This adventurer is overly righteous.

There are only thirteen orthodox beliefs in humanity, but there are also indigenous peoples in other regions who regard powerful local creatures as gods and worship them. Such primitive worship churches do not interfere too much, after all, the world is not dominated by exclusive monotheistic religions.

The true enemies that the church deemed necessary to eliminate, the filthy and defiled heretics, believed in a god who was filled with malice towards humanity.

Vampires, werewolves, sirens, and even goblins—monsters with a certain level of intelligence—also have their own gods. These gods are what the church calls heretical gods. Those who worship these heretical gods are terrifying heretics who have abandoned their human identity and become monsters. It is perfectly justifiable to tie them to the stake and burn them alive.

As a novice priest, Kroya has the right and the obligation to purge these heretics. His magic is effective against them, and the divine favor from the goddess amplifies its effects.

However, Kroya kept his mission in mind. The purpose of his trip was to find evidence that could persuade the Adventurers' Guild to send out experts. In his opinion, there were two good targets.

One of them was the necklace that the goblin leader wore around his neck. With this, Kroya could prove that fifteen adventurers had been killed in the cave, and the Adventurers' Guild would certainly take it seriously.

Secondly, there was the offering on the altar: a dark purple heart, as big as Kroya's head, seemingly originating from some enormous and vigorous monster, which was still slowly contracting and expanding.

That thing was undoubtedly prepared by that heretic for some kind of evil ritual, and Kroya's adoptive father could use it as a pretext to deal with this place legitimately in the name of eliminating heretics.

However, neither of these targets seemed easy to obtain. The goblin leader was surrounded by a group of goblins, and even if Kroya could hide in the darkness and cut off his head with one strike, he would find it difficult to escape afterward. As for the sacrifice, although it appeared to be unguarded, Kroya suspected that there was likely magical protection around it.

We have to wait for an opportunity...

Just as Kroya was pondering, he heard a series of rolling boulders all around him. Realizing that something was wrong, Kroya ran and hid in a small hole created by goblins mining.

"The passage is blocked."

Kroya's eyes widened slightly. The passage through which he had entered this place had been blocked by huge rocks at some point. Not only that, all the passages inside the cave that led to the outside world had been blocked by magical power.

I've been discovered?!

"You little thief, I don't know how you sneaked in..." A cold and shrill voice echoed inside the cave. The goblins stopped what they were doing, looked toward the source of the voice, and knelt down. Only the goblin leader remained standing.

A slender, tall humanoid figure appeared in the cave, his body completely covered by a black robe, leaving only an excessively withered, skull-like head exposed, resembling a shriveled corpse. His skin was as pale as bone, and he seemed to be angry, his face gloomy and fierce.

"But do you think you can escape after you've come in?"

Kroya was certain that the other person must have used some kind of magic to make his voice echo so loudly in the cave. That guy was a magician, and the situation was really bad. Kroya had made the right decision not to try to step into the altar.

However, the other party did not seem to possess detection magic and could not know their exact location; they only knew that someone had entered the cave.

"That thing is an evil monster..."

As a priest, Chloe could sense this; he could feel his magic becoming more active, and the effects of various spells would be greatly enhanced when facing opponents.

"Listen, I'm sealing off the entire cave," the humanoid monster continued. "You'll be trapped here forever unless you surrender. Ha, considering your skill at hiding, I might grant you some leniency..."

Kroya dismissed it as nonsense; only a desperate person would believe a monster's words.

........

The monster was right; he had indeed sealed off the entire cave, blocking all the passages tightly. Kroya had thought that such a blockade wouldn't last long, since goblins are monsters that need oxygen. If that guy blocked even their air vents, the goblins would all suffocate to death in no time.

"Every now and then, that guy would open a passage, then use magic to create a strong wind to carry the stale air out of the cave and bring in fresh air."

Kroya was absolutely certain that the monster was hiding somewhere, waiting for Kroya to approach the opened passage.

Taking a gamble on whether the other side would discover their presence was not a good idea, so Kroya continued to wait. Goblins need food and sleep; they couldn't keep digging forever.

Just as Kroya had predicted, the goblins stopped working after an unknown period of time and, at the direction of their leader, entered a passage that was wide enough for two enormous mutated goblins to walk side by side.

Kroya followed behind the goblin group; the passage led to a downward-sloping staircase, and they were heading deeper into the area.

  

"Smelly......"

A foul odor assaulted Kroya's nose, forcing him to hold the package in front of him as a filter while simultaneously casting a purification spell to remove the smell.

Humans are instinctively disgusted by stench and may even vomit because of it. However, after long-term training, people can suppress this instinct. Kroya believed that he had killed so many goblins and wiped out so many stinky goblin lairs that his tolerance for odors was quite good.

Previously, when he was surrounded by goblins and their stench, Kroya could still accept it calmly. But now, he would rather he had no sense of smell.

Soon, Kroya learned the source of the foul odor.

More than three hundred goblins live underground. Their sweat and body odor already have an unpleasant smell. Now, Kroya realized that he had come to the goblins' living area, where they usually eat and rest. Food scraps were left unattended and rotted, producing an even more pungent odor. But that was not the most terrifying thing.

A goblin population exceeding three hundred, their excretion and mating take place underground...

Perhaps due to the command of that humanoid monster, the goblins built a giant cesspool inside the cave to hold their excrement, and the stench it emitted still turned this place into hell.

Kroya found a relatively clean corner and silently cast a purification spell to save his sense of smell.