The Hunter, the Goblins, and… (3)
The Hunter, the Goblins, and… (3)
#
"What?!" "Huh?!"
Yuri stared in horror, and Reni jumped in surprise along with her. I hadn't expected to tease two people at once. I continued explaining with my face turned away; seeing their expressions would have made me laugh.
Still, my voice stayed dead serious and calm.
"Look at those tracks. I'm just an adventurer hopeful, but even I can tell that's not from a goblin or two coming and going. This is no joke."
"Ah..." "Yoo-jin..."
"For now, let's go back and wait quietly for guild support. It's far too dangerous for adventurer hopefuls like us—way out of our league, you know?"
"Th-that's..."
"Well, we're headed to West Keep, so you'd have to wait alone. If you come back to West Keep later, I can help you give a statement. Not sure how much help an adventurer hopeful would be, though?"
"Ah..."
I glanced at Yuri. She was fidgeting helplessly, almost stamping her feet. That was what she got for being so irritating.
"Yoo-jin... I-I mean, still..."
Reni was just as restless. Did she truly believe we'd come all this way only to turn back? She tended to take my words at face value, but how could she be this innocent? Then again, it made teasing her fun every time.
"U-um... so..."
Yuri was still fidgeting.
Good. Time to land the finishing blow. I turned to Yuri with the laugh of a sleazy third-rate villain.
"Kuh-hah-hah... If you want our help... you'll have to offer me your most precious treasure..."
"Yoo-jin! How could you exploit someone's weakness like that... You mustn't!"
This priest still couldn’t read the room! Well, that was enough.
"Just kidding."
"Huh?" "Ah..."
Both of them stared blankly. Worth it. Those expressions made the childish act completely worthwhile.
"I-I believed in you! I knew you'd never do something like that, Yoo-jin!"
"..."
Reni suddenly squeezed my hand. Hadn’t she said something totally different just a moment ago? And now this attitude. Looked like this priest needed some punishment next time. The kind of punishment where she couldn’t pass out even if she wanted to...
"Eep..."
Reni's face went a little pale as she looked at me. Had my expression been too blatant?
"Uh, um... That really was... a joke, right?"
Yuri was still hemming and hawing. Seeing her so deflated, maybe I'd been a little too harsh.
"Yeah. Now let us go."
#
"..."
"What is it?"
"...Nothing. Just something strange."
The dungeon's status window displayed odd information.
[Dungeon #1052]
[Type: Goblin (Humanoid) / ???]
[Monster Status: ▼]
[Normal: 10]
[Rare: 00]
[Boss: 00]
[Irregular Entity: 41]
Why were there so many irregular entities? Was a whole group of bald bone-fuckers like the one in Riverbridge about to show up?
"Yuri. You... saw goblins, right?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"No reason. It's just weird. Could they be something else that looks like goblins? They did light a fire."
"...What I saw were definitely goblins. I know I don't look it, but my eyes are good."
...Yeah, they'd have to be, to hit a wild boar from a few hundred meters away.
"...Is something the matter?"
Reni seemed to notice something and whispered to me so Yuri would not hear.
"We might have guys like the bone-fu—the bald guy... Like the bald guy from Riverbridge."
And not just one or two. I didn't know how many of the forty-one were like that, but even if we had to face three at once—no, just two—it would be dangerous.
"Then what do we..."
"All we can do is be careful. If there are a lot of them..."
"What are you two whispering about?"
A sullen tone. I looked back; she had her lips in a little pout. Fine. I could share this much with her.
"...Earlier, the part about going back was a joke, but it's not anymore. If we go in and spot anything that looks dangerous, we run immediately."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"In Riverbridge, we ran into something dangerous and strange, too. This place has the same kind of feel. It's not a joke—this is genuinely too much for just us to handle."
When Reni nodded with a tense expression at my words, Yuri looked a bit displeased but agreed.
"...Fine. You did come all the way here."
"Good. Let's go. From here on, we have to watch our footsteps, too."
"Got it."
…
Small magic stones embedded throughout the cave ceiling cast a faint glow. It almost resembled a place where people lived... The atmosphere was completely different from Riverbridge, where we'd needed Light Magic at every turn.
At least we wouldn't expose our position by casting Light Magic, but...
"It's too quiet."
"It really is... Riverbridge wasn't this quiet either..."
She was right.
Of course, wild animals normally did not live inside dungeons. They had enough sense not to approach monsters when there was nothing to gain.
But that mainly applied to large animals that could become monster targets, like predators such as wolves or bears.
So in the Riverbridge dungeon, there had been bats, small mice, and insects everywhere. But here...
"I don't see a single ant."
"Right? It's not like the goblins could've eaten them all..."
...What?
Wait. Something felt as though it were about to click.
"What do you mean?"
"I said there's no way goblins ate them."
"...Why wouldn't goblins eat them? What, are they gourmets among monsters? Shouldn't they eat anything they can scavenge?"
"Do you seriously not know anything?"
With a slightly smug air, Yuri whispered rapidly.
"You know dungeon monsters don't leave the dungeon, right?"
"I know that much."
...Now that I thought about it, that really was bizarre. Even humanoid types like goblins didn't come out of the dungeon.
The vague unease I'd felt before took shape into a concrete question.
Why? No, how?
How could monsters survive only inside the dungeon?
Skeletons might feed on mana or be sustained by some magical mechanism. That much was believable.
But a living creature like a goblin would need to eat to survive, wouldn't it? And yet they didn't leave the dungeon?
They were called dungeons, but in reality they were merely natural caves inhabited by monsters. A cave could not possibly contain enough food to sustain so much life.
It never caused any direct harm, so I hadn't paid attention, but from an ecological standpoint, it was impossible. They had to eat something to live.
Yuri had identified exactly what was bothering me.
"Those things don't exactly go hunting. So what do they live on?"
"...What do they eat?"
"Nothing."
"What?"
"They don't eat anything. To be precise, nobody's ever seen them eat. But they never seem to starve to death either. Weird, right?"
That made sense. But still...
"Then why don't we see any bats or ants in this dungeon?"
"...I don't know either."
There was no time to dwell on the question before Reni quietly gave a warning.
"Yoo-jin. There's a shadow up ahead."
"Yeah. I see it."
It appeared on the minimap too, about eight meters beyond the corner. Fortunately, there seemed to be only one.
When I rounded the corner and peeked, the goblin had its back turned to me.
It was definitely tall. According to the book, an ordinary goblin should be about the size of a young elementary school child—roughly 120 to 130 centimeters. This one looked closer to 150.
When I opened its info window, it had some Strength, but fortunately, its Intelligence wasn't very high.
Good. In that case...
"Reni, Haste—now. Yuri, draw and hold. Follow me in as soon as I rush out, and if I miss, shoot immediately."
Both nodded quietly.
Once we were ready, I cast Silence around both myself and the goblin. Perhaps because its Intelligence was low, it didn't seem to notice that all sound had vanished.
I gave them both one final nod.
"I'm going."
-Thud!
I charged. Thanks to 「Haste」 and the levels I'd gained, I crossed the eight meters in a single bound. The goblin still stood there blankly with its back to me, apparently unaware of what was happening.
-Shnk!
I drove the blade through its neck from behind, killing it before it could utter a death cry. It was too soon to relax; I immediately checked our surroundings.
"...You can come over."
Neither my eyes nor the minimap showed any new enemies within thirty meters.
[Shall I incinerate it right—]
"...!"
[The Holy Sword inquires whether to use Holy Fire.]
[Wait.]
"Eep!"
The two had come up behind me and let out soundless screams. They could hardly help it.
They could not have expected to see a goblin this grotesque.
#
The goblin’s corpse left me speechless with horror.
"Ngh...!"
The two swallowed their groans. When I turned to Reni and Yuri, their faces were deathly pale.
"This is..."
They'd said the goblins were strange, and they definitely weren't normal.
Tall, pale-skinned, and strange-looking? Calling it strange was putting it very mildly.
"This is not an ordinary goblin... It's been crossed with..."
A human hybrid. I couldn't bring myself to say the rest aloud, so I closed my mouth.
"H-how could something like this..."
"Y-Yoo-jin... this..."
Something came to mind. A story from a novel. In that novel, goblins would kidnap human women and use them as breeding stock... It was absurd. The kind of thing that only happened in games or novels.
But the goblin before my eyes was unmistakably real. I couldn't look away from this reality.
...Right. This was a world where gods, magic, and monsters truly existed. Something like this wasn't impossible.
"Hoo..."
I paused to steady my breathing. Getting worked up could make me ruin this.
"Let's keep going for now. It's dangerous, but people might be held captive inside. We have to find out what's happening."
"Wh-what do you mean, what's happening?"
"...If you don't know what's happening, you're better off not imagining it."
Even their imaginations were probably mild compared to the reality.
"Th-that's..."
Reni trembled, apparently understanding what I was implying.
"Wh-what do we do..."
Yuri was at a loss too. She had probably never imagined anything like this was happening.
-Grrgl?
"Shh. Quiet. One more is coming."