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The party sneaked into the settlent.
They did their best not to make too much noise and not to get too close to any patrolling goblins as they did so that they wouldn’t get discovered right away.
This settlent was larger than they initially expected, but it was no big deal. To the party’s delight, though, they found one of the places where the obscuring formation was located.
Just breaking one would destabilize the whole formation and would allow Kaycee’s bloodline ability to be effective again.
However, Derek decided that destroying directly wasn’t the play here.
Destabilizing the obscuring formation would certainly alert the whole settlent. The Goblin Lord and Goblin Elites will instantly be attracted to their location, and the party will find themselves surrounded right away.
And while Derek was confident of the party’s strength to deal with any trouble that cos their way, there’s no need to take more difficult options when there are others available to them.
So, instead of directly blowing up the formation anchor, they decide to stage a delayed destruction. They would plant explosives around the location and move as far away as they could from the area.
They’d blow it up from a distance. That way, the explosion wouldn’t reveal their presence, and it will also serve as a distraction for the goblins while Kaycee uses her bloodline ability to discover everything within this settlent.
Actually, Derek wanted to go further. He told the team that he also wanted to chain all over the entire settlent, essentially blowing the whole place up to the skies.
It’s funny because it had to be Jen who had to tell him that this was a bad idea.
Ren never thought that Derek had a certain liking to explosions. Fortunately, he didn’t go nuts about it.
They followed the original plan. They planted the explosives near the formation anchor and moved far away from the area, practically fleeing to the opposite side of the settlent. The explosion was already tid, and the mont they arrived at the area they wanted to move into, the explosion already happened.
BOOM!!
The whole settlent was shaken awake by that explosion; the impact swept over the whole area, attracting the attention of all goblins.
It did its job. The obscuring formation was down, and Kaycee didn’t waste ti at all. The mont the haze was gone, her eyes sparkled with silver, and the entire map of the dungeon was once again reflected in her eyes. This ti, this goblin settlent was no longer hidden or hazy. It was whole and perfectly clear to her.
"The good news is that the Goblin Lord isn’t the shaman," she started with. "The bad news is that it’s the elites, both of them. And they stick close to the lord. All three of them essentially move as a unit; they’re at the explosion zone right now."
"Well, that’s tricky. But not impossible." Derek muttered. "Anything else to add?"
"I think we should raid their treasury first before handling the lord and the elites," Kaycee suggested as the silver sparkle in her eyes faded and her pupils turned dull.
"They’ve gathered a lot of resources. Lots of raw ores and gems, but mostly gold. There’s still a lot that hasn’t been turned into pyrite; we can still get it. The security of the treasury isn’t strong or strict. We might be able to sneak in, steal everything, and get out without alerting them. I bet they’d probably be occupied by the explosion site for a while, and the elites will definitely try to make another formation anchor."
"Where’s the treasury located?" Derek asked.
"In that building," Kaycee pointed out to the largest and tallest house in the settlent, the one that happened to be close to their current hiding spot.
"It’s hidden behind a chanism. Keep going down until you reach the basent, look for the left torch handle, and pull it down gently; the wall it’s attached to should flip. Move along with it, and you’ll be in the treasury. You can leave the sa way."
"Ren and I will do it," Derek declared right away, no hesitation in his voice whatsoever. "Jules, you stay here and guard the girls. We’ll proceed once we return. If the lord and the elites enter the sa building, make a loud noise to alert us. Otherwise, wait for us to return, got it?"
The rest of the party nodded.
"Jen, I’ll leave them to you. Let’s go, Ren."
Just like that, Ren and Derek moved.
Derek turned into a blurry phantom of movent. He stuck to the shadows, moving in and out like a ghost. The silence of his movent was amplified by the inherent attribute of his chakra.
anwhile, Ren moved with pure speed and skill. He kept up easily with Derek’s pace and also did not attract any attention or made too much noise.
In just a minute, they’re in the building. The two of them moved close, communicating through gestures as they infiltrated the estate. Not long after they entered, they arrived in the basent.
Just like Kaycee said, the security was lax. At least half of the patrols were literally sleeping on the job. They explosion earlier might’ve woken them up but they just went back to sleep once discovering that everything seems to be fine.
There’s literally nobody guarding the basent doors at all, there were no traps either, physical or magical ones. The two of them just waltzed right in, flipped the switch and arrived before the treasury.
Derek took one glance at everything inside and decided that they’re taking everything.
If they sold all of this, they’d easily get more 3 million credits at once, divided evenly to all five of them. This was a fat paycheck if he had ever seen one, and there’s no way he could turn away from this profit.
He wouldn’t spare the pyrite. Yes it had been devalued by the goblins, but it could still be sold. The goblins won’t miss this since they’d be dead soon.
Ren was already hauling the loot in the team’s inventory before Derek ordered him to do so.
However, he did stop Derek for a bit and pointed at sothing. Then he whispered: "Traps."
Yes, the treasury itself wasn’t fully undefended. There were so cleverly placed traps here, physical ones at least. If they accidentally triggered them, the whole settlent will be alerted to their presence.
Fortunately, both of them knew how to safely disarm this trap. And they did so without any problems at all.
After they looted the place clean, Derek paused and whispered sothing in Ren’s ear.
Hearing what he said, Ren shrugged. He wasn’t against the plan, actually. In fact, he thought that it’ll save them more ti and effort. So, he agreed.
Around ten minutes later, they ca out of the estate and returned to the rest. Fortunately, Jen and the other two didn’t encounter any accidents. They’re safe and sound, exactly the sa before they left earlier.
"What took you guys so long?" Jen complained a bit.
"Don’t look at . Derek’s up to his usual shenanigans again." Ren shrugged and didn’t hesitate to shift the bla to his party leader imdiately.
"Okay, in my defense, the opportunity was right there! It’ll save us so much ti and effort. I might’ve gone a little bit excessive, yes, but it will certainly make our jobs way easier!"
"I’m lost. What are you talking about?" Jules scratched his head in confusion.
"Knowing Derek, it probably has sothing to do with explosions, again," Kaycee comnted off-handedly.
"Spot on," Ren confird, giving her a thumbs up.
"Did you plant explosives in the treasury?" Jen used an accusatory tone.
"Of course! Who do you think you’re talking to?" Derek snorted, looking arrogant and confident. "I left at least twenty barrels in there, they’re ready to level that whole estate whenever I want."
The rest of the party, minus Ren, looked at each other in speechlessness. Derek and his love for explosions were really weird.
"Okay, why aren’t you blowing it up yet?" Jen asked curiously.
"Patience, young one." Derek rolled her eyes. "We’ll trigger the trap they left behind there first to alert the Goblin Lord and Goblin Elites to treasury. They’d rush over there surely. Once they’re there, I’d bring down the roof on them. That should make our jobs easier."
"Right. Whenever you’re ready then." Jen shook her head; she can’t really back down now since Derek has already made a decision.
Trying!!
A sharp screeching sound tore through the silence of the settlent. Just as Derek predicted, the Goblin Lord and Goblin Elites practically flew to the estate to catch the thief.
As Derek wore a malicious smile, Ren walked towards Jules and hid behind his back. This made the latter confused, so he asked:
"Why are you hiding behind ?"
"Because you have a shield," Ren replied non-chalantly.
Kaycee’s eyes flashed, and she hurriedly followed, which only added to Jules’s confusion.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Didn’t hear him?" Ren asked, pointing at their nearly maniacal party leader who already pressed the trigger. "He said he left twenty barrels full of explosives in the treasury of that building, enough to level it completely. Said building is just over there, and we haven’t moved at all. What do you think happens?"
Jules’s and Jen’s eyes widened in horror.
BOOOOOM!!
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