Chapter 9.
The drone flew about, circling in place to get a good look at every direction, and that was when Richard noticed that there seemed to be an end to the forest in the south, a clear break in the tree line where the green gave way to something else, perhaps a plain or a river or even a road if he was lucky.
"That should be roughly three to four kilometers away from here," he thought to himself, the controller still in his hands as he calculated the distance based on how much of the forest he could see and how small the tree line appeared at its furthest edge.
He controlled the drone and had it fly south, toward where the forest seemed to have ended, curious to see what lay beyond.
To Richard's surprise, even after flying two hundred meters away, the drone continued to move without much issues, the connection staying strong and the video feed remaining clear, which surprised him because he had expected the range to be much shorter given how cheap the drone had been to create.
"Well what do you know," he said, grinning as he continued moving the drone southward.
"This stuff was worth the pay after all."
From two hundred meters, the drone continued to go farther and farther, the trees whizzing by below as Richard pushed the limits of his new toy.
Eventually, it stopped responding at around one thousand plus meters away, which was roughly one kilometer from his cabin, the controls growing sluggish and the video feed starting to stutter.
Quite the achievement for a drone that had only cost 2 SP to make.
"If I were to redesign it with weapons attached, then I could clear a path out of the forest without having to put myself in danger," Richard said aloud, already imagining a fleet of armed drones flying ahead of him, taking out anything that dared to harm him, so he could stroll through the aftermath without breaking a sweat.
To him, right now, his life was the most precious thing he owned, because he had already lost it once and had no desire to repeat the experience.
If he could avoid a direct confrontation with someone or something, he wouldn't hesitate to do so.
Having reached its limit, he maneuvered the drone to head back to him, pulling back on the controls and watching as the camera feed showed the forest rushing past in reverse, the drone obediently returning to its master.
But all of a sudden, Richard stiffened when he heard the sound of something colliding with the fence outside, a heavy thud that made him jump in his seat and drop the controller onto his lap.
'The heck?' He frowned and stood up, wondering if it was a dumb deer that had bumped into his yard and couldn't figure out how to leave, yet that thought left his mind when he heard several more sounds of collision, thump after thump against the wooden fence, as well as strange chattering sounds that he didn't recognize.
While he couldn't understand the words, the voices he heard made him feel that whatever they belonged to were in some kind of danger, crying out for help in a language he had never heard before, their voices sounding desperate and terrified.
Richard sat back down with a frown, he decided he would use the drone to see just what sort of creatures dared to bang on his new home.
"Are those goblins?" Richard was genuinely surprised to see a well-known monster from fantasy fiction gathered outside his home when the drone finally reached the house and showed him the live feed on his controller screen.
The creatures huddled against his wooden fence were unmistakable, with their greenish skin, pointed ears, and small, wiry frames that matched almost every illustration he had ever seen of the mythical creatures.
But there was something different about these ones, something that didn't quite align with the mindless, ugly, savage monsters he had read about in countless novels and games back on Earth.
"But what are goblins doing here?" He wondered aloud, tilting his head as he studied their distressed expressions through the drone's camera.
The more he watched, the more he realised that they seemed to be in genuine danger, their wide eyes darting back toward the forest as if they were being pursued by something.
Just as his thoughts were beginning to wander down various paths of speculation, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching through the trees, and judging by the sound, there was more than one.
Richard quickly controlled the drone to hide amongst the dense foliage, so it wouldn't be discovered, this way he could see what sort of creature was able to scare this many goblins, without losing his drone.
*****
Eva was the first to rush out into the clearing, her twin daggers already drawn and gleaming in the afternoon light as she burst through the tree line, her lips curling up into a cruel smirk the moment she caught up to her fleeing goblins.
"Filthy creatures," she mocked them, her voice dripping with contempt as she stalked forward, clearly enjoying the fear radiating from the goblin refugees. "Did you really think you could escape me?"
The goblins had varying expressions on their faces, some showed pure terror, others displayed bitter frustration at having been caught, while many were simply overwhelmed with grief, their eyes wet with tears as they clutched their young.
Seeing Eva standing there with her bloody daggers, they realised that their loved ones who had stayed behind to buy them time must already be no more, sacrificed for a few extra minutes of running that had ultimately been useless in the end.
"Eva, don't give them any more time," Tony said after catching up, his broadsword still dripping with goblin blood as he emerged from the trees.
"Hurry up and kill every one of them before they run away again–"
' Wait a moment, what's that wooden wall behind them. Is someone living here?' Tony's thoughts shifted the moment he saw the wooden fence, due to its height, he couldn't see what was behind it.