Chapter 10 Tower Troubles and Goblin Giggles

Chapter 10 Tower Troubles and Goblin Giggles

The watchtower loomed above them like a bad decision waiting to happen. It was old, crumbling, and currently housing an unknown number of goblins who probably weren't going to welcome visitors with tea and cookies.

The Gilded Fox huddled behind a rocky outcropping, studying their target. The tower had three visible levels. The ground floor had a massive wooden door that hung crooked on its hinges. The second floor had narrow slits that probably served as arrow windows once upon a time. The top was open to the sky, a collapsed roof revealing the stars beginning to appear.

Goblin noises drifted down. Laughter. Arguing. What sounded like someone trying to sing and failing miserably.

"Okay, plan," Elara whispered. "Tobin, you're on distraction. Draw as many as you can outside. Bulkan, you're on crowd control—keep them from surrounding us. Fizz, stay back and call out anything useful. Marnie, you're with me on cleanup. Caspian..."

She looked at him.

"You're the wild card. Do your weird stick thing."

Caspian nodded. "Weird stick thing. Got it."

Tobin bounced on his heels, spear ready. "Distraction? I was born for distraction! Watch this!"

Before anyone could stop him, he strode out from behind the rocks, marched right up to the tower door, and kicked it. The door creaked, groaned, and fell inward with a dusty crash.

"HEY, GOBLINS!" Tobin bellowed. "RENT'S DUE! PAY UP OR GET OUT!"

For a moment, silence.

Then chaos.

Goblins poured out of the tower like angry green ants from a disturbed nest. There were more than they'd expected—at least a dozen, maybe fifteen. They were small, scrawny, and armed with a terrifying assortment of sharpened sticks, rusty knives, and what looked like a stolen kitchen cleaver.

They also, Caspian noticed, looked absolutely furious about being yelled at.

Tobin's confidence wavered. "Uh... that's a lot of goblins."

"Run!" Elara shouted.

Tobin ran. The goblins chased. It was exactly the plan, Caspian realized. Draw them out. Split them up. It was working.

Most of the goblins chased Tobin in a shrieking mob. But three broke off, spotting the rest of the group behind the rocks.

Bulkan stood up. He didn't run. He just stood there, arms crossed, looking down at the charging goblins like a disappointed father.

The goblins skidded to a halt. They looked at Bulkan. They looked at each other. They looked back at Bulkan.

One of them, braver or dumber than the others, threw its sharpened stick. It bounced harmlessly off Bulkan's chest.

Bulkan grunted. "Hrn."

He took one step forward. The goblins ran screaming after their friends.

"That's three," Elara said calmly. "Caspian, the tower?"

He nodded. While the goblins were distracted chasing Tobin and fleeing Bulkan, the tower was undefended. They slipped inside.

The ground floor was a mess. Goblins weren't exactly known for housekeeping. Bones, stolen goods, and questionable stains covered every surface. A fire pit smoldered in the center, the smoke finding its way out through gaps in the stones.

Stairs curved upward along the wall.

Marnie pointed. Two goblins were still inside, both asleep in a nest of stolen blankets. They snored loudly, completely unaware.

Elara drew her sword. "Quick and quiet."

They moved toward the sleeping goblins. But Caspian's foot found exactly the wrong spot on the floor. A loose stone shifted. Scraped. Made a sound that echoed in the sudden silence.

The goblins woke up.

For a moment, everyone stared at each other. Then the goblins opened their mouths to scream.

Caspian reacted on instinct. His stick transformed mid-swing into the pool noodle, and he brought it down on the nearest goblin's head with a soft boing. The goblin's eyes crossed. It wobbled. It fell over.

The second goblin tried to scramble away, but Marnie was faster. Her spoon connected with its backside with a THWACK that sounded far more solid than a wooden spoon had any right to be. The goblin yelped and collapsed beside its friend.

Elara stared at both of them. "That... actually worked."

Marnie smiled slightly, tucking her spoon back into her apron.

< Goblin Defeated! EXP +5 each! >

Caspian's notification flashed. He was getting close to another level.

Shouts from outside reminded them the fight wasn't over. They hurried up the stairs.

The second floor had been a barracks once. Now it was more goblin nests, more stolen junk, and two more goblins who were too busy arguing over a shiny rock to notice the intruders.

Elara handled one with a swift sword pommel to the head. Caspian, emboldened by his pool noodle success, bopped the other. It worked again.

< Goblin Defeated! EXP +5 each! >

The top floor was open to the sky. And waiting for them was the biggest goblin Caspian had ever seen.

It was twice the size of the others, with crude armor made from scavenged metal and a club that looked like a small tree. It stood in the center of the platform, surrounded by more stolen goods, and it did not look happy to see them.

"Boss goblin," Elara breathed.

The boss goblin roared. It charged.

Caspian's pool noodle bounced off its armor uselessly. Elara's sword scraped against the metal. The goblin swung its club, and they scattered.

Downstairs, they could hear Tobin still running, still yelling, still somehow alive. Bulkan's occasional grunts suggested he was still holding the line. Fizzlewick's voice carried facts about goblin physiology that nobody had time to appreciate.

The boss goblin swung again. Caspian dove, rolled, and came up with his stick transformed. Yoyo. He let it fly, wrapping the string around the goblin's club hand. He yanked.

The goblin stumbled. Didn't fall, but stumbled. It was enough.

Elara darted in, striking at an exposed knee. The goblin howled. Marnie appeared behind it, her spoon glowing faintly, and delivered a THWACK to the back of its head that actually made the creature's eyes water.

Enraged, the boss goblin shook off the yoyo and swung wildly. Caspian transformed again. Noisemaker. He blew it directly in the goblin's face.

HONK-SQUAWK!

The goblin recoiled, hands going to its ears. In that moment of confusion, Elara found a gap in its armor and struck. The goblin fell to its knees, then forward, crashing onto the stone floor.

< Boss Goblin Defeated! EXP +50! >

< Congratulations! Level Up! >
< Current Level: 5 >
< New Form Unlocked: Rope Dart (Flexible ranged weapon, improved control) >

Caspian felt the knowledge flow into him. A rope dart. Like the yoyo's cooler, more dangerous cousin. He focused, and his conduit shifted into a sleek wooden handle with a long, strong rope ending in a weighted, pointed tip. It was still non-lethal if he wanted it to be, but it had reach and precision.

"Nice," he breathed.

Downstairs, the chaos was ending. Tobin had led the remaining goblins in circles until they collapsed from exhaustion. Bulkan had intimidated another three into hiding. Fizzlewick had identified a poisonous mushroom patch that accidentally caught two more.

When they regrouped at the tower entrance, the Gilded Fox was bruised, tired, and grinning like idiots.

"Did we win?" Tobin gasped, bent over with his hands on his knees.

"We won," Elara confirmed. "The tower is clear."

Fizzlewick consulted his tome. "Technically, there are still approximately six goblins hiding in the surrounding forest, but they pose no immediate threat and will likely relocate within forty-eight hours!"

"Close enough," Caspian said.

They explored the tower more thoroughly. In the boss goblin's hoard, they found more than just junk. There were old military supplies, likely from the tower's original occupants. A few usable weapons. Some dried rations that were probably older than Caspian but still technically edible.

And in a locked chest that took Bulkan exactly one try to open, they found maps. Old maps. Maps of the Deepwood that showed things not on any modern chart.

Elara spread them out on the tower floor. "Look. Here's the tower. And here..." She traced a line deeper into the forest. "The Glimmer. It's marked."

The ruins were two days deeper into the Deepwood. Beyond where most hunters ventured. Beyond where it was safe.

But they had maps. They had momentum. They had a rope dart and a spoon and a talking book and more determination than sense.

"Camp here tonight," Elara decided. "We'll rest, resupply from the tower's stores, and push on tomorrow."

That night, they made camp in the tower's ground floor. Marnie somehow produced a hot meal from the ancient rations. Fizzlewick identified the constellations through the broken roof. Tobin fell asleep mid-sentence. Bulkan snored by the door, a living barricade.

Caspian sat by a small fire they'd built in the old hearth, practicing with his new rope dart. The weighted tip traced patterns in the air. He was getting faster. More precise.

Elara sat beside him. "You're leveling up faster than anyone I've ever seen."

"The System helps," he admitted. "And the goblins helped."

She was quiet for a moment. "What happens when you reach max level? When you 'defeat the game'?"

Caspian thought about it. The question he'd been avoiding. "I go home, I guess. Back to my world. Back to my old life."

"And leave us behind?"

He looked at her. The firelight was doing things to her face again. Making her look soft and strong at the same time. "I don't know if I'll have a choice."

Elara nodded slowly. She didn't say anything else. But she stayed beside him until the fire burned low and the night grew cold.

Far in the distance, deeper in the forest, something howled. It wasn't a goblin. It wasn't anything they'd heard before.

The Deepwood had more to offer. And somewhere out there, the Glimmer waited.