Forests Don't Support Idle Goblins

Chapter 93 Closing the Door and Beating the "Dog" [3k]

The screams finally subsided, and Martel pulled the crossbow bolt from his shoulder with a fierce motion. Enduring the pain, a healer then cast a healing spell on him.

"How many people are still alive?" He looked at the corpses of the mind-eating monsters scattered on the ground and turned to ask the mage Qigo.

"23 people," Qige announced a number.

"Damn it." Martel kicked the corpse of a brain-eating monster away with force.

This battle cost him 15 men, including many veteran players.

"The opponent is very clever. They started by using slimes to defend against ordinary adventurers, and then used brain-eating monsters to defend against organized veteran adventurers," Qigo said seriously as he walked up to him. "And just like before, this entire room is a trap."

"Without light in the room, those carrying torches become targets for crossbow snipers. In addition, with limited visibility, being suddenly attacked by a large number of brain-eating monsters will inevitably lead to chaos."

Chigo looked at Martel, and after a few seconds, said softly, "I don't know what else we'll encounter ahead. I'm just giving you a choice: whether to go back or not."

Martel fell silent. He moved his shoulder, which had stopped bleeding, and bent down to pick up the torch from the ground.

"No, from the moment we entered the ruins, there was no turning back." He looked at the end of the stone chamber with a determined gaze. "The Earl's Mansion won't give us a chance, the rejected adventurers won't give us a chance, and those disgusting nobles of the capital won't give us a chance either. The only chance now is to move forward."

Qige sighed and said, "So it's just one option, but things should get easier later on."

Martel looked at Chigo, awaiting his analysis.

"Mind Flayers are usually only kept by Mind Flayers. If there are Mind Flayers here, I don't think there are more than three. Too many Mind Flayers would plunder a lot of people to enslave or breed with. But there are not many reports of missing people in Goat's Horn, and I prepared anti-magic scrolls in advance."

"If it's not a Mind Flayer later on, then I'm inclined to think it's a race that isn't very intelligent, because Mind Eaters don't attack them."

Martel thought for a moment and asked, "So it's possible it really is a goblin?"

"It could be a gnoll or something else," Chigo nodded and said. "That would be easier to deal with."

""

"However, I'm more inclined to believe that there's a Mind Flayer inside the ruins," he said after a two-second pause.

"President, there's a door at the end of this stone chamber," Ricardo said as he approached. "Jacques and the others have already gone through."

"Let's go take a look," Martel called to the remaining team members to come closer.

Before we even got close, we heard Jacques' loud voice: "This is unbelievable! This damned site has everything!"

The burly man had wounds all over his body, and even his bald head had several scratches.

"Isn't it dangerous behind the door?" a newly joined trainee member whispered.

"Danger? It was much more dangerous when we went to tombs and ruins before. Back then, there were more than 30 of us, and when we pushed open the tomb door, hordes of skeleton soldiers with swords and spears charged at us," Jacques said nonchalantly.

He then pushed the sturdy wooden door and discovered that it was not bolted shut.

With a creak, he pushed the door open and discovered that many blue fluorescent mushrooms were growing on the ceiling and walls.

In front of us was a passageway, in which seventeen wooden crates were lined up against the wall.

"Beast Core," Jacques grinned as he looked at the sign, while a teammate next to him shouted, "Gold Coins!"

"After working so hard, we've finally reaped some rewards." Jacques tucked the axe into his back and stepped forward to open the box.

"Don't open it—" Qige shouted from afar, but it was too late; the burly man Jacques had already lifted the lid.

A purple pseudo-foot, as thick as a tongue, suddenly shot out and wrapped around Jacques. He was startled and instinctively jumped aside, but in doing so, he knocked over two other boxes.

Soon, three pseudo-legs wrapped around Jacques. He struggled fiercely, but to no avail. Then, three wooden crates with their mouths wide open pounced on him.

"Save them!" Martel shouted, and the stunned crowd immediately reacted, scrambling to attack the mimicry monster.

In less than a minute, the mimic monsters were finally killed, but Jacques and another team member who went to open the gold coin chest were already lying in a pool of blood.

These mimic monsters resemble crocodiles. They have little chewing ability, and once they bite, they spin wildly until they tear their prey to pieces.

Jacques's body was half-eaten up, and he was staring wide-eyed with his mouth open, seemingly unwilling to die.

"He's dead." Ricardo looked at the burly man Jacques's corpse and felt a pang of regret. If he had given the chairman a word of warning before reporting, the man wouldn't have died so painfully.

"Boom!" Several arcane missiles struck the remaining wooden crates, and the mimicry monsters began to move.

Then the mages and rangers focused their firepower and wiped out all the mimicry monsters.

"Our opponent is clever; he seems to have anticipated our every move." Qigo put down his staff. "He's a formidable opponent."

"Should we go deeper?" Ricardo reassured the red squirrel on his shoulder.

"Continue." Martel walked past them and came to the door at the end of the passage.

"There won't be any more traps ahead," Chigo said to Ricardo. "The monsters in the forest don't set up elaborate traps for themselves. There might be three or four at most. These traps require a lot of time and resources to maintain, and they don't have those."

"I hope that when I push open this door, I'll see the final enemy standing in front of me," Martel said with a smile. After all that had happened, with nearly 20 teammates dead, including one of his old teammates, he still managed a forced smile.

With a creak, the door was pushed open a crack. Martel withdrew his hand and looked at Qigo. "This Mind Flayer didn't lock both doors. It seems to be waiting for us to come in."

"It's also possible that they intend to kill us all," Qige said.

"Let's see what's at the door—traps, monsters, or the future?" Martel called over a few warriors, and together they pushed open the two heavy wooden doors.

Then came another huge rectangular stone chamber, with a chevaux-de-frise made of several thick tree trunks blocking the way.

"Huh?" Martel was slightly taken aback by the strange setup in front of him. He had expected crossbow bolts to be fired, barbed rollers to attack, and hordes of monsters to rush towards him, but he hadn't expected to be blocked by chains and barricades.

He had searched through several historical sites, but this was the first time he had encountered such a strange method.

"Such a simple facility, you could just push it open. Chigo said you're very clever, but how could you set it up so simply?" Martel laughed. "Looks like you've already used up all your defensive measures."

"Now it's the Brotherhood of Storms' turn." He beckoned to several strong warriors, who prepared to push aside the "wooden frame."

"Chirp chirp." A voice echoed from inside the stone chamber.

Then, Martel watched as many black dots flew towards their side. "What are those?"

One-Eyed, holding a grenade fruit, hid in a small room.

Earlier, the leader had told everyone that the enemy was preparing to attack the fortress, and his instinct was to try to escape through the passage.

But the chief said this is where everyone lives, a place where all goblins can sleep peacefully, and a home for every goblin in the tribe.

The one-eyed man didn't know what "home" meant; perhaps it was the same as "a cave."

But he understood what the leader meant. He had led his men to dig several passages here, and he had led his men to clean the huge stone chamber. There was also his bed here, and under the bed were his wooden planks, with new vertical lines drawn on them.

This is probably what home means.

Winter is just around the corner. If we were to travel, where could we go? There's nowhere else like here where we can eat two full meals a day, and the food is a hundred times more delicious than what we've eaten before.

He doesn't want to run away this time.

"Where can you run to?" The one-eyed man gave a bitter laugh.

In the past few days, new goblins have been joining the tribe. They are just like we were before, panicked and afraid. They will sit up immediately at the slightest sound, bending their legs and ready to run away at any moment.

Even though goblins kept telling them that it was safe here and that their leader was very powerful, they didn't say anything and just avoided making eye contact with the old goblin.

"I was the same way back then." The one-eyed man smiled.

Now the leader says we must resist, we must hurt our opponents, kill them, so that adventurers will never dare to venture deeper into this place again, and let adventurers know that there is still a race in the forest that wants to survive.

One-Eyed didn't quite understand until the leader asked if everyone still wanted to eat two meals a day and sleep on wooden beds with wool pads.

He thought, he thought like crazy, that no goblin would refuse these things after being well-fed and well-rested.

The chieftain said that the adventurers outside were going to take everything away and kill all the goblins in the tribe.

Red Eyes and the others immediately shouted, and One-Eyed heard them shouting "Deinonychus!" "Deinonychus!"

He knew about the monster; it had been driven away by two trolls, but the trolls had also been badly injured.

Now, when Red Eyes eats with a group of goblins, they gather around the skull of the Devilclaw Bear, chatting and laughing.

He once asked the chief why the skull of the Deinonychus was placed where everyone ate. The chief smiled and said that he would understand when he personally defeated a powerful enemy.

Now, the enemy may be right outside the door.

With a creak, the door opened, and the one-eyed man's palms were covered in sweat.

He pressed himself tightly against the wall, afraid of making the slightest sound. He heard incomprehensible language and laughter coming from the barricades—the same goblins' words about the ferocious-looking adventurers.

"Everyone, throw out the grenade fruit!"

Upon hearing the leader's words, One-Eyed ran out of the small stone hut where he was hiding and threw it out with all his might.

Dozens of black dots flew toward the gate, followed by a violent explosion.

"boom."

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