Goblin Cave

[Elijah's POV]

<<January 16, 2023>>

<<Manila, Philippines>>

"I'll be taking the lead on this expedition," I told William, as I sent a quick message to both Shelly and Benjamin, about me joining the current expedition.

And not long after I sent the message, my phone started to ring from an incoming call. Answering the call without looking at who it is, my ear was greeted by a loud but manly voice.

"What do you mean you're going?!" Benjamin's loud voice came through from the other side.

"You made me your advisor, right?" I asked him, keeping my voice calm and collected.

"Yes, but-"

"Then my first advice for you is to put your trust in me. I wouldn't be going if I don't have a plan." I told him with a serious tone.

Letting out a sigh, I could picture Benjamin currently massaging his temples at that moment.

"If you're so insistent in going; then can you pass the phone to Will for a sec?" Benjamin said.

"Sure, thing," I told him before passing the phone over to William.

The brothers' conversation was brief, but if one can guess, then Benjamin must have told his brother to let me take the lead for this expedition. Once they were finished, William handed me back my phone, with a grateful nod.

"Alright, I trust you," Benjamin said, the moment I put my phone back onto my ear.

"Thank you. And I promise not to disappoint that trust," I told him sincerely.

"Just get back safe, okay? I don't want to find another advisor when I just found one," Benjamin said, it was obvious that he's currently under great stress. I know that Benjamin's deeply worried for his brother and everyone in the expedition, but since he has more important things to do at the moment, he couldn't join the expedition, even if he badly wanted to. And I'm 100% certain that he will go if he could.

"Alright," I promised him, before hanging up.

And with that, Jonathan and I joined in on the emergency expedition, that I would like to call: "Operation: Wipe out the green roaches!"

Once everyone was geared up, we swiftly moved to the SUVs parked outside the association. In one SUV, William sat on the driver's seat, while Zehira sat on the front passenger seat. At the back, sat Jonathan and me. The rest of the legion members are on the other two SUVs right behind ours.

The whole ride was spent in silence. The atmosphere was tense, but Jonathan didn't seem to be bothered, one bit. He looked cool as a cucumber and super relaxed. When he noticed me staring at him in wonder, a soft smile appeared on his face, before giving me a swift peck on the lips, this time. After that, he just proceeded to hold my hand and continued looking out the window.

Letting out a helpless sigh, I couldn't help but chuckle at Jonathan's adorable gestures. But what Jonathan didn't know, was that he really helped me calm down and relax. Reminding me that I don't have to worry when he is with me.

Looking forward, I noticed that Zehira has witnessed our whole exchange from the front rearview mirror when she sent me a knowing smile. I then responded by giving her a pointed look, that states "Girl, you've also done that with William," which made her blush beat red. What? Do you think I don't know? Those two are hella obvious.

The gate is located at Clark, Pampanga, so we needed to travel about an hour or so, through the expressway. While we make our way, with the help of the diary, I proceeded to do some reading on the Goblin Cave. And dude, let me tell you, what's written in the diary is more gruesome than what I could ever imagine. It is the kind of thing that fuels your nightmares. I didn't want to continue reading, but I pushed myself to continue doing so.

I was so focused on what I was reading, that I didn't even notice that we'd arrived at the location of where the gate is until Jonathan told me so. After everyone has disembarked, the first legion gathered into a clean formation, with William, me, and Jonathan standing at the front.

Facing everyone in the legion, I then spoke with a loud voice, "The moment we enter this gate, look after one another. Always proceed with caution, and please follow my every order without fail. Our goal tonight is to not just prevent the gate from breaking but to completely subjugate it."

Hearing what I said, it's obvious that there would be a lot of doubtful expressions directed towards me. But then William spoke.

"Trust in 'The Nurturer' just as you have previously placed your trust in him. If we do so, then I'm confident that we will come out of this victorious, just as we came out victorious from the abnormal break." William encouraged his legion, which was more than effective. One word from him, and the legion immediately changed their stance, on the whole clearing the gate thing, into a much positive one. Seeing that everyone is ready and is buzzing with excited anticipation, I gave told them one last thing before we enter.

"Once we go in, every single one of us comes out alive. AM I CLEAR?!"

"Sir, Yes Sir!" The legion responded in unity.

"Then, first legion, FORWARD!" And with that, one by one we entered the gate, full of vigor and resolve.

The moment we entered the gate, we were immediately transported inside a very spacious and large cave. While the horrible stench in the air immediately invaded my nostrils, making my stomach revolt. The smell was so horrible that I felt like my nose was burning.

As we began to regroup our thoughts and ourselves, a horde of those greened-skinned midgets started charging at us with bloodshot eyes. As the legion prepared to charged forwards, I held up a hand to stop them.

"All of you guys conserve your energy, Jonathan can handle this much by himself," I said, before giving Jonathan a nod of encouragement.

Again, Jonathan planted a kiss on my cheeks, before stepping forward, causing everyone in the legion to snicker.

"Endrance!" Jonathan called out, summoning his soul sword. As Endrance martialized, everything Jonathan wore also changed. Powerful aura swirled around Jonathan, looking like wisps of smoke or vindictive souls. It was eerie but at the same time entrancing.

The moment Jonathan's fully equipped, he charged forward with a deadly speed, leaving only pain and carnage on his path. Jonathan became like a deadly storm as he whipped and slashed goblins left and right. With his skills combined with my skills, he was an unstoppable force. It didn't take long before the horde of goblins were reduced to shreds, which surprised everyone, including me.

Once Jonathan was done with the goblins, he then walked back to our group, looking extremely cool and deadly.

"Good job," I said proudly, as I patted his hair affectionally, to which Jonathan responded by giving me a beaming smile.

But it's too early to celebrate. We haven't even really entered the cave yet and we're already being attacked. Thankfully, as it was written in the diary, we managed to take care of the greeting party, without wasting too much energy. Now, we just have to keep going without making a single mistake.

Unfortunately, this expedition was sudden. If it weren't, we would have been able to hire professional porters to gather the loots that are scattered around. Although it breaks my heart that we couldn't really gather all the possible loots that we could have, clearing this gate is our main priority.

"Since our inventories have limited spaces, only take what's valuable," I instructed, to which everyone complied. Everyone carefully started looking over the dead goblins' bodies, to see if there are anything of value to take, but alas there were none. Since this is only the start, I believe that the treasures will start showing up sooner or later, since this is an uncleared gate. And a gate that hasn't been cleared for a very long time, at that.

As we continued moving forward, I asked Jonathan if he could show me his stats, which he immediately did without question.

[Status Window

Name: Jonathan Nightingale

Level: 30

Class: Soul Sword <<Mythic>>

Title: The Duke's First-Ever Vassal | The Vassal That Never Gives Up

HP: 2275/1025 (+1250)

Mana: 2550/50 (+2500)

Stats:

STR: (-)(5) + 250 | AGI: (-)(5) + 250 | INT: (-)(5) + 250 | VIT: (-)(5) + 250 | DEX: (-)(5) + 250 | LUCK: (-)(5) + 250

Available Stat Points: 0]

My eyes widen when I saw how his stats has grown so much after just two sets of training lists. Given, those training lists were spartan level at the very least. And when I checked my bond level with him, I saw that it has also gone up by two levels.

[- A Duke's bond (Passive)

The deeper the bond you have with your vassals, the more trust, respect, and admiration they have for you.

Increasing your bond with a vassal will further enhance the strength and power that they have.

Vassals:

> Jonathan (Lvl:7) - 641/700

Vassal Bonus stat points: +100 HP | +100 Mana | +10 Physical Attack | +10 Magical Attack | +10% Movement Speed | +10% Crit chance | +10% Crit damage

Vassal Bonus skill: None]

Seeing this growth, my confidence level in us being able to clear this gate is slowly going up. But of course, I'm keeping my feet on the ground. I don't want to be overly confident, to the point of being arrogant and cocky. You can never know what can happen at every turn.

So as our group went deeper into the cave, we went by rotations in dealing with the horde of lesser goblins charging at us. This way, everybody is moving at the same time, have time to conserve their energies for when we really need them. And I wasn't wrong as well. The deeper in the cave we go, the more valuable loots started showing up. Things like mana stones and even crystals started showing up.

Being inside a gate can make one easily lose track of time. Thankfully, I always have my watch with me, where ever I go. It's already been an hour after we entered the gate, and we still haven't seen any monsters besides the lesser goblins. It felt like the cave was endless, same with the number of lesser goblins coming at us.

After taking care of one more horde of lesser goblins, we finally saw a change in the terrain. The path split into two, and according to the diary, if the left path leads to the boss room, then the right path leads to... Just thinking about it, bile started rising from my throat.

Although I just want everything to be over with, if the diary is accurate, then there are lives that still needed to be saved. I told the group that we'll be going to take the right path first, after a few minutes of rest. As we were walking down the path, it was strange, since no horde of goblins came at us like before, but the number of traps laying everywhere increased tenfold. It was so dangerous as traps after traps lay in every nook and cranny.

But thankfully we have Roderick and Chen, being a Wraith and Phantom Edge, respectively. They could locate and disarm the traps laid before us with their skills. Roderick used his skill <<Shadow Step>>, which are Wraith's bread and butter. The skill allows the caster to turn oneself into a living Wraith for a period of time, making them 100% invulnerable to physical attacks. Not only that, they have the ability to float into the air and their movement speed sharply increases, like the ghosts that they are. They can also make their bodies incorporeal, making them pass or walk through any form of matter. On the other hand, Chen used his skill <<Phantom Sight>>. Basically, his eyes turn into an x-ray vision, giving him the ability to locate every trap in our path. With Chen's ability to locate traps, Roderick took the job of disarming them.

We took our time and didn't rush, knowing that a single mistake can cost us our lives. It didn't matter how long we would take, as long as we proceed with extreme caution. Slowly but surely, we were finally able to see another opening nearing us, after about an hour or so. Quietly, we passed through the opening which led us to a very large cavern, brightly lit with torches. The ceiling was high and there hang a poorly made chandelier out of torches and bones. We were careful to hide our presence, not wanting to attract unwanted attention towards us, as we press forward.

But when we finally saw what was in the cavern, it was like a nightmare came to life.