(Joat’s POV)

“Welcome to our home!”

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It’s a gigantic cave with nothing but a large round ball thing made from rotten wood held by some ropes a decent bit above a large pit in the center of the room.

“Wow, I forgot how…empty it was”

The room is empty for about 2 seconds…and then hordes of goblins come from the multiple corridors littered around the room…well nevermind.

Our last 20 minutes have just been a long walk through hordes of goblins in a lone corridor and they stopped to allow us through. So I’m a bit shocked as to how there’s so many goblins in here so quickly! Do all the corridors from the other room go here? That must be it.

As we stand there, the goblins all pick a spot on the cavernous and lie down to sleep.

Rastiek looks over the hordes as small squabbles break out over certain spaces on the floor because it’s harder or there was a maggot there…eugh.

“Hmm, a few hundred died…a lot less than last time” he muses to himself

“That’s a lot, but looking at how many we have here…”

“Ha! True, but there will be fresh children from the Grand Cave soon to refill the ranks”

Fresh children? I focus on one of the goblins and…they’re sort of young? I’m not quite sure since they’re all wrinkly and there’s little difference between them.

I do spot one heavily wrinkled goblin giving me a glance…hmm?

Also this Grand Cave…suggests that there’s another place, and this is literally the front gates…so is that what the weird rotting wood sphere is for?

“But if I remember correctly, goblins have lots of children…so won’t the cave be filled?”

He looks at me mildly shocked

“Boy! You’ve been out in the sun too long for its fried your brains. Have you really forgotten?”

Oh, so I was supposed to know what happens…OH!

“Ah, the trial, sorry, it’s just been a long time”

“So you do remember. Yes, the trial will get rid of these young’uns and then the new batch will guard the gates”

Ok, so basically the ‘trial’ is just a forced eviction…got it.

“Well, since I’ve completed my trial…” What should happen next?

He wrenches himself from his own thoughts…probably about this ‘trial’ or something of the sort

“Right right completed…follow me” He knows something that I don’t…

He starts walking to the rotted sphere. I follow…guess he’s not going to tell me then.

“Ooh, are we going in that?” I feign interest; well I actually am interested as to what it is…so I sound quite convincing

“Yes, you’re a fully fledged citizen now…can’t have you sleeping out the gates”

“Why of course, I’m extremely excited to see Grand Cave”

“Ha! All the goblins say that their first time” He leans towards me so that the surrounding goblins don’t hear “and since you’re a hobgoblin, you get to even go to the King’s Cave” He gives that 'I know something you don't' smile again...

“A dream come true!"

I have no idea, but I’m guessing the KING’s cave is quite important…

We make it to the rotting sphere and Rastiek barks an order to some goblins.

They run up to a rotting wheel in the side of the room…oh I missed that; they must have concealed it or something. They start to rotate the wheel and the rotting sphere starts to descend

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Ohhhhhh…so that’s what it is.

The ELEVATOR comes down to eyelevel

Oh, hello DillyDally

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WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE?

DillyDally and about a dozen people are crouching down in the elevator looking worse for wear…

“CHA-” “INT-” “STOOOOOP!” I quickly rush in-between them and raise my hands to stop both sides…Thankfully they both do.

I turn to DillyDally and his dozen...well 10 people

“Drop your weapons and become our prisoners”

“…Do as he says” DillyDally notes that Squirrel is next to me, and kneels down to the floor. The rest follow

I turn to Rastiek who is looking confused as well as the thousands of goblins that scrambled up upon the cries

“They’re prisoners now…it would be bad if I didn’t bring a gift no?”

He thinks on it for a couple of seconds…before he nods.

I turn back to them and they’re looking mildly shocked…what?

“I’ll be taking you to whoever runs this place, prisoners”

All the prisoners nod and the elevator stops with the rotting gate in front of me...

Seriously those guys tried to fight even though they couldn’t reach eachother…

Rastiek opens it and in floods a couple of hundred goblins…wow there’s a lot of space in that cage.

DillyDally and his people are rounded into a corner and a left there, unharmed thankfully.

Joat, you better have a plan

Oh, it’s DillyDally. Hmm, I was finding it weird how no one messaged me…maybe they just didn’t want to? Or Zzoid already told them of the situation?

Anyways, the goblins don’t seem to see the window…and none of them look at me when I tap away at it.

Nope…but apparently I’m a special guest.

Great

I glance at him and he gives me a slightly miffed off look…well I did kind of reveal his hiding place and told him there’s no plan...

To make up for it(?), I tap away at my window filling him in with what I know.

Stumbling when the rotting elevator suddenly starts its descent, I’m saved by the mass of goblins and I use their heads as holds.

They mind little, probably because I’m a hobgoblin.

We start descending in a black hole.

As the elevator descends…I start to concoct a small plan with DillyDally and the others, who I’ve made a chat with.

However our plan to escape is quickly dashed at the sight of what I believe is the Grand Cave

You have entered a raid instance: Olden CavesINSTANCE:Grand CaveThe Grand Cave is the 'common room' of the goblins that live here. Survivors of the trial live here.Recommended Level: 10, 40+ players recommended

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“Oh my”

At least I’m not the only one who said that with wonder/horror. A raid instance…we’re a bit too low level for this…a bit.

The cave…is certainly grand. But grand as in extremely large…like far as the eye can see.

But it’s more like a ravine with a V shape than the stereotypical round cave. Rotting platforms are jutting out from either side and I see them trail all the way down to the bottom…which is thankfully visible…but that’s still not a good thing.

“Mash those dwarves and eat their flesh”

“Slice those elves and munch their ears”

“Kill the humans and gnaw their bones”

“I like toes”

“I like fingers”

“I like elves ears and those dwarven dingers!”

“Hahahaha”

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Well that was an interesting welcome song? Though I don’t think I’d like to have a dwarven dinger anytime soon…

Seems we arrived at the end of the song and we probably missed some similarly disturbing details about their diets, no doubt,

Ignoring the maniacal laughter from the thousands of goblins that litter the rotting wooden platforms and caves embedded in the walls, I turn to Rastiek

“Hah, that was a great song!” I laugh as convincingly as I can

“Been 4 years since I’ve heard that one!”

“Yes, brings back memories” More like nightmares…

“Ah, still remember your baby days?”

“Somewhat…the part about dwarven dingers always stuck in my head” Well it certainly is

“Hahaha! I’ve always preferred some bloody fingers…but every goblin has his tastes”

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Oh lovely

“Though, I forget, why are they singing the songs?”

“Preparations for the trial of course” He doesn’t look at me suspiciously…must be because I only heard this in my ‘baby days’.

I thought the ones at the gate we’re doing the trial…but they don’t seem to be joining in…actually the goblins around me a looking in wonder.

The elevator stops at a rickety looking platform and once the doors open a mass of goblins rush to us, wearing the same things as the ones above but with quite a few more wrinkles.

I grab DillyDally myself and half-drag him outside the elevator…for show of course.

The rest of the goblins transfer the prisoners to outside the elevator.

With Squirrel hugging my arm, I give a wave to Rastiek as he and his goblins go up slowly on the elevator.

Turning round, I quickly follow the small mass who drag the prisoners across the platforms with ease.

Oh god, these platforms are way too unstable for my liking.

Stumbling my way to the goblins, I mix with the crowd and sure enough it’s much easier to stay standing; since I’ve got a bunch of goblins indirectly keeping me up with their small bodies.

As we’re pretty much charging through the walk-ways, I don’t really get time to have a peek at what’s around…but then again; when I first glanced there was nothing much to this place but more goblins.

The pace continues for a good 30 minutes till we’ve somehow reached the other side of the ravine…only ‘accidentally’ pushing a couple of goblins off the edge.

Those prisoners are quite feisty but the surrounding goblins didn't actually care when they saw their fellows be pushed off the edge and into the ravine below.

Well quite a few of the ‘accident’s were caused by a short but strong human, who I actually mistook for a dwarf…because he’s been flailing around…sucks to be human in an extremely dark place.

But the ‘accidents’ haven’t made much of a difference since more goblins joined in on the way…making our group a couple of hundred big.

At the end of the ravine is…a wall…Ok?

The goblins stop and then look down

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I have a bad feeling about this…

The goblins all scratch their heads as they look back and forth from the prisoners and the ravine floor, which is a long way down.

“Jump?” One of the goblins suggest

“I would like my prisoners alive” Though they didn’t seem to have any reaction when the goblin said that…odd?

We all ponder there for a few moments...

Squirrel suddenly leaves my side and everyone looks at her as she walks to the wall…

What is she doing?

She walks up and down kneeling at the corner of the wall.

“Everyone hold on”

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“WAIT A SECONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND”

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*Screeeeeeee*

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We’ve stopped.

“Nobody move”

Seems we're alive thanks to the V shape; we’ve stuck between the two walls. I mean the platform is…well was…holding a couple of hundred of us on it…

*Creak*

“Who moved?” Everyone looks around suspiciously

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*CREAK*

The loud creaking sound comes from underneath the rhino-beastman…

We all give a hopeless look towards him and I close my eyes

*CRACK*

“AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

*OOF*

-48

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"Owww…” Everyone lets out a painful groan marking us as alive

“Tikari…good thinking” I give her some praise, because it was better than the jumping idea at least…

“No…owww…worries boss”

I feel crushed…oh wait, that’s because I’m in the middle of a group of goblins…uuugh.

Crawling my way out from the crushed bodies of goblins both underneath and above, I quickly make my way out…of a small hill of bodies.

Wow, falling with hundreds of goblins…lucky we did?

As I shakily stand on the rough rock floor, I watch the prisoners slowly crawl their way out from the hill of corpses, along with a couple of dozens of goblins…

Well that killed quite a few of them…guess most kills by ‘accident’ go to Squirrel by a landslide...which is almost ironic.

I watch all the prisoners, thankfully, crawl out and stand by me, looking a bit flatter than before.

Once everyone is out…we leave the hill behind and head over to the hole I saw at the top.

Two goblin guards, wearing a decent amount of rusty armor and carrying a rusty sword each, are standing wide-eyed on either side of the cave…which has a portcullis inside it actually.

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“Hello there my fellows…could you direct us to the King’s Cave?” I say it in my sweetest voice

“uhhhh…who are you?” One of the two goblin guards asks me with a more confused than demanding tone…

Well we did just fall out of the sky killing hundreds of goblins ‘accidentally’ in front of them…so he should be confused

“I am Joat, returning from the last trial”

“Oh!” I see his eyes look up at me in respect now “Nice to see you finally came back. Rikik escort him to the Kings Cave” He shouts the orders to behind him

The portcullis opens.

The goblin guard who spoke waves us to follow while the other stops the other goblins from entering…oh, so each goblin have their own quarters? Not to different from normal society then…

While we walk under the portcullis and a surprisingly long corridor with murder holes on every side, I check out our fellow guide…

NAME:Goblin [lvl5] (elite variant)Health:30/30Attack:20-25Defense:30

Elite variant? Ooh, well this is a raid instance so I guess elite variant is normal?

Hmm, I should have checked those goblins earlier…but also what’s with the terrible health?

The question is sort of answered when we leave the corridor and arrive at a sort of ante-chamber the size of a house:

We’re greeted by literally a whole corps of goblins, all wearing rusty armor and carrying rusted weapons…so basically goblins come in freaking hordes!

Well that’s a lot of them and when I identify a couple…yep they’re all elites…scary.

Well the sheer number of enemies is probably one of the main reasons why this is a 40+ raid…

The escort quickly moves round us encasing the prisoners and letting me move to the front.

I grab Squirrel from the prisoner group and the goblins don’t complain…I am higher status than them after all.

These guys don’t run like crazy so as we walk I do get a good glimpse of the rough stairways on either side of the room.

Leading us is a goblin wearing a helmet, distinguishing himself as the captain or something of the sort.

He gives a shout and another portcullis opens. Passing through it, we walk through another long corridor.

INSTANCE:Warrior's CaveThe cave where all those who prove their strength in the trial live

As we’re walking, I can hear the sounds of gory sounds being sung by worse than tone deaf goblins getting louder.

“I once met some fair lady who’s name I didn’t care”

“She screamed and she ran but she got nowhere,”

“I ate off her legs and watched her crawl,”

“As I sat there and had a little drool.”

“Mmm mmm mmm!”

“Nothing like a fair legless lady to eat at night!”

“Hahahahahha!”

Hmm…my stomach doesn’t feel alright with the slight image there…But when I look around I see that the prisoners and Squirrel are just looking suspiciously at the direction of the sound…

Do they have stomachs of iron?

“Joat, welcome to the Warrior’s Cave”

We walk through the end of the corridor and immediately see quite a different setting than earlier; this cave has many layers linked by stairs.

Peeking round a pillar, I can see that it stretches a decent amount but I can see the end wall quite a distance.

The armored goblins get me moving again before I can fully look around.

As we walk up the stairs, I notice that they’re roughly carved out and once I reach the next floor, I see that the stairs litter the floor creating pocket marks all over the smooth surface.

Of course there are some thick pillars to support the floor dotted around.

This floor is empty, without any residents…

“Where are the warriors?” I ask my escorts

“Most are on the Battle floor doing some early celebrations” One of the escorts answers me sounding a bit grumpy…guess he’s on duty then.

“Battle floor?”

“Oh sorry, I forgot you didn’t know about the Warrior’s Cave” The captain goblin turns back to me. “There are 4 floors to the Warrior Cave; the Guard floor, the Rest floor, the Healing floor and the Battle floor”

Ok? So basically each floor dictates what the goblins are doing…

“So we’re on the Rest floor?”

“Yes, and that’s why no one is here right now”

We walk up another flight of stairs, and the smell of blood and death fills my nostrils...eugh!

Alone this is quite bad…with the ‘singing’…it’s a real stomach turner.

*Blergh*

The sour smell of puke adds to this floor’s scent.

Meanwhile, Squirrel has buried her head into my chest, probably to neither see nor smell.

The smells come from a large amount of goblins that lay dead or dying on the floor…and they do not look pretty in the slightest

*Gulp*

Other goblins, healthy ones, are putting a chunky black substance on the wounds…eugh.

Also I hear some cheering mixed in with the song now…what is going on upstairs?

*Tak tak tak tak Thump…duf duf duf duf Thump*

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*BLARGH*

I hear the sounds of someone vomiting behind us…well vomiting again that is.

*Gulp*

The acidic taste is pushed down my throat…lucky I have had a lot of practice in this in my lifetime…

Though life hasn’t quite prepared me to see a goblin head with one eye missing and multiple claw marks over its face rolling down the stairs followed by its body…

I wipe off a trickle of vomit that I couldn’t hold down and notice that suddenly the sour scent of vomit got really pungent.

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Ah.

I lightly pat Tikari on the head as I take my bloody shirt to clean bits from her mouth…jeez this takes me back…

Ignoring her deep blushing of shame, I quickly wipe myself down with the bloody and vomit crusted shirt which does little but it’s good enough to wipe away the majority of the vomit.

I pick her up and hold her in a princess carry…last thing she needs is to actually see the surroundings.

I hurriedly get the captain goblin to lead us up the stairs.

At least the smell lessens to barely noticeable…but the scent of vomit remains pungent as we reach the Battle floor.

The sounds of ‘singing’ and cheers get much louder on this floor and sure enough; there’s goblins fighting.

Goblins are fighting in small spectator-formed rings. Though when I say fighting…it kind of reminds me what I did to the night wolves

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It’s a lot more brutal when you’re just watching…

From the thousands of goblins here, I can spot hundreds of duels happening with nothing but loincloths making the battles a lot more bloody…damn those claws.

Actually…

I look at my hands but they don’t have any claws…well I did get rid of them on the character creation…maybe I should suicide and get them because…Jesus those claws are nasty effective.

The screams of a gutted goblin permeates the air…as I said Jesus those claws are nasty effective…

Another goblin just got their throat ripped spattering blood over a roaring crowd of almost identical goblins…

At least no one puked upon seeing this…but this may be because they’ve already puked out their guts…

Anyways, better get moving since I don’t think Tikari can last longer with the smell and the noise...

Giving a little push to the captain goblin, he turns and gives me a nod.

“OY FELLA’S JOAT OVER HERE WANTS TO HAVE A GO” he points to me

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What? Wait a second…no! That’s not what I meant…

I feel thousands of goblins’ expectant faces turn my way

*Sigh*

“Sure…” I let Tikari down and have her help take off my leather armor…which she does guiltily…ah…guess it will take her a while to get over that…

After a few minutes, the armor is off and I’m down to my grey boxers.

Ah at least the stench of vomit is less now.

While I was getting my armor undone, the goblins picked out who would fight me and then made a giant circle. How they did it, is answered with the small mass of bodies being chucked down the stairs…

Time to murder a goblin because of peer-pressure…

The goblins let me through as I walk, and soon I’m in the ring…facing a small, average goblin.

NAME:Goblin [lvl5] (elite variant)Health:30/30Attack:10-10Defense:0

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Well this won’t even be fun…

I walk up to the goblin and as everyone cheers, he jumps towards me with a battle cry.

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*Drip Drip*

Congratulations! Through repetition you have gained a new skill: Catch

SKILL:Catch, Beginner [lvl1] (Active)Catching is seen by many as a simple feat, but in reality it may be an insurmountable wall to some-1% chance for caught things to slip from your hands

Agility bonus: n/a

Dexterity bonus: n/aCost: None, Duration: Instantaneous, Cooldown: None

xp increases by 5%

The only sound that could be heard in that room is the dripping of blood and brain matter from his head…

Wohoo! I was wondering when I'd finally somehow get that skill!

“Thanks for the warmup...so where’s the main thing?” I grin wildly towards the crowd and drop the corpse on the floor…I just got a skill! I’m ecstatic!

Thousands of goblins dropping into a seiza position makes quite the sound

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Wait what?

I stay pretty much dumfounded about the thousands bowing down silently…and everyone else is too…

“We shall follow you, Lord”

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Eh?

CLASS QUEST UPDATE:The TrialThe goblins who live in the Warrior's Cave are those who determine right to rule by Strength. By showing them overwhelming strength they have decided to back your claim to Olden Caves.3,248 Goblins have joined your cause

2.44% of the Clan is backing your claim

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WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATT???