Mapping the forest as we explored, and marking the locations of the goblins we encountered, a pattern emerged. Between that and Byron’s ability to spot trails, we soon closed in on the dungeon.

  The problem was that the goblins had set up a rudimentary camp around it, and were protecting the entrance.

  “They have entrenched themselves quite thoroughly,” Byron murmured beside me, as we crouched behind the bushes and studied the layout.

  “And there’s probably way more inside,” I said. We needed a way to cut off reinforcements.

  Byron and I backtracked to where Felton and Felris were waiting, informing them of the situation, and I considered our options.

  “Felton, how close do you have to be to use [Create Stone] to make a wall about, say, this big?” I asked, motioning with my arms to roughly the scale of the dungeon’s entrance.

  The boy frowned in thought. “How thick?”

  “Pretty thick. Thick enough that a bunch of goblins couldn’t break through.”

  “Then, pretty close. Ideally right next to it.”

  I sighed. That was what I thought. “We’ll need to create a distraction, then. Something big enough to draw away some of the camp members and give Felton a chance to get close and cast, but not so big that we’ll draw out every goblin from inside the dungeon.”

  As we talked it out, a plan began to form. Byron mostly let the three of us work it out, only offering suggestions from his wealth of experience when we overlooked something. When we were ready, I looked around at the three of them.

  “Alright, we’ll do that,” I said, then paused. “Before we start…”

  I cast [Empower], [Bulwark], and [Hasten] on all four of us, which took a while to chant through. It would be worth the time and mana outlay, though, to ensure the success of the mission and the safety of my closest companions. Besides, I wouldn’t need much mana for my role in the plan.

  “That should help. Right, Byron, you go with Felton and cover him. Felris, you’re with me. Good luck.”

  I waited and watched as Byron and Felton crept away to get into position, then turned to Felris. “You ready?”

  She nodded, a slow smile playing across her face. “I’ve finally got you to myself,” she purred.

  I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “Yeah. Just you, me, and dozens of disgusting goblins.”

  “That does sour the mood, somewhat.”

  “Just somewhat?”

  Felris clicked her tongue. “Maybe a bit more than that.”

  I chuckled. “Time to focus. Kill goblins now, seduce me later.”

  “Only if you promise to finally be seduced,” she grumbled. “I’m starting to feel a bit rejected, here.”

  I leaned forward, and planted a small kiss on her cheek. “You’re incredible, and I’ll be the luckiest guy in Argadia when I get to marry you,” I said, enjoying the look of surprise and delight on her face. “After we kill hordes of nasty little monsters.”

  “Right, then,” she said, and once again, it was like I could feel the electricity crackling behind her eyes as a fierce expression took over her face. “Lead the way.”

  We set out for a spot opposite where Felton and Byron would be setting up, far enough from the goblin camp that it would take a minute for them to run to our position. After waiting long enough that the others should be in position, I nodded at Felris.

  She took a deep, full breath, then let out a piercing shriek of faux fear.

  Rubbing my ears, I looked over at her to see she was already beginning to chant. Mana began to accumulate. I positioned myself between her and the goblin camp, drawing my mandiblades and readying myself for combat.

  It wasn’t long before the first goblin appeared. It let out an angry shriek, charging at me with only a sharpened stick in hand.

  That was nowhere near enough, but then the second and third goblin appeared behind it.

  [Swordsmanship] flared to life alongside [Dual Wielding] as my lifetime of training coalesced into a deadly dance between myself and the naked green monsters. Limbs were severed, bellies opened, and heads fell, but more goblins filled the gaps. Behind me, Felris chanted. It was a spell I knew perfectly; I kept one ear tracking that, with one ear listening for any concerning noises from the goblin’s camp.

  As Felris’s chant neared its end, I slowly fell back towards her, allowing more goblins to fill the space in front of us. I mostly focused on the flanks, stopping any from moving ahead of me. With my hastened speed, I flowed left and right as a blur, until I heard the final words coming from her mouth.

  The hair on the back of my arms and neck started to raise as the spell reached its crescendo, the collected mana swelling, and I threw myself to the ground, covering my head.

  A deafening crack tore through the air as Felris’s [Create Lightning] surged forward, burning right through the first goblin and then branching outwards from one to the next. Goblins seized en masse, falling to the ground, as the smell of ozone and charred meat filled the air.

  My ears rang, and I rubbed them as I stood. As the ringing faded, I started to make out the sounds of angry goblin screams from the camp up ahead, meaning Felton and Byron had engaged the others. I turned to Felris, grinning.

  “Well done—whoa,” I said, stepping forward to grab and steady her as she began to sway. It had been a fairly massive spell, and from the control of the branching, it was at least at the second skill level, if not third. She had probably poured every bit of mana she could into it.

  Felris leaned into me, blinking her eyes and breathing hard. “That really takes it out of a girl.”

  “It was pretty amazing,” I said, smiling at her. “I can see how much you’ve been working at it.”

  “You didn’t do too bad, yourself,” she said, leaning into me harder. Her cheeks flushed pink.

  “Had to make sure I could protect you properly this time.” My grip on her tightened and my face inched closer to hers.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “I guess we’ve both earned a reward, then,” she whispered.

  “There’s just one thing,” I murmured, our lips nearly touching.

  “What’s that?” she asked, eyes closing.

  “We should probably go make sure your brother isn’t being killed by goblins.”

  Her eyes snapped back open as I stepped back, releasing her and flashing a wicked grin.

  Felris sputtered for a moment, before letting out a high-pitched growl of frustration. I chuckled, earning myself a glare, but two could play at this game.

  “You will pay for that later,” she warned, then strode back towards the dungeon.

  * * *

  By the time we arrived back at the dungeon, the remaining goblins had been entirely taken care of, courtesy of Byron. His rapier dripped with goblin blood, and he had expertly funneled them off to the side during the battle, resulting in a rather large pile-up of small green corpses. He relaxed slightly when he saw us none the worse for wear, giving me a small, warm smile.

  Felton stood at the dungeon cave entrance, which was now sealed up thanks to his [Create Stone] spell. He tapped on it, nodding to himself.

  “Seems like that worked out,” I said, causing him to turn and flash us a grin.

  “There’s a bunch locked in there still,” he said.

  “That can wait. Let’s sweep the area first and make sure there’s no survivors nearby.”

  Once we had hunted down all the remaining runners and hiders and ensured that we had as little to worry about outside the dungeon as possible, we reconvened back at the camp. It was a mess, as one would expect from the slaughter of so many monsters. Byron had lured many to their deaths out of the way, but there were plenty more corpses that needed to be dealt with, including the ones in the clearing Felris and I had held.

  There, we made a second pile, rather than drag them all back to the main camp.

  I glanced up, looking at the encroaching woods.

  “We should probably chop all these overhanging branches,” I said, motioning up at the nearby trees.

  Fortunately, the three of us knew [Create Water] and had enough will to use the spell as a cutter, and my mandiblades, pumped full of mana, made short work of anything I could reach. Byron’s expensive, but mundane, rapier was spared from the task. There was no need to blunt such a nice edge on wood. We had some axes, as well, which everyone used to clear all the nearby foliage, adding it to the corpse pile.

  When it was all done, everyone stepped back, and I began to chant [Create Fire].

  Soon, we were standing upwind with our hands over our noses as the goblins were incinerated. I kept control over the fire’s mana circuit, feeding it until the pile was burning all the way through, and containing the range of the flames as much as I could to ensure nothing jumped to any nearby trees. With the magical control, the fire burned hotter and faster, turning the monsters to charcoal and then ash.

  It was a shame goblins were so worthless. Maybe someone desperate enough to raise their Will at any cost would try and eat them, but they’d certainly get sick from it. They just didn’t offer anything of true value, so all we could do was purge them.

  Once our site was cleaned, we returned to sorting the goblin camp around the dungeon, creating an even bigger pile. Here, we chopped down more brush and actively cleared the site with a bit more intent; the goblins had cleared a lot, but a quick pass over opened the space up further. We would be setting up camp here until we had the dungeon taken care of, and if there was anything of value to be found within, this was where it would end up being processed.

  I turned back to the dungeon while taking a short rest, considering it. Technically, goblins were a fae-type monster, which meant this was a fae-based dungeon.

  Fae dungeons weren’t too common in Argadia, so the fact that this one had been overrun by goblins was a shame. Almost anything else would have had more value, when it came to dungeon farming. It wasn’t surprising, though; according to what I read, when not caught early, goblins usually out-propagated most other fae-type monsters. What was even more of a shame was that, at the scale needed for them to break out of the dungeon, they would have already consumed any valuable resources within: the corpses of the other fae monsters, magic mushrooms, mana-rich spring water, and so on.

  If we were lucky, there could be some valuable ores, but once depleted, this dungeon would likely be valueless for generations. Managing it in all that time on the hopes something new would spawn would be wasteful; once barren, it wouldn’t have the feedback loop to replenish its own mana, and once settled, the humans in the area would be drawing in much of the local ambient mana. Rather, the best move was to conquer it by finding and shattering its core. The shattered core crystal was a potent source of mana and would be bought by the crown for a tidy sum, which would kick-start our settlement.

  Well, nothing I can do about it now, I thought, turning back to the task at hand.

  By evening, the camp was mostly cleaned up. Felton cast [Control Earth] to turn the soil over, burying the bloody areas and then compacting the region around the dungeon, while I immolated the even larger pile of corpses.

  Ideally, we would have further secured the area, but it would have to wait until the next day. All of us were exhausted, especially after using so much magic, so after the work was done we quickly set up camp and ate an easy dinner. As soon as they started digesting, Felton and Felris were already starting to nod off.

  “You two get some sleep. Byron and I will handle the first watch.”

  The siblings nodded, each climbing into separate tents before they passed the rest of the way out.

  I sat next to Byron by the fire, my own eyes struggling to stay open.

  “Why don’t you rest as well, master Tovar,” Byron said softly. “We’ve scouted and cleared the area, and blockaded the dungeon, so the danger is low. I can wake you if need be.”

  “Not really fair to you, Byron,” I muttered, but a yawn overtook me before I could continue. “You must be tired as well.”

  “All I did was wave my sword around and move some corpses. It was hardly the first time, and nothing so strenuous as to tire me out,” Byron chuckled. “But you have used a lot of magic today, and will need to use more tomorrow. Rest now.”

  I wanted to argue, hold my own for the group, but I was fighting to keep my eyes open. “Wake me if anything happens,” I mumbled, laying back and letting the fatigue win out. I was asleep before I heard his response.

  * * *

  The next morning, while Byron was still getting some much-deserved rest, Felton and I began constructing walls with [Create Stone] to fence in and enclose the dungeon camp fully. It would give us a space where we could all truly rest in the coming nights, and prevent any new goblins from spilling out of the dungeon, in the worst case.

  Felris, meanwhile, was cooking breakfast.

  “Done,” she said, calling us over and handing us bowls. I looked down at it, then over to Felton, who glanced back at me.

  “Is this… oatmeal?” I asked, genuinely uncertain.

  Felris frowned. “Yes?”

  I shrugged, spooning some into my mouth. I chewed once, paused, chewed again, paused, and then painfully swallowed.

  “You can hire a chef,” Felton stage-whispered, and Felris flicked a spoonful of so-called-oatmeal at him in faux-outrage.

  “Appreciate the effort, Felris,” I said.

  The commotion had awoken and drawn Byron out of his tent and over to the fire. He took a spoonful, tasted it, then hummed. “Salvageable. I’ll take over from here, Lady Felris.”

  She sighed, and nodded, sitting back and watching the butler to see what he did. Felton and I returned to our work until Byron called us back over for a slightly more palatable breakfast.

  By mid-day, the area was fully secured and we were boxed in; we would need to cast [Control Stone] to free ourselves and create a gateway for future use, but for now, we wanted the extra security. The four of us walked over to the closed-in dungeon entrance.

  “Felton, can you open a porthole?” I asked, making a circle with my hands. “Just big enough for an arm to pass through.”

  After his cast, we had a small window back into the dungeon. Some goblins had gathered, but it seemed like they had given up trying to break through.

  The new opening caused them to start to cry out, getting back to their feet and rushing forward.

  “Yeah, bring it, you vile fucks!” I shouted through the hole. “Come and get some!”

  I turned back to find my three companions looking at me with raised eyebrows.

  “What?”

  “Just wondering what your plan is, exactly,” Felton said.

  “Gather goblins. Fry goblins. Repeat until done.”

  It wasn’t long before countless goblins were packed up into the tunnel, screeching and scrambling to break out. I began to cast, but was interrupted.

  “Allow me,” Felris said, with a confident smirk. “I think I can do even better than yesterday.”

  I stepped out of the way, and Felris stepped up, chanting the invocation for [Create Lightning]. As she reached the conclusion, she lifted a hand to the opening, furrowed her brow, and focused.

  Lightning blasted from her hand through the gap, pouring into the dungeon. Goblin screams echoed out from within as the burning bolt of electricity kept coming, until Felris sagged, dropping the spell. Smoke began to waft out of the hole, escaping through the only vent from inside the tunnel.

  I caught her, and grinned at the group. “Now we just do that until they stop coming,” I said. “Then we crack this dungeon open and finish it off.”