Merrick walks in front of us as we leave the camp, wearing simple all-black clothing with a bag strapped to his back. Daniel looks much the same, but with his leather armor and gauntlets on, a hammer also hangs down from his belt. I’m the odd one out, in my brand new long green coat that hides my weapons, with a black duffel bag on my back, the strap running diagonally down my chest. We walk in silence for a few minutes before our leader speaks up from the front.
“Lesson number one, always resupply when you can. Did you guys bring food and water?” Merrick asks in a tone like he knows we didn’t.
“Yes,” Daniel says, smiling. “I’ve been in active combat enough to know that you eat when there’s food, hungry or not, and you stock up when it’s available.”
Merrick turns around, walking backwards to look him in the eyes. “Smart, but stocking up out here means hunting and preparing food, finding water, and making it safe to drink. And you have to do all of this while monsters are running around trying to eat you.” He looks from Daniel to me and turns back around before saying, “But that’s what I’m going to teach you. How to survive Helot, no matter what it throws at you, and it will throw some bullshit around.”
He leads us further into the dimly lit forest, the morning light barely able to breach the canopy. I’m able to navigate mostly by using my spatial senses. At this point I'm able to keep a twenty-foot bubble around myself at all times now thanks to my mana heart producing so much mana. After nearly four hours and the forest getting brighter, Merrick stops us, pointing at bootprints in the ground.
“Lesson two, what are these?” He asks.
I lean in closer to the tracks, examining them. It only looks like a single person walked through, potentially injured, as the bootprints are all over the place, like they were stumbling. “A person, only one I think, and they might be injured.”
“Really close,” Merrick says.
Daniel shakes his head. “Probably another undead. I would agree with Ray, but there is no blood here whatsoever.”
“Correct! Probably. You can never be one hundred percent sure, but undead aren’t uncommon this close to the center of the forest.” Merrick says thoughtfully.
“Why are there undead in the center of the forest?” I ask next.
“There is a ruined city there that has been releasing mana that turns any creature that dies in this forest into an undead. It takes longer the further from the center of the forest, and the body has to be relatively intact, but it’s why few people but House Baradia explore this forest.” Merrick answers, walking and leading us deeper into the forest.
“Why is the city turning corpses into undead?”
“It’s a long story, but the short version is that a few hundred years ago a woman named Nithine was really pissed that all locals were treated like shit here. Being born on a planet created as a trial for people who get to go back home does that to you, ya know? Anyway, she turned herself into an undead to get around the age limit of First Landing. She sailed to the island with her army of undead and created the city right in the middle of it all. She then proceeded to enslave or kill every single initiate for nearly a hundred years.”
“That’s allowed? Didn’t anyone try to stop her?” Daniel chimes in.
Merrick shakes his head in response. “No, she broke the rules. It just took someone in charge a hundred years to notice. And when they did, they killed her on the spot and cursed the city to forever be a wasteland, pumping out cursed mana that corrupts the surroundings.” He turns around again, saying, “And people probably tried to stop her. Nobody likes living next to a necromancer, but she was a big fish in a little pond. Remember, nobody on this island is supposed to be older than twenty-five, initiates excluded.”
Merrick continues to tell us a little more about the forest and the monsters most commonly found in it. Goblin tribes are the most active of any monsters, as they breed too fast to stay in one area for too long. Once a tribe gets to a certain population limit, it sends a bunch of males out with a shaman to create a new branch tribe. Once the new tribe is settled and safe, the main tribe will send female goblins, and the process starts over again.
Wolves and undead are the other main monsters found, with some strong individual monsters also holding their own territory. Daniel brings up the massive bear prints that were in the clearing when we first arrived, and Merrick says that they probably belonged to a species of bear that has evolved to absorb the mana coming from the city. Apparently the one that left those prints was on the smaller side, according to what Merrick said, as the real big ones live in the city. All this talk about the city gives me a bad feeling. I think I know where he is leading us.
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After an hour of Merrick explaining the forest wildlife, he stops again, this time at a well-worn path in the forest floor. He explains to the two of us what signs to look for to recognize goblin activity and how often and when a trail was last used. After moving on from that, he teaches us how to hunt for food and find clean water. He warns to never light fires at night, as that is sure to attract unwanted attention. We kind of screwed ourselves over on the first night by staying near the burning bus. It probably attracted the raiding party.
We stop at another clearing around noon to eat a lunch of dried meats and roasted nuts before Merrick continues to lead us deeper into the forest.
He stops in a seemingly random spot and says, “We’re here. The first real lesson starts now and ends tomorrow morning. Good luck, and I’d recommend sleeping in the trees.” After Merrick finishes talking, he sprints into the forest, far faster than any man should be able to.
Fuck, he's fast! I can’t even see his movements. I knew him explaining all that stuff earlier should have been suspicious. I should’ve known it was going to be a trial by fire.
Daniel doesn’t even attempt to follow him. Instead, he turns to me, unhooking his hammer from his belt. “This shouldn’t be too bad. At least we have weapons and magic now, right?” He says with a grin.
I nod. “You’re right, we should be able to take on whatever this forest will throw at us, or that Merrick will throw at us, without much issue if we are smart about it.” I look around, noticing a goblin trail nearby. “How much do you want to bet he led us here with that in mind?”
Daniel walks closer, inspecting the trail. “Nothing, you’re probably correct. We should use this, scout out the goblins, and make a plan from there. We might be able to get a few levels if we can ambush small goblin teams on these trails.”
“I agree. With my spatial senses I can stay hidden and watch without needing a line of sight. We just need to find out when they send goblins along the path and wait.”
We follow the trail for a little bit, looking for a good spot we can hide to ambush any goblins coming from either direction. Eventually we settle on hiding in the canopy of the trees, about fifteen feet off the forest floor, and wait.
It takes hours of sitting in the trees, quietly waiting, before any signs of goblin activity appear, each of us paying attention to a different direction of the trail. I have my bag tied in an upper branch, and I am about twelve feet in the air, crouched on a thick branch. After nearly four hours we hear the first signs of anything but a deer that passed by earlier.
The unmistakable, foul language of the goblins comes from the direction Daniel’s watching. Four goblins soon reveal themselves, three with spears and one with a short bow, walking toward the ambush on the trail, completely unaware.
Come on, this has to work from what I've seen. Go for the bait, stupid goblins.
The goblins approach us, screeching every now and again while looking left and right into the forest. Once they are about fifteen feet away, the one with the bow squawks, and the others stop moving, turning to look at their leader. The bow goblin starts pointing at something reflecting light in the middle of the path ahead of them. After realizing that they’re small bits of shiny metal, the three spear goblins shoot forward, pushing past each other to reach the shiny bits first.
I look over and make eye contact with Daniel, nodding to him and receiving one in return. I turn back to the three goblins gathering the metal in between the trees Daniel and I are in and get ready, slowly drawing my dagger with my left hand and sword in my right, reinforcing my legs with mana. I feed enough mana into [Space Control] to push my spatial senses to thirty feet in preparation for what’s to come.
I look to the bow goblin with my extra senses, who is now slowly approaching the three others, and see its head get blown nearly smooth off in a shower of blood, brain matter, and skull fragments by a piece of fast-moving metal. The shot is nearly silent, as Daniel has learned to launch his projectiles at just under the speed of sound, but the goblins are far too distracted to notice their leader die.
I take this opportunity to act, my heart beating like a war drum as I drop onto two unsuspecting goblins. The dagger enters the back of one's neck, easily sliding in with the help of gravity doing most of the work, while the other gets my sword straight through its back and out its chest. I land in a deep squat between the two, burning mana to prevent hurting myself from the drop. A surprised goblin scrambles back, squealing before Daniel drops his hammer on its forehead, crushing its head.
[You have slain multiple creatures.]
[Level 7 forest goblin]
[Level 8 forest goblin]
I stand up, pulling my blades from the goblin bodies, and then wipe them as clean as I can get on the dirty loincloths of the dead goblins. Daniel takes this time to climb down from the tree, smiling at me as he says, “Wow, you were right, they went right for it.”
I shrug, responding with, “They aren’t very smart, not the small ones. I think they get smarter as they grow and get bigger. At least the hobgoblins and shamans seem smarter.”
The other man takes on a contemplative expression. “Just like kids. Do you think we are killing goblin children?” He asks seriously.