Tatehan gripped his newly enhanced Shadow-Forged Blade tightly, feeling its reassuring weight in his hand.
He needed those cores. Desperately.
The shadow goblins stared at him from the darkness of the cave entrances, their eyes glowing like dozens of small red warning lights. The effect was deeply unsettling, a constellation of malevolent stars watching him from the shadows.
Since he couldn't see their full forms yet, still hidden in the darkness of the caves, he didn't know exactly what he was facing. Were they lanky and quick? Fat and powerful? Enormous and overwhelming? Their exact shapes and sizes remained a mystery.
There was only one way to find out, and that would be to watch them emerge fully into the light.
