Lucas was doing quite well with how he was approaching the goblins. He kept utilizing the trees to hide his presence and made sure to be careful how much noise he was making, to not get any louder than the noise made by the leaves moving on the wind.

Leonel did his best to imitate the man's behavior.

The girls had a little bit easier task, as they had smaller frames, and the trunks provided better cover for them. Nevertheless, both groups got spotted eventually, and the short creatures attacked while screaming. There were four of them in total, and they all were armed with melee weapons. Three clubs and one jagged, rusty dagger.

The humans did a good job, by spreading in a way, that every one of them got approached by a single monster. The fight was short, although very nervous. They followed Tihana's instructions and waited for each goblin to attack, then blocked the hits with the shields, and used created an opening to strike. Each swing proved to be deadly, so they got rewarded with a crystal.

The smiles on the kids' faces were massive when they picked their first stones and put them in their pockets. I clapped for them.

- Congratulations! Just don't think it will be this easy every time, and always stay alert - I also warned them.

I'm not sure how much of that was taken seriously by them since the sheer happiness driven from victory and the reward was too overwhelming for them to pay too much attention to me.

They all had to tell each other how the fight went for them as we traveled further.

historical

- I blocked him with the shield. Then bam! The stick hit me, but I didn't even feel it! I swung my sword, and it just turned the goblin to smoke! - Lionel was all excited.

I rustled his hair a bit while laughing, as I heard his description of the short duel.

- You did good, but the day is long, and there are other fights, so don't lose your focus - I told him.

Our journey further kinda repeated itself. The crew proved to be quite focused on how to behave, so there was only one close call when one of the goblins was armed with a bor and an arrow. Lucas took him on by himself. I was actually ready to catch the arrow with 'Telekinesis' if it was to reach him, but the guy actually managed to block it with his shield, before finishing the monster off.

It took us overall few hours, but then we took a U-turn heading slightly back, before going more toward the center of the territory, where the cave was located.

This part of the day was filled with kids talking a lot about how they fought with the goblins, while the adults mostly listened, throwing from time to time a remark or a joke.

When we arrived in the immediate vicinity of the gate, there was already quite a bunch of people gathered there, eating the food they packed while sitting on the ground and talking among the small groups that formed.

The guards usually stationed be the entrance were taken care of, and Tihana with John were actually standing the closest to the entrance, to clearly be a living barrier between what could come out, and the rest of the humans.

We were greeted and invited to take a little bit of rest. The rest of my group went for it, but I didn't. Instead, I approached the two by the entrance.

- What's the plan? - I asked my daughter.

- There is no plan - she responded.

My eyebrows immediately climbed up my forehead.

- Elaborate? - I proposed, turning the word into a question with my intonation.

- You are taking care of this, paps - she said and slapped me in the chest with the back of her hand.

- We came to the conclusion that it is too risky for us at this point - John explained. - The situation might get out of control too quickly, and somebody might get hurt, so it would be better if you, mister Peter, would take care of it a-and...

He started stuttering and quickly glanced at Tihana, who treasured him by nodding. He cleared his throat, then continued with a little bit more confidence, because the stuttering was gone.

- And we believe if the crystals from the cave were invested in the people, we could begin speaking of clearing the cane on our own in maybe a week - he finished.

I don't know if it was my facial expression, which caused him to react this way - because I wasn't really hiding how I felt about this proposition - or maybe he realized what he was proposing on his own accord.

- Are you insane? - I asked them after a moment of pause. - I don't work for free.

- How is the gratitude of your daughter as a payment? - Tihana asked me with a smirk on her face.

- Gratitude of my daughter? - I asked.

- Yes. Besides, you shouldn't treat this as work. It's an opportunity. Opportunity to show them what you can do, so they wouldn't dare to do anything stupid in the future - she added.

Her words made me look behind, at the people who were sitting down for the most part, and eating. Despite having conversations, most kept an eye on the three of us.

I sighed.

- Fine.

Tihana immediately seized the moment by taking a few steps toward the rest of the people gathered in front of the cave.

- Everybody, I have good news - she started loudly. - It would be very hard if not impossible for us to clear the cave on our own, but papa Peter offered his help during the first week, so we can get stronger before doing this on our own.

- Papa peter? - I asked, and looked at John.

He was already biting on his lips not to smile. I'm not gonna lie, my anger started to grow.

Then cheers reached me, which immediately caused a response from the inside of the cavern.

- I show you papa Peter - I mumbled to myself, before glancing at the cheering people.