"If you all know about this, then why haven’t you left?" Austin asked as he continued. "Because staying here could actually be doing you all more harm than good, even if you can’t see it yet."

Austin explained, and Legolas couldn’t help but smile. "Yeah, you’re right about that. But the truth is that we’re a stubborn race as a whole, so leaving the home we’ve always known was never really an option we wanted to explore."

"We love it here, so what we thought was that just like everything we’ve seen in our lives, all events will come and go, just as time itself passes."

"So we believed that eventually the corpse would be gone and maybe, just maybe, the forest would return to its former glory, and maybe then the vegetation and farms in the county would be as good as new." Legolas explained, and Austin simply remained silent as he listened.

"Besides, no one really wanted to leave, because if we did, there was a high chance we would end up living as slaves in some other territory within this kingdom, and to be honest, no elf is happy at the idea of becoming anyone’s slave."

"So that’s why leaving was never an option for us."

"Also, you and I both know that most of our cores are either damaged or gone forever, so other lords fear that inviting us into their lands might allow whatever infected our mana cores to spread to them, or so they believe." Legolas chuckled softly, but Austin could sense the sadness in his words.

He watched as Legolas took three more gulps before slamming his tankard on the small table in front of them.

Then Austin looked around the tavern, watching as the female elves chuckled and giggled at topics that seemed to interest them.

Despite everything that had happened to them, Austin could see how each elf here tried to maintain a happy mood rather than feeling sad about things that were out of their control.

At first glance, it would look like they had given up hope and resigned themselves to their fate, but in actuality, they were just being their usual selves.

Unlike humans, elves were a more patient race.

They would rather sit and wait for a disaster to pass because they knew they had a really long lifespan, unlike other races, and that somewhat shaped the way they thought about things, which was hugely different from how a human would think.

Austin pondered about all of this as he smiled softly before noticing Commander Aldren approaching him and Legolas.

"Are you boys ready to get rid of some goblins?" He asked, and all three made their way out of the tavern and straight to the southern outpost.

****

Time passed and now Austin and Legolas could be seen heading into a cave within Blacksand Forest.

That’s right, they were currently within Blacksand Forest.

The scouts had reported that the goblins were hiding in a cave that wasn’t too deep into the forest, so Aldren wanted them to handle this mission with swiftness and urgency.

This meant that the moment they were done taking down the goblins, they were expected to return to the outpost immediately.

And so, they kept moving toward the entrance of the cave, but before they entered, Austin turned to look at the forest around him.

He could see the trees were all black and wilted.

Even the ground was covered in black sand that looked like ash, showing exactly why the forest was called Blacksand Forest in the first place.

Looking around once more, he saw how there wasn’t a single speck of green anywhere.

It felt like every living plant had died.

In fact, even the air smelled strange and sickening, and he could only wonder if this was truly the effect of the dragon’s corpse.

Meanwhile, Aldren gave the signal and everyone moved into the cave quietly.

The entrance of the cave was narrow at first, but after walking for a few minutes, it opened up into a massive underground space.

The inner section was very long and wide, and it looked like they were currently in a hidden world underground.

Looking up high above their heads, Austin could see a giant mana crystal glowing with blue light, brightening up the entire area.

However, looking down and ahead of them, Austin saw dozens of goblins, and the goblins had also spotted them. One of them screamed while pointing at the intruders inside the cave.

"Oh shit." One of Aldren’s men muttered as he tightened his grip on his sword, while more than twenty goblins rushed at them all at once.

Some were bigger and stronger than the others, while some were holding spiked clubs as weapons.

A few others held bows and were already shooting arrows, while two goblin shamans instantly took their battle stances.

They were waving their hands to conjure up small green fireballs aimed straight at Aldren and the others.

"Stand your ground!!" Aldren shouted and continued. "Reinforcements are coming! Do not run and do not panic. Remain calm and fight!!" He shouted, and the battle began immediately.

Noticing this, Austin instantly created two large mana hands that floated beside him.

He used them to grab goblins and slam them against the stone walls, killing them instantly.

One goblin even tried to jump at him with a spiked club, but Austin’s mana hand caught it in the air and crushed its head almost immediately.

Meanwhile, another goblin came from the left, but Austin punched it hard with a mana fist and sent it flying across the underground chamber.

On the other hand, Legolas was busy fighting with his sword, moving fast and cutting down any goblin that came close to him.

Despite not having the luxury of using mana, his swordsmanship was still really good.

The same went for Aldren.

The tall and muscular dark elf could be seen moving like a storm as he swung his large sword, killing two or three goblins with every swing.

Meanwhile, the other guards used spears and swords, while others used bows to support the rest from behind, but the goblins were very fast and extremely tricky.

One goblin sneakily jumped on a guard’s back and bit down on the elf’s neck, forcing the guard to scream out in pain.

Another guard got hit in the shoulder by a spiked club and blood sprayed everywhere.

Then one of the goblin shamans aimed a green fireball that burned a guard’s leg badly.

The guard screamed and fell down as several other goblins rushed him with their spiked clubs aimed for his skull.

Meanwhile, Austin kept fighting, busying himself by smashing three goblins against the floor.

But while he was preoccupied with this, one goblin was sneakily approaching him from behind.

Unlike all the other goblins, this one had noticed how Austin was becoming a nuisance for his fellow goblins, so it thought it would be better to just end the human once and for all.

And so it quietly crept up behind Austin with a raised club, but just before the club could hit Austin’s head, a huge invisible force suddenly grabbed the goblin from behind and slammed it hard against the cave wall, crushing its body completely.

Hearing the strange scream from behind him, Austin instantly turned around and wondered what on earth that had been, but he had no time to think about it, so he swiftly redirected his focus on the remaining goblins storming toward him.

The fight after that became even more chaotic.

Despite everyone using their reserved 5% impurity-free healing potions, none of them were healing as well as they had hoped.

And the goblin numbers began to overwhelm the group, with one guard already having a broken arm while another had a deep cut on his stomach.

Aldren himself received a cut on his thigh, and Legolas already had several wounds on his arms and chest.

He had used up all of his reserved healing potions but still wasn’t healing to his satisfaction, and now he dropped to his knees, coughing up a large amount of blood.

Blood covered the cave floor and everyone was breathing heavily.

Many of the guards were badly injured and could barely stand, including Legolas, but more goblins kept coming, screaming and swinging their spiked clubs.

Out of everyone who had initially entered the cave, only Austin remained fighting tirelessly, while Aldren continued trying his best to back him up.

The others were too badly injured to move, and Legolas squeezed his fist as he realised that they would all die here soon if no one assisted Austin and Aldren.

So he swiftly made a decision he had been reluctant to make since the battle began.

"Ugh.... I really do not want to use this."

"But I have to." Legolas instantly took a gulp of the 20% impurity-free healing potion Austin had given him earlier, and his eyes widened in surprise when he felt his cracked mana core suddenly begin repairing itself.

A torrent of warm energy instantly flowed through his whole body and his deep wounds began to heal at once.

Even his zombie-like appearance began to be replaced with a more youthful and animated version of himself.

His sickly skin became smooth and full of vitality as Legolas’s eyes regained their youthful vibrancy.

Realising all of this happening to him simultaneously, Legolas instantly grinned as he stood up straight, threw his head back, and slammed his fists toward the sky while screaming"YAHOO!!!!! I’M BACK, BABY!!!"

=======

A/N:-

Thank you so much guys for the concern and thankfully, I was able to rewrite an even better four Chapters with a word count of at least 6000 words in comparison to the previous 4,400 words. Thank you so much guys. As always, you guys are the best.

Have a good day.

Good night and peace.