Let us fast forward a little, shall we? After—
"Ehhhhhhh?? What happened to your first quest?!" asked my daughter with wimpy eyes.
"Ah, that—nah, no one wants to hear about that, let's just skip it, alright?" I comforted her.
"But I wanted to hear about your first adventure," she pouted. Sorry, kid, but I will be bringing that story to my grave.
I petted her head, which cheered her up a little.
"In exchange, Daddy will be telling you the story of how he found his precious item. The one that carved the path for him to be different from most adventurers. Don't you want to hear about that?" I asked her as I continued petting her head.
"Oh, I do! You met Mommy after that, right?" she asked me with a smirk.
"Wha… No, no, no—I didn't meet Mommy, I just met my little sister. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Got to keep the audience engaged," I smiled at her.
"What—audience? I'm the only one here. Are you sure you're okay, Daddy?" she tilted her head with a question mark on her forehead.
Ah, right. Forget that she doesn't know about potential people peeking into our life. Call it a hunch or, as I call it, breaking the fourth wall.
Yosh, enough stalling, it's morphin' time~
***
After a couple more mundane quests within the city, I finally entered the rank of Fighter. The Dark Lord was surprisingly impressed with my performance that he deemed me worthy of skipping the rank of Swordsman. Although, when I say impressed, I certainly assumed on that. There was not a hint of happiness or even a smirk on his face when he promoted me.
I'm at the age of 12 now. Surprisingly uncommon for someone this young to achieve the rank of Fighter, but according to Rick, it's probably due to the Dark Lord seeing my true potential wasted in doing all those mundane quests. I did almost kick Rick's butt during the sparring test last year. By estimation, my power level should be hovering at the rank of Shadow Knight now. Sadly, I guess I'll still need to prove myself further before I can finally achieve that rank.
My current goal is to at least achieve the rank of Shadow Knight before I meet the Elementalist. From what I gathered so far, he's definitely the guildmaster of that guild. By attaining that rank, I should have some name to myself, and if things get ugly during the meet-up, I can maybe fight my way to safety. Not that I was hoping for something bad to happen, but—y'know, just in case.
I "could" technically ask Lily for help, but it's been months since I last saw her. For the first few months after we successfully joined our respective guilds, we still met often at our favourite tavern to share our stories over a meal together. But when Lily left for elsewhere due to her special training, it was just me and John now.
***
You would think that I'll be in the lead in ranking, but John was actually ranking as fast as me. He was already at the rank of Great Axeman, which is similar to my Fighter rank. His remarkable strength pushed him further than all the other candidates. I won't be surprised that he might end up becoming the Viking Lord one day.
As of now, my current goal is to get promoted before officially meeting the Elementalist.
Main Objective: Attain the rank of Shadow Knight and request an audience with the Elementalist.
Sounds easy enough, I hope. Just need to continue doing more quests until the Dark Lord deems me worthy of getting another promotion. My current room is certainly bigger than what I had during my Warrior ranking days. A queen-sized bed, a bathtub, and a small kitchen, among other things. In terms of size, it was doubled, which I am more than thrilled to enjoy the large empty spaces.
I was certainly not expecting that it would take me an additional two years before I finally attained my desired rank. There were a lot of quests and a tournament involved, which I lost before I attained that rank.
But let's not get too carried away. I did promise to tell you about the story of how I obtained my little precious. No, it's not a golden ring, mind you. It's something that shaped my path for the rest of my journey.
I'm about 13 in age, at this point. Quests for Fighter are much more interesting as I get to hunt low-level class monsters, albeit in a group of four. The group is usually a mix of members from other guilds. As this world does not have spellcasters or healers, we make up for our weaknesses by having other guild members to make up for what each lacks. Aside from the Elemental guild, which is the more secluded one, all the other guilds will send over a member to form the group. This was mainly why I had never met Lily for the past year or two. I won't lie, I do start to miss her. Not in a romantic way but as a friend.
***
"Why are you looking at me like that? What's with that look? Are you judging me?" I asked my daughter.
"Daddy is such a playboy," she said with no hesitation.
"Excuse me? I was not in a relationship at that point. Don't go judging me when I was still a lonely kid thinking a little about romance," I pouted at her.
She continued with her judgmental face. Just you wait until you're older, kiddo. I will not hesitate to look for any opportunity to judge you when the time comes. Ah well, back to the story.
***
And so, here we are travelling on a guild quest in a team of four. A Lancer, a Crusader, a Great Axeman, and finally me as a Fighter. Sadly, it was not John who followed me on this quest, but I am rather glad. Otherwise, he wouldn't have stopped asking me questions about my weird behaviour after this quest.
You would think that a party of four teenage males would result in high testosterone, arrogant behaviour between one another that you would come to expect, but thankfully, we were civilised people. The stereotypical comparison between guilds had long passed us now.
We came to a stop outside the cave that we would be exploring, but not before a quick break. Fighting with an empty stomach is a curse, and you wouldn't know when you might get to eat during a long battle.
"Sae, what age ar ye? Ye looked verra young," asked the axeman.
"13," I replied.
All of them responded with a surprised look. What's wrong with me being 13?
"Is something the matter?" I asked them.
"Just surprised you were able to attain the rank of Fighter at this age. All of us here are either 15 or 16 before we could even attain such a rank. You must be something else, huh?" asked the lancer.
The crusader kept quiet. It was well known that the Light and the Dark guilds had some sort of bitter rivalry over the other. I favoured none of that typical drama as it does not help me in reaching my goal whatsoever.
"Shall we heid in? I'mma itchin' te swing ma axe," asked the great axeman. Always hungry for combat. Let's just hope his hunger doesn't extend to eating monsters in the midst of battle.
"Let's head in," I gestured to the cave.
"Make sure you stay at the back and let us handle it," spoke the crusader.
Ok, guess I was wrong. This guy had not matured one bit. Oh well, take it in the positive way. More meat shields between me and my enemies.
***
We headed in as the lancer and I each held a torch. I stayed all the way back as I didn't mind being the support of the team. I would also like to avoid trouble with that crusader any further if I can help it. The cave was wide enough for the three of them to take point side by side. Seeing that things were relatively quiet now, I should take this opportunity to update my quest log.
Side Objective Unlocked: Hunt the goblin paladin.
Goblins are opportunistic creatures that prey on the weak. Despite their relatively small size, they are actually quite intelligent and cunning. A single goblin is relatively easy to defeat, but in packs, they're absolutely dangerous. They are certainly capable of taking down adventurers that severely underestimate them with their dirty tricks. A goblin paladin is probably their way of mocking the Light guild.
What's that you say? Sounds awfully familiar to something you read before? Nah— the goblin here doesn't kidnap female adventurers and do "stuffs" to them. At least, that's what I hope, since there's no report about it before. Otherwise, I'll gladly turn into the slayer myself.
As we ventured deeper into the cave, some chattering noises could be heard ahead of us. We immediately stopped dead in our tracks upon hearing the noises. The crusader took the lead to check on the commotion. He peeked his head out of the corner to search where the noises were coming from.
"What is it? Goblins?" asked the lancer.
"Not good, they have riders. We'll be at a huge disadvantage if we engage them here. We might need to lure them out of the cave," whispered the crusader.
"My axe will not be effective ere. It wad be better te fight outside," spoke the axeman.
"Any ideas? Should we smoke them out or something? Or do we let someone be the bait?" asked the crusader.
I took a peek out of the corner myself to see what they were looking at. From where we were, on our left was a straight line that led further into the cave. We had a clear line of sight of where the goblins and their wulvettes were kept. The goblins were camping in a larger area of the cave where there were lights shining from above.
The intersection that we were peeking from had a dead end on the right. We could fight here with our backs against the wall. All we have to do is focus solely on the front. We need to make sure that it's not hollow though. Let's see, no paladin in sight from what I could see. He must be hiding somewhere deeper inside the cave.
Our main priority is to defeat the paladin. There's no need for us to kill every other goblin in here. We do not need to defeat all of them to complete this quest. I passed my torch to the great axeman and walked towards the dead end on our right.
"H— hey! Where are you going? You're gonna attract all of them!" shouted the crusader softly, but I ignored him. It was extremely dark inside the cave, and the goblins were busy chatting among themselves as they were having their fun. It is highly unlikely that any of them would be able to see me in this darkness.
I knocked on the walls of the dead end as I pressed my ears to it. Sounds pretty solid to me. There's an extremely low chance for it to break unless some kind of ogre or troll smashes through. We can certainly fight here. I headed back to the group to discuss our tactics.
"That dead end is covered in solid walls. We can fight here as all we need is to put all of our focus at the front without worrying about any ambush coming from behind. The path ahead is narrow, and by my estimation, only two riders can come through at a time," I explained to them.
"Too risky. We have two combatants here that require space for combat. Both of them will be less effective if we fight here," answered the crusader.
"I beg your pardon, but I'm fully aware that we'll be fighting in tight spaces. I've brought some short spears that can be thrown or used for stabbing in these tight spaces. My main spear can also be retracted to be used effectively here. You don't need to worry about me," answered the lancer. Well prepared with a backup plan, that's good to hear.
"I can just use my fist ere. Nae complaints, eh?" said the great axeman as he cracked his knuckles. As expected from the Viking's guild.
"Alright then, seems like we're all prepared for close-quarters combat. Any in favour of fighting here instead of outside?" asked the crusader.
"If we were to fight outside, we're gonna get surrounded by riders from all sides. My vote is to fight here as we have a higher chance of protecting one another when our main focus is only from the front," I cast my vote with an explanation.
"My vote is here too. Seems like our fighter has great insights. Pretty remarkable for a 13-year-old," said the lancer.
"Verra smart fer yer age. I vote te fight ere. My fists ar itching for blood nou," replied the axeman.
"Very well, we shall fight here then. I volunteer to be the one to attract their attention while the rest of you wait here. Any further questions?" asked the crusader.
We gave none. You want to be the bait? Be my guest as it's none of my business. The three of us proceeded to the right to hide while the crusader went to attract the attention of the goblins. He took out some sort of throwables and threw them at the goblins. It looked like some sort of black powder. Is it perhaps—pepper? He rushed back towards our position after making sure he had attracted a couple of the goblins' attention.
A couple of them started to sneeze, but those unaffected charged towards the crusader while a few others attempted to release the wulvettes. It was then we heard something flying at high speed and piercing something.
Fuulp!
The crusader fell face forward to the ground, clutching his left knee. What was that? It sounded like an arrow. Where did it even come from?
I rushed towards the crusader, leaving the other two behind. I was right, an arrow had pierced his knee. Is he gonna end up as a city soldier after this? Sucks to be him.
Goblins were approaching closer with every second and the crusader was in no fighting shape with his wound. We had to make our stand here while he patched himself up. Sadly though, there was no health potion in this world. As of now, we only had medicine to staunch the bleeding and good old bandages to wrap the wounds. There were potions that gave you stamina like an adrenaline rush, but those were fairly uncommon and relatively expensive. Gauze and bandages were still the adventurer's best lifeline in keeping themselves alive.
Two goblins ran towards me. Time for me to test out my guild's specialty. I used Fear on the incoming goblins. They immediately halted their advances and started shivering to their knees. Nice, I should take this opportunity to—
*RAWR!!!
A loud roar resounded throughout the cave. The two goblins snapped out of my Fear spell upon hearing the roar.
Good, he took the bait. Now, where are you, Mister Paladin? There you are, I see you now. Hiding in the shadows, huh? It was indeed him that shot the arrow, seeing that he was the only one holding a bow.
I rushed forward and decapitated both goblins cleanly with a swing from my dagger. Now, how should I play this? Hang back with the others to fight the smaller goblins while giving the paladin plenty of chances to take potshots at us? Or should I rush in to kill it immediately? It's not gonna be easy fighting the paladin with so many smaller goblins around, not to mention the riders. And someone will need to protect the crusader while he patched himself up.
The other two came to my side. I took a quick peek behind and saw that the crusader was already in the process of patching himself up after removing the arrow. He will have difficulty moving, so he won't be effective in combat.
"Any brilliant idea on what we should do? We're exposed to that paladin's arrow if we fight out here in the open," asked the lancer.
"Aye, we ar sitting ducks ere," said the axeman.
"I have a plan, but I need both of your help," I started whispering the plan to both of them.
"Are you sure? It won't be easy fighting the paladin one-on-one," said the lancer.
"I won't be. The both of you will be supporting me from the side, and I hope the crusader will be supporting us with some buffs after he's patched up. Are the both of you ready? The paladin is not about to wait for us any longer," I told them as the paladin drew his bow.
The both of them nodded and followed the plan.
The paladin released his arrow, and the three of us dodged it. The lancer stood his position while both the great axeman and I rushed ahead towards the paladin. The lancer would be protecting the crusader while he used his short spears as ranged weapons. The wulvettes were now out of their cages and made their way towards both of us. How many are they? One, two, three… alright, thank goodness there weren't too many of them. I certainly hope the great axeman can hold his own against them.
Slice!
There goes one of the wulvettes' heads along with the goblin riding it.
"Haha! I can swing my axe ere! Come ere ye little twerts and have a taste of ma axe!" laughed the great axeman. He's certainly enjoying himself.
My battle, on the other hand, is gonna be a lot more serious and dangerous as I come face-to-face with the paladin. I must have looked like a hobbit in front of him. I sheathed my dagger and unsheathed my main weapon, Inazuma. This is not a battle that I'm taking any chances with.
The paladin threw his bow aside and unsheathed his large two-handed sword behind his back. Now, where did you even get such a large sword from? Even with my chained cloak, I might still be sliced in half if I get hit by it. The paladin was wearing heavy armour, but not every spot was covered. His elbows, knees, and neck in particular are still exposed. That heavy armour of his will certainly affect his speed and mobility, which is what I'm aiming for.
I activated Fear on him, hoping it might have some sort of effect, but alas, he barely even flinched. Guess it's back to the good old sword-fight then.
The paladin roared, and the smaller goblins started converging on my position. One goblin came in close and leaped at me, but a short spear pierced his skull and sent him flying. Glad the lancer is accurate in his throwing skills.
I pulled the short spear from the goblin's skull and threw it at the paladin. He blocked it with his armour and rushed towards me with his two-handed sword. From the looks and sound of it, the armour appears to be made of iron.
Now, this is gonna be a tough fight. I took a quick glance behind me. The great axeman was fending off the other goblins along with the lancer. But it won't be long until he runs out of short spears to throw eventually. I cannot drag this fight on for long.
Placing full attention on the paladin, I readied myself. He swung his sword horizontally, which I dodged by crouching underneath the swing and immediately dashed forward. I slit the paladin's left knee and maintained some distance away from him. The paladin quickly turned his body and swung his sword vertically, which I dodged to the side and slit his other knee. Great, he shouldn't be able to stand properly now that both of his knees were slit.
How wrong was I. Seemingly ignoring the pain, the paladin rushed towards me once again with his giant sword in his hand. I thought of dodging the incoming attack but I was completely caught off guard when a goblin grabbed one of my feet. Sneaky bastard crawled his way towards me just to give his paladin an opportunity. I quickly stabbed the little bugger and kicked his hand away. Turning my gaze back to the paladin who was literally right in front of me now, I leapt as fast as I could as I saw his incoming sword swung towards me. Shit, I might not be able to dodge it in time!
"Accelerate!" shouted someone from afar.
I felt my speed doubled and was able to dodge his overhead swing in the nick of time. Talk about a close call.
The damned Crusader finally got back up, huh? Time for you to pull your weight, damn it.
I noticed the great axeman was throwing some of the short spears back to the lancer to replenish his stock.
I'm done playing games. Enough is enough. I'm not planning to die today from some goblin.
"Oi, goblin," I glared at him. He glared back and grinned. He must have thought he still had a chance at winning since he almost killed me earlier.
"Now I'm mad!" I cast Fear on him again and apparently it worked this time around. The paladin appeared to be shaking and was hesitant to attack me. I quickly took the opportunity and rushed towards him to begin my assault. With my speed now doubled, it took me less than a second to reach him. He held out his two-handed sword in an attempt to block my incoming attack but I had never intended to attack him from the front. Changing the course of my path to his side, I lobbed off his right arm from his exposed elbow and leaped behind him. He roared in pain as he held his bleeding right arm. I threw my dagger with precision and it pierced through the back of his neck. He started choking and gagging from his own blood as he tried to stop himself from bleeding. I rushed in to deliver the coup de grâce but instead of just accepting his fate, he did the unthinkable.
He pulled out my dagger and threw it at me with his left hand. Talk about foolish. He'll be bleeding to death even faster now. I swiped my dagger aside with Inazuma and caught it mid-air; the paladin took the opportunity and began running away. Seems like he's running deeper into the cave for some reason, but I admire his tenacity in wanting to stay alive. I thought of chasing after him but stopped midway after I noticed what was in front of him. Where the paladin was running to, the crusader was awaiting him with his sword at the ready.
"I'm in a lot of pain now, thanks to you. Perhaps you should just—die!" shouted the crusader as he rushed in and lobbed off the paladin's knee. The paladin tried to dodge the attack, but his slitted knees made him less nimble than he had hoped for. His right leg fell off, and he roared in pain, echoing through the entire cave with his scream. I really hoped that there were no more goblins within this cave to support him. The crusader strolled closer to the paladin and decapitated his head without hesitation.
The sudden, complete silence was eerie, but fortunately, that marked the completion of our quest. Some close shaves, but all of us are alive. The crusader looted the head of the paladin as a trophy to prove that we had indeed completed our quest. Much easier for a head than the thick, ass leg that he lobbed off earlier.
The four of us made our way back towards the entrance after making sure that there were no surprises. No time to celebrate until we were out of here; who knows whether there were even more goblins deeper inside the cave. As we were heading out, I saw a sparkle at the dead end of the intersection earlier.
Huh? What—was that? Did no one else see that? I glanced at the other three, and it would seem that none of them had noticed it since they continued to talk among themselves. I lowered my pace and allowed them to proceed ahead until there was a large gap between us. Making sure they were nowhere in sight, I quickly rushed towards the dead end to inspect what it was. What made that sparkle? I searched all around but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Without a torch, I could barely see anything that resembled jewellery or something shiny.
*Twink!
There it is again. I stared closer where the sparkle was. Hm—is that—the edge of a chest? You can barely see the chest as it was completely covered in thick, solid rubble. What made the glint was perhaps the visible millimetres from the chest's edge. But it is gold, a golden chest. Hell yeah! This is an excellent opportunity for me as I rubbed my hands together with a grin.
I always brought along some small tools to help me pry or dig out solid objects. But sadly, there's no way for me to open the chest from this angle. I will need a pickaxe to break through all these solid stones covering the top of the chest. This is certainly gonna take some time. To avoid further suspicion, I quickly headed back out and kept the secret all to myself. This loot will be mine and mine alone. Heh heh.
Without even noticing that I went missing for a short time, we headed back out of the cave safely. I was praised for my quick thinking and combat abilities by all three of them. Facing the paladin in a one-on-one was no easy task as a Fighter since we don't have many spells at our disposal with our current rank. I apologised to the crusader for what had happened to him, but he admitted that it was his own carelessness that it occurred. None of us were expecting goblins to be using a bow. He will probably be limping his way back to the city until he receives a much more proper treatment. The three of them carried on their conversation all the way back to the city, but I remained quiet as my mind was fully occupied by that hidden golden chest that was left behind. I must find out what's inside that chest!
You would think that I would be rushing back to dig it the following day. Indeed, I did. However—bloody hell, it took me ONE YEAR to dig out that stupid, ridiculous chest! Bringing one pickaxe was a huge mistake. The surrounding stones were so incredibly dense and solid that it broke my one and only pickaxe after a couple of swings.
The first time I came back here, my pickaxe broke after about five swings, which made me completely speechless. Not only did it take time for me to return to this cave, but my damn pickaxe broke after a couple of seconds of using it. This will not do. Is it gonna be economical for me to continuously purchase more pickaxes just to dig out this bloody chest? No, money is not important right now. I must persevere! Whatever is in that chest will be mine!
***
Six months into digging, I contemplated whether it was actually wise to continue. I was burning through pickaxes faster than I was drinking water. Sure, a pickaxe cost about a copper or two, but is the reward for all this hard work worth it by the end of it? Not to mention I was juggling between quests and all my available free time just to dig it out. Damn it, I've come this far, I must not give up and demotivate myself. Otherwise, it would have really been for nothing.
While I was not exactly burning through my money since the rewards from doing quests were mostly enough to cover the costs of the pickaxes, it was more towards the perseverance of digging it and not knowing whether the payoff is gonna be worth it. I still have my grandfather's secret stashed money, which had a lot in it. I've only taken about a quarter of the total gold coins that he had buried. And that was about 50 gold coins! My grandfather had about 200 gold coins hidden underground! Man was he loaded. And yet he decided to live in the forbidden forest surviving on bread and stews.
There will come a day when I finally dig out that bloody gold chest, which would coincide with the day I got promoted, a meeting with the Elementalist, and also the day I finally met her. My little sister, Rose.