Chapter Nine

A horrible smell woke me up. It was so strong that you'd think it was shoved right in my face. Spoiler alert: it was. The hobgoblin bed I was sleeping on was decaying, but its stench wasn't alone; the twenty-eight goblin carcasses were reinforcing the stench.

Flies were buzzing on top of the carcasses. Something that bothered me was how flies knew where carcasses were. Did they have a sensor, or does one fly find it and alert the rest? Also, I just murdered twenty-nine creatures. Did that make me a murderer? I stabbed, beheaded and gutted these goblins but I don't feel any remorse.

"No, they were trying to kill me, so it was self-defense," I told myself as I stood up from the hobgoblin. My eyes landed on its bleeding left leg, then its twisted right leg, before finally landing on its lifeless eyes.

"Maybe I got carried away with all that adrenaline running through me," I said as I rubbed the back of my neck but if I didn't do what I did then the hobgoblin would have fought more and probably killed me. Also worrying about what's in the past never ends well so I tried to get my mind of the fact that I was a mass goblin murderer.

I walked over to the hobgoblin's throne to investigate. I was curious about something before I had chucked the axe at the hobgoblin. It just sat there, even when all the other goblins were dying. If it joined in on the fight, then I would have been dead in their place.

The hobgoblin didn't seem to be afraid of me. Maybe it was underestimating me, or... I moved behind the throne—bingo! Or it was protecting a chest. There was a medium-large brown chest at the back of the throne. The chest was slightly open because a pearl necklace was keeping it from shutting.

"Oh sweet gods, please let this be full of jewels and gold," I prayed as I placed my hands on the lid. I pushed it open, and my greedy heart almost had a heart attack.

In terms of gold coins, this chest had enough to feed Lizon for fifteen years. And jewels, ooh baby, there were many variations of them. There were rubies of different colors, diamond-encrusted necklaces, tons of silver coins, and most importantly, gold.

"I'm rich, baby. I'm rich," I said as I did a dance before finishing it off with a twirl. Twirling was easy due to the partly dried goblin blood underneath my shoes.

"Seeing all this almost makes me wanna forgive Mike and Sam," I said, but I immediately started laughing. "Yeah, that's never gonna happen. I'm definitely gonna break every bone in their body, both figuratively and literally."

I carefully arranged the contents of the chest so that it would close all the way. When I was done, I took off my tattered, smelly, blood-covered shirt. I walked over to where I had dropped the dagger, picked it up, and used it to tear my shirt into a rag that could cover up my body like a shroud or a blanket.

The chest was heavy, which meant that I needed to use mana to strengthen myself. But the only problem was that my core was a quarter full, and all the mana in my cells must have been depleted while I was fighting. But a quarter-full core would be enough to get me out of this cave. I would have spent some time filling my core, but this place had little mana, so little.

"But Raiden, who said riches came with no effort?" I consoled myself as I walked back and tied the chest on my back like an infant.

Now my only worry was between my core and my shirt, which of the two would break first? I was really hoping for it to be the core because carrying the chest would be a pain in the butt. I walked over to the slope that tumbled me to my 'almost' death.

"Why did the goblins choose this place?" I said as I turned around and saw the rotting bodies. "Well, can't ask them now."

I coursed mana through my limbs, and as soon as enough of it reached my hands, I dug my fingers into the soft dirt and kept pulling myself up. This would have been a nice exercise routine; my arms, shoulders, and back were feeling the burn. By the time I was halfway through the slope, I heard a slight tear somewhere.

"Come on, hold on," I said as I continued climbing out till I could thankfully feel some grass under my hands.

With one last pull, my body finally managed to leave the cave. I lay down on the grassy forest ground, though the chest that was pressing my back made it slightly difficult to breathe. So, I changed my position and lay down on my right side. The sun was now setting, which meant that I must have slept for four hours. Judging from the distance from here to the village, then I would be home while it was really dark.

"Mom's going to be pissed, but I'm bringing back this hunk of cash so maybe she'd see reason," I said.

******************

Lilith didn't go to work that day. She spent the whole day trying to find Raiden. She went to Henry's place since Raiden loved spending time with him. But while she knocked on his door, she didn't even receive a response, so she assumed that he was either drinking in his home or drinking in the bar.

She tried asking Sam, Mike, and Alvin, but the three got defensive and irritated as she kept pressuring them, which made her stop. Other than that, she kept going back to her house, hoping to find Raiden there, but each time she was met with disappointment and heartbreak.

She spent all day searching every nook and cranny of Lizon. She even tried looking for him in the woods, but there was no sign of him. She heard various rumors from the people of Lizon, each rumor was more horrible than the last. Some said that "Raiden must have been mauled by a wild animal since he loved sneaking in there so much."

Others said that "maybe he was picked up by slave or organ traffickers."

Others said that "maybe crackpot Henry finally snapped, and he could have killed the boy."

"Maybe he ran away from home because he was annoyed with this place."

Her feet were now aching due to the constant walking. Her hair stuck to the sides of her head due to sweat. With her head downcast, she sluggishly made her way back home, but the cause of this wasn't because of her tired body but something much worse, and that was despair.

"Hey, Mom, sorry I'm late," she heard someone say. She quickly raised her head, and in front of her was a shirtless Raiden, his pants clung to him because they were wet, and droplets of water were rolling down from his hair. In that moment, a huge wave of relief washed over her, but it was soon replaced with anger.

Without a word, she picked up a long stick from the ground, and she started smacking Raiden with it over and over.

"Mom, Mom, Mom, that hurts," Raiden whined as he tried to dodge. Being smacked while you were shirtless hurt a lot, so Raiden was feeling the burn.

"You've been gone for two days, so you better have a good explanation," Lilith said as she was gasping for breath.

"It's been two days," Raiden said in disbelief. He only thought that it was just a few hours.

"Do you know how worried I was? I looked for you everywhere, and I couldn't find you. So tell me, where were you?" Lilith asked as she struck Raiden on his shoulder, causing the stick to break.

"Sorry, Mom. I 'accidentally' fell into a hole, which made me pass out," Raiden said in a low, sorrowful tone. But that was just a ruse; right now, he was fighting the urge to march over to Sam and Mike. "I didn't want to worry you, but I did find this."

Raiden grabbed his mother's hand and pulled her inside their house. He turned on a lantern, and in the middle of their house was the chest he found. He opened the chest, and as his mother saw the massive amount of gold and jewelry, her jaw dropped. But slowly, a mistrustful look replaced her stunned expression.

"Where did you get this? You didn't rob someone?" Lilith asked, with her hands behind her back, as she made eye contact with Raiden, which was scary when he was shorter than her, but now it was still terrifying.

"Well, yes and no. Let me explain: the hole I fell in must have been a goblin stash, so yes, I robbed a goblin. But they robbed someone else, so that must make me Robinhood," Raiden said.

"Well, genius, Robinhood gives out to the poor," Lilith said, a small smile forming on her lips.

"Well, I'm giving it to us, and we are poor, so there, I'm still Robinhood," Raiden shot back.

The two spent the next hour finding a place to hide the chest, during which Lilith suggested they dig up a hole and bury it there. But first, they found a small leather pouch, dropped in a considerable amount of gold coins before Raiden buried the chest.

"Raiden, would you consider moving to the city?" Lilith asked.