The Goblin Knight's Roar
"I-it's delicious. This is seriously the best!!"
Enri cried out in pure rapture.
Sparks crackled and leapt from the campfire before the four of us.
"I never imagined we could enjoy a luxury like this outdoors—let alone inside a dungeon."
Even Elizabeth, who rarely showed much emotion, spoke with a rare note of excitement in her voice.
Angela sat glued to Enri's side, nodding so hard her head might fall off as she shared their delight.
"There's plenty left, so anyone who wants more can eat as much as they like."
I added the caveat that it shouldn't interfere with combat, of course.
A pot of beef stew bubbled merrily over the fire.
It was only that, yet the party members—who had never dreamed of tasting hot food inside a dungeon—wore expressions of pure bliss.
This world had something called spatial expansion pouches: bags or pouches magically treated to enlarge their interiors. Their sizes varied wildly. I'd heard some high-end ones were bigger than an entire room.
That meant you never needed to haul gear around like a military pack train when exploring a dungeon. Weight and freshness were another matter, though, so the common sense was to travel light—just enough water and jerky for each person.
But I have an inventory.
Whether it was a reincarnation perk or something else, I'd possessed the inventory from Hero Con Brio from the moment I landed here. After testing it every way I could, I confirmed that the hundreds of slots I'd maxed out in the game never suffered from weight or spoilage the way expansion pouches did.
I couldn't keep letting such a convenient, broken ability rot just to hide it from others. To make use of the inventory, I'd reluctantly claimed it was a skill and casually tipped off only the party members.
The scene before my eyes was the direct result.
Elizabeth sat with perfect posture, elegantly spooning up stew, while Enri had her face practically buried in her plate, drinking the stuff. Angela was already ladling a second helping into her empty bowl, so she was clearly enjoying it too.
Watching them savor it, I lifted my own spoon and popped a thick chunk of meat into my mouth.
"Mm."
The rich savor of butter and the deep, concentrated flavor of long-simmered tomatoes filled my mouth; the meat, braised until it was soft and melting, dissolved on my tongue like snow.
Holy. Fucking. Delicious.
This beef stew—takeout from Begonia Restaurant, the place I'd visited with Elizabeth last time—made my tongue dance. It wasn't the absolute finest cuisine, but after a fierce battle it satisfied me more than anything else I'd eaten since arriving in this world.
"Munch munch. Heehee, I bet the other parties are still chewing on rock-hard jerky right about now."
"Miss Enri, please at least swallow everything in your mouth before speaking."
"Ahh, I never thought I'd get to eat something this good in a place like this."
By the time the meal wound down, Angela—who had been half-dead earlier—had fully recovered to her usual self. Filling my stomach with hot food, I felt a little strength returning as well.
Still, there's a downside…
A full belly made me want to rest, and resting made me want to lie down. Everyone seemed to feel the same; we all dawdled and ended up taking another ten minutes. It was unavoidable.
Our party forced our reluctant bodies up from the ground and resumed the exploration.
-Kyaaaak!!
-Kieeek!!
Shrill goblin cries battered our ears from every direction.
Sweat pouring down her face as she smashed aside a goblin's attack, Enri whined with a pout.
"Huuueeeen──! We've been moving nonstop and my stomach's already empty again!!"
"O wind, become a wall that bars the foe."
Wind Wall
Clang!
The dagger aimed at Enri's back bounced off the wall of wind.
"Ah, thank you, Lady Elizabeth!"
Only the ricochet sound told Enri there had been an ambush; she turned to Elizabeth with a grateful smile.
"Hah. Miss Enri, please focus—it's dangerous in combat."
"Uwaah, I'm sorry."
We were currently fighting in the ninth monster chamber. While Enri held the front line and drew the enemy's attention, I cut their numbers one by one with the help of Elizabeth's support skill, Fair Wind.
After battle after battle I had grown used to fighting goblins; I moved at high speed and drove my spear into their weak points.
-Kieeek!
-Kyaak!!
A goblin that failed to react to my sudden thrust took a hole straight through the throat and died on the spot; the two that caught the follow-up sweep went flying sideways.
I swung my spear with practiced ease amid the pressing threat. Flesh tore, bones shattered, and blood soaked the floor.
Even as I carved through the goblins in front of me, I couldn't shake the unease in my head.
This is wrong. A daily dungeon—especially the first floor where goblins appear—shouldn't have this many monsters.
The first chamber had held nine. Then twelve, then sixteen. The farther we went, the more enemies appeared, and the strangeness only grew. Now, near the end of the first floor, nearly thirty monsters blocked our path.
My suspicion hardened into certainty. This was a clear anomaly.
There was never an event like this!!
The only reason I hadn't worried too much despite sensing something off was simple: in the game, daily dungeons were completely separate content. No story-driven events ever occurred inside them.
Damn it, I'm a complete idiot.
I had no choice but to admit it. I had made a mistake. It was now obvious that I had been projecting the old Hero Con Brio too heavily onto this living, breathing world. Even while telling myself that reality could change anything, I had unconsciously kept treating it like the game.
I sighed and lifted my head. Goblins charged at me with murder in their eyes.
Right. Regret won't change a thing.
Maybe it was lucky I'd realized it now. I kicked the dagger that had reached me upward, then drove my spear into the goblin's torso. Catching the rusty blade mid-air with one hand, I hurled it straight at another goblin.
Crack──.
-Guek?!
The dagger sliced the air and buried itself in the last goblin's skull with a satisfying watermelon-burst sound, snuffing out its life.
Confirming every enemy was down, Enri's legs gave out and she plopped onto the ground.
"Uuu. This is too hard—why are there so many goblins in a beginner training dungeon?!"
"I agree. This number is far too high."
"Casting curses on so many at once is making my head spin…"
It wasn't just me; the others were starting to notice the oddity as well.
Giving up right before the boss room is a shame, but pushing any farther is too dangerous.
Continuing after recognizing an anomaly would be pure madness. I steeled myself and was about to propose we withdraw as party leader when—
Kuuuugugugu──.
"──?!"
"Kyaa, what now?!"
"W-what is that?!"
The ground rumbled as if an earthquake had struck.
"I-is it an earthquake?"
"We're inside a dungeon, though?"
The tremor stopped almost immediately, and we were ready to laugh it off as a fluke when—
-Kraaaaaaaaaaa!!!
A roar thick with overwhelming killing intent thundered through the dungeon. Every sense I possessed screamed danger at once.
Death.
That was the first word that flashed through my mind.
"Emergency! Everyone use your escape crystals!!"
"Yes!"
"Understood!"
"Got it!"
We had no time to hesitate. Each of us yanked the crystal hanging at our waist and crushed it with all our strength.
Clang.
The crystals shattered to pieces in every hand──.
"Huh──?"
"W-wait. Young Master, why isn't this working?!"
"What is this?!"
──Yet nothing happened. The broken crystals failed to activate.
"This is…"
"What do we do now?!"
Shards of crystal tumbled from my own hand to the floor. Our last hope of salvation had vanished.
While everyone else panicked, a hologram visible only to me flickered into existence in mid-air.
-Ding.
Escape crystals cannot be used while in combat with a boss.
The stark red warning on the hologram felt like seeing my own name written in a Death Note.
You've got to be kidding me!
Even as my mind went blank, my heightened senses reported the enemy drawing closer by the second.
Thud.
Thud!
Thud!!
The vibrations grew louder, the ground shaking harder in time with them. Under the crushing pressure of something enormous racing toward us, we froze solid.
My heart hammered as if it would burst while I pictured whatever was about to emerge from the darkness ahead.
A moment later the vibrations reached their peak, and the exit of the monster chamber exploded with a massive rupture.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwang!!
The entire chamber shook as if it would collapse; a cloud of dust billowed upward. Through the rising grit I felt something vast and malevolent approaching.
-Groooooooar───!!
A low, wicked howl that crushed any thought of resistance echoed through the chamber. The predatory aura that scorned weaker life urged my instincts to flee at once.
As the dust slowly settled, the enemy's form began to take shape.
What appeared before us was not one foe.
Standing there were a goblin knight whose massive frame looked a full three meters tall, and a mysterious man in a familiar robe, both staring straight at us.