18.1 ᴘᴀᴛʀᴇᴏɴ.ᴄᴏᴍ/sᴛʀᴀᴛᴏᴛʜʀᴀx

Opal yelped as the HobGoblin smacked her to the ground. Her gold necklace was in one of his fists and her cutlass was at his hip.

"Why are you doing this? Why help the levelers?" said Opal rubbing her cheek.

The HobGoblin shrugged. "It's a life. That us Gobbos are shit to each other makes it easy."

"We can escape, rise up, get freedom."

The HobGoblin picked his nose. "Nah. I'm here cause I get paid. How do you think these clueless adventurers even find Gobbo tribes." He jabbed a thumb into his chest, still picking his nose.

"But they see you as nothing! Just experience for levels!"

"A Hob like me ain't worth shit in experience to those high levelers. I got more value than that as a guide and tracker. Economics innit."

Opal sighed, disappointed that he wasn't going to be persuaded. Not that she expected him to be, if he were then the other enslaved Goblins would have escaped by now.

The levelers that the HobGoblin served were busy packing up, the Elf had decided he didn't want to sleep with Rain nearby. Opal considered that a wise move.

Already the Goblins and Kobolds were being shuffled into a line by the Hob, each chained to the next slave in line. Opal was near the end, a chain connected to her collar. The Elf flew around the camp keeping a lookout as the Orc and Eliza packed the last of their stuff away. It all fit in an overly large duffel bag which the Orc swung over one shoulder. Opal eyed her bulging biceps, the Orc really was astonishingly strong. She would need to be killed in her sleep if they were to have a chance.

The procession of slaves set out with the Orc at the head with a chain in the same fist that gripped her hammer. She tugged on it and the row of two dozen slaves stumbled into motion.

"I still think you're overblowing things," grumbled the orc.

"Yes I agree, what on earth did you see that spooked you enough to want to decamp?" said Eliza.

"It's just risk management. You see a monster you've never seen nor heard of before and it's covered from tip to toe in blood, enough blood that it didn't come from one creature alone, well, you get the fuck out of town."

"That does sound worrying."

"Pshaw. It's just some monster. I could break it like a toy."

The Elf drifted by in the air, his posture as though he were on an invisible couch with his ankle rocking on one knee and his hands behind his head.

"I do wish you would learn from our peers' frequent premature demise Ola. There is a reason that we are still going when so many quite respectable slavers have perished."

"Yeah, it's because I'm strong as fuck."

The Elf covered his face with one hand and shook his head.

"No, my dear Orc. It's because we don't take risks. We don't go after the truly dangerous monsters and we don't push our luck."

Eliza raised her hand. "But aren't the dangerous monsters more valuable?"

"Yeah, what she said. Who's to say that black furred fucker wasn't worth a million gold?"

"Let me put it this way. The slaver that goes after the truly dangerous monsters dies within a year. The slaver that goes after the less dangerous monsters, but doesn't make as much, lives, and over time they come to own a fortune multiple times the size the risk taker ever had. It's all about playing the long game. Economics."

The Orc grumbled but didn't protest, irritably pulling on the slaves' chain as they left the goat head cavern.

They soon came to the base of a great stair that led between floors of the dungeon. A massive thing made by some unknown civilization eons ago, forty feet wide, with two or three hundred steps going upward and vanishing into the dark, and this was just one floor.

"Right you Goblin and Kobold fucks, try to keep your feet in order. If one of you falls make sure you catch them. Last time we led slaves out of here they all fell down like dominoes after the one at the front slipped over. I dragged the lot of them to the top on their asses. Two of them died on the way. You've been warned."

The slaves looking nervous formed into a relatively straight line behind the Orc as she took to the stairs. They followed meekly after her.

Opal eyed the surroundings and wasn't surprised to see a dark shadow disappear behind a rock. They had a stalker.