“My King, are you sure you don’t want my assistance?”

  Commander Meegra was crouched just behind Rick as they both watched a slumbering beast in the distance.

  “No…don’t interfere unless it looks like I’m about to die. Plus I might need you secure path of retreat since they are still plenty of beasts rushing past us.”

  Even now, after Rick had ventured deeper into Mir, he still hadn’t found the source of the monsters that constantly attacked them.

  Both him and Commander Meegra had departed together after she pleaded to do so. She and the other Royal Guards had pledged their lives to Rick, she argued that he should never be without one of them.

  Never.

  Not unless they were all dead.

  Now the two of them were together hiding on a small hill as beasts ran past the hill in the direction of the 14 Goblin Clans. They stopped here since Rick had finally found his first target.

  It looked like a bear, a massive one. It was still covered in the same black corrupted looking grime that clung to all the beasts of Mir, but it seemed to be sleeping. Nothing was bothering it either.

  Which of course was probably because the might of the Seventh Tier was pressing down on the area around its body without care or restriction. There wasn’t many things who could wander near it without consequence.

  “…I understand My King. Should I deem your life at real risk, I will come to your side immediately.”

  “Good, that’ll do.”

  [I still think it’s a good idea that you brought her. Fighting battles like this without physical support isn’t wise.]

  ‘Well your not really wrong, I just didn’t want to put her life at risk, and before you remind me, I know their slogan as Royal Guard is that death is a small price to pay. I know I know.’

  [If you say so. Do you have a plan here or is it back to barbaric Rick?]

  ‘I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or dig at me, but I do have a plan. I will simply go kill it. I don’t have time to come up with elaborate schemes. Fight it, kill it. Repeat it as many times as I can, then evolve.

  ‘A simple plan, but a plan.’

  […Barbaric Rick it is then.]

  …

  Now while Rick and Commander Meegra were off in the deepest reaches of the Dark Lands of Mir, fighting things that were best left alone, the rest of the continent wasn’t going to wait for them to return.

  It was currently night, and a figure cloaked in the deepest darkest black that could be fashioned was standing in the shadows cast by a flickering lantern. The location was a small village on the periphery of the Verdan Kingdom, and it was the only bar located in the village.

  The figure was here because it received a troubling report. One that normally would never have reached the figure’s ears due to its position, but this was not the time to be casual with any tidbit of information received.

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  Especially not when it concerns Goblins.

  The report in question wasn’t very detailed and was fairly simple… ‘suspicious individuals could be seen wearing hoods and snooping around the village.’

  Perhaps if that was all the report said then it would’ve never been so troubling, but the report didn’t end there.

  ‘A small child reported he saw a green monster in the woods when playing with his friends.’

  None of the other friends reported the same thing, nor did anyone else add logic to the report and it was mostly dismissed as nothing.

  The only reason it even became a report to the small group of guards that were responsible for patrolling the area is because they thought it was banditry.

  Yet, the Shadows of Verdan would leave no stone unturned.

  The figure hidden in the shadows had been here for a few days now.

  Watching.

  Waiting.

  It had interviewed no one.

  It had not raised any alarm, nor did it even let the guards that it was nearby.

  The figure simply remained hidden and patient.

  Yet after days of surveillance, not just in the village but in the surroundings as well…the figure found nothing.

  There wasn’t anything amiss. There weren’t any bandits to be found in the area, and the so called suspicious individuals with hoods with or without green skin, were not seen again.

  And that in of itself raised even more alarms in the mind of the hidden figure. While the entire village didn’t believe in the green skin thing, all of them were in agreement about suspicious hidden figures.

  Even if there were actually bandits or just a few suspicious figures nearby, the figure would’ve found something. Signs of movement, signs of a camp, signs of bodily waste being passed.

  Yet, nothing.

  The figure hidden in the shadows finally deemed it necessary to raise the alarm of this situation further. Perhaps someone else might’ve passed this off as nothing, but the people who make up the Verdan of the Shadows knew their own field.

  They knew they weren’t the first group of people who worked in the dark, nor where they the only ones who did such things at an elite level. They could tell when they were faint signs of their counterparts in the area.

  The biggest and most common sign…was that there were no signs.

  A truly elite force who prided itself on never being found, would teach their people to leave subtle signs that pointed to different explanations. It was one thing to remain hidden, it was another thing to not exist in the minds of those who seek you.

  The figure hidden in the shadows vanished from the village before reappearing some distance away.

  They continued this action of vanishing and reappearing in the distance for a few more moments before they finally reached their destination.

  A town not too far from the village, and inside of this town was a small bar. One located in the darker parts of the town. It was currently decently filled with patrons as they partook in drinks, food, and otherwise noisy atmosphere of a bar that was home to a grimier sort.

  With none the wiser, the figure appeared not too far from the bar before calmly walking to the front entrance and entering.

  Only this time, the figure was no longer dressed in the clothes that it wore on its mission and instead had an the attire that matched the other waitresses in the bar.

  A burly man that fit the scenes around him called out to the figure that entered the bar.

  “Oy!! Your late! Where the hell have you been Maggie!”

  “Sorry boss! You know how my mother gets!”

  “Leave her alone ya big gruff! She’s here ain’t she?”

  Another woman who was seated at the bar, yelled back at the boss in question, and he grunted before yelling at Maggie once more.

  “Just hurry up and start working the bar!”

  After saying that he left the bar and walked to the back.

  “You got it boss!”

  Maggie yelled back before quickly trotting off to the bar and grabbing a drink for the woman who spoke out for her earlier.

  “Thanks as always Miss Fresha, what would I do without you.”

  “Probably get kidnapped by one of those unsavory idiots, I keep telling you to quit this job and find a new one but you never listen.”

  “I will soon I promise!”

  As Maggie said that last line, she passed a mug filled with cheap beer to Miss Fresha, along with a small note. One not seen by anyone else.

  “You’ve been saying that for months now!”

  Miss Fresha grabbed the mug and the note as she said that and didn’t waste any time unfurling the hand not holding the mug.

  Of course, there was not a single word or letter on the piece of paper. For all intents and purposes it was blank.

  But that was not how something like this worked.

  Miss Fresha allowed a bit of mana to pass from her fingers into the paper, and then she heard a small message in her mind.

  ‘The Goblins walk in the Shadows.’