The Blacksmith and the Warrior

Alone with Strea

Floor 69, the next morning

At the base camp, we were warned by the NPCs of the presence of goblins, yet an hour up the mountain trail, the girls and I have not encountered a single of the ugly bastards. Other monsters crossed our paths occasionally, but they were easily disposed of. I am cautious, but also coming to the belief that this treasure hunt might be easier than advertised. They cannot be too much tougher than the dungeon monsters that the front whipped through in late July.

As for the four of us, it is a quiet trek. I woke up first and managed to slip out from under Rain's grip for some light stretches and to prepare breakfast. Asuna's cooking skills has inspired me to work on my own, though I believe I am months behind in her in knowledge of the craft. After breakfast, we headed for the mountain, yet I can sense a weird energy from the trio, ever since breakfast. Philia, I can understand, her entire focus is the treasure, and she takes point. Rain sticks close to me, and we make light talk along the way in the back of the group. Strea, however, is unusually silent.

Philia raises her fist, silently asking us to halt. She turns to me, gesturing to come forward. Hand on the hilt of the sword on my back, I walk up to Philia and kneel with her on a cliff, gazing down to where she is pointing. Goblins of different sizes and colors, assembled in a rocky valley in the middle of the mountain range in a village setting. "I think we found them," she whispers.

I nod in agreement. The village looks heavily guarded, for great reason too. At the back is a great structure carved within the mountain, arguably the castle in which our target monsters and the prize they protect is within. I glance at Strea, who kneels on the other side of me. She bears a strong frown, apparently more disturbed by the mass presence of the goblins than we are. "What do you think?"

"There's multiple here, more than we could take on at once. It'll be a moment before I can come with any idea how to handle it best."

"You got any, Jaymes?"

"Not any that you'll like, Philia. None of you girls will." They look as me as I shrug and stand up. "The biggest problem is getting to the castle. If we had a larger party or ranged weapons and skills, maybe we could manage it, but I have not seen an archer in this game yet. How nice that'll be."

Philia sighs and draws her knife. "Is it really too costly to go in and make lots of noise?"

"Yeah. Considering death here is death in the real world, I advise against the more fun approach. However..." I spot what seems to be an unguarded drainage pipe off to the far right of the castle, which leads into a river that goes under the cliff. We'll have to swim to get there. "Strea, what options do we have getting to that pipe?"

"Hmm... We could either wait until night and chance it, or use a distraction and move. Two of us keep their attention; two others go to the pipe. The latter is the better option in my calculations." She turns to me, taking my hand. "Jaymes and I have the best skills equipped for infiltration. Rain, Philia, play with the goblins for a while." Philia looks like she wants to argue back, but she keeps her silence and unhappily agrees. We separate into groups and prepare to our assigned tasks.

"Wait," Rain says, "how are we-"

"Sword Blast!" I swing my sword in the direction of the main gate. Blue light forms from the steel and flies downward, making an explosive impact just a few feet from the gate. Two more blasts follow before I sheath my sword and grab Strea by her waist. "Can you swim?"