Chapter 3: Freeman's Quarrels
The goblin and his scout accomplice heard the sound of the Halibut Cannon's boom and reacted by dodging the incoming bullets, though 25 bullets being fired at once was enough to easily put a hole in the fancy house the two were building. The scout immediately noticed an angry look on his friend's face. "Kelgor! Behind you!"
Kelgor recognized the Halibut Cannon's boom and instantly knew that it had been Freeman that had fired the shot. He turned around, pissed at the hole that had been put in his house and the fact that the man who decimated his army of fellow goblins had come back with the obvious intention of finishing the job. Even so, Kelgor still angrily asked, "What the hell do you want from me!?"
"To make sure you goblins don't become a nuisance."
The scout gave a look to the Terrarian that screamed confusion and fear. "W-We're just building a house! Don't kill us!" Freeman gave no care for the scout's attempt at begging for mercy and was determined to get rid of Kelgor.
Freeman wasted no time in continuing to fire his Halibut Cannon at Kelgor, who instinctively drew his Gold Sword to block the bullets. The goblin used what he learned from his swordsman training from when he was still in the Goblin Army to block a few shots. Kelgor had clear trouble being able to block 25 bullets per shot, as one shot alone fractured the sword. Eventually, the sword became too broken down to be of use, and Freeman used this chance to shoot Kelgor, who near-instantly fell flat onto the grassy ground like a rock. "KELGOR! NO!" The scout ran over to him, horrified at the sight of him flat on the ground bleeding. Freeman simply watched as the scout cried and Kelgor lay in a pool of blood. Any normal Terrarian would be horrified by the sight, but Freeman's priorities prevented him from doing anything but simply stare blankly at Kelgor slowly dying.
"That's why I'm here.. That's what…this is for.." Kelgor began to speak weakly and struggled to look straight at Freeman. "This happens everytime we do anything important.. We're killed in mere seconds..!" He slowly and painfully turned to face his scout accomplice, "..Name any of our kind that's actually powerful or competent.." The scout stood in silence and horror without saying a word. The silence that followed Kelgor's question was broken midway by him coughing up blood. "Exactly. We've become a damn joke..! We need someone..to take action..and change that.."
"..and that will be me!" Kelgor pulled out a healing potion which Freeman immediately snatched out of his trembling hand, Kelgor reacting to his now empty hand in shock. "Hey scout!" he barked, "Tell your goblin buddies this is a promise- a promise that I'll squash you like bugs if you stand between me and Yharim." Freeman then faced Kelgor who despite dying, could see the seriousness in his eyes through the glass of the Arctic Diving Gear. "'Kelgor', was it? You sound like a fucking idiot. Next time, think before you try to steal some dynamite." He walked away from the scene and continued his search for a nearby cave.
The scout fell on his knees to the ground and began to accept Kelgor's imminent death until he pulled out another healing potion. Kelgor downed the entire thing in one gulp and looked to his accomplice. "That fool didn't know I had another one," Kelgor boasted weakly, "now take me inside before he comes back!" The scout hesitated in order to process what just happened before slowly carrying him into the unfinished house. The time was perfect for the Nurse, Holly, to come over to the house and put a bandage on Kelgor's wound.
Meanwhile in a deep cave, Freeman uncovered 3 gold chests and found a pair of Hermes Boots and a Cloud in a Bottle, along with some coins. Any nearby skeleton would run for their undead life on sight, so his search for important treasure went uninterrupted; that was the case until a skeleton in an attire resembling dracula and a vengeful look on his face stood near him. The skeleton held a Sun Spirit Staff in one hand and a skull wearing a hat on the other. "Hey, it's that merchant..?" Freeman whispered under his breath. The skeleton pointed his Staff towards Freeman with determination and shouted, "So you're the one who killed Rattles Magoo!" Freeman knew that the skeleton wanted a fight, though it wouldn't last long. He didn't bother using the Halibut Cannon and instead pulled out a musket.
The skeleton summoned a solar spirit and made a run for it, much to Freeman's surprise. Should he continue searching for treasure? Should he run? Freeman had little time to think, as it had been made crystal clear that the skeleton wanted payback. He decided to chase after the skeleton, shooting bullets at him. The skeleton ducked and jumped over the bullets as the solar spirit fired yellow beams of energy at Freeman, slowly damaging him. They then stopped near a dead end and Freeman got more pissed. "I thought it was a fucking fight you wanted, bonehead!"
"Heh, it was," the skeleton grinned before stepping on a pressure plate that causes a boulder to fall and land right in front of Freeman. The Terrarian was unfortunate enough to stop in a narrow gap leading to the dead end cave, and was forced to run from the boulder as the skeleton used dynamite to blow a hole in the wall to a glowing mushroom field. The skeleton ran towards the field and Freeman eventually continued chasing after him. They made yet another stop at a pit that the skeleton grinned at. Freeman had enough of running after him and pulled out a Halibut Cannon. This did not, however, phase the skeleton, but instead made him signal Freeman to come closer. He obliged before getting hit from behind by two baby slimes, causing him to begin tripping into the pit. The skeleton grabbed him and threw him further into the pit, making him fall head first towards a sharp stone pillar. The skeleton let out a sigh of relief as the Terrarian began falling to his death.
Freeman knew that he was gonna die if he didn't act quick and right now, so he hurriedly grappled onto a wall of the pit. The skeleton noticed there was no sound of any impact and checked the pit, seeing Freeman cling onto the wall for dear life. "Oh, come on!" the skeleton whined. "Just die already!"
"How many dumbasses do I have to quarrel with today?"
"Hey, who're you callin' a dumbass!?"
"You, bonehead."
"Jim! It's Jim!"
"I don't care."
Their argument got interrupted by a smaller skeleton urgently babbling about an emergency having to do with crabs. "There's a giant fungal crab loose on another shroom field!"
"Bullshit."
Freeman thought the same thing but didn't bother making a sound to avoid yet another quarrel with a skeleton. Jim strolled towards and looked down the pit once the smaller skeleton left his sight. "Hey, diving man, Crabulon's back on the loose. We might need your help on this one."
"If I help, will you leave me alone?"
"Hmm.. you killed Rattles though. How about some gold on your way back to the surface?"
The two stared in silence for a small moment before it got interrupted by Freeman barking, "..and the name's Freeman! Understand?"
"So it's a deal, right?"
"Do you understand or not?"
"I mean, yeah.."
"There's your damn answer. Now help me up!"
"How?"
Freeman double jumped toward the edge of the pit and reached, making Jim react by grabbing both hands and pulling him to safety. "Now where's this crab?"
Jim and Freeman hurried over towards the nearest glowing mushroom field to be greeted by a giant crab covered in mushrooms swatting multiple skeletons to a wall where their bodies fell apart upon impact. "Hm.. there's something off about him," Jim began speculating. Freeman had no idea what Jim was on about, considering the fact that he'd never seen Crabulon until now. "He has one less glowing mushroom on him than the last time I saw him!" Freeman smacked him upside the head before pulling out the Halibut Cannon and firing at the giant crab. The cannon did a considerable amount of damage, and had Freeman not run out of ammo, he could have easily killed Crabulon. "Damn! I need more ammo!"
"No you don't, silly Freeman!" Jim ordered his two baby slimes to attack the crab as he grappled to the roof of the field. The slimes were nowhere near as powerful as the Halibut Cannon, yet they still did some damage to the crab along with the solar spirit. Jim's plan went about smoothly until the crab jumped up and hit him, causing him to lose his grip and fall flat. Before Crabulon could crush Jim with his claw, Freeman threw a boulder at the crab.
He began to think to himself, "How am I supposed to kill this crab without any bullets..?" Remembering he has dynamite, both Auric and regular, he considered throwing some regular dynamite at the crab before remembering that Jim was right next to him. Before he could think further, he got hit by a floating crab shroom and saw the swarm of other crab shrooms. He instinctively dove away from it and towards Crabulon, lifted Jim to his feet, and left the glowing mushroom field to go towards the spike pit. Crabulon followed the two as Freeman planned. The two managed to lead Crabulon to the spike pit unscathed. Freeman signaled the confused skeleton to jump with him and ordered, "The hooks!" He dove into the pit, with Jim following, before Crabulon could reach them. The foolish crab jumped into the pit with them and as planned, the two hooked and clinged onto a pit wall as Crabulon fell directly onto the spike.
The plan would have been flawless had Crabulon not survived having a spike go through his entire body. The two seemed to have no way of fully killing the crab until Jim pulled out exactly 17 bullets. "You know what," Jim began to admit, "I'm the silly one, ok?" Jim tossed Freeman the bullets to load into the Halibut Cannon. "Now make it quick! There are crab shrooms above us." Freeman desperately wanted to ask him why he didn't give him the bullets earlier, but the crab shrooms weren't far from knocking the two into the pit. He quickly fired at Crabulon until he stopped moving and the fungus on him stopped glowing. When the two were sure that Crabulon was dead, they hurriedly jumped to the other side of the pit and climbed back up.
Freeman hooks the treasure bag dropped from Crabulon's corpse and pulls it towards him. He and Jim open the treasure bag to uncover three important things: a Mushroom Plasma Root, a Fungicide, and a Fungal Clump. Freeman takes the Fungicide and the Mushroom Plasma Root as Jim takes the Fungal Clump and some glowing mushrooms. The two then go their separate ways, tired and without saying a word.
On his way back from underground treasure hunting, Freeman notices that there are more houses and a castle where he encountered Kelgor. Other than being a warning, these buildings were a crystal-clear implication that the goblin was still alive and coming for payback. He was too tired to fight Kelgor this time, and instead continued his trek back to his storage home.
"So that's the guy, huh?"
"Correct, sorcerer."
Kelgor signaled the goblin sorcerer back into the castle. "If you see him, don't bother reporting it to me. Just get out of his sight because it's me he wants. I'll know when he arrives, anyway." He pulled out a Katana and a Wulfrum Blade and watched Freeman walk into the distance.
"And I'll be ready for him."
"Do you honestly think two measly swords will stop a man with a damn Halibut Cannon?"
"No. But someone who knows how to use them might." Kelgor then turned to face a book titled, "History of the Jungle Tyrant, Yharim by Rogue Joseph."
"So you're using the Tyrant's swordsman skills?"
"There's no other choice. That man is too big of a threat to use any other measly means of swordsman training, and he's only getting stronger as we speak.."
"And your intentions are?"
"To make us powerful enough to keep people like him under control. He'll come back soon.."
