Passing through the gates in the back of the garden and walking along the bridge leading to the dark tunnel in the mountain, we eventually arrived facing two large solid black coloured metal doors, and I could see there a few strange blackened decomposing dead bodies laying at the feet of the doors; the older looking ones being a Human, an Elf , and a Dwarf, while the newer ones were Goblins.

“Ah, these doors…” Goblex said, jumping into one of the blackened goblin bodies and possessing it.

“You know about these?” I asked, taking a closer look at countless runic symbols engraved all over the doors—noticing the hints of magic oozing from them.

“I do, I had these goblins try to open it for me when we first came here.” Goblex replied, but as soon as he saw my hand moving to touch the runes, he immediately shouted “Stop!” Grabbing my hand before I could.

“What? What’s wrong?” I questioned, unaware of his reasoning.

“Let me show you.” Goblex said, instructing me “But please back away first, Master Eyes.” Listening to him, I moved quite a ways away from the doors; then seeing that I was at a safe distance, Goblex touched the door with his possessed body.

Almost instantly, all the runic symbols along the doors brightly lit up with a red colour, and my eyes were hit by an unbelievably overwhelming and intense amount of magic that wasn’t there before. Then in a blink of an eye, an enormous red lightning bolt shot out from the runic symbols and instantly incinerated Goblex’s possessed body into black ashes. "What the hell?! What was—"

“It’s not over, get down!” Goblex shouted out, immediately diving into the ground. My eyes widened as I saw the magic from the doors intensifying again, and barely dropping to the ground in time, another enormous red lightning bolt was shot out right over me—striking and destroying a huge chunk of the tunnel walls. Staying down out of caution, another red lightning bolt was shot out a second later, and it too destroyed another part of the tunnel walls.

When I saw the magic from the doors lessen and return back to the state they were in before, I relaxed and cautiously picked myself up. Goblex rose up from the ground too, saying “See what would’ve happened if you touched the doors, Master Eyes.”

I punched him in his ethereal head, “You could’ve just told that, you know? Or were you trying to get me killed?” Already knowing that he wasn’t since he warned me.

“N-No, never! I just wanted to show you how dangerous it was, Master! I promise!” Goblex claimed, trying to prove his honesty.

I pretended to be angry about it, “Hmmm...to prove you really mean it, I need you to do something for me.” And nodded eagerly, “I need you to find me a way to open these doors no matter what, got it?”

“B-But Master Eyes, that’s an extremely powerful magic trap.” Goblex nervously explained, “Ma-Magic will still affect Ghosts like me as if we were alive, and I’m more than sure I’d die instantly if I got hit by Magic that powerful—just like the rest of them did.” Gesturing to the other blackened bodies.

“There’s a pretty simple solution, Goblex. If you can’t go straight through something, just go around.” Telling him “There’s no way a Ghost like you can’t just pass through the mountain walls, and there’s especially no way this whole mountain has magic traps that powerful, right? So you can definitely tank at least a weaker trap if there is one, I'm sure of it!”

“There's no way I'm getting out of this, is there?” I simply answered him with a smiled and Goblex reluctantly agreed.

“Good, now get going.” I said, pushing him into the side wall.

With about 10 minutes passing by and no sign of Goblex, I began to worry “What’s taking him so long? Did he actually die? Maybe there were more powerful traps in the mountains? How am I supposed to ever get in then?” But relieving my worry, Goblex suddenly reappeared through the side wall again, and I said “You made it back, did you actually find a way to open the doors?”

Goblex smiled with a shine to his eye, “And more, Master Eyes.” I excitedly nodded for him to continue, “Even though the Stronghold inside was surrounded by the same metal as the doors, I was lucky to find that there weren’t any more magic traps placed on them, just the thickness of the metal walls—which was easy to get through.”

“There’s a Stronghold in there?” I repeated in disbelief.

“A huge one, Master. It might even take up the whole mountain.” Goblex claimed.

Hearing that, I couldn’t help but question “Who were you Lord Creedmor? And what are you guarding inside to have a Stronghold built out of Adamantite? What were you really doing inside this mountain?”

Goblex continued, “Since it was so huge, I didn’t check it all, but I did find an engraving of words, and after reading them, I believe they might be the phrase to open the doors.”

“How can you be so sure? And you can read?”

“I just know these things, Master. And of course I can read.” Goblex answered confidently.

Giving Goblex a curious look, I asked him “Why do you seem smarter than the other Goblins? When I talked to the other ones they mostly only spoke with simple words and sentences, but you can hold up a whole conversation, even read.”

“Thank you, Master Eyes. I am smarter than them.” Proudly holding his head high.

“Wasn’t really a compliment, just wanted an answer.”

Goblex then began telling me about how he and a few other goblins were slaves to an Elder Lich before, and that those who couldn’t learn things or speak in a way the Elder Lich liked would eventually be killed for their incompetence. “An Elder Lich! That explains what I saw in the Vision then.” Seeing how Goblex kept talking, I listened to him going on about how the Elder Lich was being hunted by the Dwarven Armies, but was killed by some strong Adventurers who made their way through his Dungeon. “So those voices were Adventurers, but I wonder if they ever found the Phylactery, cause if not…”

“Oh sorry, Master Eyes.” Goblex apologized. “I shouldn’t be talking about my former Master when in the presence of my current one. I can see that it concerns you.”

“That’s not really what I was concerned about, but let’s just say you found out your former Master was still alive, would you go back to him?”

“No, never.” He asnwered bluntly, and I could see in his single eye that he was telling the truth. “Unlike before, I was forced to serve, but now I choose to.” Kneeling before telling me, “I wouldn’t dare betray you, Master Eyes.”

“We’ll see about that, now open the doors already.” Eager to find out what was behind them.

Nodding, Goblex got up from his knee and stood in front of the doors, shouting “EST IN DOMUM SUAM LESY BENO VE!” As soon as Goblex finished the unfamiliar phrase, all the runic symbols engraved on the doors began to light up brightly again, and reactively both Goblex and I dropped to the ground. Though to our surprise, the runic symbols were green instead of red, and the doors slowly began to open by themselves towards us—opening up to a long dimly lit tiled passage.

I let out a sigh of relief, asking "Did you really have to shout that?" Genuinely curious.

"I don't think so, but it did make it seem more grand and special, right Master?"

Rolling my eyes, I noticed the words engraved on the inside of the doors, and I turned to Goblex saying “You just know these things, huh?” Goblex looked away, “Of course that was the phrase, it’s written on the doors, anyone would’ve known that.” Stepping through the doors, I stopped myself and remembered all the bodies stinking up the courtyard.

Turning back to Goblex, I instructed him to dig out some pits near but inside the borders of Barrier to bury all the bodies in—not thinking it was a good idea to leave undead corpses out in the open—and he simply let out a big sigh as he went ahead and accepted my instructions anyway. I then remembered to mention that if he came across people, to not attack them cause they might be the people I’m waiting for, and he nodded in understanding. Also thinking that Goblex might not be able to get in if he accidentally left the Barrier—since he was labeled as an Intruder—I decided to Add him as a Guest for now, along with Odelia while I was at it.

***

The present…

“Hmmm...he doesn’t seem to be answering.” Global noted, making a 3rd Request.

“Strange, why do we need permission just to be Guests?” Ragnar questioned, reading the Menu too.

“If he is not anweri—” Odelia stopped mid sentence when she noticed something in the corner of her eye. Following Odelia’s stare, Global and Ragnar both saw a huge injured goblin dragging and carrying multiple other dead goblins towards them.

“What the hell is that?!” Ragnar whispered loudly.

“It kind of looks like the Goblin Chieftain they found in the Mayor’s mansion.” Global pointed out.

Odelia simply stood silent and drew her bow—following the goblin’s movements with her already drawn mana-arrow—and Global and Ragnar both followed her lead and prepared their weapons too. Upon seeing the 3 strangers with their weapons drawn and aimed at him, the huge injured goblin was taken back for a moment; though he quickly relaxed and gave them a nod of acknowledgement before making his way along the foot of the mountains with the dead goblins.

“Fascinating…” Global whispered, intrigued by the acknowledgment.

“Miss Odelia, what’s going on?” Ragnar whispered too.

“I do not know…” Odelia replied, following the goblin, with the other two doing the same.

Quietly following for a few minutes, Ragnar whispered “Hey, how long are we gonna keep following this guy?”

“Until we find out where he’s going and why he didn’t attack us.” Global answered quietly. “This is an incredible opportunity to learn about the monsters in this world.”

“What do you think, Miss Odelia?” Ragnar asked, but Odelia was nowhere to be seen. “Wait, where did she go?”

Ignoring Ragnar’s question, Global continued to follow the huge goblin, eventually arriving in a field of large deep pits, and all the pits beginning to overflow with thousands of goblin bodies. The two of them watched the huge goblin drop the bodies he brought into one of the emptier pits, and right after turn directly to the tree they were hiding behind and nodded again; he then started heading back the way they came from.

Though jumping in his way with her arms out, Global shouted “Wait, Mr.Goblin!” Stopping him in place, “What are you doing with all these bodies?”

The Goblin gave them an unpleasant look before answering, “Burying them. What’s it look like, Human?”

“Interesting, can you tell me why?” Global curiously asked, “Or maybe why you’re not attacking us?”

“Master’s orders.” The Goblin replied, walking past her. “Now stop bothering me, I still have thousands more to bury.”

“Woah, woah, woah.” Ragnar said, holding his sword out to stop the goblin from leaving. “You’re not going anywhere unless we say so, Goblin. Now tell us about this Master of yours.”

The Goblin simply laughed at Ragnar’s weak threat, walking right through the sword and allowing it to slice open a part of his chest. “Consider yourselves lucky Master Eyes instructed me not to kill anyone I come across.” Ragnar and Global both looked surprised.

Walking beside the Goblin, Global enthusiastically asked “Do you mean Eyes Thalion?” The Goblin just continued walking, “Okaaay, well you know he asked us for help, right? and I’m sure he could use help dealing with the rest of the goblins too.”

The Goblin laughed again, “Hahaha...Master Eyes doesn’t need help, he killed all the goblins hours ago.

“What?!” Ragnar yelled out in surprise, “Were all the ones back there the ones he killed? and did you say there was thousands more?”

“Didn’t I tell you it would be worth it?” Global smugly whispered to Ragnar, “If we can just get on his good side, I’m sure he'll become one of our strongest allies. Not only in terms of sheer strength, but also in terms of the valuable information he could share with us.” As they followed the Goblin back the way they came.

***

Not being able to ignore the notifications anymore, I thought “Maybe I should just turn them off.” Finally reading them.

Odelia Ven’Thyl(Guest) has passed through the Barrier and entered the Homestead. Two Players have failed to forcefully pass through the Barrier. Odelia Ven’Thyl(Guest) has passed through the Barrier and exited the Homestead. Global has Requested permission to be your Guest: [Accept] or [Decline]

Global has made another Request for permission to be your Guest: [Accept] or [Decline]

Ragnar has Requested permission to be your Guest: [Accept] or [Decline] Global has made another Request for permission to be your Guest: [Accept] or [Decline] Odelia Ven’Thyl(Guest) has passed through the Barrier and entered the Homestead.

“Too bad they’re here already, I really wanted to explore this place more, but I don’t think I should let others see this place, who knows how they would react.” I then exhaustedly expressed my gratitude, “Thank you again, Lord Creedmor...I better go before this place is discovered by the 'unworthy'...and I'll let you know if I find anything...” Limping my way back to the entrance with drying blood all over my body, and a few dozen wounds that weren’t completely healed.

Closing the Adamantite doors behind me, I watched the runic symbols light up again to seal the doors closed, and thought to myself “I’ll have to visit again when I get the chance, there’s so much I can learn and discover in there.” Leaving the mountain tunnel.

Heading back out to the castle, I passed through the back gates, and heard someone shouting “Lord Eyes! Where are you!” and I realized it was coming from Odelia standing on the rooftops of the castle.

Waving to her, I shouted back “Over here!” Then without hesitation and with a blinding speed, Odelia propelled herself straight towards me, destroying a whole chunk of the roof where she stood, and creating a small crater as she landed on the ground in front of me.

“Lord Eyes!” She yelled out, looking extremely concerned with all the blood and wounds on my body.

I smiled to show her that I was okay, and told her “Regardless of how I look right now, I’m actually alright. But let’s go, I only have 13 hours left before I turn into a zombie.” Odelia nodded, still looking concerned over me as we made our way to the front.

Walking on the bridge leading outside, I ordered Odelia to really stop calling me Lord Eyes—at least not around strangers—and explained that if people knew who I was, that I would become a target for all sorts of people. She reluctantly agreed with my wish, understanding my logic, and coming to the same conclusion. She then informed me where the two people she brought were, and questioned me about what happened here, about the strange Goblin Chieftain, and finally about the Barrier. But not really wanting to bother explaining it all, I simply told her it was the power of the Heir to the Elves, and to my surprise she actually seemed to believe it—gazing at me with great awe and amazement. Ignoring her gaze, I noticed three figures in the distance approaching us, though I could only recognize Goblex.

Waiting for them just outside the Barrier, I carefully observed the other two, and saw that one was a small woman—Lv.6 Global—wearing a mismatch of cloth and leather armour, and a navy blue cloak with the hood up that partially covered her face. She carried with her a long wooden staff on her back, and a strange looking leather book tied to her waist. There was also a bulky stout man in a full suit of armour walking next to her—Lv.7 Ragnar—and who was only a little bit shorter than me. Everything he carried seemed to be made of iron: from all his plated armour, the sheathless iron sword on the left side of his waist, and the round shield on his back, but I did notice a small wooden ornate horn attached to the right side of his waist.

“I think their levels are pretty low compared to the other Players, but somethings tells me they're a lot stronger then their levels would suggest.” I thought to myself, showing them a friendly smile. “I just hope they’re friendlier than the last Players I met, I don’t wanna be forced to repeat what happened the last time.” Watching them approach me.