Chapter 92 - Silvannus' Fort - 2

Shadow knew that the game always provided an alternative method in such situations unless explicitly specified by a notification from the system. He began to slowly move around the fence in search for a weak point.

He went in a direction to the left of the gate but couldn't find anything. Failing that went back in the opposite direction. After he crossed the gate again, he heard a small commotion in the forest.

He knew that his team members weren't in the forest. If someone got portaled to this place due to a quest or any other reason, he needed to kill them as there was a high probability of them interfering with his optional quest. The last possibility was the existence of an NPC which was fighting the goblins. Either way it was advantageous for him to check it out.

He moved closer to the source of the sounds while in stealth. He could hear the screams of a few goblins. They were clearly fighting something. To be on the safe side, he climbed up a tree and slowly moved among the treetops towards the goblins. From the treetop, he could clearly see five goblins attacking someone.

[Rozarius Ludo] (Spectre)

Level: 12

HP: 3800/4800;

Though outnumbered the opponent was clearly dominating the fight. It was donned in full body steel armor and wielded a transparent blinking blade as it attacked the goblins. Moreover, the opponent looked like a human spectre NPC and had an orange dot on its head. "Definitely an NPC. With an orange marker, it would probably only be friendly if I help it against the goblins," thought Balthazar as he moved towards the fight. Choosing an opportune time, he jumped off a tree onto a goblin plunging both his daggers into its back.

The first attack itself slammed the goblin onto the ground making it lose a third of its HP. He pulled his daggers along its waist and pulled it out causing a high bleed effect of 500 HP per second. This was the reason that he always preferred ambushing with a high momentum as they caused high damage. He quickly slit its throat and moved on to another goblin. The goblin he attacked previously was already seriously injured and the bleed effects caused it to die before it even stood up.

With him joining the fray, the attention of the goblins diverted towards him too. The ghost was already able to fight on par with them alone. Now, with one of them down and it being reinforced by him, it easily managed to kill them in a couple of minutes.

"Who the hell are you? What are you doing here?" shouted the spectre holding its blade above his head. It looked like it was ready to kill him even though he helped it.

"Well, it is an orange marked NPC. This is to be expected," thought Balthazar. At such times, it is best to give information that he would provide any other NPC, else he might be attacked.

"I am an adventurer from the White Heart City. I was just hunting in the forest, when I saw the goblins and fort. When I heard the goblins fighting, I came to help whomever was being attacked by the goblins," said Shadow to the NPC.

"Why do you care about who is fighting the goblins?" asked the NPC without changing its posture.

"Goblins are vile creatures. If allowed to grow they would attack the settlements nearby. Moreover, the White Heart City is quite close. If I inform them, then the city would probably send reinforcements to capture the fort and kill all goblins," said Shadow. It was a good explanation seeing that the spectre was really angry at the goblins.

"You intend to capture the fort!!!" shouted the spectre as it attacked him with full force. The sudden reaction from the spectre shocked him and he barely managed to avoid the blade.

"What the hell?" thought Balthazar confused by the actions of the spectre. "Is it a protector of the fort? In that case, I doubt I would get any help from it."

"I don't intend to capture the dilapidated fort in the middle of the forest. I am just interested in killing the goblins," he continued in a hurried manner. But it didn't seem to have much effect on the spectre. It continued attacking Shadow.

Spectres could turn intangible when fighting and this made it very hard to fight them. It is best to attack them with light magic or one can use fireworks to shock them before attacking them. Shadow had fireworks and could easily defeat it using them, but he knew that an NPC at such a remote location wouldn't be without any use. That is the only reason, he was trying to convince the spectre that he isn't an enemy.

"Anyone who dares covet the fort and the shrine must be killed," shouted the spectre swinging its blade towards Shadow.

"I didn't even know of the fort. How the hell do you think I would covet something in it?" shouted Shadow back as polite speech didn't seem to work on the spectre. He didn't need to worry much about retaliation as the spectre was of a lower level than him. He even started to block its blade with his own rather than evading. Sometimes, it was required to change tactics. Not every NPC would be a logical and sensible character.

After a few more strikes being blocked by Shadow, he slowly went on the offence as the spectre didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. He attacked it till its health went down to 100 HP.

"Wait. Wait. I am warning you to not go as it is very dangerous. The goblins and trolls which all tried to reach the shrine died. Only those who are fated can go to the shrine," said the spectre.

"What do you know about the shrine and the fort?" asked Shadow. "I can do something about the shrine after I kill the goblins and trolls. I wouldn't go to a place which could kill me. So, tell me everything that you know," he continued pointing his dagger at the spectre.

It was clear that the spectre wouldn't run away. Spectres can easily escape once they turned intangible as only holy or light magic attacks could harm them in that state. But seeing that the spectre would rather talk with him than escape showed that it was an NPC which was closely related to the fort and secret in it.

"I hardly know anything of the shrine. I was only instructed to protect the fort and prevent any foreign races from entering the core region of the fort by Lord Silvannus. The lord told me that great power lies at the shrine and one shouldn't allow vile people to enter. He was the one who always made sure that only virtuous and noble beings tested by the Lord Silvannus were allowed inside," said the spectre explaining the reason.

"This Silvannus must be some kind of guardian. Must be some famous character of the lore, if his follower became a spectre to follow his orders even after death," thought Balthazar as he heard the spectre.

"Is that all? It seems like you don't know anything of it. I would definitely attempt to get to the shrine along with my team," said Shadow. He realized that if he wanted any more information, he would have to make the spectre talk about it.

"I have already warned you. If you are bent on attempting to go to that place, I already know I can't stop you," said the spectre. "But if you promise that you would kill all the goblins and trolls, I promise that I would lead you to the core region."

"Why should I trust you? You wanted to kill me," asked Shadow.

"You told you wanted to attempt with your team. Those not fated with the shrine will lose their lives anyway. But the goblins and trolls should be killed and taken care of. One can never risk one of these creatures to even accidentally get a hold of the power inside. These were the words of Lord Silvannus and I exist to adhere to his orders," said the spectre.

"There are more than 10 people in my team. Can you lead us all through the fort to the core area?" asked Shadow.

"The number is of no consequence. I have been a member of the guard for a long tiime. I know of ways that you couldn't imagine. Lord Silvannus had great foresight and he created lots of obstacles to the core area. He also created short and hidden ways to enter the fort. It was his foresight that saved the army," said the spectre.

"So, you know a hidden way into the fort?"

"Of course!" replied the spectre tipping its helmet in pride. "Here, this will help you get inside the fort. Meet me inside. I will be waiting for you and show you the way to the shrine once clear the fort of the filth," said Rozarius handing Shadow a map. It showed a detailed path from the side of the hill into the fort.

New Quest: [Clear out the Silvannus Fort] (Difficulty: Hard)

Description: Kill all the goblins and trolls in the Silvannus Fort and meet up with Rozarius in the fort.

Progress: Enter the Silvannus fort.

"I better get the Rudra and the other to this place," he thought as he checked his friends list. It would also show their levels. Rudra had already reached level 11 by crafting all the dynamites. Now, he already was at level 12 due to killing white horn deer which were level 12 monsters. The others also managed to reach level 11 in the past hour and would soon reach level 12.

"It is enough. The forum had no indication of the goblins occupying the fort. Killing them would elevate their level to 12," thought Balthazar. "I guess this is a one-time mission to clear the fort. No one found it after the post in the forums either."

He quickly made his way to the rest of the team. He had already contacted Rudra and told him about the quest that he received. When Rudra heard about a fort, he thought it could be used as a small base of operations outside the city and was very excited. Rudra immediately went ahead and started helping the rest of the group to increase their level. He believed that the more the number of players at higher level, the easier it would be to capture the fort.

In about 30 minutes, he managed to get back to the place where Rudra and the rest were hunting the white horn deer. He joined them in hunting the deer. Once, he joined them, he took Rudra and the rest into the forest towards the location.

They soon reached the Silvannus fort and a majority of them were surprised to see such a large camp of goblins in the forest.

"F.u.c.k! How do you find these things? First the cave of wargs and then the goblin camp, now a fort. You know someone who designed the game?" asked Merlin unable to contain his excitement.

"Haha, I am just good at exploring places, I guess," shrugged off Shadow as he led them to the secret passage that Rozarius' map had indicated. The map indicated the passage to be left of the goblin camp halfway to the opposite side of the goblin camp. It was small cave in the hill.

The cave was small and had an area of about 20 square meters. The map showed a path from the cave. They had to keep searching it for a while before Quiet Fire managed to find a small lever in the cave. It was just a small grip for one's hand in the stone wall of the cave. On pulling it, a grating sound filled the cave as a piece of the wall cut in shape of a rectangle was pushed out of the wall. Rudra, Shadow and four others had to push it to the side together so that there would be enough space for them to get inside.

They slowly moved into the passage, which was about 8 feet in high, allowing at most tthree players to move through side-by-side and completely dark. They could hardly watch see a thing in the passage.

"Merlin get the torches out. We can't get anywhere without them," shouted Tetsujin.

"You guys have torches on hand?" asked Shadow surprised. He didn't expect them to keep torches with them. Later, in the game players would always keep torches or light stones with them, but at that stage players would have a decent amount of bag space. So, it wasn't that much of an issue.

"After the cave of wargs, I just decided that it would be prudent to have a couple of torches with me and Quiet Fire," answered Merlin as he pulled out a torch and lit it.

Merlin led the rest of them through the passage into the fort. At the end of the passage there was a wooden door which the opened into a dark stinking room in the fort. It was clear that they were deep in the hill. The room was filled with meat. They clearly stepped into a food warehouse of the goblins. They would have looted the meat if it didn't stink like it was spoiled. The wooden door when closed merged smoothly into the wall like there was nothing there. They couldn't even find a way back into the passage as they couldn't open the door.