Chapter 50. Goblins nest (1)
Chapter 50. Goblins nest (1)
Goblins were known as the weakest monsters to hunt in Ark alongside Slimes.
But a player had to locate the core of the slime and destroy it to kill a Slime, whereas one can just slice the neck of a Goblin.
That's why, Goblins were known as the weakest monster to kill. It was to the point that they were termed as the newbie monsters.
No matter how bad a player is, he can easily kill a Goblin.
Their skins are not hard to penetrate, they don't have agile bodies and their only quality was that they wield a weapon.
Even with a weapon, a Goblin was easy to hunt!
It was also one of the reasons that Ian was able to go against more than 100 Goblins alone. It was really easy to kill them.
Although it was easy to kill them in a open area or a forest, but the same thing can't be said about the home of the Goblins.
The Goblins nest!!
It was the place where all the Goblins of an particular area will live at. They would be controlled by a leader.
Normally, the leader would often be a Goblin lord or a Goblin king.
If a player wants to destroy the Goblins nest, then he had to kill the leader of the nest. After killing the leader, it would be easy to kill the rest of the Goblins.
But was it easy to even reach the leader?
No, it was obviously not easy.
There was a basic knowledge among players about the monsters. No matter how weak a monster is, they will surely protect their homes.
It was especially true for monsters like Goblins.
For Goblins, their home was the Goblins nest and there was not one story of a party getting annihilated after entering a Goblins nest.
Goblins were the weakest monsters. Isn't it embarrassing for a party to get annihilated by Goblins?
Yes, it was embarrassing but it was not a matter of embarrassment if the party had been annihilated inside a Goblins nest.
There was a single reason to it!!
Goblins were experts in setting up traps. All the Goblins nest are filled with various traps that can easily kill the players.
Players will not even fight the Goblins before they would be annihilated, simply by the traps.
Maybe it was a sort of remuneration from Pegasus corporation for making the Goblins the weakest monsters in the game.
No matter what, it was common knowledge that Goblins were experts in traps.
A player will think twice before trying to venture into a Goblins nest but Ian don't even have time to think.
The quest- The Cure of the Count was a time limit quest and even the quest given by the Village Chief Gustav was a time limit quest.
If Ian didn't hurry, then the vigilant guard members will die and the captured young girls would lose their chasity.
As he don't have time to think, Ian had to prepare quickly.
"How much for the potions?"
"It would be 20 gold and 97 silvers for the 20 mid grade health potions. As it is the saviour buying the options, I will give the potions for 17 gold."
"Here's the money."
The shopkeeper passed Ian 20 blue coloured bottles of mid grade health potions and Ian paid the 17 gold for it.
Although he was getting a discount, Ian was not happy in the least.
He was spending money to buy potions and he was not even sure if he would be able to complete the quest.
If the quest failed, then all the money spent would be wasted.
'I don't have time to think about the results.'
Ian hurriedly put the health potions in his inventory and left for the southern gate of the village.
There were two people waiting for him there. First one was the burly leader of the vigilant guards, Tacan and the other was an elf magician, Alice.
These two would be accompanying him in his quest.
"Did you got the potions?"
Alice asked him with an excited expression. For some reason, she seems to be enjoying this.
"Yeah."
"If we are ready, then let's go."
Tacan said from the side and Ian eyes moved over to his armour and the sword on his waist. It was a dazzling armour which was looking quite expensive.
'He's just a leader of the vigilant guard. Did they pay the guard leader that much?'
Ian thought in his mind and Tacan also noticed Ian eyes moving on his armour.
He quickly explained.
"This armour was actually given to me by someone who I helped once. I haven't worn it for years but it's durability hasn't depleted."
Ian nodded when he heard that. There was no need to pry any longer.
They don't have time to waste.
"Let's go then."
Ian, Tacan and Alice quickly moved to the small forest south to Ale village. On the way, Tacan started explaining about the Goblins nest.
"The Goblins nest is actually located in an underground cave in the forest. It is a very big cave and it was filled with Goblins to the brim."
Ian thought that it would be a pretty big cave to handle 2000 Goblins.
"Do you know about the entrance of the cave?"
Tacan shook his head and replied.
"No, I don't. We have to find it."
"I don't think it would be that hard to find the cave since it is located in a small forest."
Alice said and Ian nodded at that.
The problem was not about finding the Goblins nest but the problem was about surviving the traps in the Goblin cave.
'Will we able to win?'
Ian seriously contemplated all the odds inside his mind.
The level of the Goblins wasn't a problem for him. At best, they would be around level 40 and it would not be hard to kill them.
The problem was the traps and the sheer quantity of the Goblins. Even if they managed to avoid the traps, they would surely be defeated by the quantity of the Goblins.
'If I have 50, no at least 20 people, then I can kill the Goblins but…'
The only comrades Ian has was an over excited elf magician and a burly middle aged vigilant guards leader.
It was not a good party, no matter how one sees it.
"Ian, is there any problem?"
"No, everything is fine."
Ian hided his frowning expression and replied to the elf magician Alice.
'Come to think of it, she's the weirdest person I had met in Ark.'
When Alice has introduced herself, Ian was surprised. She was a reporter from KSM broadcasting station.
Ian knows about this channel and he had watched some programs on it.
That was not the weird part. Ian felt strange when Alice asked if she can have a interview with him.
It was weird for Ian because he had always thought that reporters would always interview a ranker and Ian was not a ranker at all.
Ian was not even a high leveled player.
Another weird thing was that Alice asked if she can follow him to Goblins nest. The weird thing was that she didn't asked him to share the quest or talked about how they will share the item drops.
It was common thing for a party to discuss these things before with each other.
But Alice was happy just being able to go to the Goblins nest with Ian. It was a weird thing, at least for Ian.
'It can be that all reporters are like her. It's not like I have met any reporters before.'
Ian thought as he shook his head from all these thoughts. As he looked ahead, he noticed that they had reached the forest.
"If we follow this path, then we will reach the centre of the forest. I think the cave would be quite close to the centre of the forest."
Tacan said as he pointed at a wide street like path.
"Then, let's go."
The three of them followed the wide path and soon, they were quite close to the centre of the forest.
Swish!
"Ah, what was that?"
Alice became scared when she heard that whistling noise. It seems like the over excited elf was also someone who was scared easily.
"It's just the wind."
Ian said and Alice calmed down. It was currently the season of summer in Ark.
The sun was high up in the sky and there would be occasionally some rustling between leaves due to the wind.
"Ark is truly too realistic to even…"
"Stop!!"
As Alice was speaking, Ian stopped her and looked at some bushes. Then, he said in a low voice akin to a whisper.
"I think I heard something from behind the bushes."
Both Alice and Tacan nodded their heads and Ian slowly stepped towards the bushes.
He pushed the bushes from one of his hands and he was finally able to see the place where the voice was coming from.
'Goblins!!'
It was a group of seven Goblins. They were probably out to look for food.
Ian quickly went back to Tacan and Alice after observing the Goblins for a while. He reported the situation to them.
"There are 7 Goblins there. Three with spears, one with sword and two with daggers."
"We should plan an ambush."
Tacan said and Ian nodded. He quickly made a plan inside and narrated it to the both of them.
Alice and Tacan were in favour of the plan and they quickly started the ambush.
* * *
-Ladies and gentlemen, we are back with our show.
-Yeah, today we will discuss about one of the recent hot topic which was going on in the A.L.F community.
The two broadcasters were sitting in the studio. There was a coffee mug in their hands as they discussed among each other.
-Have you seen the recent post which was going viral in the A.L.F community?
-Yeah, I have seen it. It's the post made by a famous Ark analyst and in his post, he was asking who will be the first player to reach level 300.
A photo of the post appeared on the screen. It already had more than a million comments on it and it was shared more than 700,000 times.
-So, who do you think will be the first to reach level 300?
-It can't be anyone other than the hidden prince, Brendan.
A photo of Brendan hunting an Orc lord appeared on the screen. His handsome face and heroic style of battling was displayed in the photo.
-Currently, there's no one who can give competition to the hidden prince. The second highest level player was still at level 293 while the hidden price was on the level 296.
-There's only a three level difference but it would take a enormous amount of time to lower the difference.
-I wonder where the hidden prince is hunting to gain levels so fast.
-Only the hidden prince knows of that. He hides from the world but he don't let the world forget about him.
-Yeah, that's why, he's called the hidden prince!!
At the same time as the broadcast, a man was standing on the top of a volcano in Ark.
His armour was shining and there was a pitch dark sword in his hand. A dark energy was forming on the blade.
In front of him was a lava monster. It was a level 300 monster and flames were erupting all over his body. There were also some slash marks on his body, like he was injured.
"It's time to end it."
The man muttered as he released the dark energy from his blade and in a split second, the lava monster was cut in half.
The monster was not even able to say anything before he died.
The man who had killed the lava monster turned back with a blank face. Only one word emerged out from his mouth.
"Pathetic…"