*Time remaining: 0:00:05 … 04 …03 … 02 … 01


    Quest failed!


    You have failed to escape the goblin mines in time.


    You have failed to unlock the feature safe zones.


    Safe zones have been disabled until the end of the tutorial.


    Safe what? Who cares? I feel safe here, and there is still a lot of food left. Why should I hurry?


    I found their village. Well, a bunch of dry, holed-out mushrooms they use to sleep in. They are really careless there. Believing themselves safe because of their numbers. But their guards are a joke. Entranced playing with dice instead of keeping an eye on the dark tunnels.


    Goblins bumble around all over the place. Laughing and fighting, smoking some of those pale sharks over stinky campfires. The dried mushrooms they use as fuel don′t burn very well. It releases more smoke than anything, drowning the cave in grey-blue clouds. They may well knock themselves out.


    A bigger goblin comes running, gesticulating at the fire and admonishing the cooks. They duck down sheepishly. The big goblin points at the mushroom with his finger. Bright flames erupt, banishing the clouds. I blink. That was unexpected. What kind of goblin is he?


    *Goblin shaman Lvl ???


    A mage? Do those goblins have mages? My fingers twitch. Calm down and stay hidden. Wait for them to go to sleep.


    They don′t go to sleep? Well, they do, but they sleep in turns or whenever some of them feel like it. The day and night cycle means nothing down here. I grumble. I am still forced to ambush them when they patrol those tunnels. They don′t take chances anymore. They have increased the strength of their groups to ten men when they move out now. They seem a bit slower than before, or maybe I have become faster now that I′m not starved. But still, ten are too much to confront them head-on. My eyes wander to the rough fishing line they use to catch those sharks. I could use that.


    I wait. I wait and wait. I am tired of waiting.


    I throw a pebble at the back of the head of one of the goblins walking down the street. He whirls around and punches the goblin behind him in the face. The other goblin growls, and then he hits back. They start hitting each other. More goblins are attracted by the commotion, like moths to a flame. I sneak towards the now lonely goblin, still sitting by the lake. My sword thrust enters cleanly through his back, coming out slick and smelling like the heavens. Concentrate. I catch his fallen fishing pole and disappear again.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    The dark and high ceilings of the chamber where they kept their prisoner are my first hiding spot. I take off the hook of the end of the line and knot it together into a self-closing sliding knot. The line seems very resistant. It has to be, or those sharks would rip it apart every time.


    I wait above the entrance until a patrol passes below me. They pause, taking in the scene. There are dead bodies painted in blood everywhere they look. They start to gutter in a strange language, waving their swords and spears around. I let my line fall, slowly, around the throat of the last one of them. He catches it and looks up, confused, trying to pierce the darkness. Then I pull. His unborn cry dies in his throat. It is fishing time.


    Three goblins later, they finally realize that they are missing people. Froglike eyes dart around, afraid of the shadows. Their chatter grows louder, more frantic. Then they run back up the tunnel they came from.


    I sit back, languidly sipping on the veins of a throat. This is becoming boring. I should have left some of those miners alive to keep me company, maybe that pretty girl. She was a mage, sadly, and I think mentally handicapped too.


    There will be no truce for sorcerers, witches, or magicians. Pretty and bewitching or not. I need to kill all those traitorous bastards. Maybe I could search for the exit and leave this cave. Explore what is out there. Find a city, read a book, get laid. Yeah! But there is still that goblin shaman. I need to kill him first. And the bastard doesn′t leave his village. So, I still need to whittle their numbers down one by one.


    Heavy steps thunder down the tunnel, echoing closer. A big brute of a goblin appears, carrying a tree trunk over the shoulder like a mace. Then another and another.


    *Hobgoblin Lvl ???


    …


    Goblin Shaman Lvl ???


    Goblin Shaman Lvl ???


    Hobgoblin Lvl ???


    Hobgoblin Lvl ???


    Goblin scout Lvl ???


    Goblin Chieftain Lvl ???


    Hobgoblin Lvl ???


    …


    Hobgoblin Lvl ???


    If those hobgoblins are like grown men, the chieftain is a giant. He carries a long metal pole that I don′t think I could lift. I shouldn′t mess around with this group. Let the shadows hide me. I cover up here on a ledge between two broken and refused stalactites. The scout sniffs around, but the corpses have started to rot, and their stench overshadows everything. I wait in hiding. The chieftain orders his lackeys around. Goblins poke their spears into every corner. A frightened bunch wanders reluctantly down another tunnel on the opposite side of the cave. It seems to scare them, but their chieftain scares them more. I smile. He scares them more for now.


    Another group shoves one of the empty cages close to the entrance. They wait for the explorers to return, then plug the cage into the gap and start to fill it with stones. Good try, but that isn′t going to help you.