Chapter 85: Searching for Survivors

Still, now that I had some idea of how the spiders had managed to wipe out this entire tribe without suffering any casualties, there was something else I wanted to understand.

Looking at the scene before me...

The horrible carnage spread across the ruined settlement...

Just what had those monsters wanted in the first place?

The first possibility that came to mind was food. However, I wasn’t sure if that was really the case.

After all, if they were simply hunting for food, there was no reason to massacre an entire goblin tribe like this.

In nature, predators rarely killed more prey than they needed to eat. Sure, there were exceptions, but generally speaking, hunting was about survival, not mindless slaughter.

After all... if they killed off all their prey, what would they eat in the future?

Then... what else could explain this?

Perhaps it was a matter of territorial expansion?

But the spiders hadn’t even made this place their new nest. They had simply appeared, wiped out the goblins, and then disappeared without a trace.

So that didn’t seem to make much sense either.

Then... perhaps they were simply bloodthirsty monsters that took pleasure in killing other creatures?

Like... some kind of twisted demons that slaughtered anything unfortunate enough to cross their path?

The thought settled heavily in my mind.

Still, I couldn’t afford to dwell on it forever.

We had already spent quite some time searching the settlement, and so far, we hadn’t detected any immediate danger. Perhaps it was time to split up and begin searching for survivors in the surrounding area.

Of course, that carried its own risks.

Splitting up meant dividing our fighting force, leaving each group more vulnerable if we ran into trouble. However, we couldn’t afford to waste the entire day searching every corner of the settlement together.

We needed to cover as much ground as possible, as quickly as possible.

And most importantly, we had to return to the castle before nightfall. The Dark Giant Spiders usually attacked around midnight, and I wasn’t about to take any chances.

After explaining my plan, the goblins agreed without hesitation.

"Alright, then. We’ll split into three teams of two."

I quickly arranged the teams.

Team 1: Gopugiga and Gopuberry.

Team 2: Gopuro and Gopuran.

Team 3: Gopuflammy and Gopushadow.

Each team had its own strengths, and I hoped that would be enough to keep them safe while searching for survivors.

Besides, even when they were separated, they could still communicate indirectly through me. With [Vassal’s Eyes] and [Ruler’s Voice], I could keep track of what was happening and relay messages between them whenever necessary.

And if any team ran into trouble, I could immediately call the others over to provide assistance.

"But don’t wander too far from the settlement," I warned them. "Stay within a reasonable distance of one another. If anything seems suspicious, report it immediately. Don’t try to be heroes."

Yeah... because even the fastest responses needed time.

If the situation turned bad enough, a few seconds could make all the difference.

"Yes, Big Boss!"

The goblins answered in unison.

With that, they split into their respective teams and began searching the surrounding area.

Meanwhile, I kept my attention divided between them, watching and listening through their senses. Thanks to the recent upgrade, my [Vassal’s Eyes Lv. 2] could now connect me to three citizens simultaneously. That was precisely why I had decided to divide my goblins into three separate teams.

Hopefully, we would find some survivors.

****

And just like that, our search began.

Gopugiga and Gopuberry stayed within the Bright Red Nose Tribe’s territory, carefully searching the ruined settlement for any survivors.

After all, what if some goblins had managed to hide somewhere? Perhaps there was a secret hiding place within the settlement, or maybe a few survivors had taken refuge beneath the collapsed huts? Or a storage place?

It was worth checking every possibility.

Meanwhile, the other two teams ventured a little farther out to search the surrounding forest. If any goblins had managed to escape the massacre, they might have fled into the woods and hidden there.

However, as time passed, our search yielded little success.

Gopushadow’s team eventually discovered another small group of goblins not far from the settlement, but unfortunately, they were all dead. Judging from their positions, they seemed to have been killed while trying to flee.

Not a single one had survived.

The other team met with a similar result.

We found more bodies scattered throughout the forest, but not the survivors we were desperately hoping to find.

...

But then, just when hope was beginning to fade, when I was starting to suspect that we might not find a single living goblin in the entire area, Gopuro suddenly stopped in his tracks.

He seemed to have noticed something.

"Big Boss!" he called out. "I’m detecting something! There’s a faint scent of goblin blood a little to the east!"

My first thought was that they had discovered yet another group of murdered goblins.

But then Gopuro added something unexpected.

"And this blood smells really strong! It must belong to the tribe’s chieftain!"

"Wait, what?!"

I was taken aback by this new information.

"What the hell? You can even tell how powerful a goblin is just by smelling its blood?"

"Well..." Gopuro hesitated. "Normally, goblin blood all smells pretty much the same." he admitted, scratching his head. "But this one’s different. It’s much stronger! It’s like... the smell of a leader, you know? When I caught the scent, I suddenly felt my blood heating up, too. It’s hard to explain, but there’s definitely something different about it!"

Hmmmm...

I couldn’t help feeling intrigued.

For some reason, these goblins were starting to seem more and more like hunting dogs. First, they could track the scent of blood from a considerable distance, and now they could apparently distinguish the blood of a powerful leader from that of an ordinary goblin?

Just how many surprises did their noses have in store for me?

However, Gopuro wasn’t finished.

"But there’s another smell, too..."

His expression grew more serious.

"It’s blood, but... it’s nasty. There’s something really unpleasant about it."

That immediately caught my attention.

Wait, what?

Another smell?

And not just ordinary blood, but something that smelled particularly foul?

"Gopuro, can you tell what kind of creature it belongs to?" I asked. "I mean, does it smell like any animal you’ve encountered in the forest?"

My first thought was that it might belong to another creature, perhaps a Colossal Bear or one of those Horned Wolves.

However...

"I’m not sure!" Gopuro replied. "It doesn’t smell like any animal I’ve ever encountered in this forest. Nothing I recognize."

He then turned toward his sister.

"Puran, can you smell it, too?"

Gopuran paused and took a few deliberate sniffs of the air.

"Yeah, I can smell it."

Her expression quickly changed, her brows drawing together as she tried to identify the unfamiliar scent.

"Big Boss, there’s something wrong with this smell. I can’t explain why, but it gives me a really bad feeling!" the goblin girl said.

"Urgh... my hair is standing on end just thinking about it," Gopuro added, rubbing his arms.

And apparently, that was enough information for me to put two and two together.

I already had a pretty good idea of what that meant.

An unfamiliar scent that didn’t belong to any ordinary animal in the forest.

A foul smell that made even my goblins feel uneasy just by detecting it.

There was only one creature I could think of that fit that description.

Damn...

Seriously?

"Dark Giant Spiders..."

Gopuro and Gopuran exchanged glances, their eyes widening as the realization struck them at the same time.

"But I thought Dark Giant Spiders don’t appear during the morning!" I exclaimed.

So what was this? An exception?

Or was the whole thing about spiders never appearing in the morning actually just bullshit?

Either way, there was potentially great danger ahead.

But at the same time, the Bright Red Nose Tribe’s chieftain might be there as well, assuming Gopuro’s nose was reliable enough.

At his level, perhaps the chieftain could still survive an encounter with those monsters.

I couldn’t rule out either possibility.

Thus, I was once again faced with a difficult decision.

Should I have the team investigate the source of the smell, or should I order them to retreat?

The two goblins seemed to be struggling with the same dilemma. They knew how dangerous the spiders were, but the possibility that the tribe’s chieftain might still be alive made it difficult to simply turn around and leave.

"Big Boss... what should we do?"