(Book 1 Complete!) Side Quest [Isekai / LitRPG]

Logan inhaled sharply as the crossbow bolt struck him. Yet despite every movie's warning about removing an embedded arrow, he yanked it out without hesitation. It hurt, but as expected, no blood leaked out because of his amulet's immunity.

"He killed Bargak," shouted the marksman goble, thrusting a victorious fist in the air. "Now we kill him!"

"For Bargak!" shouted the others.

Logan barely had time to process the shrill accusation before another bolt whistled passed his ear. Was Bargak the goble from back at the caravan? Logan had gone through great effort to spare that one's life, but clearly his assailants weren't open to a clarifying conversation.

The disarmed goble in front of him reached for his weapon once more. Logan made a fist, but his gauntlets were in no shape for a fight. With a quiet curse, he instead tossed the flute at a female club-wielding goble on the ground floor running toward him, but she batted the instrument away without stopping. With his hands free, Logan now grabbed the back of Swordless's head and drove his knee into the goble's face. Swordless grew limp, knocked unconscious. Logan hurled him off the second tier, sending the unconscious body crashing into Clubber, the female below. This time, she stumbled.

I bet the bards killed their friend once I left. But even if they had, how had these ones found out? Where did they come from?

It didn't matter right now. They were coming for him.

He leaped off the second tier, landing on Clubber and knocking the wind out of her.

As he wrestled to keep Clubber pinned beside the unconscious Swordless, a scan for the other three gobles only revealed the crossbow wielder at the far end, who fired again. He kept half an eye on Shooty over there, dodging each time he saw the goble's finger twitch, but he really needed to spot the others to avoid any surprises. The one that had been hiding in the shadows was out of sight now, and he hadn't seen the fifth goble ever since the first glimpse in the reflection.

"Raaaghhhh!"

Speak of the devil. Logan spun and pivoted, forcing this newest attacker to double back and charge again. While the goble recalibrated, Logan grabbed a loose chunk of stone from the floor and hurled it at the rusher.

The opponent flinched, ducking just in time. But Logan had never intended to hit it. The real goal was the unstable tower of hurdy-gurdys behind it.

With a crack, the stack toppled, the highest one striking the goble and knocking it flat.

"Raaaghhhh!" Logan shouted, in a furious mimic of the goble's war cry. He pounced, driving a fist into his throat before he could recover. The gauntlet wasn't suitable for battle, but the claws were still sharp. The goble choked, batting at Logan's arm, but Logan twisted and slammed the goble's head against the stone floor. His enemy's movements slowed, then stilled.

You have killed a level 14 goble scavenger! Experience gained!

Swordless was stirring, though, and Logan couldn't waste time. The hooked sword from above had fallen with the stacked instruments, and he grabbed it now, plunging Swordless's own weapon into his chest and getting the kill notification.

It was all happening so fast, and Logan didn't have time to process it. The adrenaline as he fought for survival wouldn't let him.

Two down.

Clubber grabbed her weapon and scampered away before Logan could finish her off, but Shooty shouted in fury from his perch. "Don't retreat! The warlock will not accept retreat!"

For a split second, it seemed that both Shooty and Clubber stilled, their eyes glazing slightly, but it was over in moments and they didn't seem stunned.

He looked up just in time to see the sneaky last goble, who wielded a dagger and had somehow climbed up to the third tier of statues. Yellow teeth flashed alongside the blade as Stabby plummeted from that height toward Logan.

Logan grunted and hoisted a slain corpse atop himself to block the blow. Blood that smelled like rotten fish spattered into his nostrils and Logan had to fight to keep the bile down.

The weight of the body shifted as Stabby struggled to reach around the torso-shield, so Logan tucked his legs under the corpse and kicked it off him.

Stabby, though, performed an impressive backflip and landed unscathed. Then he licked his thin lips and his shoulders hitched as he let out a low, dreadful chuckle.

Clubber and Shooty had gotten into position, too. Logan couldn't stay on top of the battle in this room anymore.

He stared into the back distance and made a face of utter shock as he lifted a trembling finger. "The warlock!"

All three gobles paused and stared that direction, each making an audible gasp.

When the confused enemies turned back to Logan, he was gone, racing into the treasure room. After he passed the Boundary, he would have time to develop another plan.

But that future wasn't in his cards.

Shooty fired a bolt that, while it missed Logan, successfully hit a precariously perched chalice stacked on a mound of coins. Logan was halfway through the treasure room, pursued by Clubber and Stabby, but a loud rumble distracted him and forced his attention to the pile of treasure.

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"You idiot!" shouted Stabby to the marksman.

As if the still-falling chalice had been a plug holding back a dam, a crashing wave of coins and jewels spilled downward, knocking all three in the room off their feet.

Behind the mound, a great pit was now visible behind the dragon statue. The gold that had just crashed into the room pulled back in, like a wave going out to sea.

Logan wrapped his arms around a statue's neck before the shifting floor could sweep him away. He twisted his body so the statue served a dual purpose as a buffer between him and Shooty.

Stabby secured his purchase, too, but Clubber tripped and landed face first in the gleaming pile of gold. She sank into the pit alongside the valuables, carried away like water draining out of a bathtub.

Clubber's cry echoed from the pit until it faded into nothing. Logan waited for the telltale crash of metal or flesh, but it was as if the pit were bottomless.

The low grumble from Stabby was what broke Logan's daze.

Right. Surviving.

The marksman called out from his safety. "He's headed for the Boundary!" Logan smirked, but that quickly turned to a frown as the marksman added, "Follow him through!"

"What do you think I'm doing?" Stabby spat back.

Were they bluffing? Wasn't Logan the only one who could pass the Boundary? Logan lunged for the Boundary's perimeter, but while the others were preoccupied, immediately ducked behind a residual mound of fallen gold to keep watch on Stabby.

Stealth is level 13!

The goble fidgeted with his belt and pulled out a hunk of raw amethyst. The dagger user had already shown his dexterity earlier with his nimble acrobatics, but now he outperformed his earlier display. He leaped into the air, and after three flips, landed on the dragon's shoulder, then clapped his gemstone against the dragon's jeweled eye.

After a flash of light, Stabby's amethyst glowed with the same vibrant purple. The goble jumped off the dragon statue and sprinted toward the Boundary. When he hit the perimeter, the glow from the amethyst encapsulated his entire body. For a moment, Stabby slowed as if passing through a wall of molasses. After that, his amethyst was dull once more and he hit full speed again and darted into the adjacent room with the orange and green sigil door.

For several long seconds, Logan listened to Stabby's frantic search, but the goble finally ducked his head back into that initial antechamber. "I think he's still on your side!"

The marksman grunted in frustration. "Well then come back!"

Stabby just waved his dull amethyst in the air with a look of exasperation, his expression screaming the unspoken How?

Shooty growled and scrambled down from his perch.

Logan let out a relieved breath. He didn't doubt he could handle these two one at a time, especially Shooty who he could force into close-range combat.

"Stay there," yelled Shooty.

Again, Stabby's flat expression said what was on his mind.

But Logan was confused by Shooty's next words. "If he tries to escape from us, you be ready to nab him."

Who was the us? Logan had received the kill confirmation for two of the gobles, and he would have seen if Clubber had somehow survived the fall and climbed back up above the rim of the pit. Shooty was the only one remaining.

Logan peeked from his cover and held back a groan when he saw four new gobles. Analyze gave him their levels, ranging from 18 to 23. Like the goble outside, both their health and mana totals were lower than he would expect for their levels. Even though he couldn't see their stamina, he suspected that pool was high and they were nimble.

He didn't have time to soak it all in. Because, except for the dragon statue's candescent gemstone eyes, everything went dark.

"Ah, perfect," said one of the new pursuers. "The sun has set, and cut off the illumination from the crystal chamber that feeds this room."

Damn, thought Logan. He had assumed the massive wind funnel above that powered the instruments led to open air, but it was just another redirection from the previous chamber. Which meant that even if he survived fighting gobles in the dark, he couldn't count on it as an escape route before sunrise.

I could really use Unrelenting Hunt right now. But of course, he had surrendered his access to the Void affinity. He tried to brute force his way into accessing the touchpoint by reaching out to it with his internal sensation of pulsing mana, but it rejected him each time.

Double damn!

When he had Analyzed the gobles, they had strengths called Shadow Slink and Night's Favor, both of which were certainly going to help them out here. He wished he knew what either even meant. But that level 18 one only had 40 health.

Their Willpower stats must be pretty low, but he suspected they compensated with other stats. Considering Dexterity contributed to both his own stamina and mana total, and those vitals were notably higher than the health, they probably had high Dexterity, which probably also meant high Agility.

"Found him!"

The shout was right by Logan's ear. If the goble hadn't said anything, he could have slit Logan's throat! I guess Intelligence is a low stat for them, whatever the others!

He lifted his forearm in time to turn a blow from being lethal to merely glancing and scrambled behind the heap of treasure. There were statues around here somewhere. But… were they to the left or right? And where was that big pit?

Logan could barely make out anything beyond silhouettes, and that was only due to the glowing dragon eyes. The music hadn't stopped, either, and that covered any of Logan's chances of relying on hearing to track his attackers.

Unrelenting Hunt!

The skill didn't activate, but the mana pulsing inside him shook.

Stunned, he faltered back, and by the sound of metal on stone, that had probably been the only thing that kept an attack from ending him.

Unrelenting Hunt (Void) is now Feral Echo (Life)!
Why waste your time tracking by looking at all the details? Just live your life and let them live theirs! And then make deductions from their heartbeats and bodyheat. You're basically the world's creepiest biological eavesdropper.

Skill level is retained. Return to Unrelenting Hunt when Void Affinity is reassumed.

Logan accidentally laughed aloud with how lifesaving this was. He probably should have known, considering Mariv had told him that Affinities shaped spells, no matter what the spell. He would think more on it later.

Meditate!
Feral Echo!

The Meditate tossed in was to help him slow things down enough to get a sense of how the new version of the skill worked.

Although he still could barely see, he had a decent 20-foot radius where he could pinpoint the exact location of the offending goble. It was like a bizarre sort of proprioception, but of someone else's body rather than his own.

Feral Echo is level 19!

It used mana, but it wasn't so bad at 2 mana per second, just like Unrelenting Hunt used at its current level. Having Meditate active was burning through more.

Logan jumped toward the goble and grabbed the hand it had used to slash at him, then redirected whatever blade he assumed it held straight into the goble's chest.

The goble sputtered in surprise. "Wha—What? How… does the human… see…"

The other four gobles on this side of the Boundary were in the immediate vicinity, and Logan sensed them pause in confusion.

"What, thought I was scared of the dark?" Logan twisted the goble's wrist, and therefore the blade.

You have killed a level 18 goble scavenger! Experience gained!

The gobles shouted in unison and charged.