After leaving spawn they could see the open cavern clearly through the path they had crossed. The illusion was broken and with it, the main defense of the soon to be goblin hideout was lost.

"There is a camp to the east, I would wish to visit them." the dryad said.

"is this a goblin camp?" Adil asked.

"It is a camp of the ones I have freed from the curse, yes they are the ones you call goblins."

Seras looked uncomfortable. "Will they be hospitable?" She asked.

"One such as yourself may find the occasional discomfort, but they will not attack you in my presence." The dryad Morganna explained.

They traversed the maze as a group down a dark path, it was a lower passageway in which you could see outside only through cracks in the wall. As they came through the torchlight illuminated the area beyond. A human skull was on a post, the sound of their footsteps was an echo reverberating across the walls.

"It shouldn't be this quiet." Morganna said.

They approached closer and the dryad let up a hand to show they should stop.

"we are here." she said.

Slime was spread across the floor and the area was a mix of crudely fashioned wooden posts holding up tents of interspersed animal fur. A tangental atmospheric smell of rot was everpresent the closer they came.

"this is disgusting even for a goblin pit." Seras stated.

"This was never this bad. Something must have happened." Morganna said to the group.

They traversed the area and falling past the barrels of fermented liquids and fur beds to come across the mutilated corpse of a goblin. The dryad held a robe covered hand over her mouth.

"I'm sorry." Swift said to the dryad.

"This is nothing I haven't seen before. The humans are creatures of no mercy." She said glancing to Seras.

"Goblins did things that deserved no mercy," she said quietly.

A crashing sound was heard off in the distance followed by a high-pitched growing. They went to investigate, a small goblin covered in a thick black growth was gnawing on a bone. As we approached it looked at us showing white eyes and a deranged expression. it dove trying to grab at the dryad. Seras swung both her axes and chopped its head.

"You didn't have to do that." the dryad exclaimed.

The goblins head began to bubble and warp, a stream of black leaking from its decapitated head and the body got up, starting to crawl over as the sound of a gnarling began again.

Seras went to press her axe into the back of the crawling body stopping it from moving any further. Its arms contorted and broke as they tried to spin around and grab at the axe.

"Burn it Swift, burn it." Seras shouted.

He started gathering flame in his hands whilst he walked over.

"Stop." Morganna commanded. She tried to pull at the creature with her power, launching a stream of black slime upwards. An eye appeared within the stream and the dryad shuddered, collapsing the stream and it warped back into the creature.

"There is nothing but death in there." She hissed.

A spike of pure black shot out to the group and Morganna froze it prompting Swift to launch a stream of fire over it leaving nothing but the sound of cascading groans.

Mutated goblin - stage 2

80 XP

"Something must have happened with the taint." She said to herself. Though everyone else was well aware at this point.

"You had it under control did you?" Adil said slyly to the witch. She ignored him but furiously stamped away. Swift reached out a hand and forged the goblins loot from its remains.

notification:

Obtained: eye of taint: used for potions.

More clattering reverberated from deep inside the cave and the faint sound of a rumble.

"can you hear that?" Adil asked. As everyone tried to pay attention the sound grew louder. Adil drew 3 arrows from his quiver loading one into the bow. A sound of gnarling could be heard from further into the cave as the rumbling increased to a level they could tell what was coming.

"Get ready," Seras said. The dryad took a step back before the first mutated goblin came rushing in a horde following it.

As the army approached, Adil had focused into the distance and like with a virtual-tech assisted targeting system, he saw the distances, sizes and time for each of the things to reach them, shooting all three arrows out of his bow into the first three goblins along the way.

"Launch a large constant stream of fire when they get in range," Adil said to Swift.

"I'll run out of mana," Swift replied.

"Just trust me."

The goblins Adil had shot rolled their eyes forward again and began running down as they got ready. After a brief charging swift short forth a stream of fire across the first wave, large enough to hold them back for a second. As this happenedAdil focused a stream of wind. Harnessing his newfound power into the fire and combining it. The mana charged wind reacted in such a volatile nature an explosion shot towards the horde coating all of them running forward. One by one they slowed their pace and fell down. Some close enough that Seras could finish them with a swipe whilst others were shot down with more arrows.

notification:

mutated goblin killed x 12. 960 total XP.

Swift and Loki saw tendrils of essence launch from the carcasses, the mass of energy fell into the two and came with a surge of energy. Their muscles felt tight and rigid as they seemed to absorb the essence. Suddenly a relief like blood finally managing to rush theory their veins came in and they saw a new notification reach into their vision.

Congratulations you have leveled up.

choose from 2 abilities.

lvl 3. 6% progress.

"Congratulations," Seras said to the two, a grin over her face. Her mysterious abilities were still mostly unknown to the two.

"Your power is both great and mysterious." the dryad said.

The dead carcasses of the mutated goblins were scattered over the floor. They were burnt away revealing disfigured and strange figures under what was a coating of taint.

"The infection is spread deep into the catacombs, I pray we can clear this out." The dryad said

"The more time that goes by the more I think you had no plan when it came to storing the taint.," Seras said picking up one of the goblin carcasses and absorbing it to see if they dropped any loot.

"Do you need to do that, the ones that died here are innocent and you defile their corpse." The Dryad replied.

Seras looked back at her and to the next goblin, she absorbed.

"Loot is loot." She replied.

The team acquired 3 more tainted goblin eyes and moved towards the depths of the catacombs. Where the goblins came from. Swift seemed nervous upon peering into what depths awaited them. The echo of each footstep highlighting the space they were to walk through.

"We must move forward to clear out this infestation." The dryad said.

"I won't have enough fire for everything in there," he replied. And they carried on down the path