Legend of the Awakened Goblin [Tower Climbing LitRPG]

Owin had made the decision not to listen to a bag, but he had no idea where he was going. Even as his map cleared, he saw no signs of invaders or anything that really stood out. Lehboa were everywhere inside Kisisu, and most didn't look that concerned. There were some obvious signs of distress, like people avoiding the area outside the cathedral and armed guards standing sentry more regularly than he would've otherwise expected. Someone with a weapon was watching him at all times.

"Is it just me or is the vibe off?" Shade asked.

"The what?"

Chorsay lifted an eyebrow.

"You know." Shade stopped in the middle of the street, waved to a lehboa, and recoiled when the little mouse-like person screamed in fear and ran. "Am I the problem?"

"Yes." Owin watched the lehboa stop at the nearest guard, still frantic, and point in their direction. "This time, yes."

They had traveled away from the market and the bustling southern side of the city. Owin had expected the lehboa to thin out, especially knowing there was a magical disease running through the city. Instead, he found smaller, cramped streets that were still packed with lehboa going about their daily lives.

Owin, Shade, and Chorsay were impossible to miss, so they had received plenty of attention, especially as people had to move around them. If someone missed their presence, Chorsay's head blocking out the sun was usually enough to force them to notice.

They had all stopped as soon as the lehboa screamed, and Owin only had to shush Torban once as the guard headed their direction.

"Outsiders," the guard said. She glanced at Shade, frowned, and looked between Owin and Chorsay. "Which of you is the necromancer?" Her hand was firmly placed on the sword at her hip, ready to draw it in the blink of an eye. At 2 Shards, she would be pretty quick regardless of her class.

"Oh, right." Owin pointed at Shade. "That's my familiar. I'm a wizard. No necromancers here."

"Look how familiar I am," Shade said.

An index appeared over the guard's eyes. "You don't look like a wizard."

"Is it the full set of armor or the countless scars or the whole goblin thing?" Shade asked.

"All of it." The guard closed her index. "What brings you to Kisisu?"

Owin looked up to Chorsay, but the old man only gestured for him to continue. "We were just traveling when we stopped in the cathedral."

Understanding turned the lehboa's face grim.

"I want to help," Owin said before she could grow angry. "We were just wandering deeper into the city to see if anything looked out of place."

Her hand relaxed off the sword. "Out of place? Like what? The disease . . ." She cut herself off.

"The disease?" Shade crouched and leaned close. "What about it?"

The guard stood a little straighter and looked about the street. Lehboa walked past, but gave the group a wide berth. Nobody was trying to listen in on their conversations.

"It only affects those with magic." She looked pointedly at Owin. "Like wizards."

Owin frowned and thought back to his arrival in Kisisu. "What about Witch Zuxa? We met her when we first arrived."

The guard nodded slowly. "I don't know what to say about that. You are right. Most of those who have fallen ill acquired some type of magic through their assigned class. Anyone who could investigate it is dead or dying."

"Your menders are all sick too?" Owin asked.

She gave another nod.

"We'll figure it out."

"Do you need my assistance?" she asked.

"You keep doing your job. We'll find you if we need you."

She smiled, nodded once more, and walked back to her post.

Owin waited until she was away before throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Why was she so helpful and nice? When has a mob ever been helpful and nice?" He stopped himself and scowled. "Other than the cultists back in the Great Forest, I guess. But they also wanted to raise a Lord of the Abyss and thought I'd join in and I guess they . . . I don't know. I'm confused."

"Your charisma score is significantly higher than it was previously, and the Fortress is notoriously focused on combat over puzzles or story. You haven't had opportunities to speak with mobs in a long time." Chorsay patted Owin on the head. "Mobs are more likely to trust you now."

"Weird." He opened his map and pointed to the right. "I think we should go visit the witch. If everyone else getting sick had magic, why is she fine?"

Chorsay gestured for him to lead.

Owin rolled his eyes. Chorsay had his map already filled out and could get them to the right spot without any difficulty, but it was fine. Owin had learned plenty in his time in three other dungeons.

He turned and stopped at a dead end.

"Chorsay, can you show us the shortest way to the witch's house?"

"I can."

The narrow streets in the middle of the city grew more difficult to navigate, and Owin started to question whether or not he would've made it through successfully on his own. Chorsay wasn't moving particularly quickly, especially since he was kind and patient with all the lehboa he encountered. They stopped multiple times for Chorsay to help a small lehboa carry something or to allow someone to cross a busy section with Chorsay as a wall to block other lehboa.

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After what felt like multiple hours, they left the most crowded, congested areas of the city and walked into the outskirts along the eastern wall. Owin could see the gatehouse in the distance with the cathedral rising on the opposite end of the market. After all the walking, they just ended up a few minutes away from where they had started.

"She's still going to think I'm a human who was cursed to be a goblin." Owin looked over the collection of buildings near the wall. They were intertwined with columns and walkways all passing over and under one another. It was impossible to tell where one rickety building started and the others ended. A tower rose from the middle of it all with a precarious lean and stones that looked like they would crumble from a moderate gust of wind.

"She wouldn't think you were cursed if you hadn't told her you were," Shade said. He walked right up to a door and started knocking without waiting. "Hello? Mother? I am home with the milk."

Chorsay smiled softly and walked up with the skeleton. "Use that charisma to explain your way out of it, if you want. You could always allow her to continue believing that. It is only a problem if she chooses to investigate."

"I feel like she probably—"

The door flew open. Witch Zuxa stood in the doorway with her hat still placed firmly on her head. Her mousy face and gray-tipped hair was barely visible underneath the oversized hat.

"She probably what?" Zuxa asked.

"Is wearing her hat!" Shade said with too much enthusiasm. "Look at you. All dressed up even while inside. Definitely not a weird thing to do. Totally normal. We love a good normal witch."

Owin walked up and elbowed the skeleton. "We wanted to come visit."

"About the curse?" she asked.

"No. Wait. My curse? No."

Zuxa lifted the brim of her hat. Her eyes were focused on Owin with obvious suspicion.

"Calm," Chorsay said.

"Right." Owin pointed over his shoulder. "There is a curse or illness in the city. We saw inside the cathedral. I heard it was affecting all the lehboa with magic, and it made me think of you. You're a lehboa, but you aren't sick."

Zuxa mumbled something, glared at Chorsay, then started down the hall with the door still wide open behind her.

Shade immediately stuck his head inside. "Where do you think she's going?"

"Follow!"

"Want to?" Shade pointed down the hall. "She's around the corner. Wow, is she fast? Or maybe the hall is shorter than it looks and she's actually not that fast. Hard to tell from here. Difficult to see without eyes."

"You're leading," Owin said, gently pushing Shade inside. "I don't want a trap taking my head off."

"A trap at your head level would take my . . ." Shade looked down and gestured. "See? I didn't say it."

"Say what?" Chorsay asked innocently as he waited for Shade to move out of the doorway.

"Penis."

Chorsay just frowned.

"Can you go see if there are any traps?" Owin asked.

"I will," Torban said.

They all looked back at the bag.

"How?" Owin asked after a moment.

"Throw me."

"No. That's a terrible idea. Shade, just start going before we all lose our minds." Owin adjusted Torban's position. "Can I have a weapon?"

"No. That's a terrible idea."

"Lose my mind?" Shade asked, ignoring the bag. "What mind could I lose? Look inside my skull. What's inside?" He set off the down the hall, walking with long, exaggerated strides.

"Dried shapeless specter," Owin said.

"Actually, yes." Shade turned to point at Owin, tripped over something, and fell just as a purple arcane ball formed and launched down the hall. Owin reached up and caught the spell with his metal hand, stopping it just before it hit Chorsay, who had raised armored forearms to block.

The spell wriggled with energy in Owin's grip. It burned at the sinew binding the chitin gauntlets to his arm. Before it could explode, Owin took a step and launched it back down the hall at the far wall.

He hadn't seen where the spell actually formed before launching, so the throw wasn't aimed at anything other than just the wall. The spell continued shaking, rattling like it was about to explode, then it hit something and erupted into a cloud of purple fog just above Shade.

The skeleton popped to his feet, waved some smoke out of his face as he faked a coughing fit, then kicked something on the ground. "Who put this here?"

"Did you just catch an Arcane Blast?" Chorsay asked.

Owin held up his right hand, which was thoroughly scorched. The chitin was already working to repair itself, but the metal of his prosthetic was marred and partially pitted. "I didn't know what else to do."

"I would have blocked it." Chorsay crouched with some effort and grabbed Owin's hand. "Does it hurt?"

"It's fine."

His fingers ran along the metal, carefully feeling every burn and hole in the metal. "It was smart to use the prosthetic. If it can damage an Althowin creation like this, imagine what it would have done to your flesh. Deflect when possible. Catching and returning spells is wreckless."

The purple smoke faded, revealing Shade standing with an arm outstretched, holding a dead human in the air. "This isn't a lehboa."

"What is it?" Owin clenched his right hand into a fist and got closer. The human was wearing an undyed surcoat and a mask over his eyes that was partially torn from the impact of the returned Arcane Blast. His scalp was torn and skull broken, revealing mushed brains within.

"How hard did you throw that?" Shade asked.

Owin shrugged. "Who is he?"

Shade turned him around, squinted his eye sockets, then tossed the man over his shoulder. It landed with a wet thump. "A corpse, apparently."

"So, Zuxa left a trap or someone to kill us. They can't be an assassin and use Arcane Blast, so they must be a wizard with an invisibility potion or something. That means Zuxa must know more about the illness. Right?" Owin turned to Chorsay, looking for some sign.

Shade poked Owin with a wand. "I think he was an assassin."

"Oh." Owin scowled. He looked at the wand, but it was relatively weak. "I thought I was onto something."

"Don't allow yourself to be swayed so easily." Chorsay gestured toward the corner. "We're here with you."

"If I'm wrong, I'm just wasting time."

Chorsay crouched again. Compared to the other heroes Owin had traveled with, Chorsay was funny because even while crouched as low as possible, he was still too tall to look Owin in the eyes.

"Right or wrong, you are not wasting time. I chose to be here with you, and Shade doesn't have a choice." He paused and held up a finger, which effectively silenced the skeleton. "You are sure about your strength and ability to fight while second guessing everything else you do. You need to act with certainty. Be assertive. Be confident. People will look to you for guidance before long, and you need to portray yourself as that leader."

"I'm not a leader. I really don't know what I'm doing most of the time."

"Don't you?" Chorsay gestured down the hall where the corpse leaked fluids onto the floor. "Your instincts are good and you have had more combat than most people in the world. People like Po, Kat, Ernie, and any of the other Nimble Hogs want to know what you think. What you are going to do. You are reliable and you are kind. Forget the strength. Forget the hardships. You don't need to truly lead anything. I'm not going anywhere. But when Sanem is eager to get back in the dungeons and needs someone to show her the way, she will ask you. When Potilia wants to train with someone who knows battle, she will ask you. They trust you and want you to trust them. This is how life works."

"I don't want to ruin a moment. You know how I hate ruining moments," Shade said. He pointed toward the corner. "I can hear a bunch of tiny pitter-patter. Like, uh, mouse feet."

Torban immediately spit out the handle of the Incandescent Blade.

Chorsay squeezed Owin's shoulder in a tight grip. "Go."