The Arena: A LitRPG, page 58
As they moved deeper into the woods, the terrain became more challenging. Thick underbrush and gnarled tree roots made their progress slow and arduous. Titus couldn't help but think about the countless dangers that lurked in the shadows, and he always kept his sword – and spell – at the ready, but he pushed those thoughts aside, focusing on getting to Henderson as fast as possible.
Hours passed and the trio remained vigilant though still encountering nothing out of the ordinary. Jordan still led the way, his shield and axe at the ready, which he used to hack away thick underbrush while Titus kept a watchful eye on his surroundings, ready to unleash his Mana when needed.
Titus had noticed as they walked the signs of someone else travelling through these parts, as the broken branches and tracks through the dense forest became more apparent. Of course he couldn't tell how fresh the tracks were, but he could only assume they were relatively new, as the broken branches still had living leaves and twigs attached to them.
It was hungry work, and Jordan did his best to pass around berries, leaves, and shoots as he encountered edible items along their path. Lots of the food he'd found was bursting with moisture and water, and that too went a long way to satiating Titus's thirst.
They walked for hours again, and eventually, thankfully something new happened.
Just as the sun began its descent toward the horizon and the tree coverage was elongating the shadows into darkness, Petra's sharp eyes spotted something in the distance. She held up a hand to signal the others to halt and silently pointed ahead. There, partially obscured by the dense foliage, was a faint trail of smoke rising into the sky.
"It's a campfire," Petra whispered. "It might be the hobgoblins."
Jordan nodded, his grip visibly tightening on his shield and his axe. "Let's move closer, but quietly. We need to find out if Henderson is there before we make any noise. Especially if it isn't him."
They advanced cautiously, making their way toward the source of the smoke. As they drew nearer, they could hear voices, low and guttural, interspersed with occasional laughter. The unmistakable sounds of a campfire gathering, but still, none of them could be sure what, or who they were about to come upon.
It took a good few minutes for the group to reach the source of the smoke, and when they did, Titus's heart fell.
Peering through a particularly dense bush at the edge of the fire that belched smoke into the sky, Titus could see that it was indeed a small campsite, but Henderson wasn't there amongst the monsters of Chaos.
What Titus did see, though, was a group of monsters who did not look like they were preparing to fight in a war.
Five hobgoblins at level ten, three level four Goblins, and if he hadn't heard a slight growling, he might've missed the fact that there were also five level six Dire Wolves at the edge of the campsite. After watching the group for a short while, it was clear that the hobgoblins kept the wolves as mounts, and the Goblins were there to act as kind of servants to the hobs.
As Titus watched, one of the goblins moved toward a large iron pot suspended over the fire with a small wooden bowl outstretched. The little goblin made it to within inches of the pot and whatever was cooking inside when one of the hobs stood up as quick as a flash and booted the smaller goblin to the ground.
The other hobs laughed, and the fallen goblin ran away to the far side of the camp holding his behind.
This clearly wasn't the party that had abducted Henderson, or if it was, Titus couldn't see the Contestant with them. He certainly hadn't seen any goblins in the group that had abducted the Warrior.
Jordan tapped Titus on the shoulder and when Titus turned to look at him, the large Defender mimed walking around the camp sneakily, so they didn't have to confront this group.
Titus nodded his agreement, but before he'd even completed the motion, a deep, guttural growl came from one of the Dire Wolves, and Titus's heart froze.
The Hobs all stopped laughing immediately and turned to see what the wolf was looking at, following its gaze to exactly where Titus and his friends remained concealed.
It was like the hobs were looking directly at them as they slowly stalked toward the hiding place with their crude swords drawn. The goblins didn't join their larger cousins though, choosing rather to huddle together, possibly in the hope that their tormentors were about to be killed and they could finally get something to eat.
The bush and undergrowth that concealed Titus and his friends must've been far more effective than they'd thought previously because the hobgoblin at the front of the pack got so close that Titus could have reached out and poked him in the eyes.
He didn't have the chance to do so though, because as the beast's face contorted into an angry snarl, Jordan swung his axe in a devastating upwards arc and buried the blade into the hobgoblin's chin.
Being level ten though, the hob wasn't felled by the strike. Instead, it jerked backwards, wrenched the weapon from its chin, and discarded it onto the ground. Then it raised its sword and dived directly at the bush.
Titus nearly fell over at the sudden action by the hob, but thankfully the creature, although brave, was also not exactly the smartest of the bunch. It was clear after a second or two of the thing thrashing about that it had just got itself stuck in the thick roots and branches that provided Titus and his friends with their cover.
Petra was quick to act, stabbing her Stiletto through the brush in order to nick the hob to poison it before it was returned to its senses by its friends, but they were unfortunately a little smarter than their belligerent kin.
Taking the time to mount their Dire Wolves and skirt around the thicker undergrowth, the four remaining hobs left their friend to fend for himself while they bore down on Titus and his friends from the other side.
Titus saw immediately that they had nowhere to go. They needed to fight their way out of this, but their enemies were much stronger than they were, and there were eight of them all at once, counting their mounts.
The Dire Wolves didn't look like regular beasts though. Their fangs protruded and were coated with a thick red substance. It was like they'd been twisted or warped somehow. And at level ten each, Titus thought they'd make formidable opponents themselves.
They were cornered within a moment, and Titus backed away with his two friends until they couldn't back away any more. The mounted hobs stalked in slowly, obviously enjoying the fact that their prey was helpless before them. Even the one who'd managed to get caught in the bush had managed to right himself and find a mount, joining the others, although his health pool had taken a hit, and he was clearly poisoned by Petra's dagger.
"Now would be a good time to take our Mana," Jordan said out of the corner of his mouth to Titus, who actually hadn't remembered he had a new ability that could very much help in this situation.
He saw that Petra was nodding slowly, and so for the first time in a real situation, Titus drew all of the Mana from both of his friends and added it to his own.
The hobgoblins moved closer and just as they had done before, they stood shoulder to shoulder in a tight formation that would let nothing through.
In fact, that was what Titus wanted.
Only just out of reach now, Titus cast his spell. As he had practised with Ferran Torres and as he had used in the arena already, he charged the fireball with everything that he had. He urged every single drop of Mana within himself to flow into the spell and to end the lives of the hobgoblins before they could do the same to him and his friends.
And then he let the spell go.
The heat that emanated from Titus's hands as he let the forty-eight Mana-strong fireball was extreme. It didn't hurt him or his friends, he could tell, but the sound that the hobgoblins made the moment that the fireball left Titus was so satisfying that it almost made him laugh.
It was like a loud, high-pitched screech, followed by an explosion, and then a sizzling, burning. The air filled with the stench of skin and hair ablaze once again, and when the bright orange-yellow explosion, followed by the black smoke dissipated, Titus looked out to see that where there had been five level ten hobgoblins riding five level ten Dire Wolves a moment ago, now there were ten charred, black corpses motionless on the ground.
And then Titus saw the message fade into his vision, and again he smiled.
You have gained 440 experience points. Congratulations, You have reached Level 5.
Congratulations, You have reached Level 6.
XP to next level: 208.
You have 10 stat points to distribute.
You have 3 Ability points to use.
Skills Available to learn:
None.
Chapter 70 - Deserted
The first thing that Titus noticed was the ever-increasing number of experience points he needed to reach level seven. It wasn’t a surprise, but if things kept going up and up like they were, then before long his kills would start being worth less and less. That was, of course, until he found stronger enemies and maintained risk like he was supposed to.
Time wasn't exactly on their side though, so Titus dumped his points into his safe choices, a couple each for Constitution and Agility, four into Wisdom, and one into each of his two defences. He could then only marvel for a moment at the fact that his health had risen to a useful sixty-five, but his Mana pool had skyrocketed to fifty-three. And that meant that the fireball he'd just used to take down the hobgoblins with the help of his friends’ Mana, he could now do alone.
Before he returned his attention to the real world, Titus noticed that he no longer had the ability to learn ‘Taunt’. He didn’t know if it was normal for abilities to come and go with new levels, but he suspected that by turning it down on more than one occasion, the God of Balance could see that it just wasn’t his style. Again, he could only hope that the other two ‘Resonance’ abilities would come back in time, though he knew he really had no say in any of that. Besides he still hadn’t fully got the hang of his Mana Resonance yet either.
“The goblins!” Petra’s shout brought Titus back to the real world, and no sooner than he had tried to see what she meant, he watched as his friend blinked out of existence for just a moment, and then reappeared behind the three goblins as they tried to make their escape.
They didn’t even fight back. After seeing what the group had done to their masters, the goblins just wanted to run. But Titus knew they couldn’t be allowed to live, not after seeing him and what he could do. Petra showed the goblins no mercy, well, no mercy other than giving them a quick death of course. Blink-stepping behind each of them, she slit their throats quickly and efficiently, which was enough in all three cases to end their lives without much more to say.
You have gained 33 experience points.
XP to the next level: 175
The text faded into Titus’ vision the moment that he’d seen the last goblin hit the ground. It was surprising, not only that he’d been given some credit for the Goblins’ deaths, but also at just how many experience points he’d been given.
“Don’t forget the loot pouches,” Petra called back to Jordan and Titus as she bent down and picked the small pouches from her latest kills. Titus had actually forgotten, so the reminder was welcome. He was also happy to note that even though the hobgoblins had been seriously cremated by his fireball, their loot pouches seemed unaffected and in total contained a handful of silver coins.
“Did we all get the same?” Titus asked as he straightened his back.
“Seven silver coins,” Petra said.
“Me too, actually,” Titus said.
“And me,” Jordan confirmed.
At least they didn’t have to fight over who got what from the fallen monsters, though it raised the question of how the loot drops were decided - something they could figure out later.
“Do we want to take any of their weapons?” Titus asked, looking at the swords littering the ground.
“I doubt any of them are any good,” Jordan said. “It looks like they just take what they can get. Our stuff looks like it's much more useful, for now at least.”
“Where do you think they came from?” Titus asked.
“It’s the wilderness,” Petra said. “It’s a given that there are monsters out here.”
“Yeah,” Titus pressed. “But they’re the first ones we’ve seen since we’ve been here. They probably aren’t the only ones, are they? And don’t things like that live in clans or something?”
“What, so I look like a monster mind reader?” Petra asked. “For all I know, that could’ve just been an innocent hob family out for a pleasant stroll. But they’re dead now, and the same is going to happen to any others we find. Until we find Henderson, that is.”
“Uh, yeah,” Jordan said slowly. “About that.”
“What now?” Petra exhaled as she brought a hand up to her forehead.
“Well, we were following the only tracks we could find, right?” He said.
“Yes, as per your illustrious tracking skill,” Petra replied.
“Well now there are loads of tracks. And these hobs we just killed probably tramped around all over the place. I hate to say it, but I don’t think I can track Henderson and his hobs anymore.”
“Are you serious?” Petra almost shouted, and Titus felt the need to steer the conversation away to something more constructive before things got violent.
“If this kind of thing keeps happening,” Titus said, “then maybe we should agree now that everything we find should be shared equally. I mean, I don’t know how the God of Balance works out what everyone leaves behind, and so far, we’ve been getting a pretty even amount, but the last thing I want is for us to fall out if one of these bags has something really good in it.”
“That does sound like a good idea,” Petra said. “But if we open up one of these little bags and inside is a legendary poison dagger or something, then I want first dibs.”
“Well then how about we say weapons or armour go to who needs them the most, and the coins are shared equally then?” Jordan proposed.
There was a little more back-and-forth as the party agreed on what to do in the case of certain items that everyone could use, but in general, the principle was there, and all three were happy with the new arrangements. Of course there were no guarantees that they were going to find anything particularly useful or valuable, but now they had a system in place to deal with such occurrences before it became an issue.
“So what do we do now?” Titus asked. “If we can’t follow the hobgoblins carrying Henderson anymore, then where do we go and in what direction?”
Jordan looked around for a moment, seeming to look for something, but eventually, he shrugged and said, “Just carry on the same way, I guess. I mean if they were heading somewhere in particular, they would probably go in a straight line, and we’ve been going this way since we started, so there must be something at the end of it, right?”
At least that approach made sense, and Titus could agree that since they entered the forest, they walked a pretty straight line in one direction for the entire time that did indeed suggest that the hobgoblins were taking Henderson somewhere specific rather than just aimlessly back into the forest.
“Oh good,” Petra said. “Now we get to walk in the deadly forest but instead of following the tracks of the creatures we are supposed to catch up with and rescue a human, we get to wander around and hope for the best. Can I just remind you both that we’ve gone from seeing no monsters at all to just encountering a large group that was pretty much all above our own levels? If we didn’t have the boy wonder here with us, then we would have faced the same fight as our dear friend, Henderson.”
“Boy wonder?” Titus asked aloud, but Petra just shot him a devious grin.
“Do you have any better ideas then?” Jordan asked with a tiny amount of venom in his tone. “Do you think we should just go back and everything up until now just be a waste? Because remember if we didn’t come here at all, we wouldn’t have just gained two levels in one go. That’s the quickest I’ve increased my power since I’ve joined the Arena!”
“It could’ve been the quickest way to die since joining the Arena, too!” Petra said. “And to say to turn back is waste of time is a fallacy. It’s how gamblers argue their problem.”
“I’m not a gambler,” Jordan replied quickly, sounding a little hurt.
“I’m not calling you a gambler,” Petra replied, almost in a sigh. “And you know you really do need to learn to pick up on social nuances; everything isn’t so black-and-white.”
“Anyway,” Titus interrupted. “Shall we get going or do you two want to stand around and argue for a little bit longer? Because I mean if the monsters didn’t hear us already after the giant fireball, then maybe they’ll get a kick out of listening to you two go at each other for the hundredth time.”
Petra visibly blushed. It wasn’t something that Titus had seen her do on a regular occasion, and it made him feel bad that he had garnered such a reaction from his friend. But what he said had needed to be said, and although feeling a little embarrassed, he was pleased to have brought it out into the open.
After the somewhat heated exchange, the group continued along their path for a short while. Without saying another word, they returned to their previous positions, with Jordan hacking down any thick undergrowth or bushes that were in their way along a relatively straight path. Titus and Petra brought up the rear.
Traversing the forest did become a little easier since the small hobgoblin camp because Jordan didn’t feel the need to stop and survey possible tracks at regular occurrences. As he said, there were now multiple tracks leading off in multiple directions, and he had no way of knowing which ones he was supposed to follow.
