The little Poru shifted her gaze to her master and a female standing beside him.
A smile appeared on her petite face.
"Mats... Trer..." She called him; she seemed to have been unused to uttering words, so she had a hard time forming a proper sentence.
She raised her leg to walk, but she tripped on the cocoon and fell face-first to the ground instead.
"Uhek!" She squeaked.
Dian and Laura exchanged glances after they witnessed this, a smile couldn't help but appear on their faces.
They chuckled a little before rushing to help their little goblin girl.
...
The steel sword of a soldier meets with a Goblin's rusty sword, creating a sound of clashing iron.
"This Goblin's so tough!" The soldier shouted towards his team when he retreated.
"What level is this Goblin?" Another soldier asked him as he helped him to block the goblin's next attack.
"I don't know! Maybe over level 5!" Answered the previous soldier. After readied himself once more, he brought his sword down to the goblin again, attacking it.
"Man... We're doomed..." Another soldier gulped in despair.
He turned his head toward his surroundings, towards his fallen comrades.
Only this Goblin was left from the group of goblins they had attacked before, yet it had persisted so stubbornly and refused to die even under the attacks of four men. It even successfully killed two of them in the process.
The most difficult aspect of this Goblin is its fast movement. Every single attack the two soldiers throw toward the Goblin, it's already swinging its third attack. It could also easily dodge their attack.
"Just die, you monster!" The previous soldier swung his sword upward.
His strength is greater than the Goblin's, so he could easily reflect the Goblin's attack and even push it backward. But then the Goblin spins its body and launches another attack, piercing his stomach.
"Argh!" The soldier groaned.
The sword hadn't gone that deep, but it did feel so hurt.
The soldier glared at the goblin, his hatred evident, as he grabbed the Goblin's sword in place. The Goblin, taken aback by his action, began trying to retract its sword, but it couldn't, because the man's strength is greater than its own!
"Now! Kill it!" The soldier yelled at his comrade.
His comrade obeyed and delivered an attack toward the Goblin. Completely caught off guard, the Goblin couldn't dodge in time and had its head cut off in a single swing, finishing it with damage over 25 points of physical damage.
After making sure that one of them had received the killing notification of the Goblin, the two soldiers immediately sat down on the spot. They had clearly reached their limits.
"What level is that monster?" Asked the soldier to his comrade amidst his breath.
"6," answered another soldier.
"Damn..." The soldier could only utter that single word.
A monster that high in level is a little too much for the countryside soldiers like them.
"Will I... Make it back home?"
Without him even realizing it, the soldier had let these words out of his mouth and silenced both of them for a moment.
His comrade then chuckled. "Well, we'll see, bro," He said.
The soldier chuckled as well.
"You're right. We'll see..."
...
Tamuhall Hugh thrust his spear forward, killing a Goblin in an instant before moving on to his next target and dispatching it with just two strikes.
"Their numbers are overwhelming!" he muttered, frustration etched across his face.
Hages swung his sword at a level 5 Goblin, exchanging blows for three seconds before finally killing it with his tenth strike.
"We're getting closer to the location of the Dungeon! That's natural!" he replied.
The Lord of Jula, Joliot Jula, rested his battleaxe on his shoulder as he surveyed the piles of goblins they had defeated so far.
They were now only 100 meters away from the Dungeon entrance. Their goal was clear: to clear the Dungeon before an outbreak caused all the goblins inside to surface simultaneously.
Based on the goblins they had encountered, Hages estimated that the Dungeon was at most Rank E, and in the worst-case scenario, it could be a Rank D Dungeon. Nonetheless, that was still manageable for the three of them—as long as they only had to face the Dungeon Boss without its minions.
That's why they had decided to avoid as many battles as possible and aimed to confront the Dungeon Boss directly before the Dungeon reached its capacity.
Seeing that Tamuhall and Hages had finished off their enemies, Joliot led the way toward the Dungeon entrance.
As they approached, they finally got a glimpse of the Dungeon. It was a cave-type Dungeon, just as their scout team had reported, but this cave was formed within a withered ancient tree, rather than being a typical hole in the ground or mountain.
It was likely due to its unique appearance that the soldiers of the Salad Kingdom had failed to locate this Dungeon 200 years ago.
After dispatching 20 goblins guarding the entrance, they began their descent into the cave.
As they ventured deeper, the air grew thick with Mana. Since a Dungeon is created from Mana that has been corrupted by lingering strong emotions or has become overly concentrated, it is common to find Dungeons with a dense concentration of Mana. This Dungeon seemed to fall into that category.
"With how dense the Mana is inside this Dungeon, the rewards for clearing it must be priceless!" Hages exclaimed excitedly.
Not only is the rank of the Dungeon significant, but the rewards for clearing it are also determined by the density of the Mana concentration. The denser the concentration, the greater the reward.
Skill books, coins, and even titles—
The rewards for clearing Dungeons can be so valuable that they can change a person's life entirely. Every adventurer dreams of clearing a Dungeon at least once in their lifetime.
However, the higher the concentration of Mana—
"That also means stronger monsters," the Lord of Jula added, reminding them not to get distracted by the potential rewards and to remember how dangerous a Dungeon can be.
"Watch your steps," he advised Hages and Tamuhall.
Among the three of them, Joliot was the only one with experience in clearing Dungeons, so he would take the lead from that point onward. Even the experienced Hages couldn't match Joliot's background in dealing with Dungeons.
After all, Dungeons aren't just about monsters; they also contain traps. While lower-ranked Dungeons may have fewer traps, they are never completely absent—and they can be deadly.
They descended for a total of ten minutes before reaching an open expanse within the cave.
The walls and ceiling were covered in bark that glowed faintly, illuminating the dark expanse of the Dungeon.
Under the light of the glowing bark, goblins could be seen wandering around.