Chapter 32
Kiiek-!
A scream rang out through the forest.
A hidden spider sprang from cover and slammed into a band of goblins carrying supplies.
Crunch.
Green heads burst open.
One died.
The surviving goblins fled without even looking back.
The spider spat out the head it had been chewing.
It did not eat.
Again, it lunged at its next victim.
A hunt meant to kill.
Fear flooded the goblins' faces, and in that moment of crisis, a flash cut through the air.
Crack-!
A spear drove straight through the spider's abdomen.
Kiiek?
The goblins flinched and looked back.
Black armor.
A cloak draped over its back.
It was a goblin warrior.
For a brief instant, silence fell.
Then the eyes of the fleeing goblins lit up when they saw the warrior.
They moved again.
To survive.
The warriors swept their cloaks as they fought.
The same thing was happening all across the forest.
Watching it all through the System, Dohyun raced through the woods with Dragon Flowing Movement.
Woom-
In every direction, links were being severed from his field of vision.
He could feel it.
Goblins were dying.
Then dying again.
...From the very beginning.
His speed increased.
There were hidden points the warriors had not been able to clear.
As he cut through a veil of smoke and skimmed through open air, the moths hidden there were shredded apart.
The forest was too vast.
With the forces he had now, there was a limit.
They were targeting only the ones who did not fight.
Laborers.
Gathering teams.
When Dohyun moved, the enemy scattered.
As if they had been given orders.
Dohyun's eyes cooled.
It would be hard to settle this in the forest as things stood.
Everyone, withdraw.
He gave the order.
Even in that tiny span of time.
Just that one moment.
Another died.
The warriors swept their cloaks as they fought.
The scattered goblins gathered together.
Dozens, then hundreds of them marched toward the Dungeon.
Dohyun, who had been dealing with moths in the air, turned as well.
...They're not like the beasts of the forest.
There was only one thing they were after.
Not warriors.
Laborers.
It was an attack planned from the start.
After he returned to the Dungeon, he went back to the core room.
"Dragon, you went out yourself? You smell thick with blood."
Quite a few goblins died outside.
"Hm? That's no different from usual, is it?"
Heok-o tilted his head.
Dohyun's gaze darkened.
...It was deliberate.
"Was it?"
Short answer.
But Dohyun was already looking back toward the forest.
Were there no Chungyo tribe members approaching the Dungeon?
After the totem was set up, they had not shown themselves near it.
"None. We killed them whenever they showed themselves."
Right.
That did not mean they had all disappeared.
The attack in the forest was a kind of counterstrike.
In Dohyun's judgment, the Chungyo tribe members planted throughout the forest had been released, openly targeting only goblins.
Sending troops in together would be difficult.
The number of combatants in the legion is limited.
The decision was made.
For the time being, until this was resolved, the forest was a danger zone.
"So you called them all back?"
Yes.
"Hmm. Even if a few die, they come back quickly enough. Was it really necessary?"
Looking at Dohyun with playful eyes, Heok-o murmured to him.
Death is... inefficient.
Goblins were only useful if they were kept around long enough.
That was common sense.
"Sure, sure. Hah."
Heok-o laughed as if he understood something.
Dohyun silently calculated while watching the goblins return, having already paid for the retreat with a number of sacrifices.
Once the withdrawal was complete, exterior activity in the Dungeon stopped.
Dohyun's gaze shifted to the storage room.
The Dungeon's food supply...
There was no room to spare.
Six thousand goblins.
Thirty orcs.
They had already been worn down by surviving the winter.
A week.
At most, that was all they had.
His breathing thinned.
Could we supply them with Chungyo tribe meat?
He considered it, but...
It was impossible.
The meat of the Chungyo tribe could strengthen blood and qi.
But that only mattered if you could eat it and live through it.
Ordinary goblins were weak.
They could not digest yokai flesh.
One word surfaced in his mind.
...A short war of decision.
He had to end it before they ever touched the goblins again.
Having reached that conclusion, Dohyun spent the entire day thinking over where the enemy's weak point might be.
But he could not see it.
If I only knew the hidden locations...
Sixty points. Three nests.
He compared them against the map in his head and sank into thought.
Then the hunt ended.
"Kko-kko-"
From the Dungeon entrance came the sound of a rooster call as Gyetoo's group approached.
After the battle, they had followed Geoung and some of the goblin hunters here.
"Kko-kko-"
From the Dungeon entrance came the sound of a rooster call as Gyetoo's group approached.
After the battle, members of the legion had followed Geoung and part of the hunting unit here.
The smell of blood had still not faded.
Traces of combat remained on their bodies.
Gyetoo walked forward at the front.
"Kko-kko. Delivering the spoils."
With a short cry, he set down what he had been carrying in his arms.
A long object wrapped in torn cloth.
One goblin took it and brought it before Dohyun.
Dohyun's gaze stopped.
...This is.
He looked at the cloth.
A banner bearing a length of fabric painted with strange symbols.
It was the same kind he had dismantled before, the same kind Chiryongwon had taken away, saying it was worth money.
Dohyun's eyes narrowed.
...You're giving this to me?
"Kko-kko... Dragon, that was amazing."
It was a pure compliment.
It was nothing.
If anything, the dangerous thing had been what he himself had done.
He examined the banner inscribed with a formation.
If I handle it well...
A peculiar current could be felt from the formation banner.
He studied that current for a while.
If I use this current...
He thought he might be able to figure out where the higher formation was located.
"Kko-kko, when is the next expedition?"
Calculations formed in Dohyun's mind.
Come back in three days.
That was the time he could maintain the Dungeon's food supply and still keep maximum combat strength.
"Kko-kko, understood."
The rooster warriors slipped back into the forest, bragging to one another about their feats, sure the dragon had his own calculations.
Geoung.
"Geoung won. Want food."
Fine, eat your fill. There will be another battle in three days.
"Geoung, food, battle good!"
He left the simply spoken Geoung alone and carried the banner back to the core room.
"Dragon, that's a formation tool."
You know it?
"Of course. But that doesn't look like the main banner. More like a sub-banner."
A sub-banner?
As he touched the formation banner, studying it, his hand stopped.
At Heok-o's words, he realized something, and something else began to emerge in Dohyun's vision.
Dozens of branches.
And the paths linked to them.
He could see them.
If he had not been looking at the banner, he would never have seen the flow.
A line beginning from the banner was leading somewhere.
Faintly, but unmistakably.
In one direction.
...It's connected.
A brief statement.
No explanation was needed.
The instinctive understanding was already complete.
His head turned.
Deep in the forest.
Leader goblin.
Chuck-
He struck his chest and answered.
Take the warriors and hunters and go scout.
Chuck-
As the sound came back, he used the order to indicate a rough location.
It was not exact yet.
But the direction was-
Gwiwolrang's warning flashed through his mind.
He had told him not to go if he did not want to sacrifice another subordinate.
The thought rose up that this was close to that place.
For a moment.
Just for a moment.
Dohyun's thoughts stopped.
Huh.
He drew breath again and thought.
It might not be.
He imagined the worst-case scenario.
Some place he could never touch.
But to leave things as they were...
The Dungeon had stopped now.
Everyone had come inside, and the situation had become tangled.
There were still few losses.
But with time, the food would run out too.
If he took action now...
Quite a few would die.
But they would live.
That was right in terms of survival, but wrong in terms of management.
Especially since, for the moment, there was still enough food coming in to keep the Dungeon small and unimpressive.
To survive, he would have to abandon nine out of ten of his population.
That would be a massive loss.
He could not hesitate.
With time, they would starve.
They would weaken.
And then, one by one, they would collapse.
They had to live.
Enduring was not the answer.
Merely surviving was not enough.
If it was not all of them, then it had no meaning.
He had to protect them.
His hesitation vanished.
Even if it is impossible.
He did not stop.
Watching Dohyun like that, the corners of Heok-o's eyes lifted.
"Oh my, our dragon really is interesting."
...
Another day passed.
It had not been long, but it was enough time to scout.
Thud.
Heavy footsteps sounded.
He had already confirmed everything in his field of vision.
It had been too urgent to miss.
Through the dangerous situation, the goblin leader had returned safely thanks to his courage and wits.
Scars had spread across his body in many places.
His breathing was rough.
But the traces of hardship were plain to see.
You did well.
Chuck-!
The hand striking his chest trembled faintly.
And then he reported.
The goblin leader conveyed with gestures what Dohyun had not been able to make out through the System.
A formation.
So there was one after all.
He told the goblin leader, who had found it using nothing but a warrior's instinct, to rest, and he told the two warriors who had returned with him to rest as well.
Dohyun's gaze went far into the distance.
There it was.
A formation.
A higher formation than the one before.
...The real center.
As he thought quietly of that place, Gwiwolrang's warning pierced his ears.
-If you don't want to lose your subordinate...
He had said it was dangerous.
Remembering the warning, he sank into thought.
If I contact Gwiwolrang now...
Or perhaps there was a way to get help from the others.
But it was already too late to reconsider.
The goblin leader had returned safely.
...It's worth trying.
The calculations were complete.
Two days.
The legion gathered.
Geoung hefted his pillar, the goblin leader had recovered from his injuries, and the warriors were waiting.
"Kko-kko, dangerous."
Dohyun had already made his decision.
I know.
"Dragon, do we really have to?"
If I break only that place...
Dohyun's eyes flashed coldly.
It's over.
Hearing that, Gyetoo hesitated for a moment, then said,
"...I'll go too."
At that answer, a small smile appeared at the corner of Dohyun's mouth, and the legion moved.
Their direction was one place only.
To the place where the formation lay.
Dohyun's eyes cooled.
I won't give them time.
Dohyun's breathing settled.
...Then...
I'll go.
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