Bloodfallen: Curse of The All Knowing

Peeling the armor off the dead goblins was a gross and time consuming task, all the leather straps made everything stay on tight resulting in each one needing to be removed before I could take them off. The worst part was the leg armor around the groin area because I had the unfortunate time of learning that upon dying these goblins all took massive shits that were responsible for a majority of the terrible smells in the room.

Since that was more work and suffering than I care to do I left that part while stealing the shin and foot armor which I added to the pile in the middle of the room along with all the weapons and shields that I picked up as well.

After roughly half an hour of sorting through everything I had six practically naked goblin corpses and a large pile of crappy metal armor and weapons that I now needed to haul back up two floors worth of stairs if I wanted to keep any of it for myself. ‘Looks like I have my work cut out for myself today, this will easily take four or five trips to take everything up. I should probably start with the weapons and the shields, I can take a lot more of those upstairs faster than pieces of armor.

Filling my rucksack with all the weapons left here I only managed to stick them in halfway while the handle and part of the blade were sticking outside. I picked up three shields that I carried like boxes and started walking up the stairs slowly to preserve my energy so I could make this trip several more times. When I eventually reached my room I just dumped everything with all the other metal weapons and armor I took from goblins and turned back around to go back for my second load.

Like the first trip I filled my bag with as much as I could fit within before picking up as much as I could fit within my arms and began the trip again. The only thing I had to make the trip bearable was my own thoughts, specifically the ones for what to do with the forty points I still had not used. ‘That fight with those stronger goblins showed me that I need to strengthen my magic or my fighting capabilities. Since I have already put so much time and energy into learning magic I should keep going into that, that means investing into arcane and possibly perception to help with my aim and sight. But I should also put a few points into constitution and a few more into dexterity and vitality to keep myself from being one strike from dying.’

I completed the trip two more times taking the armor from the seventeenth floor to my bedroom on the fifteenth, but on the last trip as I rounded the corner to the hall where my bedroom was at the end of I saw something I wasn’t expecting. A group of six people stood around my bedroom door talking in a language that I didn’t understand, but the most surprising part was that I recognised these people.

I saw Lyra, Hambel, Cassia, Aelia, and the other two members of the group I didn’t learn the names of when I joined them. They were all standing around my bedroom door talking in what was likely eevin since that was what they spoke the last time. Walking towards them didn’t notify them of my presence, they seemed to be very invested in my bedroom door for some reason and it looked like Lyra was casting a spell of some sort.

Now around fifteen meters from them I dropped the metal armor that I was carrying in my hand and created enough noise to draw everyone's attention. At the sound of metal falling into the ground everyone shot around to see what the source of the noise was and looked rather confused when they saw me standing there in full plate armor.

“This is mine.” I said pointing to the door and to myself knowing they didn’t understand what I was saying or even what language it was, heck I didn’t even know what language I was speaking. They all looked rather worried and confused by what I said and looked to Lyra who stepped past them all and casted the comprehend language spell on herself which I recognized the arcane words of and the hand movements.

Creating a small transparent ball no larger than an apple she shoved it into her chest and took a moment to allow the spell to work before she said anything. “Hello sir, I am Lyra of the Vettonius family of Rathen kingdom. Why might I ask, are you here in this abandoned dwarven city?” Lyra was calm yet cautious this time around, she saw I was very confident by revealing myself when I could have tried ambushing them. I also didn’t just open up the front door to the city itself so she didn’t exactly have much reason to be thankful like last time.

“I am Arthur, and that is my home that you are trying to break into.” I pointed towards the front door to my bedroom the group was trying to open and expressed my annoyance with what they were doing. Lyra clearly noticed this and decided to back off instead of pushing me away from my things. “Alright, if this is your home then we will leave you be for the time being. But I must warn you that this city is considered property of the Rathen kingdom and you may not be allowed to stay here long term.

“That is fine as long as nobody is trying to take my things, and I was planning on leaving sometime anyways. The neighbors aren't exactly very kind or nice to be around, that isn’t even talking about how aggressive they have gotten recently.” I subtly gave Lyra information on the habits of the goblins and how they are becoming more dangerous within saying anything about the demon. ‘If I say something about a demon they will be forced to leave and I will have to deal with the military and Philto Sorio who would like to be leading them again this time. I don’t know much about him, but if he has any common sense he will definitely force me to leave for my own safety.’

Lyra looked a little surprised by my words regarding the goblins but nodded instead of commenting on it. “Of course, goblins can be quite erratic. Come along everyone, we are leaving this man and his home alone.” Everyone looked rather confused by what she said but didn’t wait for her to say it a second time and quickly followed her back out and to the stairs which led back to the entrance and their camp.

I waited until they were gone before I collected the armor I dropped on the ground and opened my bedroom door to place everything inside. As I closed the door and locked it from the inside I accidentally let out a yawn and rubbed my temples to calm myself down. I didn’t know how long I spent bringing all that armor and weapons up here but it was both exhausting and time consuming to do without even considering how much room it was all taking up. ‘I might actually need to speak with Lyra and some of her mercenaries sooner than I thought if I want to actually do something with all this. I wonder if Lyra would be willing to trade something for that spare dimensional bag she has.’

********

The group of six led by Lyra walked up and past the barricade and up to the two mercenaries standing guard. Lyra waved the other five to go on without her while she waited to speak with them. “There is a man down here that might be the source of all the dead goblins we found a few floors above us, keep an eye on him if he comes this way.”

The two guards nodded and went back to their positions while Lyra left following the group of five up the stairs. After the long and somewhat tiring journey she reached the top and exited through the large and durable double doors and stepped out into the camp. Looking around for a moment she made sure everything was going well within the camp before she went to her tent and stepped inside.

In the portion dedicated for communication with the outside world she began interacting with the communication orb and contacted her father who was overseeing the expedition. Soon his image fingered into the room and he smiled at the sight of her. “Lyra, are you alright? Did something happen in the expedition you need help with?” He spoke with the concern of a father instead of a superior officer like he was supposed to do which helped Lyra’s mood.

“I along with a group of five others have found someone living within the fifteenth floor of the city, a human to be specific. He had pale skin like a native of the region and looked to be in his early twenties, he was wearing full plate armor and carried a longsword on his hip which was the only weapon that we could see him carrying. He introduced himself as Arthur and claimed that a room within the fifteenth floor that had a well made and decorated door was his home when we were trying to open it.” Lyra quickly explained in as much detail as she could about the situation and what she experienced.

“A human living in the abandoned dwarven city before any of you had even set foot in there? This is somewhat worrying Lyra, what did you make of this man? Was he dangerous looking? Did he threaten any of you?” Lord Vettonius asked his adopted daughter when she was done speaking, he was now treating this situation as a lord instead of a father.

“From what I could tell he wasn’t a danger to the expedition or anyone else unless they made themselves a problem first. He was only angry at us because we were trying to break into his home and even then he didn’t draw his weapon, instead he chose to drop the metal objects he was carrying at the time to surprise and inform us of his position.” Lord Vettonius nodded along as Lyra answered his questions. “Also he spoke a language that none of us were familiar with, but it was also a language that could be translated by the comprehend language spell, leading me to believe that it might just be a foreign language.”

“That is certainly possible, but there are also over 50 different dead languages that the spell is still able to translate mostly due to archaeologists wanting one spell that can do a lot. If possible try and keep a good professional relationship with this strange man and inform me of any changes he makes. I will inform the crown of this discovery, so do not be surprised when you receive a few messages regarding it.” Shortly after the call ended and Lyra shut off the communication orb leaving the room in a thin layer of darkness.

However Lyra didn’t move from her seat, she instead just leaned back in her chair and looked towards the ceiling with a blank expression on her face. ‘Gods, I am seriously regretting doing this expedition already. Things just keep on piling up, and now this Arthur person showing up and throwing more questions and likely problems that will follow him and how he even managed to enter the city to begin with.’

Lyra didn’t stay seated for much longer, she soon stood up and returned to her personal tent and soon went to sleep resting her weary mind along with the majority of the expedition force. The only ones who were awake were those who were specifically on guard duty and those who couldn’t get to sleep which were few and far between.

*******

Slowly I awoke from my deep sleep and looked around the room as I slowly stretched my mussels and sat up. I could already see the effects of my decision to invest ten points into my perception, everything was already looking clearer and I could feel the bedsheets against my skin far more than I could when I went to sleep.

I stood up and raised my arms above my head while I stretched the rest of my body. Next was a quick breakfast followed by donning my armor again and strapping my sword to my hip. But before I did anything I extended my hand and conjured up a ball of fire. Even with only a single unit of mana that I used to conjure this fire I could already feel the efficiency and power of it was far greater than the day before. It was like comparing a small campfire to a full blown bonfire, and I subconsciously smiled slightly at the sight.

/- - - - - -\

Constitution 20

Perception 20

Arcane 30

\- - - - - -/

Stepping outside the room I took a look around for anything dangerous before I turned my back and locked the door behind myself again. I retracted the key and tested the door handle to be certain that it was locked and only then did I leave the floor and continue downwards to the eighteenth floor.

Stepping off the stairs I looked around cautiously for any sign of movement, for some reason I had the distinct feeling that something here wasn’t as it seemed. The stone bricks that made up the walls and floor I was standing on looked far to clean if goblins were supposedly coming and going all the time, there was also what I thought to be smoke of some kind lingering in the air the further I went. It didn’t have any terrible smell, in fact it just felt wet like it was made up of water instead of what smoke was normally made of.

In case this substance in the air was dangerous I stayed low to the ground as I continued forward, but as I got deeper and deeper that wasn’t really possible anymore. But what was more worrying was that so far it had basically just been one large hall with no doors or even furniture in sight.