The Forgotten Faithful: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 2) by Cajiao, Jez (little red riding hood ebook TXT) 📕

of ancient evil, even by the soldiers I knew. Adventurers were sent over the years to clear it out, but none returned…”

“It had bred… yeah. Maybe a dozen Sporelings were loose in the Tower when I arrived; they’re nightmare fuel as well. As to the adventurers, I found a few being inhabited by DarkSpore, so if you knew them, I’m sorry,” I muttered, shaking my head and shrugging apologetically.

“Then this area isn’t safe either… We will gather the pod after this and we will move to… wait, you said you were Lord of the Tower… the notifications… you killed it?!?” Flux asked me, clearly shocked.

“Yeah, and believe me, it wasn’t easy.” I gestured at the rooms ahead of us. “Let’s get a move on; we can talk about it later.”

Ignoring the low barrage of sounds Bane and Flux exchanged, I forced myself to walk forward, stepping over spider corpses which I worried, at a deep level, were just waiting to bite me still. Even though I knew intellectually that they were dead.

“Thank you,” I said to Bane as I passed him, putting my hand on his shoulder, and squeezing once before letting go and moving on.

We went back to moving as stealthily as possible, which meant Bane and Flux were utterly frigging silent, as near as I could tell, and I just tried not to clatter and clank too much. My notifications were still going nuts, but I tuned them out. We crossed the spider room and found Cheena waiting for us in the next corridor, gesturing for us to move back a bit to talk.

“The end of this corridor, there’s a hallway. The right leads to a single room, and a handful of goblins are barricaded inside. At least, I think they’re goblins; they sounded small, and the air tastes foul.” She shrugged. “The left-hand side leads to two more rooms. One is the kitchen; there are a lot of dead bodies in there, but otherwise, it’s abandoned. The final room…” She paused, taking a deep breath.

“It’s where the boss and its guards are all holed up, waiting for us. There’s maybe a dozen of your people there from the ship, and T’lek is there as well. The…the rest of the crew and little Gaul are in the kitchen, dead. What’s left of them, anyway.”

“How many guards, and what’s the boss look like?” I asked, feeling sick that so many had died already.

I thought back to when I’d viewed the ship through the Arcane Eagle’s vision, and there had been several more crew than that on deck at that point. I didn’t want to know how many were dead in here, killed by goblins. I tried to keep my rage tamped down, but I could feel it bubbling away, building.

“Maybe twenty goblins in the last room, but the boss is… huge. I think it’s a matriarch.” She said meaningfully, evoking a growl of horrified rage from Flux. I turned to him.

“What’s a matriarch? I asked, and Flux shook his head in disgust, his tendrils waving in agitation.

“Goblins breed like wildfire. Clans either have a nursery with a handful of breeders that constantly drop more of the vicious little bastards, or…” He was cut off by Cheena, who spoke up in a flat tone.

“Or they have a matriarch, a single greater female that has mutated. It births fewer goblins at a time, but they can pass on genetic traits from the creatures they eat to their spawn.”

“Wait, so…”

“So, these goblins we’ve been killing were normal goblins, the base species. Matriarchs are thought to be responsible for the creation of Orc and Hobgoblin tribes; they’re slaughtered whenever they’re found, with good reason!” Cheena said.

“And those twenty goblins in the final room?” I asked, a sudden horrible thought occurring to me.

“They’re mutations, bigger, stronger looking…she’s eaten sentients and birthed whatever she’s using as her personal guard.”

“Why only twenty? And hundreds of the weaker ones?” I asked, and it was Flux that answered.

“Either she ran out of the…genetic material…or they mutated in ways she didn’t like…and she ate them.”

“Okay, so I suggest we kill that fucking thing before it can whip up a new batch, then!”

“Definitely!” Cheena agreed, then looked back to the end of the corridor, where Bane had moved to keep watch. He was gone.

“Oh no…” She whispered, and she and Flux set off running. I scrambled after them. Coming to the end of the corridor and glancing right, I saw the doorway to the room barricaded by wood and stone, before dismissing it and setting off running towards the other end. I arrived just in time to see Cheena and Flux dart into a room on the left, and I followed, noting that the last room, the boss room, must be to the right at the end of the corridor.

I slowed down, moving cautiously into the room, and found Bane on his knees, clutching what looked to be a Mer’s leg in his hands. He was rocking back and forth and keening. Cheena knelt beside him and started to speak quietly to him.

“What…” I asked before Flux gestured to me to stop.

“Gaul was one of Bane’s companions, his friend…” Flux said quietly to me, as we quickly checked the rest of the room. “We need to…”

He was cut off as Bane suddenly roared with rage. He threw Cheena aside and took off, running down the corridor.

“Bane! Wait, you fool!” Flux cried out. We exchanged a stricken look and then we were off, Cheena forcing herself to her feet to follow us.

We hurtled down the corridor, just in time to see Bane disappear around the corner to the right, and we followed him. I knew we’d lost the element of surprise, but running in like he was? I just had to hope we all survived this.

I hurtled towards the corner, actually taking it fast enough that I had to jump and kick off the far wall. Digging deep and pushing off as fast as I could, I passed