Chapter 6

Ragen woke up early. It was still dark. He prepared his stuff and then walked to the city. At this early hour the town was still silent and most of the people were asleep. When he arrived at the old Janets house he saw a group of people. That was unusual for his teacher. She normally didn’t accept any quest before the sun was risen over the horizon. He cleared a path in the group and went inside the house. Inside were even more people and his teacher who clearly had a discussion with somebody was running around. He went to his teacher and asked: “What is going on?” Janet looked at him and then said to the people: “Get out. I need some time to think and find a cure.” The people wanted to stay but after a murderous gaze from Janet they left. She turned around and faced Ragen. “Ragen we have a crisis. An Illness occurred on one of the ships which entered the harbour yesterday. It seems that it is the ‘Blue Strangler’ and it already spread in the town.” Ragen was shocked. He had heard about this sickness. It went through the air and killed the people by strangling them. It started with a normal cough and ended with death because of a swollen lung. So, the people will be strangled by their own lung. The death rate was around 80%. It was catastrophic that it now broke out here. Janet saw the panic in the eyes of her little helper and she said: “Don’t worry Ragen. There is a cure for it. We just need some herbs from the forest and with that we can cure it. You have to gather them.” Ragen was surprised that he should gather them and replied: “But why me Janet. Couldn’t you go instead of me. I don’t even know which herbs I have to collect.” “No, you can do it. I must stay. The people will fall into panic if I leave the town now. They would think that the illness is not curable and start a riot. No, my dear Ragen you must fulfil this task. I give you a list with some pictures from the herbs on it. I can only trust you. Others would steal the herbs and sell them for money. You are also a hunter, so you know the forest better than the others. I count on you. Here is the list and a map for the locations. Now go.”

After this serious talk, Ragen walked to the market to buy food rations and some arrows for his bow. The locations were in the inner part of the forest and he would need at least three days to successfully gather these herbs. This location was also known for goblin raids which made the whole thing dangerous. When the sun went over the highest building in San Tomas Ragen left the town and wandered towards the forest. His face was full of worry but also filled with determination.

Ragen walked for hours in the forest. It became darker as he went further in. There were a lot of big trees. Double the size of normal trees, these trees were very old and mystical. It looked they speak to each other. Even some light mist was sometimes occurring in this forest which hindered his sight.

The wind whistled through the branches from the trees. The air was humid and smelled like wood and dirt. Sometimes he heard a rustling behind some trees and bushes. That made him nervous and he even started to sweat when he heard something like steps. Luckily, he just encountered wild animals and not a single goblin.

After two days he finally found the first spot on his list. It was a small hill in the forest with some small rocks. Here he found the ‘Yellow Bells’ a strong herb plant which directly helps the lungs to suppress the swelling. The only problem was that they smell horribly. He put the herbs in his leather back and wanted to walk back when he noticed a movement behind a tree. He immediately hid behind one of the rocks and watched the trees. Some time passed, as suddenly two green small figures entered his sight. They were goblins.

He had heard tales about them. Even tough they were the weakest of the monsters in this world and they weren’t even considered as demons. They had a stature of kid who was around 12 years old. Their eyes were crimson red, and they wore some furs on their bodies. The weapons of these goblins were very crude but fulfilled the description of a weapon for combat. One of the goblins had a club and the other a small blade which looked more like a dagger than an actual sword.

They were quite dangerous. The danger lied not in the individual goblin and his weapons but in the whole tribe. Once a goblin is attacked, it will howl out loud and alarm his tribe. The whole tribe will then attack and that means hundreds of goblins come at once. A lot of ignorant people died through that mistake.

He firstly used [Appraisal] on the goblins.

The first goblin didn’t look weak. But he didn’t know how to compare them with other monsters as he hadn’t encountered any other monster.

Race: Goblin Lv. 6

VIT: 60

STR: 41

INT: 6

Skills:

[Howl] (racial skill) [Slash]

The second one was weaker but still a problem.

Race: Goblin Lv. 3

VIT: 30

STR: 29

INT: 8

Skills:

[Howl] (racial skill) [Club-beat]

He noticed how one of the goblins stopped and looked around. Then he started to sniff. The second one followed his example and sniffed too. They must have noticed him. They didn’t know his location yet but if they followed his smell than it was just a matter of time. They were too far away for his [Shadow knife] skill, so there were just two options left. Run of fight with a bow.

He decided to fight. He took his bow out and prepared some arrows. Then he chose to shoot the stronger goblin first. He aimed at the head and shot his arrow. Immediately after he shot, he prepared the second arrow. Before he even could put the arrow on the string of the bow, he heard a ding sound.

Congratulations you have levelled up. Player is now level 3.

He was relieved. He had killed the first one. When he aimed at the second one and shot, he heard something that let his blood freeze and his heart stopped. A loud howl pierced through the calmness of the forest. It was the [Howl] skill of the second goblin. After that he heard a dropping body. He had also killed the second goblin, but it was too late. Right as he wanted turn around and run, he heard dozens of howls from all sites in the forest. He was so goddamn fucked.

He ran for his life. As far away as possible from these howls. But he had to change his direction every second, because he heard a new howl from the direction he was running to. Then he realized it. They chased him already to a certain location they picked to kill him. He had to find a safe way out. As he was running, he suddenly heard a sound which made him hope again to escape. He heard water, perhaps a river. He run into that direction. When he heard another howl directly behind him, he saw dozens of red eyes chasing after him. He turned around and started to increase his pace even tough he was already tired.

Then he saw an opening in the forest and ran with full speed towards it. He came out of the forest and stood on top of big rock. Beside him was a big waterfall and rocks, before him was a deep abyss and behind him were the goblins. They cried: “Human flesh. Fresh human flesh!”. He had only one choice. With that thought he betted everything on one card and jumped.