My Sons and I Got Isekai’d To The Losing Goblin Side: Chapter 017: Into the Forest We Go (Patreon)

Vreek pointed towards the trees off to our left.

“I think it is time to get off the road, we have left a big enough trail and the camp we are looking for will not be along this road.”

Vreek was right of course.

I had been debating on spending another night on the road but I was getting tired of the needless slaughter. Between the second village and those traveling on the road, we had killed over a hundred more people. Three groups of low-level heroes had suffered a fate similar to the one we had on our first day in this world.

We had grown strong enough that even when only one of us fought it did not matter if it was four or five to one. Turk had rained down arrows on a group of five, killing them all before any of them could react to his attack.

Dirk was impressive in how he handled the group he took out. Turk had pointed out the group traveling away from us. Dirk approached them from behind and took down three of the four heroes in silence. The last one he had walked up to and greeted him in their language. Apparently from the way Dirk told the story, it had surprised the elf warrior so much that he crapped his pants. Dirk simply toyed with him for a bit before the rest of us caught up and I made him end it.

Vreek chose to just rush head first and overpower the group of four that he faced. He had complained about not finding a real challenge to prove his worth against and wanted a second turn.

“Vreek is right,” I concluded as I motioned for us to head toward the woods. “If we stay on the road we will soon be at the gates of Anhelon. It is time to start searching the woods and the mountains to see if we can find this lost group of orcs and goblins.”

Both boys nodded but I knew they were bored. We had not faced any challenge for a while and they were tired of talking through the strategies we had come up with. They were ready to test them.

Two days had passed and Vreek and Turk had found no trails or markings that pointed to an orc or goblin being in the areas of the woods we searched. The closer we got to the mountains the more dangerous it was supposed to get.

“Incoming!” shouted Turk as he fired off arrows at the two boars charging us.

We had surprised two adult boars when we came around some large boulders. Each of them was bigger than a large dog from back on Earth. They were traveling with their litter of piglets when we came upon them. The arrows that Turk fired simply bounced off of their hides and did nothing to slow them down.

Dirk ran forward and tossed two daggers at the male boar who was in front. Each dagger struck his hide and pierced it maybe an inch before falling out as it charged at him.

“Those won't work!” shouted Vreek as he pulled his sword out and started running toward the female boar. “You need a spear to punch their skin! Otherwise, you will have to hack at it!”

Vreek swung his sword and it bit into the flesh of the female boar as he dodged her charge. She squealed and ran off a little before turning around to charge again. Her squeal caused the male boar to ignore Dirk and turn to come after Vreek.

Dashing forward I got in the path of the boar and tightened my grip on my sword, waiting for him to reach me. It focused on me since I stood in its way and charged. I waited for it to close the distance. I made sure to keep an eye on his tusks which appeared to be over eighteen inches long. If he hit me with them I knew it could probably split me open.

I waited till the last moment and stepped to the right, dodging the thrust of his tusk, and did a quick swing of my sword, opening him from neck to ass. He squealed in pain and flipped onto his back, rolling a few times before coming to a stop.

The female boar slowed her charge and suddenly turned away from us when she saw her mate go down, squealing for her litter to follow her.

“That was a bit of excitement!” proclaimed Dirk as he fetched his two daggers that had fallen to the ground.

“We are lucky that Zolb has the sword he does. I am not sure mine would have cut the male at all,” stated Vreek as he cleaned off his sword. “Their skin makes excellent armor if you can actually kill one and take it to someone who knows how to prepare it.”

I walked over to where the boar lay and poked it gently with my sword. Since it was not moving I set my sword down for a moment next to its body and pulled out my knife. I found I could cut the skin from underneath but I could not cut the outer layer at all with my knife.

“Vreek would you be ok if I just hacked it into pieces so we can eat it?”

Vreek smiled and nodded.

“We need a fire though. Sometimes they have worms and occasionally we can get them too if we do not cook their meat. It will taste better anyways if we cook it.”

Looking at the carcass next to me I was sure I did not want to test what was stronger. Intestinal worms or me.

“You know how to cook them so we do not have to worry about worms?” I asked.

Vreek laughed and nodded.

“Get those two to gather some wood and I will get a spot for the fire setup. You can start breaking down the body.”

I nodded and set to work with my sword. Once I had cut off the outer layer of skin it was easy to slice it into pieces I felt would work best for Vreek to cook. Tonight would be a good meal since we had not had fresh meat in a day.

“This is amazing,” remarked Turk as he bit off a piece of meat from the slab Vreek had handed him. “What do you call these boars?”

Vreek flipped the meat over that was hanging on a spit he had set up.

“They have different names. Some call them stoneskins, some call them tough hides, and others call them just boar. You would not see these where we lived. They live in areas like this. Usually higher up close to the mountains.”

Turk just nodded and kept devouring the meat he had on a stick.

“I don’t want to ruin the conversation but would the orcs and goblins be this far into the mountains?” I asked Vreek. “It seems like it might be too dangerous for a camp and there is not much out here to eat. Am I wrong?”

Vreek looked at me for a few seconds and turned back to preparing dinner.

“I don’t know,” he finally replied. “The group that lives here would be smaller but stronger than our group. You should have asked Brar but I believe the leader is a female orc. She could easily handle most of the stuff out here. If they had an ogre then they might be even deeper in the mountains so they can be in a cave.”

“An ogre!” exclaimed Dirk. “Like a giant ogre that turns to stone during the day?”

Vreek looked at Dirk and he shook his head no.

“Why would an ogre turn to stone during the day?”

“Doesn’t the sun kill it?” asked Dirk.

“Where do you all come up with these weird things?" proclaimed Vreek. "No sun does not kill an ogre. They do not like the sun as it hurts their eyes and makes it hard for them to see.”

“Yeah Dirk,” chimed in Turk. “Where did you get the crazy idea that the sun kills an ogre?”

Dirk picked up a stone and tossed it at Turk who let it hit his side. Both of them were laughing and I knew they were thinking of something from a game or movie we had seen.

Ignoring my boys I considered what Vreek had said.

“Why would a group of orcs and goblins be in a cave? Wouldn’t it make it difficult to raid the area around the city? I mean we are at least a day away now from the city if one moved at the same speed as how most goblins and orcs would.”

Vreek lifted up one of the slabs of meat he was cooking and poked it. It was not cooked enough to his liking and he put it back over the fire.

“Did Brar not tell you there are other things in this world that goblins and orcs kill and eat to get stronger? The mountains are home to so many things that can be just as deadly as a hero.”

“Like this boar?” asked Turk.

Vreek nodded and decided to educate us a little more.

“This boar would be deadly to goblins or orcs outside of a captain. If a pack of goblins or orcs came, armed with the right equipment they should win but a few would still die. The problem is that the heart would not offer the same power one heart from a hero would. It would be more than a regular human or elf though.”

“What determines the strength of a heart?” asked Dirk. “I mean we sent back hundreds of hearts to Brar to give to the camp. Won’t those help them all grow?”

Vreek chuckled and nodded and lifted off the last two pieces of meat. Handing one to me he took a bit of his and chewed. Juices ran down his mouth and dripped to the ground and he sucked in air as the hot flesh burnt going down.

“Give me a minute to eat and I’ll tell you what you are asking.”

I felt bad for Vreek as I took my time and enjoyed what I had to eat. Both Turk and Dirk were staring at him as he took each bite and tried to enjoy it. Finally, he had enough of being stared at and sat down the piece he was working on and sighed.

“Fine! I’ll tell you what you want so I can stop being watched like two cubs waiting to latch on to their mother's teat!”

Dirk and Turk laughed and I just chuckled. I had experienced that same stare too many times in my life when they wanted something. It was annoying, to say the least.

“Hearts have a value that is hard to measure. A goblin's heart when they are weak is basically worthless for anything but food. It will not heal you or help you train. An orc's heart when they are weak is more like a regular human heart but only for healing. Not for training. For some reason, our hearts do very little to help an orc or goblin grow when eaten.”

“Do you think that is to prevent us from killing each other and simply farming young orcs and goblins for them?”

Vreek chuckled even though Turk had interrupted him.

“Yes. Most believe that is the reason why. However, if I was to eat Zolb’s heart I would be able to grow and get stronger because he is so much stronger than I am. When a powerful goblin or orc dies fights can and have broken out over who will eat the heart. Some goblins or orcs have tried to kill stronger ones but that has not often worked out for them.”

“Like Brar’s old Blackhand leader,” I said as I tapped the bracelet on my wrist.

Vreek nodded.

“And that did not go well for him. Had he succeeded the King would have been upset but the king would either have to send people to kill the new leader or accept him. Usually, the king allows it. If you are not strong enough to defend yourself, you do not deserve to lead.”

Turk raised his hand and Vreek looked at him confused.

“Is your arm ok?” asked Vreek.

Turk realized what he had done and lowered it and chuckled.

“Sorry, it's an old habit. Do any of us have to worry about an orc or goblin trying to kill us?”

“That is a good question,” Vreek said with a nod of his head. “I will not attempt it unless you all went against us. I know I would fail so it would be something unexpected like undercooked meat with worms that would eat through your brains.”

Durk and Turk both looked at the scraps of food they had next to them and back at Vreek.

Vreek started to laugh and I found myself laughing with him.

“A joke. Traveling with you all has made me feel weaker because now I make them.”

Turk and Dirk laughed a little but I could tell they still did not like the idea of an unexpected attack.

Vreek pointed at the three of us and went on.

“You may be challenged by some orc or captain who thinks they are stronger than you. Consider it an honor if you are. Then decide before you kill them if you believe they learned their lesson or will try again but not warn you next time. Each warrior is different.”

Vreek paused and took a bite of his food again and took his time as he chewed it.

“Hearts you get from humans, elves and dwarves are for some reason different from hearts from beasts, monsters, dragons, sand wurms, and other things we would not want to encounter.”

Dirk started to speak but Vreek cut him off with a glance.

“No one knows why but our god had revealed to us a long time ago that these three races would be the key for our growth. The stronger they are and the more power they have, the stronger we can become. It is even rumored that there are special heroes or champions on their side that if one defeats and eats their heart, can produce greater results than usual.”

Vreek turned to take another bite and saw both Turk and Dirk staring at me. He glanced at me and knew he was missing something.

“What is it you are not telling me?” he asked.

I put down the last few bites of my food and looked at Vreek.

“I will share with you a secret only Brar knows. I will trust you with it, but if I find you ever share it, I will kill you without hesitation. Do you understand?”

I could see the fear in Vreek’s eyes as he saw the glare coming from mine. He nodded and turned his full attention to me.

I took a breath and began from the start.