Cursed Bloodline: Awakened a Hidden Class in a Game World-Chapter 48: Hob goblin

Zane and Grey finally found the stairs that led to the second floor, and there was a large space around there with adventurers resting or doing whatever.

There were some people selling some stuff like maps of the second floor and more.

"We should get a map," Zane said and led the way toward one of the men that had some maps. He didn’t have any currency now, but traders would accept anything of reasonable value, and as for here, they would accept goblin crystals.

The man he met was a short man with a large build. His stomach looked like he drank one too many jugs of alcohol.

He had a bald head that reflected the light of the crystals and two beady eyes.

"Hello, adventurers. Here, come this way," he spoke, pointing to the maps on the floor enthusiastically.

"We want a map, preferably something that shows all the way to the fifth floor," Zane said.

"Oh, we have that here. As much as you could possibly need. A good one, very well-detailed, goes for about five singer coins, but if you don’t have the money, ten goblin crystals will also perfectly suffice," the man spoke. His tone was soft and calm, like he was being very reasonable.

’A map for ten goblin crystals? I know that price can’t be right. Is this man trying to rip us off?’ Zane thought. He looked at the man right in the eyes and was about to use charm to get the truth, but then someone came running.

"Don’t pay for it, that old fart is a scammer!"

Zane turned to see who was yelling. It was a young man in casual clothes and a short sword tied to his waist.

"Hey, you brat, I’ve told you to lay off my business or I’ll have you pay for it!" the old man roared at the young man.

"And allow you to rip off others? No way," the young man replied.

"What do you mean rip off?" Zane decided to join the conversation to escalate it.

"No, no, don’t mind that loudmouth. He is enraged that no one tried to buy his maps," the old man said.

"What are you saying? I’ve already sold all my maps because I set the real price. And you haven’t sold anything till now because you refuse to bring down the price!" the young man yelled.

Zane watched their interaction, and it felt off. Something was very off about it. If this young man had really been causing issues for the old man, then surely the old man would have done something about it.

Zane decided to pay attention to their heartbeats, and he could hear it was beating faster than normal. If the boy’s heart was beating faster because he ran over here, then why was the heart of the old man beating faster?

’Are they both lying about something?’ Zane wondered.

The young man came closer to him. "Boss, let me offer you my last map. It will take you everywhere you need to in the five floors.

You know what? The normal price is five goblin crystals, but I also want to explore the dungeon. It’s been a while, so if I can tag along and be your navigator, I’ll only take two goblin crystals," he spoke with vigor.

His offer was definitely nice, but it didn’t sound that way to Zane.

’So that’s the plan, I see.’

"Fine, that’s a nice plan, and I need to start going already," Zane said.

"Adventurer, you’ll regret not buying from me! I swear my maps are the best!" the old man tried to pull Zane back.

"Give it a rest, old man, and reduce your prices," the young man said.

Zane walked toward the stairs with Grey while the man followed behind. They went down the stairs to the second floor.

"Alright, let’s go," the man spoke. He was far too enthusiastic for a simple navigation job, but Zane and Grey said nothing.

"You know, it’s been a while since I came down here," he said as he walked.

"You already said that," Zane said.

"Oh, sorry, I’m just a bit excited. Oh, and by the way, my name is Leon. What’s yours?" he asked.

"Not important," Zane replied coldly. His words made Leon frown, but he couldn’t be bothered with that.

And just as Leon had promised, he led them to a spot where over twenty goblins spawned.

Grey was about to rush in, but Zane grabbed him by the shoulder and leaned into his ear. "Don’t make it seem easy. Make every kill look like a struggle. Do you understand?"

Grey didn’t understand the order, but he nodded. They both rushed in toward the goblins. One leaped at Grey, mouth open, ready to bite. Grey threw a punch, it hit the goblin on its head but only knocked it to the ground, not killing it. He raised his feet up and stomped it.

Zane did the same as well, going as far as allowing a goblin to bite into his arm before stabbing it.

He continued fighting and used that moment to turn his head to see Leon with a smile on his face, and not the good type of smile.

’Gotcha,’ Zane thought.

After a while of false trouble, they managed to defeat all the goblins.

[You killed 10 goblins, 200 EXP]

There was no drop after killing them, but Zane wasn’t worried, it was pretty much the same as the first floor.

"You guys were awesome! You took down twenty goblins like it was nothing," Leon said.

Zane didn’t reply. He simply gathered up all the crystals and tossed three at Leon. "Your pay," he said.

Leon caught them. There was a shine in his eyes. "Thank you for the extra, boss," he said.

"Yeah," Zane replied, and without another word, he kept walking. Leon took the lead and Grey walked beside Zane.

"Master, why did you say I should hold back and pretend?" Grey whispered.

"You’ll understand later. Just do what I say," Zane replied.

They continued deeper into the floor until they came across their first hobgoblin. It was taller than the normal goblins, looking more human.

It had a rusted sword in its hands, and the moment it sensed Zane, it charged at him. This was Zane’s first time seeing a hobgoblin. He pulled out his dagger, rolled it, and lunged forward.

The hobgoblin attacked, slashing for his neck. Zane stepped back and dodged the blade before lunging forward and attacking. It tried to react to him, but it wasn’t fast enough, and the blade dug through the chest of the hobgoblin.

It let out a pained yell and stumbled back, blood seeping out from its chest. Zane didn’t relent. He attacked again, and it couldn’t block the attack. The dagger cut through its shoulder into the body, spilling blood like a fountain.

The goblin collapsed to the ground and turned to dust. Zane picked up the crystal. It was slightly bigger than that unique one they had found on the first floor, which meant that the goblin that dropped that one was just about to evolve into a hobgoblin.

A goblin had to make it to around level six or seven to evolve in the game. The hobgoblin he had fought now was a level six, which meant it was at the bottom rung of goblins. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

[You have killed a hobgoblin, 20 EXP] x2

The hobgoblin gave double EXP compared to the normal ones. If he grinded them enough, he would be able to level up again.

He looked for the direction to walk to that would have more hobgoblins. It seemed Leon noticed him doing that and immediately offered a direction they should walk in.

"Look, this way is shown to have more spawning on the map," he stated, pointing at one path.

Zane felt it was weird the way Leon pointed that way eagerly. He could hear the increase in heartbeat and also the slight quiver in the voice.

But regardless of all that, Zane still decided to take that road, so he walked in there, followed by Grey. And even more suspiciously, Leon didn’t take the lead this time, he walked from behind.

They walked for a few minutes and actually came across a group of hobgoblins, five of them. Zane handled two as Grey handled three after what looked like a long and very gruesome struggle.

[You have killed 2 hobgoblins, 40 EXP] x2

They kept going for a bit, but then everything went quiet. Zane turned around and they didn’t see Leon.

’He vanished? And I didn’t notice?’ Zane thought. Then, all of a sudden, he felt a hand coming for his neck.

Zane reacted fast. He dodged and barred the hand, using the momentum to throw the body over his shoulder and into the wall.

Yet somehow, the person spun midair and pressed their feet against the wall, using it as propulsion to shoot forward.

The eyes of this person were dark red, and red marks covered his face.