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6.30 - The Search Begins

When Natalie and Ana joined their three teammates down in the inn's lobby, Liz immediately blushed, giving away that Jordan had filled them in on what had been happening. The reason for the delay.

Now that Natalie thought about it, Liz had probably

felt

when [Divine Invigoration] had changed targets. A person could sense when they gained or lost stats, often quite clearly—much less a boost as big as the one Liz had been accustoming herself to. That must have been, uh, an interesting realization. Liz had basically been alerted to the exact second Natalie had finished inside Ana.

"You're wearing a different shirt, Ana," Jordan said innocently. "What happened?"

Ana paused, obviously taking the question literally. She opened her mouth to answer, but Natalie interrupted.

"Alright. We have a meeting with the Baron, right?" She tried to play off how flustered she was, but she probably didn't do a good job.

Jordan smirked at her, but thankfully chose not to press. "Just a routine thing," she said. "Probably thanking us for yesterday."

Thanking them for yesterday. At that phrasing, the event with Alaina flashed into her head. Her accidental late-night intrusion, the Baron's daughter having come upstairs to

also

thank her.

Should Natalie tell them about that?

Nah. Why would she? It'd just been an awkward mishap. She

would

still be keeping her promise; she wouldn't fuck the Baron's daughter.

"Which is a bit tedious," Sofia said. "There's obviously no need to be

thanked

. And the mission hasn't changed. There's no new information." She sighed. "It's definitely because Liz is on our party, so he feels obligated to."

"Sorry?" Liz offered timidly. "It's annoying to me too."

"Not your fault, of course," Sofia said. "Let's go and get it over with so we can head out and start our search." She wrinkled her nose. "Might take all day, or longer. The sooner the better."

Natalie nodded in agreement. "And by the way," she said, "I've got some stuff to talk about, while we're walking around." There would be plenty of opportunity while roaming the Duskwood fruitlessly searching for the goblin nest to chat, so she'd save it until then. "Me and Malice discussed some things."

"Oh?" Jordan said. "Important topics?" Her eyebrows went up. "Things only

she

knows about?"

"Yeah. That stuff."

"Interesting," Ana said. "Let's hurry, then. I want to know."

***

After a brief visit with the Baron, which indeed provided no new information and was rather a pointless waste of time filled with frivolous politeness, their party of five returned to the inn, got dressed into their adventuring gear, and headed out to begin the hunt for the goblin nest.

The same enchanted carriage carried them outside the city's limits and a bit past, down a less-maintained branch where the bumpy dirt had the cart rattling around like it would fall apart. The swift convenience lasted until the edge of a thick forest: the Duskwood.

Varten, the [Tracker], had created a map for their team, identifying the portion of the forest he had narrowed his search to. He had needed to leave at a certain point, the danger growing too prominent. An armored, combat-ready squad would need to crawl around to close the search off. Them.

Assuming Varten's preliminary work was accurate, and she

did

assume that, since the man was a level six [Tracker] who had the Baron's trust, then they weren't in for all too tedious of a mission. Though definitely

somewhat

tedious

.

Trudging through a forest for hours on end looking for a goblin nest wasn't anyone's favorite way to spend an evening, least of all Natalie's.

Even with the amount of the Duskwood they needed to look through narrowed significantly, the search space of 'a section of the forest' was still a decently large area. And unlike the dungeon, there weren't frequent combat encounters to spice things up. Just plodding along with a compass, a map, and trees all around them.

Naturally, they filled the time talking amongst themselves. There was an argument to be made for total stealth, but a goblin nest, especially a larger one, would be immediately noticeable. And any goblins who spotted them would likely charge on sight, not retreat to warn the others. They were mindless, evil creatures, stupider than even many dungeon monsters. So stealth wasn't

all

that important.

For the first topic of conversation, Natalie filled the others in on what she had learned from Malice. Like her, they were understandably dumbfounded by what the wolfgirl had revealed—or, Natalie supposed, what the wolfgirl

guessed

. That the seven passions weren't ever supposed to have awoken, having been

dead

, and now that they had, were likely in conflict with the dungeon. Possibly wanting revenge.

"But why isn't the dungeon trying to kill us, then?" Jordan asked. "If your patron is its enemy, shouldn't it be doing its best to stomp us out? Before we become a threat?"

"How could we

possibly

be a threat to

the dungeon?"

Sofia asked incredulously. "At any level, patron or not?"

"How would I know?" Jordan said. "I'm just saying. If those two entities are, in fact, enemies, then wouldn't the dungeon want to get rid of us? So far, the dungeon has been—well, kind of nice to us. I'd say our opportunities for progression have been better than most teams."

"That might be Lust's doing, not the dungeon's."

"She can affect its encounters?"

"Maybe. At a minimum, she

did

give us Malice's capture core. And we know the dungeon didn't like

that."

The group paused, then shivered, remembering that frantic life-or-death scramble for the surface. Malice seemed to think its temper would have cooled by the time they went on their next delve, and indeed, the dungeon had already been easing up even before they'd escaped. But Natalie wondered whether there would still be some lingering animosity. The dungeon had made it abundantly clear it didn't want them to take the wolfgirl—a 'prized possession', as Malice had called herself—and yet they had anyway.

"She also doesn't have any proof," Jordan pointed out. "So we can't take what she says as fact. But the reasoning

does

have merit. If the Reverie says the Passions were enslaved to power the dungeon, then, if they were somehow breaking free, they would definitely want to destroy their prison to

fully

escape, right? And that prison is the dungeon."

"This is way above our pay grade," Natalie groaned. "But either Lust can control how the dungeon manifests and even

stop

it from attacking us, or the dungeon is friendly

despite

Lust being hostile toward it. Or something else is going on."

"It could just be its nature," Jordan said. "We might not want to think of them as having

people

motivations. The dungeon might

always

provide fair encounters to its delvers, so long as those delvers

themselves

haven't done anything to it. Allegiances irrelevant. For that matter, who knows if the dungeon even

cares

if it dies?"

"If we don't assume some level of non-alien intelligence, then we can't make any guesses about anything. Logic wouldn't hold at all."

"Fair," Jordan said, rubbing her forehead. "Doesn't make what I said wrong though."

"Focus on the practical," Sofia said. "Until Lust shows her hand on

why

she's given Natalie the skills she has, or until the dungeon shows hostility toward us, we just proceed as normal." She shrugged. "What else is there to do?"

True enough.

"Besides," Jordan said. "It always comes back to the same thing. What's a level three gonna do in a battle between gods? We just have to keep getting stronger."

6.31 - Ambush I

They quieted down after those initial discussions, since while this might not be a stealth mission, it

was

preferable to approach the search as inconspicuously as possible. She also pulled out Malice to join them. She hadn't earlier because she had wanted to talk freely, perhaps even about Malice herself—since she

was

an agent of the dungeon, captured or not. While Natalie didn't distrust her for that, she did need to acknowledge reality. And they needed to be able to talk about the possibility of Malice being incorrect without offending the girl. Who did, admittedly, seem like she would be easy to offend.

The Duskwood was navigable, as far as forests went. Neither the thickest and most treacherous of woods nor particularly spacious and flat. They trudged through at a decent pace, taking note of distinct features, of which Varten had marked many with great detail on the map he'd provided them.

Before long, they arrived at the subsection of the forest Varten had feared to explore by himself—the dangerous portion, and not just because of the goblins' presence. The remote, untamed places of Valhaur, or any country, held all manners of creatures and beasts that could be a threat even to combat-classed individuals. Modern age or not, the world was far from conquered.

About two hours into their search, they ran into trouble.

The most shocking part was that it was unannounced—an ambush. Or, an ambush by goblin standards. They weren't the most subtle of creatures. But one moment their party was walking through the forest, and the next something

thumped

into Natalie's upper arm. She faltered on her next step, attention flicking down to see, incredulously, that an

arrow

was sticking out of her.

Surprising as such a realization was, it took even the battle-hardened group of six a fraction of a second to understand. Natalie stared dumbly at the black-feathered shaft of wood, eyes wandering down to where the arrowhead was invisible inside her flesh. Another projectile whistled past, missing her.

Jordan staggered backward as an arrow hit her square in the skull. The projectile shattered and slammed to the ground, repelled, but Jordan reared back, a hand shooting up to grab at her head. Her HP had saved her, rejecting the attack entirely—since an arrow through the skull would've meant death. But where Natalie had an arrow sticking out of her arm, and Jordan only had a trickle of blood seeping between the fingers held to her forehead, the HP cost had been significantly more severe on Jordan. She might even be briefly out of the fight. Certainly, she was dazed.

Natalie snapped out of her shock and confusion just as the screaming of goblins began. The squat, foul creatures streamed out from between the trees, as if from nowhere; she almost didn't understand where they'd come from, especially so many. Had they been lying in wait?

She pushed her baffled confusion to the side. Ignoring the pain, she pulled the arrow off her arm and tossed it to the side; she couldn't afford the metal grinding up the muscles in her arm, messing up her attacks. On cue, Liz's empowering spell, along with a heal, washed through her even as she hefted [Valentine] into the air. Not by intention, she let out her own scream of adrenaline, rushing forward toward the group of goblins to draw as much attention as she could.

As she ran, she took note of the battlefield.

Opponents and allies—allies first.

Malice followed behind her, the martial artist eager as always to get up close and personal, probably more so than Natalie herself. A glance over her shoulder showed Sofia staying back to hover around Liz and Ana, guarding them against the incoming swarm, the enemies Natalie wouldn't be able to occupy since there were so many of them.

Jordan was gone; Natalie had to scan left and right, eyes flicking around wildly in concern and confusion before she finally caught a glimpse of the girl sneaking forward, surprisingly far from the fray. Setting up for a flank, as a rogue tended to. Natalie was glad she'd brushed off the surprise arrow, though probably with the help of a heal from Liz. Her HP probably wasn't in a great position now. Another fatal attack could mean bad business for her. Natalie had to force herself to squash down that worry. One of the downsides of delving and adventuring with friends.

Then the enemies.

There were about fifteen of them. Maybe more, enough to make it hard to count. The squat, wrinkly, green-skinned creatures wore rags and weapons of mottled arrangements. The sight wasn't any different from the encounter at the farmstead.

Except for one. The largest of the goblins, standing a foot taller than the rest, coming up nearly to Natalie's chest, was an image that briefly seized her with shock, almost making her stumble a step in her charge. Not because of his size and muscled stature, an unusually powerful physique for a goblin, which were normally wiry, jagged things full of thin muscles stretched across crooked unnatural frames, but rather, another distinguishing feature.

The glowing golden veins running all across his body.

[Goblin Raid Leader - Lv. 3]

Just level three. There had been some of those back at the farmstead, too. In fact, there were fewer total opponents here than the previous fight, which they'd been fine in.

Yet Natalie had a bad feeling about this. Or in particular,

that

goblin. What were those? The vibrant golden lines snaking across his body, bulging across his muscles? They looked like veins, but why were they gold?

And where all the other goblins were screaming and rushing, the distance between Natalie and them vanishing, the Raid Leader held a bow at the ready, an arrow with a black feather nocked—pointed toward her. He released, and Natalie sidestepped, the arrow whistling by.

He had daggers sheathed at his hip. A rogue of some type. A calm expression was on his face. Tense but analyzing as he pulled another arrow from his quiver and nocked it.

Watching Natalie come. Ready for her. Intelligent. Without a doubt less mindless than these other creatures ... almost not a goblin at all, by the keenness in his eyes.

She

definitely

had a bad feeling about this.

Then again, another part of her was thinking—

It was about time she got a good fight.

6.32 - Ambush II

Natalie met the oncoming wave of smaller goblins. Her hammer swept forward in a prepared arc, purposefully aiming for the lowest level of the front-line enemies—she wanted to thin their numbers, since a number advantage could be prohibitively difficult to deal with, even when composed of weak opponents. Knives in the back hurt no matter what level, and such critical strikes became exponentially easier when surrounded.

The attack landed true. The giant metal head of [Valentine] crushed into the goblin and practically sent it flying; the monster careened through the air at least fifteen feet before slamming hard into a tree trunk. It would've been a comical sight if not for the crunching of bone and splatter of blood. Natalie enjoyed fighting, but more for the thrill of demonstrating her skill, the rush of adrenaline—not the gruesome reality of killing.

Except she took

some

satisfaction, here. Each goblin exterminated was possibly a person's life saved. And certainly, her stomach didn't turn at drawing blood. She was well over that, even for less objectively disgusting monsters than goblins.

About six of her enemies focused on her, attentions drawn by her charge. The rest streamed past, and there wasn't anything she could do about that. In fact, engaging so many of their attentions at all was thanks to [Forcible Allure], her erotite armor's set bonus: a mild persistent taunting effect. That ability

was

why she was all but forced into the gear, seeing how she was lacking a class-based taunt.

The other portion of the creatures screamed toward the subgroup of three behind her, but Natalie trusted Sofia could handle their defense.

Or Ana, maybe, Natalie quickly revised. Because just as she swung her hammer a second time, three giant pillars of inky shadow rose from the earth in ominous tendrils. Natalie's eyes widened. They were thick, void-like, and

definitely

much larger than they had ever been before. The buff she had put on Ana had clearly been effective.

The appendages lashed out like whips, smacking into goblin after goblin, sending them flying. Not killing them outright, but throwing them several feet, leaving red gouges across their skin, and even knocking weapons out of their hands. And fast, too. As quick as Jordan. Over and over, the tendrils struck at anything nearby, all but bringing the initial charge to a halt as Ana repelled the force by herself. But that only lasted a few seconds before the tendrils ran out of magical energy and dissipated.

Heavens. She had known an [Empowered] [Divine Invigoration] would upgrade Ana's offensive power, but by that much? It said

massive

in the ability description, but it was still shocking to see. Natalie guessed she hadn't fully appreciated the ability because it had been put onto their healer, at first. And since they hadn't needed many heals in their first fight, Liz hadn't been able to flex. An offensive mage could, though.

All of that flicked through the background of Natalie's thoughts. She was, of course, focused on her own fight above all else. The six goblins she'd attracted the attention of quickly surrounded her. Natalie swung her hammer in wide arcs, advancing forward toward the bow-wielding goblin, though he obviously just retreated, continuing to release arrows at her. She wouldn't be able to get to him until she dealt with the pests nipping at her heels.

Unfortunately, the nasty things were quick and vicious. Definitely not opponents she could ignore. Landing solid blows on them was harder than it looked, especially when she had to do her best to dance away from them at the same time. She couldn't let herself get truly surrounded, else they would slam a dagger into her back.

She used her momentum to her advantage, a cyclone of heavy steel even these mindless creatures knew to fear. That cat-and-mouse game continued before her hammer finally caught one, killing it instantly. An arrow slammed into her shoulder in response, having had to overextend to land the attack. She grunted and ignored it; Liz's buff helped, as did the adrenaline.

Glancing toward her ally, Natalie saw Malice snap the neck of the goblin she had been engaging, and the wolfgirl immediately charged for the bow-wielding Raid Leader—knowing her, as much to ease Natalie's burden as wanting to get a taste of his strength.

No longer having to worry about dodging arrows

and

six—now five—enemy blades, she made quick work of the miniature swarm. [Valentine] slammed into a skull, her boot met a chest to crack bones, and she even dropped her hammer briefly to catch another off guard, smashing a face in with an elbow before quickly picking her weapon back up.

And so, with the last dying, or at least temporarily disabled, she was free to make her next move. She threw a look over her shoulder. Black energy writhed around her three teammates, slashing into the five goblins remaining, Sofia dancing between their attacks. Meanwhile, a glance forward showed Malice and Jordan fighting the golden-veined goblin.

Of the two sub-fights, one looked a lot worse than the other. Natalie watched in horrified amazement as the Raid Leader

caught

Malice's forward jab, then twisted her arm. The wolfgirl screamed, but that noise was quickly cut off by a headbutt delivered into Malice's skull. Malice went staggering backward before falling over, dazed. Jordan tried to sneak in an attack even as that was happening, but the tall goblin ducked, preternaturally sensing Jordan's knife, which had been aimed for his spine. The blade plunged uselessly into the air. Worse, he followed up with a sweep of his legs, and Jordan also slammed into the ground.