Advent of Eternity - Chapter 35 (Patreon)

He walked up to the door and tapped it with the back of his hand. Apparently satisfied, Cyll gestured for them to step out of the way. He stood near the hinges of the door and reached out, twisting the handle and pulling it open.

A cool breeze wafted into the room. Knell’s eyes turned yellow and he peered past the door. It led down a hall and up to a fork in the road that split off at two opposite angles.

“Right or left?” Cyll asked.

“Right,” Knell replied. “If it’s a maze, we’ll always take the right option. That’ll eventually get us to the end.”

“Right it is,” Cyll said, taking the lead as they headed down the corridor. The group traveled for a short while longer, passing a torch embedded in the wall before reaching another closed door.

“Probably monsters behind this,” Stix whispered. “If we act fast enough after opening the door, we might get the jump on them.”

“Works for me,” Knell said. “I’m just learning here. Do what you think is appropriate.”

Stix nodded. Cyll raised three fingers, then started counting down. When the last one fell, he ripped the door open and threw himself forward, dropping into a roll. He crashed straight into a baffled green creature with pointed, pink ears. It was roughly the shape as a human, but much shorter and stouter. Goblins, if Knell’s memory served him correctly.

The monster lost its grip on the rusty copper sword in its hand and went down with a terrified, furious screech. Stix darted into the room after Cyll and Knell followed after them.

Three more goblins were in the room. Two of them sat at a table, a deck of old cards between them. The last stood at the far end of the room and held a crossbow at its side. All three of them had eyes wide with shock.

Cyll rolled away from the goblin, kicking its sword out of its hands, and jumped to grab the weapon. Stix darted past him, making a beeline for the card-playing monsters. Knell surveyed the situation, then raised his staff and pointed at the goblin in the back as it went to load its bow. The monster’s actions slowed down and it reached for an arrow as if moving through molasses.

With a victorious cry, Cyll grabbed the sword and spun, slicing a deep furrow through the goblin’s chest. Blue blood sprayed out of the wound and he cursed as the goblin let out a furious screech and dove at him.

Cyll caught himself right before he let the monster hit him and instead scrambled out of the way, narrowly avoiding a hand of sharp claws. He dodged back twice more, then threw the sword at the goblin’s head.

It struck the monster with a thunk and it staggered back, stunned. Cyll drove his fist into the monster’s skull, sending it tumbling back across the floor until it slammed into the wall. The monster slumped, blood trickling down its body.

By the time he turned to face the rest of the room, all the goblins were dead. Stix had dispatched the two seated goblins within seconds, and one of her daggers had caught the bow-wielding one before it could even fire a single shot.

The gods have granted you experience for besting your foes!

“See?” Cyll asked, brushing his ill-fitting shirt off. “Easy as can be.”

“It looks to me like you were running away from a goblin,” Stix replied, stalking over to where her dagger laid embedded in a green throat and sliding it free.

“You set the rules. You don’t get to chose how I play.”

Stix grunted. “Fair enough.”

“These weren’t strong at all,” Knell said with a sigh. “I trust there are more dangerous monsters deeper into the dungeon?”

“Almost certainly, although the first ones you run into usually give you an idea of what the rest of the area will be like,” Stix said. “This floor will probably be a lot of goblins. If there are multiple floors, though, we can expect the lower one to be a lot harder. The boss will almost certainly be pretty strong as well.”

“Good. But… I also fail to see what’s so important about a place like this,” Knell said, walking up to the table and studying the cards. “I see nothing worth killing for.”

He laboriously knelt beside one of the goblins and emptied its pockets. A tiny sparkle of blue caught his eye. The monster had been carrying a tiny blue gem the size of his little finger’s nail.

“What’s that?” Stix asked, squatting beside him.

“I don’t know,” Knell said, picking the gem up. Tiny currents of magic danced within it. “But this doesn’t seem like something a pathetic little creature like this should have.”

“Not at all,” Stix agreed. “You never see gemstones drop from weak creatures. That’s a whiskey find. Most people have to specifically mine to find them, and that’s a big pain in the ass.”

“I wonder how much luck had to do with it,” Knell mused. “Check the other goblins.”

“Way ahead of you,” Cyll said, walking up to them. Another gem rested in his palm. “The goblin I killed had one as well.”

“And I believe we now know why people were trying to protect this dungeon,” Knell said. “

“But what are they?” Stix asked. “I’m no gemstone specialist, but I’ve never seen something like this.”

“I’m not sure,” Knell replied. “But men have and will kill for less. These are likely valuable in some manner, and it is unlikely that the dungeon would be left abandoned like this if anyone was trying to guard it.”

“You mean you think they’re still in here?” Cyll asked.

“It is likely. If there are better rewards in the dungeon, they would be deeper, right? Then, that is probably where our targets are. It’s time to move. The less time they have to react to us, the more effective our attack will be.”