Slaying goblins

Once Bythos woke up, he helped the village elder with his farm. Once that's done, they had some breakfast before Bythos left for the city and went for the board outside the adventurer's guild.

The quest he decided to take is one where he needs to get rid of the goblins that were ambushing caravans passing through the road to the northern cities, however it does not indicate exactly where the goblins are. As such, Bythos went inside the guild to get more information.

After asking for some details on the quest, the lady at the counter replied, "I'm assuming this is your first time taking such a quest. If that's the case, I'll lay down some basic details for you."

Pulling out a piece of paper and a quill, she asked, "Do you need to write it down?"

Bythos shook his head, and she contiued, "Very well then. For quests pertaining to slaying monsters, the reward consists of a flat rate for completing the quests and a bonus for bringing back trophies from the monsters. As for information, the guild does provide them for a small fee in proportion to how difficult the quest is. Most adventurers still choose to get information from us as having more information helps to reduce the likelihood of any mishaps occurring."

"Thanks for telling me this," Bythos replied, "I would like some information for my quest then."

After paying the price of two copper coins, she told Bythos pretty much all he needed to know, and repeated it for good measure. Bythos was satisfied with the information and headed up north the road to do his quest.

After walking along the road for some time, he came across a crashed caravan on the roadside. Upon closer inspection, it seems to be a caravan carrying foodstuffs. Behind the caravan are a couple of goblins busying themselves with eating the food they took from the caravan.

Circling the caravan from a distance, Bythos checked to see how many goblins there were, and found there to be four of them. Each of them are wearing leather armour and three of them are wielding a sword while one is wielding a spear.

Looking at them, Bythos can't help but wonder how they managed to get armour, when he himself couldn't afford it right now.

Drawing his bow, he took aim at one of the goblins and released the arrow. Luckily for him, the goblins are relatively stationary, so he managed to land a hit, pinning the goblin's head against the caravan.

The remaining three goblins were alerted to Bythos' presence, and charged towards him. Bythos might be able to hit a stationary goblin, but he's not that good of a shot. Knowing this, he drew his sword in advance, readying himself against them.

The two goblins using swords positioned themselves on opposite sites relative to Bythos, constantly harassing him with their attacks. Their attacks are quite light, so he has no issues fending them off, but the one with the spear doesn't seem to be taking any actions.

It's standing just out of the reach of Bythos' sword, so Bythos focused on getting rid of the two goblins annoying him first.

After parrying their blows, Bythos quickly struck them with his sword. Their leather armour protected them the attack, with his blows only managing to knock them back.

While he was attacking the two goblins, the third goblin with the spear took the opportunity to thrust his spear into Bythos' side. Bythos grunted in pain and tried to swing his sword back against the goblin, but the goblin is out of his reach.

I should really get better equipment. This will not do. It's absurd to fight against an enemy where they can damage you but not you them.

Not wanting to be caught off guard by the other two goblins, Bythos started to act. Before the two goblins recovered from his blow, Bythos grabbed the spear lodged in his side and walked forward, pushing the spear deeper until it came out the other side. Finally, the goblin is within his reached and he grabbed the shocked goblin's face and thrust his sword into it.

Now there's only two more goblins left.

Knowing that his attacks can't do much against the goblins' armour, Bythos instead decided to grapple them and cut their unprotected parts.

After a struggling for a while, Bythos managed to kill the remaining two goblins. The goblins are fairly weak, but the difficulty comes mainly from them squirming around too much when Bythos grabbed them, making it difficult for him to hit the exposed areas.

But aside from the spear still stuck on him the other injuries are fairly minor, which Bythos considers to be a good result. The spear he decided to leave it for now, as he had read before that these kinds of wounds will start bleeding out of control if object is removed.

Bythos removed a ear from each of the goblins then scavenged around the caravan. He only found one body with a bag of copper and silver coins on him which he pocketed while muttering words of thanks. After which, he returned to Aidas.

Upon reaching, the sentry looked at Bythos wide-eyed and said, "What in the...You alright man? You've got a spear poking out of you."

"I'm alright. I'm going over to the church to get it fixed." replied Bythos.

"Well if that's the case, mind telling me how it feels like?" asked the sentry. "I've never seen someone walking about like that."

"Kind of weird. A strange itchy feeling but you can't scratch that itch away."

"Ahh I see thanks."

After this short exchange, Bythos continued towards the adventurer's guild, ignoring the gaze of onlookers. The receptionist gave the same kind of reaction as the sentry, which Bythos simply brushed aside.

Turning in the quest along with the four goblin ears, she handed Bythos several silver coins. Bythos then left the guild for the church.

At the church, Bythos walked around until he found the vicar, whom he approached.

She smiled and said, "Haven't seen you here in a while, you need healing again don't you?"

Bythos nodded, to which she continued, "You know my healing services are more expensive right?"

"I don't like to approach people I don't know."

"Is that so?" said the vicar, "Well, follow me then."

Bythos followed the vicar into one of the healing rooms, whereby she left and returned with a few towels, a saw, a pair of pliers and scissors.

Cutting the shirt off using the scissors, she carefully removed the cloth that is glued to Bythos' skin by dried blood, then sawed off the back end of the spear. Next, she pulled out the remains of the spear using the pliers from the front. Finally, she used holy magic to heal the gaping wound along with the other minor cuts he sustained.

"There's some damp towels at the side which you can wipe yourself down with. There's also a new shirt there for you." the vicar finished with her left palm extending towards Bythos.

"How much is it this time?" asked Bythos.

"Seventy copper coins." replied the vicar.

Taking out his bulging coin pouch, Bythos countered out the amount required and handed it to her. Even after paying her, his coin pouch is still pretty heavy, a fact which he is thankful for.

After Bythos finished changing, the vicar said to him, "Are you free tomorrow? I need to at the church for something."

"Yeah I guess I'm free. What's it about?"

"We need extra people to help out with something, so it would be best if you come here uninjured."

"Sure no problem."

He was planning to some time tomorrow getting new equipment anyways, so it didn't bother him. After this, Bythos headed back to his village.