Arrogance (2) — Complacency
The operation began with an exact map.
Kiiek.
He sent out the goblins he had selected for the task—especially the fleet-footed ones.
They suppressed their scent as much as they could and moved as though they were melting into the darkness.
So it really is there.
He checked the terrain.
To the left and right of the path leading toward the Dungeon there were two separate routes.
Other than those roads, the land was too rough for a boar to force its way through.
Either the forest was too dense, or there was a sheer cliff that looked as though it had been cut into the earth between the two paths.
If the beast was coming from outside the territory, there was nowhere it could approach from except the path on the right.
Even before, it had invaded by that same route.
There was only one road.
He nodded and moved the goblins.
The fast-moving goblin scout team headed for the ground where their comrades had once been sacrificed.
Boar.
The beast’s domain.
I was fooled once before... and I won’t be fooled again.
While the creature wandered about in broad daylight, pretending not to know a thing, Dohyun never let his guard down.
A black crow perched beside the goblin.
The crow had followed because it found this entertaining.
“Don’t worry, foolish dragon. The black pig isn’t moving. Its energy is wavering.”
It spoke as if it knew the goblin and Dohyun were linked.
He borrowed the goblin’s sight for a moment, then turned his head back.
Kyaaak!
“Foolish dragon, Heok-o keeps his promises. If the black pig comes after you, I’ll tell you.”
Promises?
He doubted very much how far those would actually be kept.
Still, the information the crow had given him was useful.
In the meantime, he shifted his awareness elsewhere.
Thuk—!
The sound of earth being dug up.
The sound of preparations being made.
Listening to that, he opened his eyes to a fragrant smell.
A stream flowed through the first-floor field of the Dungeon forest theme, a small brook cutting across the land.
Blood ran through it.
At the end of the pale pink water.
Animals were being butchered, bones, meat, and hides separated from one another.
The goblins processed it all with practiced ease.
The life force spilling out from death slowly made its way toward the core.
The core absorbs enough experience.
The core levels up.
Level 4.
Dohyun immediately upgraded the production facilities first.
Goblin Production Site level increased.
Lv2 → Lv3
Production 6 → 18 NEW!
Goblin Production Site level increased.
Lv3 → Lv4
Production 18 → 54 NEW!
From a single burrow, goblins crawled out in swarms instead of one or two at a time.
In moments, the ground had turned green.
As the production site leveled up, both output and the number that could be controlled increased with it.
A good result, thanks to the boss bonus.
Across ten burrows, a total of 540 goblins were being produced every hour.
Dohyun clicked his tongue.
Production is enough. Control is the problem.
He set a cap on the maximum number and configured the site so production would stop beyond that limit.
The goblins that were produced were sent straight to work.
The new laborers silently shoveled dirt and used the Transformation Platform.
The freshly spawned goblins never once let their attention waver while they worked.
Watching the preparations, he nodded.
...The basic groundwork will be finished soon.
Once nearly a full day had passed, the goblins would fill to the limit he had set.
The day of action was tomorrow.
***
A quiet patch of forest grass.
Sunlight spilled warmly over the grass, where even the wind had gone still.
In that picture-perfect scene, the boar lounged lazily in the field, chewing the musk deer meat it had eaten a moment earlier like gum, savoring its after-meal rest.
This was its territory, and the beast flaunted that fact as if nothing in the surrounding area could possibly wound it.
At the outskirts of that place.
Green little dolls slipped into hiding among the shadows of the trees.
They hid quietly in the green forest, showing only their eyes.
Wait.
They waited with patience.
First Squad, prepare to attack!
At my command, the goblins waited.
As if they had been waiting only for this moment, there was no tremor in their movements.
First Squad, attack as planned!
The goblins selected as First Squad sprang out of the forest naturally, with no sign of hesitation or tension.
A hundred goblins.
I had committed a substantial number.
Kiiek!
Kaak!
With battle cries, they swung stone bottles wrapped in leather straps.
Swish—! Swish—!
They hurled the bottles as they had practiced all day, using the force of centrifugal motion to add power.
The bottles flying through the air struck the black pig’s body.
Crash!
The bottles were made of a thin, fragile material, so they shattered as soon as they hit.
When they broke, a foul stench spread out.
The boar’s sensitive nose twitched for an instant.
Temporary black oil bottles.
Second Squad! Prepare!
Clack!
He struck the flint he had quickly obtained from the Transformation Platform.
The oil-soaked wood caught fire.
Along the outskirts.
Flames began to appear all through the forest.
More than several hundred points of fire.
Second Squad... advance!
Light from the burning forest spilled beyond the trees.
Every ten goblins or so, one of them held a long wooden spear like a pole.
The tip of the wooden spear had been lit, and the goblins pointed those burning spears at the boar.
Second Squad! Thrust!
A cruel order.
Unlike the bottles, torches were difficult to hit with accuracy.
If only we had firebombs...
The boar, enraged by the disgusting black liquid, was just about to charge.
First Squad ran for their lives and rushed past Second Squad.
Watching the boar charge forward, fear and terror settled onto the faces of the Second Squad members.
Seeing that, Dohyun gave the command coldly.
Advance with the spear tips leveled!
This was a situation where the result had to be achieved, no matter who died.
If they hesitated, even more of their own side would be killed.
At Dohyun’s command, they pressed forward willingly, fear clutched in their hearts.
At their sight.
For a moment, Dohyun’s eyes wavered.
The beast didn’t feel threatened.
It didn’t even know the danger of oil.
Whoosh—!
Flames rose up.
Kueeeeeeeek!
The black hide was swallowed by fire.
The black pig became a fire pig and screamed.
Heok-o was right.
The marks left by surviving the elder’s flames were on that black hide.
Rejected from the herd because of its different appearance, that boar had become the master of a territory.
But...
That turned into a trauma.
The beast’s eyes burned hot and filled with nearly explosive fury.
It lost its composure.
Dohyun said that and watched to the very end.
The goblins holding the burning spears charged first.
He had ordered them to run the moment the fire caught, but they had been too close.
One... two... three... four...
It crushed them, trampled them, ground them underfoot until not even bodies remained.
Dohyun never looked away.
The few who survived were, by luck, able to escape.
That was because the boar had lost its reason.
The boar kept charging straight ahead.
If it had scattered at that point, their survival rate might have been slightly higher.
But the goblins...
They obeyed my command and marched toward death in a single direction.
On the cliff above, the crow and the dragon watched the scene.
Kyaaak-!
“The pig is heading for the Dungeon. But are you really going to show yourself?”
The crow fluttering beside me said it.
Yeah.
A cold wind blew in.
Kuhuu—!
I could hear the beast’s snorting breath.
This was the place.
The place where, the day before yesterday, I had ordered my own death.
Today, I would end my relationship with that pig here.
That was how fewer sacrifices would be needed.
At least, according to my calculations.
I lowered my head.
The charging, burning boar came into view.
The moment it reached the expected point, the earth beneath its pounding feet gave way.
Its body plunged underground.
The goblins, who had dug countless pits into the earth, had honed their craft enough to shove a boar into a trap.
Sharp gravel glimmered on the floor below.
Kuhuu-?!
A low, agony-filled roar burst out at once.
Perhaps gravel had driven into a vital spot.
A scream exploded from its throat.
But then—
Bang!
Its head smashed into one side of the trap.
And then.
With impossible force, part of the cliff-like wall collapsed, exposing an incline.
It was a crisis.
But I was already calculating.
Its fall has injured the joints. At minimum a sprain, at worst a fracture.
As the boar fell, I could see the injured leg.
It had twisted ever so slightly.
At that speed, it couldn’t charge properly.
Kuhuu-!
Roaring, it tried to crawl up the slope the trap had become and escape.
Slowly, the beast climbed.
Its eyes were bloodshot from the pain.
It looked as though tears might spill with every step.
If that isn’t an act...
Watching it, Dohyun called the next squad.
Move on to the next operation...! Ambush Squad, attack!
At Dohyun’s command, the goblins lying in wait around the trap rose to their feet.
In front of them stood a huge jar, and they were stirring something vigorously with a wooden paddle.
They had been working so hard that sweat ran beneath their chins, and now they poured the mixture directly over the boar.
Glorp! Glorp! Glorp!
The possibility that the boar might climb out of the pit had already been accounted for.
Gray mud spilled out of the jar and surged into the trap like a wave.
Anyone who met a wave head-on was not going to like the result.
Kueek?!
The massive body was swept away by the tide.
It’s still far from getting out. Next squad... pour it in!
At the order, more than a hundred goblins hiding their bodies lifted jars and dumped them into the hole.
A black, foul-smelling liquid covered the pit.
Rumble.
Hellfire descended.
Finishing it right away is impossible.
Even while looking at one place in the burning hell, he did not relax.
They said it didn’t die even to the elder’s flame.
The plan had to be perfect.
He could not allow the sacrifices of the others to be reduced to nothing.
He stared into the pit.
His heart beat faster.
He did not think about why.
Along with the mud.
The boar hardened like stone.
One step, then another, grew slower.
Its footsteps became sluggish.
It stopped.
And turned to stone.
Watching that, Dohyun thought.
If the calculations were correct, any further sacrifice was unnecessary.
The loss rate stayed within the projected range.
Soon.
The oxygen beneath that pit had already been exhausted.
Without oxygen, it would die.
As cruel as that fact was, it was also fair.
The goblins who had been feeding it firewood stopped.
They stared blankly at the gray stone mass.
Kiieek?!
Kekeke!
They chattered as if asking whether it was over.
Everything is proceeding according to plan.
“Dragon, hooow, that’s like a hunter.”
Heok-o said flippantly.
A hunter? I don’t want to be that.
Sacrifice was inevitable.
Waste was not.
The goblins shouted that it was finished.
Far away, the bodies of the goblins crushed by my decisions rose in flashes before my eyes.
Looking at them, my breathing stopped for a moment.
One... two... three... four...
It paused.
I counted again.
I closed my eyes and opened them.
This was enough.
Crack.
A tiny sound.
He turned his head quickly.
Kiieek?
Kiik?
The cheering goblins suddenly froze.
.....
Beneath the pit.
Crack.
...?
Then it happened.
Again, a strange sound reached his ear.
Crack.
Again.
Cracks began to spread across the stone statue of the boar.
His heart pounded again, uneasily.
A chill raced down his spine.
Again!
Crash.
Before he could give the order again, the stone shattered.
Kuhuu—!
Beneath the flames, the boar—glowing red-hot—raised its head.
One step... one step...
Pour it again!
More mud and black oil were dumped over it again.
But the beast did not stop.
Its body slowly emerged.
It looked far too intact for a creature that was supposed to be injured.
Heok-o shouted in alarm from beside him.
“Spiritual herb! It ate spiritual herb! It won’t die unless it’s struck by an attack imbued with spiritual energy!”
Hoo...
He drew in a deep breath.
I am a dragon.
The force I had thought was dungeon energy was nothing more than energy that filled heaven and earth.
It was just that dungeon energy was easier to handle.
“Oh-ho—so this is dragon blood?”
As Heok-o let out an admiring sound.
Get out of the way.
He sent his will.
It was dangerous.
Passing through the flames.
The boar’s snout finally emerged from the trap.
The goblins lifted their weapons for a final stand, but it was hopeless.
They would be annihilated.
He had no intention of standing back with his hands behind his back.
I am the master of the Dungeon, and the sovereign of these beings.
A variety of rulers came to mind.
But Dohyun thought of himself as something else entirely.
A sovereign who squeezed out the greatest efficiency for them.
And Dohyun himself was included in that calculation.
The shield still had three days left.
If he ran, he would live today.
Instead, tomorrow would demand more deaths.
This was the most efficient way.
Today, I end this.
Steeling himself, he kicked hard off the cliff on all fours.
As he rose into the air, he thought.
Three days after becoming a dragon, he had noticed one thing.
The dungeon energy flowed through a particular organ in his body, and a grain-sized current always existed there.
What should he call that small organ?
A dragon heart? A dantian?
He didn’t know.
Heok-o called it spiritual energy.
If this didn’t work, then they were all doomed anyway.
So then.
The spiritual energy, pulsing with each breath, or perhaps the dungeon energy, gathered in his hands and pooled at his claws.
Flash!
At last, just as the boar was climbing the trap—
The thing reflected in the eyes of the boar, which had been about to roar, was not a goblin.
It was a black shadow cutting across the sky.
Within that shadow,
Five streams of light split apart.
The boar thought it was beautiful light.
The moment the light crashed over its face—
Poof—!
Dohyun felt his claws sink into the creature’s head like they were plunging into soft tofu.
Kuuuuuuuuuh—!
It shut its eyes,
and could only scream.
Its strength slowly drained away, and consciousness slipped into the distance.
Death...
Thud.
The massive body collapsed to the ground.
Watching that, Heok-o said with faint surprise,
“....Whoa....So it wasn’t just ordinary dragon blood. This is getting interesting.”
---