Chapter 65: The Cursed Land

It turned out that Gopuberry was the granddaughter of a particular evolved goblin from their tribe. They called him the Shaman Elder, or simply the Shaman.

Apparently, he belonged to a special evolved goblin variant that sacrificed physical strength and muscle for greater magical power and wisdom. Every goblin tribe was supposed to have a Shaman, who acted as one of the tribe’s leaders and handled all sorts of important matters, from managing the tribe and overseeing rituals to dealing with spiritual affairs and whatever other shaman-related shit they had going on.

That reminded me...

There used to be someone like that who had led a large group of goblins in an attack on my castle before.

An old, tall, and wrinkled goblin with colorful painted tattoos covering his face and body. He carried a long wooden staff topped with a deer’s skull and looked exactly like the kind of guy you’d expect to find standing in the middle of some creepy ritual.

I still held a grudge against that shaman, actually.

That motherfucker had dared to put some kind of skill stick in front of my castle to prevent the goblins from coming to me, giving me so much trouble back then!

Though... I wasn’t entirely sure whether he had belonged to another tribe or was actually Gopuberry’s grandfather.

Not that it mattered anymore.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand.

Through Gopuberry’s explanation, I learned more about the place they called the Cursed Land.

It was a forbidden region somewhere deep within the forest.

No one knew exactly how it had come into existence, but according to the legends passed down among the goblins, it had probably existed long before the forest itself. Perhaps it had even been there before the goblins had ever settled in this land.

As for what was actually inside it?

No one had any idea.

Not a single goblin who had entered the Cursed Land had ever returned alive.

Even the beasts of the forest, all the bears, wolves, birds, boars, and other creatures... no matter how powerful they were, seemed to avoid the place like the plague.

The only thing the goblins knew for certain was that the entire area was surrounded by a thick, unnatural mist, completely isolating it from the outside world.

And from time to time, strange sounds could be heard coming from within.

Deep rumbles. Distant roars.

Sometimes, even the mysterious growls and grunts of monsters.

"And that’s all I know about the Cursed Land, Big Boss," Gopuberry said.

"Well, I even heard someone from the tribe say that there’s an evil god living in that land..." Gopuro suddenly added.

"Yeah, it could be," Gopuberry replied. "But it’s probably just a rumor. There’s no way to know the truth, after all, since nobody can even go in there..."

"True," Gopuro agreed.

"Hmm..." I mused. "Very mysterious indeed."

To think there was such a creepy place hidden inside this enormous forest...

For some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something seriously wrong with that place.

"But what about the spiders?" I asked. "You said those spiders came out of the Cursed Land, right? Has something like this happened before?"

"Erm... no..." Gopuran replied, shaking her head. Then she looked toward Gopuberry, apparently seeking confirmation.

"Well... I think so too," Gopuberry said. "I’ve never heard of them before, either. They only suddenly appeared about a week ago."

"Hmm..."

If that was the case...

Then the situation might be far more serious than I had initially thought.

Because if these spiders really had emerged from the Cursed Land after thousands of years of isolation, then this sounded suspiciously like a dungeon break... or something similar.

After all, I had read plenty of novels about things like this, and I’d even written a few myself.

The basic premise was always the same.

A dungeon, normally sealed off from the outside world and filled with monsters, would suddenly experience some kind of abnormality. The barrier would break, the monsters would spill out, and before long, they would start invading the surrounding lands.

And those events were almost always catastrophic.

But what was causing the dungeon to break?

Usually, some kind of mana instability or some shit like that...

But in this case, with the Cursed Land and the Dark Giant Spiders, there was still far too little information to know for sure.

"But hey! There’s nothing to worry about!" Gopuro suddenly cut in, his bright voice breaking through the grim atmosphere. "We have Big Boss with us, after all! Big Boss will protect us! There’s no need to be afraid of those spiders!"

"Oh, yeah! You’re right!" Gopuran immediately agreed for some reason. "Big Boss will wipe those spiders out of this forest like they’re mere pests!"

And now, even the other goblins joined in.

"Yup!" Gopugiga agreed.

"Hehe, that’s right! There’s nothing to worry about!" Gopushadow added with a grin, flexing his small biceps as though he were already preparing for battle.

"Haha... You guys really think that highly of me, huh?" I chuckled nervously.

"Yeah! Because Big Boss is Big Boss!"

"Big Boss, we believe in you!"

"Okay, okay..." I replied. "I’ll try my best. No matter what happens, mark my words, I will protect you guys."

Hearing that, all the goblins’ faces lit up with trust and joy.

Meanwhile...

Well, that was literally the only response I could come up with for now.

On one hand, my castle was growing rapidly, and my citizens were becoming stronger every day. But I still wasn’t sure whether I could actually handle those spider monsters if they came for us right now.

If it was true that each of those spiders was as strong as the giant bear they had just fought...

Then no.

Even my sturdiest walls might eventually break under that kind of force.

Especially if there wasn’t just one spider, but dozens, or probably even hundreds of them.

But on the other hand...

These guys trusted me so much that I didn’t want to disappoint them or crush their morale by saying something overly pessimistic. Especially after they had literally just returned from a near-death battle.

Besides, I was still growing.

I had the system with me.

And if there was one thing I’d learned since coming to this world, it was that the system was actually capable of producing miracles. (Even if it was still kind of a scammy system sometimes though...)

So, if we could just buy ourselves enough time...

Then maybe, just maybe, I could grow my castle and build an army strong enough to deal with it.