Bashura, the nearest city from the Dungeon that was invested by Goblins, was in a state of emergency. It was located in the middle of the Desert, yet it didn’t stop the people from moving about vigorously. Myriads citizens were leaving the city, as it was unknown when the city would fall. Even with the number of the Players protecting the city, even with the number of the Adventurers helping them, the city was still in a precarious situation.

Just two days ago, a thousand Goblins attacked the city. The number was not great, actually, as the city was big enough to have fifty thousand population. Two thousand Goblins should be easy to be repelled. Not to mention the numbers of Players and Adventurers that more than half of the citizens of the Bashura, it was really easy to defeat two thousand Goblins.

Or that was what should have been happening. Yet, just to kill two thousand Goblins, there were casualties amongst humans. Mostly Players, but still, the number easily reached two times the numbers of the defeated Goblins.

The Players didn’t know about the Goblins too much, but the Adventurers understood. The two thousand Goblins were not your typical Goblins. They were led by a Goblin General that was protected by a hundred of Hobgoblins. The pawns were the Goblin Soldiers. Their quality was far better than the usual Goblin’s army.

The Players who saw Goblins as just Goblins didn’t notice how different this army of Goblins with the usual Goblins. They rushed recklessly, just like their previous attempt, and then, they died easily, unlike their previous attempt. It was the first time the Goblins were led by a Goblin General after all.

So, the number of casualties spiked up compared to the previous invasions. And because of this, the citizens lost hope in the Players and Adventurers, and most of them decided to evacuate before it was too late. They were not Players that could be revived repeatedly, after all.

As for the Players and the Adventurers that gathered in the Adventurer Guild, they were talking about the Goblins and the strategy to defeat the Goblins. It didn’t seem bright, however, as the Players didn’t know much about the Goblins and the Adventurers could only give a vague explanation. Hobgoblins rarely appeared in human history, not to mention Goblin General or even Goblin’s King. They only appeared in songs without solid proof, so almost no one knew what to do to the Goblins.

“I say, we have to go to an offensive.” A blond Knight with a huge shield spoke in the meeting.

“Without much information about them, going to that Dungeon is a suicide.” An Adventurer refused calmly.

“Just send us, Players! We will gather as much information as you want!” The Knight refused to back down. The Adventurer looked at that Knight and sighed.

“Sure, go ahead. If even two thousand Goblins are enough to kill almost five thousand of us, how many of you should we send to that Dungeon? Ten thousand? A hundred thousand?” he said calmly.

“…how about sending only the elite?” This time, a swordsman in black talked. He was playing with his long sword and only spoke at a critical moment like this.

“…go ahead. We will compile as much information as we can at the moment.” The Adventurer said and looked at the other Adventurers. “Does anyone know what kind of Goblin we are facing now?”

A female Adventurer with long-ears raised her hand. She was from Elf race, and Elf was well-known as the keeper of history. So, when the female Adventurer raised her hand, all the eyes were looking at her with great interest.

“I’m not so sure either, but there are songs in my race about the Goblins. I’ll just tell you what the songs say. They say the Goblins are not a weak race, as the strongest Goblin can rival even the Demon Lord. Below him, there are Generals that led the Goblin’s armies. Hobgoblins are the elite force of the Goblins and each of them can kill a thousand Goblins easily. Their Warriors, Mages, and Archers are strong enough to rival our armies. And the normal Goblins are numerous that their population easily exceeded ours by a lot. And speaking of our, I mean it is humans, not Elves.”

Hearing what she said, the Players and the Adventurers involuntarily gulped as they imagined the weakest monsters in the whole world became the strongest existence that could even rival the Demon Lord. Before they could take a deep breath, the Elf spoke again.

“The army of Goblin that we faced earlier, I believe, is led by a Goblin General. It is the biggest Goblin that is protected by tall Goblins with many weapons, I assume them as Hobgoblins. As for the other Goblins, I believe they are Goblin Mages, Goblin Archers, and Goblin Warriors. And if a Goblin General led a small army like this, I’m afraid the leader of the Goblin in that Dungeon is a Goblin King, that has the same power as a Demon Lord.”

“…”

Demon Lord. It is said that only Champions and Heroes could defeat a Demon Lord. That was, also, if they had an army behind them. The casualties when a Demon Lord appeared in the past easily surpassed hundreds of thousands. The war between allied races of humans and several Demi-humans against the Demon Lord army was always ended in a huge war like that.

And after hearing a Goblin King that could rival a Demon Lord in strength, the Adventurers involuntarily gave up all the hope. Champions and Heroes were at least S-Rank Adventurers. At the moment, the highest rank Adventurers in the city was only A-Rank Adventurers. And there was only a handful of them, not even three Adventurers. As for the Players, at the moment, they were still weaker than the A-Rank Adventurers and most of them could barely reach C-Rank Adventurers. Only barely.

There was no hope at all. The Adventurers knew it. They wouldn’t be able to defeat the Goblins unless they requested the Empire and the allied nations to help them. The best they could do now was buying time for the citizens to evacuate to safety while abandoning this city.

“How about Briana…?” A hoarse sound could be heard clearly in the silence. A blond boy with blue eyes spoke. His eyes were red in frustration as he looked at the Adventurers and the Players with disappointed eyes.

“It’s impossible to safe her and maybe…” The Adventurer didn’t continue his word as the blond boy glared at him viciously. He could only sigh. Briana. She was the bravest Warriors amongst them all. She killed the most and she helped others the most. However, she moved too fast and the others couldn’t follow her. She moved deeper than the others. And so, she was isolated because of that and she was captured by the Goblins.

The rescue attempts had been done several times, but none of them could succeed. Her fate was really grim, or at least, that was what the Adventurers thought.

Brian, however, believed that her sister was fine. The problem was time. If they didn’t save her in time… Brian didn’t want to think about the consequence.

The Player that played with his sword stood up. “I’ll try rescuing her again. Who wants to come with me?”

“Let me help you.” A Player stood up. His party member chortled and stood up too. And after that… there was no one who volunteered again.

“So, it’s only seven people?” The man in black muttered softly. He looked around once again and no one said anything, so he spoke again. “Alright, we will try to save Briana. Meanwhile, you can help the citizens to evacuate. The fastest courier should go to the Royal Capital and asks for reinforcement. Also, I think it’s better if we send couriers to nearby cities and warn them about the danger of the Goblin King so they can prepare. What do you think?”

“…we’ll do that. You… even if you are a Player, you should be careful. Dying means you lose a level after all and we can’t afford to lose potential Warriors just because of your reckless action.” The Adventurer gave some advice, and the man in black nodded.

“I don’t plan on dying though.” He smiled and shook the Adventurer’s hand before returning to his seat. The people who volunteered came closer to him. There was another person who silently came to him.

“I’m in too.” The Knight with blond hair said with a weak smile.

“Welcome. So, there are eight of us? Brian, do you have an idea on how to save Briana?” The man in black asked.

Brian nodded, but then shook his head. He only said a single word with a hoarse voice. “Dungeon.”

Ever since her sister gone, he started speaking, but because he didn’t speak much, his voice was hoarse and he could only speak one or two words. The others understood him, however. For example, the word Dungeon held a lot of meaning.

They knew how to save Briana. It was by going to the Dungeon. The problem was, the Dungeon was currently occupied by countless Goblins. Also, it was dark and they could only stay in the Dungeon at most ten hours before they had to retreat. Unless, of course, they brought a lot of provisions and prepared to stay in the Dungeon for a long time, but then, their speed would slow down a lot and it would be more dangerous for them. And since no one came to that Dungeon in the past hundred years, no one drew a map of the Dungeon and so, they lacked map. Going blindly in the Dungeon was really difficult, so, their progress slowed down a lot because they had to draw a map while walking in the Dungeon.

“How much time do we need to fully explore the Dungeon…?” A female Scout asked more to herself. The others didn’t reply as they didn’t know about it either. At the moment, they only reached the sixth floor. They didn’t know how many floors were there, so they were dejected.

“Anyway, we can only continue to do what we can, right? Let’s do our best!” The Knight tried to cheer up his teammates.

…

Meanwhile. Saulia Academy. Principal office.

Magie, the Goddess of Magic, had just received an interesting piece of news. She smiled awkwardly and even though no one was in the office, she talked as if there was someone there.

“Well, I never thought that a Goblin King would occupy the Dungeon. No, looking at their behavior, is it a Goblin Emperor? If it’s a Goblin Emperor… ahaha, I’m sorry, little Fey. It seems I send you to a really troublesome place. I hope you can escape safely. Ahaha.” She laughed awkwardly while apologizing to no one in particular.

“More importantly, if it’s really a Goblin Emperor, I have to tell about it as soon as possible. Or else, the world will be destroyed just by Goblins. Wouldn’t that really ridiculous?” She laughed once again and with a wave of her hand, countless butterflies flew out of the windows, flying to the castle.

“Oh, I also have to tell the churches about this. They have to prepare their forces to go for a crusade against the Goblins.” She waved her hands again, and again, butterflies appeared magically and flew to the various churches in the Empire.

“As for my fellow Gods and Goddesses… I only know a handful of them, but I should warn them about this too.” This time, when she waved her hand, thirteen doves appeared and flew in every direction.

“I have done what I could do. The rest, I’ll leave it in your hands.” She said while closing her eyes.

…

Meanwhile, inside the Dungeon that was infested by Goblins. The Goblins were running around frantically. Heavy thuds could be heard behind them. They were afraid of something, something that laughed sinisterly behind them.

“Muahahaha! Come here, little Goblins! I promise I won’t hurt you! I just want to kill you! Muahahaha!” The sinister laugh rang out accompanied by heavy thuds behind the running Goblins.