Cultivators Appear (3) - Discovery
“Is it this way?”
Jang Musa said as he brushed blood from his hand.
“It seems so.”
At Jin-ban’s answer, Jang Musa glanced sidelong at the martial cultivator.
It had been Dohyun who had insisted on entering this place in the first place.
Even now, he still had no real sense of direction.
“There seem to be a lot of goblins here, my lord. Wouldn’t it be better to slow down a little?”
Quite a bit of time had already passed.
“What are you talking about? This is better. A lot of goblins? That means there’s treasure.”
Dohyun never once told them to rest, only pressed the warriors to move faster.
Jang Musa, Jin-ban, and Jung-gyeok exchanged cautious words.
“There are so many goblins here. The treasure can’t be ordinary.”
When Jung-gyeok spoke,
Jin-ban nodded as well.
“Right. Since ancient times, opportunities have always been anything but ordinary.”
“Be quiet. Opportunity or not, it all belongs to the lord anyway.”
“...Yes.”
Jang Musa silenced them, then scowled and stamped a foot.
BOOM-!
As the shockwave shook the ground, the floor caved in and a trap revealed itself.
“Another one of these traps? These yokai are a nuisance.”
When the trap was exposed, the goblins lying in ambush flinched and drew back.
Jang Musa was about to smash the trap flat with a kick and give chase after the fleeing yokai, but stopped himself.
“Let’s go that way.”
Dohyun pointed at the goblin that was running away.
“It must have fled toward wherever the valuables are.”
“My lord, that could be a decoy.”
“A warrior is talking back to me?”
Jang Musa shut his mouth.
His ears had turned red.
As they pursued the fleeing goblin, a cave came into view.
Kieeek!
The goblins, seeing the party close behind them, bared their fangs and looked savage.
“I knew it! There’s something here. Look at that cave. Just look at how the yokai are gathered around it guarding the place. There must be something special inside.”
“...This is odd. Those yokai are the sort that even make traps this carefully, and yet they let themselves be tracked so easily...”
“They’re only goblins. Hey, Jang Musa. I didn’t know you were this much of a coward.”
Dohyun ordered them with a greedy look in his eyes.
“If you’re not a coward, then hurry up and go in.”
Jang Musa’s feet did not want to move, but it was an order.
He looked to Jung-gyeok and Jin-ban beside him, then nodded.
The three martial artists charged the goblins from different directions.
Like wolves among a flock.
Every time sword light flashed,
two or three heads went flying.
Within the span of twenty breaths, the goblins at the entrance had been wiped out.
“Heh, not a single one ran. There has to be treasure inside.”
Unlike Dohyun’s claim, Jang Musa, who led the way into the cave, found the air strangely foul.
The cave was not deep.
After going only a little way in, they found the passage blocked.
“My lord, it seems there is nothing here.”
“What? Impossible.”
Ignoring Jang Musa’s report, Dohyun entered the cave himself.
“It’s dark.”
He could not see the blocked tunnel, so he took out a talisman.
Hum.
Light bloomed from the talisman.
“There it is.”
The cave floor had been smeared with a foul black liquid.
Kieeek!
Suddenly, from outside the cave, a goblin’s cry rang out.
Jang Musa turned his head.
At the entrance, a goblin was pressing a burning stick against the ground.
Fwoosh!
Fire ran along the black liquid, which had been laid in channels carved into the cave floor.
“A fire attack?!”
Just as he cried out in shock,
Kieeek!
Along with the cries of several goblins, the cave entrance began to close, blocked by something that looked like a giant boulder.
“My lord! We have to get out.”
Jang Musa felt a chill run down his spine.
If the entrance was sealed inside a burning cave, then even someone with great power and superb swordsmanship would be in danger.
When Jang Musa urged Dohyun to get out quickly,
“...Annoying.”
Dohyun frowned and shoved the warrior in front of him aside with a hand.
“Move.”
As the warrior stumbled back,
“How dare these traps treat me like this? The goblins are looking down on me!”
He rolled up his sleeve, and a talisman appeared, shooting forward.
BOOM!
The boulder blocking the cave entrance collided with the talisman.
It shattered into pieces, and more than a dozen goblins moving it were blown apart at once.
“Hmph. Worthless little goblins.”
“My lord, wasting talismans...”
“Hey, what gives you the right to lecture me? You’re just a warrior.”
“I...”
“And you still can’t even see through a trap like this, you useless warrior.”
Dohyun’s insults only grew harsher, but Jang Musa kept his mouth shut.
Dohyun then took something else out from his chest.
“If these directionless fools can’t find the way...”
It was a talisman called Chase-Tracking Talisman.
Though he was about to use it, he wore an unhappy expression.
“Tsk. That cost twenty spirit stones. It had better be a spirit vein, not just a spirit field.”
As he spoke, he activated it.
The talisman floated in the air and pointed in a specific direction.
***
Core Room.
Seeing that the intruders had not been lured into the trap and were still moving in a fixed direction, Dohyun tilted his head in confusion.
Heok-o. How do they suddenly know the way?
He had worked through the logic again and again, but no answer came.
After continued observation, it became clear that the ones who always fell for the lure and entered the trap zone were now heading straight for the area where the Core Room was located.
The answer had been close all along.
“Kaaak. A Chase-Tracking Talisman? Wow, they even make and sell those now.”
Do you know what it is?
“Dragon, you’ve been had. If you don’t have something to shield you, you can’t block that.”
What?
“You’ve already killed the yokai connected to you, so that bond is in place. Until you cover it up, you won’t be able to run.”
Heok-o’s explanation was brief.
It’s connected to me, or to this?
“To you, dragon. To you.”
I see.
Dohyun looked at Heok-o beside him for a moment, then asked,
Can you help me this time?
Heok-o answered with eyes that showed no particular interest.
“Dragon, sorry. I’ll just hope you survive, kaak.”
Understood.
Dohyun had not expected anything in the first place.
Heok-o said that once the talisman wore off, the martial cultivator’s combat strength would drop by half.
He wanted to weaken the enemy a little more, but now he had reached his limit.
The enemy’s losses are not accumulating as planned.
Already, more than three hundred goblins had been sacrificed.
...There will only be one chance.
Dohyun would have to move personally.
He looked down at the talons infused with the dungeon energy called spiritual energy.
***
While moving, Dohyun noticed the direction of the talisman change.
“Hm? What’s this? It’s moving... Then that means... it’s alive?”
“My lord, what is it?”
“Among spiritual beings, some spirit beasts or yokai must have stirred up the goblins here.”
“That...”
“Haah. If it’s a yokai, the talisman is wasted. If it’s some yokai race that commands only goblins, I can already guess what kind of trash it is.”
Dohyun’s greed cooled, and he clicked his tongue with regret.
“I wonder if it’ll at least pay for itself.”
As he spoke and walked a little farther down the path,
“Hm?”
They came upon a place where many burrows, like a honeycomb, covered one wall.
A plaza large enough to line up hundreds of people came into view.
An artificial feel.
“A nest. Jang Musa.”
Dohyun had caught on to what it was and called out to the warrior.
“Yes, I’ll handle it.”
Jang Musa was not slow on the uptake.
Kiiiik...
Kieeeek...
Red eyes, yellow eyes, green eyes, blue eyes.
All manner of eyes rose from inside and outside the burrows.
“Save your strength. There are a lot of goblins!”
“Yes!”
“Understood.”
The three warriors took protective positions around Dohyun.
Kieeek!
Kikikiki!
Those eyes all belonged to goblins.
Their number was close to a thousand.
“...That’s a lot.”
Seeing the goblins’ numbers, Jang Musa frowned.
There were far too many.
A green tide surged toward them.
“Hup!”
With the warriors’ shouted kiai,
they met the wave head-on.
Schk.
The sound of cutting.
Sword light flashed, and the wave was severed.
Even as the goblins whose heads had been cut off collapsed,
the next goblins did not stop, but pushed forward again.
In a matter of moments, blood pooled across the ground.
Among the goblins charging ahead,
a pair of bright yellow eyes flashed.
Now.
As quick as lightning, a killing strike flew for Jang Musa’s neck.
It aimed for his throat, but
he sensed the killing intent and twisted his body.
It missed.
“Kh-!”
A cry leaked from Jang Musa’s mouth as he clutched the wrist holding his sword.
“This idiot.”
Seeing Jang Musa’s state, Dohyun snapped in anger and threw a talisman.
Crash!
With the explosion, dozens of goblins were blown apart and scattered.
“To think you’d be wounded by little goblins! You’re not even worth the price of the talisman.”
As Dohyun furiously pressed him,
Jang Musa gave a strained look and said,
“N-no. There’s something else mixed in among the goblins.”
“Something else?”
At that, Dohyun checked the Chase-Tracking Talisman he had spread out.
The talisman was spinning in a circle.
“So, you’ve been hiding.”
Dohyun muttered that to himself for a moment, then said,
“Then I’ll just make you come out!”
In an instant, several talismans rose from his chest.
“Come out!”
At his shout, the talismans shot out in every direction.
BOOM-!
With one detonation, dozens of goblins were blown away.
BOOM-!
With the second, the open space revealed by the blasts widened into a broad emptiness.
BOOM-!
With the third, the green tide charging forward finally hesitated.
“Hahaha! Show yourself, yokai!”
Dohyun shouted as he hurled talismans, until the clearing was littered with the crushed flesh and blood of goblins.
Seeing the being that emerged in that space,
Dohyun went silent for a moment.
He rubbed his eyes.
He wore an expression of disbelief.
Then,
he laughed as though he had lost his mind.
“Heh, heh, heh...”
It was real.
The being before him was real.
Realizing that fact,
his face twisted as if his lips might split, and he shouted at the top of his lungs,
“DRAGON!!!!!!!!!!”