The goblin finally fell. Mr. Murashima went for its head yet again to put a stop to it for good. Blood spilled from its ears, and its brain matter poured out. He’d probably finished it off. After a few spasms, the goblin stopped moving and the three sighed in relief.
Mr. Murashima glared down at the body. “The guy you killed may have been a mage, but he was level 83! The hell do you mean, ‘Legendary Goblin’?!”
“It was unusually tough. As the Eye of Judgment said, it wasn’t a regular goblin.”
I wondered if they were intentionally avoiding mentioning that the Recommended Level was 105. If they said it out loud, the reality of it all might set in.
At any rate, they’d defeated the Legendary Goblin. The rest of us appeared to be calming down once more. Yet all of us were surely thinking the same thing, myself included: we didn’t know what lay ahead, and the place we were currently in was dangerous. Within that field of unknown, I alone had an idea of what was going on. It might have seemed like a normal goblin, but it wasn’t. I’d seen a Legendary Goblin before.
In Agartha.
These horrible goblins had appeared on Floor 1 there.
†
“Mr. Tadokoro, can you use Revival Magic...?”
“The goblin apparently had an ability that blocks revival. Even the highest-level magic won’t work on it. The only thing we can do is leave the body here.” Mr. Tadokoro had been examining the man who’d taken the first arrow, then shook his head sadly.
Things were looking bad. If a set amount of time passed after one died, the player would be lost for good. And in this case, dying would be permanent.
Something was bothering me, though. Why were monsters from Agartha here? And what exactly was that purple light?
Though it was more unknowns, I was level 125; I could take on monsters with Recommended Levels of 105 easily. I guess you’d call that a silver lining?
That small bit of hope, however, would be quickly crushed.
From the same passage entrance that the goblin had appeared from came another one with a red nose. It seemed to be checking us out, running and hiding when it was done.
A chill ran down my spine as I looked at its stats through the Eye of Judgment.
Name: Legendary Goblin Leader (Scout)
Race: Demon
Class: Ranger
Recommended Level: 115
A nervous laugh leaked from my lungs. The Recommended Level wasn’t the only issue here—it was that a Goblin Leader was here at all. The chances of this place being a goblin nest grew higher by the minute. Giant nests that had Goblin Kings were rare, but small nests were dangerous enough. “Goblins” had become another name for small fry that just congregated to get their numbers up, but these were Legendary ones, so no one would call them small fry.
“This is bad, Ms. Kaori.”
“What’s wrong, Shinobu?”
“It just ran away, but I saw a Goblin Leader.”
“Wha...? A Gob—” Ms. Kaori was about to shout but clumsily covered her mouth with her hand. Everyone was calm—for now—but they’d only just finished panicking. It was obvious what would happen if they heard the words “Goblin Leader.” She put her hand down and nodded after guessing what I wanted us to do.
I pointed at the entrance on the opposite side of the space from where I saw the leader. “Shall we get going?”
Ms. Kaori approved. There were eight other passage entrances around us. We’d be surrounded if goblins came rushing out of all of them. We wouldn’t be able to do anything if tens or hundreds of attacks came at us from all sides. It would be different in a passageway, though. Even if we were closed in on, it would only be from two sides. Something could be done about that.
I called out to Mr. Tadokoro, who seemed to be the more approachable of Dragon’s Roar’s two leaders. “Mr. Tadokoro, since the enemies have archers, we’ll be easy targets for them here. Let’s go into that passageway.”
“You’re right. It’ll be easier if we limit the directions they can come at us from.”
“All right, everyone. Into the passage.”
No one had any particular objections, all of them just nodding at my order.
Mr. Tadokoro ordered one ranger woman from Dragon’s Roar to walk to the nearest passage. I wasn’t sure what skill she was using, but she put both hands to her ears and peered inside. She seemed to be scoping out any sounds. After a bit, she shook her head and moved to another entrance. Repeating the same thing for several of them, she nodded at one of them, which Mr. Murashima went in. He motioned for us to come over, so we chose that one to progress through.
“Mr. Murashima, we should probably proceed more carefully here,” the ranger woman muttered at him as she briskly walked down the path.
“But we saw a Goblin Leader back there. It’d be better for us to get out as quickly as possible.”
I ground my teeth and cursed at him. I’d specifically only told the three level 99 players and this woman for a reason. As expected, the rest of our party’s faces hitched. One of them tried to say something, then bit down on their lower lip to stop themselves. The rest of them stayed in painful silence and stared at the ground. I let out a sigh of relief without realizing it. Seemed we were able to get by without mass panic. All’s well that ends well, but I’m worried about what’s going to happen from here...
Probably thinking the same, the ranger woman spoke to Mr. Murashima again. “But Mr. Murashima, we don’t know where they could be hiding. We can’t even say for sure that this passage isn’t a trap.”
“Excuse me? What on earth are you a ranger for, then?”
“I’m saying there’s a possibility that even I can’t handle this.”
“Then put your life on the line to see through the damn trap! I’m the one at the front, in their direct line of fire, so what’s the deal?!”
“I’m telling you, that’s not the issue here...”
“Talking back to me with all this about ‘I’m telling you, I’m telling you,’ ‘I can’t, I can’t.’ What’s with you? This is your job!”
I exchanged glances with Ms. Kaori, who seemed to share my sentiments. She just shrugged without saying anything.
Regardless, I couldn’t just leave the situation as it was, so I whispered in Mr. Tadokoro’s ear. “Could you tell him to stop, Mr. Tadokoro? We’re outsiders, so...”
“I feel bad about this too,” he responded, “but this isn’t the first time he’s done this.” Mr. Tadokoro looked genuinely pained, so he’d clearly been put through this before.
I understood his position, but I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity. He of all people should be able to do something about it. “But aren’t you equal to him, sir?”
“I’m one of those people who climbed the ranks through political influence.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s embarrassing to say, but my personality is rather meek. Though he may not look like it, Murashima is a former professional mixed martial arts specialist. He has an immaculate sense for combat and is undefeated within Dragon’s Roar when it comes to one-on-ones.”