Goblin Head Gukbap (Part 6)
They were all dead.
No more goblin knights, no more grunts, and no more of the bastards shooting crossbows or spells from afar. Every single one of them was dead.
Not a single sign of life remained in the subterranean goblin empire.
A bizarre, heavy silence hung over the ruins, making it feel as if I were the only person left in the entire world.
I rolled my stiff shoulders and lower back, rewarded with a satisfying pop and a wave of relief.
"Whew..."
I had no idea what the final count was. A rough estimate? A few thousand? Or maybe tens of thousands?
Because I had wiped out a massive, random crowd of them right at the start with the miracle Ruination of the Flesh, it was impossible to gauge the exact number.
I only found out later, but apparently, the goblin empire was considered a dungeon of such extreme difficulty that even a solo S-grade hunter couldn't clear it.
"Ah, thank you for the donation, KawaiiHornedDevil! But the Emperor Goblin hasn't shown up yet, so it's a bit early to call it a complete clear..."
"GRAAAAAAAAH!"
Right then, a massive roar reverberated through the cavern, violent enough to shake the entire underground city.
I turned my head toward the source of the sound.
An immense pressure and a presence that instantly dominated the space. There was no mistake—it was the Emperor Goblin.
"My gukbap!"
The goblin empire had been breached once before by an expeditionary force consisting of four S-grade hunters and numerous A-grade hunters from the Hunter Association.
However, at the time, the expedition had virtually zero information on the dungeon. Because the goblin empire was on the verge of invading the real world, the Association had hastily declared an emergency and mobilized whatever hunters they could find.
In the end, two S-grade hunters lost their lives in the war of attrition, and many other casualties were sustained alongside those precious high-ranking losses.
According to intelligence, the goblin empire had been preparing a full-scale invasion of the human world. Regardless of the difficulty of conquering the dungeon, the Association had rushed the raid team in to prevent civilian casualties.
The result, as everyone knew, was that the expedition managed to repel the goblin forces.
Of course, it wasn't a complete victory for humanity and the Hunter Association.
Even at the cost of two S-grade hunters, they had failed to kill the Emperor Goblin.
Blinded by the goblin empire's coordinated 'Sight-Stealing' curse, the S-grade hunters had quickly been pushed onto the defensive.
Though two S-grade hunters fell, the survivors refused to give up and fought on desperately.
Seizing a moment of complacency from the Emperor Goblin, who had assumed victory after blinding the hunters, they managed to inflict a grievous wound upon him. Severely injured and facing mortal peril, the Emperor Goblin was forced to close the gate and retreat.
Had the hunters pursued him further, the goblin empire might have been dismantled for good. However, the expedition's losses were so severe that both sides had effectively reached a tacit, temporary truce.
After recovering from his wounds, the Emperor Goblin set about rebuilding his nation to its former glory, harboring ambitions to invade the human world once more.
He trained far more goblin knights than before.
He bred a diverse array of shamans capable of casting lethal curses on humans, and even bestowed his personal blessing to establish an entire shaman army.
He secretly opened gates near human military bases to steal weapons, explosives, and other hazardous materials, meticulously preparing for his war of conquest.
More thoroughly than last time. With the grim determination that he would claim the human territories as his own, the Emperor Goblin bided his time.
If he attempted a blatant invasion like before, he would likely draw the attention of the Hunter Association. Thus, the Emperor Goblin did everything in his power to conceal his empire, disguising it as a mimic dungeon.
If he could build a solid foundation for the invasion from within, his opportunity would surely come.
Yes, his opportunity surely would have come.
If not for a crazy saintess who had barged in, determined to turn goblins into gukbap.
At first, the Emperor Goblin hadn't paid much attention to the strange woman who had invaded his kingdom alone.
He was certain that his army of powerful goblin knights and shamans would capture the arrogant woman long before the emperor himself had to step in.
After all, the Emperor Goblin had experienced the strength of S-grade hunters firsthand.
They were powerful humans, but it was only natural that a lone intruder, without any support, would be overwhelmed by his army.
At most, he might lose dozens, perhaps hundreds of goblin knights. But given enough time, such losses could easily be replenished.
He could always abduct breeding stock from other dimensions, and any goblin who received the Emperor's blessing could grow strong in no time.
"Loathsome creatures of the surface..."
However, the monstrous woman who had come to tear down the very heart of his empire was more than enough to provoke the Emperor Goblin's wrath.
'What is that female? How is she destroying my army all by herself...!'
Only after a long time did the Emperor realize that the woman wielding those grotesque tentacles had single-handedly annihilated his entire force.
Rather than wondering how it was possible, the Emperor Goblin trembled with sheer rage toward the female.
"GRAAAAAAAH!"
Holding a massive greatsword in one hand and the totem of the goblin shaman chief in the other, he leaped down from his imperial palace.
"Oh, it's the Emperor Goblin!"
The Emperor Goblin was the pinnacle of his species, a unique origin entity.
He stood nearly three meters tall, far surpassing any human. Unlike the flabby flesh of ordinary goblins, his body was packed with muscles denser than an ogre's. His features were far from hideous; in fact, it wouldn't be strange to call him handsome for a goblin.
His eyes shone with a sharp intelligence. Despite his rage, the Emperor Goblin did not lose his reason and rush to attack the 'woman' who had destroyed his empire.
That alone was enough to make the saintess lick her lips as she looked at him.
Thud!
"Loathsome human. How dare you set foot in this place?"
"Look, everyone! Today we have proof that the Emperor Goblin possesses enough intelligence to communicate with humans!"
"...Look at me, human. Your strength is indeed formidable. It may be equal to or even greater than my own."
"Looking closely, he doesn't have fine hair all over his body like the other goblins... Nice, the meat quality looks clean!"
"Ha! Do you dare ignore me, human! To this day, I have carried out the mission bestowed upon me by the Earth Mother herself—"
"Right, so I'm thinking of making goblin head gukbap now..."
"What?"
Gukbap? What was that?
The Emperor Goblin had no idea what gukbap was.
But the nuance of those words...
Goblin head gukbap.
Just hearing it made him feel uneasy, giving him an incredibly bad premonition.
"No, think about it! A body far stronger than other goblins! Superior intelligence! High intelligence means a larger brain capacity, which means the brain size is also huge! It's absolutely perfect for goblin head gukbap...!"
The Emperor Goblin, seeing this loathsome female ignoring him to ramble to herself, went beyond disbelief and began to feel a simmering rage.
"Are you mocking me?"
He had to admit she was an extraordinary female.
This white-haired female was undoubtedly one of the strongest existences among humans.
She seemed far stronger than the S-grade hunters who had attacked his empire before.
The Emperor Goblin felt rage toward her, but at the same time, he felt respect.
Despite being a female, she had broken through his army alone, and even after her sight was cut off, she had slaughtered his knights and shamans by herself.
Regardless of his anger, he believed she deserved an honorable death, one delivered by his own sword as a fellow warrior.
He even dreamed of a rosy future where, if she submitted to his imperial power, the invasion of the human world would become much easier.
"You... you... you loathsome female..."
"Very well! I intended to treat you as a warrior, but I have changed my mind. I will turn you into a breeding tool to birth an army larger than the one you slaughtered!"
"Oh, by the way, what do you think? The earthenware bowl I brought earlier broke, so how about eating it straight from the pot? Emptying a giant pot and saying 'Fuck yeah~' sounds pretty good, right?"
The Emperor Goblin could no longer hold back.
He had tried to remain rational despite his anger.
As an emperor, as the unique origin entity of the goblin race, he had wanted to show a minimum level of respect to the intruder who had defeated his army by engaging in a proper duel. Yet, she stood before him, talking to some unseen humans, not giving the emperor a single glance.
Actually, she was paying attention to him.
She was insulting him to his face, talking about turning him into some dish called gukbap.
With a snarl, the Emperor Goblin channeled his mana into the totem in his left hand, casting a series of buffs on himself.
Increased speed, reinforced skin density, enhanced physical strength—the totem even empowered the greatsword in his hand.
This totem was essentially a crystallization of the spirits of countless goblin shamans, allowing him to stack various enhancements.
In a fraction of a second, the Emperor Goblin layered numerous buffs onto his body and weapon. The moment the process was complete, his rage-filled eyes locked onto the female.
One second.
That was all the time it took for the Emperor Goblin to finish buffing himself, lock eyes with the arrogant female, and launch a surprise charge.
CRACK!
The Emperor Goblin's greatsword struck the saintess's neck with full force.
The saintess's skin was incredibly durable.
However, she was not invincible.
While her skin was indeed too tough to be pierced by ordinary swords, arrows, or bullets, the Emperor Goblin's strength was fitting for the master of an S-grade dungeon—a monstrous force on a completely different level from anything she had deflected before.
Furthermore, he was heavily reinforced by the stacked buffs from the totem.
Even if the greatsword failed to slice through her neck, it didn't matter.
The Emperor Goblin's raw physical strength was a lethal weapon in itself. The greatsword, rather than cutting, delivered a crushing blow to her neck.
CRACKLE!
The struck female's neck was bent at a bizarre, impossible angle.
The greatsword had failed to pierce her skin, but the Emperor Goblin's terrifying strength had snapped her neck completely.
"Hahaha! That is what you get for ignoring me!"
The Emperor Goblin knew that any living creature would die instantly if its neck was bent to such an angle.
Her head had spun around two or three times, dangling limply from her shattered spine.
Her neck bones and spine were completely broken. She was dead.
Grip!
"Huh?!"
Yet, the moment he thought the battle was over, the female's hand suddenly reached up and grabbed the blade of his greatsword.
Rigor mortis? No, rigor mortis didn't manifest like this.
Though startled, the Emperor Goblin quickly put his strength into pulling his sword out of her grip.
"Ugh, grr?!"
Realizing the sword wouldn't budge an inch, the Emperor Goblin broke out in a cold sweat as a sense of dread washed over him.
How was she still standing when her neck was completely snapped?!
"Ouch..."
A Deceased Saintess.
She was not a pious saintess who guided the souls of the dead.
She was a saintess who had become undead.
A zombie, an undead, a ghoul—she was a contradiction, a twisted miracle of holy power residing in a corpse.
And that was the source of her terrifying, inhuman strength.
Crack! Snap!
Miracle: Great Healing
Her shattered neck bones began to realign.
Her crushed skin and cracked jaw mended instantly, returning to their original state.
"Wow, the Emperor Goblin really is strong. My neck spun around three times."
She thought he was strong?
The Emperor Goblin felt a deep, primal terror as the female held onto his greatsword with one hand, refusing to let go.
"Now, it's gukbap time."
The Emperor Goblin's eyes widened as he saw the shadow of tentacles unfurling like a grotesque flower behind her back.
It was a terrifying sight, resembling a carnivorous plant preparing to swallow an insect whole.
Split!
"Bon appétit."
Defeat the Emperor Goblin
🎁 Reward: 5,000,000 KRW (Sponsored by HersheyCitrusCookie)
The synthesized donation alerts were the last sounds the Emperor Goblin ever heard.