Bloodfallen: Curse of The All Knowing

Sitting at the stairway of the ninth floor I looked up to the source of the noise that echoed throughout the whole city. The sounds of fighting and heavy footsteps were just a few floors above where I was sitting and they were very busy footsteps. But they weren't just on a single floor, they were definitely on several floors at the same time all clearing them from the goblins that were living relatively peacefully until we showed up.

‘I never realized just how loud we were when we were clearing out these floors the first time I was here. We must have scared the crap out of the goblins when they heard us running around several floors above them if they were brave enough to stand around the stairs.’ Finishing up the mushroom I was eating that had started to taste not terrible after several days of eating it I stood up and began walking back down to the fifteenth floor to start planning my next move.

‘I wonder if I should start moving upwards and meet with whoever it is that is killing all the goblins that I didn’t get to. They might be nice like Lyra was, but they also might consider me a threat like the goblins and try to kill me as well. I probably shouldn’t assume such things about people though, they might be really nice too, but I should wait and see who they are and how they act before I try speaking with them. I got quite lucky when I met Lyra and her mercenaries when they didn’t just kill me on sight.’

Since I was starting to feel quite tired from all the fighting I did and all the spells I was casting I decided that I should get some rest soon and take the opportunity to allocate my points and increase my power just in case the outside visitors aren't as nice as Lyra.

‘So I have thirty points right now and I definitely plan on recovering my might as a mage, that would make boosting my arcane something I should at least consider. Raising it to thirty like my intellect would greatly increase the raw power of my spells, but I could also benefit from increasing my perception which would help with hitting and identifying things from a distance. Then there is my dexterity and vitality which are both at fifteen, dexterity would help with casting my spells and overall movement while vitality would give me more energy and help me recover from any injuries I might suffer.’

I was sitting at the table in the office while I thought of what to do with my points. Arcane was definitely something I needed to improve to keep my spell strength high enough to fight against the more powerful and better equipped goblins that are in the caverns on the twenty fifth floor. But raising it to thirty would still leave me with ten points left to do something else with, that is where the argument between perception, vitality and dexterity came in.

‘I still have quite a bit of time before I really need to worry about spending my points perfectly. So if I choose to put these extra ten points into my vitality and dexterity then I won't exactly be losing all that much as both of those things will help me deal with the dangers within the lower floors of the city and the goblins within the cavern.’

/- - - - - -\

Dexterity 20

Vitality 20

Arcane 30

\- - - - - -/

With the big decision out of the way I entered the bedroom and took my armor off before climbing under the blanket and slowly drifting off into sleep with my sword next to me just in case something managed to sneak up on me in my sleep.

The next day instead of going upwards I decided to start going downwards to the twenty fifth floor where the dwarves of the second era broke into that cavern and were subsequently invaded by the goblins and the warlock demon that were all living down there. One of the more interesting things was the sudden spike in the strength and competence of the goblins that were down there, the first goblin I found actually had somewhat proper clothing and a weapon made by an actual goblin blacksmith, or the equivalent of what that is.

The favored weapon of these sixteenth floor goblins was the short sword that were all made up of actual iron this time instead of bronze or copper like what I found on the other floors. The short swords were still of very poor quality and seemingly mass produced to give each of them a weapon quickly, I also didn’t find the goblin smith that created these weapons on this floor leaving them somewhere deeper. But I didn’t recall anyone saying anything about encountering a goblin smith during the expedition with Lyra, perhaps it was just an overlooked detail, they definitely weren't the detective types to notice such things.

*******

“Sir, mama, we have a small situation on the ninth and tenth floors.” A human woman dressed in traditional mage attire rushed out from the three meter wide hole that was dug into the city of Dom Badaher. The rest of the team she was leading was standing off to the side of the hole with worried looks on their face watching from a distance.

Lyra and Citro who were both just watching everyone in the camp working as a form of simple break from all the work they just finished up quickly stood up ready to fight and kill.

“What is it?” Citra already had his steel shield in hand and was reaching for his short sword that he had on his hip. Lyra quickly used a current of air to grab hold of her staff and bring it to her hands which surprised the young mage who almost froze up.

“We found numerous corpses of goblins littering the ninth and tenth floors, the group on the ninth floor asked us to deliver you their report on the situation to save time. From what I and they can tell the wounds were caused by a combination of magic and bladed weapons, but with magic being the primary weapon of these fights.” Despite all the worry she was feeling she kept herself together and told her boss and Citro what she, her team, and the ninth floor team found on their exploration of their respective floors.

“That is worrying, could someone else have made their way in before us through some sort of secret entrance? If so they might be hostile to us and unwilling to submit to our authority of the city granted by the crown. One of us might even need to intervene directly.” Citro said, the last part while looking towards Lyra who immediately understood what he meant. Unfortunately it was something that they have had to do in the past when someone else wanted to claim something they were tasked with either retrieving or destroying.

“That is definitely a possibility, but we should try to approach this without assuming whoever or whatever is killing these goblins is our enemy. If it is a person, which I suspect it is, we will speak with them and find out how and why they even got inside the city. If we are dealing with a goblin that somehow knows magic then we will likely be forced to kill it. If on the odd chance that this is the action of a demon we will do our best to avoid fighting it, but if a demon is killing its own goblin subordinates is unlikely to be very welcoming to us. That is why if anyone sees a demon they are not to try and interact with it under any circumstances and are to report to us immediately.” Lyra finished by looking to Citro who nodded and turned back to the mage.

“You heard the woman, spread the word to your subordinates and we will do the same with everyone else.” Citro sternly told the mage who quickly nodded and turned before walking back to her group who started walking back to the camp. Both Citro and Lyra could see they were talking about something, most likely their new orders.

“The situation just keeps on getting better and better doesn’t it.” Citro gave a sad smile as he looked back to Lyra who he could tell was already stressed out enough. “I will take care of this possible demon activity, you take care of the situation here in the camp. And take a day off from all the work every now and then, take a hot shower, you will definitely feel better after all the extra work you have been doing recently.”

********

The remaining explorations of Dom Badaher were paused for the remainder of the day, those that were scheduled to take part later in the day were quite upset with the sudden change but quickly changed their tune when they understood the seriousness of the situation. “As you already know we have been forced to cancel all remaining explorations for the remainder of the day. What you might not know is that on the ninth and tenth floors we have found the remains of all the goblins that were living there. Someone or something has already been through these floors and used both magic and a bladed weapon to kill all these goblins. We don’t know who or what did this, but if anyone sees a demon or anything that resembles one we are expecting you to immediately turn around and return to camp and deliver your report to us, from there we will devise a plan to deal with the demon. Are there any questions?” Whether intentional or not Citro gave an aura of a war forged fighter and was intimidating enough without all the heavy armor, the shield, and the lightly enchanted short sword he carried around. All that combined with his little speech no one was quite brave enough to ask any questions, not even those who were veterans of the company.

“I see there are no questions, good. I will assume that means that everyone understands what I just said and we will not have any problems if and when one of you encounters a demon down there. In addition to these new orders I have given you I will also be taking part in the barricade defenses, since this unknown enemy might be very powerful both Lyra and myself have decided that it would be a good idea to have someone who could actually fight the thing close enough to stop it from killing everyone. You are all dismissed.”

Citro quickly turned and left the small circle where everyone was either standing or sitting to socialize and listen to the announcement from Citro, everyone was quite surprised and shocked by the statement. “Someone or something is down there killing goblins? Why haven we requested reinforcements from the crown or another mercenary company? Worst case scenario we have infighting with a powerful goblin mage that we need extra help killing.” A strong and study dwarf wearing steel plate armor that Arthur would recognize as Hambel was the first to speak with a young mage he would recall as Cassia sitting next to him.

“And create worry when we might not need to? That would be a very foolish thing to do dwarf, until we know more about the situation we need to remain calm and uncover more until we can safely and definitely say that we know what the threat is and if we can deal with it on our own.” A human man in leather armor carrying a parrying shield and a rapier shouted back on the other side of the group while pointing his finger in an insulting manner.

Everyone could feel the tension of the situation rising and the close friends of each group quickly moved in to pull them away from each other before someone got hurt.

Things slowly began to calm down but the mood was ruined and no one wanted to stay and talk so most left for their own tents to rest for the night that was fast approaching. A few did decide to stay, but very little aside from drinking alcohol was done and they too eventually returned to their tents for the night.

The next morning most were up bright and early because they wanted to get ready for the exploration of the city, the best part about it was that when you found something that wasn’t restricted by the crown, such as weapon schematics like what was found on the first floor, you would get to keep it and do whatever you wish with it. Selling or keeping it, it didn’t matter to Lyra, and while this might cost the company some money it was an excellent way to keep the morale of the mercenaries high with these spoils.

Today the group that Hambel and Cassia were a part of was scheduled to take part in exploring the eleventh floor. There was of course some worry in the group of five as the possibilities of what could be lurking down there that killed many of the goblins that were once living, but the possibility of finding valuable dwarven artifacts and other things lost in the second era was more than enough to braven up everyone.

Hambel and Cassia were the first aside from their group leader to arrive at the entrance to Dom Badaher which had been opened once the expedition had reached the inside of that hallway. The large wide open doors were almost like a warning that they could feel, like a shiver down their spines warning them of what they might find down there.

“I see the two of you are up and about. We might need to wait a little longer for our other two friends to wake up and get over here, as usual they are taking their sweet time to get ready so you two might as well take a seat while we wait.” Aelia, the leader of this group of five said without looking up from her two handed axe as she sharpened it with a whetstone. She was using a large rock as a chair and vaguely gestured to two other rocks nearby that they quickly brought over and sat on.