Return to Jorgaldur Volume III: blood warrior

Captives

As night fell, the vampiress set off, while waving goodbye to the goblins again. Rather, until next time, although she had no idea when it would be.

The area was low level for her now, but that didn't stop her from deploying her winged scouts. It was best to avoid surprises if possible, though this time she found nothing dangerous or out of place. If she had found any beings at too high a level that could be a danger to the goblins, she would have gotten rid of them.

What Gjaki couldn't do was eliminate all danger, because she would not only take away possible prey, but their chances to grow, to become stronger. Although it would be a lie to say that she wasn't tempted.

It was on the third day, or rather the third night, that her scouts found something unusual. The zone was between level 20 and 30, and it was still not a problem for her.

One of her Bats flew over some bushes behind which there should be nothing, and yet she found a medium-sized camp. The fire, smoke and every trace was hidden by some kind of spell, which had prevented her from finding out until then. There were four people watching, demihumans. There were also a few tents, so she guessed there were about twenty people.

At first, she decided to ignore them, go around, and follow her path. However, there were some carts with bars, inside which were many goblins.

She went from shock to anger. They were tied up, and several of them wounded, plus she recognized a few. Gjaki had met them at the goblin festival she had come to by chance after leaving the dungeon. One thing was clear to her, she couldn't leave them there. The first problem was how to get close without being discovered.

In the game, it was usual that around the bandit camps there were traps. If Goldmi wasn't with her, she used a rather rough method to avoid falling into them, even if it meant she could alert them.

"A trap has fired. Rod, go see," a hyena-woman ordered.

"It's always me," a beaver-man complained quietly.

"Did you say something?"

"Nothing, nothing."

As he got closer, he saw the shadow of a dark being on all fours disappear into some bushes. While keeping watch in that direction, he reset the trap that covered an area of ​​the perimeter that was difficult to watch from the camp. After that, he retraced his steps.

"It seems that some animal activated the trap. I've seen its silhouette when it ran away. I've put it back on," Rod reported.

"Well, nothing else could be expected. What's there going to be in a forest at this level?" a weasel-woman disdained.

"I hope we come back soon. In these low-level areas it's hard to recover mana," a fox-man protested.

"If you hadn't spent so much mana, you wouldn't have to get it back, and we'd have three more slaves," the hyena-woman growled.

"It's not my fault! Instead of giving up, those dirty green things attacked me," he defended himself.

"It was stupid to go alone. If any Keeper had seen the burst of energy, we would've had problems," the hyena-woman continued growling.

"It's not so bad. Who's going to care about these beings? They're useful for the mines, but not much else," the weasel-woman interjected.

"I saw a goblin Keeper massacre my companions for something similar. I was lucky to escape. It's better not to attract their attention," the man-beaver intervened with a gloomy tone.

They all fell silent. Although they wanted to deny it, everyone was afraid of the Keepers. They knew where and when they patrolled, but a change in their routines, or a slip, could spoil the raid. At best, they would lose the merchandise. At worst, their life.

Gjaki had followed the Blood Hound until it had fallen into the trap. It was too powerful for it, so it was unable to break free. Therefore, she had unsummoned it, and summoned another, to go around it, and check if there were more. However, one of the sentinels had soon appeared, so she had sent it into some bushes, and unsummoned it once it had arrived.

She watched the man-beaver, and followed him around the new trap, shrouded in Darkness. She got close enough to hear them, while hiding behind one of the tents.

"So, those must be the ones called Keepers," the vampiress said to herself.

Her scouts had discovered as many as three high-level beings, which were wearing the same maroon uniform. She was keeping an eye on them, as she didn't want to get close to them even for a moment. However, now their help was required.

The sentinels in that camp were around level 50. While she believed she could take them on, the vampiress doubted she could do so without raising the alarm. If the ones that were sleeping had similar levels, there was little else she could do but run away. Besides, there could always be higher level ones.

Therefore, she didn't know how to free them alone, but perhaps the Keepers could.

A level 74 panther-woman half opened one eye, the sparkle of which stood out on her black-furred face. She seemed to sleep helplessly on a tree, but she was surrounded by a spell that warned her of any threat.

On that occasion, it had barely reacted, so she guessed it may be some harmless little insect or bird. She wasn't too surprised to see the Bat, although she did find it strange. When it landed on her leg and bit her pants, she didn't know what to think.

She sat up, and looked at it curiously. It took flight, as expected. Suddenly, however, it stopped, and looked at her with strange red eyes.

It moved away from her a little. The Bat looked at her again. It backed away a bit. It looked at her again.

She didn't quite know how to react. She didn't even believe her eyes when it landed on her leg again and bit her pants. Only when it took flight, still biting her clothes, did she seem to understand.

"Do you want me to follow you?" she asked it.

Gjaki couldn't hear her, but she hoped the Keeper had understood. The vampiress ordered it to fly away a bit, and hoped that she would follow it. Only when the Keeper did, did she breathe a sigh of relief. Now she just had to make sure to not lose her.

Something similar happened with a level 71 goblin and a level 77 vulture-woman. The latter followed it suspiciously, fearing that it might be a trap. She could detect a slight trace of blood on that little winged being, which made her suspicious. She was clutching a talisman tightly, her ace up her sleeve if there was any trouble.