yasinovel Chapter 130 Rebirth and Reunion
Chapter 130 Rebirth and Reunion
Chapter 130 Rebirth and Reunion
The half-deer man paused for a moment, a look of surprise on his face.
"At this point, you're still thinking about negotiating?"
"Don't listen to him, hehe, kill them all!" the weasel, pinned beneath Gebu, said, baring its teeth.
"Shut up!" Gebu prepared to cast a spell with one hand, while pressing the wound where the dagger had been inserted into the weasel with the other, and twisted it hard.
"Ah!!!" the female orc screamed. Gebu glared fiercely at the half-deer-woman: "Yes, I want to negotiate with you, Soton. You don't trust me, and I trust you even less. But that's the situation. The manticore is outside, and nobody's getting out. We can fight to the death right now." Gebu finished speaking, glancing furtively at the swordswoman lying on the ground, her back soaked in blood, barely managing to suppress his expression. "Or, let's put away our fangs for now, communicate like civilized people, cooperate, and take down that beast together."
"A goblin talking to me about civilization?" The half-deer wrinkled his nose.
"Likewise," Geb replied bluntly. "The energy we waste on infighting would be more useful against the manticore. Put away the arrows, and I'll take that as your agreement."
The half-deer narrowed his eyes and remained silent for a moment.
Then he put down his bow and arrows.
Gebu breathed a sigh of relief and then turned his gaze to the weasel beneath him.
"Thorton, tell this stinky guy to stop trying to pull any tricks."
The weasel glared angrily at Geb, while Soton's voice came from afar: "Don't lay a hand on them, weasel, that's an order."
Gebu watched as the weasel retracted its fangs, then jumped off her, still preparing a spell. The female orc rolled to her feet, glared fiercely at Gebu, and then darted off to Soton's side.
The goblin rushed to the swordswoman, helped her up, and poured a basic healing potion into her mouth.
"Don't die! You bastard—if you die, I can't handle the two of them." Gebu thought anxiously. He pressed on the woman's arrow wound, applying pressure to slow the bleeding. His hands were covered in hot, sticky red liquid—this was life force! Gushing from the wound, Gebu wished he could stuff the blood back into her. He was so anxious!
"Cough—" The swordswoman drank the potion, opened her eyes a crack, and breathed barely.
"I didn't do it—Mother, Mom, please believe me—"
"Sword Girl, Big Sister, come back to life! Don't call me Mom, you're my mom, okay? Wake up, Mother!" Gebu said incoherently, pinching Sword Girl's face and shaking her violently.
"What—goblin?"
The swordswoman awoke from her deathbed and tried to speak, but a sharp pain shot through her back, rendering her unable to utter a sound.
"Bear with it! I'll pull it out for you!" Gebu helped the woman with the sword up, ran behind her, grabbed the arrow's tail with both hands, braced his feet against the woman's back, and pulled with all his might!
Blood spurted out in a fan shape! The swordswoman let out a silent scream of pain!
The goblin sat down on the ground, threw down the arrow, rolled over, and while the woman opened her mouth, poured two bottles of potions into her mouth—one for healing and one for stamina.
"Cough—slow down—you're choking me!"
After all that commotion, thanks to the effects of the potion, the half-dead swordswoman was forcibly pulled back from the brink of death. Her face was deathly pale, but her spirits had recovered somewhat.
"Magnubier's ass—with your physique, how come you always get shot?" Gebu finally breathed a sigh of relief and complained.
"—If you can't speak properly, then speak less." The swordswoman glared at him, then turned around and inspected the room. Seeing the charred half-dog man and the two beastmen, she immediately stood up on guard. She lost her balance and had to hold onto the wall to avoid falling.
"Slow down, you still need to recover for a while. The energy potion takes time to take effect," Geb instructed, then quickly said, "Doffin, greets Bastard Number One Thornton and Bastard Number Two Weasel—don't worry about the one underground. The bastard duo, greets Doffin, my partner."
The three people made no attempt to greet each other, and stood facing each other across the room.
"You dare to ambush me from behind? You despicable Onsar people! What evil wind drove you out of that ghostly forest?" Dove said rudely.
Thorn snorted, offering no reply to the woman with the sword, but simply staring at her coldly.
The atmosphere instantly became extremely tense. Just as Gebu was about to say something, he heard two pairs of footsteps coming from the passage behind Soton, one pair heavy and one pair light.
Damn it, what's this now?
Just as Gebu was getting nervous, two familiar faces emerged from the passageway.
Dulin the bearded dwarf, and a hideous kobold.
"Gebu!"
"Dulin?"
"Goblin?!"
"Kobold?"
"What are you doing here?!" the three dwarfs exclaimed in unison.
Dulin's arrival eased the atmosphere in the room somewhat. Although he was still a little weak, he moved freely and did not look like a prisoner.
On the contrary, the dog-headed man was bound hand and foot with a rope tied behind his back, being led around like a dog on a leash.
Seeing that neither side intended to fight, the dwarf nodded to Thorton and then walked over to Geb.
"They said you were a goblin, and I didn't believe it—but it seems it's true." The dwarf looked Geb up and down. Although his appearance had changed, his clothes and expression were still the same as when he was a halfling.
"Your secret isn't a secret anymore, Goblin," the swordswoman teased. "Don't turn back. You're fine as you are. The goblin identity suits you perfectly."
"I'm sorry I kept this from you, Dulin, but you'll understand—I'm not your average goblin. My appearance may have changed, but my heart is still that of a goblin. I can assure you of that."
"I—I might need some time to accept you as you are." Dulin scratched his head. "Everyone has their difficulties, but I repay kindness with kindness. Your secret is safe with me; I won't go around telling anyone."
"They didn't kill you—it seems my words worked." Geb looked at the dwarf's missing left ear and sighed softly. "—I'm sorry, Dulin, I was too busy with myself to save you."
"It's alright, it's alright, you're here now! I knew I wasn't wrong about you, Brother Geb!" Dulin flashed his usual cheerful smile; it was amazing he could still laugh. "And you, Big Pink, I didn't expect you to remember me. I'll definitely repay you, our Jinkra—"
"—I never break my word, I know, I know." The swordswoman impatiently interrupted the dwarf, her face expressionless, only a hint of barely perceptible satisfaction showing between her brows. "Looks like you get along quite well with these beastmen, they even let you move around freely?"
Dulin glanced at Soton and the weasel, who were observing Geb and his group from a distance with grim expressions.
The dwarf lowered his voice and said, "—It's not that they don't want to, it's that they really have no choice. Yesterday we tracked the manticore to this ruin, and they set a trap, intending to fight the manticore in the hall outside the door."
"It's not a bad idea. The space there isn't too big or too small. The manticore can't fly away, but it's not like there's nowhere to hide from its attacks. If it were me, I would also choose to fight there," Gebu interjected. He and the swordswoman had come in a hurry and hadn't carefully observed the room—now that he recalled it, it did seem like there were indeed signs of a fierce battle.
"—As soon as the manticore appeared, I sensed something was wrong. Although I don't know magic, I've handled magical items before, and I immediately felt a strange magical aura emanating from it. This beast had somehow acquired strange abilities; its fur was exceptionally tough, and it was incredibly aggressive—these beastmen were experienced monster hunters, and they were utterly defeated by it! In the nick of time, we activated the mechanism, hid inside the door, and locked the manticore outside, thus escaping a disaster."
"How many of them are left?" Geb asked quietly.
"Aside from those who died, only the catwoman and the weasel escaped. After some time, the weasel returned, and then you all followed," the dwarf said.
Geb thought for a moment, and it made sense. Thornton and his group were trapped inside the ruins by the manticore. The weasel must have wanted to use the knights to kill the manticore and release the people inside—unfortunately, the knights were no match for the manticore either. Her plan had failed, and things had come to this.
"So what were you and that kobold doing inside the ruins?" Geb asked. "By the way, what exactly is this place?"
"This is what we've been trying to figure out." The dwarf gave a wry smile. "At first, the orcs were looking for another exit, but they were blocked by a door. The door was inscribed with ancient sage symbols that they couldn't read, so they sent me to try. I had no weapons and posed no threat to them, so Thorton set me free. I tried all night and somehow managed to open the door, but there was an obvious mechanism inside that I didn't know how to deal with. I was in a hurry to get back, and that's when I ran into you."
"Ancient wisdom?" Gebu fell into deep thought. Could this relic have been left behind by a wizard?
How did that manticore end up hiding here? And why are there traces of wild magic on its body?
Many questions remain unanswered.
Defeating that manticore with just these few people, without siege crossbows, would be extremely difficult. Both Soton and the swordswoman have already fought the manticore and are clearly no match for it.
They couldn't use magic to help themselves—if they were twisted into a giant fireball by wild magic, everyone would be turned to ashes on the spot.
It seems that the only way now is to find out what secrets this mysterious ruin holds. If it's what made the manticore stronger, then perhaps we can find a way to defeat that monster.
but----
Gebu glanced at the two beastmen and the shifty-eyed dog-headed man.
Damn dogheads.
"What's this kobold doing here? Do you two remember him?"
"No recollection," the two men said. Gebu thought for a moment, then realized that only the hostage and he himself had seen this guy before.
The dwarf said, "It was this kobold who led the beastman to this place. It seems quite familiar with these ruins. The beastman kept it as bait. The little guy is very clever; as soon as the fight started, it darted into the doorway. We only managed to catch it after we retreated in."
Hmph, this guy is untrustworthy—I need to find an opportunity to interrogate him properly.
"It seems we'll have to venture deeper into these ruins to investigate. Swordswoman, can you handle it?"
The swordswoman nodded. "I won't hold you back."
"Oh, right, Dulin, your crossbow—" Gebu laboriously pulled the crossbow out of his dimensional bag and handed it to Dulin. The dwarf was overjoyed, touching and kissing the crossbow. Gebu provided the dwarf with some bolts, but unfortunately, there were no explosive bolts left, only ordinary ones.
The two orcs became alert upon seeing the dwarf armed. Thorton pulled the kobold to his side, whispered a few words to him, and cut the ropes binding its hands, but left the tether around its waist intact.
The six-person team was quickly divided into two groups of three.
Hey, forming cliques? Not a problem, our fighting strength is no worse than theirs. If a fight really breaks out, it'll be at least a 50/50 chance.
However, Thornton shouldn't be that stupid.
Gebu and Soton exchanged a few words. The half-deer man shared the same idea as Gebu: to explore the ruins—ideally, to find a second exit; if not, to see if they could find some way to deal with the manticore.
After saying that, the six of them tidied up their equipment, and Gebu secretly counted the remaining reels.
Shield spell *3
Jumping Technique *1
Magic Missile *1
Also includes Tree Skin Potion*1 and Primary Healing Potion*2.
With one spell slot remaining, Gebu took advantage of the time while everyone was tidying up to recall the lost spell slot and replenish it.
With everything ready, the six of them walked along the passage into the depths of the ruins.
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