Chapter 2

When Tyriel woke up he ate then packed everything away, then slinging his pack over one shoulder, he approached the door holding his strung bow in one hand. Taking a deep breath he placed his hand on the center of the door, tensing slightly as he watched it disintegrate into sand creating a pile on the floor. He found himself looking into a natural cave tunnel, off to his right a short distance he saw the exit to the world noticing it was daytime. Glancing down the other way he saw a raw animal hide hanging down as a doorway hiding whatever might be behind it.

Seeing that the tunnel was empty he walked down to the hide as quietly as he could, as he approached he was greeted by a prompt {Lair: New}. He paused for a minute, was he ready to do a run on his own, or should he play it safe and walk away, he bit his lip while thinking then sloughed off his pack, slung his bow over one shoulder, then drew one of his swords. He needed to start somewhere, if he didn’t pull the band-aid off now it would just get harder down the road, pushing the hide to the side he stepped past it after making sure nothing was there. {You have entered a lair. Level and Skill progression will halt until you exit} so you can’t benefit from leveling while in dungeons, he rolled his shoulders then refocused and moved ahead.

Staying quiet and edging along the tunnel wall he moved down the tunnel, pausing a little while later as he heard garbled muttering. At first it was meaningless noises, then it cleared up “….Grybe watch tunnel... No Grybe no food till watch tunnel... Grybe shows them, Grybe stick spear in them when sleeping then Grybe be in charge.” Easing further down the tunnel Tyriel came upon a little creature sitting in the middle of the passage with its back to him and facing back down the passage.

It appeared to be roughly about his waist height if it stood up with green swarthy skin, a large head with no hair, and large pointed ears. Laying beside it was a really crude spear with a flint tip, it was waving its arms around while complaining about its mistreatment. Being as quiet as he could he crept up behind the creature pausing and holding his breath every-time he thought it had detected him. Finally, he managed to be right behind the creature, slowly he positions his sword up next to the creature's neck, then with a quick movement grabbed its head yanking back while bringing the sword across its neck in a deep slice.

It was over faster than he thought, with a wet sigh the creature went slack with glassy eyes staring up at him. His whole body was shaking from the adrenaline rush from the close encounter, then he jumped when a prompt popped up {Goblin: Common 120 exp}. So this is what a goblin is, and he earned his first experience towards the first level, he wondered how many more were in here.

He patted down the goblin then pushed it against the wall when he found nothing on it except the spear and a soiled loincloth. Creeping further down the tunnel, he eventually spied flickering light reflecting off the cave walls. Definitely, a fire going up there he thought to himself, hugging the wall he approached finding the tunnel opened up into a small cavern about the size of a two-bedroom apartment.

In the center of the cavern were three more goblins sitting around a fire eating out of small wooden bowls. Two of them were similar to the one he killed, the last one was different in it was wearing a steel helmet with a belt slung across its torso holding a dagger. Watching them it didn’t take long to confirm that one was the boss, which would make it the first one he went after. Quickly thinking Tyriel sheathed his sword readying his bow with a notched arrow, taking aim he pulled back on the string then held his breath. He had never shot a bow before, so with a silent prayer released the arrow, then without waiting for the result dropped his bow, sprinting for the group while cross drawing his swords.

With a cry the leader pitched forward from the impact of the arrow, it had hit him just below his shoulder pitching him forward into the fire. As he fell the other two jumped up in surprise staring at him, by the time they registered the arrow it was too late Tyriel was on them swinging his deadly swords. He caught one across the face with the other getting sliced across its pot belly.

Using the leader's back as a springboard he crossed over the fire hurting its attempt to get out of the flames, spinning on the other side to bring his swords down on one of the other goblins. A prompt popped into his vision causing him to miss {Goblin: Warrior 230 exp} {Goblin: Common 120 exp}. Cursing he rolled backward away from the goblin he had been trying to hit, dismissing the prompts he hurriedly looked around for the goblin afraid it was about to skewer him with its spear.

He needn’t have bothered the little guy was running for all he was worth for another tunnel that led further back into the cave system. Without thinking he threw one of the swords at it taking off at a sprint at the same time. While it didn’t stick in the goblins back the hilt did hit it in the head causing it to trip forward falling to the ground in a rolling heap. That was enough for him to jump on it finishing it off with a stab to the middle of its back {Goblin: Common 120 exp}.

Breathing heavily he picked up the goblin, dragging it back towards the fire to search it with the two others. This time he found 4 small copper rods about the width and length of his little fingers joint molded with intricate patterns covering them, playing with one he found it could be split into four separate pieces then easily clicked back together again. There was also a diamond-shaped silver disc with a laurel design on both sides, it was about the size of an old-world quarter.

He put these in his pocket for later then grabbed the dagger and belted it to his waist giving him another weapon. The dagger wasn’t in that good of a condition but he thought he could fix it over time so he would keep it. He went back to grab his bow, then headed over to the new tunnel, on his way he tried thinking on how to turn off his prompts, the last one could have gotten him killed. Frustratingly nothing came up to remedy the problem, he would just have to be careful and plan his attacks better when confronting many opponents.

Approaching the tunnel he could see it went down a way then curved to the left, spying more flickering light on the walls he knew another group with fire must be down there. Creeping down hugging the wall, he slowly peeked around the corner to see what was waiting for him. This cavern was about twice the size of the last with many stalagmites and stalactites scattered through it, in the middle there was a small pool with water dripping into it from the roof. Next to the pool was a small hide hut with a blazing fire next to it, laying around it were about 8 goblins, two of them being the warrior types and 3 being females the rest common males. They all appeared to be sleeping, excited in his luck Tyriel wasted no time creeping quietly over to the group.

Once again he targeted the warriors first, dismissing the prompts as fast as they came, he moved on to the common males than the females. On the last female he got careless causing him to stumble kicking a small pot into her, she woke up angrily screaming then spotting him started screaming in fear.

He quickly stabbed her getting a prompt, as he went to dismiss it a loud roar came from the small hut followed by a larger goblin bursting out wielding a long sword. It spotted him amongst all the dead bodies, throwing its head back it roared again causing a red glow to envelope it. He watched its body swell up, while its eyes turned a glowing blood red. Getting a two-handed grip on the long sword it charged him seeming to get to him in the blink of an eye. Tyriel felt a burning gash open up on his stomach causing blinding pain to slam into his head, he leaped backward away from the enraged goblin as fast as he could.

This guy had some kind of magic ability making this a far more dangerous combat than what he had already fought. He hurriedly got into a ready stance squaring off against the goblin, he barely got set as the goblin came in swinging. It was all he could do to parry and block the blows the goblin was delivering, it seemed it had unlimited energy never letting up in the assault. Tyriel felt himself getting tired, worrying him that he might slow down, if that happened he would get hit and it would be over for him.

As these thoughts were going through his head he saw the red glow disappear as the goblin shrank back to its natural size. It allowed the sword to dip as if it was too heavy for it now, as it raised wide scared eyes to look at him, Tyriel drove one sword into its chest bringing the other around in a sweeping cut to its neck sending the head flying over into the pool {Goblin: Chieftain 320 exp}.

Dismissing the prompt he scanned around the cavern finding nothing he dropped to the ground exhausted. He whooped in the air, he had done it, this proved he could survive here on his own if he trusted in himself and learned everything he could.

He rocked forward to stand up immediately feeling shooting pain from his stomach area, he had forgotten about being hit what with the adrenaline rush that allowed him to shrug off the pain, now that it's gone the injury made its presence known. Looking down he saw that the goblin had caught him just below the bottom of his cuirass slicing through his shirt, pulling it up revealed a jagged shallow gash that to his surprise wasn’t bleeding much.

He had nothing to bind it with, so gingerly got up and searched the small campsite, hoping to find something he could use. In the hut, he found two old packs that obviously belong to whoever these guys ambushed and killed to get all their fighting gear. Inside one was an old shirt that he could cut up for some bandages, he would boil some water and sterilize them the best he could.

He found a copper pot near the fire, taking it to the pool he rinsed it out then filling it with water set it back on the fire throwing the shirt scraps in it to boil. While waiting he gathered everything he thought was valuable putting it near the fire, there wasn’t much, a lot of it was just trash. He did manage to find 34 of those copper rods, 15 of the silver diamonds, plus a new thicker silver round coin that had a city design on both sides. Besides the long sword, he found two more daggers plus a hammer, he needed to decide if he was going to take it all, he wasn’t sure how far he would need to travel so he didn’t want a lot of weight.

After the bandages had boiled awhile he pulled them out twisting them so access water was pushed out, then waved them over the fire till they dried. Wadding one up he bound it to his wound using the other strips, he moved around bending different ways to make sure it wasn’t restrictive. Satisfied he finally decided to take everything except the long sword, the two he had now were enough.

One more quick glance around, he filled his canteen then headed back to the entrance of the cave. As he walked he would glance at the bodies as he passed wondering why they hadn’t disappeared yet, then he stopped, he caught himself thinking of this like a game where the bodies would dissolve to be replaced by new goblins. This wasn’t a game meaning those goblins were really dead at his hands, he wasn’t totally sure how he felt about that. Musing on it as he continued up, he decided he didn’t like it much but this was his new world, a lot of harsher methods were called for to survive and in the end, he could live with that.

Grabbing his pack he left by the raw animal hide doorway he was greeted by another prompt {Lair Cleared you have been awarded 1200 exp} {You have learned the following: First Aid, Stealth, Dungeoneering, Archery, Blade Throwing. All skills are at level 1, due to character not having a level yet no other skills have advanced.}. He needed to get to level 1 as fast as he could so his status would awaken, since it wasn’t he couldn’t progress his skills or see how far he needed to go to get the level. Shaking his head he shouldered the pack while walking out the main entrance to a breath-taking view from the side of the mountain he found himself on.

The cave was located just about 100 yards above the tree line of a great forest that stretch forever, scanning the horizon he spotted no signs that said any intelligent being was around except for him. He did spot a river in the distance, past experience told him if he followed that he would eventually find people. Roughly gauging the sun he felt like he could get about halfway to the river before it set, that was if it had the same cycle as his old world, he would have to keep an eye on it and adjust accordingly as he traveled. He started making his way down to the tree line whistling a tune that he wasn’t sure where he knew it from, he vaguely thought it was called Climb every Mountain.