The first morning in Oakhaven didn't bring the usual sense of adventure. Instead it brought a heavy, clinging dampness that seemed to seep through the walls of The Wilted Rose. I woke before the sun, the room still filled with the grey shadows of pre-dawn. The narrow bed creaked as I sat up, and for a moment the only sound in the room was the slow, soft breathing from the bed barely six inches away.
Tess was still asleep.
Her expression looked unusually peaceful. Without the constant tension of traveling and fighting she looked exactly like what she really was—a girl caught in the middle of a storm of secrets and expectations.
I looked away quickly.
Heat crept up the back of my neck so I focused instead on Sui. The little blue slime was currently flattened like a pancake on top of my discarded coat, vibrating faintly as she dreamed about whatever slimes dream about.
Probably snacks.
Endless snacks.
"Sui," I whispered, poking her gently. "Wake up. We've got a king to hunt."
The pancake jiggled.
Then her sleepy voice hummed in my mind.
["Is it snack time? I smell old wood and sadness, Master. This place is very grey."]
'It's work time,' I replied quietly. 'Stay low.'
By the time Tess stirred awake and we headed downstairs the innkeeper had already put out breakfast. Calling it breakfast might have been generous though.
Watery porridge.
Hard bread.
That was about it.
We ate mostly in silence while the weight of Aror's mission hung over the table like a storm cloud.
Outside the village was waking slowly.
Though "waking" in Oakhaven looked more like tired shuffling than anything else.
Men with bent backs moved toward fields that looked more like dust than soil. Women hung patched laundry that had clearly been repaired more times than the original cloth had lasted.
"We start with the perimeter," I said as we stepped outside into the cold morning air. "If the King has forty or fifty goblins they can't stay invisible. A group that size leaves signs even if they try being sneaky."
Tess nodded, gripping her staff.
"Goblins are messy. Even the smart ones. They leave scraps, bones… waste. If we find the waste we find the camp."
The first day turned into a long miserable search.
We pushed through bramble thickets and waded across stagnant marshes near the southern edge of the village. Our boots sank in muck more times than I could count.
We did find goblin tracks.
Just not fresh ones.
"Scouts," I muttered, crouching beside a snapped branch. "Two days old maybe. They're watching the village, but they aren't living nearby."
That afternoon we circled the western ridge.
The forest there felt older. Taller trees. Their roots twisted across the ground like sleeping snakes.
Light barely reached the forest floor.
Everything looked stuck in permanent twilight.
"Do you feel that?" Tess asked quietly.
Her staff glowed faint amber as she lifted it.
"The mana here… it's strange. Stagnant. Like the forest is holding its breath."
I felt it too.
It wasn't pressure from an enemy.
More like something missing.
Even the birds were quiet.
That evening we found three goblins crouched over a mangy rabbit. They were scrawny things, barely worth the trouble.
Two quick strikes of my charcoal blade dropped the first pair.
Tess pinned the third one to the ground with a localized gravity spell until I finished it.
Afterward Sui popped her head out from my collar.
["These are babies."]
She wobbled thoughtfully.
["Sour babies. Not like the Big Green the scary man talked about."]
"She's right," I said wiping my blade on moss. "These are the lowest ones. The King is keeping the stronger goblins close."
The second day wasn't much better.
We searched the northern hills where rocky ground made tracking difficult. Cold wind howled through narrow canyons like something alive.
By evening we were exhausted.
Boots heavy with mud.
Tempers thin.
The villagers watched us when we returned to the inn each night.
They never said anything.
But their eyes asked the same question every time.
Why haven't you killed it yet?
It made me restless.
I was used to solving problems quickly. Swing a sword. Move faster than anyone else.
Tracking though… that required patience.
And Oakhaven didn't seem to have much patience left.
That night the inn felt even quieter than before.
We sat in our tiny room, the two beds somehow feeling closer than they had yesterday. Tess sat cross-legged on her mattress carefully mending a tear in her tunic using a needle she'd borrowed from the innkeeper's wife.
"Rio?" she said without looking up.
"Yeah?"
"What if we can't find him in time? Aror said if they destroy the stores the village is finished."
She paused.
"We've been here two days and we haven't even seen a footprint bigger than a toddler."
I sat on the floor sharpening my dagger slowly.
"We'll find him. A King that size… he pulls goblins toward him. Like a magnet."
I shrugged slightly.
"We just need to find the center."
Tess finally looked up.
Candlelight flickered in her golden eyes.
"You're very calm about this," she said. "Sometimes I forget you're… well. You."
I shrugged again.
"I'm just hungry," I said. "And my feet hurt. That's normal right?"
She laughed softly.
"Yeah. That's very normal."
On the third day the weather turned ugly.
Cold rain began falling steadily turning the forest floor into a slippery mess of mud and rotting leaves.
We were moving deeper into the eastern ravine.
The villagers called it the Black Sink because of how deep and dark it was.
We were sliding down a muddy slope when I saw it.
I froze instantly, grabbing a thin sapling for balance.
"Tess. Stop."
She slid to a halt beside me.
"What? Did you hear something?"
"Look."
I pointed toward a patch of soft mud at the base of the ravine.
Rainwater was already filling the impression but the shape was obvious.
A footprint.
But not a normal goblin track.
This one was massive.
Nearly two feet long.
Four thick blunt toes and a heavy heel sunk almost five inches deep.
Tess stepped closer slowly.
"That's… impossible. A goblin that big would be the size of an ogre."
"A Goblin King isn't just a leader," I whispered. "It's a mutation."
My pulse began beating faster.
"Aror was right. This thing is huge."
I knelt beside the track ignoring the mud soaking into my trousers.
As I leaned closer the strange sensation from the blacksmith shop returned.
That warm-cold coil in my chest.
But stronger.
Much stronger.
["Master! The song! It's louder here!"] Sui hissed suddenly.
["The ground feels heavy. Like something is hiding under the skin of the world."]
I hovered my fingers above the print.
The air in the ravine felt thick.
Like breathing underwater.
Then I noticed the others.
More tracks.
Hundreds of them.
Small ones. Medium ones. All leading deeper into the ravine.
"He was here," I said standing up. "Last night probably."
I wiped mud from my hands.
"He's moving his forces closer to the village."
"He's done hiding."
"We should go back," Tess said quietly. Her voice trembled slightly as she stared into the darkness of the ravine.
"We need to warn the village. If he's this close…"
"We warn them," I agreed. "And then we prepare."
We returned to Oakhaven just as the last sunlight faded.
The village felt different tonight.
Not tired.
Terrified.
Even the stray dogs had disappeared beneath porches, whining softly.
That night at the inn I couldn't sit still.
The small room felt suffocating.
Two beds. One table. Same awkward quiet as before.
Tess was already lying in bed with her back to me but I could see the tension in her shoulders.
She wasn't asleep.
I stood by the window looking out toward the dark forest.
My charcoal blade rested heavy at my hip.
Part of me wanted to just go out there.
End it.
Stop waiting.
But I couldn't.
He would come to us.
"Rio?" Tess whispered from the dark.
"Yeah?"
"Promise me something."
I turned slightly.
"Promise we'll both make it back to Dustford."
A pause.
"I don't want to be an E-Rank adventurer alone."
I walked over and gently squeezed her shoulder.
"I promise," I said quietly. "We're a team."
"We move up together."
She exhaled slowly.
Some of the tension left her shoulders.
I returned to the window.
Hours passed.
The moon climbed higher casting pale sickly light across the broken rooftops of Oakhaven.
I was almost drifting when I heard it.
A sound that didn't belong.
Not a scream.
A rhythm.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Slow.
Heavy.
Like a giant heartbeat.
Or footsteps.
I looked down toward the village square.
One torch flickered.
Then went out.
Another followed.
Then from the forest—
A roar exploded into the night.
The windows rattled.
It wasn't the shrill scream of a goblin.
It was deep.
Thunderous.
The roar of a King.
"Tess! Wake up!" I shouted grabbing my sword.
"They're here!"
The siege of Oakhaven had begun.