A bad Experience

Jumping from one spot to the next that was at least halfway clean, Jay went over to Kathariel who kept waiting at the end of the slope down to the cave. The mine went on further down where she was standing and this was where they would go next.

"Was that necessary?" K.

"No, but it was fun!" J.

Shaking her head to the young man, Kathariel was at a loss for words.

He was way to versatile for his own good and strong beyond normal. Had she seen his skill list, she would have probably passed out on the spot.

Going down the winding path of the mine, the sound of dropping water was soon replaced by some Goblins laughter. On the whole path down they hadn't encountered a single of those monsters.

As Jay thought about it, the goblins he had mashed up there were small or looked somehow female. He wasn't sure as the main difference between the genders was covered by loincloths or rags.

With a bad premonition he crouched down and peeked into the illuminated cave they were closing in on.

And he was spot on.

Trying to hold back Kathariel as the goblins seemed to not have spotted them, the elf shook her head and went on. Jay was sure she would regret it the next moment, and again, he was damn right.

What they found in the cave were another batch of Kobolds. But those ones were all females.

And they weren't alone.

At least forty Goblins, most of them males were with them in the cave. It looked like a wild and totally disturbing smut orgy as the goblins seemed to hump every living female they could get.

Kathariel next to Jay went pale at the sight, but he himself also wasn't better off.

This was all the more reason to eradicate the ugly green-skins.

Stepping forward while taking out the bloody hammer again, Jay checked the height of the cave and lifted it up. His first victim was a Goblin hunter that was taking a Kobold from behind.

Well, they both became one in a literal sense as the hammer descended and blasted them.

"Time for a little bit of 'whack-a-pole'!" J.

The squeaking *piku* noise of the toy would have been more funny, but Jay went by with the splashing sound whenever the hammer descended pretty good as well.

Kathariel stood there without moving, watching in shock what those green-skins did to whatever female they would encounter. Jay noticed she wasn't moving and went on while keeping an eye on the elf.

He was going to shield her if some oft the Goblins came attacking her, but most of them still ignored the two intruders and kept the reproduction up. Only those, whose victim got minced or they selves got wounded went to attack.

After a few moments the Lieutenant behind him regained her senses and also attacked. She started her dance like battle again, while Jay went from one pile of Goblins to the next. This way, it had been relatively easy to clean out more than half of the cave.

Having reached further back in the cave they spotted even some human women in the fray, but after using analyze on them he learned they were all bandits.

Their pleading gazes as they saw the two humans killing their way towards their direction got completely ignored, even by Kathariel as Jay told her those were bandits.

The women seemed to have come here at least some days ago, as two of the three already had a bulging belly. Jay had no knowledge about how long Goblins were pregnant until delivery, but given their reproduction time and life expectancy, it couldn't be long.

Who or whatever had been brought down here, ended as breeding-stock, so he had only one option: to eradicate them all.

Just as Kathariel and Jay were about to reach the two women that got worked on each by at least two Goblins, A large figure rose from behind two crashed lores.

Its skin had a darker hue of green and it was at least three heads taller than the average Goblin, even slightly taller than the average human.

As the monster stepped forward and into the sparse light, the ugly face of a Goblin on a smaller version of an orcs body showed itself.

"Oh shit, that's a Hobgoblin... a dire one!" K.

Kicking the last of the three human women, a pregnant one whose fingers got gnawed on by another Goblin, to the side, it pointed towards Jay and screamed.

All of the ugly monsters at once raised their heads and looked towards their direction.

And then they rushed in.

Not just the male Goblins but the females as well, tried to attack Jay and Kathariel. But the two of them were no match for the small horde. While they decimated the small creatures one after another, at least in Kathariel's case, Jay had the chance to analyze the Hobgoblin.

From his previous encounter with one of those he had a different imagination to the males, but the results of his skill explained a lot.

__________

Hobgoblin Brute [lvl. 15]

(Dire Hobgoblin)

HP 520/520 Mana 0/0

[Bash]

__________

It was listed as Dire creature, but did neither look too strong nor overly feral.

Jay would inquire later from Kathariel about it, but first he had to do something about the tiny little tool facing Jay's direction. That ugly monster was so brazen to point his standing weener their way, so he did what he came here for.

Closing in a bit on the Hobgoblin, he went into a wide swing with his hammer, crushing two more green heads in the process.

Jay then let go of the Hammer at the perfect timing, having it beeline right on target.

"Strike!" J.

With a loud -thump-, the green little stick got utterly crushed.

Not that it mattered to the owner anymore, as only a second later it's back crashed against the rough cave wall. The heavy impact robbing it of the last remaining health points had Jay's version of whack-a-mole come to an end.

As between him and Kathariel were some Goblins left, Jay switched to chain lightning. While simultaneously casting and using the skill button he took care of whatever was left in the cave.

The human women and Kobolds died the same way most of the green-skins did, electrocuted and charred to death.

After the last monster died by Kathariel's hand, it was a Kobold that tried to flee, the two of them sat down on a wooden crate near the entrance.

The smell of the deed and filth still hung in the air, as well that of blood. But they needed a little rest.

Jay had already plugged out the totem that was set up in the middle of the cave as he passed along it. He had thrown it in his inventory and noticed the glow had gotten significantly stronger than last time he saw the enchantment in a cave.

Not willing to test out if the enchantment really had gotten stronger, he decided to have it thoroughly checked once he was back.

"I... what the hell was that?" K.

"I thought you know about the totem." J.

"Yes, I do. But something like this here... it wasn't like this last time." K.

"No... but I've also seen worse. That's why we have to stop this shit..." J.

"...Sorry for spacing out. Until now I only fought other soldiers on border wars and the likes. A few beasts and monsters while passing by or protecting towns, okay... but a den like this?" K.

"That's what Adventurers have to do. The people need both, the military protecting the borders and the Adventurers taking care of monster population and the likes..." J.

"Hmpf, ...may be you're right... We should leave. It stinks!" K.

They got up and left the cave, passing the previous bloody mess and climbed the steep slope up.

On the first fork they decided to check the other paths as well, even though the main threat was gone. While they encountered a few leftover Goblins in the lower cave, the upper one held nothing living.

Instead it was where the skeletons of the green-skin's food got stored. Mainly Kobold bones but even some human ones were to be found.

As they finally reached the surface again, half a day had already passed.

The sun had long passed it's zenith and begun it's descend.

Picking her horse at the fence where it got left, the two saddled up on their mounts and rode on towards the west. The next stop would be the Long-shore and possible Gnoll encampments. While they rode down the main road, they would pass more farms and decided to question them about the monsters activities.

After half an hour they passed the first farm. The buildings lay not far off from the road, but it was no longer more than ruins.

It had gotten burned down and the fields were already growing wildly. Riding back to the main road after checking the charred remains of the farm, the two rode on.

While the landscape hadn't changed one bit with its grassy hills and field until the horizon, Jay learned that the southern part of the region was slightly different.

The farms in the north grew mostly vegetables of all sorts, while those in the south grew grains. That was also the reason why the southern part was often called golden plains and everything south of the Long-shore got named Gold-coast.

Only further to the east, some farms cultivated cattle on the grassy plains near the border.

After a pretty long ride through fields to both sides of the main road they saw the next farm. As Kathariel explained, it was owned by a family named Molgen.

She had gotten a little more open towards Jay and even shared her surprisingly deep knowledge of the region.

Taking the path to the surprisingly big farm, Jay an the Lieutenant were greeted by a pair of workers. Though one of them looked kind of shady, the other one was a friendly middle aged man.

"Hello there, you look like Adventurers looking for work?" asked the man while the other one just nodded. After inquiring if there had been any sightings of Gnolls, they learned that there indeed were some and Farmer Molgen apparently even placed a help request at the Guild.

A few of the Field workers had heard from some employees to another Farm that there had been a few attacks and people went missing.

That farm was located a bit to the north, but no further notices arrived in the last days.

Kathariel kept silent and had a slight sour expression due to her getting mistaken for a Adventurer.

Jay did no longer need to ask what was on her mind in that regard. Saying their thanks and telling they would look into their problem with the Gnolls, Jay and Kathariel rode back to the main road.

They only managed to travel a few miles more until the sun had sunken onto the horizon, painting the surroundings in a beautiful orange.

Deciding to call it a day they looked for a nice place to rest.

As they had already left the main road and went towards the north on a smaller path along some field, they went onto a hill to their right. Right beneath a big oak that had grown on top of that hill, only a hundred yards from the path they found it.

While Jay simply dismissed his mount after it had short rest and grazed the lush plains, Kathariel left her horse there after taking off the saddle.

As she started to unfold her rolled up blanket and took out some necessities from the saddlebag, Jay walked over with a frown.

"Care to tell me what you're doing?" J.

"That's what I should be asking. ...Or where do you plan on sleeping?" K.

A sudden realization struck Jay at that moment. Of course the female elf had no idea he had that very special tent at the ready in his inventory.

"Oh, you are right..." J.

"Though a tent would have been nice, I guess it's okay to sleep in the open once in a while..." K.

"About that..." J.

Taking out the tent without further warning and setting it up right beneath the tree, Kathariel jumped up in shock.

"You're kidding me, right? A ready tent? ..." K.

"I thought it's best to have something prepared for situations like these." J.

"You won't cease to surprise me, right?" K.

"...I'll get us something to eat." J.

With this he crawled into the tent.

As he didn't come out after a few seconds and Kathariel couldn't hear him moving inside, she decided to peek inside.

And as she did, she thought about her last sentence while her body followed her head moving inside.

Standing in the main space of the tent, looking around with astonishment, she found Jay in a separation further back.

Her stupor only grew as she arrived next to him and found herself in something like a high class kitchen with magic tools.

"Where the hell did you get something like this?" K.

"The kitchen?" J.

"Everything! The magic tent, your item-box that can hold spatial magic, the equipment you wear, ...even your versatility and skills?" K.

"Hmm... I worked pretty unceasingly, so the equipment and skills are earned the hard way. Most of it at least..." J.

"And the rest?" K.

"Well...tell me your story then I'll tell you mine!" J.

As Haggard and Tharynn trusted her, enough to send her on a mission with him, Jay decided to reveal a bit more from him.

That was of course if the elf would do the same first.

If what he heard didn't satisfy him, he could simply make a story up. His own was so fantastic, even for a fantasy-like world like this, it was possible the truth would be taken as lie.

Kathariel was pondering about what to do after Jay had asked her again.

She clearly trusted him way more than she would have liked. Taking in a deep breath, she sat on the small table in the kitchen and started to talk.

"I think you should at least know where my aversion for Adventurers stems from...

You surely asked yourself how a elf got into the royal army, right? The story is from long ago, over forty years, when I was still a small child...

My parents had been Adventurers themselves, but they died in action. They got recruited after the war with the north, when the armies were still weakened and the first encounters with the hordes from the east took place.

It was something that couldn't be helped and I got sent to Arathor's orphanage.

Though I missed my real parents, the Sisters there took good care of me. And as we elves age a lot slower, I had been there for quite some time.

That's how I witnessed how the monetary help got reduced year after year, while the number of orphans rose. After inquiring, I got told it was the Guild that send less and less money to the Kingdom for funding the orphanage." K.

"Weren't you but a child back then?" J.

"Yes and no. A child, yes but still over twenty years old.

We age differently. Anyways... as I was old enough, I went to where my parents died.

I should have said that earlier, but as I was too small to be left alone and both my parents had to help the military, I was with them as it happened.

Though I had been kept guarded at their base of operations, it still got attacked at one point. I remember the Captain that saved the settlement we were at, as he found me in the ruins. It was Haggard." K.

"Then why don't you hate the military that came late but the Adventurers?" J.

"Because it was the surviving Adventurers that plundered and abandoned the settlement, while my parents died together with the guards, defending us.

Even the last mementos to my parents got taken away... And I don't hate them! How could I? But I still don't like or trust most of them from what I had witnessed back then and in the orphanage." K.

"Most of them?" J.

"There are exceptions. Why would I tell you this otherwise? Well, you can guess what happened next, right?

Not wanting to end like my parents and with connections to the then degraded Haggard, I joined the army. And here we are..." K.

"degraded?" J.

"Yeah, for saving the settlement I was in, he disregarded a direct order and of course got degraded. He would long be Marshal if he hadn't don it back then!" K.

"Ah, I get it then... your connection..." J.

Turning around hastily as the eggs he was frying had been forgotten for a bit too long, Jay looked back to Kathariel over his shoulder. While he worked on the meal, she had noticed his smirk.

"What is it you're smirking about?" K.

"I'm just imagining you as a small child. Must have been the cutest in whole Arathor..." J.

"Dummie..." K.

With a fierce blush, the mostly stoic Lieutenant fled the kitchen an sat down at the main room while pouting.

The question of where Jay got all those fancy items and his abnormal strength had been forgotten over his comment.

At least for this night.