Chapter VIII

It took Cash roughly an hour to finish digging into the stone wall. First, he created a rough doorway that was about four feet wide and six feet tall. Next, he continued straight through the doorway five feet before digging out a 100 square foot room. The design was simple and extremely rough, but Cash hadn't felt prouder of his work in a long time. He hadn't felt such enjoyment in manual labor before, but he felt like this was the beginning of something important. 

A system message forced its way into his vision.

Congratulations!

You've received a profession: Excavator (Basic)!

"Well, that makes sense." Cash said aloud.

He had felt something significant when he was pounding away at the rock and now he had received a profession. 

"Wait, I better not be stuck with being an Excavator for the rest of my life. What if I want to be a blacksmith? Or a pilot for a spaceship? Assuming I can get a spaceship one day of course. It better not be limited to just one thing or I'm screwed." Cash thought.

With no way to confirm or deny his questions, Cash pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind like usual.

The interior of the room was filled with stone shards and dust from the shattered rock. Using one of the chitin plates in his sack as a sort of shovel, Cash was able to sweep most of the rubble out the doorway. 

"Come on in and take a look buddy." Cash called out to Opie.

Opie padded into the room slowly and walked around their new home before coming to a stop at Cash's feet. Opie looked up at him and let out a chuff to express his displeasure.

"Where's my bed at?" Opie sent telepathically when he bumped his head to Cash's hand.

"You little shit. If I don't have one, then you don't have one. We'll work on it." Cash responded.

Deciding to do a recon of their surroundings before settling in, Opie and Cash walked in a cloverleaf pattern that Cash knew from his military days. They clover leafed fifty yards out from their new home and repeated it again at one-hundred yards. Their reconnaissance didn't turn up any more enemies but there were several fruit bearing bushes, exotic plants and flowers, and a low puddle that bubbled in the middle from what Cash was assuming was a spring.

Cash was ecstatic at the results from their findings but was hesitant to try any of the fruits yet since he hadn't seen them before in his life. They stopped at the puddle and drank deeply to satiate their thirst before heading back to their new home. They weren't sure if the water was safe, but damn was it the best they had ever tasted.

"Now all that's left is figuring out what to eat." Cash said aloud.

They had the ant steaks that they looted from their first fight but didn't have a way to cook them. The thought of having to eat the vile green steaks raw was revolting to both of them. Cash was still thinking about an alternative when he remembered that the staircase to the surface had lit torches in the sconces. They could try to take one of the torches back and create their own cooking pit.

"We're almost ready to cook buddy. Let's go back to the staircase to see if we can nab a torch after I unload some of our stuff." Cash said to Opie.

Walking back into their new home, Cash started removing the chitin plates from his t-shirt sack and all the coins he'd gotten from the goblins. He wanted to keep the coins on his person but the jingling they were making while he moved was bound to blow their stealth at some point. Hesitantly, he stacked the coins along with the chitin plates. All that remained in his sack was the ant steaks they'd gotten from their first fight.

"Alright, let's go." Cash called out.

Arriving back at the staircase entrance a few hundred yards from their home, Cash walked up to the first sconce on the wall and tried to remove it. The torch would not come out. He used all of his strength to remove the torch, but it was firmly fixed in place. He had another idea to just roast the raw steaks by holding them up to the torch but even that didn't work. He realized that the torches themselves gave off no heat. All that they did was create light.

"What sort of fuckery is this?" Cash exclaimed.

Demoralized at the loss of having a fire, Cash and Opie made their way back to their hole in the wall. Cash was trying to come up with a new plan when thirty yards out, they heard the noises of several grunts and chattering coming from their home. They paused in place and got down prone on the ground to try to see who was infiltrating their burrow. Cash had emptied out the majority of his t-shirt stack and left all the chitin plates inside, only taking the steaks with him to the torches.

From their position, they watched as a group of four goblins walked out of the doorway to their home holding the chitin plates in their arms and celebrating in their guttural language. The goblins were jumping up and down and holding the chitin plates up to the sky like they had just received an incredible gift. All of the goblins had stone weapons but one of them carried a stone spear and more importantly, a lit torch in its hand. Cash's eyes locked onto that goblin in particular.

Barely suppressing his anger at being robbed by the little green goblins but needing to secure the source of fire, Cash turned to Opie and said, "Let me handle this one."

Cash got up from his prone position and removed the stone axe and pickaxe he had taken earlier. Dual wielding both weapons, Cash began to steadily approach the parading goblins. Fifteen yards out from the smelly green thieves, the closest goblin turned around and noticed Cash striding towards them. The goblin pointed its stone weapon at Cash and let out an alarmed squawk. The rest of the goblins turned around and eyed Cash before laughing at him.

They seemed confident in their numerical superiority to handle him. In the midst of their laughter, they reacted too late as Cash suddenly dashed toward the closest goblin. Raising his looted pickaxe, Cash slammed the pick into the skull of the startled goblin. The goblin's shriek cut off abruptly and it's whole body locked up stiff as a board before Cash Sparta-kicked it into the next goblin, leaving the pickaxe embedded in it's skull and knocking the goblin behind it over. The two still standing goblins broke out of the stupor to rush at Cash together.

The first one to reach him carried another stone pickaxe which it swung wildly in an attempt to ward Cash away. With the first goblin swinging, the one behind it, which happened to be the spear wielding goblin, stabbed low at Cash. Cash wasn't prepared for the speed at which the goblin stabbed at him which resulted in the spear sinking into his left quad all the to the shaft of the spear, nearly exiting out of the other side of his leg.

"Arrghhh!" Cash screamed. 

In response to Cash's scream, Opie bounded out of his hiding place and jumped onto the goblin Cash had knocked over originally. The goblin was still trying to climb out from under the first goblin that Cash had brained and was caught completely by surprise when Opie latched onto it's throat with his teeth. Cash refocused on the fight in front of him as the spear wielding goblin yanked the weapon out of his leg.

"Fuck!" Cash screamed again before rushing at the two grinning goblins in front of him. The goblins must have been expecting to have the upper hand after landing a solid hit on Cash and were thus not expecting him to continue the attack. Blocking a wide swing from the pickaxe wielding goblin, Cash stepped forward and slashed the goblin across the neck. Because his remaining weapon was the crude axe, it mostly crushed the goblin's windpipe instead of slicing through it but still effectively dropped the goblin. Facing off against the last goblin with the spear, Cash remembered to cast identify.

Goblin Warrior (LVL 5.)

No wonder Cash wasn't able to see the spear lunge that tagged him the first time, this goblin was different than the others. It was a little taller and instead of looking emaciated, it had more muscle definition. Cash wearily squared off against his opponent, neither willing to make the first move. Blood was flowing from Cash's wound, something needed to change quickly or he'd lose too much blood.

 Right before Cash was about to lunge, a thunderous growl sounded out from behind the goblin. Opie was there getting ready to pounce. The goblin started turning towards Opie, seeing him as the bigger threat. Cash seized the opportunity and lunged to attack. The goblin wasn't able to attack both and decided to stick Cash in the gut during his attack. The spear embedded in his gut above his right hip. Cash roared but continued his swing while at the same time, Opie opened his jaws to clamp onto the goblin's calf. Cash's swing landed a second after Opie's jaws closed around the limb. The force of his blow caved in the goblins temple and sent it crashing to the ground. 

Cash tried to get in a finishing swing but the pain of the spear sticking out of his gut caused him to stumble. Grabbing onto the shaft of the spear with both hands, he roared as he pulled it out. He looked at the now free weapon in his hand and realized that the stone head was no longer attached, it was buried in his torso still.

"Opie, I need you to make sure these nasty shits are dead while I get this stone out of my gut." Cash called aloud to Opie. His loyal companion went to each of the downed goblins and sank his fangs into their throats, ripping out their esophagus before repeating it to the next.

 Cash steadied himself against the cave wall and prepared to stick his hand in his gut to remove the stone point but had a thought before committing. He remembered being healed to full health when he leveled up last time. If he checked his notifications, he might have another level up waiting on him.

"Let's hope this works..." Cash mumbled to himself before focusing on the flickering icon in the corner of his vision.

Level Up! 

Congratulations! 

You're now Level 2! 

Blunt One-handed Weapons Level Increased! 

New skill learned: Brawler (Common) 

New skill learned: Dual-Wield (Uncommon) 

Level Up! 

Congratulations! 

You're now Level 3! 

The same warm feeling filled Cash's body before he started groaning in pain. The stone spear head stuck in his gut was being pushed out by the rapid healing but was cutting into the newly healed tissue in front of it. He crashed down to the floor as he heard the spear head clatter to the ground. Opie trotted up to his companion and rested his head in Cash's lap while he recovered. Together, they took a moment to rest against the wall while still keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings. After a few minutes had passed, Cash remembered the burning torch that the spear wielding goblin had been carrying and scrambled to get it before it went out.