Chapter 9: Floor 4, Goblin Kingdom

[System Notice: You completed Floor 3. You gained 300 EXP.]

[System Notice: For conquering Floor 3 on Hardcore difficulty, you have received the item: Transfiguration Jewel.]

[System Notice: Welcome to Floor 4’s starting point.]

Another ‘Transfiguration Jewel’. It’d still be a waste to use right now.

This floor’s starting point was a tent. I had plenty of trade points after the previous floor and the loot bags. After trading in the loot bags, it came out to 42 points. So now, I was at 544. I had plenty of ‘tubes of satiety’, ‘hydration bottles’, and many potions as I hadn’t been using them. The inventory in the ‘Shop’ didn’t change. I purchased a new weapon for 30 points, as I had previously complained about my ‘Buckler Blade’s’ reach, and got some boots, also for 30 points, to give my defense a modifier.

[Starter Longsword (Rank: F) - A longsword for starters. Attack value: 9]

[Leather Boots (Rank: F) - Boots made from leather. Defense values increased by 10%.]

Not a big difference, but it will help for now. With the amount of points I had, I might as well had picked them up. The Longsword’s reach and extra damage is nice, especially with my gloves. And increasing my defense is always important. Head equipment, body equipment, and leg equipment all had defense values to lower the amount of damage taken. Of course, Vitality provided a multiplier to that.

Boots, however, always increased the equipments’ defense values, and sometimes held various effects, such as attribute increases. Gloves were the opposite, increasing weapons’ attack values, and then also providing various effects. Back equipment and jewelry could provide various effects and/or have their own defense value, such as my current cloak. Attacks and attack value modifiers here always rounded down, while equipment modifiers rounded up.

I’ve been limiting myself too much by playing on the lower difficulties. I had the naive thought that I just needed to finish the floor, and try not to deal with the surrounding enemies—that just got me killed. At this point, I could probably kill my previous lives if I had to fight myself. When I first reached Floor 10, I had only been level five. Now, I’m on Floor 4 and already level six!

I exited the tent after taking a rest. “Ah. This place looks like the Floor Four of easy and normal. That is great.” There were trees, green grass, flowers, and shrubbery. I kept looking around as I walked, trying to find the Goblins. And then a very large sight came into view. There was a castle in the view, and huge walls surrounding the outside. Inside of the castle walls were dwellings and whatnot.

“Ahh. No. This—this is quite different. That looks like a castletown?”

“Remaining Mobs!”

[System Notice: There are 103 mobs remaining. Mobs cleared: 0/103]

“Hmm. Only 103?”

I started walking toward where the castle was. There were Bowmen atop the walls. They had their bows at the ready. I neared the gates to the castletown and readied my shield. There were some Elite Guards standing on both sides of the gate.

[Goblin Elite Guard, Lv7] [Goblin Elite Guard, Lv7]

They looked at me, and one of the Elite Guards looked behind itself at the wall. I looked where it was looking, and saw a poster. It had a drawing of a Human’s face on it. Oh, it was mine.

“Kuhk… Hey, this that evil Human who invaded our Goblin Kingdom?” The Elite Guard asked its ally.

“Hkk. Too hard to see. Them all looks the same to me.” Then, it looked at me. “Hkk. ‘ey you! Is this you in this picture, huh?”

I looked at the Goblins. “...no.”

“Hkk. Well then, what’s your business ‘ere, huh?”

I need to get in. “Um. I am here to look for somebody.”

“Kuhk. Why is a Human looking for somebody in our capital?”

“Hkk. Yeah, why?”

“... I heard... there was a good… chef.” I tried my best to come up with some random lie.

“Hkk. Think he is talking about Zarbie up in the castle, huh?”

“Kuhk. Ol’ Zarbie Meatchopper? Could be.”

Zarbie Meatchopper? “Thanks, you two! That was exactly who I was looking for.” I slowly started walking closer to the gates.

The two Elite Guards grabbed their spears and pointed at me. “Kuhk. Don’t come any closer.”

“Hkk. That’s right. You need to be escorted, Human. Think ya can walk around all willy nilly around ‘ere, huh? Be lucky you ain’t the one in the wanted poster or you’d be skewered, huh?”

“Kukh. You be the one to escort ‘im in. I’ll keep a lookout for the evil Human. Damn bastard be killing us Goblins to ease ‘is sadistic desires. Such a bastard even goes around speaking our tongue. Okay now, be off.”

What is up with them thinking I’m a sadistic monster? Damn developers. “Oh. Thanks again.”

I started walking off with one of the Goblin Elite Guards. Successfully in the castle grounds now.

I looked around. There were some house-like structures, a smithy, a shop, and some other types of buildings around, mainly made of weaker structure material. There were other Goblins around, and my face was plastered on the walls. They were looking at me.

“Unh. That Human there—he looks awfully like the evil one in the wanted poster.”

“You are definitely right—hmm. Looks like he’s going up to the castle with an Elite Guard, though!”

“Whaat! We got ‘im!?”

The Goblin Elite Guard looked back at me. “Hkk. Goblins love rumors. They think that if we got the evil Human that we’d just silently walk ‘im up to the castle doors? This is why they ain’t no Elite Guards like us, huh?”

I smiled back at the Goblin. What is up with the Goblins… All of a sudden, a group of six Goblins came down from the direction of the castle. There were five Goblins who were surrounding one in the middle.

“Hkk! It’s the Royal Guard. Human, better bow when they come by, huh! Be honored to see whomever they be guarding.”

Royal Guard? I decided to use {Area Scan} so I could view the area, as I couldn’t really see which mobs were ahead.

[Report Received: 28 presences]

Among the report were mainly the Bowmen atop the walls, one was the Elite Guard next to me. The ones that stood out were the six the Elite Guard had mentioned.

Goblin Royal Guard, Lv8

Goblin Royal Guard, Lv8

Goblin Royal Guard, Lv8

Goblin Royal Guard, Lv8

Royal Goblin Paladin, Karafil Crownkeeper, the Crown Prince, Lv9

Goblin Royal Guard, Lv8

I was caught off guard. A level nine! Crown Prince?! Karafil! The one who wrote that letter—and it’s a Paladin. I couldn’t see Karafil with my eyes, but {Area Scan} picked it up. The Royal Guards beside Karafil were holding shields and swords, and were covered in a green metal armor. As they neared, I could see that they noticed me. After all, I was the only human. Then, I saw Karafil.

Karafil was a bit bigger than the surrounding Royal Guards, and was equipped with a dark brown, gallant looking armor. It wore no helm, but atop its head was a small golden crown. There was a purple gemstone embedded in the centerpiece of the crown. Its face seemed closer to a Human than a Goblin, although its stature was definitely that of a Goblin. Could it be because it is a Royal Goblin?

One of the Royal Guards started shouting in our direction, “A Human? Elite Guard! Who is this Human!?” The Royal Guard drew its blade and was pointing it at me.

The Elite Guard escorting me bowed deeply, “Hkk. Superior, this Human ‘ere came to see ol’ Zarbie up in the castle. He doesn’t claim to be the evil bastard in the wanted poster, huh.”

“Not the evil bastard you say? You think Humans just strollin’ in our kingdom for funsies? And here you are bringing him up the castle! You lowly-”

“Stand down.” A voice full of power came out from behind the Royal Guard.

The Royal Guard immediately kneeled down. “Your Royal Highness.”

Karafil stepped forward, and the Goblins all around bowed or kneeled. It stared me down and it felt like I was being pierced through. Then, I felt like something had invaded my person.

[System Notice: You were examined by the Ability {Divine Vision}.]

“Greetings, Zeryn Felix. What exactly are you here for? It can’t truly be to see the royal chef.”

I looked at Karafil. Did it just really scan me? “I came for answers.”

Karafil kept looking at me. Then it smiled. “Good. Although you are an evil bastard, you aren’t lying. Elite Guard, go back down to the gates. We shall escort Mr. Felix to the castle.”

“Hkk! Your Royal Highness.” The Goblin Elite Guard bowed again and trotted off.

“Do not try anything dumb, Mr. Felix.” Karafil smiled. “Let’s return to the castle.”

I don’t know what’s going on, but I definitely need to be careful. They definitely were wanting me dead—so just what is going on now?

We started walking up towards the castle, when Karafil spoke out. “I’m quite upset with what you did to my friend. We still don’t quite understand how you had managed to do that.” Karafil looked back in my direction as I trailed between it and the Royal Guards behind me. “So. You want answers, and there are also some requests we may have of you. As long as you cooperate, we shall see how your sentence will come about. Sound good?”

I remained silent, not giving an answer. I was pretty confused about this situation. All I knew was that this situation, well, any situation that could have possibly happened by coming into this castle area, was going to be bad. I needed to spend my time thinking. First things first, get the answers I wanted. Second, find the stairs to the next floor, unless I could do the third, which would ideally be to conquer this floor. The mobs this time seemed to range between level seven and nine at this time. I just needed to know how to handle the situation first. Entering the tiger’s den—what should I do?