Chapter 11

  The spiky horror stands in the center of the tunnel. Its menacing spikes protrude over a foot from its body. There is barely enough room for Jisseppi to make himself flat against the wall and side step beside it to escape. He briefly debates if it’s worth crawling, but the fear of being unable to get up once he goes down keeps him on his feet.

  Jisseppi nudges ever so slowly even before he gets in front of the beast he’s too scared to move at anything other than a snail's pace. His heart rate builds up, the throbbing pain in his arm returns and the blood flow starts up again at a trickle.

  With each inquisitive sniff at the air it’s attention draws more focused. Similar to a pointer dog, its clawed hand is outstretched towards Jisseppi in the direction it's sniffing. Gradually its head starts to turn towards Jisseppi.

  *Oh god no it can smell me I need to be quick.* Jisseppi turns sideways now facing the monster he runs. His stealth skill briefly fades and the beast lunges at him. The solitary focus of staying alive keeps his attention glued on the path forward. Jisseppi doesn’t notice the attack and the spell quickly takes effect over him again.

  If he noticed the attack surely his panic would have taken over and he would be unable to concentrate. Instead he keeps running, uncaring if his loud steps and heavy breathing will get the attention of any monsters. He just can’t have this thing be between him and safety.

  The monster takes off down the tunnel, it can’t tell exactly where its prey is, but as the sounds pick up, so does the smell. Though it can’t see its foe it will run them down eventually. It begins to snarl

  After a minute of running Jisseppi slows each foot wall slower and heavier than the one before it. Eventually his steps stop all together. With his heart in his ears he slowly turns his head to look behind him. The troglodyte is only a few feet away.

  *Dammit what do I do? How do I lose this thing? This barely puts him in a better situation than before* I was hoping to have at least gotten a little more ground* He stays still thinking for only a moment before he resumes his previous crawled pace scooting along the walls. He can no longer think of his song. His thoughts are getting darker. No longer does he reassure himself that he can make it.

  From the side of his vision he catches a glimpse of his arm. *Okay, maybe I’m not in a better place.* As he scoots forward, so too does the beast. Jisseppi compensates by walking slower, taking more deliberate steps and truly clearing his mind of all needless thought. His heart rate slows to a stop and his actions become instinctual.

  His mind clouds further. His thoughts get darker and the image of his own dead body flashes into his mind.

  After an eon of this slowed pace, small tears trail down his face. Jisseppi’s arm simply stops swinging at his side, he can’t move it. When he notices he doesn’t panic. He maintains his pace and starts to think of a last ditch effort to get himself out of this *Fuck it I need to do something bold. I will not die here!*

  ******

  Gisele’s been holding herself in since the accident, separating herself from her social life.Sure some of it started when her second husband died and she had to spend more of her rest periods taking care of her son, but she still found time to have a decent social life and a few long term friends. Hunting really only took a day a week once she got to level 6. Then her injuries were usually always minor.

  She used to be great friends with many of the local craftspeople especially with the tanner/leather worker. She had a few different hunting parties she regularly would go out with, but none of them were particularly close.

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  Her priority with her funds as always is focused on Kofi. He’s nearly a year and a half and about to hit his final growth spurt. It's crucial he gets as many nutrients as possible, or it will stunt his growth severely. A very common problem with goblins.

  Despite her growing reluctance to talk with others and her increasingly hermit lifestyle: she spends a good hour bargaining with various centipede merchants. She’s inexperienced at haggling and does little more than go back and forth to each of them with lower and lower offers..

  It takes much longer than it usually would for Gisele to finish her shopping trip. She’s tough but learning to balance again is difficult. The pain isn’t as bad as an injury as it’s happening, but it does get annoying when it's constant and all this walking really agitated the wound. She ends the trip with a single copper coin left in her pouch, somewhat satisfied with herself. She has a little extra time before she must return home so she decides to visit the tanner Gakaou so can check if the fittings are correct now that her full piece is completed and worn in.

  She has been to see the man a handful of times since. First to sell her armor that she no longer needed to pay for food. Then to create the strap for the leg she had made for herself. Each of the times the friendly man would try to start a conversation with her like they used to. Each time she gave some quick excuse for why she had to be back home. In an attempt to regain her sense of normalcy she decides to hear him out for once. Figuring *If I’m going to be stuck like this I may as well get used to it, I can’t keep stewing in self pity*.

  The conversation starts slow and awkward. Mostly just small talk, the empathetic man offering to do some free touch ups on her straps since she has had the opportunity to wear it. He asks before she even mentions it’s the reason for her visit. He asks about her days and how she’s coping. At some point he brings up her youngest, the craftsman has a boy only a few months older and the two used to play together.Gisele loses herself in conversation with the village leatherworker at some point the man brings up her son and she becomes unable to pull herself out of it. They leave the topic of youngest and Gisele starts bragging about her oldest.

  “That other one came by the other day too. He was getting measurements for a fitting. That boy’s really moving up quickly. I guess it help to have you guiding him.”

  “Yeah! He’s such a good boy. Diligent too. Finally got a unique class the other day! Stealth at level 0 and a stat boost at level 3. I’m just so proud of my little baby.”

  “Ha! You talk like he’s a year old. You’ll embarrass the boy if hears you.”

  The bell on the door jingles

  Gisele quickly turns to the door Gakaou’s comment has her on edge. *OH NO! Did he come to get his armor? Did he hear me? He’s a grown man. He only moved back in to take care of us. He’ll be so embarrassed if he heard.*

  A goblin wearing patchwork robes walks into the building. He patiently waits by the door allowing the interrupted conversation to finish.

  “Ah. Sorry Gisele. I would love to keep talking away. I can do that check up for ya if you’d like, it’ll only take a little” He offers her a chair next to his counter, so she can sit and remove the prosthetic.

  Once the woman leaves the building Gumphrey steps up to the counter “Hello. I got some leather from a troglodyte the other day and I would love to have it turned into some armguards.”

  The man slides a bundle of leather across the counter. The quantity immediately known to the experience tanner since the dungeon’s quantities are the standard they use to measure.

  “I’ll make you the armguards. Low priority for no charge and I’ll give you 3 copper extra for the remaining leather. Have it to you in about 7 days”

  “Anyway you can do it faster?” Gumphrey asks. He knows the next blink will be in 5 days and he wants the extra protection in case he runs into any kobolds.

  “I’ve been getting a lot of orders lately since the rumors of the portal. All the leather hoarders and hunters are selling their leather en masse and trying to get stuff made for them. I could give you a better deal, but I’d have to charge. I still have some other orders that walked in before you and paid good coin for the speedy privilege so the best I can do is the end of day 2 days from now. I’ll keep all the extra leather.”

  ******

  Jisseppi takes a finger and coats it painstakingly in blood by dipping it in his wound. He grabs his trusty rusty dagger and spreads the blood onto it. He takes deep breath images of his mother standing happily with his late father. His half brother's first birthday.

  He tosses the knife. The motion breaks him out of stealth, expecting that he runs in the opposite direction. He knows there is a corner coming up ahead. He doesn’t bother reactivating stealth yet.

  He struggles to reach the turn, his good arm outstretched as if reaching desperately for the destination. White spots cloud his sight. He makes it to the edge, gets just out of sight of the creature and casts stealth.

  Statuesque he stays absolutely still as the monster steps right in front of him. Even Though his lungs are desperate for air he remains motionless. The monster practically sniffs air in front of him. If troglodytes weren’t practically blind and incredibly stupid he would be dead. Instead it takes off picking up on the scent of the knife.

  He barely makes it to the inner caves on his feet. He sighs in relief. While monsters will still follow people into inner caves that’s only if they are actively chasing them. Quickly checking behind his shoulder he knows he’s in the clear.

  Sure he could of course still die to any number of things. Like the poison coursing through what little blood he has left. The gaping wound is far too big to heal without magic. Even goblins rival tribes here to steal his stuff aren’t out of the question.

  From in front of him he hears, “Hey, buddy. Are you okay?” The voice gets louder as the person is clearly approaching. Once the short goblin woman steps into Jisseppi’s sight she lets out a brief “EEP! Holy shit dude!” She rushes over quickly, hoisting his good arm over her neck to support him.