A storm overhead has raged nonstop for hours. Or days? It feels like weeks. No, no, there’s a sun here, so it hasn’t been more than a day. Regardless, I’m soaking wet. Ha’koff is soaking wet. It’s miserable. Why did the portal bring us here? There aren’t even any beasts to hunt! And where’s the second portal? What are we meant to do? Even the thousands of brothers here with us are only aimlessly blustering through the marsh, spreading out in all directions. Did some sort of bureaucratic error send us here? Should I register a complaint? Is there a goblin chief somewhere?

  Maybe taking my team back through the entry portal early is a good idea. There’s no safely removed vantage point here. The seemingly infinite marshland is perfectly flat, if you don’t count the occasional quick sand and murky pits haunting just below the water. There’s simply no risk-free way to explore all that. Therefore, I let the other little ones lead. That way, they’re swallowed by all the natural, invisible traps instead of us. However, that also means that doubling back will be dicey unless I can convince some of them to also turn around and be our little goblin shields.

  Looking over my shoulder, I check on my companion.

  Good, he’s doing fine. Checking on his leash, it’s still tied on tight. I’ve lengthened it quite a bit so that I can fight up front on this mission if necessary. The excess stays folded under my belt, but it’s easy to pop out if I need the room to maneuver. Terrible luck that this is the stage for my grand debut. There aren’t even any water resistance songs for me to practice here. Grand debut? More like a grand, wet waste of time.

  Out of the blue, the right side of my head tingles. My focus reflexively kicks in, and time dramatically slows down. I’ve methodically trained this special signal with the slime during downtime. Sadly, my songs aren’t good enough to keep tethers extended at all times while also walking, talking, mixing, or whatever else needs doing. I’m a long way off from that degree of effortless multitasking.

  On the other hand, my slime friend doesn’t have this drawback. His tethers are bigger than mine, longer than mine, and ever present in his constantly vigilant search for danger and food. Whenever danger is detected, he’ll now briefly expel digestive juices to signal the direction that it’s coming from. I made Ha’koff toss rocks at my head while strategically rewarding the slime with meat until we slowly worked out a consistent system. I must say, it really did work out well in the end.

  Quickly flattening myself into a very low crouch, I aggressively raise my spear towards the direction of attack. A whooshing wind passes over me where my head was moments ago, brutally scraping itself along the sharpened spearhead as it goes. A thick black goop rains down on me from the creature’s wound, and it burns.

  Oh! There’s another one that was missing. I can’t believe that worked! All the training was worth it. Only needed to have more confidence in myself. With my proven strength and genius, there’s barely anything left out there that can stop me. I just have to believe!

  It was then that another shadowy figure shot past, colliding hard with Ha’koff. After the leash finished rapidly unspooling from my belt, I too was dragged into the water and forced deep down below.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Hand over hand, I pull myself along the leash, desperately making my way towards Ha’koff. I can’t see anything under the dark, abyssal waters. It must have taken us into one of those hidden holes beneath the marsh. At this rate, we’ll drown. I think? Do we need to breathe in water this dirty? I suppose that we’ll find out.

  Blindly feeling the end of the leash, Ha’koff’s caught in the tightly clenched maw of some excessively slimy creature. Must act fast. Finding one section even slimier than all the others, I drive my spear inside. The creature immediately halts, violently squirming about in shock and releasing my teammate from his grasp. Twisting the spear, I rip it free at an odd angle hoping to worsen the wound. Take that for ruining my special moment, accursed creature!

  Wrapping the leash tightly around my free arm, I vigorously kick towards what I can only assume is the surface. There’s the faintest bit of light trickling in from this direction. Thanks to my precious goblin eyes, it doesn’t need to be much.

  Breaking the surface of the water, I take an enormous, fresh breath before finding solid ground and pulling Ha’koff up the rest of the way. Rolling him onto his back to float above the swampwater, he also catches his breath and regains his composure.

  Great, he’s still normal. I was worried that’d mess him up more than usual. Anyways, what was that thing? It was so fast that I could barely see it. The wounds bled acid too. It seemed to prefer the water. A fish?

  Looking around, I spy a mob of goblins nearby, surrounding and relentlessly attacking something. Lengthening the leash and making my way over, I peek inside the tightly packed cluster. At their feet, the black goop from the wound I rendered on the first attacker pools around its body. Looks like a giant, black snake?

  My head sharply aches for a moment after appraising the corpse. Another of these bizarre status descriptions. It’s the same as when I received Cartography. Was I not meant to see this? No matter, there’s too much to do to worry about this right now. I’m sure that it’ll all be fine.

  “Ind! Ind! Gnos ood! Der ood!” I shout to all the rabid goblins uselessly kicking and punching at the corpse.

  At my wise words, the confused pack finally seems to register the lack of any counter attacks. Backing away and leaving, they immediately scatter to search for a new target.

  As well as that ambush worked out in the end, I must keep Ha’koff and myself safe for the rest of this mission. Who knows whatever other hostile unknowns might appear here. This place is dangerous. More dangerous than any of the others so far.

  “Half success, plenty good enough. Reach right in, and then take its pups.”

  The mysterious song whispers seductively directly into my ear. It’s truly impossible to resist when I’m this squarely in its sights. Ha’koff also wrestles himself up off the ground and shambles over towards the corpse. Wriggling from its belly, a horror show of little leech-like fingers belch out onto the surface of the marsh. Then the second portal finally opens up right beside us.