My Emperor's Sword

Chapter 20: Goblins' Den

The trio kept looking at the treasure chest for 2 seconds before Shesmu finally took the initiative. Well, they don't even know how to open these chests so it's better if I just do it, he thought.

In the middle of the chest, there was a button, Shesmu clicked on it, and after 4 seconds of mechanical clicking, the chest opened. A brown light shone from inside the chest and a notification popped up for Shesmu.

With his hands, Shemu signaled for his teammate to go up. He decided that it's better to reach the surface first and catch their breath before checking the notification.

With his signal, the trio swam up to the surface of the lake.

"Bwah, I was about to suffocate," exclaimed Leo. Both him and DepressedRyan erratically breathed in and out.

Contrary to his teammates' misery, Shesmu didn't feel his breath running out. In fact, he suspected that he could have spent another minute underwater without any issue. I should probably tell them how to change their body structure. But with how delicate the whole process is if they mess up one thing they'll end up with a crippled character.

With these thoughts, Shesmu looked at Ryan and Leo before saying, "Guys, let's check what we got from the chest."

As if these words were a magical spell, the duo immediately became energetic again.

"There better be some cool gear there, the devs are gonna hear it from me otherwise!"

Leo nodded at DepressedRyan's declaration, and Shesmu just laughed before he checked his notifications.

Wood Chest Tier 1 OpenedThe rewards have been sent to your inventory

Shesmu opened his inventory only to find 3 new items. There were one sword, 10 potions, and 10 pills. Shesmu took out these items from his inventory one by one so as to show them to his teammates. Shesmu used inspect on those items.

NameIron SwordRarityIronRequired Level5Weapon Level1Attack40Regenerative Health PotionIncreases Health Point regeneration by 5 Hp/sec for one minuteRegenerative Energy PillsIncrease Energy regeneration by 5 Energy/sec for one minute

"Weapon level?" asked Leo confused. He then continued, "Do weapons level up in this game?"

DepressedRyan was also frowning in confusion when he answered, "I guess? But look at those potions, aren't they broken? If we just hit and run while using them, we will never die."

"I'm not sure about the weapon that level up and how that works, but I think we should decide on the distribution first, right?" suggested Shesmu.

DepressedRyan thought for a second then said, "Well, Leo is the tank, for now, so he should get 4 potions, while we get 3 each. Since you're the most proficient with the sword here, so you should take it, and I take 4 pills while you split the rest. Is that good?"

"I think that's fair. Shesmu has been taking most of the burden until now, so he deserves compensation," Leo responded.

"Well, if it's fine with you guys, then I will take the weapon. Hopefully, we find some other treasure chests to equip everyone."

With this, the group went back to searching. After an hour, they found 3 other treasure chests. Unfortunately, none of the treasure chests had any equipment in them, they only contained potions and money.

The distribution of the potions and pills was the same as before with Leo taking 4 Hp potions and DepressedRyan 4 energy pills from every chest. As for the money, the trio distributed it equally and each of them got 80 coppers.

After cleaning the place, Shesmu finally decided to check out what was behind the waterfall. Even though he knew that the goblin den was there, Shesmu deemed it necessary to clear out the area of every treasure chest possible.

Shesmu swam towards the waterfall and looked behind it. He found that even though the entrance of the den was higher than the level of water, they could still reach it by using Dash.

"Hey, guys! I just found something weird!" shouted Shesmu at the top of his lungs to get the attention of the duo.

The duo swam towards him. When they got close to Shesmu, Ryan asked, "What is it? Another treasure?"

"Even better," Shesmu responded. He then signaled them to come behind the waterfall before pointing towards the den and saying, "Come here and look at what I've found, seems like we'll finally have some fun."

The trio followed his lead then looked at where his finger pointed at.

"Is that a cave? We should check it out, maybe we'll find more treasures there!" exclaimed Leo.

"Well, I'd love to too, but how are we supposed to climb that high?" asked DepressedRyan, unwillingness clear in his eyes as he looked at the cave that he deemed impossible to reach.

"Well, who said anything about climbing? We have the Dash skill, so let's use that," suggested Shesmu.

As if given a new life, DepressedRyan's voice became cheerful when he exclaimed, "How could I forget about that! Sorry guys, sometimes my brain just turns off."

"Haha, don't worry. It happens," consoled Leo.

"Well, let's get going guys. We can't stay here all night," said Shesmu.

The duo nodded at Shesmu's word and in a count of three, they all dashed towards the entrance of the cave. Once their feet touched the ground, a message appeared in front of them.

Ding!

Congratulation of finding the level 5 dungeon: Goblin's Den!For being the first party to find the dungeon, you are rewarded with 50 human reputation points!

"Oh a dungeon, lucky!", exclaimed Leo before continuing, "and these rewards are sweet too!"

"I was expecting to find a treasure here, but for it to be a dungeon, that's even better!" added DepressedRyan.

Shesmu closed off the notifications before turning and looking at his teammates, "I think that we should probably stay quiet for now. We don't know where the monsters are and we don't want to get swarmed from the get-go."

The duo nodded at Shesmu's words before Leo responded with a lower voice, "Let's go, guys, I'm already excited."

DepressedRyan and Shesmu smiled when hearing Leo's quiet voice, before chuckling a little bit. This whole scenario left Leo confused, but he didn't mind and just walked deeper into the cave.

The trio didn't have to walk for long before finding their first opponent. Barely 15 seconds in, a group of 5 goblins ran towards them, dagger in hand.

Each of the goblins was a level 5 one, and with small bodies, they could run one next to the other in this small cave with ease. Shesmu used inspect on all of them and found that they have 200 Hp. While this number dwarfed his 160 Hp, it didn't matter to Shesmu. After doing some calculation in his head, Shesmu thought, With my new sword, I can kill one of them in one combo.

"Leo, Ryan, the usual!" Shesmu barked out.

Understanding his meaning, Leo ran towards the goblin group while DepressedRyan hid under the cover of the shadows waiting for the perfect opportunity.

Shesmu followed Leo's lead and ran towards the goblins. At this point, Leo was already their focus, so Shesmu just singled out the goblin at the left and swung his sword towards him.

A flash of green light emanated and ridiculous numbers appeared above the flabbergasted goblin.

120

240