The Young Master in the Shadows

When Tom pushed open the huge door, they could see a huge green-lit cavern behind it. Tom didn’t explain anything, he just held his dagger and entered.

The others looked at each other and followed nervously. Victor followed them with Lily from behind.

That cavern had a flat tiled gray floor. It was not empty, as it had numerous boulders of various sizes poking from the ground, creating a gray jungle. On a huge boulder in the center, they could see the Goblin General sitting silently as if it was meditating.

When they entered the chamber, the gate automatically closed behind them with a thunderous sound, frightening them. The dungeon’s boss slowly opened its red eyes and stood up gazing upon them. Making the girls shiver involuntarily.

It had two times the height of a normal man, and three times the width and was draped in brown leather armor which covered most of its torso and shoulders save some parts where its green emerald skin showed. It was covered in red markings that were intersecting like some kind of a shamanic spell.

The big goblin turned its ugly head to inspect the newcomers one by one.

It finally identified the strongest one between them, Tom. Victor was using his disguise so he appeared to be weak.

The goblin stared at Tom and roared, as it raised a long rusty sword and pointed it at him. It was issuing him a challenge.

Tom, who understood its intention, didn’t say anything, just threw his bag to the ground and rushed forward to vent on this general, leaving his friends without instruction. Victor cursed at him for being an idiot and quickly activated his appraisal skill to see something he did not expect.

“Sh*t,” he thought.

; ;

ENEMY: THE GOBLIN GENERAL’S BODYGUARD

STR: 50

AGI: 45

INT: 10

LCK: 10

CHM: -20

“Everyone. Don’t rush to attack it. Pair up and find a cover. There is a hidden enemy.” He said, making the girls a little surprised. But the training he has been giving them quickly showed its results as they quickly found safe places to stand and kept their guard.

Peter and Aria didn’t do that. They looked at him strangely. Is he a coward? Why did the girls follow his command?

Tom felt the same, but he dared not look at them or get distracted as he used his dagger to slash at the general which retreated quickly.

That general was very nimble and had a high defense. Fighting a sword with a dagger was tough. Luckily that sword was rusty, so Tom could feel it crumbling after every clash.

“Peter. Use your arrows to cover me,” Tom shouted to Peter, ignoring Victor.

“This is not the general. Just a decoy. Be aware of traps.” Victor Shouted back at him making the girls tense up while Aria quickly found a place to hide.

Peter who was a little hesitant followed suit choosing a location where his back was covered by a rock wall and started to fire arrows at the goblin, assisting Tom.

It’s not that he completely trusted Victor. But if what he said was true. Standing without a cover would be a stupid thing.

Tom didn’t believe Victor and kept attacking that burly goblin without rest.

Victor frowned as he looked at that goblin fighting with Tom. A Boss having an assistant is not unheard of. But not in a low-ranking dungeon like this. He would have to change his plan a little.

“Lily, scout the surroundings and find the real general,” Victor whispered.

Lily, who trusted Victor completely, immediately used her skill and found the enemy. It was hidden inside a hole within one of the high boulders. It had its bow aimed at Victor. She had no time to warn him when the hidden goblin fired the arrow.

“Careful,” she shouted and quickly put her body between the arrow and Victor’s body, getting hit in the shoulder.

Victor gasped in shock as he took notice of the origin of the arrow and quickly hugged Lily tightly and pulled her to hide behind a nearby boulder.

“We have a goblin archer here, be careful.” He shouted as he threw his bag to the ground then helped Lily lay down and began to inspect her injury.

Everyone tensed up and began to look around. Even Tom, who was engaged with that large goblin. He wanted to look back but couldn't get distracted. His enemy was giving him a hard time.

Victor didn’t say anything but just tore Lily’s shirt and inspected the wound. She was lucky, it didn’t hit any vital organs. But the arrow passed to the other side, so she would not be able to use her left arm for a while.

The goblin used a pointy arrow so removing it was easy for him, he quickly garbed Lily’s veil and used it to tie the area around the wound to stop the bleeding, then removed the arrow in one smooth pull.

After taking the arrow, Victor frowned as he smelt a rotten stench on it. Poison.

He looked at Lily’s beautiful eyes which were looking at him. she didn’t scream or yell. Just smiled silently. She didn’t care about all the pain as long as Victor was fine. But Victor could see some blackness around the wound. This must be hurting her really bad. He knew a few things about goblins poisons and 'pain' was the word that described them the best.

“I will punish you later,” He said to her, “Didn’t I order you to ignore me? I have my own defenses.” He said as he tightened the wrap around her shoulder.

Lily wanted to say something but was stopped by Victor's lips touching hers. Making her freeze in shock.

“Don’t do something this stupid again, I am not that weak.” he said in a soft voice, “I will go take care of it. His attacks can't reach you here, so just stay alert and wait for me,” he said as he threw a healing pill in her mouth, and another in his. He didn’t swallow it though. This was for contingencies.

He quickly left Lily to rest behind the boulder and went out by himself to get the antidote which should be on the general. He will get some revenge too.

This surprised Lily, who didn’t want him to leave her. It was dangerous out there. But she didn’t dare stop him. She already disobeyed him once. And she had no power to follow him as she felt her body grow numb. So she could only watch him leave with her misty eyes.

When he was facing her just now, he didn’t let his true feelings show on his face. But after leaving the cover of the boulder, Victor looked more savage than that goblin. No one was allowed to touch his Girls. Especially his Lily.

Victor moved swiftly from behind one cover to another and headed to the boulder where he last spotted that thing. He activated his disguise skill so no one could see him.

In fact, he was using the disguise this entire time. His actual position was a few feet away from where everyone saw him. Lily didn’t need to shield him at all, as the arrow would have missed anyway.

It was a little hard to locate that archer because it was constantly changing its position to find a suitable sniping location. The girls have all gone into hiding after hearing Victor’s warning, so it was hard for the archer to find a suitable target.

Eventually, Victor was able to find it after a few minutes as there were not that many good sniping nests here.

It was hiding in another hole, aiming at Peter, who was using a bow he took from some goblin to assist Tom.

; ;

STR: 30

AGI: 55

INT: 50

LCK: 15

CHM: -50

Skill:

Tactical Planning A

Ranged Attack A

Poison Brewing C

It was not an attacking general, but a tactical one. Fortunately, it had no survey or identification skills.

“This would be easy.” Thought Victor as he approached it slowly. The general had a small body, with two pointy ears spiking out of its big wrinkly head. As if it was left in a pickle jar for too long. Its long bony fingers were holding an exquisite bow while some bags were hanging in its leather belt. The antidote was in one of them.

It felt that something was wrong, and intended to change its position, but it was too late. Victor had already jumped over the boulder and was now standing over its head.

He didn’t hesitate as he silently slit the general’s head then quickly grabbed its equipment and bags, then the golden gem that fell out as it disintegrated. This boss was easy, as it was not a named monster. It had low strength and no armor or helmet on its head. It probably couldn't find one its size.

He quickly returned to where he left Lily and removed the disguise skill as he hid behind the boulder. Then he used his appraisal skill to identify the Antidote and feed it to her. As for his spoils, he quickly tucked them inside her backpack.

Tom who was fighting the bodyguard was about to activate his Berserker skill when his enemy suddenly stopped and let out a loud miserable scream as it started to disintegrate.

A big red GEM and a rusty sword fell from it.

Tom suddenly realized that what Victor said was probably the truth, this was not the boss. “Who killed the boss and took its GEM and treasures?. Damn it.”. He thought as a blue screen appeared in everyone’s vision.

; ;

Congratulations.

Countdown until Closing,

59. Minutes.

“What does that mean? How can we leave?” Asked Peter who felt that this boss fight was like a dream. neither he nor the girls played any active roles.

Before anyone could answer him, one of the chamber’s walls collapsed revealing a big tunnel.

Tom who was angry, quickly jumped to grabbed his bag, and entered the tunnel making everyone a little surprised. "Why the hurry?"

“He is going to the rewards room, quickly follow him or would he take everything for himself.” Said Victor secretly influencing their feeling to think of Tom as a selfish person. Especially after his recent poor behavior

He left his hiding place and headed for the tunnel while carrying the blushing Lily like a princess. He didn't look heroic though, as he also had to carry two bloated backpacks on his shoulders.

"Is Lily Fine?" Asked Aria as she followed.

"Yes. She is fine. I already gave her a healing pill" Victor assured her as he hurried forward. But Aria felt that he sounded funny. Was he sucking a candy in his mouth. she wondered.

They quickly entered the tunnel and crossed it to find a dazzling white marble room at its end. Tom was standing there holding a bronze chalice and hesitating whether to drink its content or not. They could see that it was placed on a pedestal that had three words written on its base in the system’s script.

“Water of Life”

They didn't know it, but every Player heard of this legendary cure. Only three drops were found in the world until now. This was the fourth one.

Tom was hesitating whether to drink the golden drop of liquid inside the chalice or not. If he sold it he would be super-rich. Victor, who was helping Lily stand on her own feet, pointed at Tom with his finger and shouted arrogantly,

“This is the property of my family, if you dare take it, I will let them kill you,” He said loudly, making the girls look at him strangely. This didn’t fit his character.

Tom looked at Victor coldly. No one can claim any treasures found in the dungeon. Who finds it keep it. That was the rule anyway. But what victor told him held some truth. If he left with this thing, it would be a little troublesome to escape with it. But when he wanted to drink it, his intuition told him not to.

Not knowing what to do, he gave Victor a hateful look, but what he saw was Lily, who had her veil removed and her shirt torn, standing there with difficulty.

“How pretty,” he thought absentmindedly before the great pain struck him again.

“Ahh, Damn it,” He thought as he drank the water in the chalice with no hesitation. what would all the money in the world be good for if he couldn't even look at a woman.

Suddenly, he started to feel its cold healing power fill his body, and his life force improve a bit.

After a few moments, the feeling was gone. “Is that all?” He thought, "Did it work?"

He slowly sneaked a peek at Lily, bracing himself for the pain, but nothing happened. There was no pain, so he began to boldly inspect her and the other girls with glee like a pervert, as a smile slowly spread on his grim face.

“Ha Ha, I am cured.” He laughed loudly.

"You, how dare you?"

Victor who was pointing his finger at him threw blood and collapsed on the ground with Lily in his arms.

The girls didn’t know what happened as Anna sped to his side to check on him and heal him.

“What happened ?” Asked Margret.

“I don’t know, there is no injury,” Anna said. “But… He probably passed out because of anger” she added in a low voice.

That was exactly what everyone thought, including Lily was holding him tightly, with an anxious face.

But the reason was something else.

; ;

Fate Shield was automatically activated.

S Rank destiny backlash withstood.

99% of the damage was absorbed.

This was the price of changing Tom's destiny.

His plan has finally succeeded, but the fate backlash was too strong. Just a tiny bit of it had already messed up all his internal organs. Luckily he already had a healing pill in his mouth. He swallowed it as he collapsed. It was now healing him slowly.

“Dear Tom, you are mine now.” He thought as he looked at his status screen showing the successful acquisition of a new Blood Slave.

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