Chapter 10
Rohan reached the castle gates when he finally took a look back at the mess he left behind. Goblins were pouring out of the front gate, not just a couple, but dozens maybe even hundreds of them, even the windows were full of goblins jumping out of the castle. The goblins scrambled together and started running like a stampede, when Rohan looked a bit closer he saw that there was only pure chaos, they weren't focused on him. All the goblins were trampling each other, leaving a bloody mess and horrified screams behind as they all dashed away from the castle, seeming scared of something, or someone.
Rohan didn't want to meet the thing that was causing this panic, it couldn't have been him, that's what he knew for sure. Turning around Rohan left the gates of the castle and made his way back to the forest, a "safer" area. While he walked away from the castle the goblin screams became louder and louder, Rohan started to pick up the pace.
The screams became softer as he made his way from the gates and eventually died out. Arriving on the corner of the street that was adjacent to the start of the forest Rohan looked back to the castle. Small fumes were coming out of the chimney, but that was the smallest change, the whole castle changed color from the previous marble white with gold decoration to deep dark black, as if it was devoid of any and all life.
The goblins screams didn't stop because they had escaped and ran away, no, they had all died. Hundreds if not thousands of goblin corpses lay on one another outside the castle, making it look like a sacrificial hill made to appease gods.
Feeling a shiver run down his back Rohan pulled back and entered the forest and calmed himself as he made his deeper. He checked his status and saw that his level increased a fair bit, but not as much as he hoped after killing those goblins. His mana had also increased enough to allow him to sustain the fire infusion skill for some time. The experience he needed to level up had also increased by a lot.
[Status]
Name: [Rohan Hughen]
Species: [Human]
Realm: [Awakened]
Mana: [143/143]
Level: [13]
Experience: [1126/1323]
Skills: [Fire Infusion]
Moving through the forest Rohan checked his location and listed some potential options where he could go to. The first he ruled out was the city center, he could already see the destroyed skyscrapers from a distance so he wouldn't risk the long journey there to just get himself killed.
It came down to a couple of options, either keep moving along the eastern side of the city and make his way out, go to the southern part of the city to look if there are any other survivors. He could also move back into the mountains, but food would become a big problem. His best bet was to keep moving south along the city.
Rohan kept moving through the forest until he reached the eastern river. Duran had three rivers running through the city, the central river which was the main export method, this river used to be tangling through the city but during the industrial changes they made a pure straight canal out of it dozens of meters wide with many sidearms stretching out in the industrial areas. The eastern and western rivers were artificially natural, having been made to keep a bit of nature around and meandering exactly how the city wants it. These were primarily used to dispose off the excess water that would come from the mountains during spring and summer.
The eastern river was not that large during autumn and winter as most of the ice and snow stopped melting. Rohan reached the main walking route next to the river within a couple of hours after walking in the southeastern direction. This path would move down up until 15 kilometers below the city where the eastern river would move too far east through the mountain range.
Rohan kept having an eerie feeling as the forest was deathly quiet during the afternoon. He didn't see any animals or humans walking around. There were supposed to be a few campsites close to the walking path with a wooden cabin and a toilet hole, but all of it was either missing completely, or destroyed and left in ruins.
Rohan checked out the first place but found nothing, as if the campsite had never existed. The second place had large wooden logs thrown throughout the campsite, the remain of the cabin. Nothing was left and even any traces or footsteps couldn't be found, or he couldn't see them. He had a bit more luck on the 4th campsite, a part of the cabin was left intact. The floor that was, some tourist guides and information booklets were left inside but nothing of use.
Looking at the map Rohan had managed to pass around half off the city length during the next day. He had chosen a new destination target the previous evening. Around 8 kilometers northeast of the southern mountain range in the city was an emergency shelter located. He found info on the emergency shelter in a random tourist help folder. It was supposed to be used during an earthquake or potential volcanic activity and was equipped with lots of provision and survival material for emergencies. The far southern part of the city was often met with many landslides and was less stable during earthquake que to its softer terrain.
Many of these shelters/bunkers were placed, but this was the closest one to the forest side. If this shelter was not useful, Rohan planned to move to the 2nd closest which was located a couple kilometers further in the city. Hoping to make contact with any others and keep his provisions up.