Valerie

The couple had split up to take on different missions for the day. They were easy, though, and quite simple. Gareth had taken on a small mercenary job to take out some bandits while Valerie had taken on a fetch quest. She needed to find a root flower… she had never actually heard of it or seen it before, but it was a Rank E quest, so she was confident she could get it done.

She did find it odd that the commission pointed towards the Deep Forest. Commissions in the Deep Forest were usually at least a B-Rank Quest. The monster alone were enough to take out a small party. Maybe most of the monsters had been culled and the place wasn’t as dangerous anymore? Not that she was worried, either way.

Valerie and Gareth were a part of a very rare class: The Hero Class. It was the strongest class with the widest breadth of options to choose skills from. Heroes were often tasked with protecting the kingdoms they were in, but occasionally grouped up to handle major threats. There were only a few Heroes in the world and Valerie was proud to be one.

She held up the map as she approached the entrance of the Deep Forest. She could feel the dark miasma seeping out of the woods annnnnd nope! This place was still really dangerous. Valerie shuddered as she felt the air stick against her skin; it felt like an oppressive humidity. She was beginning to regret her choice of armor. While it was a symbol of her status and her family… there were some unique choices made.

As strong as the armor was and as magic and miasma resistant as it was, it still exposed quite a lot of skin— more than she would have liked, actually. Still, it had never let her down, so she was willing to put up with the embarrassment and the shivering if it meant she was protected, if not covered.

She set the map back into her bag and drew her sword, keeping it at the ready. If the miasma was this bad, then she needed to be ready for a fight. She also needed to make this quick. The longer someone was in a dark miasma, the more adverse side effects they were known to experience. She wasn’t entirely sure what the side effects were, but they couldn’t be good.

According to the map, there were three paths to get to the root flower. One took her through the swamp—yuck, another took her through the woods, and the last took her straight through a Goblin Camp.

As much as she hated Goblins, the other options weren’t really that great. The swamp would only slow her down and make it difficult to fight if she needed to while the woods would make it almost impossible to anticipate enemy attacks. So the Goblin Camp it was. She hoped she could reason with them so that they would let her go by. If not, she would have to use her sword.

Valerie took the well-worn path, most likely made by the Goblins. From what she knew of Goblins, they were a mostly-intelligent species. The High Goblins were the ones that took care of most of the trading and negotiations where as the normal Goblins were far more animalistic. Goblins, much like other species, formed ‘towns,’ though they called them ‘camps.’ They were often sequestered from civilization and in places with a high miasma count as they were borne out of dark magic.

That’s not to say they were civilized. There were often reports of women going missing and ending up as Goblin breeding slaves. High Goblins were born to women who had mated with Goblins. There was, however, one higher rank: a Goblin Lord. They were extremely rare and were born whenever a human and High Goblin had a child. The child rarely survived due to its intense need for dark magic to help it grow, but in a place like this…

Valerie gulped when she saw the tall wooden pike gates to the Goblin Camp. Two soldiers stood outside guarding the gate. When they saw Valerie, she pointed their spears towards her and let out small Goblin chirps. She held her hands up as a show of peace, “I just need to pass through. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

The two goblins looked at each other before one of them dashed off into the camp. A few minutes later, he came back with a rope. She hesitated. What did they want to do with that? Moreover, what did they want her to do with it?

Did they want her to tie herself up? Her wrists? Or was it something different? The Goblin stepped forward, tying part of the rope into a loop. He pointed up to her neck - they wanted to leash her? It was just a rope. She could break free if she wanted to. Maybe this was just a formality? Of course, she could always just refuse and try to talk to someone higher up.