Dungeon of Niflheim

Chapter 22: Ambush (2)

Jack was currently beset from three different directions, armed with a single dagger and a painful gash still spilling blood on his right side, things didn’t look promising. Under regular circumstances this ambush would be nothing to him, he’d use one dagger to block, the other to slash and frequently use kicks but that was impossible with his current injury.

‘Shit I’m not really going to be killed by a goblin am I.’ If he had time to cry, he would. Goblins one of the weakest monsters there is and here he was almost on his deathbed, the shame was infuriating.

Jack managed to place himself in a defensive position allowing him to block one of the goblins with remaining dagger and shoulder barge another, but he was stumped about the third, at this rate it’ll stab his spine, likely crippling him.

“Fwoosh!” The moment he blocked the first goblin and bashed the second away and when the third’s dagger was centimetres away from his back an arrow flew passed digging into the back of the third goblin’s skull, killing it instantly and saving Jack from a crippling blow.

John and Thorin were still a few metres away and couldn’t help but Fen was an archer. Seeing his childhood friend in danger he quickly drew his bow and launched an arrow quickly killing the third goblin.

“Thanks Fen I owe you one!” Jack smiled and roared in joy as he slashed the first goblin, leaving a large cut on its chest before pushing it down on the ground. The second goblin however managed to regain its footing and came in for another strike. Seeing its dead companion and that Jack was about to stab the other pinned underneath him filled it with rage. It grasped his rusty dagger with both hands to add more force and bolted towards him, aiming for his back.

This time however Jack wasn’t worried, he revealed a sly smile and mouthed the words ‘too slow’ before stabbing the struggling first goblin in the throat, silencing it forever. Seeing blood spurt from its allies throat only made the second goblin more enraged, it increased its speed only seeing red unaware of the danger from behind.

.....

“Shwing!” Suddenly the goblin’s vision started tilting, it could see Jack smiling at him, but he wasn’t getting any closer. Eventually Jack looked as though he turned 90 degrees. The goblin was completely confused and died not knowing what happened.

John had arrived behind the goblin and slashed him in two, separating his lower and top half. The goblin’s forward momentum caused its upper body to move forward and then fall over resulting in the goblin’s change in vision. Its body was now in two separate parts, joined by a thick stretch of blood and organs, a gruesome death.

“Bleurgh!” Fen threw up the moment he arrived, the revolting scene and the smell was too much for him. Even Thorin and Jack were unnerved even though he was the one that was rescued.

John appeared rather embarrassed and pale in the face. He didn’t expect it to turn out so grotesque. Fen’s and Jack’s kills only had blood so why did his end up in organs being splashed on the ground.

After throwing up Fen quickly scanned the area for any more hostile monsters. Thorin joined him kicking away areas of deep snow to check for any hidden enemies.

After they were confident that there weren’t any more monsters, they both sighed in relief before turning to Jack.

“How bad?” John asked worriedly. The goblin’s dagger was rusty and jagged causing the wound to be torn up, increasing the pain and recovery time. Such daggers are fairly easily repelled by leather armour but when it catches the skin it really leaves a nasty mark.

“I’ll be fine boss, there’s just a lot of blood, nothing major was injured.” Jack was somewhat lucky and or skilled, the dagger didn’t reach any arteries or slice his intestines resulting in no major damage. Given time and a few healing remedies he’d back to shape in no time.

Unfortunately, none of them knew any healing magic and were a fairly poor group of adventurers so they didn’t have any healing potions on hand.

Jack was currently giving himself some emergency treatment; he withdrew a grey cloth that smelled strongly of herbs and used it to rub away the excess blood before tightly pressing it on the wound.

“Thorin alcohol!” John shouted out while raising his hands in preparation to catch.

“Here,” Thorin withdrew a yellow gourd from his bag and threw it over to John.

John easily caught the gourd and looked at Jack with pity.

“This is gonna hurt... a lot.” He looked into Jack’s eyes to make sure he was prepared.

Jack clenched his teeth hard and tensed up before nodding strongly. Seeing that he got the ok, John yanked out the gourd’s cork and vigorously poured the strong alcohol onto the herb scented cloth.

“Ahhhh!” Jack screamed in pain, he felt that his insides were boiling as if John had just poured acid on his wound.

Ignoring his companion’s screams John quickly withdrew another scented cloth from his bag and pressed it tightly onto Jack’s wound. Resulting in another scream before he bound it round tight creating a bandage.

Thorin looked on with pity, if only he knew magic, or if they had a healing potion they wouldn’t need to use such painful measures. Fen however visibly trembled, he didn’t have much tolerance for pain, that’s why he trained as a rear guard, less chance of injury.

After ten seconds or so the pain subsided, and colour returned to Jack’s face as his breathing normalised. Since they were poor, they needed to resort to using strong alcohol and red dwindle infused cloths to provide emergency treatment. It was far less effective and much more painful, but it allows a patient to recover within a few hours allowing them to continue fighting.

Acquiring red dwindle plants in raw form wasn’t too hard and non-drinkable alcohol was also fairly cheap making it a common concoction for low level and cheapskate adventurers. Some even say that it heals much more naturally if you need to withstand some pain, but most would use a potion or spell if given the option.

After seeing that Jack was in a stable condition, John quickly scanned the area. They needed to make camp for a few hours to allow the medicine to work its magic, otherwise the wound would reopen.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much in terms of shelter nearby. For the past hour or so they’d been wandering across snow covered plains only seeing a few rocks but nothing large enough to protect them from the wind and cold. The acai berry bushes were the first sign of vegetation they’d seen within this place.

“Fen, Thorin you two split up and try to find some shelter, you’ve got 20 minutes, after which meet back here. I’ll guard Jack and dispose of these bodies.” If he just allowed the bodies to remain, the smell of their blood would attract more monsters and in their current state they’re a man down actually two since someone would need to guard Jack in the fight.

If they didn’t manage to find shelter within 20 minutes, it’ll be too risky to move Jack any further, so they’d need to make do with what they’ve got. Luckily since they grew up in the Northrend empire they’re used to having nothing but snow for kilometres and became quite adept at making snow shelters. But that takes time and energy as well as being weaker than stone.

“Got it boss” Fen replied enthusiastically before quickly dashing off. The smell of the disembowelled goblin was really bothering him so any excuse to move was readily welcomed.

Thorin simply nodded and looked gently at Jack before walking in the opposite direction. Splitting up isn’t necessarily the safest option but it’ll be the fastest and they were in need of speed.

Once Thorin and Fen were out of sight and Jack was sitting calmly he got to work disposing of the goblin bodies.

“Bleurgh!” As John moved closer to the goblin he killed the stench overwhelmed him causing him to gag.

‘God why do goblins smell so bad, don’t they ever bathe.’ He pulled out another strong-smelling cloth and wrapped it round his nose and mouth as a mask to block the smell. Even though they didn’t accept a goblin killing quest they’d still receive payment for turning in monster parts and their crystals.

Goblins and other G-rank crystals were only good for powering simple stuff like house lights for a couple of days so they’re always in high demand. High demand however doesn’t mean money, they’d be lucky to get 2 coppers for a single crystal but money’s money.

John deftly cracked open the goblin’s skulls to remove the monster crystal, unfortunately the one Fen killed had its crystal shattered by the arrow making it worthless. John internally chided Fen for his carelessness as he continued working.

Other than the crystals, only the goblin’s right ears were accepted as materials. Everything else was either worthless or not worth the effort, the ear is also used as proof of kill and it’s only valid use is for fertiliser. He heard that the fangs could be used to make some sort of insect repellent but here in the northern part of Yangmir where the weather was coldest there wasn’t any need. They’d be paid not for the material value but more for the act of subjugating the monster. John had heard of a few adventurers cook goblin meat when they ran out of food but the very idea of that made him nauseous.

After professionally dissecting the goblins and packing away the useful materials he dug up a pit about 30 metres or so away from them and buried the remains. It wouldn’t completely obscure the dead goblin’s scent, but it’d help.

Back in the private space

“Well, that went better than expected.” Announced Frost, he and Maya were watching the battle through the dungeon’s video feature. Frost didn’t want to sacrifice his weaker monsters but knew that if none turned up, they’d get suspicious. Thus, he formulated a plan only expecting to force them to put their guard up but low and behold the frost goblins actually managed to inflict a decent injury to one of them resulting in a forced camp for several hours. He knew that they’d pass the acai berry bushes eventually, so he ordered four goblins to hide under the snow and ambush them when they got a chance.

When Frost witnessed the first goblin succeed in its ambush, he was ecstatic, a G-rank monster just wounded an E-rank adventurer talk about a worthwhile trade. However, when he then saw the remaining goblins leap towards their target he actually panicked, he didn’t want to accidently kill one of them, so he started rooting for the adventurers much to Maya’s displeasure. When he started shouting ‘No! No! No! Stop!’ and waved his hands about Maya gave him a frosty look.

‘You were the one who planned this ambush and now that it’s working better than expected you want it to fail, what the hell.’ Was what her gaze translated as.

“Umm” Maya sarcastically agreed with him. To be honest she also didn’t think that the frost goblins would perform too well, they were G-ranks after all. What surprised her most was the restraint they showed, normally monsters, especially those with low intelligence rely solely on their instincts and lack patience. But when Frost asked them to hide under the snow and wait until the exact moment, they ignored their instincts and carried out their instructions perfectly. She felt that she underestimated goblins.

Maya couldn’t actually be blamed for her view; regular goblins would lack that ability however whenever they have a leader their abilities greatly improve. For example, if goblins had a goblin king their discipline could rival that of human soldiers, Frost basically fulfilled a role similar to a goblin king, so they obeyed without question.

“That should buy us at least 4 hours’ worth of DP.” Frost ignored Maya’s eye rolling and sarcastic reply, knowing full well he deserved it.

“It seems I also received a dose of DP when that scout was injured, he actually gave me 50DP, that’s his entire daily income.”

‘I guess that nasty injuries give a percentage of their kill amount.’ In this case since the scout would give 500DP if killed, Frost received 10% or 50DPs worth. Frost didn’t know if he’d still get 500DP if he killed him now or just 450 but his daily DP stayed the same.

Frost’s excited face quickly slumped when he realised that he hadn’t actually made any DP in fact he lost some.

4 hours of daily DP which still might not happen would be 40DP plus the 50DP from injuring the scout that’d only make 90DP, enough for three goblins and he lost four.

“Tch” Frost loudly clicked his tongue as he started to regret going down the non-killing path with this group.