Chapter 679 Goblins and Dire Corbies

"Hiss—"

The soft footsteps echoing down the corridor seemed to startle some subterranean creature hidden deep within the darkness. It let out a short, sharp hiss before swiftly retreating, leaving behind the sound of soft scales scraping against the ground.

Resting one hand lightly against the stone wall beside him, Ake looked toward the sound. He could only catch a glimpse of dark scales reflecting the fungal glow, faintly visible on a long, slender silhouette that gradually melted into the shadows.

Intense pain continued to pulse endlessly from the stump of his right foot. Through the gaps in the makeshift prosthetic fashioned from scrap armor below his ankle, he could see the ragged bandages soaked through with blood.

But unlike his agonized expression when they had first escaped their restraints, Ake's demeanor had changed. Though his face remained pale and his forehead beaded with cold sweat, he had grown numb to the constant agony.

The steely will inherited from the "Shield of the Silver Lake" family, combined with his Class Grade physique, allowed this tough family guard to fully adapt to the pain shooting up from his lower body.

He couldn't return to his peak physical condition, of course—he was missing his right foot, after all. But if push came to shove, whether in head-on combat or rapid movement, he could still perform despite the excruciating pain.

"There are a lot of slopes ahead, so be careful," warned Ye Xi from the front of the squad. As a Half-Drow, she was using her racial advantages to lead the way.

Compared to when they had first escaped the crude prison, the deeper they went, the more traces of intelligent life began to appear in the cramped, dim underground tunnels.

The hand he kept braced against the stone wall vaguely registered a strangely cold texture. Glancing over instinctively, he saw that the once-bare walls were now carved with intricate, enigmatic patterns.

Complex scales as dense as ocean waves, a ferocious giant serpent coiling around a stone pillar, and sharp fangs descending from the clouds—

These joined the obvious artificial features that appeared as the terrain gradually ascended: smooth, wide, upward-sloping ramps scored with textured grips.

Ake's heart tightened.

He realized they had reached the critical juncture of their journey:

A Serpentfolk settlement deep underground!

Because they hadn't been blindfolded when the goblins transported them, they had memorized the route. According to Ye Xi's memory, she and Benny had been brought through this exact place when they were taken to the prison.

As long as they could get past this Serpentfolk settlement, they would essentially be out of the eerie goblins' zone of control.

"Just what happened here?" Ake muttered.

Although Ake wasn't an expert in this specific field, his wealth of past adventuring experience meant he had a solid understanding of creatures like the Serpentfolk.

As an intelligent species, they didn't have their own racial language, but the vast majority of Serpentfolk were fluent in Abyssal, Common, and dragon language.

Due to their serpentine humanoid anatomy, Serpentfolk tended to showcase their cultural heritage when constructing buildings, reflecting their beloved serpentine aesthetics.

Slanted, pyramid-like housing structures, carvings of scales and fangs, winding ramps without stairs to better suit slithering bodies, and even the multitude of small-to-medium hollow tunnels inside buildings for easy transit—everything embodied the cultural elements of this ancient race.

In his youth, Ake had visited a Serpentfolk settlement with his Adventurer Squad, leaving him with a strong impression of their architecture and customs.

Although this Serpentfolk settlement was located in the Underdark, its general style didn't look noticeably different from the one he had seen back then.

Earlier, when Ye Xi and Benny mentioned they would pass through a Serpentfolk tribe, he had even volunteered to handle the negotiations. He was confident he could use the Serpentfolk customs he'd learned to communicate with this tribe, perhaps even establishing good enough relations to help them escape.

However, when he said this, the two adventurers from the "Shadow Crows" had looked hesitant, as if they wanted to say something but held back.

Ake had initially thought they simply didn't trust him, but now—he understood the reason for their reaction.

It was the layers of dark purple fungal threads radiating an ominous aura, blanketing every corner of his vision like fallen snow.

The entire tribe seemed to have molded and rotted. Fungal colonies of the exact same color as those he'd seen on the goblins earlier had swallowed the entire Serpentfolk settlement.

Fungal threads crept up the exteriors of the pyramid-shaped buildings. Most of the doors were wide open, though the poor lighting made it impossible to see inside clearly; only a gloomy, dark purple hue was visible under the ambient luminescence.

As they ventured deeper, the patterns on the stone walls became covered by a thick fungal blanket. Just a light brush with his fingertips induced a sense of weakness, as if the fungus were absorbing his stamina.

But the most striking sight of all was the thoroughly dead Serpentfolk corpses scattered throughout the tribe.

There were no signs of battle, yet every Serpentfolk wore an expression of agony, frozen in their final moments of struggle, their bodies entirely encased in the dark purple mycelium.

Stiff and rigid, they had become decorative fungal statues in this world nearly consumed by the colony.

"Was this... done by those goblins?" Ake asked the two beside him, his mind involuntarily flashing back to the green-skinned goblins they'd encountered earlier, which also bore distinct traces of the fungus but remained perfectly active.

"I don't know." The Half-Drow's eyes, reflecting a dim gleam, stared at the Serpentfolk "statues" ahead. As if recalling something, a flash of terror crossed her face. "When we were escorted through here earlier, it already looked exactly like this."

"But I don't think we should stay here for long."

Hearing the deep anxiety in the Half-Drow's voice, Ake nodded. He said no more and followed the two as they continued their trek.

At the same time, his mind was racing, analyzing their current situation.

Right now, although they all still had their mobility, both he and the two members of the "Shadow Crows" were heavily injured. Even their weapons and supplies had been confiscated, their whereabouts unknown.

Severely wounded and forced to fight barehanded, their overall combat strength had hit rock bottom.

If at all possible, they had to avoid combat.

And then there was the matter of the enemies they were highly likely to encounter.

Those goblins seemed to have undergone some bizarre mutation due to fungal erosion. While their base combat strength was mediocre, it was best to steer clear of them to avoid getting infected by whatever demonic growth was on their bodies.

Also, regarding what Ye Xi and Benny had mentioned earlier—the thing that had rendered the two of them completely incapable of resisting—

His swirling thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the Half-Drow leading them at the front of the squad.

As if spotting something, Ye Xi suddenly halted and flashed a "danger" hand signal to the two behind her.

Ake followed her gaze. Not far ahead, obscured by the shadows cast by the buildings, several dark purple figures sat faintly visible.

It was a squad of six goblins.

The fungal threads spreading across their skin dyed their bodies a bizarre greenish-purple. In this world entirely devoured by the fungal colony, it acted like natural camouflage.

If the Half-Drow hadn't been so observant, an ordinary person likely wouldn't have spotted them at all.

The number of this goblin squad wasn't actually that large. With only six of them, even in their current poor condition, Ake and the others could easily wipe them out.

But out of fear that the commotion of a fight might attract other dangers, and because the goblins weren't blocking their only path, taking a detour was possible.

The three exchanged silent glances and a few hand signals, quickly finalizing a plan to detour around them.

Keeping their eyes locked on the green-skinned goblins hidden among the shadows and fungal threads, they stepped lightly and carefully backed away. Logically speaking, the goblins hadn't reacted when they first arrived. Now that they were retreating even more cautiously, making almost zero noise, the goblins shouldn't have been able to detect them.

But right as the trio's gazes invisibly brushed against the distant goblins, and thoughts like 'I don't want to be spotted' and 'We need to detour around them' formed in their minds—

It was as if the goblins sensed the subtle shift in the adventurers' movement patterns triggered by their inner thoughts.

Beneath their feet and along the walls of the buildings on both sides, the layers of dark purple fungal threads underwent a subtle, bizarre, yet undeniable change.

An indescribable sense of crisis inexplicably surged in his heart. Disregarding the tense, dead silence of their surroundings, Ake instinctively prepared to voice a warning.

But he had barely opened his mouth, not yet having the chance to make a sound.

In front of him, Ye Xi, the Half-Drow, had already taken her first step backward.

"Tap."

Thanks to the Feat granted by her class, her footsteps were light to the absolute extreme.

Even if she were walking on snow or sand, she would have left only the shallowest of footprints.

Yet even this faintest trace of force was enough in this moment.

Hum— Her mud-stained soles lightly brushed the fungal-carpeted ground.

Visibly, like a water droplet falling into a lake, the spot where Ye Xi stepped became the epicenter. Ripples accompanied by swaying fungal threads rippled outward at a speed far beyond what anyone could react to.

The already silent atmosphere instantly froze.

In the distance, the goblins huddled together in the shadows of the buildings doing who-knows-what suddenly stiffened.

Then, in perfect unison, like machines receiving a command, they twisted their necks in a bizarre manner at almost the exact same time.

Pairs of violent eyes, swallowed by dark purple mycelium, instantly locked onto Ake and the others.

"Screech!!!"

Unexpectedly, after Xia Nan and the others decided to find another way—heading back down into the Underdark from the Hook Horror nest near the surface, aiming for the Serpentfolk settlement in Landa's memory to ask for an exit—

Along the way, they surprisingly didn't encounter any powerful enemies that would have required a bitter struggle to defeat, as they had imagined.

The most dangerous threat they faced was merely a "Nothic" that had ambushed them from a hollow crevice in the stone wall, treating them as prey.

Its Challenge Rating was around Lv2. Xia Nan's acute Perception detected its presence in advance. Before it could even unleash its "Rotting Gaze" ability, it was decapitated instantly by a [Spinning Slash] + [Heavy Tide] combo.

In response to this, based on the obvious tracks they found along the way, the gnome Rogue Landa offered his assessment: "It's likely that the flock of Dire Corbies we dodged earlier is active nearby, driving off the ferocious monsters that usually inhabit this area."

Saving their strength was naturally a good thing for their makeshift, half-formed squad.

As they drew closer to their destination, the cramped, narrow underground passageways gradually began to widen.

Bizarre carvings symbolizing Serpentfolk civilization also appeared on the walls on both sides.

His gaze sweeping over the patterns of scales and fangs, Xia Nan kept his focus and vigilance sharp while preparing for the upcoming negotiations.

As one of the renowned intelligent species on the Aifala Continent, the Serpentfolk were highly likely to be encountered during adventures. Thus, they had been a high-priority topic for Xia Nan when he was cramming knowledge.

Long before he traveled to the Southern Archipelagos, back when he was still adventuring around Rivervale Town, he had already read up on them.

He generally understood this race's social structure and living habits.

Overall, although other races collectively referred to them as "Serpentfolk," the race actually possessed a rigidly stratified internal hierarchy.

Ranked from highest to lowest status, they were the "Abomination Serpentfolk," the "Malison Serpentfolk," and the "Pureblood Serpentfolk."

The method of distinguishing them was incredibly simple: the more serpentine features one possessed, the higher their status within the race.

Among them, the ruling "Abomination Serpentfolk" looked like little more than giant snakes with humanoid arms.

Meanwhile, the lowest-caste "Pureblood Serpentfolk" appeared virtually identical to humans. They might only have scales on a few isolated spots of their bodies, or perhaps slitted, serpentine pupils.

Xia Nan recalled the lore he had studied.

Because of their human-like appearance, these purebloods generally occupied the bottom of the Serpentfolk tribal hierarchy and were responsible for dealing with the surface world's other intelligent races.

This meant their innate contempt and hatred for ordinary human adventurers were slightly more restrained.

If he only needed to ask for directions, they were the best choice.

Additionally, his Arm Shield, the [Darkscale Coiled Guard], possessed a special effect: "When the bearer interacts with serpents, nagas, Serpentfolk, and similar creatures, Charisma (Intimidation/Persuasion) checks gain advantage."

That would likely prove quite useful during the upcoming negotiations with the tribe.

Relying on his [Tidal Stabilization] Feat, Xia Nan walked steadily up the increasingly steep slope, casually reaching out to steady Zanfrey, who had missed a step and nearly tumbled over.

He was just about to speak when an ominous flash of dark purple from deep within the path ahead suddenly caught his eye.

He frowned.

Before Xia Nan could warn the group, a flurry of rapid footsteps echoed from behind them, immediately followed by the piercing, signature screech of a Dire Corby ringing out from the depths of the darkness.