Chapter 124 - Goblin Nest At Ortulion Village

We arrive outside of the small village of Ortulion, where Jill annoyingly asks.

"do you intend to fight the goblins without any enchanted weapons?"

I reply.

"don't need them."

Grace interjects.

"even if you are confident in your magical abilities, it wouldn't hurt you to carry around a weapon to defend yourself."

I sigh.

"this is exactly why, I wanted to do this by myself."

Bell plays with her nervously, obviously uncomfortable, I then say.

"alright, it's time to search for the goblin nest and clear it up."

Jill then asks.

"what about buying healing and mana potions?"

I respond.

"what, does it look like I'm made out of money?"

she growls.

"if you get hurt, I will not heal you!"

I reply.

"what, I'm not expecting a small brat like yourself to save me."

Grace tries to mitigate our hostilities between me and Jill.

"come on you two have been on each other's throat the whole ride over here, let's try to get along."

I take one last dig at Jill.

"if the brat, is willing to get along with me, I will also make an effort to behave myself."

Jill clicks he tongue.

"fine by me."

Grace claps her hands together with a smile and then makes a suggestion to me.

"instead of searching for the goblin's nest ourselves, how about we ask one the village guards?"

I answer.

"yeah we can do that."

we make our way to one of the watch towers, where Jill says to one of the guards.

"hello, we are adventurers that have accepted a quest to clear out a goblin nest nearby."

he answers.

"ah yes, a few of our villagers have been attacked by some goblins whenever they leave the village."

she asks.

"do you know where the goblins have made their home at?"

he nods.

"there is cliff side with a waterfall, covering the cave entrance."

he points behind us.

"if you follow the river upstream, you will see it."

Jill bows her head in gratitude.

"thank you."

I then ask the guard.

"of you know where they are at, then why don't you guys clear it out."

he replies.

"we don't get paid to do jobs like that, our job is to protect the village from outside invaders, nothing more, nothing less."

Grace puts her hand on my shoulder.

"come on, we let's go clear out that goblin nest."

I then ask myself.

"what the hell, why even have magic knights at all then?"

as we head towards the river, Jill sensing how bothered I was with what the guards says, she says.

"guards and magic knights have a duty to protect the king's land and people that reside in it, they have no obligations to do anything beyond that."

I then ask her.

"then why did you become an adventurer, if you used to be a magic knight?"

she responds.

"because outside threats, threaten villages and villagers all over the kingdom, and I don't want to be held back from being able to something about it."

I ask curiously.

"is that why, you decided to come back to the magic knights to help in the battle against the vampires?"

she nods.

"yes only for that one battle, because they were a huge threat, that threatened the very existence of every race in this world."

I reply thinking back about our fight with Lord Vernon, and the other vampire lords.

"yeah I know."

she responds.

"you're acting like if you were there personally."

I clear my throat.

"me? no, I wouldn't do something like that."

Bell interrupts us while pointing at the river.

"um excuse me, it looks like we found the river"

Jill smiles at her.

"thank you Bell."

as we follow the river upstream, I ask Jill curiously.

"so what kind of potential did you see in me?"

she answers.

"your muscles."

surprised by the answer, I ask.

"really, why my muscles though?"

she answers.

"when I volunteered to help with the fight, me and others trained under the hero Ying Zhu, and during that training he kept praising a man for his physical strength, for teaching him how to fight against the vampires."

I ask.

"did he ever mention his name?"

she shakes her head.

"not really, since none of us cared enough to ask for his name."

I then think to myself.

"good job Ying, you unknowingly protected my identity."

she continues.

"since he made a big deal out of the physical training aspect, I took that to heart and applied it to you when I first saw you step inside the guild."

I reply.

"ah I see."

as we approach a cliff side with a waterfall, Grace says.

"I see a couple of goblin warriors standing by the cave entrance."

Bell replies while grabbing her enchanted bow covered in a red aura from her back.

"I can get them."

she the takes out five arrows out of her quiver, that are also emitting a red aura, I then ask Jill.

"what enchantment is that?"

she answers.

"flame enchantment."

she fires all five of her arrows and they hit all of the goblins in their head, catching them on fire upon impact, I then say to Bell.

"nice."

she replies timidly.

"thank you."

Grace then says.

"alright now it's time to draw them out of the cave."

Jill replies unsheathing her enchanted sword.

"I got this."

but then say.

"it's alright, I'll go do it, and draw out the hobgoblin, if there is one."

Grace asks confused.

"what's a hobgoblin?"

Jill responds.

"a rare type of goblin, that is huge, strong and intelligent."

Grace replies.

"I see, I've never encountered one before."

Jill looks at me suspiciously and says.

"but I'm curious, about you knowing what a hobgoblin is."

I reply trying not to arouse any more suspicion.

"I read about them somewhere."

I then head towards the cave and as I enter it, I chant.

"silver eyes."

upon my silver eyes activating, many heat signatures show up on my vision, I then think to myself.

"alright let's do this quick, so I can go back home to Ellena and Hope."

I take out goblins left and right with no effort, since my strength in silver eyes, far surpasses them, and upon killing the last goblin I hear Jill's voice say, with enthusiasm.

"I just knew you had great potential."

as I power down out of silver eyes, I ask.

"you saw all that?"

she answers.

"yeah when I felt a sudden surge of huge mana, I decided to follow it, to see what caused it, and then I saw that it was coming from you."

I think to myself.

"damn it, Collin you already screwed it up."

as we leave the cave together, she smiles.

"I'm glad that I was right about you."

I respond.

"thanks I guess."

as Grace and Bell approach us to find out what happened, Jill says.

"the goblins have been taken care of, let's go back to village to let them know, so that we can go back to the guild and get our reward."

we return to the village and after informing the guards that we cleared out the goblins nest, we climb on a carriage back to Grezia, where Jill apologizes.

"I'm sorry for being rude, I hope that you can forgive me going forward."

I reply.

"it's fine, as long as you don't come at me with a rude attitude, we'll get along."

we arrive back at the guild and turn in the quest together, where Yui the guild receptionist, hands over two gold coins to me, and then as we leave the building I say to the three of them.

"here you go, one gold coin for the three of you to split."

Jill getting worked up asks.

"only one gold coin?"

I reply.

"obviously, I did most of the work clearing out the nest."

Grace interjects before Jill completely loses her cool.

"it's fine, we understood what we were getting into when we decided to help."

I then reply.

"well it's been a p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e working with you girls, but now I must go home and rest."

Jill then asks.

"can you at least join us for a drink, to celebrate your first quest completion?"

I sigh and answer.

"I would, but my fiance and daughter are waiting for me back home."

the three of them look at me surprised with what I just said, Jill then asks.

"well are you willing to go on more quests with us at least?"

I respond.

"I'll think about."

I wave goodbye to them and head back home to Ellena and Hope, where Ellena asks.

"how'd it go?"

I respond.

"I made some friends and completed my first quest."

she kisses me and says.

"well, you must be hungry."

I reply.

"yeah, very."

after eating the food she cooked for dinner, we tucked Hope in bed and head back to our bedroom, where Ellena says.

"father contacted me, and he is already pressuring me to come back home so that I can officially succeed his throne."

I reply.

"well it was bound to happen."

she sighs.

"I know, it's just I've been enjoying spending time with you and Hope."

I reply.

"me too, but if we need you in power and help change come to your kingdom, so that we don't have to keep our relationship a secret from your people."

she sighs again.

"I know."

after that little conversation, we cuddle with each other, until we both fall asleep.