Maveith by using the large drake as cover. If Maveith got too close, it would scramble over the drake to the other side, the large scales making excellent handholds for its tiny, nimble fingers. Neither Raelia nor I moved to help Maveith. Finally, I said, “It’s not a dungeon creature, Maveith. I brought it in here and released it when I fought my first bear.”

Maveith stopped his pursuit and looked at me, his chest heaving from his efforts. The goblin also looked exhausted but studied Raelia and me. Even with my red and blistering face, recognition flashed in the goblin’s eyes. That quickly turned to fear, and it bolted for the exit, descending the stairs to the safe room in a heartbeat.

“Let it go!” I yelled to Maveith. In an odd way, I felt sorry for the creature if it had survived over a week in the dungeon, running for its life. My guess was that it ran through a room and pulled the monsters into the next room to fight each other. I walked to Maveith and began healing my face as my aether recovered.

Maveith was apologetic. “Sorry, I did not help with the harpies. I got focused on the goblin.”

I looked at the part of the wall where the green slime covered the exit to the Endless Dark. The slime was no longer a flat surface, which indicated there was now rock behind it. Had we just passed up a chance to leave the dungeon? How would we have even scaled the chasm, and how far below the surface were we? No, we made the right choice, and whatever was at the bottom of the chasm was not friendly.

The harpies both yielded major charm essences. The essences had spiraling smoke inside in a mix of white and blue. If you looked at the pattern too long, it made you dizzy. I handed both to a surprised Raelia. She had possibly saved my life and definitely played the largest role in the victory. She studied my face, which was now mostly healed. “I’m sorry you had to waste a healing potion on your face.”

I shrugged, not telling her I could heal myself. I looked to the goliath. “Maveith, it’s fine. Let’s move back to the safe room.” I looked seriously at Raelia. “You’re going to have to return to my dimensional space.” She did not appear as reluctant now. Maybe there was a little trust between us.

We slowly descended the long set of stairs, concerned the goblin could have drawn the dire boars into the safe room. There were no goblins or boars at the bottom of the stairs. Maveith began to cook while I scouted the boar room to ensure there was no threat. I had recovered enough aether to kill a boar if needed.

Two boars were clearly visible as I approached the dire boar chamber, blocking the entrance while the small goblin huddled, trying to make itself small in the corridor. My armor rasped loudly as I walked, the resin-infused leather plates having melted and deformed a little from the fireball, no longer sliding seamlessly against each other. The goblin spun back and forth between the two boars and me, trying to decide on the lesser of two dangers.

At just over twelve feet away, I didn’t give it a chance to make its final decision. I aligned some free space and sent the creature into my dimensional space. I had recovered enough aether, and having something in my dimensional space that could serve as a distraction in a future fight seemed like a good idea.

I returned to the safe room. “The goblin’s taken care of,” was all I said as I sat down. “After we eat, Raelia,” I told her, and she nodded in understanding.

The meal consisted mostly of us speculating on why the dungeon was trying to get rid of us. Raelia thought we had just caught it in the process of expanding its labyrinth and did not think the dungeon had enough awareness to target us specifically. She managed to convince Maveith of this, even though I was fairly certain the dungeon was targeting me. I think it recognized me as a threat and a nuisance.

After storing the goblin, I had to draw out the meal to recover enough aether. Raelia seemed to think it was due to my reluctance to store her, which worked in my favor. as I felt we had built a bit of trust, and I no longer saw her as an enemy. Raelia finally stood. “Let us get this over with. If I am trapped inside you for a long time, know that I am not going to be happy when I am let out.”

Raelia drew her two blades. “Put your pack over there,” I instructed, pointing to the shelf. “You’ll want to be unburdened when you come out.” She nodded and did as instructed. She prepared herself and nodded. “You can keep the ranger’s cloak,” I said, pushing her into my space before she could respond.

Maveith seemed sad as I went over to her pack. I took out the thermal stone first since we had not used it to prepare the meal. “Eryk, what are you doing?” Maveith asked.

“Repacking her bag a little.” I sorted everything out, and when I had enough aether, I pulled out food. Maveith understood and started to help. When we left the dungeon, she was going to need food to get back to Bartiradian lands.

Before repacking everything, I made a decision and pulled out a large egg. Maveith was confused. “Is that an egg? It is huge. What is it?” I think Maveith was salivating at the culinary implications.

“This is a griffin egg, Maveith.” His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Help me pack it so it’s protected with all this food.” During the process of packing Raelia’s backpack, I told Maveith the tale of how I acquired a griffin egg.

When we finished, I sent the pack to my space, and Maveith asked, “Do you have any more eggs? Chicken eggs, preferably. I miss omelets.”

I laughed at the large man. “No. That was the only egg I had in my space.” I took a deep breath and held up a major essence with shifting colors. “Can you watch over me as I take this? It’s the illusion affinity from the shapeshifters.”

Maveith nodded. “I will watch over you.” We had talked about this before—my unpleasant experience with the apex earth essence. Hopefully, using one of the major essences instead of an apex to unlock my illusion magic would not be as bad. It felt like it was the right time to experiment before reconnecting with the company.

The essence dissolved in my mouth, and goosebumps ran across my body. My skin tingled as the electric heat left my stomach and spread across my body. “This isn’t so bad…” I suddenly vomited, and my muscles clenched. I curled into a ball on the floor and let the process work its way to completion, trying to block out the pain.

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