Scouting Ahead

Jonas hadn't expected Elmo to be as enthusiastic as he was about the kiss. Jonas had been with several guys during the times he was locked up. Mostly because there wasn't girls around, so guys became the only option for many. Hence, where the term 'gay for the stay' came from. Though, Jonas hadn't been able to tell if he was that way or if he was really bisexual. He enjoyed women, but found that men had charms that women just didn't have. Not that he could say exactly what those were.

However, while Elmo was more into the kiss than he had expected, Elmo still held himself in check. Maybe it was because Stanley's group could easily come back and see them or maybe there were other reasons, but Jonas let Elmo pull back. Though, his reasons were mostly that he didn't want to be caught by Kim and Elin in a compromising position for whenever they finished and came out of the secret room.

Especially if they needed someone on the outside to open it, since he hadn't really paid attention inside that room to tell if it could be opened from the inside or not. As it is, even with Elin and Kim in there, it wasn't a concern since there was someone who could open it from the outside anyway.

After Elmo pulled away, he didn't say anything and merely walked over to the wall that didn't lead to any hallway and sat down. Apparently deep in thought.

Jonas shook his head, not understanding how anyone could think with the racket Kim and Elin were making inside the secret room. Whatever they were doing exactly, they were loud, Jonas had to give them that. Then there was the part that while they'd beaten three goblins, there was also the chance that more could appear, even though that didn't seem very likely.

At the moment, however, he was thinking of how they could save the girls and beat the goblins. Part of what he was concerned about was that they couldn't say that more goblins wouldn't be coming through the portal or that the portal would eventually close. Which meant that the longer they took, the more goblins there could be.

While on the other hand, if they attacked now, they could easily become overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Even if there was a way for them to nullify those numbers, they couldn't say that they'd be able to last long enough to kill all of them.

They only have a limited amount of stamina and MP and once they ran out, they'd be pretty much defenseless, as without stamina, they wouldn't' be able to even run.

Any fight he'd ever been in before never had the possibility of getting killed that high of a chance, but now if they didn't succeed, death would be all but assured. Which really changed things more than he would have anticipated. After all, he had actual risk involved that affected something that he really cared about. His own life.

Jonas sighed. What they needed was a way to increase their numbers, which would increase how much stamina there was overall. Which also would mean that they'd have to use less of their own stamina during the fight, so if things started to go south, they'd have a better chance of getting out of there rather than they would on their own.

He remembered Patricia saying that she owed Kim a favor, so if Kim would be willing to cash that favor in here, then they could count those two as allies. Especially since he'd gotten the impression that both of them were a package deal. Aside from Patricia's offer to let Kim sleep with her that is.

However, with just two more people, that wouldn't increase their chances much. So, while he knew of Stanley's group, he couldn't say that they would be of any value. Maybe it was that they were caught off guard, but they certainly didn't look like they'd been in a fight, even a losing one, as they had claimed.

Jonas estimated that they'd probably been too surprised by the goblins appearance and wrote the girls off as dead as they ran to save their own skins. Not that Jonas could entirely blame them. Especially since none of them really were that ready for actual combat. He could only assume that the part of the goblins tearing off the girls' clothing was what they saw before they decided to abandon the girls. Which would be another reason he didn't care to try to bring them along.

Well, aside from the girl with the brawler system, Jonas corrected himself. After all, she had military training, so she'd be an excellent person to have in that fight. If only he knew how he'd be able to contact her.

Shaking his head, he pushed all thoughts of who would be a good ally or not when fighting the goblins, since he realistically didn't have any way that he knew of that he could contact anyone or even know where they were at any given moment.

The only thing he could think of that would be remotely useful was also rather dangerous. Which was to try and take a ook at that room for himself. It was certainly dangerous, but at the same time, that would be his only real way of getting accurate information.

Besides, if he knew where the girls were being held, then it would make it easier for him to try to save them with his shadow merging. Although, he couldn't say if that would be effective or not. Still, it was the better option of what he could think of to do.

One thing he was sure of, was that if the girls died, then the whole rescue mission would have been a complete waste of time. Especially since that was the primary reason he wanted to go after the goblins, and he was pretty sure that the rest of his team was of the same mindset.

Jonas then knew what he had to do. He would go and see what he could see about the room. Getting as much accurate information as possible would help them out much more than any speculation or second hand information. Especially when that information came from a dubious source itself.

Jonas walked over to Elmo and coughed to get his attention. When Elmo looked up and saw Jonas standing in front of him, he quickly sprange to his feet.

"Yes?" he asked.

"I thought I'd go take a look at what I can find out about the goblins and the room they're in. Maybe we'll find something useful," Jonas said.

"Um, should I tell Kim now?" Elmo asked, as the noise from the secret room continued.

Jonas shook his head. "Only if she and Elin come out before I get back," Jonas said. "They're busy right now, so we shouldn't disturb them if it isn't important, and me going on a scouting mission isn't that important. Though, if we were being attacked, then yeah, that would be important enough to disturb them."

Elmo nodded. "Okay. I'll do that," Elmo said. Though, after a moment he quickly added, "How long will you be gone for?"

Jonas shook his head. "Haven't a clue. Not only do I not know how far away that room is, I can't say for sure how close I'll be able to get before they detect me. It could be they'll notice me before I even get to the room, which would make my return that much sooner," Jonas answered.

"Be careful," Elmo advised.

"Of course I will," Jonas assured him. "I have no plans of dying any time soon."

Elmo smiled at that. Jonas found himself stunned at how that changed how Elmo looked. It was almost as if he was seeing him for the first time. Like he hadn't seen anyone before. He couldn't think of why he suddenly saw Elmo that way, but wondered if he should get as far away from Elmo as he could. Relationships for him in the past had never ended well for him. He didn't expect if this became a relationship that it would be any different.

However, he quickly pushed those thoughts out of his mind. He didn't have time for that sort of thing. The sooner he left, the sooner he'd be able to find out what he needed about the goblins, or at least as much as he could about them. No matter how little he was able to learn, that would still be more than he had right now.

So, he made his way down the hallway past the bodies of the goblins at a brisk pace. What surprised him most as he travelled down the corridor was the acoustics of the place. The sounds that Kim and Elin had been making, echoed very well through the corridors, even though it was already rather a faint noise at this point. Possibly all that kept it from being audible to the room with the goblins was the fact that the secret room in which they were doing whatever in was closed, muffling the sounds that he was able to hear.

What surprised him most was how many turns this hallway had. Almost as if it was meant to keeping anyone from being able to really see very far down the corridor, like most of the others passages he'd travelled down before in this place.

Then there was how quickly he'd been able to reach the other room. Given his estimate of how he'd only been able to remain in the shadows the night before for around ten minutes, he estimated that, despite all the turns the hallway had, it only took him around fifteen minutes to makes his way to the next room.

What he was able to see as he carefully looked into the room, keeping himself hidden around the closest turn in the hallway to the room, was two large goblins and well more than twenty goblins moving around the room, each with purpose, indicating they weren't just laying around as well as the numbers of the goblins were likely to increase and were only going to become more difficult to eliminate. He could tell that he probably wouldn't be able to get any closer than he already was without being spotted, meaning at the moment all he could find out was what he could see right then.

He couldn't see any signs of the girls, but he did hear sounds that could only come from a girl having sex. He was confident that it wasn't consensual, but he also couldn't do anything to help at the moment. Not being able to do anything to stop something like that always left a bitter taste in his mouth. It reminded him too much of what happened to his younger sister.

He was about to leave to head back to his party, when he noticed something in the shadows on the other side of the room by a corner. It was what looked like a stairway leading down. He couldn't say where it led, but it was good to know of possible points they could attack from. Or even paths they could take to escape with the girls if he felt it necessary.

Regardless, he decided what he would need to do would be to use at least one of the mana potions they'd found in the secret room. Drinking part of it should let him not only scout that stairway and see where it might lead, but it should allow him enough time to rescue both girls.

He was getting a sinking suspicion that he would need to save both of them at once or the other would be in danger once they realized one was gone.