Chapter 40 Exploring the ruins

Chapter 40

Exploring the ruins

Today after returning to the orphanage, I finished my duties and just when I was about to sleep, my roommate came close to my bed and called me.

Her name is Lily and she is the child I saved from goblins. Although she was quite happy till now, living in this orphanage but today she seemed sad.

Even the rabbit meat and fruits which I brought today didn’t cheer her up although the other children and the sisters were very happy.

When I sat up and listened to her story, she slowly started crying a little.

I didn’t knew what to do so I just gently pat her back while telling her that its OK. The other two girls in the room seemed to be awake to but they were quietly lying on their bed, being considerate of lily.

Since the lights were off, I could not see Lily’s face but I am sure she looked sad.

After she stopped crying, I talked to her through telepathy.

(What happened Lily chan. Did someone scold you today?)

(su …su …no…)

(Then, did some kid fight with you?)

(no..su…)

(Well….)

(Onii chan, there was a message …su unnnn..from….the guards and…unnnn they said…they did not find….unnn….anyone …from …my family..and they told …that probably…unnn died…..unnnnnnnn.)

She started crying again. I don’t know what to say.

She might have been crying all day today, that’s why her face looked a little swollen when I came back.

And here I thought, she was looking healthy after eating properly.

All I could do was hug her and pat her on the back. I have never lost anyone close to me in my previous life, so I donot know how it feels.

I knew that was the case for her family, but I thought that delaying the news as long as possible could work. I was naive. But, she would have to be told sooner or later.

So now she is an orphan in true sense. This is quite sad for me.

Such an innocent girl, becoming an orphan at such a young age. But that is the reality of life in this world.

Stories like these are very common in this world.

All I can do now is to support her until she grows up and is able to earn her living somehow.

I don’t know why but I somehow feel some responsibility for her, like she is my sister.

After crying for some time, I gave water to Lily and she calmed down a little.

Waking up in the morning, I found Lily sleeping peacefully.

So I got up and did my daily routine and work. After breakfast, I decided to talk to Lily again.

I asked her if she was alright. She nodded but she was still sad.

I asked her if she was going to be alright without me, and she nodded weakly. She seemed to want to tell me, not to leave her.

But I have no choice since I donot have money. Feeling guilty I decided to stay today.

While I was thinking so , the youngest sister working here came towards us and hugged Lily.

She started pampering her and she then told her that I have to go and punish the bad goblins so that no more people will die.

Lilly listened to that and then with firm eyes told me to go and punish the bad goblins to save people.

Even though Lily and I were talking with telepathy the sister understood that I was not going today for work as I was feeling sad for lily.

And she accurately predicted that and indirectly told me and Lily that I should go to quest again today.

This sister sure has some super esper like powers. Her name is Camilla by the way and she is 28 year old woman.

Still feeling bad, I promised Lily that I would bring her something nice in the evening and then went on my way to the guild.

After accepting the quest for goblin extermination, I was on my way to the Ghalia forest again.

I did not accept the herb quest because I want to keep my item box free, in case I stumble upon some treasures or items in the ruins.

I even left my spare weapons and armor at the orphanage today.

I followed the same path as yesterday and quickly reached the ancient ruins.

Today the atmosphere here was no different from yesterday, but today there were two guards at the gate.

One was level 15 goblin with the spear, and the other was a level 13 archer goblin.

I hope its not due to them realizing that they were attacked yesterday. I went to the backside of the ruins like yesterday.

Today too there were a lot of goblins roaming around. First I cleared around 12 goblins on the ground.

Then after climbing to the roof, I found that they did not replace the archers that I killed yesterday.

So I decided to clear the roof today. There are about 15 goblins on the roof and I swiftly made quick work of them with my knife and conceal skill.

I then did some rounds and disposed off the killed goblins away from the ruins.

Then I moved around and killed of more goblins one by one. Ultimately I killed 18 more goblins stealthily and the back side and roof were completely clear.

Going around the ruins and following the same tactic of attracting the goblin with a sound, I killed 14 more goblins in the front.

The front was also almost clear. All that remained was 2 guards and 5 goblins sitting near the entrance.

I thought of another tactic. I took out some rabbit meat from my item box, which I had brought for this purpose and started a fire with the help of oil and starter flint that I borrowed from the orphanage.

I kept the rabbit meat near the fire to let it roast with help of leaves. I took out another two and did the same thing 2 times after some distance from each other.

After that I hid behind a fallen pillar.

After some time all the goblins got up and came towards the meat. Even the guards couldn’t resist the roasting meat.

The guards asserted their dominance and started eating the first one.

The rest of the group that were at loss but suddenly started smelling the other rabbits and divided between the 2 groups to eat them.

Since I set them up so that they would not be visible to each other due to pillars and ivy, I could now easily ambush them.

There were 2 goblins eating the rabbit at the place near my hiding spot. I went around their back and finished them off with a single strike of my sword.

Two throats got slit in single slash while they were still swallowing their rabbit meat. I picked it up as it was still for use to me

Leaving them be, I went to the second spot. Here 3 goblins were gathered and fighting for the rabbit.

While hidden I threw the half eaten rabbit meat, in a direction away from the spot of second rabbit. Two of them saw the newly appeared piece of meat and ran to get that, while the third immediately snatched the 2nd.

I went behind the lone goblin and finished him off and stored his body in my item box. I picked up the unfinished rabbit again.

Now I repeated the same for the 2 goblins and finished them off quickly. All that was left were two guards.

I had two pieces of half eaten rabbits. I quickly hid the bodies of all goblins away and attract the goblin guards with the half eaten rabbits by throwing them in two opposite directions.

Since the two guard goblins had already finished their first, they went to the newly thrown rabbits happily, both in opposite direction and that was the end of them.

After gathering ears of all the goblins, I disposed threw the bodies in the bushes quite far away from the ruins after collecting their weapons.

The ruins were clear now. And since its still 11 am I have plenty of time to explore today.

My only fear is the presence of some leader type species of goblin inside, just like that named scarlet goblin I found in the forest when I saved Lily.

I don’t know what I may face here so I decided to take out my shields, tied one on my back for extra protection and the other I held in left hand.

In right had I held my sword. If I found that the interior was narrow, I would change to knife.

I had already scanned the outside properly and ther was nothing outside. No tools, no treasure. So I moved inside.

Inside the building was a little dim but still visible due to sunlight coming from some broken parts in the roof.

Inside was a wide passage that lead straight. I cautiously started walking. What came beyond the corridor was a huge hall like area and corridors built on both sides of the hall leading further inside.

In the center of hall was a corroded and destroyed mermaid like figure in pose of pouring water from a jar held on top right near her head.

But the head of the mermaid was missing. Her tail was also not complete and was broken.

That seemed to be a decorative fountain since there was also a circular wall surrounding the mermaid statue that seemed to have held water.

Continuing at the back , there were stairs to go on the first floor and a big single room below the stairs.

Surprisingly, there were no goblins here.

I then decided to clear the Upper floor first. So I climbed up the stairs. There going around there were hallways in right and left direction.

I first went to the left hallway. There were rooms here on both the sides at equal interval.

There was no door ofcourse, since no door could last more than 1000 years.

And since we are talking about ancient civilization here, this building must be at least that old, otherwise there was no point in calling it ancient.

I entered the rooms one by one. All of them were empty and completely ransacked.

All that was there was stone floor and a fire place. This room clearly is a bed room and there was also a small toilet like room attached to it.

All the rooms were the same and I did not find anything here, not even goblins.

After that I went to the right side and there too there was exactly the same thing.

I even tried to search for hidden doors or safes but there was absolutely nothing there except rubble. What a huge disappointment.

Or maybe the goblins or someone else had already completely emptied this place.