"What did you find?" Shire asked as he walked.
"We haven’t gone in yet," Red Eyes said, keeping pace beside him.
Nine-finger walked over to them. "Chief, there’s a tunnel. It doesn’t look like it was burned."
"Good. Let’s go take a look," Shire said with a nod. "The Mother Tree says she doesn’t sense any evil here. We can go down for a look, but run immediately if there’s any danger."
Soon, Shire arrived at the tunnel entrance. The tunnel led straight down and looked quite deep.
"One squad with me. The rest of you wait up here." After giving the order, Shire led his men down the tunnel.
The crackle of torches and the sound of footsteps filled the tunnel.
"So, what did you think of that Tree-man Fruit jerky paste we had for lunch?" Shire asked Nine-finger as they walked.
"It was alright," Nine-finger said, nodding.
"And what if Bai Mao had made it?"
"Uh..." Nine-finger faltered, nearly bumping into the goblin behind him. "Let’s not even go there."
Bai Mao had been practicing her cooking every day, and she’d always look for someone to taste-test her latest concoction. She had tried Red Eyes, but that brute would only nod or shake his head, unable to describe the flavors at all. When she asked One-Eyed, all she got was a constant stream of, "It’s good, it’s good, it’s really good!" After a few attempts with Buck Teeth, Bai Mao grew tired of his poetic critiques. As for Broken Tooth? She could never seem to find him.
In the end, Nine-finger became the best candidate. He could speak coherently, possessed some intelligence, and was actually available. And so, Nine-finger became the tribe’s official Master of New Cuisine Appraisal.
However, Shire had passed by several times and seen Nine-finger lying on the Underground River Platform, with no idea what he was doing.
Shire chuckled at Nine-finger’s response and dropped the subject.
The tunnel wasn’t very long; after about twenty paces, they reached the end. Stepping out, Shire found himself in a vast stone chamber. The ceiling was high, over five meters, and covered with numerous Blue Fluorescent Mushrooms.
It was impossible to see to the far end of the chamber, as the entire space was filled with giant white mushrooms.
The mushrooms were like small trees, with caps about four meters in diameter. Hanging from under each cap were small black spheres that looked like soccer balls.
"So they really are mushrooms," Shire remarked. "But why would a Druid seal them up?"
He walked over to a stalk and looked up at the cap. "This stuff is probably dangerous. Maybe it even explodes."
’Something even its creator was afraid of... Best not to linger, just in case.’ Shire patted the thick stalk, deciding it was best to seal this place up again.
To his surprise, the few pats he gave the stalk caused the white mushroom to wobble, and a few of the black spheres hanging under its cap came loose and fell.
Shire had been looking up at the cap, and the moment he saw the spheres falling, he leaped aside, terrified they would land on him and trigger something terrible.
SPLAT! The spheres burst on the ground, splashing out a puddle of ink-like black liquid. At the same time, Shire saw a plume of black mist rise from the liquid, spread out, and then dissipate.
"What is this stuff?!" He scrambled backward, trying to cover his mouth and nose, but it was too late. A pungent, foul odor assaulted his nostrils.
The stench was so overwhelming that it brought to mind Bai Mao’s cooking. He felt this smell was a hundred times more potent than her worst dishes.
It wasn’t just him; all the surrounding goblins had caught the scent. Nearly every one of them was on the ground, gagging and dry-heaving. Some were already vomiting.
"Get out of here! Quick!" Shire held his breath, clapped a hand over his mouth and nose, and scrambled on all fours, desperate to escape. But the overwhelming disgust made it impossible to concentrate, and the stench was so foul it made him dizzy.
’What in the world is this mushroom?!’ He could only crawl faster, the stench making his temples throb. He had a feeling this wasn’t a Magic Attack; the Magic Resistance granted by the Blessing of the God of Earth and Life seemed to have no effect. This was pure, physical misery.
The goblins scrambled frantically toward the tunnel. In the chaos, Shire unexpectedly spotted a piece of paper on the ground. He snatched it as he fled and ran out of the tunnel.
"Seal it! Seal this place up!" Shire snapped irritably. "What in the world was that?"
"Suddenly, I think Bai Mao’s cooking tastes pretty good," Nine-finger remarked randomly from the side.
Shire took several deep breaths, but he felt as if the stench was still lingering in his nostrils. He took out the paper he had just picked up and opened it.
"I, Vissans, will absolutely never admit that I was the one who researched this thing. It is so vile, more revolting than a slum latrine pit. The breath of a Demon would be an improvement..."
’This part is crossed out.’ Shire saw that a section in the middle had been furiously scribbled over with ink, making it completely illegible. It spoke volumes about the writer’s state of mind.
"Damn it! I can’t handle this mess! Just touching the stalk makes those foul spore sacs fall! I give up. I’m sealing this place up for now. I’ll deal with it later, after the experiment is a success."
"Then why didn’t you ever deal with it? You couldn’t even stick a warning on the door?!" Shire angrily threw the paper to the ground. He figured the Druid probably didn’t want his zombies to get contaminated with the smell and stink up his entire mushroom farm, so he just left it.
"Burn ’em. Let’s burn ’em all," Red Eyes growled, walking up to Shire with a torch and gritting his teeth. Shire noticed that the goblin had been splashed with the black liquid at some point, and his current smell was... hard to describe.
"You... go take a wash first." Shire quickly shoved Red Eyes away.
He walked to the mouth of the tunnel and peered down. The smell hadn’t spread this far up.
"No need to burn anything. Just seal this place up," Shire turned and ordered his subordinates. ’You never know when something a Druid made might come in handy. Best to leave it for now.’
Before long, a great procession of goblins marched through the Tree-men’s territory. The stench they carried was so potent that even the perpetually slumbering Tree-men hastily shuffled a few steps away from them.
Shire walked the fastest, afraid that he, the inheritor of an ancient will, would leave a bad impression on the Mother Tree.
Red Eyes was the second-fastest goblin, following right behind his chief and muttering, "Dig him up... chop him into pieces..."
Shire knew Red Eyes was cursing the Druid. His equipment was stained with the black liquid, and it was anyone’s guess how long it would take to wash clean. Red Eyes had been quite fond of that gear, too.
Soon, the band of goblins reached the banks of the Darren River. On the way, Shire had even seen birds scattering in a panic.
...
After some time, the goblins finally climbed out of the river. They had scrubbed their equipment clean and were now sitting under the trees by the bank, warming themselves by a fire and waiting for everything to dry.
’Since we’re here, we might as well head to that spot marked on the Domain map,’ Shire thought, planning his next move as he warmed himself by the fire.
"Chief, the gear is dry," Nine-finger reported, walking over.
"Good." Shire stood, patted the dirt off his backside, and ordered his men to get dressed and geared up.
Soon, the goblins had formed up and were marching straight for their destination.
"This looks like the place," he said, surveying the forest clearing. "Search the area."
"Chief, there are square stones over here!" a goblin called out.
Shire hurried over. Sure enough, he saw stone bricks. He immediately ordered his men to start digging.
Gradually, a downward-sloping tunnel was revealed, just like the one in the watchtower’s basement.
However, when they reached the bottom, a large amount of muddy water seeped out.
’It’s flooded down there?’ he muttered with a frown, then immediately realized why. They were close to the Darren River; the basement had probably flooded.
’This is a bit troublesome.’ He didn’t stop them, however, letting them continue to dig until a stone door was exposed.
Following Shire’s instructions, Red Eyes pushed open the stone door. A torrent of muddy water gushed out. Once the water settled, Red Eyes found it came up to the top of his thighs.
"Go catch some prey," Shire ordered.
Soon, a few grouse were brought back. He had a goblin slit their throats and sprinkle the blood on the ground nearby.
After waiting for nearly ten minutes, there was still no sound or movement from within the stone chamber.
’It should be safe inside,’ he concluded. He called a few goblins, and they entered the stone chamber with lit torches.
The stone chamber wasn’t large, only about twenty square meters. There were collapsed sections in several places, and the walls were covered with moss.
Shire circled the room, holding his torch high and inspecting the walls. ’It’s no use,’ he thought. ’It’s all moss. I can’t see anything useful.’
’Did I come all this way for nothing?’ he wondered. After a moment’s thought, he ordered the few goblins who had entered with him to feel around on the floor for anything unusual.
The goblins bent over and began to feel their way across the flooded floor. Just as Shire was beginning to think there was nothing there, one of the goblins let out a cry and lifted an object out of the water.
SPLASH, SPLASH. Shire waded through the water to the goblin and took the item. It was a small, square metal box, about the size of a book, and felt heavy in his hands.
"Keep looking," he said, tucking the box under his arm and waiting where he stood.
After another ten minutes or so, the goblins had searched the entire floor of the chamber, but found nothing else.
Shire reluctantly ordered his men back to the surface. He had been hoping to find some Magic Equipment, like the ring he’d found in the Slime’s basement.
"What is this thing?" he muttered, sitting on the grass and wiping the mud from the box. "It looks like it’s made of gold."
’Using a Golden Box to store something...’ He shook it with both hands and could feel something shifting inside. ’I wonder what it could be?’
His curiosity was instantly piqued. Whatever was stored in a Golden Box had to be something special.
After carefully examining the seams, he finally found a way to open it. ’It’s even sealed.’
"Heh heh heh..." Shire chuckled, drawing Abbot’s Double Blade from his waist. He started prying at the seam, and the box soon popped open.
’Let’s see what’s inside.’