Before deciding what to do next, Roy quickly examined the quivering, elderly goblin.

Enlightened Elder Goblin

Tier: 1

Rating: S

The information presented made Roy conflicted between skewering it as soon as possible and hearing it out. At the very least, he quickly stepped forward and placed the tip of the spear right up against the goblin's chest, ready to thrust forward into its heart at a moment's notice.

Roy mulled the information over as he waited to see if it would do anything else. The elder prefix had appeared on the giant treant, but being marked as old was apparently not always a good thing. The enlightened portion most likely had something to do with it being able to speak to him, but he could not rule out that the others could as well with how much the shaman had been shouting.

The rating of S was what ultimately tipped the scale, as it might give him a hint of what that same rating meant for the treant. If only he could get more information about creatures as he could for objects. He hoped that was something that would change when his World Guide evolved at tier one.

"Why can you speak?" Roy asked, starting with the simplest and most obvious question.

His voice echoed in the cavern, and he knew there was no more sneaking around. He listened intently for sounds from deeper in the cave, at the ready to spring into action if more goblins appear. There was nothing so far.

"I reached the other side, once. Long ago. Gaia gave me the blessing to speak any language and a gift to find things. I am not a shaman. We are weak and not a threat to you."

"The other side?" Roy could not help but ask.

"Yes. That is what we call it. Your world. The overworld. I snuck onto the vessel when I was young. Was never meant to go. Never even killed anyone while I was there, I swear. I truly mean no harm." The goblin had spoken fast, constantly keeping his gaze down and focused on the tip of the spear, still smeared in blood.

Roy cursed inwardly as a nagging suspicion he had from reading various descriptions that he was in the so-called underworld proved true. The lack of a sun in the sky had tipped him off, but it had not been definite proof.

Roy was beginning to feel sympathy for the poor creature as it kept trembling. It seemed honest and was being very forthright with information to preserve its life. He could still not let down his guard, however, as there was always a chance that was exactly what it was aiming for. Roy had been tricked, deceived, and betrayed too many times to not expect the worst of creatures he knew barely anything about. It was a quality that made him disgusted with himself, but it helped him survive.

"What about your friends? They aren't waiting just around the corner where you came from to jump me?"

A look of panic flashed on the old goblin's face as he peeked upward slightly and began yelling something in the same way the shaman had. Roy nearly skewered him in reflex but stopped himself in time to hear things clattering to the ground. Three more goblins stepped from around the corner, empty-handed and slightly smaller than the ones outside. At another command from the elder goblin, the three also bowed their heads and looked crestfallen.

"Please. They are young. Impressionable. I told them to stay back."

The three still standing back occasionally threw withering glances of hate and anger at Roy but otherwise seemed to listen to the elder. While glad to have avoided another fight for now, at the back of his mind, there was a lingering regret to not having just killed the old goblin right away to grab their cores. Now he knew his conscience would get in the way if they truly refrained from attacking him. Roy hoped whatever information he could get out of them would be worth the loss of those cores.

"Is there another vessel nearby?"

The old goblin paused for a moment, closing his eyes and moving his head left and right as if listening for something.

"Yes. Yes! There is. Not close, but here in Vakurra. What used to be Vakurra. Still within the desolation. Yes. You can see it from here. Not here, but up the cliff. A big mountain. A mine turned tomb. Not for the miners, but an old warlord. Old when I was still young. I remember him. It was one of his vessels I was on. It went to bring him back. It is how I got back. He wanted to be buried home, remembered by his people. They did not care. The desolation had started. They fled. He stayed."

"Okay, okay. I did not need to know all that." Roy was beginning to feel exasperated by all this information but quickly went over what seemed most important right now in his head. "Is that warlord now dead? Or is that his vessel?"

"Dead. I think. They might bring him back. They do that sometimes. It was never intended to be a vessel."

Primary Goal Updated!

Primary Goal: Return to the overworld

Reward: ??? Karmic Points

Roy looked at his revealed primary goal in confusion. It said to return, but he had woken up in the underworld as far as he could remember. It might just be a mistake, but he did not count on it. He shelved that detail for later, as it did not matter for now.

"Who are 'they'?"

"I don't know. Could be anyone. Anyone with power. They always scavenge throughout the desolation for vessels. Land is too valuable to lose."

Of all the things, who or what he would need to face was, by far, the most important information he needed, but at the very least, this line of questioning led to his goal getting updated.

Roy let out a sigh and decided to give the old goblin a break by lowering his spear slightly, which made him visibly relax. He was not yet done questioning the goblin, but interrogating at spearpoint was beginning to leave a bad taste in his mouth.

"So what is this desolation?"

The old goblin raised his head slightly at my question.

"This. Everything. The dead land. This was a jungle once. Full of life and mana. Then the treants came. They drained it all. No one could kill them. Not even the warlord."