Chapter 50: The truth of Dungeon

“You misunderstood us, venerable lord.” One of the orcs who stood in the backline, answered hurriedly hearing my shout.

Throwing a discontent and surprised look at him, I pointed towards the dead goblins and asked, “What is there to misunderstand? Aren’t you killing goblins?” Did these pigs think I am dumb? They were killing them in broad daylight, yet they claim its misunderstanding?

“No lord, these goblins are different. You can ask chief Urt, for he is also killing a bunch on the other side.” The orc answered with a shrug before going back to hacking seemingly unlimited goblins that came out of the dense forest.

‘Hmm!’ I stared at the forest for some time. It looked a lot denser than yesterday. Was it just my imagination, I wondered pensively. Narrowing my eyes, I stared deeper only to come into a sudden realization. It was definitely denser than the last day. I wasn’t hallucinating, for it was the truth. ‘How come?’ I couldn’t help but frown.

Then my eyes moved towards the dense pack of goblins pouring out of the forest. Suspicion rose in my heart. After having a closer look at the goblins, I found those were definitely not the ones belong to Urt. Under Urt, only adult and infant goblins were alive. Goblin lord transformed all juvenile goblins into adult ones with his potions.

However, the goblins pouring out of the forest were all juvenile goblins.

I remembered Urt mentioning a fact. Without consuming the flesh of other creatures, they couldn’t have accelerated growth. Depending on their natural growth, it would take a long time for the infant goblins to turn into the juvenile and then subsequently into adults.

Consuming other goblins would also result in the same thing, but Urt said they couldn't and wouldn’t do it. Consuming beings of the same species was a taboo which they weren’t willing to break. When I asked the reason, he said something that scared the hell out of me.

“Goblin lord once performed a test on this taboo. He fed one of the goblins with dead goblin flesh. That goblin went mad after a few days and started mindless slaughter to keep consuming other goblins. After goblin lord stopped giving it goblin flesh, it started feeding on its own body. He literally fed himself to death.”

(1)His answer chilled me to my bones. Wasn’t this way too extreme!? I knew cannibalism leads to some deformity and mental disorders, but this was just too much to handle. It was a good thing I had a natural rejection of cannibalism. Probably, it was due to my memories as a human. However, I vowed to refrain from eating any Imps in the future. I am afraid of the consequences.

…

Leaving the orcs to fight with the goblins, I strode to the other side and saw a bunch of adult goblins killing these juvenile goblins. To the back, Urt was standing under a tree and commanding the troupe.

“What is happening? Why are you killing them?” Orcs killing goblins was one thing, but seeing goblins killing goblins!? That’s weird. My heart surged with questions about this whole incident.

“They appeared this morning, lord.” Urt answered, pointing his fingers towards the group. Following his lead, I saw a tall but pudgy goblin standing far in the back. “This place created them. It always does every 20 light circles.”

“What?” I was left tonguetied. The light circle was how these monsters refer to days. I knew it earlier, so it wasn’t that surprising. It was the origin of these goblins that baffled me. What I inferred from his broken description was that these goblins were created naturally by the dungeon.

“Dungeon created them! Why?” Urt shook his head negatively and said: “I don’t know, lord. Not even goblin lord knew the reason why they appear.” After hearing such a reply, I didn’t question him anymore, for I knew he didn’t know the answer.

“Then why are you killing them? Can’t you control them?” I looked at the battlefield and then to the pudgy goblin in the back, “And who is that?”

“That’s the leader of this group. But something is strange here, lord.” Urt frowned, a rare emotion on his usually emotionless face. Influenced by him, I sported an ugly face as I look at the fatty. Squinting my eyes, I gave it a throw once over. It looked horrible, with its fat and ugly appearance. That aside, it was sitting on a bunch of kneeling goblins, as he used them as his make-shift chair.

I got a sudden sense of deja-vu upon seeing it.

I could hear the screams of those goblins that endured its weight, figuratively of course.

“What is strange?” I asked looking at Urt, urging him to explain. He looked pensively at the forest and said: “The number of goblins was more than before.” Seeing my confused look, he continued, “Back when I was working under goblin lord, we had faced such attacks many times. However, the number of goblins weren’t this high.”

It suddenly occurred to me that Urt was way more intelligent than Logier. The orc couldn’t understand the subtle emotional changes; however, this goblin general could. Urt’s IQ and EQ was seemingly high enough to understand subtle facial changes. It detected my confusion just now, after all.

Now that I think about it, since goblins were able to make something as complex as potions, then, of course, they would be intelligent than orcs, who were all brawn and no brains. On the monsterpedia book I obtained from the two humans, I saw goblins were ranked lower than orcs. However, there was one aspect where they outclass orcs other than their high proliferation rate. It was creativity and intelligence.

Moreover, hobgoblin which was the evolved form of a goblin was ranked higher in that list. Not even the strongest evolved orc could compare to it.

…

“Are you going to kill them all?” I asked after silently watching the battle for some time. The goblins were using their most preferred strategy, which was ganging up until the other party perishes. Ordinarily, it might have been an effective strategy, but with Urt personally leading them, there could no way they would win.

That aside, Urt’s goblin general passive was empowering the goblins fighting in the frontlines. More or less, it was just a one-way slaughter.

‘Retreat!’ I heard the pudgy goblin ordering his subordinates. The frenzy pack, that was attacking us stopped and backed away hurriedly. The goblin leader escaped into the forest, followed by the remaining goblins. They vanished from our field of vision in less than a minute.

“Do they pose any danger?” I asked Urt after seeing them vanish into the dense forest. Since Urt had experience dealing with this situation, I asked for his advice. If they were dangerous, then I will have them hunted and eradicated.

Urt shook his head negatively, “they pose no danger to us. They are weak and dumb, not to mention they don’t know anything about fighting. We will just have to be careful about their harassment, and that’s all.”

I nodded my head and sighed secretly. What a brutal world, to think they would fight like this even though they both belong to the same species. Wasn’t the people of the earth also the same? We fought large scale wars and slaughtered many, just to claim territories. Coming from such a world, I have no right to judge the cruelty of the monsterdom. It would be hypocritical.

“Urt, those who fought in the battle, give them tasty rabbit meat to feast on tonight,” I ordered before going back towards my chamber. Goblins weren’t the only inhabitants in the forest, many small critters and animals could also be found here. Or else, after wiping out other species, how could goblins survive so long?

Giving the two humans who have buried to their necks a look, I sat down under the tree and pondered on the things I just discovered. Despite coming to this world for a little more than a month, the things I know were minuscule at best. In this dungeon, I was staying for more than twenty days, and yet I didn’t even know as much as Urt or Logier.

The secrets it held and the dangers lurked in the darkness chilled my heart. I seriously began to wonder whether I was truly safe in this place.