A small surprise

Without seeing any need to conceal his presence anymore, Jay waltzed into the dim cave. Initially only illuminated by some bio-luminescent mushrooms and moss, lightning bolts soon brightened the cave with cold blueish light.

He hadn't even made it to the first forking when dozens of Gnolls rushed in from both passages. With both swords equipped and enhanced through magic, Jay slashed through the first wave of attackers.

In mere seconds the first ten monsters had died, but it looked like there was no end to them.

When the next batch of opponents got close, Jay hurled them back with an (Arcane Blast) and then continued with (Chain Lightning) and (Lightning Strikes). Though that mostly only slowed the monsters down, it enabled Jay to cut them apart separately.

Some even died to repeated lightning attacks or by getting squished between his blast magic and the walls, but most died to his swords.

By the time his kill count there closed in on thirty, his lightning spells both got a level up.

After taking the left passage first where most of the attacking Gnolls had come from, Jay soon found it to be a dead end. Standing at the edge of a cliff leading at least five yards down he looked over the area below.

It was a wide area with multiple smaller tunnels hacked into the relatively smooth outer walls. From the rails leading through it, Jay guessed this had been the main mining site.

As he spotted a few patrols down there and seen the rails following the other passage, Jay refrained from jumping down and turned around.

When he encountered the first patrol on his way down to the mining site, Jay had nearly recovered his stamina and about half of his spent mana. The two Gnolls died without knowing what happened and Jay continued to follow the wide turning slope down.

As he reached the surprisingly huge area at its end, Jay saw that what he thought of as the other side of the area was a plateau in its center. He first took to the right of that plateau, next to the slope he came from.

There the path went into a tunnel again and down a slight slope. The walls had gotten hacked at multiple spots and the lore he found there was not even half filled. It seemed like this place got abandoned in a hurry, though the outcome hadn't changed like Jay guessed.

He continued down the path and no fifty yards further noticed multiple presences head on. Before he could see them around the wide turn though, he encountered the next patrol.

The three Gnolls were more burly than any else Jay had encountered that day and at same level like himself to that point: 24.

That didn't mean it changed the outcome of the short battle in the slightest.

Leaving one headless, another cleaved open and a third corpse with a hole in it's chest, Jay stepped into the cave behind them.

What he found there was not a horde of Gnolls waiting to finally attack him, but something between twenty to thirty somewhat cute pup-like looking monsters. If he didn't knew how they'd turn out once they grow up over the next weeks or months, Jay would have possibly let them be.

But the piles of bones and leftover corpses they stood showed they were the same kind like the Gnolls he had killed up until then.

The second he made a step forward, the little monsters growled and bared their fangs until the first three rushed towards Jay.

A single (Arcane Blast) was enough to kill two of them.

The second one Jay fired off got him rid of even more little Gnolls, as well as the loose bones on the ground. Due to the cool downs Jay had to fire off some (Arcane Darts) in between and by the fourth blast, a certain notification popped up in Jay's field of view:

He had finally raised his last arcane spell that had remained at level 1 to the second.

At the same time this signaled him that the fight had been over as only then notifications popped up.

After giving a short glance at the hurled away bones, Jay noticed that nearly half of them looked human.

Just when he spotted something silvery in the pile and analyzed it as miners badge, another notification appeared. Not sure if it had been like this in the beginning or since the upgrade, most of the quests he had taken from the guild had turned into system ones as well. The bonus XP was quite nice, even if it was only a little.

***

Quest:

'Rethbrand checkup' cleared!

Visit the Rethbrand Mine and find out why they lost contact.

2800 XP

***

Thanking the system in his mind for the additional Experience Points, Jay looked around once again. But as it was a dead end he soon turned around and left in the direction he came from.

There had been nothing to loot down there so all he had taken was the small badge should he need it as proof for the guild.

When Jay got back to the mining site, he also encountered the next patrol soon. Once he was done taking care of it, he looked around in search of the way to take. Just then he suddenly spotted something he had least expected. It was the same small girl he thought he had seen the night before in the woods.

The moment she noticed him looking her way, the girl hid behind a boulder to the side.

At least Jay was sure by then he really had seen right and that something was off in all of the Gnolls behavior. He took the same action as the girl and activated (Hide) to not shoo her away as he had the feeling she could explain him a thing or two.

Looking around once more, Jay spotted a passage leading in a slight slope up further behind. He went there along the plateau in the middle of the cave room while passing two more patrols.

One of them he took out but the other had been a bit away so he left them be for the time.

In the not too wide tunnel he walked up then, he didn't encounter any monsters but the reason for that dawned him as he walked on. There were numerous presences in the area he was walking to, so many it was obvious they didn't need a specific guard.

As Jay entered the surprisingly wide cave, he found a big horde of Gnolls, ready to fight who ever entered.

They seemed to have known he would come there and gotten themselves ready!

...At least the monsters might have thought that.

Getting as close as possible to the first row of opponents, Jay undid his hiding with an (Arcane Blast). This resulted in the further left and right monsters to only get shoved further away, but the closer ones crashed into the next row and some even died to that.

Either way, Jay had enough space around him to fire off some (Arcane Darts) that had gotten quite the boost with their level-up. It still wasn't enough to defeat the monsters he was facing just then, as quite a lot had the same as his own Base-level.

With both his swords in hand and enhanced with magic, Jay slashed and cut through the incoming horde.

Whenever he got surrounded or in the right position, he fired another (Arcane Blast) and managed to splash a few Gnolls on the cave walls.

One even had tried to jump at him and got hurled to the ceiling. The stalactites there did the rest and it remained there even after Jay had taken out more than half of his opponents.

What had surprised Jay in this fight was neither the number of monsters or their levels, but the fact that a good portion had been female. Never before did he encounter this many, nor had any of them engaged combat or even held a weapon.

When most of the Gnolls had died to either Jay's swords or spells and the few remaining didn't dare to get close to him, Jay switched to his bow. During the whole fight he had kept close to the slope down so the small Girls wouldn't pass him.

Before he could fire off the first arrow onto the entirely female survivors, another howl rang out. This time it was not only close, it was so loud that Jay nearly dropped his bow.

As he had the bow stored and held his ears, Jay saw the survivors use the chance to flee.

He didn't really mind it and took this chance to regain some of his stamina. In the fights up to there he had killed close to a hundred opponents and deserved a little rest.

Jay had expected there would follow another howl, but was happy that wasn't true. Proceeding some steps forward, he found the source of it near the cliff he couldn't see before.

A big Gnoll holding a – even for it's huge body – over-sized sword in its hand stood there seemingly waiting for him. Right behind it, Jay spotted the reason for the monsters population and raid on Stillwater.

The totem there was slightly bigger than those before and kept pulsing in shifting colors.

Jay couldn't watch it any longer as the Gnoll, a Level 25 (elite) called Jowler, stepped forward and into his line of sight. Then it took another step forward and looked like it took a pose for fighting but Jay still kept looking behind it in search for the girl.

The moment Jowler rose it's sword high, ready to dash towards Jay, he finally took actions as well.

A single use of [Shadow Step] brought him behind the monster before it could move and Jay mercilessly rammed both of his fire enhanced swords into its massive torso.

Sure that it's heart got punctured by that as Jowler first dropped its sword and then fell on it's knees, Jay didn't stop there.

Without moving a single step, he held his arms crossed at chests height, right behind the Gnoll leaders neck. With one powerful scissor cut, Jay separated Jowler's head from the rest of it and before any part of it touched the ground, a notification screen appeared.

***

Quest:

'Howling in the hills' cleared!

Find out about it and exterminate the source of the howls heard in Stillwater.

2400 XP

***

After closing the screen, Jay turned around and looked at the totem. The moment he took a step forward and was about to grab it, he suddenly saw a small figure running from the foot of the cliff he stood at. The girl he had so thoughtfully tried to hinder from fleeing had still managed to do so, probably by climbing down from the plateau.

Not intending to let her slip away once again, Jay jumped after her. With his strength and both legs boosted by magic, as well as his movement skills, this height was not much of a problem.

He closed in on her fast and even before she reached the tunnel leading up from the mining site, did he get within reach to use yet another [Shadow Step].

As he appeared in front of her, the cute girl looked totally shocked. Jay's expression wasn't much different to hers, though for a different reason. The single swat to the side of her head was enough to knock her out and end this situation.

Jay would of course not have hit a small girl, nor any other one, without reason. But he moment he had gotten her as target and read her name, his hand moved before his brain could process the situation. That was because the name he had gotten displayed was Sira.

To make sure he hadn't messed up, Jay analyzed her once again and even got to read she in truth was the small hobgoblin that had once managed to flee from him. Throwing her light body over his shoulder, Jay walked back to the platform again. There still was the totem and the huge sword from Jowler he'd wanted to pick up.

After the first step he had to halt though.

The reason was a notification that blocked his vision, informing him of just then completed quests. Thinking about dismissing them at first, Jay took the few seconds to read through them one after another.

***

Quest:

'The Hobgoblin' cleared!

Find and catch the fled Hobgoblin

4800 XP

***

***

Quest:

'The Cause (9)' cleared!

Catch the totem's distributor

3950 XP

***

***

Quest:

The Cause (10)

Object:

Interrogate Sira and unmask her source.

***

With the new quest hinting him on what he had been going to do anyways, Jay closed the system screens a few moments later. At least there was no longer any question about her identity and so he walked on to find out where she had come from as well.

The cave was eerily quiet at that point, but it was only natural as the few survivors must have fled a while back. Arriving on the plateau again, Jay first of all tied up Sira and affixed her to a stalagnate there.

He tried to not be overly rough after how he had knocked her out, even though her life had never been in danger from that.

Following that, he stored the totem away and picked up the nearly six feet long sword from next to Jowlers corpse to do the same. As he was at it, Jay also did the same with the Gnoll's head should he need proof and then went back to the small girl to inspect her.

She really didn't have much of worth on her, only a small magic pouch on her waist and a small golden ring.

Jay decided to take both from her, but the moment he slid the ring off her finger, Sira suddenly turned green again.

__________

Disguise Ring (rare)

Ring

Requires Level 20

Weight 0,1

[Disguise: Human]

__________

After analyzing the ring, Jay woke up the small hobgoblin to inquire about it. Sometimes he wished for more explanation from his system, like in this situation. Though he got the gist of what the ring did, namely disguise one as human, anything else was a mystery.

As Sira slowly opened her eyes and looked around, she directly tired to flee. Her struggle where for naught though.

She only calmed down a bit once Jay squatted down in front of the struggling hobgoblin and smiled friendly.

"Hi, my name's Jay. Care to answer me some questions?" J.

"No!" S.

"Good, can you tell me about this?" J.

While holding up her ring for her to see it, Sira slowly understood the situation she was in. As she looked down and saw her skin color had reverted to green, the small woman looked at Jay with ridicule.

"Hmpf, if it's only that… Don't tell me you have never seen a disguise ring? They're not that rare! You find them on every black market and they're also not too expensive…" S.

"Thanks. Then to the next one: What do you know about those totems you carried all over the lands?" J.

"…" S.

"Nothing? Then how about your boss? You can at least tell me a name, right?" J.

"…" S.

"I thought you didn't mind talking?" J.

"… The -No!- meant I won't answer any questions!" S.

"Oh… In that case I guess I have to take other measures." J.

Through him analyzing her anew, Jay had learned about her being enslaved as well, but it didn't mean he would let her off easy.

While she was no ordinary slave, he could still most certainly set her free. But Jay was only going to do that if she spilled the beans about it.